From Porridge to Homemade Remedies....

Well, this week has been very interesting. Taylor, Josiah and myself have been sick this week with sinus and head colds which I believe turned into sinus infections. Thank goodness we can just go to the pharmacy and ask for an antibiotic here...that's right...no need to go to the doctor. She can even give shots if we needed them.  One more thing that is very different than in the states...but I kinda like it.

This week in class we have had some very interesting homework assignments. Mark has had to go around and ask five of the locals what kind of home remedies do they make in their house and what they use them for. He got all kinds of things from stomach cures to sinus cures. Well, guess what? That is right he tried one out on me because I have been so sick. He was to take fresh ginger root and boil it in water and make a kind of tea out if it. After it is done you add in fresh lemon juice and honey. (I personally do not like ginger other than in a gingersnap cookie but I was willing to give it a try).

So, he brings me this nice and hot cup of ginger tea that does not smell too bad. He made himself a cup as well so he could try it. I take the first sip trying to be grateful for his kindness.....my mouth is tingling and my throat is burning. He swallows a sip...and thinks the same thing. We keep drinking until I have drank almost half the cup and tell him I can not drink anymore or I am going to be sick. He laughs and agrees. The next day at school we ask our teacher if she drinks it and she says," yes it is very good for you." She then explains that you only use a "TINY" piece of ginger and you only drink a tiny amount at a time and then repeat every hour or so.......Mark and I both laughed as I told my teacher he tried to kill me with ginger. It was a sight for sure.  Now time for the porridge.

One of my assignments for the week was to retell a children's story in Spanish. Me of coarse being the K5 teacher that I am needed some visual aids...plus I thought if I messed up the Spanish part...at least I have the creativity part.( LOL)  That proved to be much harder than I thought. You see you tell a story in past tense and that was the current subject that we are studying. I thought English was tough...so many different kind of conjugations.  It is amazing to think though that we are getting closer and closer to be being able to speak and write better in Spanish.  Another, lesson that I had that I really enjoyed this week was to pick a person from the Bible and interview them and then write what you think their answer might be. This is actually a good topic for a devotion time in your house. You can write names on a slip of paper and have everyone draw a name and then they have to study that persons life and ask them 5 questions and give 5 possible responses. I chose Rebecca, for my person. I asked her "what she thought about being the first women to have twins?" (my answer was a little comical but hey we are all human and just because they lived way back then does not mean that they were any less human than us) So my answer was this: "Yes, having two boys at one time was a Crazy Blessing, but THANK GOODNESS for handmaids.....Try this activity in your house and see what you can come up with. I think that you will find in very interesting. We have a special prayer request before we leave you for the day. Our family along with one other family of 4 from the school will leaving at 5am tomorrow to head to Nicaragua. We all have to get our VISA's stamped so that we can stay here and study for another 90 days. Please pray for our safety while traveling as well as a swift and easy move through crossing the border. We have heard that sometimes people have waited at the border as long as 6 hours to get through. Please pray that with a 2 year old we will get through safe and fast. We will not have phone or Internet until we return on Sunday evening so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
Thanks to you all....

School in September......A late start......

I don't think that our kids have ever been happier to start school. We finally received all of the materials for them to start home schooling yesterday.  Thanks to some friends here at school for each taking a box with their name on it...we were able to have all 6 boxes shipped at the same time. They were suppose to arrive in Tampa back when we had a visit from Pastor Mike however, they missed the delivery by like 30 minutes of his departure time at the airport. (Taylor was really bummed). But, then Mr. Dave at Hope had them all placed in different boxes and shipped out. However, the gentleman working at the airport in Tampa did not even prepare the packages correctly and Dave received a call a week or so later saying that the packages were in the Post Office and needed to be pickup....Thankfully he found a man that knew what he was doing and sent our packages out. Taylor and Hunter have both finished 2 days of school so far....YEAH!!!! They are eager to get the ball rolling and catch up their work....Thanks for those of you who prayed for the safe arrival of the boxes.

Feliz Dia de Independencia and a trip to the Dentist....

 Well, we picked Josiah up on Tuesday to find that he had chipped his front tooth. That would be one down fall to a house in Latin America...no carpet. We knew that we would probably not be able to see the dentist until Thursday due to the start of the Independence Day Celebration here in Costa Rica. In the evening of the 14th at exactly 6 pm everyone in the country starts singing the National Anthem. It does not matter where they are; school, store, bus or in a car.

After they finish singing their beautiful song it is time for the children to parade their drums and lanterns. Here the children try to create the most unique and beautiful lantern to earn a prize. I believe our teacher said that prize is like 5,000 colones or $10. Some of them had candles inside while others chose a safer form of light with a flashlight or Christmas lights.

We went to a local public school about a 5 minute walk from our house. It was amazing to see and hear all of the drums beating in tune. There were even fireworks off in the distance. The next morning we left the house to see the children of the entire school parade down the street. This day it reminded me a little of home because almost all of the people here were wearing some form of RED, WHITE, and BLUE. It was nice to see how everyone came out for the parades and show how much they loved their country.

