Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Tico Tuesday, December 27th

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! What wonderful gifts God has given us!
They say a picture says a thousand words....
Love,
Carrie

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Tico Tuesday, December 21

Tico Wednesday Greetings from Sierra Vista, AZ, USA! I can't believe I totally forgot to write yesterday! Anyway, I want to tell you briefly about my weekend at the Bible Home. Friday night was the 6th grade graduation and Christmas/Year End party. We had a blast watching fireworks, eating together, taking pictures, roasting marshmallows in the fireplace and catching goodies from the piñata. Jajaja, that was really funny. There was nowhere from which to hang it though, so Mami Mayela's son just stood on the table, ripped it open and flung all the candy, goodies, peanuts, flour, money and other contents of the piñata all over the dining/living room. It was hilarious, but what a MESS we had to clean up Saturday morning! Later that morning, all the children's parents arrived and we had a closing ceremony and celebrated the year and and 17 children who's family treatment plans have been completed, glory to God!! Also, 8 boys will be inaugurating Roblealto's house for adolescents in January. Praise the Lord for all the good things He's doing!

May you all have a blessed and merry Christmas, full of the joy and love we have in Christ.

Love,

Carrie

PS I confess this picture is not mine. I'm having technical difficulties. We did set off Roman candles though and I'd never seen one up close before.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Tico Tuesday, December 13

This past Friday I was honored to be invited to my first ever slumber party with kids from the Bible Home! The mom of the Eden House invited me about a month ago and I can't tell you how privileged and special I felt! I don't have any pictures of the actual activity because I was too busy being with the kids, but the picture is evidence of what we made. For a while now, I've been wanting to make cinnamon-applesauce Christmas tree ornaments with some kids and this was a great opportunity! We made the ornaments after our yummy homemade pizza (I was a really good sport and ate most of the mushrooms on my piece). The kids had fun picking out what shapes they wanted to use and then pressing the cutter into the dough. Then, we cleared the living room of all furniture and brought in our mattresses and snuggled down to watch "Facing the Giants." I'd never seen it before. It was sweet though. What was even sweeter was having A snuggle with me and her little sister D fall asleep leaning on me. I was so happy I could have died. I wished we could have stayed that way all night. Have I ever told you how much I LOVE Roblealto? It was really fun and special to be with the kids and get to spend some time with just those 10. This coming Friday I'll be at the Nido again (where I had Thanksgiving) for their Christmas party and last night at the Bible Home for the year. They'll all go home for about a month of vacation. You can be praying for that! More on the blog!
Love,
Carrie

Roblealto staff are superheroes that run a marathon every day. The instructors, teachers at the school at the Bible Home and the substitute/foster moms have the most direct contact with the children, but even still, the members of the interdisciplinary teams, house helpers at the Bible Home, and even all the administrative staff have so much work to do and it is NOT easy! They get national holidays off, and 3 other flex days during the year, but other than that, this upcoming Christmas break is IT for the year. Needless to say, it is a desperately needed vacation! Good for them, and sort of good for the families we serve-it provides them with a time to be together. But, also, it can be really hard for the families. They might get vacation too- but no work means no money, and money is hard for them to come by anyway. So, we do our best to help. Over the past few weeks we've been raising money for food baskets for about 110 (approximately, maybe more like 130) of the families we serve. (We serve a total of about 700 children, many of them have 1-4 siblings in our programs as well, so though not every family gets a basket, a good portion of them do). This food will help them make it through vacation without going hungry, and I'm not exaggerating. Moms have told us they've never had that much food in their house before. What a beautiful way to bless these families and show them that we care for them and that God loves them and will always provide for them! You can also be praying for these families because during vacation, all the typical family brokenness, stress and issues are still there and they always need prayer. But, I think they need prayer especially because these things are often magnified/intensified during holidays and make things a little more difficult and bittersweet than desired. So, please remember them in your prayers! Thanks!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tico Tuesday, December 6th

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! The resolution for my traffic court hearing came through this morning and it is in my favor! Thanks and praise be to God and thank you everyone for your prayers!
And now, to Tico Tuesday:
Sunday night was the most fun I've had since setting up the México stand for AWANA Missions Sunday in October. What made it so much fun? Hanging out with my AWANA coleaders! We went bowling at the new lanes near my house and had a total blast. We bowled, coached and cheered each other on, moved to the rhythm of the background music and were just plain silly together. This was followed by a food fight at McDonalds. Ok, maybe not a full-fledged food fight like you see in a movie. More paper products flew than french fries. But seriously, what a hilarious, amazing bunch of people! Even though AWANA is now officially over for the year (SAD!!!), I hope we continue to hang out. These people are so pure and positive, it is really refreshing and encouraging. Oh, and I came in 2nd place in our lane. :-) As they say here, ¡que se repita! Let's do it again!!
Love and blessings,
Carrie

