Tico Tuesday, July 29th

This past Thursday we had a special ceremony at the Bible Home to celebrate the 190^th Anniversary of the Annexation of what is now the province of Guanacaste. (Hence, July 25^th is a holiday here and I got to have a long weekend!)

We celebrate by wearing typical outfits, performing traditional dances, saying “bombas” (a kind of poem), and singing traditional songs. It is a day of lots of fun and lightheartedness. Much of Costa Rica's cultural richness comes from Guanacaste. (Nicaragua's loss!) While people dance, everyone makes hilarious noises: ayayays, high pitched “weep weeps,” and other random sounds that just make me laugh! The kids all did excellent jobs in their presentations—you should have seen the second graders dancing! I was impressed! And to top it off, the teachers from the school and a few other members of personnel danced too. We closed the morning's celebration by eating ice cream made fresh from the farm (productive project whose profits all go to Roblealto!) and taking lots of pictures. The boys all cracked me up with their painted on facial hair made of shoe polish, and the skirts the girls and women wore (with some having as much of 9 meters of fabric—as much as a kilt!) looked like lots of fun too. I'll leave you with the video presentation the kindergarten did. You don't have to watch the whole thing, but grab the first 30-40 seconds for a taste of the music, a hint at dancing, and a bomba about the Bible Home!

May God's joy be with you this week!

Carrie

Tico Tuesday, July 22nd

This boy is great! He is one of our newest arrivals at the Bible Home! On Sunday in AWANA, he did a great job listening and participating in the Bible lesson, and in game time, he stole everyone's heart with his high taste in fashion!! Ok... maybe we just wear crazy hats while we run around the AWANA circle. I will say I was definitely not the only one that took his picture though! And when the kids had to run around the circle like zoo animals, his "crab" movement was more like flying than anything else! My heart may have also melted when he plopped down in my lap for a while... Don't be misled, though. He's with us for a reason! I saw a glimpse of his low level of tolerance for any kind of provocation and I have yet to read his file. All the kids that come to us come for serious reasons. We don't just separate kids from their parents/guardians so they can come have fun. But, while the kids are with us, we do everything we can to love on them, help them discover and develop their talents (and self-esteem), provide help and support in whatever issues they bring that need to be dealt with, and, of course, help them get to know Jesus. This kiddo asked one of the other AWANA leaders about a colored bracelet that she had (same colors as the Wordless Book) and she explained it to him. When she asked him if he wanted to pray to receive Christ, he told her, "I think I prayed that last night." Thanks and praise be to God!! He is already hard at work in little D and I know he will be faithful to fulfill his purposes for little D while he is with us at the Bible Home. Please keep all the new boys in your prayers as they adjust to a very different life up here on the mountainside. And please pray for two coworkers and their families as well: one suddenly lost her brother over the weekend and the other has an elderly mother with a number of complicated health concerns and a potential upcoming surgery.
Thank you so much for your love, prayers, encouragement, and support!
I'm so excited to see all that God has in store for little D while he is with us!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, July 15th

They're back! The two week mid-year break is over and all my lovelies are back at the HB! And... we're opening the Porvenir house again, so 9 new children are coming in this week, with a few more to come shortly thereafter to make sure all the houses are going at full capacity. Yesterday I swung by all the houses to drop stuff off and it was so wonderful to see all of the kids again. I got to enjoy a couple nísperos and try my first pitanga (I didn't enjoy that new fruit so much).  I ended up having a great conversation with a house mom too. She has an amazing testimony! Her family threw her out because she became an evangelical Christian and now she and her family are a great blessing to her family of origin. It's so beautiful! I can't believe I'd never heard her testimony before. God works in such amazing ways!

I ended up staying so late, I got to catch this beautiful sunset by the Bosque house, which is the one furthest up the hill.
Life has been incredibly busy and full lately, there's a lot more I could say here, but I'll save some of those tidbits for later. God is good, and I am grateful for his love, grace, and provision. He is hard at work in me, and though it may be hard and doesn't always feel good, I know it is good for me!
Sadly, the World Cup is now over. Did I tell you about the HUGE party last week they had to welcome the Sele home? They estimate about 500,000 went out to see them. That's about 1/9 of the population of this country!!! We continue to be incredibly proud of our team (and wish our goalie had been granted the Golden Glove award). Ok, I probably won't talk about soccer much again for 3 years and 11 months. ;-)
May we all delight in the Lord and his glorious creation this week! Thank you so much for your continued prayers, support, and encouragement! They mean so much to me!
Carrie

BONUS 2 of 2

Please see end of Tico Tuesday below for Bonus 1. :-)
Sunday night the team from my church in Maine that came down here gave their report. They were able to connect me in on Skype and in was really almost like being there! I could not believe it when they said the team had only returned two weeks ago. Seriously, it feels as if at least 3 months have gone by. REALLY! It was so great to see almost everyone from the team again though and hear their description and some of their thoughts about the trip. Then afterwards when they broke for refreshments, they left me connected and anyone who wanted to could come up to me on the computer and say hi. Several people came up and it was just so great to be able to talk with so many different wonderful people! It was almost like being there, just without the hugs. I had so much fun! I loved how conversation varied so much from person to person: reminiscing about high school Spanish, the World Cup, visiting with my parents, a bike accident, a book... It wasn't just focused on me and my missionary life, and that was really nice. A couple people actually made some pretty vulnerable comments to me. It was such a delightful evening! Oh, and at one point multiple people were there talking with me and I heard my mom start playing the piano in the background. They immediately moved aside so I could watch her play. I thought that was really sweet! She played a few songs and Daddy sang in the background. It was so wonderful!!! I could continue to gush, but that's pretty much it and it's now way past bedtime. Thanks for reading!

