English Lessons

While we’re all together, we’ve been teaching our Costa Rican classmates some very useful survival English phrases.

(Please imagine the following sentences spoken with a Costa Rican accent for the full effect)

For example, we’ve taught Mariana, “Get out, demon, in the name of the Lord!”

And Rebeca has learned, “My heart beats for you”.

Teaching Luis and Manny "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" has still only met with very limited success.

Manny picked up “That’s amazing!” from Scott, but when Breeana had to wear one of those lovely net hats (you know the ones I’m talking about- people in food service have to wear them?) and I sarcastically told her how cute it looked, he followed up with, “oh baby, I ache for you” all on his own.

A different way to spend the evening

Last night, I hung out on a street corner with a few transvestite prostitutes.

Apparently prostitution is legal here in Costa Rica. The DTS team from Denver that's here right now went out last night to minister to prostitutes, and I was invited along to translate. As we drove past groups of women standing on street corners, I began to feel both compassion and fear. There is so much pain and sin in this world. Christ is working through his church to redeem a world where we have hurt each other so much that men lose their identities as men, put their bodies on display, and sell themselves to make a living.

We dropped off our first group of 4 girls- 2 Denver team members and 2 translators- as we continued on, covering them in prayer. As I watched them approach the first group, my fear grew. Not for their safety, but the fear of stepping outside my comfort zone. I worried about what I would say, how they would react to our presence, what they would think of us.

When we were ready to send out the next team, I was half hoping I wouldn't be on it, but I also knew I needed to look to God instead of my fear. So, Elena, 2 Denver DTS girls and I approached the prostitutes on the corner. And you know what? Beginning our conversation was awkward, but we had fun. We laughed together, we talked about food and music, we heard a little bit of their stories. One of them is 23 years old and has been on the street since she was 6. Elena asked if they'd like to get off the streets and they shared that they would, and the difficulties of finding jobs, especially as transvestites.

We didn't end up spending too much time sharing about God's love, but they did let us pray with them before we left. And if I go back again, I won't be nearly as afraid to step out of my comfort zone. Maybe I'll participate more in the conversation instead of just listening. And if I go a 3rd time, maybe I'll be ready to share more about WHY I'm choosing to hang out on street corners instead of going to bed. Each time we go, our trust in God will grow, and relationships will grow. And as we trust God and each other more, that is when we will see God at work.

Sunday in the Park

Sunday afternoon we headed to the park. Okayama park is a favorite of ours, and apparently of many Ticos too.

The park doesn't get much less busy in the evening. Around 7 a group of 20 or so of us- San Jose DTS students and staff, Denver DTS, and Belize DTS went back to the park with a guitar. We prayed some praise and worship songs and sang together. There was another large group of young people hanging out under a large tree listening. Finally, someone from our group got brave enough to go over and say hello. Turns out they were from a church and came over and joined our group. A few of them took turns on the guitar and we all praised the Lord together, sometimes in Spanish, sometimes in English, and sometimes in both. It was a beautiful time.

Things I love about Costa Rica

So many things here in Costa Rica are a constant reminder of God’s creative power.

The sunsets

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Psalm 19:1

The mountains

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills. From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and Earth.” Psalm 121:1&2

The flowers

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.” Matthew 6:8&9

Fresh fruits and vegetables

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind. . . and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:10&11

The kids on base

“Children are a heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” Psalm 127:3

“Jucumeros Misioneros Ilegalmente en San Jose”

Today, we were pulled over by the police.

The day started out innocently enough- we went to the Salvation Army to serve breakfast to the homeless. We pulled up and my face broke into a smile as dozens of people, who remember us from yesterday, smiled and cheered to see us back again. A short woman steped out of line and rushed to Scott, hugging him hard around the stomach, as whistles and catcalls broke out all over. Scott said, “I’m doing the dishes today, have to stay away from these women”.

Inside I got the job of serving hot dogs

after Lito piled gallo pinto on the plates.

I passed the plates off to Kendra who added a Danish,

and then Alex and Reanna took care of milk, spoons and serving

while Anna and Chove washed dishes.

