All-Natural Hummingbirds - Hannah

We bought this hummingbird feeder a couple months ago, but haven't seen one hummingbird come to it. (I know it's empty--it was full a couple days ago. The nectar spilled out when the kids were playing with it.)

 

 

 

But I can't really blame the hummingbirds. They have these flowers to drink from. It seems they prefer the natural stuff to the dyed red sugar water. Good for them.



Can you see the green and red hummingbird
in the top left corner?

 

A New Deacon in the Branch - Michael

Carla (mom), Brandon, and Isaac (little brother)

Last night, Caleb, Julia, and I went to Brandon's baptism. He's the nephew/cousin to another family in the branch. One cool point is that he is 12, so he's in the deacon's quorum. That doubles the quorum to two.

It was nice in that we got to be an active part of the meeting. Julia led the music and I directed the meeting and gave the welcome to the young men's program (the young men's president, who was there, doesn't speak very much Spanish). However, it did turn out to be a little bit of a trek. We were headed to Ciudad Colón, which is about 30 minutes away. As things seem to go for missionaries, right before we get there, the missionaries get a call that the font wasn't filled up. We still found our way to the church to get white pants for Brandon, but we ended up going to Santa Ana, another 20 - 30 minutes away. I posted pictures of that church building before. It has a pool, so it always works.

Ultimately, it all worked out, and Brandon was baptized. Then today, I got to confer the Aaronic Priesthood and ordain him a deacon. I was honored to do it but was asked to do so right when Brandon sat down to be ordained. If it had been in English, I would have been fine; however, I had to get a little direction on wording in Spanish.

Primary - Hannah

November is the month I was asked to teach Sharing Time in Primary, and since today is the last Sunday of the month, I am now finished for a couple months. The theme was gratitude, and we talked about how we can be grateful for our bodies, our temporal blessings, and our spiritual blessings.

If I ever feel inadequate for a church calling again, I will remember this experience. I was asked to teach children in a language I don't speak. It doesn't get much more inadequate than that. It was far from perfect. And honestly, I don't know what anyone understood.

But I tried my best. I have the feeling that no one expected it to be perfect. I have the feeling that the Lord would rather have our imperfect efforts than no effort. I certainly appreciate when my children try something, even when it's difficult.  

Each Sharing Time this month involved a game, and if there were any stories, they were very short. One game that worked well was Pictionary. We talked about temporal blessings that we are thankful for, and I had papers for the children to choose, with a blessing for them to draw on the whiteboard. The word was written in both Spanish and English, so whether it was one of my children or a Spanish-speaking child, they could understand what to draw, and also recognize answers in either Spanish or English.  

I also told the story of my ancestor, William Bradford, who came with the pilgrims to the United States and celebrated the first Thanksgiving. Everything I said, I said in English so my kids could understand, and in Spanish (thanks to Google Translate).

Next week is the Sacrament Meeting Primary Presentation. Each child has a scripture to share. Jonah has his part memorized: "La Familia es Ordenada por Dios" and is excited to give his "talk." I'll also be sharing my testimony and a few thoughts.

Caleb will accompany several of the songs on the piano, and I'll play violin for a couple of the songs. Julia and one of the sister missionaries will also help accompany on the piano. I was hoping Dylan would play one of the songs too, but it's looking like he may not want to. He was originally excited for the opportunity to play one of the songs, but when it came time to practice he decided against it. Hopefully, he'll decide to learn and play a song in Primary sometime. I'm sure he would be happy afterward to see what he is capable of, with a little effort.

I'm grateful for the good people I work with in the primary, and their great patience with me. Abby, the Primary President, is very young--she was born when I was in high school. But it's clear that she cares for each child and also she has a great laugh. Today was ward conference, so the Stake Primary President and Secretary were also attending. That could have increased the stress level, but they were also very kind, and if I messed up, I just had to think Pura Vida. 

Homeschooling - Hannah

Between classes being cancelled and kids refusing to go to school, the kids spend a lot more time at home than I had anticipated. And I'm doing a lot more homeschooling than I had anticipated. And to be honest, as I'm working it out they're spending a lot more time on computer games than I'd like.

We're coming up on summer break, which is December through mid-February. Julia's school has already let out, which was a surprise to both of us; we thought she had a couple more weeks left.

