Miss You Atlanta

I have to be honest, we haven't dealt with a whole lot of homesickness since we've been here. Not that we don't miss home, but there's so much going on with classes and everything that most days we don't have a whole lot of time to think about home and everything we miss. When my sister was in the hospital I nearly bought a ticket home. Thanks to the blessing of Vonage we are able to talk nearly every day on the phone as if we were only a few miles away from each other. But this week I am missing Atlanta. My friend, Val, had a baby two days ago and my friend, Alyssa, is at this moment in the hospital in labor. I've become addicted to MySpace and when I have a second I check in on what's going on with Gravity and all the youth. And, as if it wasn't on my mind enough, today there was an article on MSNBC (click here to read) about things to do in Atlanta. I don't feel sad, necessarily, but I wish it were possible to be in two places at once - or three even. Is that really too much to ask?? So to all my pals in Atlanta who so faithfully keep up with our blog... I miss you all a ton!

Everyone please say prayers for these new blessing being brought into the world and their parents (first time for both families). As for me, my five minutes of nostalgia are over and I must return to homework!
~Tona

Focus on Colombia

Everything is back into full swing. We're a few weeks back into classes. I believe Corey's outlook has improved immensely! By the end of the last trimester he was feeling a bit frustrated, but this trimester he has been matched up with teachers who have teaching styles that fit him perfectly. I can see his confidence blooming! Next week we begin another week-long class from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Last trimester our class was on Cross Cultural Counseling. It was a great class. However, being the shameful one that I am, here I am finishing up a paper that is due by Saturday for the class from last trimester. I chose the topic of counseling youth who have been exposed to violence. This isn't a paper on youth exposed to violence in the media or music, but actually violence, specifically community violence.

As I've been working on the research side of the paper I've been digging in a bit more into the youth in Colombia and I've been reading countless reports by agencies reporting on the horrific conditions many children and youth in Colombia face. Check out these statistics:
· Between 11,000 and 14,000 child soldiers; indigenous and Afro-Colombian children are often targeted for recruitment;
· Estimated 3 million children aged 11 to 17 are not in school;
· 2.5 of every 1,000 young women in Colombia is raped (estimated);
· Estimates range from 20,000 to 35,000 children forced into commercial sexual work;
· Estimated 15,000 to 30,000 street children in Colombia;
· Approximately 4,000 children killed with small arms every year;
· At least 100,000 landmines in Colombia, causing at least 96 mine-related child deaths in 2002.
I've read terrible stories of children executed, tortured, etc. It's tough to read, yet it just renews that inspiration to go and do whatever we can to help the situation. I can't clearly tell you exactly how God will use us in the next few years or over our lifetime, but I can tell you that I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Colombia is where we are called to be.

There is a silver lining. Violence in Colombia has dramatically decreased over the past three years. The different sides of the war have been working on laying down arms and things are bettering quickly in Colombia. I encountered another sort of inspiration today when I saw a video for Colombia. It seems the government is ready to show off the best of Colombia and is working to renew the interest in tourism and beauty in Colombia. Check out the video below. I think it's great. Just a technical note, when you click to play the video, if you pause it and give it a few minutes to fully download you can watch it in one continuous flow. Otherwise, if you just let it play it will be very choppy as it tries to download while playing. Enjoy!

~Tona

Corey and Tona's Getaways

This has been a glorious week! The kids went back to school on Tuesday and Corey and I decided to take advantage of our free days, without the kids, and explore a little more. We had rented a car for the week, just like the little car in the pictures of Arenal, and took a few day trips this week. It's funny because a destination can be 23 miles away, but it takes an hour and a half to get there, partly because of traffic, but mostly because of pot-hole filled windy roads through the mountains.

