ESL Class

After working as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher since finishing grad school, becoming a student again was quite a transition for me. At first, it felt strange to be sitting in a desk looking at the board trying to understand my teacher instead of being the one standing in front of the class wondering if my students can understand me. But, teaching the grammar of my own language definitely helps me learn the grammar of other languages, and I have really enjoyed being in the position of learner again. The truth is, though, that I miss teaching.

Once a week, however, I have had the opportunity to be in front of the classroom again. During our time here in language school, I volunteered once a week at ministry in our neighborhood. Another student from our school and I taught an advanced conversational ESL class. It was fun to teach once again and to get to know our students.

We had our last class a couple of weeks ago. After we handed out certificates of participation to the students, they presented us with a "Good Teacher Award." It was very sweet. I am thankful I had this unexpected opportunity to teach here, and I'm curious to see what kinds of teaching opportunities might arise in Atenas.

All I want for Christmas is a pressure cooker,

and a crockpot, and a stove, an oven, a refridgerator, an automatic washing machine, dryer, bed, table and chairs, sofa, kitchen cabinets, closets, window curtains, shower curtains, lamps... The list is way too long. Getting ready to move out of our furnished apartment and into our very unfurnished house has been a little overwhelming.

One overwhelming factor has been that household items, especially appliances, are really expensive here. They are often twice or even three times as expensive as they are in the States. We have been researching every appliance store we know of to get the best deals so that we make the most of the money we have allotted for this. Please pray for us to have wisdom!

We've also been realizing that when we lived in the States, the vast majority of what furnished our home was either given to us or borrowed. I think the only furniture we ever bought for ourselves was our couch. So, it's crazy now to need to buy everything. Here in Costa Rica, when you rent a place, it does not usually have appliances and you might have to put in your own closets or cabinets. That is the case for us. There is a lot to do in the next couple of weeks!

Where we will live soon...

In two weeks, we will be leaving San José and moving to Atenas. We are eager to get to the place we've been preparing to go to, and we are excited about what God has been preparing for us there. One of the things that we're excited about is our house. The story of finding this house is a story of God's provision and guidance.

In August, we spent a week in Atenas during a break from language school. During that time, we looked at some houses that were for rent just to get an idea of costs, locations, what was available, etc. It was discouraging because it seemed that what we were looking for was going to be hard to find. We wanted a house that was good for both our family and for our ministry. We found a couple of houses that would have been great for our family, but, because they were far from the center of Atenas, they were not so great for our ministry. We also found other houses that were a great location, but were not good for our family. Very few of the houses had a large living space that we feel would be beneficial for having over groups of interns, host families, etc. In addition, not very many houses are available to rent in Atenas because it is such a small town, and those that are for rent are often quickly snatched up.

When our team director and his wife returned to Costa Rica at the end of that week, they drove us around showing us some of the areas of Atenas they liked. They drove us into a neighborhood where one of our intern host families live. I remembered that I had been there before and liked it, and I also remembered that we really liked that host family. There were no for rent signs, but our team director pulled over at a house that was obviously not being lived in. Out of curiosity, we all got out of the car, and started looking around. The man across the street immediately came out of his house and asked, "Are you interested in renting that house?" !!!

He had the key and took us in the house. I almost cried; it was more than we had been hoping for. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, one large main room that is open to a kitchen with a lot of counterspace, lots of windows, a yard, and beautiful mountain views. The man told us that the owner's family was coming to Atenas that afternoon and we could meet them if we wanted. Later that afternoon, we met with them and basically made arrangements to rent the house. What's amazing is that the family, who actually lives very close to us here in San José, was coming to Atenas that afternoon to post advertisements about the house! What an encouragement to see how God put us in the right place at the right time!

Another amazing thing is that we are paying a similar rent to what we pay for our apartment in the city. Why? Well, here's the catch. The house is unfinished. It is definitely ready to be lived in, but there is still a lot of work to do. Dan was out there two weekends this month painting the inside of the house with the owner's family and some EMI staff. The EMI interns worked on it some a couple of weeks ago, too. There is an upstairs loft area that is completely unfinished. It will eventually have two additional rooms and a bathroom up there, but since we don't need that space now, it's not a big deal that it's unfinished. Kitchen cabinets, closets, and a laundry area outside need to be put in before we move in or soon after. Throughout our time living there, we will be working on the house and our rent will be used for materials, labor, etc. Of course, all of the engineers and architects on our team will be excited to help out!

We signed a three year contract, so this will be home for quite a while, longer than any other place we've ever lived in so far. We're excited to get to know our neighbors, who have been so friendly and welcoming (by the way, the man in this story is the same man we talked about in our latest newsletter). We are excited to set up our home and to open it up for ministry. We are thankful for this blessing. Please pray that we will be good and grateful stewards of it!

Timmy says...

...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We give thanks to God for His salvation, for our son, for bringing us to Costa Rica and for teaching us much more than Spanish during our months in language school! We are also so thankful for the love, support, and prayers of you all, our dear friends and family. May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving day!

Progress

Our Spanish is definitely improving, which is very good, since our focus has been Spanish study for the past 6 months. We've learned a lot. Sometimes I recognize the progress we've made, and it's so exciting! Today, as we were singing in church, I realized that I understand the songs so much better now than several months ago; I felt like I was truly worshipping in Spanish. It was great! I still haven't mastered grasping the whole sermon while trying to keep a squirming baby quiet, though.

I know that I make so many mistakes every day. I'm sure I often conjugate verbs into the wrong tense, saying that I'll do something tomorrow when really I did it yesterday. There are so many times that I take a really long time to say something because I don't know a word. Instead of just saying the one word, I use ten words to say what I'm trying to say! And, there are other times that I just say completely the wrong thing. A couple of examples come to mind:

Back in September, I wrote in a grammar class composition, "mi bebé nació el día antes de la fecha del vencimiento." (translation: my baby was born the day before his expiration date). Whew... good thing he got out in time! Just in case you're confused, I meant to say that our little guy was born the day before his DUE DATE. The same week, after putting my sleeping baby in the school nursery for a nap, I told the teacher, "Voy a regresar pronto para comerlo." (translation: I'm going to come back soon to eat him"). Fortunately, the teacher is used to talking to gringos who don't know what they're saying in Spanish. She just nodded and smiled, and probably laughed as I walked away! She must not think I'm a cannibal, because she willingly handed Timmy over when I came back to FEED him.

Recognizing the humor in our mistakes has helped us along. We definitely have made a lot of progress during our time in language school. While we still have much more to learn, we feel like we're getting to a good point to leave school and move on to more "normal" life in Atenas. Only three more weeks!

(And, because blog posts just aren't as fun without photos, the two photos here show how studying with a baby gets done around here!)

Fall, we missed you!

Sometimes it's hard for us to believe that it's the middle of November. This is the first year that we haven't experienced seasons in the way that we're used to. We haven't seen a single leaf change color, nor have we sipped apple cider, eaten my favorite pumpkin desserts, pulled out our sweaters and jackets, or visited the pumpkin patch. As cute as a photo of Timmy with a pumpkin would have been, I had to settle for something a little more, well, Costa Rican:

Timmy and his piña

"Um, Mom, isn't this supposed to be a pumpkin?"

how Timmy would have been dressed for the pumpkin patch...

Enjoy the last days of Autumn for us!