Math

We did anticipate that the kids would get behind in Math if we didn't supplement with something. So before we came, we signed them up for K12, a company that provides online homeschooling curriculum.

We ordered the books and supplemental material before we came, and we pay a monthly subscription fee. It worked out quite well for the boys, but Julia's situation was a little more difficult.

Last year Julia was in an accelerated math class, where they covered 7th and half of 8th grade math. So when we signed her up, we signed her up for the 8th grade program, thinking we would start her halfway through, and then purchase the 9th grade curriculum. However, a few weeks into it we found out that K12's 9th grade curriculum is a different type of program, more expensive and with a more specific timeline that wouldn't work for us.

So I emailed the math teacher at Julia's Junior High, and she helped us gain access to the online version of the textbook Julia would be using were she still in Utah, plus she has a website where she outlines all the assignments. So that has been working alright, especially thanks to Julia's two friends in the class who have been helping her with problems that I can't figure out, and sending her scanned assignments that aren't in the textbook. The Junior High teacher said she could get us the final test at the end of the year, so we can see if Julia understands enough to go ahead with her class next year. We gave Julia the option to just finish up the 8th grade curriculum, but she wants to keep up with her class. More power to her.

As an incentive to encourage the boys to do their math, we gave them the option of finishing the material early, and earning from us the money we would have spent paying K12's subscription fee through May. That got Caleb moving. He dove in and finished the whole year's curriculum by the end of October, earning $140 which he plans to put toward an iPod Touch when we get home.

Dylan is making steady progress through his material, and is currently set to finish in April. The one complaint I have about his program is that it doesn't do times-table drills, and I think quickly recalling the times tables is very important for math further on. So we found a website Speedmath that drills times tables, and I have Dylan do that regularly, and give him prizes for passing off each number.

Jonah feels left out if he doesn't have homework too. So he does math in his preschool workbook and is actually making good progress writing numbers--though we do need to help him hold the pencil correctly, not in a fist.

Reading

In coming here, we were concerned that the kids would get behind in reading too. So we bought a few basic kindles, which would allow us to download books off Amazon. That's been a great way to go.

The kids have read on their own, and we've also read together as a family. Michael read Richard Paul Evan's Michael Vey books at night, and they were a big hit. I'm reading The Wizard of Oz to Jonah and Dylan; I remember liking the Oz books when I was young, plus I got all of them off amazon for about two or three dollars. Julia has been reading Les Miserables, Caleb has been reading Ender's Game, and Dylan has been reading Janitors. Our kindles don't work as well for Jonah; for children's books, having the screen only in black and white is not very appealing. However, Michael just told me that I could pull them up on his iPad and get the books in color. I'll have to try that.

Other Subjects

We knew the kids would miss out on other subjects at home, but we thought and hoped that this experience would more than make up for what they were missing. This whole experience is a major lesson in Social Studies. And for science we're having a lesson in biodiversity, like finding a huge hairy spider in the bathroom last night. And, of course, there's Spanish, in which we are making slow progress, but I think learning more than we realize.

Also, we've tried to find online resources to help the kids learn about other subjects they're interested in. Lynda.com is a website that has online tutorials about all kinds of technical, business and design subjects. After Caleb finished his math, Michael got him started on some programming tutorials, and he's had fun with that and written a few little programs. Julia has recently been watching some photo editing tutorials and playing around with her photos. Also, Caleb has been doing some origami as well, and YouTube is a great resource for that. If I can find the camera, I'll have the kids do some blog posts on some of their projects.

I'm hoping to get a basic homeschooling schedule worked out for these next couple months of summer break, which needs to include time to enjoy the outdoors and interact more with neighbors and friends. Of course, while I'm working all of this out, they'll probably be playing Minecraft.

Tender Mercies - Hannah

Monday was a rough day. I'll spare the details, but let's just say that tantrums were had. Our family home evening song, "Families can be together forever," was accompanied by screaming and fighting. To make it worse, I had a lot of itchy bites--they might have been mosquito bites, but I'm guessing some of them were spider bites. Many of them were swollen and they hurt.

It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

That night I didn't sleep well. It was the first night that I was too warm, and I was still itchy. So I got up in the middle of the night, searched online for ideas on how to save my family, and then went back to bed. In the morning I was tired and still itchy.

