Church Music - Hannah

At church, there has been no piano. Everyone has been singing acapella. The branch used to have a keyboard but it broke, and since their only pianist is currently on a mission, they hadn't replaced it.

But a couple weeks ago they bought a keyboard and now Julia and Caleb can play it at church. We've been able to keep it at our house so the kids could work on some hymns. They have had a great attitude about practicing, and have been quite self-motivated so far. Dylan might need a few more weeks, but if he would like to play he'll have that opportunity. He might be able to play in Primary too. Also, around the time we go home the branch's piano player should be coming back from his mission, so the timing should work well.

So yesterday was the first day Julia and Caleb were able to accompany the hymns. It was great to see them play and contribute in a very concrete, meaningful way. The plan is to learn a song each week to play in Sacrament Meeting. Sometimes it might be right hand only, but that's okay.

There were three sacrament hymns. One of the sister missionaries played the opening hymn, Julia played the Sacrament hymn, and Caleb played the closing hymn. 

Caleb played a hymn that is not in the English hymn book, called "Placentero nos es trabajar." During the chorus, there is a part where the sopranos and altos sing a short phrase, and the tenors and basses are supposed to echo it. However, when Caleb played, everyone sang the melody, and when he came in on the echo, everyone jumped too quickly to the next phrase, so it was all a little off. But he adjusted so that in the next verse, he didn't play the echo portion. That helped everyone stay together with the piano. Being flexible while accompanying is a tricky skill, and I was pleased with how well he did. And Julia did a great job too.

I was also able to play a violin solo, an arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief." Our friend Wayne, who has been in the branch for four years, said that was the first time he's heard a musical number. An investigator who was sitting next to Michael seemed excited about hearing a violin. He said that was the first time he's seen a violin in real life, and told me it was like Michael Landon (Pa from Little House on the Prairie :)). 

I had originally not planned to bring my violin to Costa Rica, but changed my mind after thinking music might be something I could contribute. Without being able to speak the language, I can still share music. So I'm glad I was able to participate in that way.

La Cangreja National Park - Hannah

Today we found a beautiful little paradise during our first visit to La Cangreja National Park.

The park is about an hour's drive from our house. Before we went to the park, we had some lunch at a "soda" nearby.

This kitten made friends with the kids. Caleb said, "This kitten is vibrating!"
We have utterly failed as parents--he's 11 years old and has never felt a cat purr.

We hired a guide to take us to some amazing waterfalls, and he also pointed out some of the flora and fauna along the way.

I never really felt the need for a fancy camera, but when we saw this pretty bird
we wished we could have zoomed in closer. It's called a Blue Dacnis.

This is a termite nest. It was a little bigger than a basketball.

This crab was about the size of my fist.  These crab holes were all over.
The park's name, La Cangreja, means "the crab."

A 4-inch centipede

A Chocolate Mint Poison Dart Frog. We saw a few of them, and licked them for fun.
Or maybe not. I'm not quite sure. It's all a bit of a blur...

Again, we needed a zoom lens.
But way up in this tree--the roundish ball in the center is a sloth.

We called this a baby plunger plant. I think this is where plungers are harvested :).

This fungus in the center is called a dead finger. Creepy...

This flower is a labios caliente--hot lips.

This picture is a little blurry, but you can see a hummingbird nest built
right on the bottom of the leaf. Cool.

And here are a few photos along our hike.

And finally we arrived at this gorgeous waterfall. Like the beach, the water was cool and refreshing, but not cold. We would love to go back there again.

Noni Fruit - Hannah

This post is for you, Jon. This is a picture of a very stinky fruit I found near Jonah's school.

Someone had told me there was a noni bush near there, and as soon as I smelled it I knew I had found it.

Costa Rican Currency - Hannah

I thought I'd show you what Costa Rican currency looks like. It's much more colorful than U.S. currency, which makes it easier to keep straight.

A 20 mil colones bill (which is 20,000 colones, roughly equivalent
to $40 in the United States) and a 10 mil colones bill

The backs of the same bills, with pictures of a
hummingbird and a sloth. We have yet to see a sloth.

   

A 5 mil colones bill and a 2 mil colones bill

The backs of the same bills, with pictures of a monkey and a shark.

The front and back of a 1 mil colones bill, worth about 2 US dollars.

The bills are all slightly different sizes. I was told this is so
blind people can manage them better. I thought that was cool.
Also, the bills seem slightly more waterproof than in the US,
which is helpful in the high humidity.

A few coins. 100 colones is worth about 20 US cents and
the 5 colones coin is about 1 US penny. 

I was proud of myself today when I corrected someone who gave me 700 colones, but was supposed to give me 7000 colones ($1.40 versus $14). I wonder how many times that kind of thing has happened before, but I missed it.

My Church Calling - Hannah

I never mentioned that I received a church calling a few weeks ago. I'm the second counselor in the Primary Presidency.

Since my kids are usually about half of the attending primary, a bit of my work involves trying to translate for them. Last week I had read the lessons beforehand so I knew what would be coming, but we didn't end up going because a few of the kids had colds.

During the month of November, I will be in charge of Sharing Time, which involves music as well since there is not a separate music leader. There's nothing quite like preparing to teach a lesson in a language you can't speak. Hurray for Google Translate.

