Project Trip in Chiapas, Mexico

We are now in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico. Well, about an hour or so south of Tuxtla, which is the capital. On Saturday, we were able to walk the site of the project which is 105 acres of grassy and alittle foresty land. Afterwards we met Bill and Tammy, the owners of the land and the orphanage home. We were able to play with the 16 kids there and get to know their vision for the what they want this land to become. They are so loving and faith-driven that they are definitely an inspiration for me.
This land will be made up of various homes with up to 8 children (either orphans or abandoned children) and host parents. They want the host parents to be either a Mexican couple or two single ladies. They want about 10 homes.
There will also be a school for these children. Not only regular rooms, but also a music room and an art room. They are also going to have places to learn other skills, like carpentry, mechanics, arts. This is because some of these kids will not go past high school and can use these other skills to get jobs. They will be learning English as well, which will also help them.
They are going to have a farm with goats, chickens, bunnies, and cows that the kids will be able to help out with as well as the host fathers. They also have mango and lime trees to help them become more self-sufficient.
Going to the arctitecture and engineering meetings are actually really fun for me. I can see how it will all come together to be a great place for the kids!
Please pray for all the volunteers that will be working so hard this week. For their safety on the site and for health with the food and water. Also, that we would all be focused on God and well-rested daily to do His work. Thank you all for your support and prayers!
Julie

White Water Rafting Pictures

Here are some rafting pictures that you may enjoy. The top one is when we were entering my favorite part of the national preserve. We were able to get out of the raft and just float down the river.

An update letter before the Trip

Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you for all your prayers these last couple of weeks. Our two weeks of intensive language school are already past and they went really well. Julie was able to have one-on-one classes all in Spanish to help refresh her grammar and just feel more comfortable speaking in Spanish. I started at square one and have learned a lot. I was actually able to hold a conversation with Meddie without Julie’s help. We’re both very excited to be actually able to communicate now and our understanding of Spanish is so much better.
This week we’re doing stuff around the office to get ready for the project trip to Chiapas. I’m studying up on confined masonry structures and the other intern Ryan is figuring out how to do a perc test. On Friday we are going to Chiapas, Mexico for the project trip. We’ll be there from September 26th through October 5th. Chiapas, Mexico is home of the most severe Christian persecution in the northern hemisphere but that is more north Chiapas and is not happening near where our team will be in Tuxtla or the project site SW of Tuxtla. Also the name of the organization has changed due to another organization with a similar name. We are serving the ministry- El Faro de Esperanza (The Lighthouse of Hope) and working on the Rancho de Alfararo (or the Potter’s Ranch) project with Bill Woods. (I've added a link on the right) We would greatly appreciate your prayers for a safe flight and time there. Please also pray for team unity as the volunteers are coming from all over North America.
I will be working with George designing the structure of the school and classifying soils. Julie will be holding a rod in the heat of the day with the sun blazing down on her porcelain skin, helping with surveying. The week is going to be very long. Pray that we would remain healthy and energetic throughout our time there. Julie and I have been truly blessed by those who continue to support us through prayer.
In Christ,
Andy and Julie

Rodeo Photos

Now that we are back in Atenas I can also post some photos from the rodeo.

Back in Atenas

Well, we made it through the two weeks of intensive language school, barely. It was hard and tiring, but definitely worth it. Tuis is a cute little town where everyone knows everyone because usually they are related somehow. I will miss our host family and the people at CISA, but I have to say it feels nice to be home in Atenas.Besides learning Spanish all day, we were able to experience Costa Rican's Independence Day there as well as go on a white water rafting trip through a national reserve. Our host parents brought us up to one of their coffee plantations, and we were able to experience of life of picking coffee beans in a few minutes. Normally you don't pick coffee beans and smile.After our two weeks in Tuis, we were able to go to the Caribbean coast for the weekend to Cahuita, Limon. There, we went snorkeling among coral reefs. It was pretty cool, because I actually got to see firsthand most of what I studied in my marine biology classes. We also went to the Cahuita National Reserve, which is a huge point that juts out into the ocean with nice beaches surrounding it and a jungle forest inside. The only thing that was disappointing was I didn't see any monkeys. Ryan was able to see one when it took food from someone's cooler down the beach, but he was too quick for me.

