Lucas and Liz in Costa Rica: October 2013

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Teaching English and Visiting a Waterfall / Enseñando Inglés y Visitando una Catarata

Hi! Just to let you know, I've moved the blog to LucasGentry.com, so all of my Costa Rica updates can all be in one place. Just click on the link below to see our newest update information!

http://www.LucasGentry.com

This week, SENDAS, the Seminary where Liz and I are volunteering, is having very important visitors. They are something along the lines of a board of directors, and they make decisions about the future of the school. Yesterday was their big meeting, but Thursday was their tour day. Since the entire tour was obviously going to be in Spanish, Liz and I had the opportunity to travel with them on their tour as part of our Spanish class. We went to a large rain-forest-type nature preserve, where we were able to see several kinds of animals and some beautiful waterfalls. The park was amazing, and we really enjoyed getting to spend time with the board.

Right after we got back from this excursion, we changed clothes real quick and got ready for our second English class. We began teaching English on Tuesday, had our second class on Thursday, and starting next week, we'll be teaching English on Monday and Thursday evenings. This week, we had one student, but we were told that starting on Monday, we should have five. We're really enjoying our time teaching, as well as our time learning more Spanish.

Today, we rode the bus into town, bought some groceries, walked around the city center for a while, then rode our bus back. In reality, that's a bit more interesting than it sounds. :-) As far as I know, this was our first trip where the entire trip and route were planned by us and we weren't meeting anyone else on the other end of a bus ride. I know that things like that won't sound impressive in the least to most people, but it's a fun thing when it becomes more familiar.

Once again, for anyone who has been praying for us, sending us encouraging notes, praying for our support-raising, or giving sacrificially to make all this possible, Thank You Very Much. Liz got a report concerning our financial situation today, and I'm happy to say that people have already donated about 75% of our budget for the year, and another 10% has been pledged. We can't thank you all enough for your love and the support that you've been in this venture. We've only been here for about 6 weeks, and you all have given 9 months worth of support already! Thank you ever so much again, we really appreciate you!

If you'd like to join with us in prayer for a moment, we would really appreciate prayers for our English classes that are developing. As we mentioned before, we've only met one of our students, but we're scheduled to have 5 on Monday. Neither of us have taught English before (but we've both taken classes to teach us how), but our first couple classes have gone great. Please be in prayer for the classes as they begin to grow. Thank you again, so very much!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Costa Rica National History Museum / Museo Nacional de Costa Rica

Every day this week, we had significant events. If you are our facebook friends, you may have seen our pictures from our trip to the National History Museum of Costa Rica. Even if you don't have facebook, you can check the pictures out here.

Here's one example:

Every week or two, our CALL Spanish classes take us outside the classroom and into the Costa Rican culture. This week, we went to the National History Museum in San José. We met up with Gaby, our teacher, and we took the bus into the city. Half a century ago, there used to be a military fort near the location of the current center of San José. The president at that time declared an end to the national army and converted the fort into the National History Museum. They now have displays focused on the history of the building, the history of Costa Rican democracy, and the history of the indigenous people who lived here long ago.

Earlier in the week, we had the opportunity to have one of our friends from the seminary over to our house. We watched the Chronicals of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, with English audio (to give our friend English practice) and Spanish subtitles (to give Liz and I more Spanish practice).

Liz is also getting much more outside-of-class Spanish practice by attending a women's water aerobics class (in Spanish), and talking to several of the seminary office workers about financial topics. My Spanish practice has been through technology-related discussions with my supervisors, Andrés and Esdras. Yesterday, they had me take apart the seminary file server and clean out all the dust and junk that had gathered in it over the years. Hopefully, it was a good enough job to make it last for a while longer. In the mean time, I still am slowly working my way through testing videoconferencing equipment and other computer and technological equipment around the offices.