We decided to sing, and when one of the homeless men left singing “todopoderso”, we thought we should keep it up. Somehow though, our bilingual versions of Mighty to Save and Blessed be your Name were interspersed with much less inspirational songs-We are the Pirates who don’t do Anything, the barney song, Los Pollitos, and Pin Pon (those last 2 are Spanish children’s classics).

Half way through serving, Lito disappeared for a few minutes to repark the car, which for some reason wasn’t supposed to be on the street. When we left to go back to the base, Lito explained, “chicos, we have to take a back way out of San Jose and avoid the town center.” I’m not sure on all the details, but apparently to cut down on congestion, street traffic in down town San Jose is limited according to the day of the week by license plates ending in a certain number, and we somehow forgot that info before leaving home today.

So, we prayed we’d avoid police detection, and set off down back roads, only to run straight into a police roadblock. Lito took off his baseball cap, pulled out his passport, and showed it to the police, while explaining ever-so politely that we were a missions group just returning from feeding the homeless, we’d forgotten all about the license plate restriction, and we were doing our best to avoid the town center. Please, forgive us. And, the officer handed back his passport, and let us go! We cheered as we drove off- God might not have made us invisible, but he gave us grace in the eyes of that police officer and we made it home without another incident.

(The title of this post means “YWAM missionaries illegally in San Jose”. It was the joking headline one of the girls imagined for our little adventure today)

A day at the beach

Today we went to Jaco. It’s not the prettiest beach in Costa Rica, but it is the closest. We left to catch the bus into San Jose around 7. After a local bus ride and a 15 minute walk across town we made it to the bus station to buy our tickets. We got there about 5 minutes later than we should have, since there were only 3 seats left on the 9am bus. So, we took 3 tickets for seats, and 3 standing tickets (which aren’t even discounted), and waited some more to get on the bus. We had 3 seats in a row across the back of the bus and managed to squeeze 4 of us onto them for most of the ride. The other 2 took turns sitting on the floor and standing. It was supposed to take about 2 hours, but traffic was horrible in the city, and it took us closer to 3 before we got to the beach. It was so worth it though. The water was warm, the waves were fun without being fierce, and the day was warm but somewhat overcast so I didn’t completely fry.

While we were there we met up with 2 other DTS students who left on the 7am bus, and then with another group of YWAMers who did the children at risk school in San Jose and are doing their outreach in Jaco now. Actually, it’s really cool because they spent the first 3 months of their school outreach in Colombia at Formando Vidas, which is where I’m planning to be in January, so it was good to hear a bit about their experiences. They loved it there.

We enjoyed the waves and the weather and hanging out together on the beach, then went back to where they are staying. It’s actually a Christian Surfer’s organization that works on building relationships in the community and reaching out to surfers. We had dinner together, and then headed back on the 6 o’clock bus. Now we’re all tired, happy, and a bit pinker than we were this morning.

Another day in San Jose

Today was my turn on “weekend duty”. Each of us spends one weekend working on meal prep and cleaning so everyone else gets a break from their daily chores. It turned out to be easier than I expected since by 12:30 breakfast had been cooked and cleaned up from, all the bathrooms were cleaned, lunch had been eaten, I’d written my book report, and I was bored out of my mind. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one who was bored, so we headed back into San Jose.

San Jose is actually not the best place to go if you are bored. It’s rather small. I know this because I get lost rather easily, and I don’t think I could get lost for long in San Jose. Any major road leads to one of 3 major city landmarks. From there it’s an easy matter finding a bus back to the base. There are good things about being in a small city with only 3 landmarks though. If someone else you know is in the city at the same time, you’re likely to run into them. So, when we ran into Johan and Luis today, we weren’t exactly shocked. On our way back to the bus, we came across a rather creative money making operation in one of the 3 main landmark plazas. A miniature motorcycle and a horse were sitting there. You could pose there for pictures and then a woman with a digital camera and a photo printer would take your photo and print it for you on the spot. Somehow between the 6 of us we let her talk us into buying 4 sheets of photos off of her. . . On the walk back to the base from the bus stop, we found another fun photo shoot. What do you think?

