Curbing the curiosity

Gone and back again

2012-01-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

I am back in Costa Rica. I was in the states, mostly California, for about 3 weeks. It was a whole lot of craziness. It was amazing being able to be home and spend time with family (especially my little niece who was 2 months old at the time) all together and individually, as well as visit with friends. I was really blessed just to be able to rest and relax and go on bike rides with my mom or a friend, have lunch or coffee with my dad, hang out with each of my brothers and sister-in-law and niece and even just sit and be with or around people that I don't get to see very often. It really was a blessing. It was also a very good time of refreshment to prepare me for the craziness that would pick right back up upon coming back to Costa Rica. I've been back a week now and it feels like a month has gone by. Our first ever semester students from Fresno Pacific University arrived last week, so we took a few days to orientate them and get them situated. I think it's going to be a great 4 months for them here. Other than that, I've been getting things in order in the house, with the car and to start everything up again in Las Fuentes next week. Some things have gone smoother than others, but just to give you some idea of what a day could and actually did look like: Today I woke up early but also very excited because our widow-maker (electrical shower head water heater- yes, it's probably as dangerous as it sounds) was going to be replaced by one that works, thus giving us warm showers for the first time since I got back (there were quite a few previous attempts at fixing it). This was done by our very kind retired electrician neighbor, Don Rodrigo. He came over, installed the new shower head, no complications, no one got electricuted- it was a complete success! So, I started off my day with a much appreciated warm shower! Then, I had planned to meet with Jehudi, who works with me in Las Fuentes, in the SI office to go over some stuff. As I went to leave, I could not help but be aware of the flat tire......so, I hurried to catch the bus, as I was already running good and late. I finally got there and we got a little flyer made to put up in the Fuent- it turned out super cute, I'm not gonna lie. So, after that, Jehudi said that he needed to go by the hardware store to get some stuff and he would help me find a car jack, if I wanted (because we have a car jack, but it doesn't really work with our car. i'm sure you're asking why, right? yeah- i don't know). So, we headed out. We arrived to the hardware store only to discover that they were out of any car jacks that were not ginormous and expensive, and so I would have to wait on that (Jeff offered to come later to help me change the tire with some of his tools =). So, then, I headed over to the grocery store because I had to pay an electricity bill and that's how you do it here. So, I waited in the line and when it came my turn, the lady informed me that that system was currently down and so I could not pay that bill at that time. So, I then just walked home to work on something that maybe wouldn't be so affected by outward circumstances and then feel like an unavoidable failure. And that probably actually sounds more negative than I feel. But I feel like this is kind of more what the reality of living here in Costa Rica feels like sometimes. And I felt somewhat frustrated, of course, but I don't know if it was just having a different mindset being back in Costa Rica or if it was just THAT good to start off the day with a warm shower, but I feel like God's just really helped me to have peace with all these little things and not worry about what seem like failed attempts adding more things/stress to my to do list. And if I do start to feel stressed I might just have to decompress in what sometimes feels like the, oh so spiritual act of taking a very appreciated warm shower. =)

Summer teams in the city

2011-08-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

We recently finished our summer season, full of teams from all over the states and Canada. It was a great time of being able to share with others and receive help in our ministry sites. I had an intern, Mark, from Fresno, California, who was a great help to me throughout the entire summer. He brought a lot of energy and encouragement and was always willing to lend a hand. He really was a huge blessing in what can be a kind of hectic time for us. In the first 6 weeks of the summer, we had a group of 4 students from Trinity Western University in Canada, one of which, Joti, was placed at my site. She was also a huge encouragement to me and the kids we work with. In addition to everything else this summer, I had the joy of spending one night a week with all the interns, encouraging them and giving them a safe place where they didn't have to worry about being "on" or in charge of something, or even having to figure out how to express themselves in spanish. I really enjoyed being able to provide this time and place for them, as I know the experience of having to be abroad and being in charge of things and having plenty of responsibilities. Overall, the summer was great! It wasn't without a few glitches here and there, but the kids involved in our programs and those that came from the states seemed to do really well and enjoy their time together! Here are just a few pictures from these last few months:

Joti, Mark and I

A rainy day soccer game with the kiddos.

Best buds: Kevin and Axel

Aerobicizing, of course!

Valeria, Joti and others in the background at the church

The infamous box

2011-08-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

In Las Fuentes, we have been incredibly blessed in our partnership with the church there. It's been over 2 years that I've been working out of the church rent free. They've been very gracious in allowing us to use their space and various resources there. It's been a huge blessing. There are still some drawbacks in not having a place of our own, however we are taking steps towards growing and bettering what we do have available to us. For example, for the last 2 years or so in Las Fuentes, because we don't have a space that is just for us, we have kept all of our materials and supplies locked in a 2'x3' plastic box that we would have to carry up and down stairs from where we would store it to where we would have our program with the kids. It was pretty hefty and jam-packed with lots of great things. But it was also not the easiest to manage with having to move it all the time and having little hands rummaging through it, making it seemingly impossible to keep it in some kind of order or system. So, with the amazing servant's hearts of Jeremy and those working with him at the woodshop, we put in a request for some kind of cabinet that we could lock and keep up in a more permanent spot in one of the rooms where we work with kids in the church. In not much time at all, the cabinet was finished and moved into it's place in Las Fuentes! And we are so very grateful for not having to lug that large box up and down the stairs and having a more organized and larger place to keep all of our supplies! Below are some pictures of the day that we got the cabinet and transferred everything from the box to the oh-so-spacious cabinet.

This is a picture of everything we took out of the box and various other places to put inside the cabinet.

You can see the infamous old box in the background, being cleaned out.

Nicole and Mark helped out with the transfer and the Jeffs, on the right, helped move the cabinet and put it in it's place.

SO neat and organized!!!!

Functional and beautiful!

I love it!

A whole lot 'a talking going on

2011-04-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

One week ago, I returned from a trip to the states---California, being the specific one I visited, actually. Ya see, what actually happened is that every year, my home church in Hanford has a Mission Fair. And each year they have a guest speaker. This year they asked Dave Hansen (the president of Students International) and I to be the speakers- a tag team type of effort. So, after some anxious weeks of prayers and nervous planning, I flew back to CA for the event. On Saturday, there was an international dinner, including a salsa (the food kind) contest! Following the dinner, there was a time when people could go around and here different people from different organizations speaking about their ministries. There were four sessions, so that people could here each of the speakers. In this time, Dave and I gave a little introduction to Students International- what it is- what we do. And then I spoke a little more specifically just about what all is going on with SI Costa Rica. It was good to be able to share that much with people in my home church that have supported me and seen this facet of God's plan begin to develop in my life. It was also very encouraging to see so many familiar faces. Which was also SUPER helpful Sunday morning, two services, when I saw the hundreds of chairs (I'm really bad at estimating, it could have been less...like 12...well, no, not really. I'm pretty positive it was more than 12) beginning to be filled with bodies- living ones, with ears, ready to listen.....to me =/ But I gave it all to God. Dave spoke some, gave kind of an introduction, I, then, gave kind of my personal story and testimony in missions and then Dave closed it out. It seemed to go pretty smoothly and well. It was also amazing to be able to have all of my family there, parents, brothers and sister-in-law, everyone!