Last night, however, was a pretty wonderful meeting with the other missionaries working here. We were able to hear about some really amazing things going on with a bridge-building project in another part of Costa Rica, in an indigenous region. There is an indigenous people group in Costa Rica that lives near a very large river. They need to cross the river at all times of the year, but when the banks are high, people die each year trying to cross on their own. The Nazarene church is trying to put together teams to build a bridge for these people across this very dangerous river. They have coordinated engineers, various planners and designers, and several local groups as well. Recently, Steve (one of the Work and Witness coordinators that I mentioned) was trying to figure out how they could reach out to get some heavy equipment for this project and they found out that Costa Rica has a government group that has been trying to figure out how to help their indigenous people. Steve was able to talk to the right people and may be able to coordinate the Nazarene Church's efforts with this government group.

Also, in this same trip, he was trying to locate a place where they could purchase building materials for this project. Steve and another guy (I honestly don't know who the other guy was) were driving, trying to find the right materials when they realized that they had gotten hopelessly lost. They decided to pull over and ask for help. When the stopped, they looked up and discovered that they were directly in front of the property for the main supply house for Bridge Construction Materials. Apparently, this place is where the government would go to buy their construction supplies. Steve and his friend didn't even know that this place existed, but God led them directly to the exact place that could help them get the supplies that they are going to need for this giant project. Praise the Lord, it was an awesome story. I was hoping that he was going to write about it in their family's blog -- http://sickelstory.wordpress.com/ -- but they haven't yet, so I had to tell it to the best of my memory. Short version though, God has been doing amazing things.

Monday, October 14, 2013

What a Full Weekend! / ¡El Fin de Semana Fue tan Lleno!

Oh wow, this has been a very busy and wonderfully full weekend (and Monday)! On Saturday, we didn't have anything scheduled, so I was able to just sit down and write for about 8 hours straight (or more). I've had a book outline in my head (and on my computer) for a really long time, and I've been slowly working on turning the outline into an actual book. It's a book teaching how to do deeper Bible Studies for yourself, instead of just working through other peoples' work. Anyway, since we try to stay busy preparing for our work that we do here, you could imagine it's relatively slow to write all that. But since I had an empty day, I was able to finally finish the book! It's now on sale on Amazon (Bible Study Picks and Shovels - Tools for Digging into the Scriptures on Your Own). Anyway, that was a nice personal victory for me.

Sunday was diving back into Spanish as we went back to Tibás for church. One of the families at the church was amazing to us. They picked us up for church in the morning before Sunday School (I LOVE Sunday School there) and then took us to their house for a delicious meal after church. When I was in Sunday School, they went around and had everybody read four verses until we had read through Ruth. I happened to be sitting next to the first person who read, so I was on the list of people reading -- In Spanish! Out Loud! -- They were very patient with me.

After the church service was over, three or four people came up to us and we got to have Spanish conversations with them. A couple of the conversations were pretty long (maybe 5+ minutes, which is really long when you're still working on the language). The couple that picked us up this Sunday says that they think that there is another family that comes near the Seminary on their way to church, so we might be able to get a ride almost every Sunday! We're willing pay to take the city bus to get to church, but if they're willing, we'll definitely take them up on it!

Today, there was a lot of work to do. I think I walked all the way across campus probably more than a dozen times today, as well as walking to the grocery store 3/4 mile away and back to the Seminary. So obviously, our legs are pretty tired today.

Tomorrow, we should be teaching our first English as a Second Language class around 6-9pm. It's going to be pretty exciting and... um... I guess I don't know what else, because I've never done it before. But if you would please be praying for us, we would really appreciate it. Thank you all for your love and support!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

First Taste of Teaching English / Primera Vez Enseñando Inglés

How fun! We just got to have one of our friends from the Nazarene church in Tibás over to our house this evening. When we visited her church a week and a half ago, she told us that she knew some words in English, but she didn't have many opportunities to practice. Immediately, we invited her over to our house, so she could practice. She came over this evening, and Liz made wonderful cookies ("galletas", pronounced "Gah-jettas") and coffee, and we sat around and talked. It was fun! Liz and I generally said almost every single sentence in English and then in Spanish, to make sure that she could understand. She taught us some Spanish as well, so it was enjoyable for everyone.

