Octubre las actividades

 

   As the month of Oct came to a close I thought of all that happened since my last post. I will start with our weekend at the Arinal Volcano. It was our first weekend away with the other students. There is something planned about every other weekend but this is the first we have participated for various reasons. We began our 4 hour bus ride and after about 2-1/2 hours stopped to eat our sack lunches at a rest stop filled with Iguanas. Most of them were full grown and freely roaming the area. For those of you that are not familiar with them, I would compare them to a cross between a lizard and a dinosaur. 

      We then loaded back up and enjoyed a great time there from Saturday mid afternoon until Monday after lunch. The volcano has now been inactive now for (it depends on who you ask) somewhere between a couple of months and 2 years. Of course the local shops say that it is still active, you just need to hang around a while to see it "blow" Ha! I guess it is not a lot different than our tourist spots in the States. 

   Our next adventure was when Marcy, Janae and I joined a few other students to climb "Tres Cruz Mountain". We started out an elevation of 4200 ft and ended up at 6800, so just over 1500' increase. It was about a 1-3/4 mile hike up so a fairly good grade. The descent was another story. We went back down about 1300 of that elevation in 2000'of distance. 

So a little less than a 45° drop. That proved interesting on a slightly slippery grass covered hill with a barb wire fence at the bottom and a river on the other side of the fence. Everyone survived but the guide mentioned that maybe she should find an alternative route for coming back down. There was a great view from the top though. It was well worth the couple of scratches that we got.

My last adventure that I had was just this past Saturday when I put my bike to use a little more than I had yet. I had heard of a town called Cartago that was supposed to be a nice place to visit so I took off right after getting the produce at the ferria. It really was a nice ride. About 25 miles one way and mostly uphill, it was about 5000 ft elevation with a high point along the way of 5,300 ft. It felt good to get out and ride some distance again. All but the first 2 miles was ridden on the Pan American Highway. It runs from Argentina to Alaska and in the US is referred to I-5. I will need to take my camera along the next time as it also had some  fantastic views of God's workmanship. 

    School continues to go good and as we go into the community, it feels like we can continue to use it more and more. I am sure that we sound like a toddler speaking but I guess that is better than not at all at this point. Interesting to see how people react to our attempt to speak Spanish. Some are very helpful at correcting you very politely, others will just ignore you. Then some will let you struggle and drag on for 5 or ten minutes trying to understand and finally say "I do speak English if that helps at all" :) . One last thing was a culture experience that I had this past weekend at a local "Big Lots" sort of store. It was very busy and crowded and as I waited my place in line with maybe 8-10 people behind me, I notice that the three ladies in front of me were receiving items from other people that would just walk up between the lines. After this happened maybe 5-6 times I realized that along with the item, they would be handing them cash to pay for it. Ha! It didn't seem to bother anyone behind me so I figured it was just part of the way things happen here. Then, just as it was my turn to start putting my items on the belt, another person showed up on the far end of my checkout  lane with a full cart and begin to unload their items and the cashier started to ring them up in reverse, and the customer had a bunch of plastic bags that she laid on top of my items and proceeded to bag her things up. :). I wish I would have had a video of that. Again, it didn't seem to bother anyone behind me so I just waited until they were done, and then I ask the cashier "más?" her reply of "no más" was good enough for me to begin my things. It really was quite comical when you think about it. 

         We continue to plug away at learning the Spanish language and culture. Nina, Janae, and Marcy are still surviving, as are their teachers. We have been very blessed with a couple of care packages in the mail from family and friends and that is really special to us. Last week we had a full 30 hours straight of no rain which seemed so strange. Then the next day it really made up for it with a downpour like no other. With the midpoint of this trimester behind us now, all 5 of us can't hardly believe how fast the time is going by.Thanks again for the prayers as we continue to follow where Him. Mike, for the family

 

La madurez ez un proceso (maturity is a process)

(More on the title later)

    Since my last post I was able to find another student that had a bike that he was no longer riding because it was in need of some work. So I did end up buying that bike and getting it back into riding shape. It still has a few quirks but is very ridable.

Along with the bike purchase we had to do some remodeling on our apartment so we turned part of our bedroom into a garage for the bike. It really is handy though because now I don't even need to get out of bed to comb my hair, I can just roll over and use the mirror on the bike so it has worked out great.