Afterwards, I got to spend some quality time with my family all together, which I LOVED, of course. Throughout the following week, I also got to meet with people who are either coming to Costa Rica this next year or are interested in doing so. My mom and I even made a trip down to L.A. to get some paper work for my religious visa application for Costa Rica. It was a really good trip- pretty full, of all good things, but also a good time of being able to see and share with my church family, as well as my family-family and some friends. =)

Mission Fair

2011-03-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

Announcement! Exciting/a little nerve-wracking:

My home church, First Baptist Church of Hanford, is having their annual MIssion Fair April 9-10. They have asked Dave Hansen (the president of Students International) and I to be the speakers. So, I will be in the Central California area at that time and while I do not revel in the idea of speaking in front of large groups, I would love to see you then and have your support for this event. Even if you're not able to attend, please keep me in your prayers, as I'm pretty nervous about it. I'm sure it'll be great and I have confidence that God will give me the words that He has for everyone to hear. Thank you for your prayers =)

Teams and the Fuent

2011-03-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

In Las Fuentes, we've begun to put into practice some of the new ideas for this year. One of these ideas for the boys and girls club was to assign a theme or a value to each month. Each week of that month, we set aside some time to talk about different aspects of that value and do some kind of activity with it. Some examples of these themes are, Goals, Self-worth and Respect. It's something the kids are still getting the hang of, but there have been some good discussions that have come of it and it's been helpful to refer back to for the children in other situations.

In hopes of creating a more community centerish type of environment (but without the whole actual physical building part), I've been brainstorming and creating a list of special activities to take place on Friday afternoons. Some compiling of resources, supplies and able-bodied help are still needed for many of the activities, but so far, we have also been able to host two movie afternoons. For these events, we were able to borrow a projector to have more of the big screen kind of feel. We were given permission to use the community building (where we also do aerobics), which also provided chairs and we brought snacks to make the whole movie watching experience complete. We chose movies appropriate for the ages of those that came, between 4 and 13. Although, some had made suggestions of movies ahead of time that would not have been appropriate, we stuck with movies like, Monsters Vs. Aliens (the Pixar one) and Yogi Bear. They all loved it, even the too cool for school ones- I saw them laughing. This is just a small thing that I'm sure a lot of them maybe haven't able to experience before. And starting out with this kind of activity, rather than something more complicated or involving, I feel like they'd be more likely to get involved when we plan for things that require some more involvement, such as tournaments or special projects. So far it seems to be going pretty well. Each time we've had about 20 kids show up and they behaved excellently both times, also showing me that I can attempt something a little more challenging with them. Especially when teams are here to help direct such activities.

Speaking of teams, we've had our first two student teams of the year. The first group was made up of a team from Jupiter Christian High School in Florida and an Intervarsity group from James Madison University in Virginia. The second group contained a women's soccer team from Crown College in Minnesota and a team from Taylor University in Indiana. Both of these groups were excellent and gave us a great jumping off point for the year and the teams to come. They were very willing to jump in, flexible with everything and very encouraging with their interest and care for the work being done here.

Here are a few pictures from one of the movie days with the kiddos:

Our movie clan, making our best monster and alien faces! Krysta and Tracey Dixon (neither of which are pictured here) came to help out on separate occasions. Erin Janzen, who is pictured here, also came to help out.

Women's Trip!

2011-03-28T12:52:00.000-07:00

Back in February, we had a group of about 25 women from California, Texas, Guatemala and Austria, one of which was my mom, that all met down here in Costa Rica for an SI women's trip! It was great to be able to spend time with so many women that I'd known from California and Guatemala and to get to know the others. It was also amazing to be able to share in it all with my mom. She'd come to visit before, but never in the context of an actual outreach, so I think it was good for her, along with the others I'd known as well, to see what all goes on in my site and how teams fit into that. We had a good and very encouraging week with this team. It was not without it's challenges, though. In working with kids of the age that I do, pre-teen or early teens, there presents quite a few challenges with disciplinary issues. This women's team got to see some of these challenges first hand, but were very supportive and encouraging in how it was handled. It's always exciting having new people work and experience our lives here, but there's something special about sharing it with those who are close to you or have known you beforehand.

Below are some pictures from this outreach:

Janice Hansen (who lead the women's trip), me and my mom.

Tracey, with Lynnea, leading the way on our excursion to La Paz Waterfall Gardens

Women at the waterfall.

Holidays----way back when----

2011-03-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

The following series of blogs are an attempt at an update on my life since December or so, of last year.

Holidays:

As a kind of end of the year activity, we took about 25 kids from Las Fuentes to a park in Desamparados and had a kind of field day with different team games and activities, as well as a hot dog featuring lunch. It was a crazy kind of day, which the kids seemed to enjoy. It was the first time we'd taken a group from Las Fuentes to any kind of outside place and for the most part it was good. But we also learned some different ways or kinds of things we may do for the next time. =)

After these activities, I was blessed to be able to go home, to California, for the holidays, but not without stopping by Louisiana to visit my dear friend, Dominique, first. Both Louisiana and California provided great opportunities to rest in the company of family and friends. And even more than that, I was able to speak to a Sunday School class from my home church that supports me. They also put together a large supply of donations that they sent down for our ministry here in Costa Rica. It really is a blessing to have such a great team of support back at home.

Upon coming back to Costa Rica, the kids I work with, the aerobics ladies and those I visit seemed anxious to get back started with the program, which was encouraging, especially when leaving home/California is not always the easiest thing. This year also started with some new ideas to begin implementing in the work being done in Las Fuentes, such as monthly themes of values in the boys/girls club time, more community center type of activities and sharing articles and healthy recipes with the aerobics ladies. Some of which are more easily begun than others. Please keep in prayer the implementing of these new projects and discernment and wisdom in the process.

Below are just a few pictures of my time in the states:

Dominique and I----SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!

Noelle and David (the marrieds), me and my Mom and Dad!

Jonathan and his beard and Munroe.

Isaac and Munroe---we kinda love dogs!

A Wedding, a Birthday and Fun-loving Delights!

2010-10-10T18:04:00.001-07:00

In mid-September I was very blessed to be able to spend a few weeks in California. In this time I was able to be a part of my older brother, David's wedding, my Mom's birthday, my friend, Heather's baby shower and lots of quality time with family and friends. I hadn't been back to California since January- a good 8 months! Not quite my favorite amount of time.
It was especially great to be able to be a part of David and Noelle's wedding, as a bridesmaid. It was a beautiful ceremony and an amazing celebration at the reception. And now, I'm very happy to have a sister in the family!
Also, when home, I got to share in the celebration of my mom's birthday, September 24th. We surprised her with going to see Bye-Bye Birdie at Roger Rocka's Dinner Theater in Fresno---my two younger brothers, Jonathan and Isaac even came along (I didn't give them any details about that night for as long as possible so they wouldn't try to get out of it- they were good sports, though ; ) David and Noelle couldn't make it because of some honeymoon thing =) It was a lot of fun!
While at home I was also able to attend my friend, Heather Roeber's baby shower for her soon-to-be-born little girl, Elise, who I'm very excited to meet at Christmas!
In addition to all that, I also had a few opportunities to talk to people and groups about what all it is that I'm doing down here in Costa Rica. I got to speak to a women's group at my church and they offered a lot of encouragement. My friend, Rebekah Milhon and I were asked to speak to our church's high school Sunday school class on the topic of missions. We each talked about our experiences and encouraged the students to get involved where they're at. They actually seemed to listen pretty well and asked some good questions. I seem to be continually reminded, in those types of situations, of my love for youth and their involvement in such things beyond themselves and their own little bubbles.
Being a quality time person, I was incredibly blessed to be able to spend the face to face time that I did with people I love. In some ways, it seemed like it was way too short of a time to get in all the quality face time that I'd have liked to. But also, upon returning to Costa Rica, I felt that I'd been gone for way longer than I actually was. It's weird- all those feelings and trying to juggle them, but I'm feeling a little more balanced now and allowing myself to rest in the arms of Him who has it all under control in His timing and His balance.

Because I feel that my words don't do my experience justice, here are some pictures for you to enjoy of my time in CA:

David and Noelle at their rehearsal dinner.

Richard and Granny (my Mom's Mom) at the rehearsal dinner.

My Mom and Dad. At the rehearsal dinner. Still.

The bride and her maids---some of us look like we're sleep standing.

David and Noelle's pups- Grace and Charlie.

Noelle and her dad making their way down the aisle.

Noelle and David during the ceremony.

Noelle, her parents and her sister, Monique. David (with the help of some friends, my Dad and brothers) made that white arch behind them for Noelle.

