Our Final ECO

A huge weight has been lifted, although there's a little bit of residual stress as we await the outcome, but today we had our final ECOs - the one-on-one interview that serves more or less as a final exam. I don't know why, but I managed to speak very comfortably for two hours in Spanish before I went for mine, but the minute I walked in I suddenly forgot several verb tenses and vocabulary words. It was not pretty! It's frustrating to know your final evaluation comes from a 20 minute conversation with someone you rarely talk to, but that's the way it goes. At least it's over! The only lingering pressure left is to present my project in a couple of weeks and then we'll be off to Colombia!!
~Tona

Goodbye Grandma Faye

This morning my great grandmother, Faye Jackson, passed away. She was 98 years old and a Christian. We trust she is in heaven celebrating with Jesus. It's been around six years since I've seen Grandma Faye. She lived in West Virginia. I'm glad to have pictures of her with Alex and Maggie to show them who she was even though they don't have memories. As for me, I'll remember her quirkiness - wearing two or three pairs of glasses at a time, lots of big beaded jewelry, her house full of knick knacks and stuff, how she's just keep on telling a story even if everyone left the room. She was a funny lady, no doubt. She lived a long full life and I praise God that He was with her all along.
~Tona

Cartago

Today we went on our last Paseo with Cincel, at least this time around. We did a tour of Cartago, the original capital of San Jose. We first visited an old church (I'm sure our director would be very disappointed of my descriptions, but I didn't pick up on all the details).

Then we visited the ruins of a church that was supposed to be the biggest in all of Costa Rica. Apparenty they tried three times to construct it and every time they did a huge earthquake came and ruined it...hmm...I'd think twice, too. Now there are the ruins, which I think are quite beautiful, with gardens filling the interior.

The next stop was to the main church in Cartago where in just a week's time people from all over Costa Rica, and even neighboring countries, will walk or crawl - yes, crawl - to the church. I don't fully understand the whole story, but it has to do with a sighting of Mary and they all make the pilgrimage every year.

We went to an overlook that hovers over a vally where the Spanish Conquistadors first built a village before they realized that floods and earthquakes were a problem here. I think they eventually got a clue and moved the city.

From there we checked out this cool little store that sells sculptures made from coffee wood. Cute, but too expensive for our taste.

And finally lunch!! Yippee!!!

~Tona

A Glorious End To A Ghastly Day

I think I’ve written before about my final project. My topic has been LACC schools here in Costa Rica. I spent time speaking with Bill Hudlin whose role is to work between the sponsors and the schools. The highlight of my project was visiting an LACC school.

To go back a little bit, coming off of a fun but exhausting weekend with mom, the week had started a bit frustrating. Corey and I have been visiting the Colombian embassy and the American embassy trying to get everything in order to leave on August 14th. After many frustrations, a long morning on the phone and no progress we walked into school late. As I entered my class I realized we had an exam…oops…that I had completely forgotten about and had not studied. My teacher told me that I needed to speak to another teacher and that she said it was urgent. I ran down to her class to find out I had something at home she needed that day. She wanted me to “run” home and grab it. Mind you, “running” home is not a five-minute process. Feeling the frustration and exhaustion building inside of me I went back to class and sat down to take my test. Realizing I had left my pencils back at home I managed to find a mechanical pencil at the bottom of my bag. I tried to pump out a lead, but the tiny one that came out broke off and I couldn’t get another one out. That was it. That has now become the infamous pencil lead that broke me. In the middle of class and the other students taking their tests I broke down crying. I laugh at this now, but in the moment everything reached the breaking point. I became Volcan Arenal and the tears came spilling out of my eyes! My sweet friend, Marcy, took me out of class to talk and pray. I was able to regain composure and go through the rest of the day, but feeling very drained and emotionally weak.

I share all that to share with you the effect that LACC had on me. Honestly, I didn’t feel like going to visit. I just wanted to go home and sleep. But I knew I had to get this project done so I decided against rescheduling. When we got to the school we went on a tour of all the classes. The kids were so precious. I spent time in the 6th grade class. I had created a poll to give them to find out more about their school experiences. Just like in an American classroom there were class clowns that made jokes about some of the questions, girls that volunteered every time I asked for help, etc. As I spoke to the director she told me how many of the kids in the school are abused at home, physically, sexually, emotionally, etc. I looked at their faces and wondered how such beautiful children could be treated so badly.

I asked for testimonies and two of the children came forward and talked about how life was before they had started going to the school, how their attitudes were full of anger or hopelessness, how they disrespected everyone, but how they had found God here at the school and had a new outlook on life.