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Tico Tuesday, November 29th

Happy Tuesday once more!
This past week had a lot of highlights, but of course I have to tell you about my Thanksgiving Birthday. :-) It occurred to me to make Thanksgiving dinner for one of the houses at the Bible Home in early/mid-October and it became my dream.
I was so excited I couldn't fall asleep Wednesday night. There were some crazy things that happened, I'll elaborate on the blog, but I made it to the Nido (Nest) house and we only ate dinner an hour and a half late. The kids were so eager to help me. Alex, one of my many favorites did a great job helping with the sweet potatoes and the green beans. Ismael helped crumble bread for the stuffing and saved me some time with that too. Having helpers is wonderful and makes a huge difference! Everything turned out really well and utterly delicious. Thanksgiving has always been one of the most special days of the year for me, and that it was combined with my birthday made it superspecial! So, I made sure to spend it with some superspecial people. The substitute/foster parents in the Nido house are really sweet, loving people, the kids are some of the ones I'm closest to and my friend Fausía and her husband Andrés (who both also work at the Bible Home) have become very special people to me as well.
Of course, one of the best parts of the day was getting to talk to Mommy and Daddy. I'm getting really excited to see them for Christmas!
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I am very thankful to God for each and every one of you!
Love,
Carrie

PS More pictures should be hitting facebook eventually. Don't forget to head for the blog for more Thanksgiving Birthday details!


I meant to make the pumpkin pie ahead of time. If I had, we would have probably eaten on time, or close to it. (The kids typically go to bed around 8:30, so eating at 7:30 kind of threw things off. but, it all worked out.) I went out for a birthday dinner with my friends the Jespersens on Wednesday. We had a really nice time. I got home a little later than I wanted, but was still planning to make my pie. Well, I started geting the ingredients out and -AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! There was no powdered ginger!! I tried calling and texting Ana since she was out and near Walmart (the only place that was still open at 9pm), but to no avail. So, I planned to go on a ginger hunt as part of my bike ride on Birthday morning. However, as I was walking to the back door to get my bike, the very gray skies opened and canceled my bike ride (which I had been very much looking forward to, even before the ginger thing). So I did tae bo inside.
I couldn't go to the store right at 8 because that's when the Macy's Parade was starting, and since it had worked out for me to get the whole day off work, I REALLY wanted to carry on tradition and watch the parade. So I did. I got really nostalgic and Mommy-sick during the first part and was practically in tears the first 20 minutes, but then I recovered (and the Broadway performances weren't so moving).
I headed to the bank in Heredia for the residency renewal appointment. I needed to get some $ out of the ATM first though. Well, I didn't have enough $ left in my account here, so I needed to get money out of my account in the States. And horror of horrors, between my excitement for my afternoon/evening at the Bible home, the nostalgia of Thanksgiving, my desperate need for ginger, eagerness for my residency to be renewed, and a couple silly digits, I totally forgot my PIN!!!
I was really freaking out. And yeah, I punched in the wrong PIN enough to have them deactivate my card. But, thanks be to God, I was able to pay what I needed to with the cash I had and what was left on my Costa Rican bank card. Oh man was I scared though! Things started looking up after that. I got my ginger, came home and got my card reactivated, threw half the kitchen into the car and headed up the mountain to my beloved Bible Home.
I spent all afternoon cooking up a storm. It was wonderful. Mami Marielos (of the Jardín House) lent me her oven so I could bake other things... not much fit in with the turkey in Mami Mayela's kitchen. As I cooked, the kids made me birthday cards. Mariana made me an awesome cardboard purse with a beaded strap and lots of chocolate inside. A number of the kids even had me spell my name for them so they could write it correctly. That was nice. Carrie is not an easy name for Spanish speakers to figure out.
Mami Mayela and her son Jhon decorated everything beautifully-not in a very autumnal fashion, but lovely nonetheless. The kids were very patient about the meal, I think Papi Gerardo was the most impatient one, and that was semi-joking. The kids loved the food (and then ate off all the marshmallows from on top of the sweet potatoes, jajajaja!!). Well, everybody loved the food. I explained briefly the origins of Thanksgiving. Then, we did the Smith traditional Thanksgiving alphabet-going through the alphabet and saying what we're thankful for for each letter. I had hoped to do more traditions, but time was of the essence.
My birthday cake (which should be decorated like a turkey when my birthday falls on Turkey Day) wasn't really decorated like a turkey, but I know that was a tall order and Mami and the house helper really didn't have time for it anyway. It was 1/2 chocolate and yummy.
The pumpkin pie was too. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream! Fanny helped with that. :-) Oh and they gave me a whole bunch of sweet little presents, along with more cards and letters from the kids. So sweet!
I left the Bible Home shortly after 10 (they held the gate open for me), came home, cleaned thawed turkey nastiness out of the fridge, put the cooked turkey in the fridge and called my parents. Then I finished unpacking the car and started packing for the weekend mini-vacation at the beach with my co-workers from the office. Whew! It was a full, fun, wild and crazy day, but aside from the ginger stress and the money situation, I would re-live it in a heartbeat. One of my favorite parts was when the kids came home from school. They kind of trickled in and it was such a joy to see them come in the door and have them come and hug me. I LOVED IT!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Tico Tuesday, November 22