    Speaking of combing my hair, which is really not an issue anymore any way because........... I had another "first" here in Costa Rica a few weeks ago. Getting my hair cut. That was interesting to say the least. I had practiced saying "take a little off", "just a trim". I had thought of telling him to just call Laura and she would tell him exactly how it is done. But since the haircut only cost $4.00 and the phone call would have cost $10.00.......... Anyway, I told him what I had practiced and he looked at me for a bit and said "si". Well it was about the time that the first pile of greyish red hair hit my lap that I realized the communication had broken down somewhere and he heard me say, "just leave a little on top". Basically shaving it would be a good description of what happened. HA!. Well Marcy was setting there witnessing the whole thing and after a while said "Moms not going to like this at all". The next excitement came when he was ready to shave my neck with a straight razor. Just as my nervousness left me as I had convinced myself that "he had done this hundreds of times before", Marcy decided she wanted to see what he was doing and "sprang" from her seat and ran over to stand right beside him to watch. Well "stand" and "Marcy" don't normally go in the same sentence together, but it all ended uneventful which I was very glad for. I always figure that a bad haircut and a bad lawn mowing job are pretty temporary and both grow back eventually.

       Oct 2nd was World Communion Sunday and since Costa Rica falls under the "world" part of that, we also participated in communion here just as our home congregation did at Shore Mennonite in Shipshewana IN. Pastor Marvin here was preaching on his series from Hebrews chapter 6 and the only note I took was "la madurez es un proceso" (Hence the title of this post), I am not sure why I had taken that one note but I must have thought it was a statement worth writing down. Now today, two weeks later, I am listening to the sermon from Pastor Carl form that same Sunday at Shore and he is preaching from his series in Galatians chapter 4 and he mentions "our Christian maturity is a process". Now on the same Sunday , two different pastors preaching from two different countries thousands of miles away, in two different languages and then saying the same sentence in the sermons???? I take that to heart and ask "God, what are you trying to say to Mike Unternahrer through that sentence?" Knowing that my Christian maturity has been a process and will continue to be a process, I can only hope to grow as much over the next 35+ years as I have during the past 35+ years. Relating that to learning a new language, why did I think and expect to learn Spanish without the  pain, the effort, the work, the setbacks, the struggles, the tears, and very little patience with  myself when it is a process? All processes have these common components in them, Marriages, faith walks, new jobs, raising children, and even language learning. MATURITY IS A PROCESS.

       Going back to our first week here, during orientation, it was mentioned that it is very likely for some of us that our language learning is quite possibly only a small part of the reason that God brought us to Costa Rica, and He may in fact have much more to teach us here than just a new language. I have seen that to come true in me and the Spanish Language is such a bonus to all that I am learning. I am forever grateful for God's servants Pastor Marvin and Pastor Carl and how He has used them to continue to grow me spiritually. 

   

  

Pruebas y Exámenes (test and exams)

So about 1/3 third of the way through our first trimester here in Costa Rica has left us feeling many things. Challenging, exhausting, chaotic, frustration, homesick, stretched, as well as comfortable, prayed for, grateful, enjoyment, amazed, relieved, inspired. Those are just a few that come to mind right now. In one of our classes we needed to come up with different adjectives that we need to learn the Spanish word for. I then thought I would ask everyone in our household to think of what they have felt since being here. It was interesting to see all the feelings we have had, positive and negative alike. Everyone was in agreement though that the positive has far outweighed the others.

   We are all still getting lots of exercise with walking. The higher elevation (4000’+) and the very hilly terrain is much different than walking around our block back in LaGrange County. The beautiful scenery makes it all worth it though. We no longer get to experience the sunrises from the center of the city but the mountains are still very visible in the background no matter where you are. God’s beauty is all around us, if we just stop to see it. 

    Some changes coming up with our family are that we have been given an opportunity to stay here in Costa Rica for another trimmest of language classes and then we have decided to take that opportunity. That session of classes ends the end of April so we will then be in the DR and ready for school by the first part of May. Although that was not our original plan, we were open to it anyway and are now looking forward to that happening. Along with that change, Nina will probably stay here in the apartment with Sondra, our empleada, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning while Karen and I are in class. She will be attending the regular classes in the school on Tuesday and Thursday.

   Keep us in your prayers, as I know you have been. We have felt that so much since we are here. One thing that they told us in orientation here was that quite possibly language was only a small part or reason that God has brought us here, and to be open to allowing him to do whatever he has in store for us. We have all talked many times of the different experiences that we have had and continue to have here. Thanks for being part of that with us.

español, poco a poco (Spanish, little by little)

      So now that we have finished our 3rd week here in Costa Rica - it seems like we should be 100% fluent in the language; I would think. WRONG! Anyway we are learning and the girls are also learning and making lots of new friends. Today Janae started her first Mandarin class. That was her native language in China and, even though she has not spoken it in almost 8 years now, I think it will come back fairly easy for her. It is being taught by a young lady that was born in Beijing and now lives in San Jose and is very fluent in Spanish but lacks a bit of English. Janae thinks that it is a bit of a challenge for her to teach but it will all work out. 