   Well, today was a day of going back to school and also a trip to the dentist for little man. Thank goodness she was able to fix his little tooth. He was not to happy with the process because of the way we had to hold his poor little mouth open. I told him if he would let us finish we would go buy him a Buzz.....lol....so that will be the adventure for the weekend. The wonderful thing was that while sometimes you never know what things are going to cost the dentist visit was not that bad only 12,000 colones. (for those of you who don't know the conversion it was $24) Please pray that he does not have any damage to his permenant tooth. Thank you all for the prayers that you send up and have a wonderful day.

It is well with My Soul.......

This has been a very interesting week here in Costa Rica. Classes are going well and the work load has more than doubled from last trimester. However, the assignments are really pushing me to think and use my vocabulary. This week Mark was able to give a 20+ minute devotion in Spanish in his class and discuse the differnce between our church here and our church in the states. As for me this week I had many assignments but 2 of my favorite were describing a famous persons biography and if I could interview someone who would it be.

When thinking of a biography we were told that the person had to be a writer, actor, sports fiquire ect. So, I began to think of who I could write about and Horatio Spafford came to my mind. For those of you who may not know he is the one who wrote the words to the timeless hymnal "It is well with my soul". He was an excellent lawyer who also loved to study the word of God. It was amazing to read the life of Horatio and how those words to that song were born. Here is a man who lost his son, he had  recently purchased real estateand it was destroyed in a large fire in Chicago. First, a son and then all of the property that he had invested in. Two years after the fire he planned a family trip to Europe, however due to a last minute job he was unable to travel with his wife and 4 daughters.

Horatio received word that the boat his family was in had been hit by another and sank and his daughters had drowned. However, he looked to the Lord and never lost his faith.  What a testimony he had. I love the words to the song as well.

When peace like a river attendeth my way
when sorrows like sea billows roll
what ever my lot thou has taught me to say
"it is well, it is well, with my soul"

The other assignment that I had was to interview someone.
I thought about who I would choose. There are so many options people of today and people from the past but I finally concluded on Moses. My three questions for him would be:
1. Describe for me what you saw and how you felt when you crossed the Red Sea.
2. How did you feel when the Lord told you that you could not go to The Promise Land?
3. How does it make you feel to know that the Lord loved you so much that he had Michael the Arch Angel fighting with the Devil over your body?

I was able to study these topics in English and then translate my thoughts and opinions and of course the facts in Spanish. I challenge you this week to think of a song you love or a person that you want to interview and find out some information on them. As for the song, it may just give more meaning behind the words that the writer wrote. Happy learning!

The Perspective of Life on the field from a Teen's View

Okay for all you readers this is going to be a little different. We know that alot of you have children so I asked Taylor and Hunter to give you a little view of their perspective of life here in Costa Rica. I hope that you read this with your children and if they have any questions for any of us please list them in the comment section below.

From the heart of Taylor:

Some of my experiences in Costa Rica: The biggest thing would be walking. It is hard getting use to walking everywhere you go. The next thing would be going in the mountains to church.

It is different seeing people going to get water because they are out. Then with all the roads messed up and not knowing how to get out of certain places (because there are no road signs). It is also weird seeing people sleeping all over the place at anytime of the day. It is nice to have parks really close by. I thinik that my favorite thing that we have done was go to La Cumbre. (a camp in the mountains). It was cold but beautiful. It was cool getting to see the mountains and birds. (I dont

remember the name of the type of bird it was) It was really fun being there and seeing all that God's created. I know that this was not in Costa Rica but I really liked our trip to Panama. (We have to leave the country every 90 days to get our Visa's stamped) It was really pretty and a lot of fun. The starfish beach was amazing and weird to see so many starfish in one place. They were also huge and it was amazing seeing how big they can get.

 I really enjoy going downtown  as well. There are also alot of beautiful flowers in Costa Rica as well, as a lot of ugly dogs.

From the Heart of Hunter

I have gone to two countries. First is Costa Rica and second is Panama. We go to church up in the mountains in Los Guidos. Since we have been here I have fallen in love with soccer or here they call it futbol. I have eaten some weird stuff that I would not have eaten in the states. 

    Everything here   (fruits and veggies) are really cheap.     On Saturdays we go to a market at the park. We have been able to go to many parks and meet new people and kids. We even went to a beach in Panama and got to visit an island called Starfish Island.   

 It was so cool because we got to pick them up and hold them.    Soon we might even be able to visit a volcano. We can not do much right now because it is the rainy season and it is boring because it rains from like 12 noon to 6.

We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our lives. It is not alot but just the point of view from a teen. If you have questions about our lives please feel free to leave it in a comment below.      Also, we are trying to see how many followers we have so be sure to leave a comment and join our family blog for a chance to win some yummy Costa Rican Coffee. (you can read the last blog for more details on chances to win)