Wow, it's hard to believe only 1 week has gone by since I last wrote. There was a lot to choose from, but I decided to share with you today about "Saturday's Suicidal Squirrel."
Saturday was the LAM picnic, one of the few opportunities we have each year to gather as a family of LAM missionaries. People were still arriving when all of a sudden there was a big "Boom! Boom!" It sounded like 2 fireworks had just been set off. I wondered why anyone would be stupid enough to do it in the daylight. I thought I saw a spark though and maybe something fall out of the corner of my eye. One missionary's soon soon pointed out the dead squirrel on the ground and we figured that the little guy got zapped. Unfortunately, he made the power go out too. So, the hanging out and lunch parts of the picnic were unaffected, however, we had to get innovative in order to be able to carry out the time of worship, sharing and honoring missionaries whose complete number of years of service is a multiple of 5. Not only was there no power, but it was pouring rain, so that made it nigh impossible to hear each other. So, what did we do? Hook up the keyboard to a car, write the words to the songs out on big pieces of paper, and when we all introduced ourselves, we passed around the megaphone. It was hilarious!! It was fun though. And thankfully, the rain died down in time for the presentations and we were able to spend some nice time sharing with and praying for each other and other LAMers who weren't with us. More on the blog on why I want to be the next Margaret Weir.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
Love,
Carrie

Who is Margaret Weir? An amazing woman of God who is celebrating 40 years of service with Roblealto and the Latin America Mission. Margarita, as she is known around here, came to Roblealto when we were first opening our child care centers.
She was the Coordinator of Christian Education for a number of years and is now the Roblealto chaplain. That means she gets to meet with people and pray for them and encourage them: staff, various members of families we serve, a ton of Roblealto "alumni" (people who were in one of our programs when they were younger) and lots of other people. As Suzanne, Roblealto's current Nursing Coordinator shared about Margarita on Saturday, Margarita is always sending people notes of encouragement. They occasionally come with chocolate. :-) She often sends out prayer requests too. Talk about a woman of prayer. Suzanne also talked about going out for lunch with Margarita and how she would pray as she ordered her subway style sandwich. But what an amazing example! I want to be like Margarita because she shows others what Jesus is like. She knows and remembers so many people, she is gentle, a good listener, so kind to others and she is just great! She made me feel special on Saturday when she told me that she mentioned me in her monthly update-about the time I led the inductive study on John 15 in the devotional at work. I'd honestly almost forgotten about that, but she spoke of it very highly. I feel no obligation to return the favor and brag on her, I'm all to happy to do so! I don't know if I'll be around Roblealto for 40 years, but whether I do or not, she will always be a good role model for me to follow.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

TIco Tuesday, November 15th

Friday night we FINALLY got to do it!! For months, the leaders of Chispas (Sparkies) 1 had been trying to plan a special activity for the kids in our AWANA group. And finally, we got to do it on Friday night. 2 microbuses full of leaders and children headed down the mountain to go to Wendy's. It was a real treat for the kids. And we brought a special surprise for them: one of our awesome leaders' brother is a clown! It was fantastic. He was very entertaining, but also spoke very straightforwardly about God being our perfect Father. Just what these kids need to hear! The kids also went nuts over the balloon animals, watches and swords he made them. It was a lot of fun and the kids all behaved really well; even A, a new boy who is not very good at practicing the virtues of obedience and respect. He makes a superb helper! He did a great job passing out straws and clearing the tables when we were done eating. After dinner (and before heading to the playplace), we taught the kids a song to sing in AWANA on Sunday for Friendship Day. Wow, did some cool stuff happen on Sunday! More stories about that on the blog!
May God bless you in a special way this week!
Love,
Carrie

