COMO SE' WHAT????!!!!

October 31, 2007

Como se WHAT????

Whew. Well, you can say “culture shock”! It didn’t take long last night for me to realize how comfortable I am at home and how much I take for granted. The house is large for a hotel room. There are 3 small bedrooms and a bathroom off of the kitchen/living area. Sedi (Sadie) is our new helper. She had a good Costa Rican dinner for us when we arrived. It started to settle in that we are here for 6 months. There are so many things I go to look for and don’t have. It was noisy outside most of the night and the kids were a little unsettled by that. The motorcycles and roosters started at 5am. I was up by 6 am. The sun must come up earlier. It is 1 hour behind Central Time right now, but will stay the same when home “falls back”. Charlie woke up a little teary and mad whenever we spoke Spanish to him. I held him for a while and he cried and said he wanted to go home. Chandler started counting the days down. This could be hard. I here my mom say “ya think?” We ate Fruity O’s for breakfast and quickly got to work trying to sort and organize all of this stuff. There are no closets, only 1 small armoire in each room. We are using trunks for some storage. The kitchen is small. There is a microwave and small refrigerator and a small stove/oven. The laundry is outside on the back porch. The floors are cement! Not like nice stained cement, but like your garage. The beds are fine. Not great, but fine. The girls have a room with a bunk bed and the boys have 2 twins with a trundle for George. Lily is in her crib with us. Sadie came at 10 am this morning. She made a quick breakfast and we left with Hector to Turrialba for big grocery shopping. It was similar to Cancun, only like one of the small local mercados not Wal Mart. It was fun and Hector was helpful. When we got home Sadie had put away ALL of the clothes and organized everything!!! I couldn’t believe it! I said “Bo, Cruz was here!!!” WOW! That helped me so much! We also had coffee this afternoon. That helped too! Sedi is nice and speaks only Spanish, so it is a little difficult, but it is only the first day. Bo is doing great with his Spanish. I am surprised at how much I understand too. A neighbor came over this afternoon. I really understood what she was saying (I think) I think she was asking me if I wanted to leave Lily with her while we go to school. I told her “No, con migo” (No, with me) Soon, some local children started to gather at our front gate. We invited them inside the gate to the front porch. Our older children and the locals began to play and have a good time together. They know a little English and we know a little Spanish, so we figured each other out. Bo was happy and said this is what he hoped for. It helped him.

All of this has brought real missionaries to my mind. So many people out there who are called by God to go to foreign countries and tell people about Jesus. Many of them are in danger. Most of them are certainly uncomfortable. They have much less that this. I find myself praying for them. –for grace for them. I know God has called them and they have grace, but I don’t know that it is just easy breezy for them. I am sure they miss their families and the comforts of home just as much as I do.

I feel better tonight than last night. I know I was so tired last night. It is really fun to be here with Bo. I enjoy our time together. Hopefully each day will be better than the one before.