Track

Today was another track meet for Madison. She has been diligently working out and eating right. She received a 1st place ribbon for her heat in the 100m run! She was very excited about that accomplishment!

This week has been quite busy! Our Honduras team mates the McCann's have arrived, and we are trying to help them get settled in. So - we've been shopping! We have plans to do more tomorrow, maybe some on Friday, and a bit on Saturday?! Want to try and get as much of the busy work done before they start school on Monday! Our other friend, Cam (an MTW missionary to Columbia), arrives on Saturday, so we need to get him settled in as well before he too starts school on Monday! Busy for all, but it's been awesome having the McCann's here! We can't wait to have movie night, and a trip downtown with them!

Sauerkraut

Here was my dilemma - I finally found some good, somewhat spicy braughtworst/sausage. We had it about a month ago, but it was sadly missing the main ingredient - and that's sauerkraut.

But - what's a girl to do in a country that doesn't eat it? Well...make it of course. I've made sauerkraut once before - and that was in my microbiology class in college. I remember it being a fairly easy process. So - I did my internet search, found out how to make it, and it's been "brewing" for 2 1/2 weeks now. So tonight is the test. I purchased braughtworst again, and going to have braught and kraut! Can't wait!!!

Tica Festival

Our teachers showing us a fun Tica dance



Lots of good food!


We even had an artist in our group


Today was the second fiesta for this week (see post below). It was the Tica festival complete with gallo pinto (a rice and bean dish), mango salsa, eggs with ham, juice, and lots of fresh fruit. It's very common to have dancing at social gatherings - you can imagine how well this went over with all of us gringos! Quite funny, but we did muster up the courage to dance the Macarena with them. Good time, and a great way to end out the week.

Fiesta

My language class (Yadira is my teacher - the little one in the middle)



Our combined class for our "gringo" party


As you may know (from earlier posts) we are learning new things in our language class based on themes. A few weeks ago we learned about the office, then we learned about home remedies. This week we have learned about fiestas. We had to give an oral report (in Spanish, of course) about a holiday in the U.S. The next day we had to give an oral report about a Costa Rican holiday that we were assigned. We had to interview someone about it and then report back. To finish up the week we are having two in-class fiestas! Ahh...what a way to learn :-) We have combined with another language class, which happens to have Mike in it, and today we did a "gringo" fiesta. The foods we brought to class included uncooked veggies (they do NOT eat those here - only green salads), dip, chips and salsa, brownies, cookies, soda, deviled eggs (a big treat for our teachers), and we watched Spanglish (very appropriate we thought). Tomorrow we will be having a "Tico" fiesta. Will report on that tomorrow.

Chapel Services At The Spanish Language Institute

Every Tuesday and Thursday the adult students at the Spanish Language Institute put on a midday chapel service. It is like a mini-church service complete with prayer, singing and preaching. It is a great spiritual lift twice a week. Take a look at this 2 minute video to get an idea what our typical chapel service looks like.

1 month success!

Well gang....here is the news....I have successfully walked for one month as of today! I have diligently kept an exercise log, and I am up to about 45 minutes of walking everyday - including my time to and from school - it's about 3 1/2 - 4 miles a day! I think this blog entry is more for my own accountability than for anything else, but if you have been praying for me in this area - all the praise should go to God for keeping me motivated and energized for this! Thanks to everyone who asks me periodically, "so...how is your walking going?" - so keep it up! Thanks again!

Central Market

Front sign of Central Market. Welcome! (Bienvenidos)


This is a MAZE of shops which cover an entire city block

Hard to catch a picture without TONS of people

Meat markets all throughout

Pet stores had everything from puppies, rabbits, birds, chickens, and these birds


Promised I would take Madison to the central market yesterday, so we went. What a blast! As I said earlier, if any of you know me well enough, you know that I HATE to shop - but this place is such a blast! Bought lots of cool stuff - ate some pumpkin icecream, tried fudge, talked with a lot of people, and walked until we dropped.