Some days are like that, even in Costa Rica.

That morning I went with Jonah to school. I helped in a class that was not Jonah's class. I was told that Jonah is more "tranquilo" when I'm not there. And then as I was sitting near the kids at lunch, I probably could have burst into tears. But when you can't tell anyone what's wrong, it's fairly pointless, so I held back the deluge.

At that moment, one of the children came over and gave me a piece of her cookie. Then another girl came over and gave me one of her green grapes. It was so sweet. Their teacher, Patricia, gave me a smile.

Later that afternoon, it didn't rain. Apparently the rainy season is coming to an end, and the sun shone all afternoon. Michael was able to get the kids involved in a pick-up game of soccer. A couple children and our neighbor, Renzo, joined in. I sat and watched with Renzo's mom, Eva, and wife, Gretel. As I sat with them, I was able to understand and say more Spanish than I usually can.

After the sun went down, we went in and ate Arroz con pollo, a new recipe that turned out tasty. We cleaned up, I took a benadryl, played a game of Uno with the family, fell asleep before everyone else, and had a good night's sleep.

Things are looking up.

Sunday Oreos - Hannah

This is our Sunday evening tradition--Oreos and milk. Because who doesn't enjoy a little taste of home, especially when it's Oreos.

The family during the pre-sugar stage. Imagine what it's like after
the Oreos. Dylan's in there too--that's his hand in the back.

Christmas Stockings - Hannah

We have none of our Christmas decorations here, so we decided to get festive and make some Christmas stockings. Caleb had learned how to sew with felt during his "Industrial Arts" class at school, so we used that idea to make these. I think they turned out pretty cute.

Next we need to get creative coming up with some ideas for making homemade Christmas tree decorations. 

"I Don't Want to Shower with the Frog" - Michael

"I don't want to shower with the frog."

That's what Jonah said when Hannah was telling him to take a shower; however, there was a little tree frog in the shower. When we first saw it, it was just sitting there about halfway up the ceramic tile wall. The frog moved around a bit before I was able to find the camera and get a picture.

Jonah ended up showering in the other bathroom, and we just left the frog there. I'm not sure how the frog got in or out, but he wasn't there in the morning.

Laundry - Hannah

I know. It's not the most exciting topic. I only post it because I go about the process differently than I do at home, so it might be somewhat interesting, and also because it does occupy a bit of my time.

Before we bought our washing machine, we used this sink. I actually quite like it, and wish I had something like it at home. It's nice and big, and even since we've gotten the washing machine, I use it often for pre-treating stains. The blue soap is awesome for stain removal. I plan to stock up before we come home.

Originally, we bought a low-end, inexpensive automatic washing machine. Since we're only here temporarily, we figured it would work well enough. It worked for a few washes, but then started rocking out of control once it hit the spin cycle, and then it would shut off. So we ended up exchanging it for a Latin American style non-automatic washing machine. I didn't realize non-automatic washing machines existed.

But here it is:

You put your load of laundry in the tub, along with some detergent, and then fill it up with water, using the hose.

You then set the controls to wash for however long you want. I usually set it for 15 minutes.

After the cycle ends, you then drain the water by setting the "Drain Selector" to "Drain." Once it's finished draining, you set the "Drain Selector" back to "Wash Rinse" (it is handy that the instructions are also in English). You then fill up the tub again using the hose, and set the timer to however long you want it to rinse.

After the laundry is rinsed, you put it into the spinner. It's not a dryer with heat, but acts essentially like a salad spinner and spins the laundry until it's damp, but not dripping.

After it is spun, you hang it up on the line to dry. Here's the final display, minus the underwear. Although our neighbors can see the underwear, I thought it best that everyone with internet access could not.

One of the problems I run into is that there is no hot water for the laundry, so certain things don't tend to clean very well. Every now and then, I'll boil a pot of hot water, dump it in a bucket, and let a few things soak. 

Also, I often run out of room on the lines. So I improvise. Around here, you often see laundry draped over fences, bushes, chairs, and whatever else is standing up.

And there you have it. You now know way more than you ever wanted to about how I do my laundry.

