I'm a bit behind

I always feel I'm a bit behind and I keep writing only long narratives - and this one is no different. I plan to briefly describe the last ten days since my last post; but first, I have news to share: the Ighanis have spoken (apparently for five hours) with the counselor and they have decided not to rush the move away from Progresso. A pioneer family from Panama is coming on the 20th of September and we thought we'd leave for Guanacaste a few days after but it has been decided to wait and see. Therefore, for an undefined amount of time I get to stay in the lovely Progresso.


Okay, for the long, but hopefully not boring, sequence of events. Last week, when we all still thought we would be moving at the end of September, Jason came with the hope of helping his parents make the move. So, he came and we headed out on the long bus ride the next morning - but instead of going directly to Progresso we went to a beautiful quiet beach - the beach we see from one of the views from the Ighani's house (hopefully someday I'll insert some pictures because it's absolutely stunning). We had a nice long walk on the beach that night and the next morning we played in the great waves of the pacific ocean.

Then we headed up to Progresso. In Progresso we continued helping Anne go through things - cleaning and organizing and just generally trying to be helpful. But we also had some fun... of sorts. A few times Laura, Jason and I ran down the mountain and back up - I described that beach walk right? Well, yes, we took that path - not the whole hike... just the hardest part - barefoot. Fun, right? But to make up for it we did make chocolate. First we roast the cocoa beans, then rub the roasted beans between our hands to take off the shell. Then we grind them and then we add milk and sugar over the fire. I say we - mostly it was Jason and Laura (there's a picture on facebook - note what I am holding... not exactly helpful). Jason also cut down some coconuts for us to drink one day - yum. Oh, and I would just like to share, Laura made the most amazing Spaghetti. I am constantly amazed at the food here - yes, often we have the rice and beans that I expected, but also, quite often we have amazing tasting food! There was talk of killing a chicken (Laura really wants to pluck the chicken!) but that didn't end up happening - maybe it we'll do that in the upcoming weeks.

Then, all too soon, we left for San Jose once more. For some reason, that particular ride seemed extremely long to me - but we made it to San Jose. Our days here have also been quite eventful. One night we stayed at Saba's (a good friend - she served at the Ighani's a few years ago and decided to return to Costa Rica to study), one night we stayed at Julie's (a pioneer to Costa Rica and good friend of Anne), and a couple nights now we're back at Hesh and Zarrin's. We spent one day at the mall - no shopping, just sitting and talking. We've gone on errands, met friends for lunch (so tasty!), farewell party - that, for a few of us, lasted until 3:30 when they headed for the airport to send Jason away, other party.. well, the one that's always here the the house (for instance, Zar cooked dinner last night and about 7 people just walked in and sat down with us - good times).

So, we leave for Progresso in the morning and we don't know when we'll be back. The internet sitiation (hopefully family members catch that and don't just think I can't spell) is also undefined so I don't know when I'll be writing again - but don't let that deter you from communicating with me - eventually I will read and respond to everything. Nos vemos!

Before we go..

Well, our week in the San Jose area is almost at an end. We came up to San Jose for a doctor's appointment for Parviz, then we stayed to the weekend because Anne and Parviz had an NSA meeting, and then we were waiting for today because Jason (the oldest Ighani child) is flying in from the states. So, tomorrow we will be heading back down to Progresso. So... what we did in San Jose:

Well, Laura and I have been staying at a young couple's house - and it's been great. Hesh and Zarrin are good friends of the Ighanis and it's not hard to see why. Their house is always open to their friends and almost every night there were people over - whether it was just a night to hang out, or there was a devotional or dinner. Also, lucky for Laura and I, they both speak English and most of their friends do as well. So, we've been having a good time meeting new people and hanging out - at least at night. During the day, when everyone is at work, we've had to think of things to fill up our time. One day we went into downtown San Jose with Anne - we saw the open market and the craft markets and just walked around. One day we went out to a nearby Volcano - apparently it has one of the largest craters formed by a Volcanic eruption. One day we just went to downtown Heredia (the town/subdivision where we have been living) looked around and then when it started raining found a little "Cafeteria" - a coffee shop - and studied spanish. Other days we just hung out here and watched some movies. Unfortunately, Laura and I both got sick two nights ago and we spent yesterday recuperating. But we're better now and all ready for the party we're throwing for Jason's return. We've also been to a few friend's houses for devotionals, dinner and hanging out. Oh, and on a spur of the moment thing - we gave an improvised children's class... with no materials, not even a story in spanish, and little language. Laura has been taking lots of good pictures and has been putting them up on Facebook, so if you want to see some pictures I'm afraid you'll have to check it all out there.

Back in Costa Rica...

... but we're not settled yet. At the moment we are all sort of floating in Costa Rica. The first week we returned we stayed in Progresso. Anne started going through her things, trying to decide what she should and could take with her when we move. Parviz visited with neighbors and tried to fix some of the solar panel units that either weren't working or weren't working very well. Laura and I did whatever we could that would help them. We've done some cleaning, organizing, cooking and visiting neighbors. One day we walked down to the bay to buy fish (and swim in the ocean). That was a fun day - Anne had warned us that it was a rather difficult hike, especially on the way back. Well, going down Laura and I thought "this isn't too bad." On the way back we decided never to doubt anything Anne says. The walk back is pretty much straight up without stopping - for about 2 1/2 hours. And it didn't help that we walked back in the middle of the day without much water. Another day, Laura and I went to a friend's house to ask her to make Guaymi dresses for us. I don't know when they'll be ready - but I can't wait!