    There is a national holiday on this Thursday the 15th so all five of us are off school for Thursday and Friday both. We have not and probably wont make any big plans, most likely just work on our vocabulary words and spend some time walking around town. The weather has not changed a lot since I last wrote. Still gets down to the low 60's in the evening and then up to the low 80's in the daytime. It still rains a small amount every afternoon for 15 minutes up to 6-7 hours, but overall it is just perfect weather. Our Empleada has been teaching Karen how to prepare some of the local dishes and also how to use some of the "odd looking produce" in market.

One thing that I have missed during our time here so far is not having a bicycle to ride. I had been riding some bike in the states for that last few years and have really missed that. I did some checking into finding a used one but so far I have not had a lot of luck. I have been known to drop by the new bike shops and dream but knowing that is not an option makes it easier to just look :) Last Saturday Marcy and Janae and I went to downtown San Jose. I was looking for a book for Karen but no luck. We did however find a park with pigeons and so we went to the bakery and bought $.80 worth of stale bread and spent the next hour feeding the  birds.

     That was well worth the .80 that the bread cost. After we got home from the park we had lunch then I decided I wanted to see if I could find my way to downtown walking, without taking the bus. It was about a 50 minute walk. I printed off a map on GoogleEarth and made it without any wrong turns at all. Actually I never even got my map out so that went pretty well. I spent about an hour at the park working on my vocabulary words and trying to drum up conversations with the taxi drivers and that also went OK. There was a guy walking around selling binoculars and my conversation with him didn't go as well as I had intended. There is not enough room here to go into great detail about that but just to say that he was wanting $10.00 for them and I got him all the way down to $20.00. :( So if anyone wants a pair of binoculars I have a great pair but I won't send them, it is customer pick up only!!. 

       We are enjoying the church we are attending. It has three services 8:00, 10:30 Sunday morning and then at 6:00 pm on Saturday night. When we go to the 8:00 service, we are back home then by 10:45 and it makes a nice day yet for family bonding time. We have heard that there are several students that go to the 10:30 service so we may try that sometime too just for something different. 

         Marcy had a great 9th birthday here on Sept 5th and we appreciate the cards that were sent from the states. That was very thoughtful and meant a lot to her (and her parents). We received our first care package today from Mom and Dad U, which contained several edible items along with some commodities that are not available here, like wooden clothespins for example. 
         Here is a photo of the entrance to our apartment. 

The razor wire across is very effective in keeping people from coming in as well as keeping Marcy from getting out. :) She has appointed herself the main gate keeper and anytime we go anywhere she is the one to unlock and re-lock all three doors/gates and all three of them have two locks each. It is so interesting to see how all three girls are adapting to the lifestyle here and how they just fit right in. No complaining about not having a yard to play in, not being around their school friends,and not having the foods that they were used to. SKYPE has been a big part of that as they can still  see the "Bigs"and both sets of grand parents. 
     Continue to keep us in your prayers as we seek out what God has in store for us each coming day and for patience in our classes as they seem to be a real struggle at times. God Bless from Costa Rica. 

       Well, we finished our first week at ILE (Institudo de Lengua Espnola). It went as good as we all expected I believe, we are going to make an attempt at finding a happy medium between having it totally consume our lives while we are here, and just throwing our hands up and not spending the time needed to study and do the home work. Karen and I both have 4 (50 minute) classes each morning starting at 7:30 with 5 minutes between the first and second, 45 minutes between the 2nd and third and then 5 minutes between the third and fourth. We get out at 12:05.  On Tuesday and Thursday we have Chapel during the long break. Karen and I have no classes together. One of my teachers speaks no English at all so I have taken it upon myself to teach her all the proper and improper nouns, action verbs, correct punctuation, and most all else that I failed to learn 35 years.
       There are about 60 new students here for their first Trimester. They/we are at different levels of spanish, from none at all for a portion of us, to 4 years of high school Spanish, to some that were very advanced but never really learned the correct way of pronunciations.  Then there are about 20 or so returning students in their 2nd or 3rd Trimesters.
       All of the students here have basically two choices for living arrangements. Either an apartment like we have or you live with a Tico (local Costa Rican family). They discouraged families with children in living with a Tico family and really only want couples or singles. They STRONGLY discouraged families with Marcy's in living with Tico families. So we heeded that warning and thus ended up were we are. It really is working out great here. As most of you know we have a very short walk (a couple of minutes) to school and that is such a blessing. A lot of the students have a 15-20 minute walk and there a few that need to take a bus because of the distance.
       The school recommended that those of us in apartments to hire a "maid",(empleada) to do light cleaning and some cooking but mainly for the conversation and tutoring that takes place between them and us. The name of our empleada is Sandra. She will be with us Mon and Wed from about 9-1 and then on Fri, from 11-4. A lot of the reason that the school encourages this is that most of them are single ladies from a divorce or death of husband and they need the income. Sandra's first day for us was last Friday and it looks like she is going to work out very well. She is 52 years old and has 3 grown children in their low to mid twenties, also two grandchildren. Sandra works for one other couple at the school and also sells boxes of tea in the local parks. She helped Karen out a lot with some questions that she was having in class and we are also planing on her interacting with the girls on Fridays. Marcy still has a little ways to go on fully understanding Sandra's roll in our family. "Tell me again when our servant is coming back, I really like her". :(