Language School Rocks

Julie and I finished our first week of language school. It´s been really fun for me as I´m going from no Spanish to some Spanish. Julie is also getting lots of practice bringing back her Spanish from school and learning about new stuff. Today was here first lesson in past tense. She was really happy to finally learn it. The Christian Immersion Spanish Academy here supports a mission for handicapped indigenous in Costa Rica. The disabled in the indigenous society are normally not cared for but this mission is taking them in and also teaching the other indigenous as well.
The language school is very exciting for me and Julie. After class its hard to do anything else but sleep. We´ve really been blessed by the family that we are staying with. Its been great practicing our spanish with them and also being around actual spanish family interactions. The discussions are just like I had growing up like, I want to go to a friends house, or I want to have a friend over. The kids know a little english from school so it fun to share phrases. Please keep us in your prayers as we´ve got a week to go and Julie has a sore throat.
Also, just a quick note from Julie. I entered our ¨casita¨ last night before Andy because we were watching a movie and i was too tired to finish it. I came in and saw a huge cockroach! This is not the first time we have seen them. I sprayed him with poison and then he vanished. I then looked down and he was at my feet. I sprayed him some more until he slowed down and then decided to get a shoe to smash him, because I wasn´t sure exactly how the poison worked but I definitely know how a shoe works. I grabbed my tennis shoe and smashed him. Then I asked aloud, ¨Anyone else?¨ and i saw alittle cockroach in the bathroom. When I sprayed that one is ran away but then another huge one came out. I sprayed them both and smashed them. I was too grossed out to clean up, so I waited for Andy to clean the messes. Now I know though that I don´t have to spray the poison that much because it was pretty potent afterward. Anyway, that´s my story.

Rodeo in La Suisa

Julie and I travelled to language school on Friday. It was about a three hour drive on roads so windy I got quesy for the first time since I was young. Tuis is a really small town. Kind of like a Gold Bar or something. There are two stores on the highway through town. Julie and I live in a house behind our host families house. They are nice and have two boys 9 and 13. We went to Turrialba on Saturday. Its a bigger town, maybe a Colfax sized place. The market there was great, not as clean as in Atenas but still fun. Lots of fruit at great prices. The citrus fruit here is all confusing because there doesn´t seem to be clear distinctions between them. Oranges, and lemons are both green or yellowish. They all taste good though. Our host family in Tuis had a dog that had puppys 3 or 4 months ago. They are pretty cute dogs.

Sunday afternoon they took us to a rodeo in la Suisa, another small town between Tuis and Turrialba. The youngest boy really likes the bulls. I guess at the rodeo as long as you are 18 you can go in the ring so a bunch of men were running from the bulls and stuff. In addition to the regular matador stuff and bull riding they had this game where they put up three stacks of milk cartons and three people from the crowd would stand on each tower and try to be the last one standing as a lose bull would run around the ring. It was crazy to see people get chased off thier towers or trambled. The whole rodeo had a lighter atmosphere than the one´s in Mexico where they kill the bulls aparently. It was a lot of fun. Last night we took a taxi back home and it was a Toyota Landcruiser taxi. When Julie and I get back to Atenas I´ll make a post with pictures.

You could also pray for our host family´s son Andre. He got sick after the rodeo and was taken to a hospital last night. He´s back home resting now. Some sort of stomach thing. Julie and I aren´t sure exactly. Today we´re posting from language school. My oral and written placement test went pretty quick because i don´t speak Spanish.

eMi la Oficina de América Latina

So this is where the office in Costa Rica is located. They don't have street names here so you would describe its location as: Atenas Central, On the second floor of Banco Popular. Banco Popular is a private bank so we can't even use it but it's probably a safe place since they have a guard there 24/7. Julie and I live with Meddie about 5 blocks away.










This is the main room in our office. In the back is the conference room and in the front is where all the interns work, except there are only three of us now (if you include me, Julie). Through the windows is rain, rain, and more rain. The tropical storms hit us only with rain. Fun, eh?

Colorado Springs and Costa Rica

As Andy already has mentioned, our time in Colorado Springs was not by any means easy. We were up by 6:30 or 7 am and finished around 10pm or 11pm. We definitely were not expecting the amount of cultural training that we received; but it was well worth it. For example, this morning our host mom, Meddie, gave us a huge breakfast of cereal, toast, eggs, and bananas (not to mention awesome Costa Rican coffee). I mentioned to her than I liked bananas and she then went to the kitchen and brought out another one. Let's just say that if you really like something, tell them, and you will get a lot of it. The activities we had at the orientation were also very Coloradan, with the rock climbing and hiking. I must say I climbed a pretty hard course. We had a lot of prayer time and great fellowship with the other interns, who I miss very much now. Costa Rica is pretty much how I expected it, very tropical and humid. Except I have yet to see a monkey. We have seen our fair share of roosters, parrots, golden retrievers (Rex and Cindy), horses, ants, and oxen. I am excited to go to Tuis for language school because it is more in the rain forest. Today is our first day in the office. I don't think I will volunteer at the orphanage until after language school because it is actually pretty far away and I am not sure exactly how to get there yet. But they are unstaffed right now and have a lot of babies so I am excited to help them out.