Sunday was so much fun. As I mentioned, it was Friendship Day in AWANA, so we had a few special things take place because of that. During our opening exercises/time of worship, we took a moment to have a couple children come up and say something nice to the leaders. One little girl who just came to the Bible Home a couple months ago seized the moment to say something not really to the leaders, but to announce that she wasn't going to fight with another girl in her house anymore. Awww! A hand went up, and a boy (one of my favorites) apologized for not forgiving another boy who had asked him forgiveness (and forgave him). Another hand went up. Another boy apologized for misbehaving and having a bad attitude at a baseball game/event on Saturday. It was amazing and beautiful. I'd seen this happen once before at the Bible Home, when a boy publicly apologized for having a bad attitude. So powerful! Praise the Lord for the good work He is doing in the children! They are learning how to behave, how to ask and give forgiveness, how to have healthy relationships and more. Hallelujah!
During opening exercises on Sunday, we also had a few minutes to go around and greet and bless one another. Oh my goodness. If you're familiar with the 5 love languages, talk about filling up the love tank! Going from one person to another, hugging, speaking words of blessing, kindness and friendship, kids coming up to me and throwing their arms around me, another one of my favorite boys coming up behind me and putting his cold little hands over my eyes. AHHH! It was so wonderful! Seriously, people, you all need to come to Roblealto!
The Bible lesson was a lot of fun. It didn't have anything to do with Friendship Day, but I'm going to tell you about it anyway because I want to. Before digging into the lesson, we had a round of Chubby Bunny. Note: it's better to do it with big marshmallows and not the mini ones. We completely lost count. It was totally hilarious though and I think the activity was new to all the kids as well as my fellow leaders. Anyway, I got to teach on the feeding of the 5000. So, I pretended I was the big sister of the boy who had the loaves and fish. I compared the mountain to the volcano the Bible Home is near and told them there were as many people there as could fit in the new National Stadium. I had a couple kids come up and be my little brother, Jesus and the disciples and then had them pass out the chocolate chip pancakes I made. I'd also brought 2 cans of tuna, but we didn't open them. I knew I had to get really creative, because I either had to do something kind of crazy or end up with something kind of lame. The lesson went really well though and at the end I explained how the one boy's act led to the feeding of a multitude is similar to how Jesus' one act of dying on the cross paid for the sins of not just a multitude, but everyone. God totally answered my prayer on how to include the Gospel in the lesson!
Before we got into game time, we sang our friendship song to the Chispas 2 group. They sang a song for us too. Oh and in manual time, both my kids were well behaved. My boy maintained a good attitude and my little girl (who usually cries at some point each week) didn't cry!
Sadly, we only have 1 AWANA left this year. I'm going to miss it like crazy, but I'm thinking I may still go up to the Bible Home every other week to worship with the kids. We'll see!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Tico Tuesday, November 8th

Happy Tuesday!
Life has been so insanely full but wonderful I don't know how it is all happening. Anyway, this past Saturday was the national AWANA conference here in Costa Rica. Sadly, only a small percentage of churches and leaders were able to be present, but those of us that were there really enjoyed it. I know I did.
We received workshops of disciplining with love and using the model of virtues to build character and modify behavior (presented by Roblealto's own Child Psychologist from the Bible Home!), learning styles and memorization techniques for helping out kiddos learn their Bible verses. It was neat to have lunch with people from other churches and hear about other AWANA clubs in the country. At my table, we actually had leaders from 4 countries represented. Along with this gringa and the ticas there, we had a girl from Colombia and a lady from Greece. So cool! Anyway, some people traveled quite a ways to be there. It seemed to me like everyone who lives outside the Central Valley made a much greater effort to be there than those who were from places closer by. I was the only leader from the Bible Home that ended up coming, but I plan on sharing what I learned. It was fun to see my fellow LAM missionaries (Costa Rica's national AWANA directors) in action too.
The church sanctuary we met in had some sweet decorations, like this cute balloon girl!
Have a joy-filled rest of the week!
Carrie

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Tico Tuesday, November 1st

Happy All Saints Day! And, Happy Birthday Month! (I celebrate all month. It's kind of a joke, but only kind of ;-) )
Anyway, today I'd just like to share a snapshot of the beauty of nature. Isn't that beautiful?
It's not sparkling with dew drops (which would have been even more gorgeous) and it doesn't say anything about a pig (think Charlotte's Web). But even if you don't like spiders it is just a simple, natural, beautiful thing. Don't you think? I thought it was a lovely greeting to me when I got to the office up at the Bible Home last week. Today I was working at the Bible Home again, and it rained, again. But, for some reason the beauty and the wonder of rain just kind of hit me again like refreshing drops on thirsty skin. Water falling from the sky? How can SO much water be up there and defy gravity for so long? I remember learning about the water cycle in 3rd or 4th grade and more in depth in 9th grade. But, as in medicine and many other scientific fields, just because we know how it works doesn't mean we can't be in awe of it anymore. Perhaps we should be even more in awe! Who but God would think of this? Makes me think of a Psalm I read this morning. It talks about the rain, God's worthiness and praising Him.
Beautiful! Glory to God!
This week, may we all stop to ponder and wonder at God's marvelous creation for it truly proclaims His majesty!
With love and joy,
Carrie

I was really grateful for the spider web and the reminder of how fascinating rain and the water cycle is. I think it is important for me to remain in awe of God and His creation without going to my beloved Grand Teton National Park. It's amazing to be in places that just seem to be blaring God's glory fortissimo, but it's neat to tune in to the things that are more subtle and piano. God is the composer of the great symphony of creation and sometimes the very contrasts just make it that much more amazing. I LOVE IT!! Praise the Lord!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Tico Tuesday, October 25th