On Tuesday we headed to Volcan Irazu, the closest volcano to where we live. It last erupted in 1963, the day John F. Kennedy visited Costa Rica. They say that for two years after it sprayed ash that went as far as San Jose. It's the highest volcano in Costa Rica. Many people compare walking around the volcano to walking on the moon - although I don't think anybody who has said that has actually walked on the moon! It is bizarre, however. There is one area that is pretty flat and as you walk around it's all grey sand. I'm not even sure how to describe it, but it just feels kind of weird! This picture is of the main crater. One thing about visiting the volcanos is that you have to get there early in the morning because the clouds roll in by noon. We were so blessed to have such a clear view of the crater. The lake is filled with sulphuric acid. Although the view is beautiful, the smell is not. It was too cloudy through the rest of the mountains, though, to see the other neat thing about Irazu - apparently on a clear day you can see the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Nonetheless, the crater and the walk around, knowing we were actually standing on a volcano, was incredible!

On our way back to San Jose we passed through Cartago, home of The Basilica de Nuestra Senora de los Angeles, a huge church where in August a pilgramage of people from all over the country and beyond go to celebrate the 1635 appearance of Costa Rica's patron saint. The church is pretty incredible.

The three major volcanos in Costa Rica are Arenal, Irazu and Poas. On Thursday we completed the tour of all three. We hit Volcan Poas. We had tried months ago to go to Poas, but as I said before, there are many times where it just isn't visible. We left a little later in the morning than we had wanted to and on the way up I kept preparing myself that we might drive all that way and not get to see anything. But when we arrived, just as with Irazu, it was completely clear! You can see some pockets of steam in the picture. It's amazing to hear the volcano "breathing" and sending out puffs of steam. Last month they had to shut the park down for a week because the volcano had been shooting out acid rain, a little more active than normal.

We hiked through the forest, a pretty much all uphill hike, to Botos Lake, another crater that has since filled in with rain water. Nothing lives in the water because there is still a lot of acid in it.

On the way home from Volcan Poas we went to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. It was pretty incredible. There was a butterfly farm, hummingbird gardens, frog gardens and five gorgeous waterfalls. I've always wanted to go to a butterfly farm. It was crazy with butterflies soaring all over. The hummingbird gardens had natural flowers that attract hummingbirds and lots of feeders. Hummingbirds were shooting from feeder to feeder. The waterfalls were amazing (I know I use this word far too much, but Costa Rica truly is amazing!) Our legs were pretty tired from the Poas hike, but it was well worth it to see each waterfall!

I've posted pictures here - Costa Rica Pictures - of all the exploring we did!

~Tona

Goodbyes and Hellos

We have said goodbye to Dan and Beatriz Klaehn who have left for Nicaragua. Dan and Beatriz lived in the apartment above us. Keep them in your prayers as they now begin to work on the projects that lie ahed for them.

A new family has just moved in. Our building has gotten even more busy! We now have nine adults and nine children in our apartments! The new family has a son who just turned 10 and is in class with Alex and Taylor, a daughter who is 8 and is in class with Maggie, and a son who is just about to be 2. The kids are thrilled to have more playmates, especially Maggie to have someone exactly the same age.

~Tona

Mouse Hunt

We were welcomed home from the beach with less than open arms! For about a month now we've had a little mouse that runs into our house from the patio every night, to the kitchen and back out. I lack any ounce of hospitality when it comes to mice, but I'd grown somewhat accostomed to the sitings and after many attempts Corey couldn't seem to catch it. We set traps and all, but the mouse was smart enough to get the cheese without setting off the trap.

The night before we left for the beach Corey told me that the mouse had come in again, but that he was sure it left. In our living room we have a very large rug and as I sat on the couch I felt a bulge underneath. Alex is notorious for leaving socks all over the house, so I assumed it was a sock stuffed under the rug, but I was a little nervous that it might be something else, so I asked Corey to check. He lifted the rug and there lay a sprawled out squished mouse! I was so grossed out! I couldn't breathe for a second knowing my foot had been on top of it. However, we were happy to be rid of the pest and we went on vacation satisfied that the house was now safe.

