June 15: Carnival & Vacation Villa

Today the visiting Zeeland Christian students put on a carnival for El Puente students and their families on the property where El Puente's new building will be.  Before the festivities began, however, the El Puente students and ZC students teamed up to plant almost 75 trees in celebration of Día del Árbol (Tree Day).  It was hot work so everyone was ready for some fun and food afterwards!
Nathan and the other immersion students on the trip and 2 teachers left San José at 6am this morning so they could join the rest of the group in time for the carnival.  They have been having a more intensive 'immersion' experience in the Poas volcano area but will now join the rest of the ZC group for the rest of the trip (Nathan returns back to Quepos on Thursday).  He's having a great time and says this is the best week of the whole year so far for him.

Sophia waits in line for the dart toss.

Taylor gives Valerie some archery instructions.

The face (and hair!) painting station was very popular.  Sophia came home with hair the color of the pink chair :)

Director Anna's husband, Andrés, did a great job on grill duty.

Tonight we enjoyed a lovely evening at Villa Pelícano, a lovely home/villa overlooking the ocean.   We had been there once before last summer when the HC soccer team came to Quepos.  One of the owners is currently in Quepos and has connections to Holland Christian and Zeeland Christian.  We are thankful for the wonderful hospitality and the opportunity to enjoy some relaxation and fellowship with the ZC group in such a beautiful setting.

June 14: Skating & Soccer

Today, we finished classes an hour early at El Puente so we could have a roller skating party with El Puente students and the Zeeland Christian group.

It was the first time skating for some of the students so skating expert George (who prefers to skate on ice) gave them some pointers.  Some students are really good skaters and had fun competing against George in races.  

Tonight included more soccer.  Angelina played goalie again for the Zeeland Christian group who played two indoor games tonight.

June 13: Cleaning, Prepping and Playing

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, life here is usually not dull.  For example, in the last 24 hours we have dealt with flooding in our house, experienced another earthquake and had school canceled today because of a continuing lice issue.  It was the perfect time to have extra hands around El Puente to help clean!
The Zeeland Christian student group spent the morning wiping down all walls, furniture and windows in an effort to eradicate any lice in the building.  They also organized and prepped for the carnival they are hosting for El Puente students on Saturday.

Angelina and Sophia helped students figure out the Spanish they wanted to use for their carnival game signs.

Tonight's highlight involved some soccer action!  The girls from the Zeeland Christian group played against local 13-14 year old girls under the lights of Quepos' downtown soccer field.  Angelina (in orange) was thrilled because they let her play with them even though she was a couple of years younger

Way to go Team USA!  The four boys did a great job of coaching :)

June 12: Rainy season flood

A number of adjectives come to mind that could describe our life in Quepos this year.  'Dull' is not one of them.  Example from today....a flooded house!  Thankfully, it's only the second time it's happened this year even though we've had LOTS of heavy rain showers.

Our friend Laura's kids came over to help sweep out the water (it was rushing in from the back door and running out the front door).  As soon we saw it coming in the back door we got everything off the floor and started putting rags down to try to keep it out of the bedrooms (somewhat successfully).  The shower once again had inches of really gross water that came up through the drain and the toilet water was gurgling and bubbling over the seat...oh the fun!

Our side yard flooded once again.

It's a terrible quality of video and you'll have to tilt your head, but it will give you an idea of how we spent a few hours this afternoon and evening.

On a positive note, we hear Nathan is off to a great start with the Zeeland Christian group.  They're in the central part of the country which means milder temperatures.  They've gone strawberry picking, visited a coffee plantation and visited a school.  This afternoon the non-immersion part of the group arrived in Quepos and stopped briefly at El Puente.  It was great to see some familiar faces and we look forward to having them around these next few days!  Nathan and the other immersion students will be coming on Saturday.

June 10: Adiós to Nathan

Although Sophia and I had a regular day at school today, the rest of the family spent much of it on the road.  George and Angelina drove Nathan to San José in a rental car so he could join the group from Zeeland Christian that's coming to Costa Rica for 10 days.  George checked the flight schedule this morning and saw the group's flight out of Florida was delayed a couple of hours.  Since they had extra time before they had to get Nathan to the airport to meet the group, he decided to take the more scenic, longer way to San José.  It's part of the Pan-American highway called 'Cerro de la muerte' (Mountain of Death) largely due to its curves and higher elevation in the mountains.

Visibility was very poor at times due to clouds and rain but thankfully they made it safely to the airport.  George and Angelina took the more direct way home and returned to Quepos by 6pm.

 I'm pretty sure this was Nathan's attempt at showing us how much he'll miss us.  

