Time Flies...

How does a week pass by so incredibly quickly? I have much to recap on in this blog so I'm guessing it will be a hefty read. Let me start by going back to last Sunday ~~~~~
We visited a different church last Sunday. It was a bit further away, but it was all right. The kids stayed with us through praise and worship (which here goes for at least an hour) and then they went to a new class for about 30 minutes. It’s interesting because then they release the kids to just wander around while the service wraps up. We visited this church again yesterday, but we’re not yet completely decided on this becoming our home church. We may visit a different one this coming Sunday and try to find something closer.

We went to a new restaurant after church, La Casa De Dona Lella. It’s all Tican food and incredibly delicious. We loved it so much we went last Sunday and this Sunday. One of the waiters agreed to be one of my interaction partners, so we’ll have to go back every week… for homework purposes, of course!

Sunday night we had English Service at the school. Corey and I were able to work with another missionary couple and do the children’s church for the MKs. It was fun. We taught on the Armor of God. I tried to put pictures on this post, but it's not letting me, for some reason.

This week was busy. Monday we had a seminar on stress. I was too stressed out to pay attention…lol...just kidding. It really was very informative. Basically the bottom line was that when you’re in a situation you have the choice to make a decision to change your attitude about the problem. It made me think back to conversations with Alyssa about how nobody can “make” you feel a certain way, you decide how it affects you. Empowering words of wisdom.

I developed a cold on Wednesday and I’m still trying to kick a sore throat, so the rest of the week at least on my end was filled with going to school, calling home, trying to keep up with homework and keeping my bed company for a lot of the time.

Friday was a day for fun! I’ve written about the Secret Sisterhood and Friday night we had a slumber party. It was a blast! Nancy Dickerson, one of the directors of Cincel, had the party at her house. She had three girls come in, one to do manicures, one to do pedicures and one to do massages. It’s common here that you can either go to a salon or have them come to you. Anyway, we were pampered for the night! It was wonderful! Just a bit of culture difference, if you’ve ever had a manicure, pedicure or massage you’ll know it’s no small expense. That’s not the case here. It was $4 for the manicure, $6 for the pedicure and $8 for a massage. We also enjoyed watching movies and just bonding with the other missionaries.

Saturday after I returned home we decided to take Alex and Maggie to the Central Market. They haven’t had much of a chance to experience culture outside of school and the local grocery store or mall. The Central Market is an open air experience where there are shops and vendors lining the streets. You kind of get a taste of everything. They had each saved money while we were in the states and they had a great time picking out a few souvenirs to add ambiance to their room. Alex chose a small painting and a tiny terra cotta pig that he could paint. Maggie chose a handmade horse head on a stick that she could gallop around the house and stickers for her cousin.

After shopping we walked through an area where there was a clown putting on a show with a very well trained dog. At one point the dog even stood on his hind legs on top of the clown’s head. It was amazing! We had such a great time at the Market. Alex and Maggie both really seem to enjoy getting out and experiencing the culture.

Well, I think that pretty much catches up what’s been going on here. A quick update on my sister… she is home from the hospital – Praise God! She is still recovering, so please keep her in your prayers. She has more appointments with doctors this week to get more information on what’s been happening in her body.

Thanks for all your prayers. I have so much more to write about cultural differences between here and the states and lots of information, but this blog may very well bypass what I’m allowed to post!
~Tona

A La Feria

This morning we got up bright and early and went to the Feria, which is the farmers market. I wanted to take pictures, but I was a little nervous to pull out my camera, so maybe next time! It was pretty large, rows and rows of vendors set up primarily with fruits and vegetables. Some of them were very familiar, oranges, strawberries, corn, carrots, etc., but there were many things that I had no idea what they were for. The prices are pretty great, though. We bought four little crates of strawberries for $2, three cantaloupes for $1, two bunches of flowers for $2, two small pineapples for 40 cents, a bag of 25 oranges for 50 cents! They only set up on the weekend, but now that I've seen a lot more we'll be making our fruits and veggie list and heading there to stock up.
~Tona

Go Bananas!

I forgot to add some more excitement of today. We harvested a bunch of bananas today (well, not we...Corey). Here are some pictures from that experience.

Corey working on getting the bunch cut down.

He didn't have a machete, so he used a big bread knife!

The bleeding tree...did you know that a banana tree is full of sap?

Carrying them in to be hung.

Alex and Maggie sit by the hanging bunch. I'm not sure what the process is from here, but I guess they ripen a bit and then we can cut up the bunches and share them with our neighbors!

