Life is full of changing plans. Well plan A for us was to be here at language school for one trimester. After half of a trimester we realized that four months would not be enough to bring my Spanish speaking ability up to par. Most of the missionaries here stay for at least 2 trimesters if not the full year. So we are resorting to plan B. We are going to stay for a second trimester which will put us back in the States mid August and in Bolivia at the end of August. This change will be good for us and enable us to be more effective more quickly in Bolivia.
Our address here will still be
(Our Names)
Instituto de Lengua Espanola
Apartado 100-2350
San Jose, Costa Rica
America Central
Anything sent needs to be sent by mid July to arrive in time.
Our next update letter is on the way so keep an eye out for it in your mailboxes. If any of you would prefer to receive an e-mail copy rather than a snail mail copy, let us know. Also, if you would like to go back and read some of our old letters, I added an option on the right side of this blog where you can download our old letters. The first couple are Microsoft Publisher files, the more recent ones are PDFs.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Caimitos, Mamey Sapote, y un Colibrí
We have settled into a routine here at language school. I have been learning a lot and I am beginning to gain some confidence speaking Spanish, even though I speak like a 3 year old. I am finally back to full health. My last post said I was almost better, well that was right before I had a relapse. After a visit to the hospital for a chest x-ray I found out I had walking pneumonia. At this point I was looking pretty bad and had lost a bit of weight. After a course of medication I am back on my feet, bounding up stairs and chasing lizards. It is amazing how much you appreciate feeling normal after a long period of sickness.
Next weekend we are going on our first big excursion out of the city. Yes I know, how sad is that, almost two months in Costa Rica and all we have done is hang around town. We are going to spend a weekend on the coast up in the northwest region of the country. I cannot wait to get out of the city!
Each weekend there is a "feria" (farmers market) that I really enjoy going to and checking out all the local produce. It is great Spanish practice for me to talk to the vendors and learn about the variety of produce. I love trying new fruits that most of the students here are too afraid to try. I might try setting up a little tropical fruit workshop for the students here to help demistify some of these amazing fruits. This past week we tried Caimito/Star Apple (in the photos) and Mamey Sapote. I thought both were delicious fruits. The Caimito had a very mild, flowery flavor with hints of persimon. The Mamey Sapote is a bit harder to describe. It was kind of like a cross between sweet potato and pear with hints of carrot.
If you go early in the morning to la feria, you will be the only gringo (person from the USA) there among lots of Ticos (Costa Ricans). Later in the morning there is a funny shift, most of the Tico shoppers have left and there are mostly Gringos shopping. I guess we just like our Saturday morning sleep-in more than the getting the best produce.
Last night we had a visitor, a tiny little visitor. A bright green colibrí (hummingbird) flew into the house. I must admit I took great joy in catching the little thing. It was so small and delicate, it is amazing that they can move so fast. They are not easy to hold onto either! God has so many cool creatures out there, I love any opportunity to get up close to one.
One thing that has been fun about being a part of the community here is the diversity of skill people bring and the opportunities to share or exchange these skills. Jenna has been offering her hair cutting skills, much to the delight of many of the women here. Recently we have had a lot of computer problems so Jenna traded hair cuts for computer repairs from a tech savey missionary. I think I like this bartering system better than money, well it is atleast more fun.
Next weekend we are going on our first big excursion out of the city. Yes I know, how sad is that, almost two months in Costa Rica and all we have done is hang around town. We are going to spend a weekend on the coast up in the northwest region of the country. I cannot wait to get out of the city!
Each weekend there is a "feria" (farmers market) that I really enjoy going to and checking out all the local produce. It is great Spanish practice for me to talk to the vendors and learn about the variety of produce. I love trying new fruits that most of the students here are too afraid to try. I might try setting up a little tropical fruit workshop for the students here to help demistify some of these amazing fruits. This past week we tried Caimito/Star Apple (in the photos) and Mamey Sapote. I thought both were delicious fruits. The Caimito had a very mild, flowery flavor with hints of persimon. The Mamey Sapote is a bit harder to describe. It was kind of like a cross between sweet potato and pear with hints of carrot.If you go early in the morning to la feria, you will be the only gringo (person from the USA) there among lots of Ticos (Costa Ricans). Later in the morning there is a funny shift, most of the Tico shoppers have left and there are mostly Gringos shopping. I guess we just like our Saturday morning sleep-in more than the getting the best produce.
Last night we had a visitor, a tiny little visitor. A bright green colibrí (hummingbird) flew into the house. I must admit I took great joy in catching the little thing. It was so small and delicate, it is amazing that they can move so fast. They are not easy to hold onto either! God has so many cool creatures out there, I love any opportunity to get up close to one.One thing that has been fun about being a part of the community here is the diversity of skill people bring and the opportunities to share or exchange these skills. Jenna has been offering her hair cutting skills, much to the delight of many of the women here. Recently we have had a lot of computer problems so Jenna traded hair cuts for computer repairs from a tech savey missionary. I think I like this bartering system better than money, well it is atleast more fun.
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