Tico Tuesday, September 20th

¡Hola! Last Thursday was Independence Day! I went up to San José de la Montaña to watch all my kiddos from the Bible Home march with flags, the band, rhythmic movement, or by/on the float with the theme of "Diversity." (Head to the Roblealto Association page on facebook for pictures!!) I was so proud of them!
To play in the band, they had to keep their grades up and of course, be able to play the lira (like a marching xylophone), drums or cymbals. It is so awesome to see these kids, who the world considers "failures" being totally successful and growing and learning and improving. I LOVE IT!!! After the parade, all the kids from the Bible Home had a picnic and then in the gymnasium next to the plaza (soccer field in front of the Catholic church that marks the center of pretty much every town in Costa Rica) they had a whole bunch of games. I participated in the jump rope contest and won! I did 115 jumps. A girl from the Bible Home did 97 and one of the boys that just came to the Bible Home a few weeks ago did 121!! What a champ!
More about Independence Day Festivities on the blog!
Have a great rest of the week!
Love,
Carrie

PS Don't forget to go to the Roblealto Association facebook page for pictures!

There's something in Latino culture about celebrating things the day before, or at least getting things started. Here, Dec 25 is NOT a big deal. It's all about the 24th. On September 14th, they get the Independence festivities going at 6pm.

In pretty much every town in the country, everyone gathers on the plaza and sings the national anthem. (I learned the anthem for Independence Day last year. Now
I really know it by heart!) They have a torch that, like the Olympic torch, is passed through all the countries in Central America who share our Independence Day (The torch's destiny is Cartago, the original capital city of Costa Rica). Then, after a little traditional dance presentation, they have a parade around town. All the children make faroles, some kind of lantern-ish thing that is usually either a traditional house, oxcart, or something else symbolic of the country. Talk about some major creativity! In the olden days they would always light the faroles with candles.

(Remember, by 6pm it is ALWAYS dark here!) Some still do, like my little hermanita tica Verónica.

Others use flashlights, which are much safer. It's tradition to burn the faroles afterwards. I think that's sad to burn so much hard work so quickly, but, what I think doesn't really matter.
And then we had... fireworks!! They released them right formt he plaza so we all got sore necks from staring up into the sky, but it was great! Not a bad show for a little town! It was a wonderful evening spent with my tico family!

Tico Tuesday, September 13th

The past few weeks I've been heading over to El Manantial, one of our child care centers after work on Tuesdays to translate for Dee as she teaches moms to make chocolate cakes in mugs in the microwave. Dee and her husband are new "finisher" missionaries with the LAM and are wonderful people who are very supportive of Roblealto. I'm really enjoying getting to know Dee better and working with her. We make a great team! Each week I've been meaning to take pictures of the cake making workshop, but I get so busy helping and microwaving that it just totally slips my mind to document the experience. So, what you see in the picture is the only remains and proof I have of the happy experience. I know the activity in itself is much more important than the documentation, but you know I like you to see what goes on in my life. :-)
The recipe is on the blog!
Have a great rest of the week!
Love,
Carrie

3 Minute Chocolate Cake in a Mug (by Dee)

In a MICROWAVE SAFE mug mix
1/4 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c chocolate baking powder (or sweetened chocolate powder/hot cocoa mix and less sugar)

In a separate bowl mix
1 egg
3 tbs milk
3 tbs vegetable oil
a few drops of vanilla

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. It helps to make a hole in the dry ingredients or push them to the side so the liquid ingredients will fit. Stir well, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom so everything is evenly mixed. Add a generous tablespoon of chocolate chips. (They don't need to be stirred in since they'll sink to the bottom anyway). Microwave on high for 3 minutes and enjoy!

Dee always has me make the example for everyone and then we sample it. It turns out different every time, so feel free to play around with it. The cake will rise out of the mug in the microwave, but doesn't spill down the sides. Huzzah for delicious fun!