My brothers and some of my Mom's side of the family, left to right- Aunt Kathy, Jonathan, Granny, Richard, Aunt Cary, Isaac and myself.

Siblings! Jonathan, myself, David and Isaac.

The wedding party.

David and Noelle Pritchard's first dance at their splenderific reception---that's the dessert spread on the right!

My parents at Roger Rocka's for my Mom's birthday celebration extravaganza!

Me, Isaac and Jonathan watching Bye Bye Birdie. They were clearly thrilled........that there was food there.

My super duper friend, Aiyla and myself.

My splendiferous friend, Courtney and I at her sister, Heather's baby shower.

Heather at the shower for her baby, Elise.

Me and my greatastic friend, Rebekah!

Thanks for watching. =)

Lice, Tires, and Sinuses, oh my!

2010-09-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

I don't even know how long it's been since I've written, so I'll start from now and work kind of backwards. =) So these last few weeks have been a little crazy. We had our last team for the summer leave. It was a packed summer, full of eager students ready to help with all the varying activities. The same weekend that the last team left, I had to flee the country with the Janzens to renew our visas in Panama. Hopefully, soon we'll be able to get special visas that will keep us from having to leave the country every three months. After our weekend in Panama, I returned back to Las Fuentes. Upon my return there, kids came running up to me, "Cailah, when's (insert name of anyone that came to Las Fuentes this last summer) coming back?" They continue to ask about them, although my answer has yet to change, "I'm sure they would love to be here, but they had to go back home." And they continue to ask.....

Not too long after being back, I started to notice a crazy itching on my head. Come to find out, I'd gotten lice. It wasn't super surprising, considering some of the cases we've seen in Las Fuentes. Between numerous shampoos, olive oil treatments, comb-throughs and nit-picking (literally), my head seems to be lice free! After the whole lice ordeal, then came the issues with the tires. Three flat tires in three days. The first one, I don't know what it was caused by. But we got the the spare tire put on and before I got a chance to take it in, I drove it up to Las Fuentes. Kids started coming and some of them came in saying, "Cailah, there's air coming out of the tire in your car." And I was like, ummm, no, that's a spare. So, I went and checked it out and sure enough, before long, another tire was flat. I think this one may have been due to really bad roads because of some construction. So, I ended up having to call a tow truck, seeing as how the spare tire was already being used. So, they took me into a shop and we got the tires patched up, aligned and rotated, all for relatively cheap. Great! Not two days later, I was in Las Fuentes again, walking to aerobics, when I noticed another tire (not any of the ones that had had problems before) looked a little flat. By the time I got done with aerobics, it was significantly flatter. So some of the guys from the church helped me change the tire to the spare and once again I headed back to the shop to get the tire repaired. This time it was a nail. Needless to say, I think I'm getting the whole how to deal with a flat tire bit down pretty good. The next morning, I woke up feeling kind of sinus-y. This began a five, or so, day stretch of dealing with sinus pains, feelings of my head swimming and just being out of it in general. But it's mostly cleared up now, so thank you, Lord, for no sinus infection and for a pretty quick recovery. So, things have been a little crazy over the last month or so, but there's also a lot of good crazy to tell!

We now have some new staff members to add to SI Costa Rica and our first Tico staff, to boot! Luis Diego, Cindy and their daughter Hannuka have jumped on board with us! Cindy will be starting a micro finance site with Maria (who is from Nicaragua and was an intern this last summer and has yet to be officially on staff, but is well on her way). They'll be working in each of the communities where we currently are, Los Guido, La Capri and Las Fuentes. They'll be working with women involved in small businesses in each of the communities, helping to tie the ministry focus places together, as well. Diego will be starting up a kind of sports/recreation site, that will also spend some time at each of the working ministry locations. In Las Fuentes, we're going to team up to present a more thorough and unified front in the sports department, as well as, providing a boy/girl scouts kind of alternative, incorporating Christian values in the teachings. I'm really excited for this new program in Las Fuentes. The times I've mentioned it to the kids there, they freaked out with excitement, so I'm pretty sure it'll do well. Well, we at least know that if it's of God, it'll prosper in how He'd have it do so.

So many new and exciting things going on here. With those things come challenges. One of those that hasn't seemed to give me much of a break, especially looking at last month, is that of finances. I am in dire need of more support. Would you PLEASE pray and consider how God would have you respond to such a need. I know that kind of giving may not be for everyone, but that doesn't mean that you have no part to play. Thank you for your continued prayers and support! God Bless! =)

Teamerizing!

2010-07-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

Things have been busy as of late, real busy. Our summer has gotten off to a great start. After the Grove City College team, from Pennsylvania, we had a two week slot with no teams. It was a good time to really get involved with our summer interns and prepare together for the teams to come. After those 2 vacant weeks, we had a team come from The Well Church, in Fresno. I had a great group of ladies who were really fun to have at the site and to see them using specific gifts and talents they had with the kids and older ladies we visited. They even survived the infamous aerobics class! After a jam-packed 2 weeks, the Well team headed back to CA a week ago. And last Monday, our next group arrived: highschoolers and young adults from Savior's Church in Visalia and Heritage Church in Bakersfield. With one week down in their two weeks here, they've done great! My group at the Social Services site in Las Fuentes has been really good about diving in (sometimes literally) with the kids. Yesterday, for example, we had aerobics in the morning, in which their enthusiasm has lead me to have more difficult workouts, as I find my self laughing. at them. a lot. it's pretty great! After aerobics, we planned some activities for the following week (as the kiddos at our site have their 15 days of vacation from school). Then, as we were finishing lunch, it began to rain a little bit. The students got super excited to play in the rain with the kiddos---good thing! So, we headed back to the church and rounded up a bunch of kids, in a pied piper kind of fashion (which i love, by the way). We divided into teams when we arrived to the play (the big field area where we play with the kids). Not long after we arrived, it started raining pretty good. Soon, the field was transformed into a giant slippery sliding mud bath! The kids of the Fuent made it their personal goal to take each of us down in the ginormous puddle that we basically had to tread water and swim to get out of. The team fully embraced every part of this, not holding back at all and I know that the kids of Las Fuented LOVED it! It was also pretty hilarious to see everyone running around completely drenched in the muddy mess: the little kiddos and team members alike with mud beards, mustaches and uni-brows. It was beautiful! I truly believe that investing quality time in these kids in Las Fuentes is key. And being willing to be ridiculous and maybe look foolish for them and with them speaks volumes into their lives, in showing them that they are loved and have worth. I don't know all of the stories of the home lives of these kids, but I do know that something draws them to our activities and they keep coming back and wanting more. Sooooo, I don't know all the details of hows or whys, but I do know that we will continue to be obedient to what God's called us to do in Las Fuentes, as nebulous as it may seem to me or others at times. =)

Just a few pictures of the Fuent with the Well team:

Sam and Courtney with some kiddos at the Play Azul

Annalee (who's been the amazing intern at my site) with Raul playing a more difficult version of jenga?