~Tona

Recap

Well, I finally have a few minutes to really sit and write a bit about this past week. Back in Michigan my sister is still in the hospital, so please keep her in your prayers. Let me tell you a little bit more about what's going on here in Costa Rica. Classes are trucking along. Corey especially tends to have lots of homework. I didn't have a whole lot during the week, but this weekend I got plenty!

On Wednesday we had our first Costa Rican Cooking Class. It was fun! We made empanadas. They were very delicious. We made them with beans, cheese and a meat mixture. It wasn't too hard. We're going to attempt to make them on our own this week at home. We also made coffee the "old way" where you have this little sock type thing that you put in a special holder and pour your coffee through - no machines here! I personally do not like coffee, so this didn't entice me, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. The last thing we made was "agua dulce" which means sweet water. They have these big bricks of brown sugar that you boil in water and add milk to for a drink. They say that it's great to use when you have a stomach ache. I'm not sure about that one!

Friday we had our first interaction class. This class is a one on one with the teacher, but our assignment this week is to go out and meet 10 people that we can converse with on a weekly basis. It should be an interesting experience and we're just hoping that we will start relationships with people we can have a positive impact on.

Tonight we went to a cookout with friends. That was nice. We are getting ready for tomorrow evening. We will have an English service at the school. Corey and I will be helping with the children's service. I'm excited to have an active ministry to do. This experience is so strange in the sense of it's crucial to our ministry that we be here and learn, but this is a time where we take a step back from the norm of ministry life. There's kind of a hole there where you're used to constantly planning and "working" at church. It's a very odd feeling to sit in the congregation without any responsibility. Over the next few weeks we're going to try a few different churches and hopefully find one where we can really get to know the people and find our place in a home church. It's tough convincing Alex and Maggie that although it's difficult now to sit through church when you don't understand, it's really important in the long run that they deal with it now and it will be easier later. This is a constant learning experience !
~Tona

If Only I Could Be In Two Places At Once

I apologize for the ever increasing distance between posts. It's been a bit of a crazy week not only here in Costa Rica, but back home in Michigan. Thank you to so many of you who have sent messages or called to say you are praying. If you're not up on what's going on I'll give you the short story... my sister went into the hospital on Wednesday night with severe stomach pain. The doctors were going in basically to do an appendectomy, but what they found was a tumor. They ended up having to do major surgery to remove the tumor and she is in the hospital now recovering from the surgery. Technology makes life amazing. We have local numbers so everyone can call, email makes it possible to get letters instantly and even instant messaging lets you have a spur of the moment conversation. But yesterday as I knew she was in the hospital and things were getting a bit scary, technology was not much help to me. It didn't allow me to be there to hold her hand or smile for her and give her encouragement. Instead I sat waiting for sparce phone calls and updates from cell phones that kept breaking up. Instantly the reality of how far away from home we really are hits. It's not so easy to jump a plane home or hurry up and get there. So we sit here praying and asking for peace and wisdom on what we should do. Hence, comes the title of this blog because I so wish I could just fly up there yet keep up with our duties here. It's not possible. It tears me apart to not be at the hospital with her, but it's amazing how our beings can be divided. There is a strong part of me that feels guilt for not being there with her and so badly wants to be there. But there is another part of me that feels patience. Wait it out. Wait on God. I was praying in chapel this morning and asking God what I should do. Do I get out of here ASAP or do I watch from afar? God is awesome. Not five minutes after I prayed that prayer he confirmed that I was to wait. It's in His hands and I need to trust that. And I do. A friend told me that God must have awesome plans for us in Colombia because it seems like Satan is working so hard to keep us from ever getting there. I have to believe that is true and just keep praying until He tells me otherwise.

So as you read this, please keep my sister, Josi, in your prayers. The doctors say she is making an amazing recovery very quickly and she should be able to go home on Sunday or Monday. Pray for her continued healing and for her strength to be restored. And thank you to all of our prayer partners out there. You are amazing!

Love,
Tona

Detour!

"Thank you, God, that we still had a good time - even though we didn't get to do what we planned," was Maggie's prayer last night before she went to bed. It's amazing how well even the kids have learned to just roll with it when things don't go according to plan. We woke up early yesterday and joined a group of fellow missionaries in a van heading towards the Poas Volcano. It's one of the very popular destinations for tourists and is only about an hour and a half out of San Jose. The problem with visiting this particular volcano is that if you don't see it early in the morning you won't be able to see it at all because of the cloud cover that moves in early in the day. So we loaded up at 7am to make sure we got there in time. Funny thing - everyone keeps telling us that it doesn't rain between January and March, but we've found it does. The locals will tell you this is most unusual. As you can probably guess, we drove all the way up to the national park where the volcano is, but unfortunately it was raining and they told us there would be no seeing the volcano today.