Horse Therapy - Hannah

Today is Saturday, and Julia and Michael went with the Young Men and Young Women to the beach. So the boys and I did some "horse therapy" with Jonah's principal, because who can't use a little therapy every now and then?

The principal, José, is also a psychologist who helps children overcome challenges. For example, if a child has physical disabilities in his legs, the child can ride the horse and because of the plasticity of the child's brain, the gait of the horse can stimulate and teach patterns, essentially training the child's brain. This can in turn strengthen the child's legs. (Granted, all this is my interpretation of our attempts at communication despite the language barrier.)

So to begin, José taught the kids that even though the horse does not speak English or Spanish, we can communicate with her and she can understand us. It's the same with people, he said. Even though you can't speak a lot of Spanish, he told them, your classmates and teacher at school understand a lot more than you think they can, because they read your body language and facial expressions.

He had the children put their faces just a few inches away from the horse's snout and breathe on her like they were fogging up a window. That way she could smell them and learn to recognize them.

Jonah breathing on the horse

José had the children touch the horse on various places, and crawl underneath her. He pointed out the horse's body language which showed she was paying attention and getting to know them. He told the kids that when someone approaches a horse, the horse wants to learn if it's a friend or an enemy. Herbivores, he said, tend to have eyes on the sides of their heads. But carnivores tend to have eyes on the front of their heads, so when horses first see us they might see us as a carnivorous predator and want to fight. But if we are calm, if we give the horse a chance to know us, we can teach it that we are a friend. Then it will follow us and ride with us.

The horse following Dylan, first with a rope, then without a rope.

The kids then got to ride the horses. They learned to do most of the balancing with their legs, while using their hands to guide the horse. They sat on their knees, trotted, rode backwards and side-saddle, and even stood up. Being with the horses had a very calming effect on everyone, and the kids really seemed to enjoy it.

Leaf Cutter Ants - Hannah

You can find little lines of leaf cutter ants all over the place. They're busy little guys, and it's fun to track them from their harvest location to their home. Sometimes their rows are impressively long. There's one row that often goes under the clotheslines, and sometimes I make the mistake of standing in it, and I get little ant bites on my feet.

Apparently the ants harvest the leaves, take them to their homes, and feed them to a fungus which they grow and use to feed themselves.  

Manuel Antonio and the Naughty Raccoon - Hannah

Last weekend we went to Manuel Antonio, one of the most famous National Parks in Costa Rica, and often ranked as one of the most beautiful parks worldwide.

We stayed overnight in a hotel so we could more fully enjoy our trip. Unfortunately our trip was cut a little short, for reasons I'll explain later. 

We arrived on Friday and spent most of the day at the beach. It rained part of the time, but we didn't mind much because it didn't make it much colder. Plus no one got sunburned, and that's always a bonus.

Michael was able to take a surfing lesson from a local Costa Rican. He got some tips and was able to have quite a few nice runs. Dylan also took a short lesson and was able to stand up as well. And Jonah did some awesome boogie boarding.

And here's Julia just chillin'. 

We stayed at a great hotel, right near the entrance of the National Park, called La Posada. After the beach the kids played in the hotel pool for a bit and then we went to our room. 

There were two things Michael and I were especially excited about. One was the soft bed. Our bed at home is seriously lacking in padding, and we can feel the springs as we lay there at night. The second was a hot shower with great water pressure. We can get hot water here, but the water pressure is very low and we miss a nice powerful shower.

Anyway, after taking super long showers, we watched Tarzan together and would have had a great night's sleep had Jonah not woken up around 4:00 a.m. 

In the morning we enjoyed a great breakfast: eggs, sausage, hash browns, pineapple, papaya, bananas, cold cereal, drinkable yogurt, and mango juice. The best part about breakfast, though, was these friends who came to visit. There were a bunch of them swinging through the trees near our table and it was so cool.

After we had breakfast, we started our walk through the National Park. It was a much wider trail than La Cangreja, but also very pretty. We saw a few sloths in the trees. In Spanish they're called "lazy bears." We did see one move, though, scratching himself for at least five minutes.

We saw some big iguanas, enjoyed the scenery, and stopped at one of the beaches for a swim.

After the swim we met this bad boy. He may look cute, but either him or one of his friends nearby was responsible for our shortened trip.

