Mi Familia Tica

This weekend I went with my host family to the wedding of one a previous EMI intern who had lived with them. He was getting married at this beautiful place in Costa Rica and Emanuel got to be the ring bearer. They accept us interns into their homes like we are their children. Alejandra introduces me as her "hija gringa" (which could roughly be translated as "north american daughter"). I finally have a picture of the whole family so I thought I would write about each of them.

Alejandra, Juan Carlos, Maria Paula, Emanuel, and me

Juan Carlos is a graphic designer. He loves to ride his bike and study God’s Word. He also likes to read (which apparently is rare for Ticos). He doesn’t talk a lot, but when he does he is pretty funny. He is a great cook and likes to try fancy recipes from magazines. El es muy tranquilo. (sorry sometimes the Spanish just works better)

Alejandra loves to talk. I like it because we can still have conversations even without me talking! She likes to pretend to dance in the living room. She works hard to get us all out the door in the morning on time and with breakfast. She also works hard around the house. The only chore that she really doesn't like is ironing. (Ticos make sure everything is ironed. They are very conscious of looking nice.) She is pretty light skinned for a Tica and has green eyes. Posiblimente puedo parecer una Tica. She calls Juan Carlos her boyfriend all the time.

Maria Paula will turn 14 next week. She is likes makeup, clothes, high heels, and boys. She is outgoing like her mom and greets me enthusiastically when I get home. We have connected by riding bikes together, as well as me listening to whatever she has to say about boys, and helping her with math homework. She is very social and loves to hang out with the interns. Sometimes on Sunday afternoons we will walk to the center of town, get ice cream, and hang out at the park. She and Emanuel like to watch a reality TV show called Combate, where team Naranja and team Azul compete in a variety of games.

Emanuel is 8 years old and absolutely loves to ride his bike. When he can’t ride on our deadend street he rides endlessly in circles on our small patio. He is very responsible with his schoolwork. He likes to try to scare people and "help" me make bread and cookies by eating the dough. (They love my Mom’s homemade bread recipe) We play whatever game he comes up with: cards, hide and seek, mean dog…  When we watch Combate Emanuel will jump up and join the Azul victory dance. As I get near the house after work I often hear him yell, “¡Mamá, Esther viene!” 

Weekend Adventures

So I told you about daily life, but not my weekend adventures. On Saturdays I typically do something with the other interns. We went surfing at Playa Jaco, where I got majorly sunburned. My legs hurt for a whole week afterwards. Note to everyone who is as white as me: reapply sunscreen every hour or don’t be outside between the hours of 12 and 2 when you are near the equator. I never stood up completely on the surf board, but did manage to get up on one knee and one foot. Kevin had been surfing before and taught us how to get started. We had to figure it out from there.

Oh, yes we surf...and we probably have a band too. (Kevin, me, Allison, and Brad)

Waiting for a good wave to catch. The waves were huge, so we mostly rode the surf.

One foot up!

...and down I go, but it was such fun!

We also went on a hike to a waterfall that we had heard about. Brad had tried to find it the weekend before, but turned back too soon. The whole epic is told here:

We have also watched football (soccer) games on TV, watch a Tico friend play saxophone at a local café, hung out with visiting family, traveled to a national park, and gone on a tour of museums in San Jose.

We typically spend Sundays with our host families. Spending a whole weekend in Spanish is very helpful to learning the language. I’ve gone on bike rides with my host sister, made cookies with my host brother, travelled to a nephew’s birthday party with my host mom, and just hung around the house. There is a lot more of doing nothing than I am used to. Church is also in Spanish, so a lot of energy is required to pay attention and understand. What has blown me away is that even when I don’t understand most of the words that the pastor is saying I still seem to learn something or come away convicted. It has been clear evidence of what Jesus said: “The Helper, the Holy Spirit …will teach you all things” John 14:26

Everyday

I haven’t told you all about my everyday life. First, I wake up. Usually this is earlier than I want to and I can’t fall back asleep because after 5:30 am my room is full of light. I have a perfect ½ hour walk to town and start work by 8 am. Every morning we spend about a ½ hour either praying, worshiping, or having a devotion. Then we get to work. Right now most of my work is in AutoCAD doing redlines. Tim, my supervisor, marks changes for me to make in the plans (in red ink), I make those changes in AutoCAD, highlight the red ink to show that the change has been made, reprint the fixed plans, and he marks them up again. That is redlines. We slowly converge on the final product.

Doing Redlines

I have been working on two different projects. Both are in Honduras. One is the project for Munoz Ministries, which I have already written about.  I had been working on redlines for the other project, Rancho Oasis for Youth, for a while and was familiar with the building plans, but I didn’t know what it would be used for. Then I started working on the report for that project and got to read about their vision to provide a place of safety and healing for kids in extreme poverty or abusive situations. They want to pair these kids with animals that have come from similar situations and use that responsibility and care to help heal both the child and the animal. They would combine this with the gospel and discipleship. Like the Munoz family they have a huge vision which includes tutoring, English lessons, vocational training, and sustainable agriculture. I was once again reminded how wonderful it is that I am not just doing redlines for a multipurpose building, but that this building will enable these missionaries to fulfill the vision that God has given them!

Below are some pictures from our technical presentation to the rest of the office when we got back from our project trip to Honduras. We outlined the preliminary design and got the advice of the whole office about additional ideas and concerns.

Allison and I presenting

Listening to the guys' technical presentation

After work I walk home and spend the evening with my host family: talking with my host mom in the kitchen (though she is usually doing the talking and I say "oh, si"), watching TV with my host siblings (I've watched more TV here than in my entire life previously), or hanging out with the my host siblings and the neighborhood kids on our dead end street (once again, I mostly say "oh, si?"). Then early to bed for the next day...