On the way up we stopped by a coffee plantation and saw an amazing rainbow. I'm working on getting pictures up so you can see those fun stops along the way!

So on to plan B. The driver suggested we stop for breakfast on our way back to San Jose and then by a zoo. We had breakfast at Freddy Fresas. We had gallo pinto - yummy! We also had fresh strawberry juice that was delicious! No added preservatives here, just squished strawberries!

We headed to the zoo and had a very nice time. Costa Rica has over 800 species of birds. We saw about 15 of them. There were iguanas and a cougar, some leopards, lots of birds, etc. It wasn't your typical zoo, but it was pretty interesting, nonetheless. So we didn't make it where we planned, but we had a great day anyway. As soon as I can get my computer uploading pictures I'll give you a link to check them out and you can see the many colors of Costa Rica!

~Tona

Time For A Break!

It's amazing to think we've only been here two weeks! So much has gone on it feels like much more. Thursday night was an incredibly intense night for many on the homework front - just lots of it. On Friday most people went home with none - I say most because I came home with a good bit. Anyway, it's the weekend and now we're trying to take a break and relieve some of the stress of the new situations! (Don't get me wrong, we are loving it here, it just takes effort to adjust.)

Last night at school they had game night. It was fun. Somehow I spent the first half playing Uno Attack with a table full of kids, but then I had time just to get to know a little more about my fellow classmates. This morning we went to a birthday party for one of the kids here. We decided to venture out a little bit further today. During orientation they took us a few blocks by bus, but so far that was our only attempt to take busses to get anywhere. Today we took a bus to a mall where there is a nice cinema. It's called the V.I.P. The price of a movie ticket is less than in the U.S. and on Wednesdays it's half price. We went to see The Chronicles of Narnia. This theater was amazing! Why there aren't more like it everywhere in the U.S., I don't know.

Once you go through the main lobby of the theater you use your ticket to get into a separate lobby where everything looks like a nice Starbucks or something to that effect. There's couches and high top tables, etc. Anyway, we went into the theater and everyone sits in a nice leather armchair that reclines and has a footstool! It was so clean and wonderful inside! After every two seats there is a small table and there are waiters who come through and get your pop, popcorn and I've heard many other things, although we didn't utilize their services today. It was definitely a nice stress reliever and just something fun to do...a nice treat.

We took the bus home, which I must say we are incredibly proud to have made such a journey on our own. Pretty much so far we've had the Conaways to hold our hands and get us where we want to go. So there's just another day in the life of the Kautzes...now it's back to homework!
~Tona

Hola!

Well, as you can probably tell by the lapse in time since my last blog, it's been a crazy busy week! We all are getting into the routine of classes this week. It's going very well! Alex and Maggie are really enjoying school. They've started soccer two days a week after school and they are having a blast! The first day or two they were a bit apprehensive about school, but they have since made friends and have found their place in class. Alex is a little bit dismayed because school work is a little bit tougher here and there is a bit more homework, but he's becoming quite the little study bug! This week he has read three books!

Corey and I officially began classes on Tuesday. We each have a phonetics class, a grammar class and a conversation class. We also will have a class called interaction that starts next week. It meets once a week where we create a dialogue. Throughout the week we have to speak to 10 people using our dialogue and report back the next week. We're a little intimidated by this class! In phonetics class this week we've been learning the alphabet. You'd think that knowing Spanish this would be a breeze for me, but there are a couple of letters that they say differently here, so I have to catch myself. For example, the letter "ll" in Mexico has more of a Y sound "ay-yay," but here they use more of a J sound "ay-jay." It's a small difference, but I get corrected when I pronounce words with a "ll" or a "y" in it. I'll have a Tican accent by the time I leave here!

Grammar is just that, learning all the rules of the language and applying them. My teacher is great. She's very nice and makes it all fun. Today, for example, we are learning about commands and since I was the only girl in class I got to hand out commands to the guys as we went step by step through the process of putting together a hamburger. That was fun. :)

Conversation class is two hours long. In that class we spend part of the time studying verb forms, much like in grammar class. The other part is spent talking. Today we had to take a magazine and describe many aspects of it. Tomorrow we have to do a presentation on our city or state. I'm really enjoying my classes. I'll have to have Corey get on here and do an update of his own. He's a little overwhelmed with homework.