LOL...According to George, Nathan was so excited to see his friends after a year, that he got on the bus without even saying goodbye to him and Angelina.  

June 9: The Week in Review

The weeks seem to go by in a blur now as we approach the end of our time here (we leave Quepos on June 25).  Here's a few highlights of our week:

• Visitors at El Puente:  Director Anna's parents and aunt came from Michigan to help out with some projects at El Puente.  Her mom and aunt worked on sanding and staining the 13 cubbies that George has made for books and storage.  Her dad and George worked on making bulletin boards and white boards.
• Seeds of Hope:  When I got to the girls' English class on Tuesday I told them I didn't really have a good idea of what we should do for a story.  I asked them what they wanted to create a story about and they said they wanted to do a story all about how they were going to stop me from leaving....It involved coming to Quepos at 2am the morning of the 25th.  While I'm asleep they'll bribe Angelina (with an ice-cream cone and a cute cat) to let them into the house.  Then they'll send one of the girls' 2 year old son to go into our bedroom and grab my passport so I won't be able to leave.  It was very fun to see how creative they were with the language and also very sweet of them to try to stop me from leaving.  If I hear noises outside our house on the 25th, I'll know who to suspect :)
• TPRS training: The women from last week Friday night's training session (on how to teach English) were eager to have a second night of training so we met again this Friday.  It's exciting to see how enthusiastic they are to learn more about the method and how they could use it to teach English to a variety of groups here, including starting an English Kids Club at church and starting language/literacy classes for hotel staff.

  

  Laura, Tracy and Penny = awesome students who are now equipped to teach English in a fun and personal way.

• Casa de Amor Graduation Day:  Today we were thrilled to share in the celebration of six guys who have completed the 9 month program at the rehab center.  

  

  Sophia and I went early to church to help our friend Laura set up tables and decorations.  

  
  

  

  View of the street from the church entrance.  It's a 15 minute walk from the nearest bus stop.

  
  

  

  The guys were all invited to come to the regular morning service at  10am.  The youth group made lunch for everyone as a fundraiser for their upcoming camp.  Everyone's waiting for the food to come:  fish, rice, beans, cole slaw,  and potatoes....it was delicious!

  
  

  

  Some of the guys had family members that joined them for the celebration.

  
  

  

  After lunch there was the graduation ceremony that included a time of worship, testimony time, presentations of diplomas and ended with refreshments and more fellowship and celebration.  It has been such a HUGE joy and blessing to get to know the guys at Casa de Amor.  They received us like family every time we went and we are grateful for the opportunity to share this special day with them.  The guys in the picture include both graduates and current residents of Casa de Amor.

  

  Kids playing across the street from church as we were leaving.

PRAYER REQUEST:

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Nathan for 10 days.  He is very excited to be able to join some of his classmates from Zeeland Christian who are coming down with a group of 20+ students and teachers.  George and Angelina plan to drive him in a rental car to San José to meet up with the group who arrive tomorrow.  We will see him for a few hours on Saturday when they'll be in Quepos for a carnival at school and then he'll be gone again until the 20th.  We covet your prayers for safety and good health for him and the entire ZCS group while they're traveling in Costa Rica.

June 5: Hump Day Hallelujah.....Jehovah Jirah

We are very pleased to bring you this positive update on our financial status.   If all pledged funds continue to come in . . . and if no errors in our accounting are later found . . . then we have not only reached but surpassed our initial fundraising goal ($36,000)!    As of our best information right now it looks like we are closing in on $38,000 raised!  Thanks be to God and to our community of faithful supporters who have stood with us throughout this journey!  We are amazed at God's goodness and humbled by the generosity of His people.  Thank you!

    We are, however, stopping short of putting an end to our fundraising efforts altogether until we know that all expenses are covered. We have tried to live frugally but we saw continued increases in cost of food and basic items here, many of which were already higher than what we expected.  We are also anticipating the expenses that come with resettlement.  We’ll need to restock the pantry and cupboards, and our wardrobes are in need of renovation since we have not bought clothes here and the sun, sweat and humidity has taken a toll on them.  We are hoping garage sale season is in full swing and Ditto (our Christian school second-hand store) is fully stocked!  

    Knowing that we won’t have regular incomes and health insurance until September 1, these minor concerns linger.  But we rest in the knowledge that God will continue to provide . . . as we have already seen.  We again thank you, our supporting community, for showing your care for us in the area of finances.  We have been delighted to observe this display of your faith in the action of giving.   Our God truly is Jehovah Jireh . . . He indeed has provided for us in so many ways this year.   Blessed be the name of the Lord!  ¡A Dios sea la gloria!