       Here is a picture of our average morning breakfast with pineapple, bread and banana's. I am not looking to lose any weight while I am here as the food is so good and plentiful and for the most part quite reasonable in price.
      This was our second Sunday at the same church and this morning they had communion. It was somewhat different that our communion but not that much really. As they passed out the juice cups, I had to think of when I was growing up in Shore Mennonite, we had the actual small glass cups that had to be washed and put away until the next time. Those cups had a small but deep indentation in the bottom and it was just the right size for my, at that time, small fingertips to fit into. So I would put them on the end of my fingers and do a little finger dance, until my dad saw, then the dance was all over fairly abruptly.  Oh well, it did make a good memory anyway.
      They sang several praise songs that had a familiar tune but different words than we are used to. Some Sunday soon I want to take my camera and video one of the songs and put it on here so everyone can enjoy what our services are like here in Costa Rica. This Sunday did go better than last week and I am sure that next week will be better than today.
      Keep checking back for a new update in a couple of weeks.

Well, we made the trip to Costa Rica and we're getting settle into our apartment and have begun orientation for Language School. All five of us have orientation yet Thursday and Friday and then the girls start class on Monday with Karen and I starting class on Tuesday. Lots of new experiences here in the last two days. I know most of you are wondering and we did find ice cream in the grocery store. That was a relief. Oh, it was $16.00 a gallon, so all at once I really don't care for ice cream that much anymore. We took an entrance test this morning to see how much Spanish we already knew so they would know where to start us out. I wanted to make sure that I was in the same class as Karen so I faked it and left all the questions blank like I didn't know any of the answers. They were pretty simple questions like verb conjugation and adjectives and pronouns and all. I think Karen will need all the help she can get, so I will be there by her side when she has problems. (OK so the last few sentences may have been exaggerated a bit. All except for the part of me turning in a blank paper). I think we will all be challenged in school.
     Here is a short video tour of our quaint little apartment.

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Once again I want to thank those of you that have sent in one time gifts, monthly pledges and especially the ones that have committed to pray for us. Without the prayer support it would maybe be possible to do what we are, but not near as productive. We feel the support from all of you. One way you can pray for us is as we start actual classes next week that we absorb what we are being taught and that we are bold in our practice of that. God has been so faithful to us so far on this journey and we are confident that he will continue that faithfulness.  

In the midst of goodbyes

       One of the many aspects of leaving is saying goodbye. While in training in Colorado at MTI in April, one of our last sessions was how to be good at saying good bye. I am not sure I have that down yet as so far it has been very hard for me to do that part. Over the last number of weeks we have had some great opportunities to spend time with friends and family during meal times, bike rides, ice cream shops and today for example, the men's prayer breakfast that I attend on Thursday mornings had a commissioning of sorts for me. That was very meaningful to me and then it was "goodbye time." Then to Honeyville Metal where I have been employed for the last 4-1/2 years and after a nice noon meal that was brought in, again, time for "goodbye." There is really no aspect of saying goodbye that I like, but yet as I knew this time would come, I do need to say that the training at MTI came in handy. Even though it is hard, we can be good at it without enjoying it. Don't run way, don't ignore your feelings, take the time to say goodbye to those that I will miss and those that will miss me. Hard as it is, it is a part of leaving, and they will all be missed greatly.
        Packing, storing and giving away has been our lives in a nutshell the last couple of weeks. As we are flying out of Detroit on Monday morning for language school, we are gaining on all that needs to be done. We will be in Sañ José for the better part of 4 months then on to Jarabacoa, DR to begin our three year term there. Thanks again to all who have provided meals, helped clean, helped paint, prayed for us and given us financial support. Without it this would not be possible.