So our week has really just been trying to get in the groove of classes. I've been trying to read through the material the students used last trimester so I can make sure I'm up on what they've covered so far, so I've done a lot of reading this week. I've still had a couple days that by 8pm I am ready to crash. It seems to go back and forth every other night. Tonight I'm doing all right and it's almost 9pm! hahaha

This afternoon Mrs. Nancy Dickerson, who is one of the school directors, had the ladies over for a Secret Sisterhood gathering. The guys all make fun of it and call it the Ya-Ya Sisterhood or the Traveling Pants Sisterhood, but it sounds like it will be great in just giving support to one another. We'll have outings and gatherings twice a month and the whole "secret" part comes into play because next week we'll be given the information of another lady here (all students from school). Every week you'll be given their prayer requests and you're supposed to leave a small treat for your secret sister from time to time. I realize this all sounds a bit cheesy, but if you've known me well you'll know this is right up my alley!! I love this kind of cheesiness!

Well, it's time to get the kids into bed, but I will work harder on writing more! Please email me or post a comment in the comments section if you have questions about life here. There are so many new things to share I'm not sure what to tell without babbling on for hours and hours! Thanks to everyone for your prayers, calls, emails and all - especially to the kids. Alex and Maggie are really enjoying emailing with everyone.

Hasta Luego,
Tona

Exhaustion Sets In

It's hitting hard - the overwhelming tiredness and the desire to sleep every possible second! Of course, there hasn't been an extra second, but here it is just after 8PM and we find ourselves getting ready for bed. I'll give you a quick recap of yesterday and today and then hopefully this night's sleep will find us refreshed in the morning.

Yesterday we went to church at Centro Evangelistico. It's a very large church - several thousand people. It was quite an experience! Alex and Maggie were very nervous to go into classes for kids because of their lack of understanding, but they each had another MK with them, so they went on in. They came out in one piece, so we'll mark that as a victory! The praise and worship was great. There were two songs we knew the lyrics to in English, but the rest were new to us. I understood bits and pieces of the message, but it was a bit hard to focus after a while. Some things were very similar about the service, yet it was much more relaxed in the way of time and schedules. Praise and worship went on for over an hour. They did communion and we held onto the sacrements for probably about a half an hour before they actually took it. It was all very interesting.

This morning the kids got off on their first day of school. Last night Maggie was very emotional so I was a bit worried about how this morning would go. The bus comes at 7:10, so it makes for an early morning. The kids were a bit grumpy this morning, but when it was actually time to catch the bus they were in good spirits. They both came home from school very happy. We ventured out this evening to get school supplies. Tomorrow they will start soccer after school. The school provides it as an after-school activity two days a week. They're really looking forward to it. I'm told it's all in Spanish, but that it's where most of the MKs have really learned the most Spanish.

Corey and I had orientation this morning - an overload of information about many things in Costa Rica, our school system, etc. It was good information. We had lunch with all the teachers and returning students. At the end of orientation we received our class schedules. Corey is in a class of three people. They keep the same people together for every class - we have four every day and a fifth once a week. I was placed in Phoenetics I, but everything else I am in classes with second trimester students. So tomorrow our true purpose for Costa Rica begins.

I think all the adjustments, culture shock, etc. has just worn us out. I'm looking forward to the time when this all becomes routine and we are able to physically catch up a bit. We're so glad to be here and get started in language training! So that's all for now. It's early, but we're diving in for a long night's rest! Blessings!
~Tona

Finally Unpacked!

Yippee! I have finally unpacked everything and amazingly everything has a place! It's starting to feel more like home around here. I didn't know until we got here that Corey was able to pack in his stuff my special teapot and my jars of sand and rocks. If you're not familiar with these items I realize it may seem silly, but they are very special pieces that bring a sense of comfort and memories. We also were able to bring a picture of family and these beautiful candlesticks that Corey and I bought when we went on our cruise. Along with finishing unpacking I was able to complete the "playroom" for Alex and Maggie and put up their posters. I'll have to take a picture of it. The room is now very much theirs!

Not a lot happened today. Iwas able to successfully exchange a fan that was broken - again, something silly, yet a big accomplishment when language has the potential to be a barrier. I went with Marcie and April to a few stores. Besides that we hung out around home and ate dinner with the Amiot family. We ate M&Ms today...lol...I love M&Ms, so that was a very special treat. We're off to get some rest now, though. Tomorrow we will adventure out to a local church for service. The kids are nervous about not being able to understand, but it will be a nice experience for them to start to get a grasp on life in Latin America and the differences in churches. Until then...

~Tona
p.s. Our email has been a little out of whack today. If I haven't responded to an email you sent today, please resend it. Thanks!

