Sunny with a high of 75

It's been another beautiful week in San Ramon de Tres Rios (where we're living in our home stay with the Baits family); the morning just shouts potential when the sun is shining. We're especially appreciative of this summer weather when we hear about the freezing winter that most states are currently having. Sorry to all of you who this applies to...

This week we've been outside working once more at the church in Alajuelita in this lovely weather. Chris and I have become "pringa pros," spending all of our time splattering (pringando) the church walls with a mixture of sand, cement, and water. It's a very messy job since a portion of the mixture splatters back onto us (or anyone around). Instead of wearing hats to shield the sun, we wear them to shield our hair and faces from the cement. Needless to say, we leave the church much dirtier than we arrived.

Excitingly enough, the church is actually starting to look more like a normal building now! We've never been a part of such an elaborate process before and I definitely have a new appreciation of how these buildings here in Costa Rica come to be. Picture cinder block walls with tons of the sand, cement, water mixture inside and then splattered on the outsides. After smoothing and even more cement comes the plaster, which is what they're applying now. This step is making the church's appearance improve greatly and it looks like we now have walls. Eventually they will paint over this and ya esta. It'll be finished. This is a WAY simplified explanation of the process that we've been observing and learning to do over the last month, but now you know a little bit more about Tican construction.

Above Left: Chris is mixing up some of the material to splat on the walls. We do this countless times throughout the day. Above Right: See the light & dark gray on the wall behind me? That's what I was splatting (pringando) before I slipped down the rock pile.

This picture is for those of you from Illinois- Guis is working outside of the kitchen!!
For everone else, this is us being "pringa pros."

Plaster time! They're starting to look like walls vs. cement stucco.

We also spent part of an afternoon playing with the kids in a daycare across the street from the church. We were instant friends of course, and they were adorable! My favorite was the 6 year old who decided to quiz Chris nonstop. He would say a word in Spanish and expect Chris to answer in English. This was great practice for Chris as he was thinking of anything and everything to quiz him on. The next day as we were painting graffiti off the wall/fence around the church we hear, "Misioneros!!" (Missionaries) only to turn around and see a few of the kids smiling and waving through the fence around the daycare. Like I said, they were so great.

He also taught Chris some karate moves.

Other than working, last week we were able to relax a bit since there was a big Baptist conference that Gary and Mylinda were a part of, and because there wasn't a work group here. A few of our pastimes have included:

1. We went to a park one day that was beyond any park I'd ever been to. It was basically a rain forest hidden behind the main street, clad with a pool, tons of open space, pathways winding around awesome flowers and trees (and other plants that aren't found in the States) little playhouses for children, basketball courts, soccer fields, a zipline, etc. Truly an awesome find, and it only cost a little over a dollar to enter.

2. We've now gone to a couple of movies, and they're way cheaper here!! AND you get chairs that are more comfortable and recline/rock quite a bit for a movie chair. For example, Wednesdays are half off days, so we paid 1500 colones per ticket (approximately $3 each). As for regular days, well, you can do the math!

3. Ferias (like Saturday markets) are awesome. So much fruit and vegetables and for cheap prices. I've probably eaten more mangoes in the last month than in my whole life. DELICIOUS honestly. Other cheap produce here compared to the States: tomatoes, avocados, monkey brains (I'm not making this up, picture below), pineapple, and bananas. Not all produce is cheaper however. A tiny container of cherries could cost you $20, apples are expensive here, almonds and other fancy nuts are very costly, and potatoes are pricey so they substitute yuca which is much cheaper and has a similar texture.

4. This isn't a pastime, but we've walked around a couple of malls in order to go to the movies (the cinema is always in the mall instead of its own building) and the mannequins here are ridiculous! Completely disproportioned in certain areas and not always in a flattering way. Chris is currently quite fascinated by this and it has been the topic of conversation for the last week, so I think he'd want this shared with you.

5. Sometimes, or rather oftentimes, we spend our time at "home" catching up with people via skype, facebook, email etc. or reading. It's quite nice to have time to read leisurely rather than those books assigned from professors in college. Or we play games with the Baits: Banana Grams anyone?

Monkey Brains. You drink the juice and suck
on the seeds and they're quite tasty! Just nasty
to look at. You should've seen Chris' face!

Reflecting on Costa Rica however, the people are still one of my favorite aspects of living here. Everyday we're greeted by each person with a kiss on the cheek (not a real kiss, but by touching right cheeks and kissing the air) which is so much warmer than a wave or handshake in the States. Ticos are very hospitable and very sociable. If it's been a day or two since we've seen them, they'll probably tell us they've missed us or ask us what we've been up to. How could you not feel so loved?! We surely do, and we've even been offered multiple jobs, well, more like positions at a couple of places, but we're still planning to head over to the East Coast. We'll head over to the Coast in a couple of weeks, after we work with the next group that comes this Monday night. As for what exactly we'll be doing or where we'll be living, that still has to be decided. We have some ideas and leads, but we'll let you know once we know a little more!

As for the super exciting news...we're getting our camera back (in a way)!!! We have embraced the role as Robin Hood, as my best friend says. We give to the needy and take from the rich! More specifically, we purchased our camera on a credit card for the protection policy it offers. Since it was stolen within 90 days of purchasing it, the credit card company refunded our money for the camera, the case, and for the memory card! So, we have a camera on the way (prayerfully it'll arrive in time) with the next group who's coming! God is so good to us. We feel so thankful and so blessed. We didn't lose what we couldn't replace, because we'd downloaded the pictures from our memory card the night before it was stolen, and the camera was replaceable. Thank you for your sympathy in the process, and now feel free to rejoice with us. :)

Dios Te Bendiga,

Jennifer