Tico Tuesday, September 6th

Hello dear ones!
As I mentioned in my Chronicle, I got to lead an inductive study of John 15 in the devotional at work on Friday morning. We have devotions every Friday (and the last Friday of each month we have a birthday party). This trimester for July-September I'm on the committee with a fellow worker. We had to rearrange some plans and ended up with an open Friday. So I seized the opportunity to do something I LOVE to do with others- a manuscript Bible study! We pulled out the colored pencils and basked in the Vine, making observations, asking questions and asking God what He would have us take away from this passage and apply to our own lives. It was really neat.
I've studied the passage a couple times before, but I love how God shows us something different each time. And in a group setting, the discussion is always unique! This time, as I prepared and studied the passage on my own, it blew me away how much our relationship with Jesus is like His relationship with the Father. He loves us as the Father loves Him. WOW!!! And, we are to love others with that same love! Yikes! Talk about a tall order! But, as we abide, obey and love Him, that love will indeed flow through us and our joy will be complete. Love it!! So, as we repeated at the InterVarsity Fall Conference where we studied this passage I'll say to you: I don't know about you, but I'm stayin' in the Vine!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, August 30th

Friday I participated in 3 very different, but fun, special birthday celebrations. And had 3 different yummy cakes at each one. Chocolate at 2 out of 3 wasn't bad!! Especially considering chocolate isn't as popular down here. In the morning at work, we had our usual last-Friday-of-the-month party and celebrated my supervisor Pam's birthday (and it was on the actual day too!) and Margarita's birthday. Margarita is another missionary with the LAM. She has been here for close to 40 years and is an amazing woman! After work, I shared the devotional with some parents from the Bible Home (another story for another day-maybe on the blog this weekend) and went to a surprise 50th birthday dinner for don William, who I have adopted as my "tico dad." It was sweet and he was surprised. Then, at about 10 I got home and a few people came over to celebrate Hazel and Samuel's birthdays. (Hazel is the one with me in the picture) That was a rather brief party, but I was ok with it. I was exhausted!
Then, last night we had a special little birthday party at the Nido house at the Bible Home. I got to be there because it was translation night for the volunteers. We had each child say something to the birthday girl-that was really sweet. And then Papi Gerardo, the substitute father had us sing every version of Happy Birthday to her we could-even in English! I hadn't done that in a while! It actually felt really good, even though some of the kids were singing "Sapo verde" (it's a pronunciation joke, don't stress if you don't get it though). Then, he told us how she never talked for her first 4 months at the Bible Home. She is still a quiet girl, but now she even participates in dramas and speaks in public! Praise God for the life of this precious young woman!
May we all enjoy the life that God has given us!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, August 23rd

Dear Friends and Family,

Last week, I mentioned that we had just celebrated Mother's Day here in Costa Rica. Then I proceeded to talk about my trip to the beach. This week, I want to tell you about the Mother's Day celebration we had at the Bible Home on Sunday. Balloons, flowers, nice tablecloths and centerpieces, a raffle for gifts, food, music, brief theatrical presentation by a few of the children, games and a brief reflection all made up this special celebration for mothers who have children at the Enrique Strachan School (the school we have onsite at the Bible Home), mothers of the children who are currently living at the Bible Home, the substitute mothers who live and work at the Bible Home, and some mothers who are friends of Roblealto. It was a fun afternoon. My participation included: helping set up, writing out the numbers for the raffle "tickets," participating in the icebreakers, going to one of the houses at the Bible Home to make sure the kids didn't do anything dreadful to themselves or each other while their substitute father went to sing for the mothers, acting out 3 aspects of a virtuous woman (for the devotional) and of course, helping with cleanup. The whole afternoon was great and very special, and the final touch was... a mariachi! The women loved it! One of the teachers of the Enrique Strachan School made sure to run around taking pictures of everyone with big sombrero on. I just hope nobody had lice, because they got me towards the end...

God bless you and may we all bless our mother's this week (and every week!)

With joy,

Carrie


More later-it's bedtime!!!

