!Bienvenido a Costa Rica!

Mamon Chinos - A Sweet Sea Urchin/Eyeball-looking Yummy Fruit

Welcome to Costa Rica! I have been here for 2 weeks now, and it already feels like my home away from home. I am living here with an amazing Costa Rican host family. My tico (Costa Rican) dad is the pastor of the church I attend here, so there are Bible studies at the house or at church at least 5 days a week. They have been great opportunities to meet other ticos and to learn more about the culture. My tico mom is very involved in the church as well, leading Bible studies for the kids and helping run things smoothly. I also have a little brother, Henry (age 5), and a little sister, Amy (age 3). The first week, they ran away from me every morning. Since then, Amy has fallen asleep in my lap in the car, we have played tag, they have paraded around in my size 13 shoes, and continually begged me to throw them in the air and swing them around (I guess swing dancing does have its uses cross-culturally). My family loves to host others. Last night there was a party for the married couples in the church, so they had 30 people over while I helped babysit with Bethanny (another one of the eMi interns) and her tico family. Every Saturday and Sunday, we host a Uruguayan missionary couple that is studying at a Costa Rican seminary. We have also had meals with the other interns and with other members of the church. You never know who will show up (and it isn’t always announced or planned beforehand), so our family of four eats at a table set for six and the door is always open.

!Celebramos mi cumpleaños!

The focus of my first week was eMi orientation in Costa Rica. We had a daily Bible study with the eMi staff. We went through the book of Romans, and I was particularly challenged by Romans 10:14-15, which says:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?

I was also encouraged (while struggling with a new culture and language) by Romans 8:28, which says:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

We also learned some do’s and don’ts (such as: Always greet everyone individually when you enter a room. This can take a while when entering a crowded room, but the Costa Ricans make it look natural. Never call others to yourself with your palm up; that’s how you call animals, and is very rude for people) We learned about the besito, which is a little kiss on the right cheek when greeting a woman (don’t get the side wrong, and don’t greet other guys like this!). During the week, the interns split up to do a photo scavenger hunt in the town to learn our way around. Some of the objectives included: ugliest street dog, shoddiest construction, and most unique fruit. We also had to go to the weekly street fair to buy food for lunch. That was an adventure because the vendors all speak Spanish, the fruits all look different and aren’t labeled, and the prices are different. (500 Colones = 1 Dollar, so fruit can cost hundreds of monies, and still be super cheap!)

My Oitside Classroom

The second week has been full of language school. School is located behind a house in gazebo-like huts with ten roofs and surrounded by all sorts of trees, including banana trees (and the bananas make great snacks, for students and birds!). The classes are pretty much private lessons; Bethany and I have a teacher to ourselves. During class, we have role-played, drawn pictures of stories read to us, danced and wrestled with the teacher, and talked about Diane a lot :) During school, I have seen some big birds, dogs, huge spiders, and fairly large lizards. The teacher laughs are how easily I am distracted by the wildlife, but it sure is cool!

It has rained every day so far…I live in a tropical rain forest.

Speaking of rain forest, yesterday we got to go to the beach and on a canopy tour! The beach was rocky, but the water was the perfect temperature. The canopy tour was amazing! I am scared (I say scared because I don’t know a better word) of heights, but this was a blast. There were 6 zip lines and a tarzan swing through a tropical rain forest. The platforms looked like the Ewok cities from Star Wars!

This week I had my first weekly mentoring time with Micah, one of the full time eMi staff members here. We met at a coffee shop and tried to figure out what we wanted to study. If you have any suggestions of good books to study, or books of the Bible, or books about marriage, please let me know.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support as I attempt to fit in to a new culture, build relationships with locals, and learn me some Spanish.