Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Last weekend in Atenas

This last weekend we house-sat Tom and Debbie, the staff of EMI. Therefore, we stayed around Atenas, trying out the public pools and going to the San Rafael celebration day in the square. Here are some pictures.

We learned how to make gallo pinto Friday morning before we left. The upper right corner is the beginning of it. The lower left corner are plantanos.
Here's Meddie making our delicious breakfast, as always.
On Saturday we went to one of the public pools in Atenas. Unfortunately, the big pool was empty due to rain issues and we ended up swimming in the kiddie pool, which only went up to my knees. Andy didn't mind though, quiere nadar.

Here is the larger pool in the background. The guys out there actually fixed it by Sunday or Monday.
Andy's floating around in the pool. He tried to make a whirlpool by swimming around, but it turned out to be more difficult than he thought.

After swimming, we checked out San Rafael day. The Catholic church next to the central park put on a fair complete with food, a manual merry-go-round (there was a guy who actually pushed the merry-go-round around), dangerous bumper cars, cow auctioning, and really tall people dressed in costumes.

On Saturday night we made a semi-authentic meal, complete with rice and chayote.

The electrical workers were putting up new cables Saturday morning and asked if they could keep the spool in our yard. We told them yes, hoping it would be gone by Monday when Tom and Debbie came back. It wasn't. I think it is still there today, too.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Afternoon Rains

So Julie's been putting up a lot lately but I decided to make a post of my own.  It rains nearly every afternoon here.  If it doesn't rain, it stays ridiculously hot and humid.  The rain comes down like crazy for about an hour or two maybe.  It comes down so much harder than it does even in Seattle.   Getting all the rain at once is a nice change.   I uploaded this video to show how dark and miserable it is.  There are a lot of wires because we're across the street from the power station.  Yesterday it sparked and flamed a little bit.  The picture also caught a little of the Atenas regional buses.  This kind goes to San Jose or Alujuela.   




Wednesday, October 22, 2008

One of my babies is leaving me

Marisol, my little baby girl of 3 months, left us today to be back with her parents. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, most of these children are not actually orphans, but their families are not fit to take care of them.
I am excited for Marisol to be with her family, but also sad, because she's my sweetheart, and I will miss her very much.
Please keep her in your prayers that she will be welcomed back into a loving family that will care for her.
Here are some pictures that I took today, her last day at Hogar de Vida.


This is how most of the pictures go, the baby with all the kids surrounding them. That is Alex's arm.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Our first experience with the monkeys

This is the first time we saw the monkeys early Saturday morning at our hotel.

Andy playing with the monkeys

Andy actually ran out of the banana, so the photos are a little more exciting, but it is still pretty funny.


Body surfing

Andy, Ryan and Jamie attempted to body surf at the Manuel Antonio beach (aka Beach 3). I think we did a lot better with boogey boarding the next day.

Leaf cutter ants are so strong

Our guide in the Manuel Antonio national park showed us how strong the soldier ants were in the group of leaf cutter ants. Apparently there are different castes in the ant world: farmers (leaf cutters), soldiers, housekeepers, princes, princesses and the queen. This soldier ant held up this entire branch!

Julie is scared of the monkeys

I was so scared of the monkeys that I threw my banana down, even though it's bad for the monkeys to eat a lot of bananas. Oops.

Videos from Manuel Antonio

We were able to play with the monkeys at our hotel. They love bananas but I think this monkey got all of them.

Manuel Antonio

This weekend we went to Manuel Antonio, despite the constant hasseling from everyone who said it would be all flooded from the storm. However, God was gracious and it stopped raining the day we left, on Friday. We rode the bus all the way there, having to stand for about 2 of the 4 hours, which made us pretty queasy. Andy, actually, was on the brink of vomiting that whole time. However, we made it safely and found our hotel, which was right on the edge of Manuel Antonio national park.
On Saturday morning we awoke to the white-faced monkeys playing in the trees. We gave them some bananas, but the alpha male got most of them.




I was also able to pet a deer right outside our hotel, which I don't think I would ever be able to do in Gig Harbor.

After breakfast we headed into the park with a guide, who was amazing. He was able to find each and every little critter in the woods with his telescope. Apparently we went on the perfect day, because it wasn't too hot so all the animals we out. We were able to see tons of iguanas, lizards, sloths, bats, monkeys, spiders, crabs, and crickets.

Monkey

Sloth
These crabs have purple bodies with bright red claws. They live in the woods, but lay their eggs on the beach.

