A look at our life overseas

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sunflower Harvest

This past weekend I spent out in Poza Verde, one of the Ayore settlements. The mission cultivates a field out there. In order to keep the land, a certain percentage has to be productive. Sunflowers were the crop of choice this round and were ready to harvest. We hired a group to harvest the field and we got 25 tons of seeds. Now we are praying the global price of sunflower seed will go up in the next few weeks.
The money made will go to the ministry with the Ayore. This has been a successful way to meet the productivity laws, but is dependent on the mission. Ideally we would like to come up with agricultural projects that the Ayore can sustain on their own. This will be one of the main goals of my work.

Ayore kids playing in the sunflower field

Hired harvesters
Ayore kids playing in the harvested seed

Mission Impossible: Bolivia

The next two years of our lives packed into 4 check bags and 2 carry-ons

Two years of preparation and now we are finally here in Bolivia, but it almost did not happen. At the end of our two weeks in the states, after a great last few days with family, we visited the SAM office where our passports and visas were supposed to meet us. Thanks to a series of delays, the passports did not make it to South Carolina in time. So we tried re-routing them to Baltimore to meet us at a friends house the day we were to leave.

Eating Breakfast on the sidewalk in Baltimore, waiting for UPS to deliver our passports.

Over breakfast, we got the call that our passports were still in South Carolina

Turns out our passports got stuck in South Carolina. We tried delaying our tickets a day or two only to find out the next flight with open seats was not until Sept. 22nd.

A couple long hours at the airport trying to come up with a new plan

Lunch at Natcho Mama's while waiting for Sue to fly in with our passports

Back at the airport waiting for the passports to arrive

In one last ditch effort, Sue, from our office, intercepted the package at the UPS warehouse in South Carolina, hopped on the next flight to Baltimore, handed the package off to our friend Matt who was waiting to run it to us at the American Air desk. He delivered it to us just in time to check in, with 10 minutes to spare! Once we were on the plane, the rest of the trip was smooth. We were so focused on just getting on the plane that it was not until I was in my seat buckling in that it hit me, WE'RE MOVING TO BOLIVIA!

Agent Matteo running 'the package" (our passports) through the airport

So now we are adjusting to life here. So far we really like it. Basically we've been spending our time in meetings, getting to know the people we'll be working with, and getting oriented to the area. We did take one trip out to Poza Verde, one of the villages I'll be spending a lot of my time. They have a large crop of sunflowers that our team has been helping them grow and will probably we ready for harvest this week. I have been brainstorming with the team on lots of interesting potential projects. It is exciting to see how many opportunities there are here to use my interests and training.

Changing Seasons

Today marks yet another point of change for us. Since 2001 I have been hopping from town to town, state to state, and country to country. It has been quite the adventure but the frequent packing up to go and all the "good-byes" have been challenging. Today we graduated from language school and are getting ready to head back to the states for a whirlwind 2 week trip before moving to Bolivia. We said our farewells yet again and are looking forward to actually setting up home and staying in one place for at least 2 years. Over the last 8 years or so, I've made a lot of friend around the world then had to leave them behind. At first it was really hard, then I hit a point of trying to stay uninvolved emotionally to avoid the pain of leaving, but now I have found it is worth the effort and investment to enjoy relationships while they last, even if I know they will be for only a short while. And so, I leave Costa Rica with more fond memories of friends I have made to add to the many other amazing people I have met on the journey, and looking forward to new friends and new adventures that lay ahead.

Since we have not posted in a little while, here is a quick recap of our last month here in Costa Rica. Jenna's parents came down to visit us and we had a great time back at Arenal Volcano and showing them around the San Jose area. Unfortunately it was cloudy most of the time so we only heard the volcano. The teachers and some of the students at ILE put on a great show of whirly-twirly cultural dances to celebrate the Anexion of Guanacaste. We took our final Spanish exams; Jenna did great, I choked. Then last weekend we took an amazing boat ride to Tortuguero National Park filled with all kinds of wildlife. I wish I had discovered this place sooner! We saw crocs, sloths, monkeys, toucans, an Eyelash viper, and a Green Sea Turtle laying eggs.

It has been a great 8 months. I am sad to leave Costa Rica and our friends here, but I can't say I'm sorry to be done with school. Onward to Bolivia!

A Future Home

A Street View of Our Future *Temporary* Home in Bolivia!

Well God certainly does provide, and when He does so, he does it lavishly~!