What is a DTS anyway?

I wondered that myself before I came down here. A lot of people have asked me what I would be doing, and I always gave rather vague answers, so here’s a glimpse at what a DTS is actually like.

Every week day we have class from 9-12 or 12:30. This week the classes were on hearing the voice of God. It was both a challenging and an encouraging week. The Bible is clear that God will guide his children (John 10:27, Isaiah 30:21, Proveerbs 3:5&6). This week we talked about what we should do to prepare our hearts to hear God- trust that he will speak, surrender our will, be humble, and spend time listening to him. We also looked at Biblical passages that show ways in which God has spoken to his people. I think it was a week that encouraged all of us to walk closer to God and listen to him more carefully.

When we’re not in class, we do, oh, just about everything. There are work duties (I set out breakfast foods and clean up afterwards), times of worship and prayer, Spanish conversation practice, homework, and plenty of time to walk to the park and play on the playground equipment and watch people play soccer, or walk to the local pulperia and buy snack foods.

Wednesday night some of us went to a shelter in the evening. When we got there it turned out another group beat us there and they didn’t need us, so we took our food out into the street looking for homeless people to share it with. After passing just 1 or 2 obviously homeless people on the street, we stopped to give them some food. I figured we would move on somewhere else, but word spread like wildfire that we were there. I don’t think we were there much more than 15 or 20 minutes before our food ran out, and we must have served at least 30 people. I wished we had been able to chat with people instead of just serving food, but it didn’t work out that night. Seeing so many people (some of them very young- there was one guy who said he had just turned 18) come out of nowhere was sad. I wonder how many homeless there are in San Jose.

Thursday afternoons are set aside for local outreach. This Thursday we went to a local park to pick up trash. Parque de la paz has a giant hill in the center, and there must always be a breeze up there because it has a reputation as a great place to fly kites. There were a lot of families out enjoying the day, flying kites, and sliding down the hill on cardboard boxes. When you never get snow, you have to be creative. Our group of probably attracted attention as it was (especially since we were speaking English and Spanish and Scott had 2 of his blonde boys along), but Reanna made sure we got some more. There’s a chant that translates roughly, “Let’s go so-and-so, don’t be afraid, show us your moves. Up, chili, chili, down chili chili, by your toes chili chili” Each time you choose a different person’s name they choose a move and everyone mimics it. We chanted the whole way back through the park.

Friday nights are Freeman Family Fun night. All of us go to Scott’s house, and basically are required to make fools of ourselves. Last night everyone sat in a circle, except the person who was “it”. Their task was to try to make someone laugh. Whoever laughed first had the next turn in the center. Great way to spend time with people you just met a week ago, no?

The saga of the missing credit card

Last Monday, I went to the bank to withdraw money. My receipt came out and I looked at it, desperately hoping I’d calculated correctly and 100,000 colones was not as obscene an amount as it sounded. When I saw my remaining account balance and noticed that I was actually a millionaire I got a bit distracted. So much so, that I didn’t realize I never took my card back out of the machine until I got back to the base.

I made a quick trip back to the bank where I had a frustrating conversation with a guy whose accent was almost impossible to understand. He eventually gave me a phone number and told me who to call. Have I ever mentioned how much lower my Spanish comprehension is when talking on the phone? It’s pretty low. And it took 3 phone calls to figure this out. Fortunately there are quie a few bilingual Costa Ricans on base, so they helped me with 2 of them. I was on my own for the last one though. Taking down the address to the place where I went to pick up my card took forever. Addresses here are crazy. Apparently there are no street numbers. I’m not even sure all the streets have names. The address she gave me ended with “edificio esquinero”, literally, “the building on the corner” (and that was the address, NOT directions).

So, Scott (the school director), Breeana and I set off in search of the building. Driving in Costa Rica, if anything, is even crazier than their address system. Lanes are optional, as are stop signs some of the time. Left hand turns across 3 lanes of traffic are a part of life. Taxis drivers all seem to have a death wish. Vendors walk up and down between cars trying to sell things at lights. We bought 2 coconuts with a hole cut in them and straws to drink the milk. Not my all time favorite, but definitely worth the dollar.