We returned Monday evening from the beach and sat down to eat dinner. I glanced up and saw a mouse run by. NOOOO!!!! We couldn't believe there was another. Corey chased it and eventually killed it, but as we were looking at the dead mouse, we saw another mouse on the patio! It was a tiny baby mouse and as Maggie and I were shouting to Corey where the mouse was running, without realizing it, he stepped right on it. It died. Completely grossed out we attempted to go back to dinner when a THIRD mouse ran through the room! Corey killed it (obviously our hero!) and was sure that the entire family was gone.

That night it was so hard to sleep. Maggie couldn't close her eyes for fear of mice in her bed. They've traveled the same route, yard to kitchen and back. We assured her that it was over and she eventually fell asleep. However, Tuesday night and Wednesday night Corey killed a mouse.

Life in Costa Rica is always an adventure. What I gather from this all is that ever so slowly I am growing calmer in the face of fear, at least when it comes to small beasts!
~Tona

Manuel Antonio

Deciding which beach to go to in Costa Rica is a tough decision. Everyone you ask about the perfect beach has a different answer. There are white sand beaches, black sand (volcanic sand) beaches, brown sand beaches, rocky beaches, surfers beaches, turtle egg laying beaches, and so on. We had decided to use a little bit of our tax refund and hit the beach for a couple of days, but the more I looked up locations the more I got flustered about where we should go. In the end, we decided on Manuel Antonio, which is a favorite of tourists and pretty well regarded by all of the tour books. I'm so glad we went.

The beach was stunning. We have loved going to the panhandle of Florida and the beautiful beaches there and I expected pretty much the same kind of beach, but this was so different. There were cliffs and tiny islands not too far off shore. The forests came down to the beach. The water was clear and the waves were consistently pouring in. It was gorgeous. In the Manuel Antonio area the expensive hotels are up in the mountains. They boast a beautiful view of the forest and ocean. Although there are many hotels, you are still in the middle of the jungle and monkeys, sloths, cotis and beautiful birds are plentiful. We opted for the Hotel Verde Mar, which is actually a budget hotel because, unlike the others, it's right on the beach. Another blessing, our ideal hotel was the best buy!

The hotel rented out free boogie boards and we spent the majority of our vacation on the boogies boards in the waves. I say we, but to be honest I got rolled pretty hard by a wave on the second day and I was a little apprehensive to venture out much. I enjoyed a few more tries, but it was more fun to watch Corey, Alex and Maggie catching the waves.

We spent one day at the Manuel Antonio National Park. There are three beaches in the park and lots of jungle. If you knew me as a child you'd know that I always wanted a monkey - at least until I had kids :-). Before we went into the park we hadn't seen any, but Manuel Antonio is known for monkeys so we were on the lookout. The minute we entered the park we ran into Maggie's good friend from school and her family. We all decided to hike around parts of the park. This is where the maps and guidebooks are deceiving. The hike was long and tough! We made it, though, and along the way we encountered a bunch of monkeys. They came right up to us and even tried to take a man's bag that was standing next to us. One had a baby on its back. They were just traveling along through the forest and stopped to play and entertain us for a bit.

We finished the hike and headed straight for the beach. That night when we went for dinner we saw a bunch of monkeys just outside the restaurant. Again, the next day, there were monkeys playing in the trees at the beach near our hotel. It was amazing! We also saw a ton of huge lizards like this little monster below. Alex and Maggie tried hard to catch one!

At the beginning of our break I was sad to not have family visit. Just about everyone either went to the States or had family in and it made us miss our family that much more. But this trip, getting away with the kids, I sat thinking back to the panic I felt last summer, a desperation to make memories before we left the States, but as I sat on the beach watching the kids laughing and playing, I realized that we'll be making memories every step of the way. We still miss having family around, but what a blessing to have time together away from the stress of everyday life!

We took a ton of pictures. You can see them if you click here - Manuel Antonio Pictures.
~Tona