Our team in Bolivia jumped on an opportunity for us to sub-rent a home in Santa Cruz while a missionary family is on a four month leave back to the United States. Although this does mean that we will have to move (again) to our own place in January, it gives us an incredibly beautiful and comfortable home in which to stay while we get orientated to the field. We will move in as soon as we arrive on September 3rd, and will be able to take our time finding our own place to live for the rest of our term. We will be moving into a fully furnished and equipped home, complete with a large back yard (Jason's estatic), a gardener, a guard at night, an empleada (maid) to help around the house on 3 mornings a week, internet set up, phone set up, and best of all- much to our delight- a dog and a tortoise to keep us company! Yes, we will have to pay rent and salaries for all of these luxuries, but it is such a blessing to be able to make our transition a little smoother, to give us time to check out the best places for us to stay afterwards, to set up our home, to wait for our things to arrive by mail, to look for the best deals. I am excited. We are excited! Things are coming together and starting to feel more real- especially after almost 3 years of preparation time!

Check out the photos of our future, temporary, home:

This is Roger- their pet (red foot?) tortoise- We will be taking very good care of him. Tortoises are my favorite.

This is Beethoven (yellow) and Jerry (black). We will just be taking care of Beethoven and I believe the missionaries are working on finding someone to take care of Jerry- the Rotweiler. If they can't, I'm sure we'll take him under our wing as well, always nice to have good guard dogs. :-)


A view of the living room/ front door?

Kitchen with lots of counter space!! Yay!!

Dining room- very pretty


I'm sure Jason will have lots of fun planting all sorts of random, but yummy things in this yard. I'm sure he will also include a compost pile :-)

Office area- I can't wait to read some of those books!

As you can very well see, this place is huge and so far above and beyond any expectations we had! Not to mention the perks that come with it! Who else would be so happy to take on a tortoise? (Let alone know how to take care of it!) Like I said, God is very good. :-)

Arenal Volcano

Jason & Jenna in front of the smoking Arenal Volcano

Last weekend we made our long anticipated trip to Arenal Volcano along with Jenna's brother Kyle and a bunch of people from our school. It was a welcome 3 night getaway from the stresses of language learning. We enjoyed hot and cold pools along with a few water slides all fed by natural springs at the foot of the very active Arenal volcano. Whenever the clouds parted we had an excellent view of the volcano from our hotel and the constant stream of smoke from the top. Occasionally we would hear a rumble from deep within its belly. One night we took a van to the other side of the volcano where the lava is currently spewing. It put on a nice little firework display for us while we fought off mosquitoes.

Arenal Volcano at Night

This week was also a little bit of a breather from the routine. It was spiritual emphasis week. This week the teachers were not permitted to give us homework so that we could feel free to go to the two chapels a day and focus on spiritual health. Last weekend and this week was a nice break, next week it is back to full steam ahead. Classes continue to go well as I learn to speak Spanish poco a poco. My one class has been especially good for me since it requires me to get out in the community and build a relationship with 8 people with whom I talk to on a weekly basis. It continues to be a stretch for me but it is great practice. !Vale la pena!

Green Basilisk (Basiliscus plumifrons) at Arenal

Harlequin Long-Horned Beetle (Acrocinus longimanus) at Arenal

Rambutans, Toucans, & Blackberry Wine

Jenna with a handful of Rambutan

This weekend I made my weekly run to the Feria (farmers market). I love this weekly event, I never know what fun tropical fruits I may find. A few weeks ago, an amazing fruit known as Rambutan ("Mamon Chino" in Spanish) started to come into season. This weekend I found the best looking ones yet, and in two different color varieties (red y yellow). Some people call it hairy fruit, which makes sense. You eat these little self-contained snacks by popping the skin open and eating the white flesh inside which looks a lot and is the texture of a skinless green grape. They have a wonderfully fruity flavor which I can only describe as... Rambutany... with a hint of Lychee. If you don't know what that tastes like, well I guess you are out of luck, that or you need to take the next flight to a tropical country.Red and Yellow Rambutan

Speaking of Fruit, a few weeks ago we bought a bag of Blackberries at the Feria with the intention of making them into juice. Well, two weeks later we found them in the back of the fridge. The still looked okay, and I tasted one which also tasted okay but a little tart... or was that alcohol? Well we blended them up, added some sugar, and stuck the juice in the fridge. Tonight we went to drink some with dinner, only to find it wasn't juice anymore, but rather Blackberry wine. Oops!

Waterfall at Parque Monte de la Cruz

This past weekend I also took a little trip with some friends from the school to a park nearby, well nearby on the map. An hour and a half later, and countless stops for directions, we found the park... right as the rains started. Fortunately, after a lunch in the van, the rain let up long enough for a short hike to a waterfall and up a hill. Before this trip started, for some reason I had an urge to see Toucans. I have never seen them in the wild before and hoped to see some. Soon after we arrived, a couple flew out of the woods and into nearby trees! Unfortunately due to the rain I couldn't get a good picture but I had a fun time watching them!Emerald Toucanet

Well, back to the Spanish homework during one intense thunderstorm. I might want to get off the computer before it melts to my lap.