Before we left the United States, Liz made a photo album with pictures of many of our friends and family members in it. That photo album has been invaluable as a source of conversation, and tonight was no different. Our new friend told us about her family (she's been married for like 47 years) and we used the photo album to tell about ours. We were able to discuss church and friends and family and bus routes. The whole experience was a good taste of what it might be like for us on Tuesday, when we start our English as a Second Language class here. I'm really looking forward to it, but I would also love some prayers for us as well. It's our first time trying out our TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificates that we trained for earlier this year.

I have also been getting to work on testing and repairing videoconferencing equipment for the Seminary. Earlier in the week, I did the final testing for four sets of equipment and the director of the seminary took them to Mexico. It is a fun feeling to know that we can be helping people in other countries as well as Costa Rica by our efforts.

For those of your who may have known my Grandpa Charles, you will know that he was the type of person who loved fixing things. He was always fixing something for someone at his church, or tinkering in his basement with something or other. My dad did the same thing at the place where he worked, building and fixing machines all over the place. Today, I was following in their footsteps because I got to fix some of the videoconferencing equipment using parts from other equipment. The bottom of the camera case from this one, the top of the case from this other one, and the base unit from a third. After all was said and done, there was one more set of videoconferencing equipment ready for a final test before sending it abroad. Fun times!

Yesterday, we were talking to two of our missions-minded friends over Skype. Their encouragement was so wonderful to hear, and it was great getting to talk to them. If you would be so kind, please pray for them (Andrew and Kelly) as they also prepare to set out for missions opportunities with Wycliffe as Bible Translators. Here is their Wycliffe page if you'd like more information:

http://www.wycliffe.org/Partnership.aspx?eis=280247

On the same note, I just wanted to thank all of you who have sent us encouraging notes or cards or letters. They mean so much to us, as we're so far away from most of our families. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Work and Witness / ¡Testimonios Y Trabajo!

Wow, the last couple days have been a lot of work! In a good way, though. Yesterday, we were helping a Work and Witness team from Idaho tile a bathroom building. They had been working on the building for a couple days already, so at first, I felt a little bit superfluous -- everyone else already had their own jobs to do, and I joined them half way through the day, so I just sort of bounced around asking people if they needed help with what they were doing. But then, Steve, the Work and Witness Coordinator for the area sent me over to help Gustavo, a Costa Rican fellow who was up on a ladder, to put weather proofing stuff (I think) around the roof. I learned several new Spanish words and really got to help out, since he could give me instructions in Spanish. It was so fun!

This morning, the Work and Witness team, Liz, and I went over to a local church (the same church that we went to on our first Sunday here) and worked a lot to build them a driveway. If you remember, this church used to be a farmer's house, and he sold the property to the church. They have worked to convert the house into a church, to the extent that it is not easy to tell that it used to be a house -- at least from the front. They've done a great job! But because it is a bigger property than before, it takes everything that have to pay their bills. The Work and Witness team raised funds to pay for two cement trucks full of cement, plus the rolls of rebar to hold it together. When we got there, the men of the church had already done a lot of progress with digging. Some of us grabbed shovels and helped out by leveling the ground (and removing foliage), so that the ground would be even with the top of the forms that would be used to box in the cement.

It was pretty cool to watch these experienced people go to work. One of the guys of the church taught me how to tie the rebar together, so a few guys rolled out the rebar, Guido and I tied them together, and a few other guys put stones underneath areas where the dirt wasn't all the way up to the rebar. I honestly don't know what everybody else was doing at the time because I was just excited to have a way that I could be contributing. After they packed down the dirt (with a big power-dirt-smasher-machine) and got the rebar in place, the cement mixer came. Two or three guys on the ends of a big metal square pipe pushed the pipe along and leveled out the cement, while several of us had rakes and shovels to either remove excess cement or bring in more cement to fill in gaps. After all that, another couple guys went behind us with a float (looks like a giant dust mop -- long and flat -- without the mop strings) to smooth it out. After them, someone took a very long handled push broom and pushed it across, making lines in the concrete for traction (it's on a steep hill).