Sam turning the jump rope for Angie and Tatiana

Megan and Tatiana <3

Dive bomb vs. Diving in

2010-05-31T10:47:00.000-07:00

These last few weeks have been a little busier than most. We had our first set of interns arrive for the summer: Ally, Katie and Annalee. And they are pretty much amazing! We also just had our first team for the summer. It was a group from Grove City College in Pennsylvania and one individual from North Dakota. It was a great team- very genuine and excited to really dig in. We had about 5 ladies that came with Annalee and myself to what's been deemed the social services site in Las Fuentes. It was really encouraging to have more people around to give more individualized attention to a greater amount of kids. During these two weeks with this team, I also felt a lot of confirmation for how much I really do like SI and how they go about things. One of the times that this was especially confirmed was when another team from the states (not SI affiliated), came into Las Fuentes to give a soccer clinic/camp for a few hours one afternoon. And this is not to say that short term missions doesn't have its place, because it has definitely had a significant role in my life and plays a large part in SI. However, I've grown to appreciate even more the way SI does things because of the short term teams they bring to work alongside those who have an established place in such communities. With this team that came to do the soccer camp, we SI-ers were there, as well, so that we could help out if needed. During the camp, one of the kids thats been part of some of our programming before, Julio, fell and hurt his arm. In this case, I was happy to have had a previous relationship with this kid, because the people running the soccer camp didn't really know what to do in this situation, especially since Julio was so upset and afraid to tell his parents. So, the other SI ladies and I were able to walk him to his house and explain all of what had happened to his parents. Upon getting there, Julio just burst into tears and I explained to his mom and aunts what had happened. They told me that the problem was that they didn't have any insurance, but his mom was going to make some calls to figure some stuff out. The next day, we saw Julio. He had a cast on his arm and a smile on his face. Everything with the doctor had worked out fine. I, and the other ladies, were happy to be able to follow through in this situation and prove to Julio and his family that we really to want to be a diving in presence in their lives, rather than a dive bomb type of "relationship." I think what makes SI legitimate is the fact that we do have the in-country staff that are working in the communities day-in and day-out, so that when short term teams come through SI, they have that built-in trust because they come in and are associated with the already present relationship in that community. And this is what I love. =)

Below are some pictures from this last group and all of our various activities:

Erika, Olga and Hannah working on bracelets that materials had been donated for.

Post-aerobicizing!

At the Play with the kiddos! Flipping a coin to see who's up to bat first.

It can prove to be a very stretching experience, as Annalee is demonstrating so well!

Angie and Ariel survived the famous "tower hike!"

Overdue. Waaaaay overdue. Revoke my library card, that's how overdue this blog post is.

2010-04-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I'd said before that I would try to do better at writing more regularly. In this I have failed. But I am writing now. =)
And the subject of this writing is a team! Yep! We had our first team of the year back in early March. It was a team comprised of a group from the Intervarsity chapter at James Madison University in Virginia, a group from Jupiter Christian High school in Jupiter, Florida and one individual. It was quite a mix, but a good one at that! I had a group of 5 amazing girls at my site (2 from Jupiter and 3 from JMU). They all did amazingly at jumping in with all the various activities we did: they not only braved my aerobics class, but were a fun and encouraging addition, in helping to count down and providing more "models/examples" for the others to follow. They quickly befriended kids and took initiative in helping them with homework or activities. They enthusiastically helped pick up a bunch of nasty trash in a field where we play sports with the kids and then proceeded to put forth their best efforts in a soccer game against kids probably half most of our ages and twice as good---with a few exceptions to some star athletes* They helped herd kids as we hiked up a mountain to the kids' favorite cell tower destination. And they didn't even complain. Not when we had to take just about every form of transportation, sometimes resulting in a 1 1/2-2 hour bus ride, because our car was in the shop (such is life here). They didn't complain when they got pretty lobster fried after playing in the blazing sun with the kids or when the families we visited went on long speaking bouts without pausing for a chance to translate. Basically, they were amazing and an incredible support and encouragement to me. They just did really well over all =)

So, also, just to give you a little update on Las Fuentes, things have been going pretty well. Kids aren't super consistent in coming to tutoring/after school activities, but there have been quite a variety of kids that have come. Having teams come seems to help the kids become more aware of the continual activities we provide there on a weekly basis, though.
There is a core group of women that have been faithful participants in the aerobics class, which is exciting! With the exception of one class, in which we had around 25 participants, these 4 or so women have been super enthusiastic in their attendance. We are currently working on perfecting our grapevine, while raising the arms up and down and throwing a knee lift in there. Along with some other pretty amazing moves and resistance band exercises. They seem to love it. =)

Below are some pictures from when the team was here. please enjoy:

This is the field, or the "Play Azul" where we picked up trash and then played sports and provide some outdoor fun time with the kids.

The girls from Jupiter and JMU with the kids on our hike up to the cell tower.

Me with the amazing girls of the social services site.
l-r: Laura, Lacy, myself, Renee, Francesca and Amber

Fear not....freak out not....

2010-02-25T16:26:00.000-08:00

Fear stems from some lack of trust, whether it be trusting others, ourselves, or God. My form of fear tends to manifest in a freak out kind of way. I get freaked out when I'm put in charge of managing a work site and making decisions for such a site on my own. I freak out when I'm responsible for managing some kind of spiritually guided environment, in which the services I offer or the niche I am to fill is nebulous. I freak out when I realize how far I am from most all of my family and friends. I freak out when I have to try to break up shouting matches and sometimes physical fights when kids don't like how someone else plays soccer. And I kinda freak out when 25 people unexpectedly show up to an aerobics class I'm teaching, when most of my aerobic experience has taken place in front of a computer screen playing a dvd guided session for me to follow in the privacy of my own room. I think it's safe to say that I kinda freak out a lot (this is nothing new to those who have lived and shared things with me ; ).
Why all the freaking out? This is my question to myself. This freaking out or form of fear shows some level that I've not fully entrusted to God. When has He been unfaithful to me? When has He ever let me down? Surely not when He provided an AMAZING blessing of a house and a way of moving into it within a period of 48 hours. Not when our car's brakes went out when we were coming down a mountain and there were any number of ways that we could have barreled off some cliff. Not in all the ways that He's protected me that I'm not even aware of. And definitely not in all the undeserved blessings that I SO EASILY take for granted. He is faithful.

It may be good to have those moments of freaking out---but just for a moment. Just enough to remind you (me) that it's God who's doing it, not me. Then, move forward, step up to the plate, dive in, let loose, charge!
Trusting that He'll guide me through it.

"For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." -2 Timothy 1:7

give me a brake! no....literally, we need brakes- we don't have any!

2010-01-26T13:49:00.000-08:00

The adventures here in Costa Rica never seem to stop! Which can be a good thing and a bad thing- I guess it mostly depends on your perspective. Either way, in this particular adventure, God DEFINITELY had His hand over, under and just all around us. Let me preface this story by saying that we are all completely fine- everyone miraculously escaped virtually unscathed!

We all decided that a trip to the beach would be nice, especially since the majority of us had just arrived from significantly colder climates. This particular "we" included Krysta, Leah and myself, the Janzen family and Dustin. The Janzens took their car and Dustin rode with them, while Krysta, Leah and I took our car and followed behind them. We'd stopped once because the Janzen's dog, Bosco, had gotten a little car sick and a little cleaning needed to take place. We were soon back on our way, beach-bound and pretty stinkin' stoked about it! We were driving through a mountainous area on pretty curvy roads, with steep drop-offs and one lane bridges around just about every bend. Alright....now, about 10 minutes after we'd stopped for Bosco, Krysta was driving and we were behind the Janzens on a down hill slope. We were needing to slow down, so naturally, Krysta went to step on the brakes, but nothing happened. She let up and tried again. Still no braking or slowing type of response. Right about then, some kinds of panic/survival mode set in. Now, I can't be sure if I can recollect the following events with the exact details, or even with some kind of semi-accurate time frame, but here's how I remember it. The Janzens were ahead of us and we weren't able to stop. There were cars in the other lane coming from the other direction, so that wasn't an option. Krysta's driving at this point, I'm convinced, was inspired and we were for sure being protected. With no other option, we braced ourselves and rear-ended the Janzens. They told us afterwards that because of the speed that we were both going, they didn't really feel us hit them too bad. After we hit them and the cars in the other lane had passed, Krysta maneuvered us over to the left lane and over to where there happen to be a little shoulder on the side of the road. Krysta had pulled the emergency brake at some point earlier, but maybe not quite hard enough because it wasn't pulled up at this time. We had slowed down quite a bit by this time, so we pulled the emergency brake one more time, while riding the shoulder. Then , we hit a kind of cement drainage pipe, with a little ditch on either side of it. This finally brought us to a stop. We were tilted with the driver side up and teetered for a little bit, but nothing else happened. Jeremy had pulled their car over up ahead of us and he and Dustin got out and ran over to our car. They made sure we were all okay and helped us exit the perched vehicle. Within minutes a policeman appeared on the scene. And then a newspaperman came for pictures and interviews- of which he was disappointed to learn that we were all friends and not going to have a rumble or something. Then an ambulance came and we assured them that we were all fine. The place where we ended up was quite the perfect setting for rubberneckers, as we were right near one of the single lane bridges so cars often had to stop and yield to the other lane, giving them plenty of time to stare at us, point and take pictures with their cell phones. In Costa Rica, after an accident, you're not allowed to move the vehicles until the insurance person comes and takes pictures and checks it all out. So, the insurance person showed up after a couple hours and we put the call in for a tow truck to get the car back home. The accident occurred around 9:30am and the tow truck didn't come till about 1:30pm. At one point it started to rain pretty hard, so Jeremy and Dustin used a tarp (that was meant for shade at the beach) and made a shelter using the Janzen's car and a fence, so that we could avoid the rain. We were also all getting pretty hungry, so Jeremy whipped out their little bbq and grilled up the hot dogs that were meant for our lunch. So, we had a little camp set up, complete with a bbq lunch and everything- it was pretty amazing! Finally, the tow truck showed up and brought our smashed little car all the way back home. whew! I had to take quite a few deep breaths while writing/ remembering all that had happened. But we are all safe and fine!