Tico Tuesday, August 16th

This weekend was a long weekend due to Mother's day here in Costa Rica. (Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!) I wanted to take advantage of it and go on a beach adventure. I invited my friend Diana. Originally, I want to go to a beach that is in Guanacaste (sort of far away), but she had a limited budget so we decided to go to a closer beach I'd never been to. Then I saw Ceci and invited her. Then I saw Ana and invited her. I went to the grocery store and bought us food, I also made a fantastic pizza so we could bring the leftovers. We were all set to leave at 5am and have a great day at the beach. Then, Ana woke me up at 2:47 in the morning. Change of plans, we were going in a microbus with some other friends and we were leaving at 3:40. Ok! We went to a different beach I'd never been before. It was great to be on the beach at 6am! We went to a really pretty nice one. What you see in the picture is what we had to hike over to get there though. The beach is part of a snazzy private resort here, but we entered the ahem, local way. Beaches in Costa Rica are public property though, so we were allowed to be there. Pretty sweet!
The moral of the story is: be flexible, because you never know what's going to happen while you're asleep. More of the day's adventure on the blog!
Love,
Carrie

The other moral of the story is, bring food when you go to a secluded beach. Or else you have to leave and everyone will be too lazy to go back. At least we had a few, truly blissful hours there. After spending a good hour or so at Subway, we headed to Jacó, a very famous beach here that is much better for surfing than swimming. I actually didn't get back in the water again because of that. And it was rocky. and shade was really hard to come by too. It was still a pleasant afternoon though. A number of us learned to surf (not me, not my cup of tea). I walked on the beach some, napped a little and got to read some.
My Bible still often opens to Psalm 94 - the passage that I passionately clung to last year. I re-read it there on the beach on Sunday and tears almost came to my eyes as I once more reflected on how much (in) my life has changed in the past year. Essentially EVERYTHING has changed - my workplace, my job and responsibilities, how my relationship is with my supervisor, how I get back and forth to work (I drive now instead of bike), who is at home when I come from work (Tía is back in the States and Abuelita passed away last September), where I sleep (Ana painted our room and we got bunk beds), PLUS emotionally and spiritually I am a totally different person. I'm not who I was. God has freed me and given me new life. He has taught me so many things and is helping me grow, mature and deal with conflict and life better. And Hallelujah! He's not finished with me yet!
Anyway-that's pretty much it for the beach story. I was really tired in the afternoon since I didn't sleep much the night before. We had a smooth trip home and it truly was a great day on the beach with friends. :-)

Tico Tuesday, August 9th

Last week was probably one of the best weeks I've had at Roblealto. I was with a group of volunteers working in one of our child care centers and it was just amazing. It is such a blessing to get to work with volunteers, staff and children of Roblealto! This group of volunteers was the mens and women's soccer teams of a Christian college in the States. They did crafts and all kids of semi-spontaneous games and activities. The children were so happy! The volunteers also had a testimony time each day and shared relevant truths and a number of Bible verses with the children. Everybody ended up being blessed like crazy.
Then on Friday, I went to another one of our child care centers to help with another activity. While I was waiting for that to start I hung out in the patio and soaked up the attention of the children who were having their outdoor play time. The 5-6 year olds were all telling me their names and then asked for paper to write them. They told me how to write their names in terms of sticks, mountains, circles and humps. It was the most adorable thing!! Didier needed some help with his capital "D". He wasn't doing too badly though. I didn't even figure out what his name really was until I looked it up in the system today. These children are so adorable! I could write you a novel, but will try to just leave some highlights on the blog.
May God use you to touch someone's life in a special way this week!
Love,
Carrie

Yeah-so the group from Trinity was fantastic. This was the most I had ever worked with a group of volunteers by myself and it was phenomenal. I loved it SO MUCH!!! They were creative, flexible, spontaneous. They did wonderful activities and just poured love into those kids and gave them lots of attention - I had 28 volunteers for 9 classes (about 150 children) who typically just have one instructor each. It was beautiful! One girl offered to buy a clock for one of the instructors because there is no clock in her classrooom. Once I saw a small group of them gathered together praying. These kids totally had the perfect attitude and were just great!
One guy who shared his testimony was fantastic-he shared how his parents had a conflicitve relationship and divorced - and how God gave him peace and joy. They also shared the Gospel in a really neat way-explaining salvation in terms of someone doing push-ups in place of the losers of a soccer juggling competition. So cool! The last day they also gave gifts to all the kids and it was crazy, but beautiful.
I'd love to rave more, but I must post and go to bed. When are you coming to Roblealto???