The thrill of the hunt

These last 2 weeks or so have been a little crazy, as Krysta and I have been on a house hunt. We also just finished up language school this last week. While we are sad to leave our teachers at the language school, its also been a little bit of a relief to be done with that phase of the process.

Along the way of searching for our more permanent dwelling place, we had some interesting and good learning experiences. For instance, when you are getting directions to a place over the phone, it's a good idea to confirm that the house is actually located where the newspaper said it was....and not 45 minutes away from where you'd thought it was. No worries- we found that out before the taxi driver took us all the way out there. We also learned that the taxi drivers here (at least the ones we came in contact with) are super patient and helpful when we have no idea of how to get where we wanted to go. Addresses here in Costa Rica consist of telling how many meters to whichever direction the place is from the nearest big land mark. For example, the address of our current place is 200 meters east of Plaza Cristal. The houses don't have numbers, but they do usually have vivid or recognizably outstanding colors. So, finding somewhere that you've never been before may prove to be quite the challenge. We had at least 2 incidences in which the directions weren't quite clear enough, so the taxi drivers would pull over multiple times to ask people on the street for directions. This resulted, pretty much every time in either the taxi driver or the person on the street using their cell phone (as we have none) to call the place we were attempting to find in order to get better directions. They were all very sweet and helpful and it probably didn't hurt that by us not knowing exactly how to get there, having to drive around a lot, they were raking in the dough. Anyways, we always ended up finding where we needed to go, some way or another.

So, after making over 50 calls about renting places, facing many-a-rejection and visiting 9 or so places in person, we finally found what seems to be just about the perfect place! We checked out a few other places after seeing this one and doing so just seemed to confirm that the apartment we'd seen before was the place for us. We've felt really blessed in the ways that God has provided for us, especially in the housing department. This apartment we'll be moving into (that we actually just signed the papers for today) is new, has a beautiful view of the mountains and is within what we had budgeted for rent. It's about a 20 minute walk to the Dixons and downtown, 10 minute walk from a bus stop where we can find and catch a bus that will take us directly to where we'll be working and downtown San Jose- without having to switch buses. We are also only a 5 minute walk from a smaller store where all the basic necessities are sold, in case we forgot something or needed to get something in a hurry. For those of you who may be concerned with safety, the apartment is built up, terraced on a hill with wallish type fence things around it, so it's well-protected. AND the man who lives above us runs a security company, or something to that effect, and apparently (according to the landlord) he's pretty safety conscious/protective.

As to the next step in the process, we now have a set of keys, so we can begin moving in whenever we want. However, before doing so, we need, well, to clean, but also to purchase the necessities for living- such as, a refrigerator, a stove, I kinda need a bed, so that we can actually reside there, with food and all. But as soon as we can get our hands on these things for good price, we'll start to transfer everything else over and begin to make it home! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we search for these items- we've already been blessed in that one of our language teachers said that she had an older, yet well-working washing machine that she would give us- for free! God just continues to prove His faithfulness to us- please pray that we'll do our part in searching out, as well. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Below are some links to pictures of the new apartment and a get-together we had with the Dixons and Janzens to decorate cookies for Valentine's Day. Enjoy!


Apartment pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ugyekCeSYH61ZP-FQSYlHQ?authkey=10uoQ7qtTOo&feat=directlink


Cookie pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/krystaleanne9/Cookies?authkey=REbsE3qhpDQ&feat=directlink

Shake 'n Break

Sooooo...wow. This last week or so has taken me for quite the ride- literally and figuratively. Since I've been back in Costa Rica, going on 2 weeks now, God has been working on me and teaching me things, not always in the easiest fashion. So, I tend to be afraid, kind of a lot and I've been struggling and dealing with some fears that I have, of which I've been really convicted of the need to give them over to God. So, in this time, I've really been working on that, but you know like when you pray for patience, God gives you opportunities to practice that? Well, I feel like in these past 2 weeks, God's given me many opportunities, no matter how small they may be, to practice giving/surrendering all, especially my fears over to Him.