Hopefully I won't mess up like I did at school today. The children in the class were learning about day and night, the sun and the moon, etc. I told the teacher I knew two songs about the sun that I could sing to the children. (They are always wanting to learn English). Well that's what I thought I was saying, but I actually said that I knew two bars (as in alcoholic beverage-serving bars) for the children. Patricia, the teacher I often work with, and I had a good laugh about that one. She's very kind and patient with me.

Anyway, primary is a great place for me. The lessons are simple and there are lots of songs involved. Also, the sister missionaries often help translate during church. Right now we have two sisters from the states, which is unusual, so one often goes with Julia to help her in Young Women's and one comes with us into primary.

I love having the missionaries be such an integral part of the branch. We see them each week at church, and often around town during the week. We offer them rides whenever we can. Once I was able to give them a ride to an elderly member's home and participate in their visit. I have a lot of respect for the dedication and spirit of the missionaries, and I'm grateful to be able to contribute my small part by sharing the gospel with the primary children..

Fish Sticks and Knitting - Caleb and Dylan

The teachers at school are about as strict as a dead sloth. They don't care about anything that happens in the classroom. Well I guess they would stop a student form murdering another student, but that's about it. According to the students, Caleb's teacher is one of the most strict teachers in the school, and she lets kids do tons of things that would get them in lots of trouble in Utah.

Here are a few examples of those things:

1. Knitting - A few days ago at school, my teacher was writing stuff on the chalk board for us to copy into our notebooks, (my main teacher hasn't done anything besides write on the chalkboard since school started.) and I looked behind me, and there was a girl sitting there knitting. She had brought a needle and some yarn and was knitting. I hardly ever see people knit by hand in Utah, but she wasn't just knitting, she was knitting at school. I think if someone did that in Utah, the teacher would probably be confused before getting angry.

                                                                                    --Caleb

2. Fish Sticks - Two days ago, my teacher was writing stuff on the chalkboard for us to copy into our notebooks, and there was boy who reached into his desk and pulled out a bag of fish sticks. He broke a piece off of the fish stick and ate it. Then he put his fish sticks back in his desk. A few minutes later he reached back into his desk and ate some more. The next day, he took out the same bag of fish sticks and ate another piece. That is really weird. The fact that he was eating fish sticks was weird enough, but the fact that he saved some for the next day is even weirder.

                                                                                    --Dylan

3. Tortillas - A few days ago at school, the girl who sits next to me was staring at the chalkboard. She kept staring at the chalkboard as she reached under her desk and pulled out a plate that had a tortilla on it. The tortilla had meat, lots of lettuce, ketchup, and mayonnaise. Yuck! She kept staring at the chalkboard while she ate it.

                                                                                    --Dylan

4. The pencil shop - Today, two girls that sit behind me were asking people for their pencils. They would take the pencils and sharpen them. Then they cut out little strips of paper with the name of the person who owned the pencil on them. I'm not sure what they used, but they used something sticky to stick the paper in a spiral around the pencil. They did it for about 3 people, including me. And all of this was done while the teacher was giving a lecture about something. (She wasn't my main teacher so she could give a lecture, and didn't only write stuff on the board.) I thought the pencils looked good, but of all the things they could have done, it seemed kind of odd that they chose that.

                                                                                    --Caleb

5. The girls - I told you earlier about all of the trouble I was having with those girls who wanted to know if I liked them. They're still asking me questions about that kind of stuff, but the first time they asked me about it, my teacher was completely fine with it. He even got involved with it by helping translate. It seems like when they ask me questions now, too, they only ask me during class, and always give me a break during recess. In Utah, recess would be the only time they would be allowed to ask those kinds of questions, but here its okay with the teachers to do it during class, and not okay with the girls to do it during recess, so they just do it during class.

                                                                                    --Caleb

6. Tests - We've already told you some of the crazy things that would get you in a lot of trouble in Utah, but during tests, it almost seems like they misbehave more. While my class is taking a test, they act like a pretty bad class in Utah that isn't taking a test. During tests, they get up and walk around, and the teacher doesn't pay attention at all, so if you wanted to cheat, it would be really easy. And a lot of  the kids have conversations with each other during tests. I usually finish in about half of the time that the other people take, because I actually concentrate on the test and not my friends.
                                                                                    --Caleb

                                                        

Our Address - Hannah

Before we arrived here, I emailed the family we were renting from to find out the home's address. They sent an address and I thought it was normal, until Michael told me that it basically just meant 800 meters north of the supermarket. 

It turns out that all the addresses are like that--so many meters away from some main landmark. When that landmark goes out of business or happens to burn down, I'm not sure what that does to everyone's "addresses" that are connected to that landmark. 

We wanted to ship something down here to see if the address we provided would get it here. So we started small, with a violin string that I needed. After a couple weeks the string still hadn't arrived, so we went to the post office. The woman working there said it would have been sent to our home once it arrived, so Michael and I left. But then as we were walking away, a man came out and called to us with the package in hand. After explaining that they weren't sure where our house was, and discussing the address with Michael for a little bit, he was able to determine where we lived. Based on that conversation, we added to our shipping address. 

Now our address basically states the neighborhood of the city we live in, along with how many meters from the supermarket we are, along with the name of the man who developed the lots, followed by a statement that our house is at the end of the road, the third of three equal houses. Then we have the city, zip and country. 

It's quite an address. We'll see if it works for future items.