I went to my beloved Isla Venado this past weekend. It was a quick trip, since I didn't have a long weekend, but it was totally worth the approximately 14 hours of round trip travel time. As I think I'd mentioned last week, the sun has been pretty impossible to see around here lately. The island was no exception when I got there. But, due to all the rain, the chorro, (a waterfall/watering hole) was flowing and full! I'd heard about this place on a previous trip, but didn't have time to go. Then when I asked about it on another trip it was during dry season, so everybody looked at me like I had two heads. But this time, I arrived on the island and before I even got to Pastor Eladio and doña Epi's house the kids were telling me we should go. Twist my arm! Unfortunately, the picture does not capture neither how wet I am (I was pretty drenched. I wrung out my shirt when I got home. I was wet from both the chorro and and steady rain) nor how beautiful the blue stones on the walkway are. They are all smooth and a lovely blue-green. Gorgeous! The trip to the chorro was especially wonderful because we got to go exploring further up the stream. Stream-adventuring is something I really love in life. It was on my bucket list until I came to Costa Rica. Head to the blog for the story of "My Umbrella Adventure."
Much love,
Carrie

So, it's been raining a lot. All over the central valley and western side of Costa Rica. I don't use an umbrella too often because now I travel by car more often than not and tend to just run between buildings and wherever my bar is parked. However, I know it is still important to have one and try to keep one in my purse just in case, because you never know.... Well, the one I kept in my purse was really cheap and falling apart. The other one wasn't in the best shape either. I decided to bring that one with me to the Island. However, I didn't take it with me when I got off the bus in San José Saturday morning. So, I figured I'd buy one in Puntarenas before getting on the ferry. Well, the place I always go to buy things didn't have umbrellas and I have to go to 2 others stores and then ask at a bakery before I found one. And of course, it was raining in Puntarenas and I was getting wet. I doubt my new umbrella's quality, but really didn't have time to fuss. I usually walk to the ferry. I should have gotten a taxi, but I didn't. So I ended up running that last couple hundred meters.
Thankfully I did make it. But of course it started to rain harder those meters I was running, and I didn't want to stop and open my umbrella, which would have only been a hindrance anyway. So I bought an umbrella and didn't use it. Saturday afternoon when we went to the chorro we were planning on getting wet so we didn't bother bringing umbrellas. And then Sunday, LO AND BEHOLD, THE SUN came out!!!! It was amazing, and beautiful and glorious and just so good!! I should have put more sunscreen on... or used my umbrella as a parasol. So I came home with a bit of red skin.
But, when I got to San José, it was raining again! And I had to wait for the bus for almost 20 minutes. That goes to say: I'm so glad I bought my umbrella!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Tico Tuesday, October 18th

Happy Tuesday, everyone!
Most of you celebrated Columbus day last Monday. Well, here, for some reason, they passed the day off to yesterday (otherwise I'm pretty sure we would have had a random Wednesday off). So, I was ok with having Monday off instead of Wednesday. Anyway, we currently have 2 girls from Honduras here visiting us, so yesterday was a perfect day to go do some sight-seeing. Well, perfect opportunity. The weather hasn't exactly been what I'd consider perfect for the past 10 days (the sun hasn't dared show itself completely or let the sky bare itself for us all to enjoy the wonders of its beautiful, deep, blueness). Anyway, we went to Zarcero, a place that is very famous for the park located in front of the Catholic church in the center of town. It has all kids of topiaries, including a ton of topiary arches. It is really cool. There are also some lovely flower beds. I saw some cables and wiring, so I'm pretty sure they light the place up at night. I'd love to see that some time! Zarcero is up in the mountains and on the way we passed a ton of little stands that sell fresh, homemade cheeses and a host of other locally made, typical foods and treats. It was a lot of fun. We went to another town on the way home, but I'll save that story for another day. You can find a few pics of Zarcero on the blog. I'll see if more can make their way to facebook sooner or later.
Enjoy the rest of your week, no matter what the weather!
Love,
Carrie


Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Tico Tuesday, October 11

This Thursday is my one year anniversary of service with Roblealto! This is a picture of my microwave mug cake I made to celebrate. As I was chatting about the occasion with Pam (my supervisor) today, I began to reflect a bit (as I'm wont to do. I'm such a verbal processor!) So much has happened in the past year. God has done such phenomenal things in my life. I'm definitely not who I was a year ago! It's a relief to know the dark difficult time I passed through was now a year ago too. The past year has definitely not been easy. It has brought a lot of unique challenges I've never had to face before. But I must also say it has been one of the best year's of my life. I have learned so much and gotten to experience so many things. I LOVE LOVE LOVE serving in Roblealto! I don't think there are words to express what an honor and privilege it is to be a part of this ministry. Being a part of God's work, being His instrument in the transformation of one life after another after another after another after another.... there is truly nothing better. I'm convinced this is what I was made for. And this is only after one year! I'm excited for what God has in store for me in the future!
May God bring each of us to a place of joy and contentment!
Enjoy the rest of the week!
Carrie

PS Head to the blog for more thoughts and pictures of my cake rising in the microwave!