Tico Tuesday, July 8th

Hello and happy Tuesday to you!
In spite of all the crazy weather that happened over the weekend, I hope you were all able to enjoy it! I think I just had the best Independence Day celebration I've had here in Costa Rica. Thursday, I noticed on facebook that a friend was at the Esplanade in Boston. When I went to the website to make sure everything was set for the real show the next night, I realized that, due to weather, it had actually been moved to Thursday!! That made me happy and excited, since I had other plans for Friday night! The Boston Pops, plus a great Broadway singer (Megan Hilty), plus the Beach Boys. Plus fireworks. From my perspective, it really can't get much better than that!! Well, there's nothing like fireworks in real life, but my gringo friends and I were unsuccessful in finding any. (Note: watching Pops Goes the Fourth is special to me since we used to watch the end of it every year when we got home from our local fireworks. Last year I could only listen to it via online radio, but this year they webcasted it and I was able to see the whole wonderful show!!)
So, the actual 4th, I went to my friends the Kampers' house and hung out with their tico landlord and several other gringo families. Someone had given Liz patriotic paper plates and napkins and they were so great! The food was too. I sat by this handsome date at dinner (pictured--and check out the amazing silverware!!!), and we had so much fun! I also enjoyed playing ring toss, watching several of the kids experience their first three-legged race, and enjoying the new trampoline. In the midst of the Tico passion and frenzy with the World Cup, it was really good to stop and cherish my good ol' USA.
America, America, God shed his grace on thee! And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!
Love,
Carrie

BONUS 1 of 2
FINALLY!!! AN EASY GOVERNMENT PROCESS!!!! I was at the PO last Tuesday mailing a letter I'd meant to send about5 weeks beforehand, when I spotted a sign. "License Plates that end in the number 4 must be traded in May-June-July 2013." It was July 1, and my license plate ends in 4. So, I asked the lady what I needed to do to get the new license plates. She explained the process to me, which included showing an unexpired ID card. I checked the expiration date on mine. July 3. So I made a trip to the National Registry on Wednesday, July 2nd (the only place I could get my new plates in the same day). I was quite nervous the night before since I didn't know about parking or anything, but after getting advice from a friend and my landlord helping me make sure I could get my plates off by myself (using a handy dandy pair of pliers), I felt ready to go and face another government entity. I got there, found parking no problem, got my plates off no problem, bought the necessary stamps right from the parking guy so I wouldn't have to make line twice, pranced right in, and waited in line for about 5 minutes. A lady took my form, plates, and stamps, and gave me a little receipt telling me to come back in an hour and pick up my new plates across the room. BOOM! It was that easy!! I'll take that a thousand times over Migration! As I walked away from the service window, I recognized a coworker from Roblealto and said hi. After sitting down and reading for no more than ten minutes I got a text message from a friend, "I'm right in front of you!" So, we grabbed smoothies and caught up for an hour. Then, even though I was feeling marvellously capable, I decided to accept his kind offer to put my new plates on and put on the new sticker. The whole process could not have been easier. Thanks be to God!!

BONUS 2 of 2
To come in a separate post... I must get Tico Tues out!

Tico Tuesday, July 1st

Lots of strong emotions...
As you may have heard, Costa Rica is currently making history in this year's World Cup. We made it to the quarterfinals!!! We have never made it this far before, and I tell you, it is so amazing to be part of this! I had to buy myself a "Sele" (short name for our national selection) shirt...and another flag since I gave mine to Jessica. Sele paraphernelia is everywhere. The celebration of our victory over Greece on Sunday was so amazing. I was at a restaurant, and found myself hugging the people around me I'd never met before. Not long after our winning penalty shot went in the net, a worker from the restaurant had us stop and respectfully sing the national anthem of Costa Rica. It was a phenomenal moment. Ticos are so proud of their country, and it was so special to see them pause the madness and honor their great country. It is typical for everyone to take to the streets after a (big) win. People with cars honk and wave flags, people on foot cheer and wave at all who go by. I also saw a shirtless man on top of a bus... Anyway, it was so much fun honking my horn all the way home!

Sadly, the USA got eliminated today, but more sad for me is that my dear friend Jessica, who has been like a sister to me for the last 15 months, has moved back to the States. Her 2 year teaching contract ended and she chose not to renew it. I'm very sad, but I had the opportunity to do some journaling about it on Sunday night and that helped a lot. I know this is an opportunity to strengthen my relationship with God and a good reminder that I need to trust him fully to take care of me and provide for my relational/emotional needs (and all the others as wel.l) I do appreciate your prayers in this time of grieving and transition though. God hears and answers them!
More to come in an upcoming Chronicle!
God's peace and joy be with you throughout this week!
Carrie