We finally spotted the building on a corner, but not one we could really get to. So, after several quite possibly illegal traffic maneuvers and more lane changes than one should really make in 5 minutes, we pulled into the parking lot only to be foiled by the doors. Here’s a tip- if you’re walking into the ATH building in San Jose, push the button by the first set of doors, then pull them open. Wait until they close completely. Then open the next set of doors. That little bit of info will make you look less like a fool than I looked. Once we got in, getting my credit card back was easy. Let’s hope keeping it proves even easier.

Some odds and ends

Estoy aprendiendo Pachuco!

Pachuco is the word for Costa Rican slang. The Ticos (which is what Costa Rican’s call themselves) on our team have been teaching us pachuco. I love learning slang and colloquialisms. It’s so fun to learn words that aren’t even in the dictionary. So, so far my pachuco vocabulary includes “barra” which means “thing”, “mai” as in “guy”, “lo juimos” (or ele jota) which means “let’s go”, “sapa” which means, more or less, “I don’t want to hear it any more”. Harina, which literally means wheat, means money here. Chiva and tuanis both mean cool. (spellings here are all my best guess)

So, last night when we were starting a movie, and Chove said, “Mai, como funciona esa barra” (How’s this thing work man?”), I was so proud of myself that I understood him, pachuco and all. We’ll see what I learn next. J

Lemuel

Daniel and Claudia are the resident family at our house. They have an 11-month-old son named Lemuel who is the cutest little guy ever. Whenever he comes into a room, everyone is drawn to him like a magnet. Anyway, yesterday or the day before, Lemuel took his first steps. He is so cute and proud of himself every time he walks. Today he was walking back and forth between his dad and I, almost falling over as he walked, or closer to ran, back and forth. He would clap for himself each time he reached one of us. His pride in his accomplishment and his smile are contagious.

DTS classes have started and are going well! I'll have to write more about them later, since it's time to stop using the computer and start being either social or helpful.

Dia de Turista

My room- my bed's in the back corner.

Today was a free day, and since we went to Saturday night church yesterday, we decided to be tourists today. We took a bus into downtown San Jose and wandered around. Without really knowing where we were, we managed to hit most of the tourist hot spots- the central plaza, the cathedral, the national theater, another theater and the Gold Museum. We didn't go into any of the buildings- we just did the outside walk-by tour. I was surprised by how small San Jose is. It's the capital city and the largest city in the country, as far as I know, and it had a tinydowntown district. There were just a few sights listed in my guidebook for San Jose, and we saw most of them in our wanderings. The buildings were mostly just a few stories tall.

As we walked back in what we thought was the general direction of the plaza central, looking for an ice cream shop we'd seen earlier, we ended up back at the little park where the bus stop is. There was a church group there doing mimes and skits to Christian songs. We stayed and watched a few and ate our lunches. It was really fun. From the bus stop we knew how to get back to the plaza, so we went and got the ice cream we'd all been wanting. I was so excited to see mora ice cream again, one of my favorites from when I was in Ecuador. (black raspberry, I think, or maybe blackberry). It started to rain as we finished our cones, so we headed back to the bus. It poured while we were at the bus stop waiting for our bus and wondering if we would even know which the right one was. Fortunately for us, most of us had brought umbrellas and there was a covered waiting area at the bus stop. Also fortunately for us, the first bus we got on DID go back towards our house and the bus driver even told us when we needed to get off after Reanna showed him our address cards.

So, now we're back, feeling like we were adventuresome, slightly damp, and proud of ourselves for navigating the public transportation system and the streets of San Jose without a map and without mishap. It's only 1:40 here, and we're not really sure what to do with ourselves for the rest of the day.

Breeana and Kendra outside Teatro Nacional

Plaza de la Cultura

Random statues in front of the bank.

The cathedral

The other theater- I forget its name, but the tourist map in the middle of la plaza de la cultura had it marked. :)

A plaza across from the cathedral

Left to right- Reanna, Alex, me, Kendra

Church group doing mime.