These kids brightened my day. They were funny, playful, openhearted and just so sweet. I left the school a different person than when I entered it. My excitement for Colombia was again peaking and I was forgetting all the red tape I had dealt with earlier in the morning. We’ll get there. We may have to do a little more wiggling through the visa process, but soon we will be able to be more involved in the lives of children like these in Costa Rica. God had the best kind of healing planned for my weary body and soul!
~Tona

Mom and Rick's Visit

We packed a week's worth of activities into a quick four days when Mom and Rick came to visit. Their first day here they visited our school and even got to take a phonetics class. Lizbeth put them to the test! They had to say a bunch of tongue twisters. I was very proud of them for working hard to say each word correctly. They got a glimpse of the humbling process all the students here at Cincel go through. In the afternoon I took them to the artesian's market and we were going to stroll through downtown San Jose, but this is rainy season and it was coming down hard.

The next day we loaded up and headed to our favorite place in Costa Rica - Volcan Arenal. Lucky for us the lava was now flowing down the side of the volcano that we stay on. We went to dinner (it was my birthday) at an outdoor restaurant just down the road from our cabins and ate extremely delicious steak. As we sat eating dinner we watched rocks of lava bounding down the side of the mountain, breaking into different pieces and flowing in streams in every direction. It was beautiful!

We woke up to the sound of howler monkeys, well, howling. When I knew Mom and Rick were coming I tried to find an adventure that wouldn't be too strenuous for them. Everyone told me the hanging bridges were a hit for all ages. I was told, "It's a nice stroll through the rainforest on six beautiful hanging bridges." What nobody told me was that it was just under a two mile stroll with a LOT of climbing uphill!! Mom and Rick were such troopers. The walk really was gorgeous with all kinds of beautiful scenery, but halfway through I think our goal was just to get out of there without any casualties!

We spent the evening nursing our tired muscles in the hot springs. Unfortunately the volcano was pretty clouded over, so we couldn't see the lava, but the water did wonders for our exhausted bodies.

The next morning we visited the national park to go to the lookout, a great view at the base of the volcano. I had been excited about walking on top of the lava beds from the major eruption back in the 60s, but when we looked at the map we realized it would be about a two and a half mile walk to get there and back and we decided the overlook was good enough!

Of course when we couldn't leave without Maggie spending some time with her favorite tico friends...

We had a wonderful visit with Mom and Rick, although far too quick, but it was so nice to see family again and I'm so proud of how easily they took everything in stride and really worked hard to speak Spanish.
~Tona

Happy Independence Day

What do you do when you're out of the country during a national holiday? You gather a bunch of Americans and celebrate anyway! We were sad to miss a big block party this morning for all Americans here in San Jose (we had to go to class :( ), but we enjoyed ourselves this evening at the school. We had a big cookout with hotdogs, chicken and steak. The kids demolished a pinata and played in the park. With patriotic songs blaring we watched a homemade fireworks show. It wasn't necessarily your big city type of show, but it was equally satisfying - a small taste of home! I hope everyone out there had an awesome 4th! We're missing Old Navy t-shirts, Stone Mountain, Mackinac Island and so much more. Love you all!!
~Tona

Progress!

A quick update on my last post. Maggie is almost fully recovered. She was on a heavy dose of medicine for a few days, but she is down to finishing an antibiotic and she hasn't had to use an inhaler for two days now. I, however, am fighting through yet another turn of a cold, sinus infection, etc. This weekend was pretty yucky, but everything seems to be improving, so thanks for all your prayers.

I wanted to write about Corey a little bit tonight. It's no secret that Corey really struggled with picking up the language our first few months here. This trimester he is better matched with teachers and seems to be really charging ahead. Our friend, Suyan, has a son who is 15. We had a chance to hang out with him a few months back when we visited their house and once for a short time at a party, but it wasn't until Alex's birthday party that we had time to see him again. His name is Alberto. He and Corey sat and chatted the best they could about soccer, movies and things like that. Corey really opened up with Alberto and didn't hesitate too much with his Spanish.

Apparently Alberto had as much fun because he's been asking to come over for a while now. Today he came to spend the day with Corey. It's amazing when you have two people with different first languages, but each with a tiny bit of the other's language also, who can find ways to communicate and have a great time together. There was nothing spectacular about the day, they just spent time hanging out, but at the end Alberto asked if he could come back another day this week (he has the next two weeks off of school).

I thought about how impossible this would have been just six months ago. Corey has come a long way and, along with learning more Spanish that he realizes he has, he has impacted the life of a 15 year old Costa Rican boy. I just have to say - I'm so proud of him!
~Tona