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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!
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