June 11 - June 14

6/11/2012 at 9:20pm

My house from the outside.

This is a mot-mot.  It's pretty cool, right?

Today Abby and I walked to the Institute together and talked, which was awesome.  She seems to be feeling better, which is good.  We and Ryan hung out, updated journals/blogs, and laughed a ton over inside jokes during lunch, especially Ryan minorly freaking out over the fact that the microwave is in Spanish.  It was hysterical!  We then had a charla on the bellbird and the corridors and planting trees.


After that I did more translation on the document I'm working on; just one more paragraph, then I have to recheck for fluidity and accuracy, and then do the PowerPoint, but I have all day tomorrow to do it.  Ryan and Abby caught a mot-mot!  Then the lady who gave us the bellbird talk was nice enough to give us a ride into town, and we walked into the Supermercado and had a ball looking at food and prices.  We ran into Andrea and Eric and they kindly gave us all a ride to my house, and then I had dinner, did homework, and played with my papá and Luis for a bit.  Then I left for la reunión de jovenes and met Alonso (I think that's his name) and Saray (the youth pastor's wife, who is super sweet).  Gabriel was also around, doing some sound op things as well as being able to participate in the service.  We all had a great worship time, game time, teaching time, and prayer as a few people came to accept Christ into their lives as their Savior.  So amazing and I am so grateful for the time that I was able to spend with everyone today and for the people I got to meet.

6/12/2012 at 8:30pm

After breakfast and meeting up with Abby and Ryan, we walked to MVI and did some relaxing and work until Jenny and Sofia gathered us to learn how to identify plants, especially some trees.  I considered not going but Justin persuaded me to go, even though I didn't have to, and I'm so glad I did and am kind of wishing I took notes.  Identifying plants turned into such a fun game for me that I joked that I was going to change my major to biology.  My favorite plant families are probably Costaceae, Heliconaceae, Piperaceae, and Rubiaceae.  They're fun to identify.

From the Costaceae family.  The undersides of the leaves are
soft and fuzzy due to trichomes, and the yellow flower petals
are actually edible and taste like citrus.  Its common name is
the toilet paper plant!

Learning to identify plants by their leaf arrangements, veins,
presence of stipules, and other ways!

After that, we ate lunch and I started translating the PowerPoint.  I also met with Justin about the ASADA aqueduct project I will now be working on since it's officially a go.  It's pretty far out of my comfort zone, dealing with water supply and aqueduct system diagrams and interpreting data after entry into Excel and doing a case report.  But I'm up for the challenge and am thrilled to help them out and serve in this way and be part of a pretty big project.

Relaxing, enjoying the view, and using the Internet after
a long day of great work.

After my meeting with Justin, I looked at Jenny's PowerPoint for the bellbird presentation that she will be doing and I fixed some of the English translations for her.  It's a super cool presentation on biological corridor type stuff.  I then worked on Justin's PowerPoint again until Abby and Ryan finished, had coffee and chatted with Erick (who works here, not my tico brother-in-law) for a bit, and then Abby, Ryan, and I walked back to our homes, making stops along the way into different small stores.

(I just remembered from earlier today Erick accidentally squishing the huge bug in the sliding door that I wanted to take a picture of when I went to get my camera... I exclaimed, "Por quéeeeee!?" and now we joke about it).

Luis and some of his friends came to play Ultimate today, four on four.  It was fun, but turns happened like every five seconds...and in order to get space, we climbed a fence, so my hands are a little bruised because I kept dropping myself too fast for my arms to lower myself in a controlled manner, but it's all good.  It was so cool being able to actually play Ultimate here!  I had a yummy dinner and good homework session, even with Luis being Luis.  He made a funny comment though about my doll and monkey toys sitting together on my shelf being me and my novio tico who is nonexistent that he wants to find for me.

6/13/2012 at 5:40am

I just wanted to quickly write about how amazing Abby Brownell and Ryan Drake are and how grateful I am to have them here with me, to be able to see them grow.

Abby has been such a trooper.  I never feared that she would be afraid of any of this because of how adventurous and hardy she is.  What concerned me was when she became sick, but she pulled through and is still happy as ever to be here.  She is learning so much every day and hearing her stories about her host family always brings a smile to my face.