Jajaja, I knew picture of cake in the microwave would bring you here... ;-) It's just so cool to watch the cake rise and not spill over the sides like I would naturally assume it to.
Hmm, well I said I would share more thoughts. I suppose those could relate to Roblealto, but I could also tell you about the "fluff novels" (as my parents call them) that a friend gave me, enjoying the Sing Off a capella competition, the current total lack of sunshine in this country for the last couple days, me laughing at a woman giving birth on a TV show (she was yelling "get it out of me!" I laughed, and then stopped, because I'm pretty sure I'll also be that crazy lady who shouts crazy things while I'm giving birth too), or... I know. I'll write more about culture shock.
I'd say I'm pretty used to life here in Costa Rica. This is my life right now. This is where I live. I feel quite comfortable here and am very content, as you read above. :-) I remember going to MAC (Ministering Across Cultures), and IV cross-cultural training event. It was very well-planned and put together. At the time I didn't feel like I was learning much and wasn't sure if it was really worth it, but with time I'm realizing just how much I actually learned and what valuable knowledge it is!
We talked a lot about red-lining vs green-lining - what kind of posture/attitude we were assuming about the host culture. When you're redlining, you don't have a very good attitude. You think things should be the way you've always known them to be and do your best to maintain things the way you want them to and think they should be. You're not very open to accept new/different things. When you're greenlining, you have a much more open mind, heart and attitude. You assume the posture of a learner, understand that you'll make mistakes, but want to learn from them and be able to fit into the culture.
I heard someone say recently that here in Costa Rica the whole "it's not wrong, it's just different" thing doesn't apply so much and it's more like "it's not wrong, it's just stupid." I would tend to consider that redlining, though I will confess I would agree with the statement in a few settings.
In the 2.5 years I've been living here, I have learned a lot. Especially over the past year I've been able to pick up on a lot more subtle cultural things. I felt kind of silly for not catching on sooner, but 1) I think some of these things really take time 2) I can be really dense. I'd like to be more observant and sensitive to things.
So, in some ways, I really feel like I have a ways to go. But in other ways, I feel like I fit in pretty well here. People started calling me the most latina white girl they knew for a reason! I know I'll always be a gringa and can't deny my history, cultural background or upbringing. But especially as I've met other gringos in Costa Rica, I tend to identify myself a lot more with ticos (Costa Ricans) than gringos. I remember talking with a group of gringos about Costa Rica and talking about Costa Rica in the first person "We here in Costa Rica... In Costa Rica we have...." They picked up on it and I thought it was pretty neat...
Like I go to the airport and immediately enter culture shock. Everyone assumes I'm a gringa adn speaks to me in English. I am a gringa and English is my first language (though I can't get my prepositions right any more), but I'm so used to speaking Spanish (and much prefer speaking it if I know my Spanish is better than the other person's English) it is really weird to have people assume I don't speak it at all (or would rather speak English).
Another example, this Sunday I went to the International Baptist Church. I'd heard it was really good and was looking forward to it. I hadn't communally worshiped in English since May, so I felt like it was about time. I walked in and suddenly had the urge to walk back out. What was I doing there? I felt so out of place. It was like going to a church in Anywhere, USA, but in the FREAKING MIDDLE OF COSTA RICA!!!! It was really, really bizarre and I kind of had a hard time getting past that. I enjoy worshiping in Spanish and greeting everyone with a kiss on the cheek and struggle with that every time I go back to the States.
So, living in another culture requires a regular heart and attitude check and a lot of humility and openness. I know I still have a lot to learn, but it's been great so far!