It's pretty amazing, though, as we've remembered these events and thought about how pretty perfectly it all happened, well, after the failure of the brakes. If we hadn't stopped for Bosco, who knows how that would have changed the location of where the brakes went out. Or the fact that our car almost went ahead to get gas, but didn't. If we had, the Janzens and Dustin wouldn't have been there to stop us with their car and keep us from driving off some edge. That's another thing- the place where our brakes failed was kinda perfect also. There were no crazy curves that we had to attempt and the shoulder was in the perfect place- we probably would have gone off the single lane bridge if that space hadn't been there. And the fact that there were no cars in the other lane coming at us when we needed to get over there. Also the big cement drainage cylinder and the ditch around it was perfect for stopping us. Really.....the fact that all those things so perfectly lined up for us to walk away, unharmed, from a brakeless runaway car on a much travelled, curvy, mountain highway can be no coincidence. God definitely spared us from an event that could have been really tragic and we are incredibly grateful.

Below are some pictures that were taken, post-accident, while we waited on the side of the road.

This is just minutes after the accident occurred- you can see our car over on the right, the ambulance and the reporter's car behind it.

You can kind of see in this picture how the car was sort of teetering.

Our car actually didn't get smashed up too badly- it could have been a lot worse.

The Janzens' car didn't get too badly damaged either.

This happened for pretty much 4 hours straight- I'm sure we provided many cars with a topic for conversation.

Our little make-shift, out of the rain, bbq-ing camp site. pretty amazing!

One last shot- you can kinda see where the front passenger side wheel is in the drainage cylinder ditch thing.

California, there I came....

2010-01-25T13:16:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a while since I've written and quite a bit has transpired in that time. I had the amazing blessing of being able to go home for about a month over the holidays. I was able to spend some good time with family and friends, as well as, see some supporters and share with people face to face. I was also able to speak to the missions committee and a sunday school class at my home church. It was just overall good being able to share my life with those that have had such a big role in it, past and present. It was also refreshing to hear peoples' words of encouragement and assurance that they have been and will continue to be in prayer for me. Below are some pictures from my trip.

It's a rare occasion these days when my entire family is together. So, we decided to commemorate such an event with a family picture, of course. (left-right: top row- David and Isaac, middle row- Dad (holding Oscar) and Mom, bottom row- Jonathan and myself)

Together with my parents and brother, David, there are 7 dogs. And my dad and I took all of them on a walk. At once. It was quite the hilarious challenge =)

It was REALLY nice going home over the holidays because I saw a number of people who had also come home or to the area for the holidays that normally wouldn't have been there----like my friend, Rebekah!!!

aaaaaaaand my friends, Courtney and Caitlin!!!!

My dad and I drove down to the San Diego area to visit my brother, Jonathan, and check out where he lives and all. While down there, we went bowling and I had to document the one time when I was actually ahead of both of them. Of course, it was only the first frame and my dad still had one turn left......but still. ; )

I even got Superior Dairy with Aiyla and Derek!!!!

We also made a little trip out to the Pismo/Arroyo Grande area to visit my brother, David. Pretty fantastic!

Recent events as told through pictures....

2009-12-28T21:22:00.000-08:00

Jeremy came and taught the kids to do a wood working project. They made bird houses and loved it! Pictured here is Jeremy and Anthony.

Jeff's helping some of the boys in their cutting and measuring.

We had a team from Wasco come over Thanksgiving. I had two amazing girls at my site, Emily and Lauren!

Tests were done for the year, so we did leaf rubbings and various art projects with the kids.

We played soccer in the rain and it was pretty fantastic!

Teaching some of the kids all important skills, such as whistling.

We had 14 kids show up at our Christmas party. Jeff and Olivia came to help out. In this picture, the kids are decorating bags.

The kids still working on their bags, which went incredibly smoothly.

We also decorated sugar cookies with the kids. I'm pretty sure it was their first time doing so, seeing as they didn't know what frosting was. In this picture are: Luis, Kairo, Angel and Andres

We also played, pin the tail on the donkey that Mary rode into Bethlehem. The kids tended to help each other and use their free hand to feel where they should pin the tail, thus the reason for all the tails to be in basically the right spot.

Me and all the kids from our Christmas party.

And, of course, it got a little crazy- frosting began to fly!

Discouragement and then some Dislodging

2009-11-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

So, for a while I'd had this blog idea brewing in my head. It had to do with all of the discouragements that encompass my life at this time---mine, as well as, those of others who surround me. However, before I got a chance to indulge myself in such a pity fiesta, God began to convict me through an array of people and situations. Pretty much what it comes down to is that I'm having to learn to dislodge myself from the center position in my life. /Dislodge: remove from an established or fixed position/ It seems so easy to think, 'Duh- when your whole world revolves around you, things are going to be discouraging at best, because the rest of the world is ignorant to the fact that they should be orbiting around you.' But it's also amazing how easy it is to slip into that mindset and then start putting down some roots there. Thus, the need for such a dislodging in my own life. When we look to ourselves as the center of our lives, all we see is what's wrong and why we're not happy. But in removing myself from that position, my focus is no longer on what I do or don't have. And in putting Jesus in that rightful position, that incredible obsession with self begins to dissolve, because the focus has changed. I think "dislodging" is also a good term for it because it implies just the right amount of force in having to uproot what was being established in order to replant in an appropriate place. It's amazing when your focus goes from serving yourself to how you can serve others how many of the things you formerly thought of as problems tend to fade from view. As with so many other things, it's easier said than done. But having left it unsaid or unacknowledged would seem to make the 'doing' process nowhere even close to easy. So, with the saying said, the doing has begun to be done. Not by my strength, but in my surrender. Thanks for your continued prayers and support! =)

This is a picture of me on a visa renewal trip to Panama being not in the center. Uncentered, if you will. ; )

Happy Anniversary!!!!

2009-10-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

Today, October 18th, marks my first full year of being here in Costa Rica! Crazy! In some ways, I can't believe it's been a whole year, while in other ways, it's felt more like a life time. But things are finally in full swing here in that we have sites up and running to some degree. There have been quite a few adjustments and changes that we've had to make, but all with the intentions of fine tuning the sites to fit the needs and desires of the community as well as the gifts and passions we have. With all this in mind, we have been making some adjustments and new developments at my site in Las Fuentes. In these last two weeks, I have begun leading kids in the community in various outdoor activities, in addition to the after school and tutoring programs that we already have established.