The first opportunity that presented itself was the idea and now the fact that I've been living on my own (granted the Dixons and Janzens are here) in my and Krysta's apartment- minus Krysta- for about 2 weeks now. And while I'm not the most outgoing person, I do like to have others around, especially in a place and time where I don't feel super comfortable. So, God's been working on me in this time to really just rely on Him and to draw my strength from Him, not my feeble self- to give all my fears and reservations up to Him, to obey and live for Him. That may sound cliche, but it makes sense in my head and the concept feels fresh to me.

Another such opportunity came about when a pretty big earthquake hit not too far from here last Thursday, of about 6.2 magnitude. I was by myself in our apartment, and I'll admit I was doing Zumba (latin dancing workout dvds) at the time when it hit. I went and stood in the doorway as I felt the building kind of shake-sway (we're on the second floor). When it stopped, I wasn't sure what to do, so I went and finished the Zumba workout. Ha! Yes, I did. When the workout was done, I turned on the news and got the details about the earthquake. They were saying a bunch of stuff about red alerts in our area and something about evacuating. Upon hearing this, I went into a slight panic mode, so I called the Dixons and they invited me to stay at their house that night. And so I did and I was thankful to not be by myself in case anything more did happen, which it did not. The next day, I returned to the apartment, still a little nervous- but working on giving that over to God.

And the opportunities have yet to cease! Yesterday I got to go with some people from Food for the Hungry to bring food and donated supplies to victims from the earthquake, who had lost family and homes. We met up at 6 o'clock in the a.m. I rode in a truck with 2 women and 2 men- one of which is the director for Food for the Hungry (FHICR- Fundacion para el Habriento) in Costa Rica. Another man, with his son drove another big truck. We met up with a number of other volunteers at a radio station headquarters (?) where there were plenty more trucks to load up with the abundance of donations. After we loaded them all up we headed out in giant caravan of at least 10 cars. We stopped a few times on the drive out, which ended up being about 1 1/2 hours, to meet up with some others to add to our caravan and do some radio interviews. We ended up parading up to Sarapiqui (a location near where the center of the earthquake hit, which was as close as we could get because any farther was considered a dangerous area) with somewhere around 20 cars and trucks full of donations, 3 or so Christian radio stations in tow, all broadcasting on location, I think maybe one television station and a few newspaper guys. It turned out to be quite the event. Upon arriving to the church where all of the donations would be stored and distributed, we had a short service of prayer and praise. About 35 earthquake victims were staying at the church, so they had them come forward for prayer. Some of them had lost family members that they saw taken right before their eyes, and many had lost homes. It was good to be able to pray for them and see their joy in receiving what we had to offer. After the service, we did all the heavy lifting and unloading of the MANY donations (I don't have pictures right now, but I'm going to try to get some from the people I was with). When that was all over, we headed out for what would be a long trip back to San Jose.

This last one's a lil bit of a doozy! For me, at least, it was. Alright, on our way back to San Jose, after handing out donations in Sarapiqui, we stopped for lunch and then went on our way. Along the way, maybe 45 min. into what would or should have been a 1 1/2-2 hour drive back, we realized one of the tires was a little flat, so we stopped at a gas station to check it and to fill up. Well, while opening the gas cap thing on the car with the key that unlocked it, the key broke in half and the bottom part was stuck jammed into the gas cap. The worst part was that it was the same key that was used to start the car....and we had no spare key with us. Some guys tried helping us to find a key or something that would work in its place, but to no avail. So, we found a mechanic, who was thankfully still at his shop and willing to help us out, as his work day was probably coming to a close. He ended up hot-wiring the car so that we could start and even stop it if we wanted: ghetto-rigging #1. He didn't even charge us anything! So, we thanked him and happily got back into the car, singing songs of victory. We started to pull away, when the guy who was driving suddenly stopped. As it turns out, the car had some kind of security mechanism and when there was no key in the ignition, the steering wheel locked up. So, we ran and called the mechanic guy before he got to far away and told him the situation. He worked on it some more and some how got a key into the ignition to unlock the steering wheel: ghetto-rigging #2. So we had the car hot-wired to be able to start and keep going and we had some key in the ignition to keep the steering wheel from locking up. It was getting dark now, as we started to head up the semi-winding road up the mountain. We were going along fine, when we hit some bumps and the key that was in the ignition fell out, so the steering wheel locked up. We were able to move off to the side of the road, but there wasn't much of a shoulder and it had started raining. So, the two guys, who had watched the mechanic do everything, started working to get the key back into the ignition and unlock the steering wheel. It was a little scary when it happened and even sitting on the side of the road, not only because of it being dark and rainy, but also because Costa Rican drivers tend to not be very mild or timid. So, after a while, they got the key back in the ignition and the steering wheel was good to go once again. So, we headed out once more. We went along fine for a while again when we hit some more bumps and the key in the ignition fell out again. So, we made it to the side of the road safely again. It didn't take very long this time for Juan Carlos (the director of FHI) to get the key back in, but when he did, he asked if anyone had any chewing gum. I had some, so I gave it to him and he chewed it up and used it to hold the key in the ignition: triple ghetto-rigged, MacGyver style. So, we took off one more time, praying the whole way (giving it to God). On our way up the mountain, after encountering some more rain, we ran into some fog, which also was a little nerve-racking, but we just kept on praying. After we made it through that craziness, we didn't have any more problems- the gum held and the key stayed in. After many stops and a semi-stressful 3 1/2 hour car ride back, we finally arrived in San Jose! It was a loooooooong day and I was exhausted, but it was pretty amazing and I'm thankful for the experiences, all of them! I feel like God has used them in a big way to continue showing me His faithfulness when I surrender to Him.