After we paved all the way up the hill, the ladies of the church made us a delicious meal of arroz con pollo (rice and chicken and various spices). Super tasty. Liz was able to find the lady that made it and Spanish her way through getting the recipe from her. Good job Liz! We loaded up the tools and took them back to the seminary, where the Work and Witness team (and us!) got to unwind a bit with some water volleyball. Overall, a very delightful and hard-working day!

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Coffee Shop Classroom / La Clase en La Cafetería

This morning, we had a little bit different take on our CALL Spanish class. Instead of sitting in the classroom for 3 hours, we went on a ride with our teacher, Gaby. We met in the normal classroom, then got on a bus (if you'll notice the pattern, we go almost everywhere on the bus!) to a nearby town, Coronado. Yesterday, she had us do some research on Coronado (It's full name is Vásques de Coronado, it's got about 60 thousand people, and around 222 square kilometers, in case you wondered.) and today, we got to experience the city.

When we arrived, we ended up in the town square. Throughout Latin America, a pretty standard thing to have in the town square is a big city park, with the local Catholic church across the street. Coronado is no different. We got off the bus, right in between those two landmarks. We walked over to the park and reviewed some of the research that we had done, then started walking. We went across the street to the church and talked about what the various statues represented, then went inside. (Also, in case you wondered, when you see a guy with a sword and a book, that's Saint John. If you see a guy holding keys, that's Saint Peter. Though I'm not Catholic, I do enjoy the way that their statues are ways that they can tell stories of Christians who have gone before us. It would be a neat study to learn more of the Catholic icons just to learn the stories.)

Once we were out of the church, we started on a walk. We saw several ice cream shops and dairy-related shops, and Gaby said that there are traditional dairies around that you can see how they do it, from seeing them hand milk the cow, up to making products with the milk. We didn't go to any of the ice cream shops, but the idea was intriguing. We found the local Nazarene Church, in case we wanted to take the bus there some time. Interestingly enough, throughout Costa Rica, addresses are made up of landmarks instead of street numbers and signs. For instance, if you asked for the address of the Coronado Nazarene Church, they would tell you "Coronado, 25 meters west of the Red Cross." When we heard this, Liz and I thought that there was a big red cross somewhere in the town. Maybe a sculpture or something. When we found the church, we found that it was about 25 meters from... an ambulance. The address was talking about the Red Cross, like the people who help out in natural disasters and stuff. Sorta made me chuckle. Interestingly enough (I keep saying that, I'm sorry), the concept of using landmarks instead of addresses is reflected in their vocabulary. The Spanish word for address is "dirección". You don't ask for an address, you just ask for a direction.

She showed us around some more and told us where the best place to get a tasty meal, then we proceeded to a local coffee shop for the more academic part of our lesson. We went through some of our vocabulary we have been studying, and did a question and answer session using vocabulary words from the last couple days. I got a chocolate shake instead of coffee.

At one time while we were there, a young boy came up to us and asked Gaby for some money. She told him that if he could wait until we were ready to leave, then she would give him some after we pay for our meal. Gaby told us that in several places in Costa Rica, it's not uncommon for some adults to not want to work, so they send their kids out to ask people for money. The kids often don't get to go to school, because they have to be the ones to care for their family. My heart breaks for these kids, because he didn't look much older than one of my nephews. If he would have been in school, this kid would have been in early elementary school. Please be in prayer for these kids. It just sometimes seems like an impossible problem, because when we help the kids, it just would seem to motivate the parents to continue with the terrible practice. When we left the coffee shop, however, the kid had already left. I guess it's more profitable to keep moving, so he can ask more people.

For our work here, we're doing a lot of preparation for our English as a Second Language classes that we're going to be teaching in a couple weeks. I've been continuing to test out various videoconferencing equipment, so they can be sent to other locations throughout Central America and the Caribbean. Things are going well, but prayers are always appreciated!