The week before last, Erin Janzen, Aiyla Shockency and I lead a group of about 20 kids on a hike up a hill behind the community to a cell tower that has an amazing panoramic view of the San Jose area. This last week, we had a couple days where we went to an open field that the kids call the "Play Azul." The first day we played soccer (of course) and had probably around 30-40 kids total that showed up, probably from ages 5-14. The next time we went, there were about 7 kids that we played baseball, or some kind of versions of baseball- basically it turned into the kids finding anything they could use as a bat and hitting the balls as I ran back and forth, retrieving the balls and pitching them to the kids. They seemed to like it- and I got a good workout! =) (A reason for the large difference in the number of kids that showed up is that kids switch off every other day having school either in the mornings or the afternoons. So when we have our field day on Tuesday afternoons, the kids that can come then generally can't come Friday afternoons, because they have class then). It's been fun to hang out with the kids in a different environment and it's even brought about kids that I haven't seen before, so I'm excited to be involved with the kids in this new way!

A while back, some ladies from the church asked me if I knew anything about aerobics or exercising. As it would so happen, I do. So, we've been looking at using the community center there in Las Fuentes and trying to figure out what days and times would work best. So, we talked to Pastor Gilberth about it and apparently he is the one who could arrange for us to use the building, free of charge. That same day, we talked to some of the women who would be interested in participating and we decided right then and there on the times and days that would work best. So, pretty much all is left is for me to figure out some music and learn some routines----of which I know my mom will be more than delighted to help me out with (she teaches a variety of aerobic type exercises). The women seem especially excited to get a jump, a hop and a kick on this ; )

Along with the after school program/tutoring, the home visits and the English course, I'm excited to see how these new projects go. Please pray for my organizational skills in being able to balance each of these projects, as well as coming up with creative ways of engaging people. Thank you very much for your prayers and I'll be sure to keep you up to date. =) Below are some pictures I took from the hike with the kids.

A little bit of controlled chaos, as we head out.

Erin and some of the kids on the way up.

We hiked up through a coffee plantation- those little plants in the background are baby coffee plants.

Two of the boys, checking out the view.

Some of us paused for a little break.

The kids picked some fruit along the way.

We made it to the top! Me, Aiyla and Erin sitting back and enjoying it.

No worries- we didn't let them get too high, but we couldn't exactly keep them completely grounded =)

Surpr-Isaac!!!!

2009-10-16T16:40:00.000-07:00

So, I was sitting at home one day and I heard a tapping on our gate- pretty typical- people trying to sell stuff usually. So, I didn't think much of it and just kind of ignored it, thinking that whoever it was would just go away after a little bit. However, the tapping persisted. So, finally, I went down to see what the deal was. And I was struck speechless and dumbfounded to see my brother, Isaac, standing there with a suitcase!!!!! I just kinda stood there, mumbling for a second and then went to find the keys to unlock the gate and let him in. I didn't even know what to do with him- with him being there! It was just such a complete surprise! Crazy!

He got to stay for 10 days, so we got to do quite a few fun things and he even helped me out a ton at my work site in Las Fuentes. It was for sure a time of refreshment for me, having him here and him getting to see where I live and what I do, but it was super tough to see him go, as well.

The following is a picture diary of our Isaac and Cailah fun time together in Costa Rica:

Tracey, Aiyla and Isaac prepping/testing out our homemade Guess Who game before English Class

The Guess Who game board that Isaac helped me put together and name the people

Isaac with the kids from the tutoring center in Las Fuentes- such fun!

Isaac and I at a Costa Rican soccer game with rival teams where we accidentally found our way into the fanatical section of the losing team- it was quite interesting and a little scary at times, but SUPER fun!

Our friend, Josh, and Isaac as we prepared to slide down the the hill in Parque de la Paz on cardboard.

Let the sliding commence! (Isaac, Krysta, Josh, Leah and Aiyla)

Sliding in style. =)

And then we all teamworked our way up onto a rock.

Super duper fun day!!! (Aiyla, Krysta, Leah, Josh, me and Isaac)

Josh and Isaac- kids at heart...and life ; )

Isaac even went with me to get the tires changed on our car- so sweet! =)

Food for thought and food for eating.

2009-09-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

So, things have been underway in a more or less normal day-to-day setting in Las Fuentes as of late. Things have been coming along just fine as we continue to make small adjustments and changes to better fit and meet the needs of the people there. The tutoring center has been going well. It's always encouraging how the kids want to come and hang out even if they don't have homework or need help or even if it's Saturday. They're always asking for more classes (as they call them), which is exciting in realizing that they'd rather be hanging out at the church with me than running around doing whatever else. It's definitely challenging to motivate the kids in their studies and find educational activities that support what they're learning and aid them in their understanding in a fresh way. I am open to any suggestions! This last Saturday, I walked around the community with one of the women from the church and passed out flyers about the tutoring center and the dates and times, so that people could become more familiar with me and also so they could have a written schedule of the tutoring times (which are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings and Tuesdays and Thursdays in the afternoons).

Wednesday afternoons have continued with the teaching of an English course, for ages 12 and up. There have been various people that have come and gone in this class, but we have had two sisters that have come consistently each week. They have a good base in English, so it's fun to be able to have the formal teaching type stuff but also to be able to have a more informal conversation time. It's been good.

Fridays consist of me going to visit people in the community that aren't able to leave their homes much. Currently, there are about five women I visit between the ages of sixty something and ninety-four or so. They're always so welcoming and grateful for even the simple act of stopping by and listening. Last week, I went and visited these two ladies, America and Clemencia (Clemencia is America's daughter) and when I was leaving, they gave me a chocolate and nougat bar, some graham cracker types, a red pepper and a tomato so that I could make some kind of lunch with these items. So sweet! I did eat them, but there was no configuration I could find to use them all together for lunch =)

After leaving America and Clemencia's, I stopped by the house where Marselina lives and her daughters, Natalia and Maira, take care of her. I think Marselina is about 93 years old and in very difficult conditions. She sits in a chair all day, not really able to speak or see. She eats very little, but has AMAZING daughters that serve her so willingly and lovingly, it's always a huge testimony to me. It can be really hard at times to visit this house and see Marselina in such poor condition and her daughters in pain over seeing their mother so helpless. Yet even more amazing to see the selfless love that is so plainly displayed through all of it. It's pretty heartbreakingly amazing.

I also visit a lady named Maria, who is around 94 years old. She spends her days either sitting inside staring at the wall or outside looking at her yard, where the first team of the summer helped plant some flowers for her to enjoy. I've been trying to think of some kind of activity that I could do with her to help her occupy some time and maybe give her a kind of hobby. Last week, I brought over some stuff to paint. Previously, Blake and I had picked out a picture of a flower and traced the design onto the canvas. So, we tried it out. She seemed to like it at first, but lost interest after a while. I did a little painting for her and she seemed to enjoy the finished product. We put it on display, so that she could see it whenever she wanted. I noticed she was wearing a bracelet and she said that some ladies had made it for her, so I'm thinking next time I might bring some jewelry making stuff and have her help me pick out beads to make some jewelry or decorative art type stuff.

So, in going to people's houses and spending a significant amount of time there, I have had the opportunity to experience a number of different forms and demonstrations of hospitality. This last week, I brought some pictures of family and friends and home to show to America and Clemencia. They just kept going about how beautiful everyone is (so, be encouraged ; ) and how they couldn't believe how much of animal lovers my family is to have 5 dogs! I saw a ton of their family pictures, as well, and tried to keep up with whose kid was whose and what birthday was when. But, wait, there's more. Just as I mentioned earlier, food tends to be a large byproduct of the hospitality factor. So, this last week, in visiting America and Clemencia, I was able to try a number of different things I haven't eaten or even drank before. When we were finished looking at the pictures, Clemencia brought out a bright orange, opaque juice for me. I braced myself for it, thinking it would be papaya. Instead, it was sweet and it turned out to be carrot and orange juice- not too shabby. To accompany my carrot/orange juice, I was given some wafer cookies and a piece of an orange. Then, they asked me if I'd ever had sweet squash and I said I didn't think so. So, they said that I would try some after I was done with my juice because the taste of the juice would mess up the taste of the sweet squash. Oh, the anticipation! So, when I finished with my juice, they didn't delay in giving me what looked liked a squash based gelatin. It definitely jiggled. So, I dug in and it was actually pretty good! Serves me right for judging based on jigglage. Then, when I was leaving, they gave me some lemons from a tree in their yard.