Look at us all being awesome and wearing out Grace Groner
shirts.  :)  I love these guys.
PS: We didn't plan this originally; Ryan and I made Abby
change after we realized we were wearing our Groner shirts.

Ryan has really been a fighter as well.  I am certain it has been difficult for him not having prior experience to suddenly jump into intensive Spanish courses and try to communicate with his host family.  But each day he learns something new, and always is so happy to be able to use it.  He has worked super hard to be doing all that I have seen him be able to do, and hearing his funny and interesting stories also makes me smile.

These two are like family to me now: We laugh hysterically together, annoy each other to death, and can work hard and seriously together and still have fun.  I love them so much and pray often for them.

6/13/2012 at 8:25pm

Walking stick buddy! They come in all sorts
of different colors and sizes here.

After Spanish class (and attempting to bring a walking stick into class that I found on a door), Jenny brought Abby, Ryan, and I to Finca la Bella where we learned about the history of the farm as well as what is grown there and how the coffee production process works.  Then we got to toast and package some dark-roast coffee.  In between, we had coffee with dry arepas (pancakes) which was amazing and made me not want to eat lunch when we went to Jenny's to grab her lunch and meet her kids and new puppy.  After saying bye at la Bella to Oldimar and our new friends Jenny and Alex, we all went to a farm nearby where Alan and his son Dylan taught us how to milk cows, which I epically failed at for like ten minutes before sort of getting the hang of it.  They have an adorable baby calf too that I love.  Then a green toucan flew into a window and knocked himself so hard he was in shock, so Alan put him on a branch so he could try to recover.  Abby and Ryan got pictures; my camera was in the car.  Poor thing!  Afterward, Abby, Ryan, Jenny, and I drove into Santa Elena, and I kid you not I saw a stray dog that looked exactly like my mutt at home Gizmo.  By the time I went back after Jenny dropped us off, he was gone.  I hope to see him and get a picture sometime.  We got some things from Vitosi, ran into Saray in her car on the way to soay hi to Ana (my Spanish professor) at the Macrobiotica, waited for her husband Guillermo Vargas to show up while she gave a massage to a customer, and then went to Abby's so I could type up my Spanish homework and send it to Ana.  I came home, had dinner, tried making tortillas for dinner, did dishes, did homework, showered...a normal routine.

Monteverde weather changes super fast.  One minute it was nice out this morning, the next it was a torrential downpour Noah's Ark style.  Oh, and this morning a million male leafcutter ants were swarming all over, while this afternoon it was termites.  I suppose they all decided to find new nests at once.  I can't decide which I prefer.  I love the weird/cool/fascinating nature of this place.  I can't go around saying a toucan hit my window in Illinois, after all.

6/14/2012 at 8:00pm

I'm about to begin church but wanted to get some journaling in before the service starts.  I had a fun and

The clearest view of the CR pacific gulf I've seen so far.

interesting Spanish class where I got to help Ana by helping Thomas practice preterit versus imperfect tenses.  There was also a piano in there today so I got to play today for a bit, and it was wonderful because it felt like it had been so long since I last played.  An architect student came with us on the walk to the Institute earlier this morning; his name is Alec and he seems pretty nice and was good company.  A bit later we had a charla on the biological corridor for the bellbird and ironically it was the same PowerPoint I edited for Jenny yesterday!  We ate lunch and then after I got some work done and talked with Mike and Andres on the computer.

10:15pm

That service was so blessed tonight.  My heart just broke for the state of mankind and for my friends and I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I began to cry and for whatever reason could not stop for the longest time.  God is so good, so good, and we are all so unworthy, but He pursues us and loves us no matter what we do.  I really have no words to adequately describe it.  And I finally got my agua dulce at the end that I had been wanting since I got to Costa Rica, yesss!

 Earlier before I left, I played monito (monkey in the middle) with Josue and Luis in the big open area in the store in my house.  It was so much fun.  Then we sat around and told jokes afterward until I left.  These kinds of moments are the ones I treasure the most, more than epic forest adventures and hard work and fun classes (no matter how amazing those in and of themselves are).  It's the time with God and the time with people that matter the most to me.

Tomorrow I meet with the president of the board of directors for ASADA and Alberto, along with Justin and Jenny, to begin figuring out what needs to be done for this aqueduct project.  Things are getting very exciting and uncomfortable, and I totally welcome it with open arms, yay! :)