We also saw raccoons (which are actually a different specie than the ones in the states), a turtle, an eel, a deer, and some animal about the size of a cat. He also explained to us the different castes of leaf-cutter ants, which we have seen throughout Costa Rica and showed us how a soldier ant can lift a stick of wood longer than a foot!
We saw this raccoon eating an iguana. Mmm.
This is one of the many huge lizards we saw. This one is about 2 feet long with the tail, but there was one nearby that was even larger! Some are called Jesus Christ lizards because they can walk on water. We saw one of those too.


After the 3 and 1/2 hour tour, we were ready for to swim! This is us at the end of the guided trip: Jane, Jamie, Ryan, Julie, and Andy.
The guys are attempting to body surf, and they end up looking like beached sea lions!
On Sunday afternoon before we left the squirrel monkeys came out to play with us! I was too scared and through my banana to them, even though they should only have a little of the banana because it isn't that good for them, oops! Andy, though, had a good time playing with them!
Jane even had one hanging off of her arm! This was our last trip with Jane as she went home to California early this morning. We will miss her here.

Monday, October 13, 2008

San Jose

On Saturday we went to San Jose and visited all the tourist sites including the gold museum, the national theater, the national museum, many parks, outdoor and indoor markets, and a piece of the Berlin Wall. It was fun to cruise around San Jose for the day, to go to the big city.



Here is one of the first statues in San Jose that we saw.

This is the central square that kind of reminds me of Venice with all the birds.


This is in the museum of gold. All of these items have been found underground all over Costa Rica from hundreds of years ago.

Jane and I in front of the national theatre.

This is one of the rooms at the national museum. Andy was the only one to go into the museum, since the rest of us were tired and just took some pictures on the outside.

This is outside the national museum. Andy took a picture of the huge rock, which we still don't understand the significance, and of the gringo tour group.

This is a path outside the national museum in the government district of San Jose.


Another statue. I made Andy pick me up for this one.

This is a piece of the Berlin wall, the only piece I've ever seen and it is in Costa Rica. Andy told me not to smile for the photo.
They are trying to get into the San Jose zoo through the back door. Unfortunately, they did not succeed.

This is one of the main parks and squares. It was actually under construction for an event, and Andy wanted to check out what they were doing.

Breakfast Sunday morning. A typical Costa Rican breafast: gallo pinto, plantains, cheese, tortillas, papaya and coffee. Mmmm. Mery is in the background. I don't think she understood that Andy was taking a picture, or maybe she did understand...

Friday, October 10, 2008

Babies!

I have had the opportunity to go to the orphanage in Atenas both this morning as well as yesterday morning. My job is to help with stimulation practices with the babies under the age of 1. There is actually a physical therapist here until Thursday so he is going to show me more exercises before he leaves. Most of the babies are under developed in these areas.
They also just need love, attention, and touch. I talk with the babies and pray over the babies and just play with them. What a great job!
I am going to spend every morning in the orphanage until the early afternoon for the next 2 months.
Please be praying for my babies Emmanuel, Britany, Mar Darling, Brenda, Marisol, Jake and Tatiana.

Finally back to Atenas

This is a CAT dump truck that went by on our way to the office on Wednesday. It was pretty cool and Andy had to take a picture. This is only about 1.5 blocks from our house.
That is me on the side watching as both of the dumptrucks ride by us.
Andy spilled his water in Meddie's house. We made him get the mop and clean it. This is a picture of our living room and dining room. You can some food on the corner of the picture.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Photos from Mexico


Most of or work Julie decided was extremely boring. I spent the first three days of the week diging test pits to look at the soil. Then using a penetrometer we could classify the soil and determine a bearing pressure. On Wednesday we visited a construction site to look as some local building taking place and on Thursday I helped with surveying. I also spent time figureing out where the bridge would go with Jonathan and George.



Here is a photo of our team working on Thursday night. We usually worked all day and then some in the evening after dinner and testimonys.


The current location of the orphanage is in Arriaga, about 40 minutes from the ranch. The railroad to the US passes through here and so there is a constant stream of people headed north. This is a photo of one of those trains headed north. I guess normally immigrants can't ride the train the whole way so usually in northern Mexico they get off and try and find another way across the border. This picture was taken from inside the orphanage.

Julie and I are at this point tired of taking regular pictures. This is of me in front of a building in San Cristobal on Saturday.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Prayer needed

Hello everyone. My family and I, Julie, could really use your prayers as my grandfather just passed away on Tuesday night. Everyone is doing well, but it is still difficult to lose a loved one, especially a husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.
I have prayerfully decided not to go home during this time, but my family graciously decided to have a veteran memorial service in December when Andy and I return.
Thank you all for your support and prayers. Andy and I really appreciate them as we are dealing with difficult times in a different country.

Project Site


Here is a photo of us at the site. This was taken right by the entrance. This is the only photo so far with us in it. The other photos are of dirt. Today we are hoping to go to a construction site and a hardware store to look as locally available building materials.