That same day, I went to go visit Maria and one of her sons happened to be around. He is always very thankful towards me for coming and spending time with his mom. He left and brought each of us an orange. Then, he left again and after a while he came back with some limes for me from their yard. Not too long after, he showed up with some Guavas for me to try. And then he left again and came back with several Jocotes (a small sourish fruit that you usually eat with salt). In all, that day between the lemons from America and Clemencia and the fruit from Maria's house, I ended up with 15 pieces of some kind of citrus fruit in my purse! And this makes me happy =) And so my post is concluded.

Below my cornucopious collection of fruits is pictured.

a picture book of life. just for you. =)

2009-08-29T22:42:00.000-07:00

Our English class in Las Fuentes

Blake with Douglas and Keiner from the tutoring center

Our inspiration for moving

The fallen bathroom ceiling from our old apartment

And so we packed it all up

Front room in our new place

More of the new place

In the jungle, we painted... a lot.

This is the compound where we stay in the jungle- those houses in the back, we painted those too

Caitlin, me and Courtney- friend reunion in Hanford

Me and the Jonathan brother

The Isaac brother and myself

The Dad, the Mom and the food

I ate tri-tip, of course

Noelle, the brother David and I

SI crew- hanging out at the beach

Went on a sunset stroll with Blake and Aiyla

We, then, jumped- Peter Pan style.

a lot and a little bit of everything

2009-08-28T16:24:00.001-07:00

Sooooo, I know I've said in the last few blogs that I'd be better about updating my blog more often.....however, that hasn't really happened. And for that, once again, I apologize. Alrighty, where to begin....

After the women from the Well left, we had a team from Virginia for about a week or so. They were an amazing group and we wished we could have had them here more time. After the Virginia team left, we had about a week where we were just working at our sites. The Thursday of that week (3 days before leaving for the jungle for a week), Krysta and I came home one afternoon to find that a pipe in our bathroom ceiling had busted and water had flooded our bathroom, with the ceiling falling and all. Our upstairs neighbor refused to stop using his water, that was falling into our bathroom. Up until this point, we had just accepted things we encountered as little quirks. However, between the mold that was growing on Krysta's bedroom wall, the bathroom ceiling caving in and an upstairs neighbor who was a lot less than ideal, we decided that this may not be a long term place for us. So that night (being Thursday night), we prayed that if God wanted us to move that He would miraculously provide a place that weekend. Which finding a place in a matter of a few days would be miraculous, since finding this last place involved over 50 phone calls and 9 or so visits to check out places.

So, we bought a newspaper the next morning (Friday) and looked for places to rent. We found one that would be in a safe neighborhood, was within our price range and sounded fantastic. We called immediately and the phone didn't ring, but we heard someone saying, "alo?" I guess the lady had gone to call someone at the exact moment I called, so she had no choice but to answer. We made arrangements to go check out the house that morning---trying not to get our hopes up too much, as sometimes the descriptions of places could sound amazing and they would turn out to be falling apart. As it turned out, the place seemed just about perfect! A few things would need adjusting, so we took some time to pray about it that afternoon and felt that this was an answer to our prayer. SO, after calling back and letting the landlady know we wanted the place, we made copies of the necessary paperwork, went to the lawyer's office, bought some paint, made copies of keys and went home to begin packing. Aiyla and Blake helped with all the packing, which helped to make it happen faster and with an extra pep in our step ; ) Thursday night, we had a group come in from Texas, as well- they would be part of the jungle trip that left on Sunday. Soooo, our Thursday and Friday were pretty insane.

Then, Saturday rolled around and we finished packing stuff up in the morning. The group from Texas was gracious enough to offer to help us move, which was a ginormous help! We also had another group from California and 2 individuals flying in that day for the jungle trip. It was a little tricky trying to maneuver around the airport pickups and moving everything, especially when our car's clutch blew up on an airport run, creating a very memorable experience in having to push it on the highway - sorry guys ; ) So, Saturday, everything got moved and we got our rooms in some kind of order.

Early Sunday morning, we got up and headed out to go to the jungle for a week. I wouldn't really recommend that process or deciding to move and doing it in 3 days and then leaving for a week, but God blessed us with a ton of people to help make it possible and then an amazing team that we got to spend a week with in the jungle! It was stressful, for sure, but it could've been A LOT worse.

IN THE JUNGLE......
We had the group from Texas, a group from Visalia, CA and two individuals, as well as our entire SI Costa Rica staff- it was quite a group! It rained a lot while we were in the jungle, of which I wasn't completely devastated because we got to have that time as fellowship with one another. But, besides that, we did get a lot of work done. We painted A TON. There was a group that worked on a ditch- cleaning it out, another group laid block and yet another group laid culvert. So, we had quite a bit going on. It was a good group that was enjoyable to work with. It was hard to see them go, especially knowing that they were the last group of the summer.

SINCE THEN...
I made a last minute trip home to renew my tourist visa (I have to leave the country every 90 days for 72 hours) and surprise my parents. I was only there for about 3 days, which was FAR too quick, especially since I hadn't been home or seen my brothers in 8 months, or my parents in like 6 months. While it was hard to be back for such a short time, it was also very refreshing, rejuvenating and a HUGE blessing! Not to mention a fatty surprise for my parents and some of my friends ; ) It was great!

The week after getting back, I was back in Las Fuentes, working full force. I started up another session of tutoring on Thursday afternoons. So, my weekly schedule includes, English club and Coffee time on Tuesdays, Tutoring and English class on Wednesdays, Tutoring on Thursdays and home visits on Fridays. Things are progressing as I learn what is and isn't working. I'm definitely challenged in all of this, but looking to God and giving Him the opportunity through these challenges.

This last weekend, we also had a post-summer staff retreat/getaway to the beach. We stayed in a house together on the beach and had a good time hanging out and exploring tide pools- all going at our own pace =) It didn't feel like near enough time, but I believe it was a relaxing weekend for us all. There was only one minor thing that happened that we would have preferred it if it didn't, which was on the way back, the thermostat in our car stopped working, so the car overheated and the fan wouldn't turn on to cool it back down. A man stopped and helped us for what we hope was a fair price and since then the car has been in and out of the shop, working as good as before!

So, wow! That's a ton. I'm sorry for that, but I will post a bunch of pictures so you guys can have a visual of it all. Thanks for reading. Love you all and God bless! =)

The Women at the Well

2009-07-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

These last two weeks were spent with an amazing group of 8 women from The Well Church in Fresno, also accompanied by Krysta's brother Blake. I had two ladies, Jane and Carolina from the group, as well as Blake helping me out at my site in Las Fuentes. This group came to be affectionately known as "Bladies" (Blake + Ladies). While these two weeks were full of challenges, in having our first team here in the city for the full two weeks, it was also full of many blessings. We've started up a few new things in Las Fuentes in this time, which the group did an amazing job of helping out with. We had our introductory meeting/class for the English course, as well as, our first lesson. It's a once a week class that meets for 2 hours. There are about 6 students that have come, ready and willing to learn. Which is an encouragement to me =)

We've also begun a time on Tuesday mornings that is set aside as an English Club. This is a time for whoever wants to to come and receive help in any English topic that they may need or want. This is also a more informal time in which we can play games and do other activities in English. Three kids showed up last week, so we played some games with them and had a little topical English lesson for them.