Ten Happy Years

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the day Corey and I were married. It's amazing to look back over so much that has happened in those past 10 years. When we began I was a student at MSU and Corey was a student at Mott. Our future seemed so clear at that time! How little we knew! No one has a perfect marriage, but ours is pretty incredible. God knew what he was doing when he placed us in each other's lives.

It's been fun telling everyone Corey took me to Costa Rica for our tenth anniversary. :) We started the day off at Cincel, the language school, for a little bit of orientation. Then they took us to the central market. It was fun. The actual market is a huge warehouse type building filled with vendor stalls selling souvenirs, meat, poultry, fruit, flowers, etc., etc. It's a very full building with small aisles. There was even a pet shop, but the pets were chickens, rabbits, mice, birds or fish - very interesting. Downtown San Jose was very much like the area where my family lives in Mexico.

We also had our first adventures today in a taxi on our own. Our friends have given us note cards with directions to the places we need to go so we can show the taxi drivers. There are no addresses here. Our actual address is something to the effect of "100 meters northwest of the San Pedro cemetery on the corner." There aren't street names, everything is given directions to by way of landmarks. We were told if we couldn't find the apartment exactly to say "San Pedro Burger King" and they would know the area to take us. It's crazy! We did manage, however, to catch taxis today and get everywhere we needed to go. One of them got a little bit lost, but we found our way home. Every day is an adventure!

~Tona

Preparations for School Begin

We're getting ready to head to school! This morning we took Alex and Maggie to Sojourn Academy for their first day of orientation. They really enjoyed it. Tomorrow they will return for another day of fun, mostly games and crafts very much like VBS to get acclamated to the area. They came home with all sorts of advice on life in Costa Rica.

Corey and I went to Cincel today for placement testing. The first part was a very long written exam. I have forgotten a lot of Spanish! I made it through most of the test with confidence, but a couple of sections I questioned my answers and one section I skipped entirely. Corey, having very little Spanish, wasn't able to answer anything on the written exam. It's all for placement, though, so that's okay! Then we each had an oral interview. Mine went ok. I fumbled around a lot looking for words in Spanish that I just couldn't seem to pull out. I understood everything Mr. Luis, the interviewer, was saying, but I was having a hard time conjugating in past tense and really putting together the senteces. Part of it was just that I was very nervous, but a large part is that I am very out of practice!

That's the whole point of us being here, though, for this time is to learn and improve in Spanish so we can minister to the people of Colombia. Corey's interview went well and he came home with some homework. He has to memorize some introductory statements so he can tell others who he is and a little bit about himself.

After the test we walked home from school. We have been blessed so far with transportation. The school has a van you can rent that we were able to be driven around in since we've been here. But once we went for our exam we had to leave it behind and true Costa Rican transportation is about to begin :). The walk home from school is pretty much all uphill. We should have very nicely toned muscles in our legs at the end of our time here! From here on out we will mostly depend on busses, taxis and our own two feet to get us where we need to go. Our apartment is one of the farthest away from the school, but it is the one closest to everything like malls and grocery stores, so we're pretty happy with our location.

We're pretty exhausted! This weekend we'll have a little bit more of a chance to settle in. We're almost done unpacking. My wardrobe and the kid's toys are the only things left to be sorted out. But for tonight it's time to crash. We start again early tomorrow with all of us going to orientations. God bless!

~Tona

p.s. The picture above is of our patio (which if you read the kid's blog you'll learn about our first creature encounter.) We're very blessed to have this added space!

We're In Costa Rica!!!

We are finally here! It's been a very long process, but we have been blessed in so many ways and we have finally started our missionary journey. We were able to raise our funds, but just when we thought we were all set we found out they were increasing our budget for this year to keep up with inflation. Fortunately we were able to get it all worked out and yesterday, January 3rd, we took to the skies and landed in San Jose, Costa Rica. Traveling was not that bad. We had 11 large action packers and each of us a carry-on and additional bag. It was a large load, but we managed throught it fairly well and it seems that everything arrived in tact - minus a few locks on our suitcases.

Our apartment is very nice. We have the "party" apartment because we are blessed with a patio and a back yard. Our neighbors are friends that are missionaries to Mexico. Upstairs are friends who are missionaries to Ecuador and there are a few other families in our building who are also missionaries. Alex and Maggie have a few instant friends thier ages to help them through this time. We got in to late to really explore much, so this morning we are unpacking and in a few hours we're going to venture out on the town. I'll post pictures and stories later :).

Thank you all for helping us along this way. Please in your prayers today thank God for bringing us to Costa Rica and continue to keep us in your prayers as we make adjustments!

Sincerely,
Tona