Wow- that was probably the longest, and hopefully not the most boring, blog I've written yet. I'm sorry for that. I usually like to keep them shorter, sweeter and with pictures, but wanted to share what God's been doing in my life and I figured it would be worth reading for those who really wanted to. Which is probably you, if you got all the way to the end and are reading this now ; ) So, thank you for reading and God bless!

Con cariño,

Cailah =)

Homes for the Holidays

Hey All!
So, it's been a while since I wrote last and a lot has happened. We have basically finished up language school, with the exception of one week in January, for trouble-shooting and any questions we might have. Back in December, all the SI Costa Rica staff got together to check out the Festival de la Luz parade for Christmas. It was a little different experience than I had expected. We got there early to get a good spot and waited about 3 hours for the parade to reach us (one hour or so of which was in the rain), but it was surprising to me how few people left because of the rain. When the parade reached us, it was not quite what we were used to in a traditional Christmas parade. There was maybe one or two of what we would have called Christmas themed-looking floats or characters, quite a few bands and cheerleaders and the rest were a vast array of everything from mime groups, dressed in unitards doing some type of interpretive dancing to huge floats with giant swans and unicorns. Leaving proved pretty difficult when we were ready to go because of the incredible amount of people, a lot of whom were trying to catch a bus, like us. But we got out okay and it turned out to be a pretty fun/crazy outing.

For Christmas and the New Year, my parents decided to bless me in an incredible way. They offered to fly me home for the holidays. In doing so, I was able to surprise a number of my friends. I was also able to attend one of my best friend's college graduations, hang out with my entire family (all of my brothers were home, as well), which doesn't happen super often anymore, we were all able to go visit my Granny (my mom's mom), hang out with friends, including one from Chile that I haven't seen in probably about 6 years and because of this trip home- my tourist visa will be renewed and I won't have to leave the country for another 3 months, along with so many other benefits to being home. So, I pretty much killed like 8 or 9 birds with that one stone. Not too shabby.

And now, I have returned to Costa Rica and I'm getting set for all that's to come. I just got back Friday night, so I'm still trying to get some things in order after having been gone for about 2 weeks. And Krysta has not yet returned, so I'm currently holding down the fort on my own. As soon as things begin to progress a little more, I'll shoot out another blog, so you can keep updated ; ) Thanks for reading!


The swan/unicorn float, up close and personal.





Almost the whole SI crew at the parade! (l-r: Sawyer got cut off, Tracey, me, Olivia, Jeff, Erin, Judah (in the kid carrier), Ella and Jeremy and Krysta was the one taking the picture




me and Krysta- we were super excited, despite the rain.





Dominique and I at her graduation.




The typical chaos equated with a Pritchard gathering (l-r:) Diego (friend from Chile), David, Mom, Dad, Oscar in Dad's lap, Jonathan, Grace (David's dog) and Isaac




Whale-watching in my Granny's back "yard"




Hanging out in my Granny's house. (l-r:) Mom, Granny, Isaac, Dad, Albie (a friend of my Granny's)




Jonathan, Isaac and me!