We were walking down the trail, each eating a bag of caramel peanuts. Jonah was working on his, but the raccoons were eyeing it a little too closely. He never fed any of them, but they were getting pretty close. Michael took Jonah's snack from him to keep them away, but then one of them lunged at Jonah and bit his peanuty-tasting hand. It was a very small cut, but it did break the skin. And, of course, our first concern was the risk of rabies.   

We ended up spending the afternoon finding medical care for Jonah. We took him to the local hospital where the doctor ordered a round of antibiotics and made sure we had his Tetanus shot up to date, but said a rabies shot was not necessary. Today we spent quite a while trying to figure out if that was our best move, or if we should, in fact, get the shots. 

It turns out that the rabies shot, for post-exposure, is a series of five to seven shots. And most of the local hospitals don't carry them because it does not tend to be a problem here. There have been only two cases of human rabies in Costa Rica during the last 30 years. But we didn't want to be the third, and we still wondered whether that statistic was because of a low incidence or low reporting. We did some research, and talked with someone at the U.S. Embassy Health Department in Costa Rica, and our neighbor was kind enough to talk to someone for us at the Ministry of Health in Costa Rica. Both said that given the circumstances of the bite, the rabies shot was unnecessary unless we were dealing with a bat exposure.

At the same time, in our research, raccoons came up frequently as top carriers of rabies. And my mom did some calling around in the U.S., to the Department of Health and the CDC, to get their opinions. Basically, everyone in the U.S. recommended getting the shot. I wondered, though, if the recommendation came because it was the best thing to do or because people in the U.S. are so afraid of lawsuits. 

So we were at a bit of a loss.

I'm not a big fan of unnecessary medications, and the long-term, unknown effects of vaccines concern me. However, the risk of death from rabies also concerns me.

Anyway, Michael and I went back and forth for a while, but eventually decided to go ahead with the shots. There is a good hospital about forty-five minutes away, called CIMA. It had been recommended to us by an American friend and they had the vaccine available. So tonight we took him down for his first of six shots. He was very brave, and didn't even cry, but we'll all be glad when he has completed the series. 

All in all, I would definitely go back to Manuel Antonio. But I'd keep the snacks out of sight, and be more cautious around the animals.

Happy Halloween - Hannah

Halloween was a little different this year. It's a pretty minor holiday around here, and though we saw a few decorations in stores, for the most part it's just another day for Costa Ricans. So we had to make our own Halloween.

On the day before Halloween, we visited the local cemetery. Many of the graves are above ground, and we saw some that were open as well. It could be a great place for ghost in the graveyard, but we preferred to visit during the daytime and simply look around.

Despite the general lack of festivities, Jonah's school did have a costume party. Jonah was able to borrow a costume from his friend Reed and was looking forward to the party. 

But as things tend to go for us, when we got to the school no one was there. We looked around and eventually found a note explaining where the party had been moved to. I was able to translate the note with Michael's help, and I thought I knew where the location likely was. But we didn't have a car that day--we were getting the alternator fixed--and since I was too lazy to walk we ended up going home and hanging out with the other kids who were also home because of the car situation. Jonah was a trooper though, and didn't mind too much. He enjoyed being with his brothers and sister. 

Later in the day we dressed up in impromptu Halloween costumes. As a family, we were a fruit salad. Caleb was a plum, Julia a banana, me a kiwi, Michael a mango, Dylan a blueberry and Jonah a strawberry.

Afterwards we carved coconuts. Well, mostly Michael did. The carving involved a screwdriver, steak knife, and machete. We have seen pumpkins here, but decided coconuts would be a little more Costa Rican :).

It looks a little like he's drooling

I think he looks like one of Robin Hood's merry men

Creepy red guy next to Jonah's creation

This guy had a pre-made face--no carving needed!

The final festive display

During the carving Michael took a break to catch this guy. We thought of making some Halloween toad stew, but instead decided to let him go after the photo shoot.

We ended up the evening with a little trick-or-treating. The kids came to the front door to trick-or-treat, we gave them some candy, then they walked around the house and came to the front door again for another round. After a few more trips, we finished up by enjoying our candy. We got a relatively small supply of the good, expensive American candy so it was muy delicioso.