Friday, October 7, 2011

A New Perspective

A week ago Wednesday I opened an e-mail from the social worker from Roblealto's External Services Dept (she deals with all the families who came and solicit Roblealto's services). The e-mail explained that we were taking a new boy into the Bible Home, and that his mother was very poor and that she had a new baby that had been born just a few days beforehand. We occasionally take a collection when we come across a dire need, so I made a contribution so they could buy whatever the mom needed most and carried on with life. Last Friday, I had a meeting with Pam in the afternoon and then was heading straight up to the Bible Home after work to help my fellow AWANA leaders with our supercool Mexico display. As Pam and I headed into the meeting, I saw a mom with three small children sitting in our reception area. I ran into the External Services social worker and she told me that the mom sitting there was the mom we'd taken the collection for. They were waiting for someone from the Bible Home to come and take them up there.
Pam and I had a very productive meeting. It was getting close to 4 and we took a brief break. Out of the blue it occurred to me (ie the Holy Spirit nudged me) to ask the social worker if the person from the Bible Home had left yet to come and pick up this mother and her 3 sons. It wouldn't make any sense for someone from the Bible Home to drive all the way to the office and back (an hour trip, 1 way, when the traffic is flowing) if I was heading right up to the Bible Home after work anyway. She called and the person who was coming had left the Bible Home, but only a few minutes before. They decided to take my offer to give the family a ride.
Traffic wasn't flowing smoothly, so it took us a good hour and a half (or more) to arrive. The poor mother doesn't even have the money to buy her sons diapers, so, my car began to smell when we were approximately halfway there. I thought about stopping, especially because I was hungry and I figured they were too, but I also knew the folks up at the Bible Home had been waiting for this family to arrive all afternoon, so I figured the sooner we got there, the better. It was a little nerve-wracking to have 3 children in my car and no car seats (that's the word, I couldn't think of it the other day), but at least they were all buckled. When the oldest undid his, we pulled over until he put it on again. The middle one and the baby went in the same belt with their mom. They all fell asleep at some point, and when they were awake I told them about all the cool things about the Bible Home.
I mentioned that the boy would be living with a substitute family and the poor thing totally didn't understand, he just said, "But I already have a family." Oh man... I'd never thought of that very much before. I read all our entrance reports and write them in English, so I know what kind of situations these kids are coming from. Placing children in a place like the Bible Home is the absolute last resort, so the fact that they are there implies that they are at too much risk at home and they have no other viable options. But as Daddy pointed out, even abused children love their parents. The emotional ties are there, even if horrible damage has been done. I can't imagine myself in the child's shoes or the mother's shoes. How could you not feel like a total failure at life if you have to have your own children separated from you? (Hence the awesomeness of the camp for mothers!) This mom is clearly so poor and right now she has no way to provide for her children. So, we are helping her and we will be working with her (she is illiterate and we suspect she might have some other challenges too), but it's got to be hard for her too. Harder that I would have thought before.
Oh and the other thing is, the kids at the Bible Home typically seem pretty happy. The only time when they seemed mopey and were missing their families was at a translation night we had the night after they came back from being home for 2 weeks in July. The rest of the time they seem quite happy there. (Of course they have their issues and their moments, but I'm speaking in general terms.) But, to actually consider a family being split up is a very saddening thought.
Did I mention yet that no one in this family had anything? It's rainy season and the mom doesn't even have an umbrella. Not like she'd have the hands to carry one. But they didn't even have a bag or suitcase for the boy who was staying at the Bible Home. I found out later his mom brought him his stuff later, but the kid arrived to the cool mountain literally with only the clothes on his back, which wasn't much.
Needless to say, this was a very powerful experience for me. I've seen a lot of poor people, but interacting, conversing, and being to help in such a direct, practical (though small) way was totally new for me and I had a lot of processing to do. I can't even imagine though. Seriously.
Thankfully, we were able to make a special space for the middle son at the Bible Home and he went up there the other day. Please PLEASE pray for this family: for the mother and her baby, for the 2 boys at the Bible Home and for the substitute mothers and the rest of the Roblealto staff that will be working with this family. As we said in AWANA on Sunday, Jesus Christ is the Hope of the world. He is the Hope for this family and thank God Roblealto is able to be an instrument of hope. Have I ever told you what a privilege it is to be a part of this amazing ministry?

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Tico Tuesday, October 4th

Sunday was Missions Day for AWANA at the Bible Home! It was SO GREAT! Each club chose a country, researched it, made a display with information, and gave a presentation in front of everyone on it.Talk about a lot of work! It was totally worth it though! Everything went great on Sunday! The group I'm with, Chispas 1 (Sparkies 1), had México as our country. So, the leaders all dressed up and one of the guys made adorable little sombreros for the kids. It was so neat to talk about missions and tell these kids of the different people and cultures around the world that also need Jesus, and that one day, they can go to other parts of the world and tell others about Jesus! One girl pointed out though that we can be missionaries wherever we are, and that's true too! So after a lovely mix of worship and country presentations, we moved into the cafeteria and everyone was able to walk through each country's display and learn more. We spent HOURS putting the display up, but it looked fantastic. I encourage heading to facebook to see the pictures I put up and then to the blog to read of the adventure of putting the display together. It was so a-maz-ing!
May God use you as His instrument this week to bring others closer to Him!
Love,
Carrie

Friday afternoon the leaders of Chispas 1 met at the Bible Home to put our display together. Everybody else met on Saturday to do it, but some of our key people couldn't that day, and it was a good thing because we took up almost the whole cafeteria! We got cardboard donated and brought/had a lot of other materials.
A friend of a friend of mine grew up and México, so we were able to have a whole bunch of stuff that was truly authentic. That was really cool! And my fellow leaders are superstar creative artsy people. We made a great team. Everyone diligently worked away into the hours of the night. We slowly lost people, but there were still 6 of us at the end. I arrived late because I had to work all afternoon and got out a little late because I was in a meeting and then traffic was awful. but, there was still plenty to do even when I got there.
(More on my trip up to the Bible Home in another post-my perspective on poverty and the Bible Home got rocked this weekend.) So, of course, since I arrived late, everything was my fault. Any little thing, I got blamed for it. It was hilarious. It kind of reminded me in high school when each day was somebody's fault (random!). It made me feel really good though, because I knew that meant people had the confianza (they'd built enough trust/knew me enough) to tease me.
Kind of like getting thrown in the pool at camp in April. And it was actually some of the same people. It just felt so good to feel truly comfortable around other people. We were all totally comfortable and at ease with one another. We could tease and laugh, but we were also helping one another and bonding. It just felt like a totally positive, safe environment. I loved it! I felt totally free to be me and like people really loved me for who I am. That display of God's love is so awesome!! It was a great night. And of course, as the night drew on we got crazier.
It was getting close to midnight (or maybe it wasn't even that late) when all of a sudden we had all grabbed a decoration or prop of some kind and were all dancing around like totally wild, happy/crazy people. Tatti had the flag, Nawaf a piñata, Jeffrey one of the giant cardboard chiles, Laura a giant sombrero, me the axe with the blade of obsidian and Fausía had the poor, ridiculous palm tree on her head! It was SO FUNNY!! (Ok, maybe you had to be there.) Check out the song. Make sure you listen in far enough to be able to recognize the rollicking gospel tune! Jaja, just hearing it again I'm bursting out laughing. I
agree with Fau, I'll never be able to hear this song in the same way (or with a straight face) again! We did a little encore on Sunday morning once the activity was over, but it wasn't quite the same (and by then our poor palm tree was in really rough shape!). I love my fellow AWANA leaders! we had so much fun! I'm so excited to continue to spend time with them!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Tico Tuesday, September 27th

