Week 13 Update

Karen here:
Another crazy week has come and gone…

I survived Parent/Teacher Conferences and a full moon that coincided with all of the Halloween activities and birthday parties!

We had another wonderful week of English class. The attendance continues to grow. More friends…more laughter…and more English and Spanish skills for everyone!

In addition, we were blessed to spend some quality time with our friend Junior this week. It is hard to believe that Junior is already 15 years old. We have thoroughly enjoyed watching Junior grow up over the past couple of years. This week, he started joining for us English classes. While we were eating dinner together, before class, we realized he is no longer in school. When his family tried to enroll him in 6th grade last year he was about to turn 15. The school said he was too old to be in 6th grade and he would have to attend a special school. Unfortunately, that mean’t classes that ended after dark…which translates to a dangerous time in many of these neighborhoods. Therefore, Junior has not been in school for over a year now. We had some of the locals talk to his family at the feeding center on Saturday. They discussed different options for Junior and his schooling. Hopefully, he will be able to re-enroll again when the next school starts again in March. (Remember the Costa Rican school year goes from March-December. Their long break begins the middle of December and the next school year starts in March.)

While talking to Junior I also asked him about his cousins that I fell in love with 2 years ago. Many of you will remember one of my favorite pictures of me and Nani and Natalie sitting together in front of a pink wall. Junior told me that they were actually living close to Verbena now. I asked him to bring the girls on Saturday so I could see them again. Saturday they all appeared…Nani, Natalie, Brittany, and their new baby sister, Naomi. I cannot express the joy I felt when I saw these precious girls again. While I didn’t have a chance to get a picture of them, they told me they would be back next week so hopefully I can get a picture then!

Part of my job at Country Day School is to co-lead the 2nd and 3rd grade student council. They had a Halloween Bake Sale on Friday. While they did raise quite a bit of money, they also had a BUNCH of leftovers. These sweet students know that I help with the Verbena feeding center each Saturday. So Friday, when they had all the leftovers, they suggested that I take them to the kids in Verbena. God is so good! I feel like the kids at school are starting to realize how blessed they are while also thinking about what they can do to help others who are less fortunate than them. We had just enough goodies to give one to each of the kids at the feeding center and one to each of the cooks at the feeding center. What a blessing!

Karen giving out treats to the kiddos - there were around 55 kids this weekend

Dan and I are also getting used to the typical nuances that are part of Costa Rican living. This week we were without water for 6 hours one afternoon while they were rationing our water supply. Unfortunately, we have not seen a schedule for this rationing…so random days we will find ourselves without water for 6 or so hours at a time. With Crohn’s Disease I have to be extra careful with our water supply. That means I either have to boil the water after it has been shut off or we use bottled water for all cooking, toothbrushes, dish washing, etc. for 48 hours. Thankfully, I haven’t gotten sick from it. We also experienced a 4.7 earthquake on Saturday. No damage…we just felt the earth shaking..while we were sitting in the car in traffic. It was kind of unusual to see everything around us moving back and forth. Finally, one of the local volcanoes has been erupting again this week. We really haven’t been impacted by it much other than the fact that there is a little more dust in the air:)

Here is a video of the ash cloud:

https://www.facebook.com/OVSICORI/videos/907855292585063/ 

We were blessed to have dinner with Pastor Miguel and his family this weekend. Not only were we able to catch up but we were able to share our dreams and visions for the local community. It was such an inspiring meeting. I know God has big things in store for this community and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds. Keep praying for more like-minded friends to come alongside us. Also pray for wisdom in how to implement everything and finally for provision of funds. Thanks!