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.

Catch up

Blue-crowned Motmot from INBioparque

First off, our latest newsletter is on its way. If you are signed up for an electronic version, you should have received it already. Also, I have downloaded some new photos from Costa Rica into Picasa. You can get to the albums by clicking on the slideshows bellow and to the right of this page or you can follow this link http://picasaweb.google.com/JayWeigner?feat=email

Last trimester was rather slow. I felt like I was riding on top of things, sometime running way ahead of life, now this trimester I've been run over and am now being dragged along behind. Classes are much more intense this tri and I have taken on a few more responsibilities. It is mainly the Spanish learning that is getting tough. Some days I really don't want to be learning another language when I already have one I can use. But I must admit, I am getting better at Spanish and it is incredibly rewarding when I can actually carry on a conversation. I've recently learned how to talk in the past and future rather than saying silly things like "I go to the store yesterday". Unfortunately, as my Spanish skills increase, my ability to speak and write in English seems to be waning.

Where's Weigner? Jenna trapped in a maze at INBioparque

One of the responsibilities I have taken on this trimester is to organize once a month "Paseos" or little trips from the school to other parts of Costa Rica. The first paseo was a little over a week ago to a nature center/zoo/botanical garden/farm place called INBioparque. We went with about 32 other students from the school and had a great time exporing their trails, observing wildlife, and checking out the farm that reminded me a bit of ECHO. You can see photos from this trip on the Picasa page. The trip I have planed for June is to Arenal volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world giving viewers a daily show of smoke and lava (if it isn't cloudy). Then in July the plan is to go to a little island off the coast, assuming people sign up for it.

Worship time at the men's retreat

A few weeks ago, the men from the school left their women and children behind, passed through the "corador of death", and vanished into a secluded little valley for a men's retreat. We slipped and slided our way down one of the worst zig-zaged mountain roads I've ever seen (and I've been on some bad roads) in the pouring rain dodging mudslides and trying not to slip right off the mountain. We survived and had a great time at a camp tucked away in a beautiful cloud forest valley known as "Valle de los Quetzals". We enjoyed time on the ropes course, rock climbing, hiking, playing paintball, and just hanging out. It was a great time to get away, relax, and reflect (and not speak in Spanish). We had some great speakers and spent a bit of time talking about our struggles and fears. Some times it is nice to be reminded that all these pastors and missionaries I am surrounded by here are are just as broken and are struggling with similar things as my self and everyone else. One of the topics was on fears that hold us back. The following is an outline we talked about concerning the fears that hold us back and their consequenses.
Fear of criticism leads to leagalizm
Fear of insignificance leads to over compensation
Fear of falure leads to paralisis
Fear of exposure/vunerabiligy leads to duplisity
Fear of loss leads to control
It was a great reminder to me to fight these fears that would keep be from living efectively.

Giant Silk Moth (Copaxa syntheratoides) from men's retreat.

Follow this link for more photos from Costa Rica

ESL

(My Friend Amanda teaching ESL)

Oh the irony of my life. Growing up English was my least favorite subject. I hated grammar, I hated the busy work, I hated having to figure out what was a noun, verb, adverb, adjective etc. And now, I am teaching it. I have volunteered once a week to teach ESL (English as a Second Language) at a local ministry directed by LAM (Latin America Mission) called the AMCA house. We meet on Wednesday afternoons and my friend Amanda and I are in charge of the poco mas de precipiantes (advanced beginners). Today was my first attempt and I must say it didn't go badly at all- thanks mostly to Amanda who has actually spent time teaching English before she came.

We had a group of about 7, which was a nice size. We reviewed some more simple English to get a sense of what they knew and didn't know- numbers, alphabet, action verbs, greetings, colors etc. We sang the alphabet song, played a number game, and basically eye-spy. The afternoon consists of 2 50 min. periods with a coffee break/large group time/devotional minutes in between. It worked really well. It's good to get more interaction with Ticos here in the area and be able to offer them a specific skill (learning English) while having opportunities to get to know them and share the Lord with them. Super exciting!

Hurricane Weigner Sweeps the East Coast

(Fun with our ECHO friends, trying not to catch Heidi's germs)

We just returned from a whirlwind tour of the East Coast this Wednesday. It all started last week when left Costa Rica late Thursday evening for Miami. Long before we left for the airport, our dads (Jim & Gerry) began the longest airport run in history. They drove from New York to meet us at the Miami Airport (the reason for this insanity to follow). We arrived in Miami at midnight and then proceeded to drive 3 hours across the state to North Fort Myers where we spent a very short night at ECHO. Friday morning we forced ourselves awake so that we could spend the day catching up with all our ECHO friends and load up our stuff that we left at ECHO into the van our dad's drove down. It felt so good to be back at ECHO, to see the farm (despite its sad state from severe winter freezes and a drought) and to see our ECHO friends. That evening we had a potluck with some of our ECHO friends (mmmm... peanutbutter Chaya greens!). I cannot begin to express what a joy it was to spend time with them again. We devoured everymoment of our short visit.

Saturday morning we left ECHO and enjoyed a huge breakfast spread with my grandparents in Port Charlotte. Unfortunately that was a short visit as well but we had to get on the road if we were to get to church in PA the next morning. We drove from Florida and did indeed make it to PA in time to unload our thing into the Pfluges' basement, take a 15 minute nap, and get to church. Despite being exaused from our journey, we had a refreshing visit with CVC then hit the road once agian to make dinner at Jenna's dad's place in New York. We spent the night there then went up to Jenna's mom's place to visit for the day then spent the night at my parents'. The next morning we visited with my parents then made our way to the airport for our flight back to Costa Rica, or so we thought. We found out our flight to Newark was delayed to the point we would have missed our connection to Costa Rica so we discied to just spend another night in Syracuse rather than spend it in Newark. So we decided to try again the next day. The next day it was on time, that is until we got on the plane and found out we were delayed another 2 hours. We managed to make it to Newark with 15 minutes until our next flight and two terminals to hop to get there. When we made it to the gate (sweating and out of breath) they told us the flight was moved to the other end of the terminal. We then hoped on a cart with 6 other people who were also late for the same flight. Our driver took his time making a 7 point turn and snailed his way to our gate. Fortunately they held the plane since there were enough people late for the flight. We made it to Costa Rica amazingly with all our luggage. We did, however, miss the first day of classes of our second semester.

Incase you were wondering why we planned such a crazy 5 day visit to the states, we did have a method to the madness. For one, we had a return ticket left over since we were planning on only being here for one trimester and we had to leave the country anyhow since our visa was only good for 4 months. We figured we might as well use it and move our stuff back up from Florida while we were at it.

Finally, we are settling in for the next 4 months, starting classes and getting back into our routine. It feels good.