But I'm ahead of myself - Laura is from Greece, but has German parents, and has been working in England for the past few years. She will be staying with us for about 6 months - until she decides where or whether to do her doctorate. She's great... actually we're going for a run at the moment so I'll finish the stories of our adventures another time.

But very quickly, at the moment we're in San Jose and will be for a few more days yet.

Hola Todos!

Well, it's been about three more weeks and my time in Colombia is almost at an end.  I have met some wonderful people, had some wonderful times, and have really learned a lot.  The first week here at the institute in Cartegena, Colombia was spent learning about the process - especially the importance of keeping detailed and accurate notes and information about what has been done and who you've spoken to.  In addition, we studied Conozcamos (basically the Spanish version of Anna's Presentation) and some other deepening themes to help us prepare for going out to the towns.  Which is what we did for most of the second and third weeks.  Last week, on Tuesday we went out to the villages, mine was called Santa Rosa, where we stayed until Friday.  This was the teaching part of our trip.  Our goal was 50 new Baha'is - and we reached that goal in two days.  Mind blowing, right?  The people are simply ready.  The people we shared Conozcamos with were people who already knew a little bit about the faith - they had kids in childrens classes or they were or someone in their family had started Ruhi books - but we simply shared with them some of the main beliefs and a little history of the faith and at the end we ask "so, do you believe in Baha'u'llah" and almost every time they said yes.  I think four people total in Santa Rosa said no, they didn't want to sign a card... but everyone that I saw simply said yes.  The other two days were spend starting the consolidation process, the deepening the new believers.  One of the main things that struck me was the confidence that the other members of my group had in the process.  For instance, they pushed me to give part of the presentation, even though I have very bad spanish - they trusted that the message is so powerful that my broken spanish can't mask the truth.  This past week was the other part of the consolidation process.  We took the bus every day to the village and tutored Ruhi books or deepened new believers.  I gave my first Ruhi class in spanish.  And now, I have had three different Ruhi classes - alone.  Yesterday, I spent an entire day with one family.  In the morning I continued Book 2 with a girl, Cindy, who I had tutored the week before.  They had invited me to eat lunch with them - so I ate soup with cow stomach.. it was actually quite tasty but I had to not think about what it was.  And for the rest of the day, when Cindy had to go to colegio (high school) I sort of tutored Book 1 with an uncle of hers who is not a Baha'i.  It was interesting because he kept saying "There's not enough time!"  so he wanted to skip the reading (which is my favorite part because that's easy - no thinking, just reading!) and go straight to answering all of the questions.  Plus, he wanted to discuss all sorts different topics - especially politics (he is a fan of Obama).  It was a good day, but by 4 o'clock, about the time we needed to leave to catch the bus back to Cartegena, I could barely understand him any more.  I was so tired - everything he said I would have to ask him to repeat it.  That was my first entire day of only spanish.  All the other days I would have short conversations in English, or at least know that I could ask someone else to tell me what was said.. but yesterday I was alone with only spanish speakers and no English at all.  Good day, but hard.

This afternoon we are supposed to get together with the other members of our countries and begin our teaching and consolidation plans for our respective areas.  I don't know how that is going to go for us Costa Ricans, since none of us know exactly where we will be, what it will be like, or who we'll have to work with.  But I know that once we get there we'll be doing all sorts of good things for the Baha'is in that area.  

A Quick Hello

Hey everyone! I have been in Costa Rica for... well, I don't know exactly - what day is it? - maybe about 3 weeks. I spent the first two weeks with the Lynda Godwin Road Warriors youth service project (the same one I went on two years ago to Costa Rica and that Rachel went with last summer to Uganda) in Progresso, Costa Rica at the Ighani's farm. We successfully installed 25 solar panels to 25 homes - meaning that we gave light to 25 families where they had never had light previously - it was absolutely great. We did have some interesting adventures in the process, however. I hope that I will have a chance to go into it in a little more detail sometime but this needs to be a quick posting so I'm just going to continue. I am now in San Jose with Ann and Parviz but tomorrow we head down to Panama City to fly to Colombia for our training seminar. We will be there for about three weeks. Hopefully I'll get another chance to write soon! bye!

A New Beginning - but first:

Hey everyone! It's been a long time since my last blog - what can I say, I've been really busy (and I've loved it!). First as we all know I went to visit Nathan in Israel with my immediate family. It was an amazing three weeks that I'll never forget. There are tons of pictures on facebook that I'm sure most of you have already seen so I don't need to post a lot of them here... just a few of my favorites.


We spent our first two weeks seeing the sites of Haifa and Akka, where we saw some beautiful places, ate some amazing food and spent time with wonderful people.




Then we toured Israel where we had some more amazing experiences: camel riding, ruins sitings, and dead sea swimming (or, more accurately, floating).







Then we were back in Huntsville preparing for a family reunion! It was great seeing everyone again. We had a great weekend together. Here are some pictures from that: the easier to come accross family portrait and the much harder to get picture with everyone (except Nathan, obviously, and Uncle Dave, who is taking the picture)!















And tomorrow I begin one more exciting adventure: my year of service in Costa Rica. I'm not completely sure how often I'll be able to access the internet but I'm going to try to keep in touch with everyone. Hasta luego!

Yay! No more classes!

Today was my final day of class at Maryville College!! I still have a few papers due next week - and two performances - so I'm not quite done yet, but yay! no more class!