Race Time!!
I LOVE running! One of my goals for the year has been to run 10k in under 48 minutes. I had a better race time than that last year, but since then, I've dealt with shin splints, pain in one knee, and then pain in the other. I slowly built back up and am finally able to race again!
A couple weeks ago my running buddy Albeiro and I did a 10k route around San Joaquín in 49:03.
I was pretty proud, especially considering I hadn't run that distance for a year! This past Sunday we did a race and it was wonderfully easy. It was downhill the whole way!! (I tried to be good to my knees.) I still don't have my official time, and even still it won't be totally accurate since most of the races here are still done without chips, but I heard the people in front of me say they finished in about 49 minutes. Oh yeah, and this was more like 11k, so I'm pretty sure I easily reached my goal. I'm excited to do another race that is flatter or has some uphill parts to it too and see if I can do that in under 48 as well. The picture is of Nawaf (a friend who helps in AWANA as Albeiro and I do), Albeiro and me.
For a compare/contrast of racing in the US vs Costa Rica, head to the blog!
May we all continue to work towards our goals this week!
Carrie

So, I've only done one race in the States, so I'm not sure how qualified I am to talk about this, but I'll share my take on things anyway. I can't talk much about the registration since I've actually always had someone else sign me up. That's kind of funny, actually.
The race I did in the States gave me a cotton t-shirt. The races I do here give me nice breathable tanks that probably make paying the $10 or so for the race worth it just for the shirt. They are also typically very uh, visible colors (orange, bright yellow or white).
Start and finish. The Beach to Beacon (the race I did in the States) did this phenomenally. They had signs posted according to pace. You started with your pace group. So, if you run a slower pace, you start behind the faster pace people, and that way the start isn't such a mess. The other bonus to the race in the States was...a CHIP!! Running with a chip means my time starts when my foot crosses the start line and ends when my foots hits the mat on the finish line. Of the 4 races I've now done here in CR, only 1 has had a chip. Chipless races means my time starts when the whistle blows and my time stops when I cross the finish line and someone spots my number and writes down my time. Chipless races also make for HORRIBLE starts. We are like a herd of cattle breaking out and it usually takes a few minutes for the crowd to thin enough in order to for us to not all be on top of each other. I'm really hoping chips catch on more here... fast!
Hydration. In the Beach to Beacon we had to drink out of Dixie cups. It's really hard to drink and run and you have to have a good cup folding technique so the water doesn't all slosh out before you get to drink any of it. Here, water comes in a small, sealed plastic pouch. You grab one (or a few) from the person or the table, bite off the corner and happily suck your water down without spilling a drop. Perhaps not so environmentally friendly, but way better!
In both places people spray you with hoses (which feels great at the moment, but can later give me chills if the wind is a bit strong) and stand along the side of the street and cheer you on. That's always nice. I encourage you to go to road races and cheer for people, even if you don't know any of them. It's a great random act of kindness!
Post race food, hydration and freebies. At every race but this last one I did post race hydration and fruit has been great. They are right there are cups of water and/gatorade are waiting for me and the line for fresh fruit (typically a banana and something else-an apple or a watermelon or pineapple slice) is moving right along. The race I did on Sunday had a line that was nearly eternal and I was starting to cramp up because I couldn't cool down and was in desperate need of fluids and calories. And I couldn't find Albeiro, who is typically waiting for me in a very obvious spot. So I was a VERY unhappy, somewhat lost girl. This race had some freebies, which other races I've done here have not had. That contributed to the long lines though and was therefore totally not worth it. The freebies at the Beach to Beacon were awesome though. We walked around and they gave us free awesome root beer, hot dogs, and lots of other cool, random, sometimes useless little things.
So, huzzah for racing, huzzah for chips and huzzah for good hydration. When do you want to come run with me or watch me race?