Tuesday afternoons have been designated as a time of Cafecito (Coffee), basically a Coffee break/fellowship time. A time (in Spanish) for anyone to come and just hang out and have fellowship together around a cup of coffee and some sweet bread/pastries. Last week (our first week), no one showed up- although we were told at least one person was coming, alas, they did not arrive. So, we used it as a time of fellowship and prayer among our own team. We're hoping that as word gets out and around, people will want to come. Sooooo, please keep that in prayer.

And, as long as you're praying, ; ) , if you could also keep in mind, one of the elderly ladies that I visit is in the hospital, pretty much on her deathbed and her family is having a hard time, also please continue to keep our SI staff team in your prayers as we are pretty exhausted in every way, shape and form. Please also keep me in your prayers as I continue to seek God's direction for my work in Las Fuentes and that He would be my strength as He works through and in me.

We have another team coming in today, but their schedule is a little unique, so they'll basically be here a week or so. But please keep them in your prayers for this week, that God would speak to them in fresh and new ways and that He would use them to bless others in their time here, and that they would be blessed as well.

Thanks for reading! =)

The Support Meter

2009-07-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hey again, everyone!

So, this is another quick update to let you know about the financial happenings with me. As it has been an issue in the past, it continues to be so now. I am still not quite up to par on my monthly support and the one time funds I've been drawing from are quickly dwindling. If this doesn't change soon, I will have to re-think my budget and all things financial once again. On average, I'm only short about $100 from my minimum goal of monthly support. This seems like a pretty feasible and not completely overwhelming amount and I'd appreciate any help possible to reach this goal and even go beyond it. I'm committed to the ministry that has begun here and anxious to see what all God has in store- but none of this is or would be possible without your support. If you would like to become a partner in giving to my ministry, you can do so by sending any donations in to:

Students International
P.O. Box 2733
Visalia, CA 93279-2733

*Please include a separate note that says you prefer your funds are directed to Cailah Pritchard
and whether this is a one-time or monthly gift

Thank you very much and I REALLY do appreciate your continued support and prayers.

Much Love,
Cailah =)

Well on our way!

2009-07-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

Sooooooo, it's been a while, a long while since I've written and for that I apologize. Things have gotten a little crazy, mostly the good kind of crazy, though. We've had two teams so far this summer that have spent one week in the jungle and one week in the city. I was able to help lead both groups to the jungle, which I loved! We were able to work on various work projects, such as: burying a water pipe, working on a drainage ditch, various painting projects and a few other little things here and there. We also held a VBS for the kids there, which reached over 130 kids! Crazy! With the second group we were able to travel with several members of the church to a farther community (it took a truck, some dug-out canoes and a bus to get us there) of the Bahai faith. The people from the church lead a service for the adults, while we had a program for the children. It went really well! Although, I had begun to get sick during this time and while I was speaking to the kids, I had a little bit of a fever and was feeling pretty weak, so I felt bad because I wasn't really able to play with the kids afterwards, but the team did an excellent job!

It's also been exciting having these first two teams in the city. Wow- I don't even know where to begin. Wellllll, Krysta and I have been blessed in being able to purchase a car! A HUGE blessing indeed! (The one time my group did take a bus from my work site back to where they were staying, it took a good hour and a half!). However, this car has also brought a few challenges with it- well, mainly one. It is a stick shift and previously I did not know how to drive a stick shift, but I am happy to say that now I am an official Costa Rican stick shift driver! Now I just need to figure out directions..... =)

Okay, besides the driving factor, there have also been a number of other new factors with my work site and all. Things have been progressing, but not without some setbacks, but overall its been pretty good. I've been setting up some new things at my work site in the church in Las Fuentes and when we have teams, they come alongside to help and support these projects. The projects I'm currently working on are: home visits- I walk around the community of Las Fuentes with the pastor of the church, Pastor Gilberth and visit elderly folks and others who are handicapped or can't really leave their homes or get out much. When teams are here, we take the morning to bake some sweet treats to give to the people when we go to visit them. I have also begun a one day a week tutoring/ homework help center, consisting of two different sessions. The kids are pretty rambunctious, so finding ways to keep them focused or applied in constructive ways is quite the challenge. But I think that they even just appreciate the time and space to have outside of the home. I just pray for the wisdom in knowing how to go about running such a center in a loving way that also contributes to their learning----as well as how to control them ; ) Another project I'm working on is starting English classes, of which I will be providing and teaching. Another point for prayer- this whole English teaching thing to me is a little nerve-wracking. However, Krysta, who is a teacher of English as a second language, herself, has been working with me and this has been helping big time. I know what you may be thinking, as I have thought it a lot myself- if Krysta is an actual ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, why is she not teaching these classes? Well, God has placed her in another community and is keeping her plenty busy working there and He has placed me in this community of Las Fuentes and given me a wide range of ministries to be a part of.

Needless to say, I've been challenged a lot in my ministry site and, well, just in life lately, but God is proving faithful! Which I knew that He would, yet somehow I continue to find myself surprised in how He does so. And then I feel surprised by my surprise, because He's always been faithful and will continue to be. Oh man, sometimes my skull is just so thick! Anyways, it has definitely been a time of learning and leaning. Learning to be confident in Christ working through me and leaning on Him. It's a journey, for sure! Please continue to keep me in your prayers as I seek God in all this and learn to discern His way.

Currently, we have had a little two week break from teams, which has given us a good time to rest and regroup. We have a team coming in on Monday and they will stay in the city for two whole weeks, so this will be exciting! We also have Krysta's brother, Blake, coming in on Sunday to be an intern for us for about two months. So, things are well on their way! It's crazy seeing it all kind of take form put into practice. We're still trying to work out some kinks and figure out specifics, but its exciting to see where God has brought us in just these last months that we've begun working in these new sites. He is faithful!

Below are some pictures from these first two summer outreaches:

Working on a drainage ditch in the jungle.

Leading worship at the VBS in the jungle with Curtis (the missionary there) and the cutest little Costa Rican boy that did a little solo for us.

At the SI office in the city. We sorted a few books.....just a few.

Teaching kids some English in Las Fuentes.

Pastor Gilberth and some of the ladies we visit in Las Fuentes

We planted flowers for one of the elderly ladies that we visit.

beans, rain and inadequacy...

2009-05-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

Prior to moving to Costa Rica, there were things that I knew I wasn't particularly fond of that are pretty much part of every day life here. But it's been interesting to see how change and growth has come and has been promised to come through some of these.

1. Beans. Black beans, to be more specific. A staple in any Costa Rican kitchen. Green beans are the only beans I like all the time. Black beans in particular have been my nemesis since we were first introduced. A memory I'm sure I've conveniently forgotten. It's baffled many a person that has been to Costa Rica before the incredible skill I have attained in being able to navigate around the infamous black beans. However, despite such a highly attuned skill, sometimes the feared encounter is inevitable. BUT, as of recently, to my own surprise and shock, I have actually stated, out loud mind you, that there have been some black bean dishes that I've actually enjoyed. And this may have come as a shock to many, so I will now include a short pause so that you may recover--------------------. It goes beyond that, I've even found myself walking by people's houses and smelling some tantalizing aroma wafting from their kitchen, realizing that is was in fact black beans and then having a desire to eat them! This is actually quite a large step in my life, as small or insignificant it may seem. My ability to eat and potentially enjoy one of the foods that is never lacking in a Costa Rican meal is quite exciting to me.

2. Rain. Rainy season has now begun in Costa Rica. And while I don't usually mind the rain, the fact that the morning can be sunny and beautiful and then out of no where a bunch of nasty storm clouds rush in and invite a downpour while you are walking (which at this time has converted into swimming because the streets morph into rapid moving rivers) home from the Post Office. This is not my favorite. And on top of it all, its unpredictable- I'm a little more accustomed to the Central Valley of California, which is a little more reliable. When it rains there, it's usually steady and has been overcast for the whole day. It doesn't rain in the summer- it's hot and dry all the time. I kind of prefer the predictability. BUT there are little things that I'm discovering that I actually enjoy about this rain. You get variety! Sun and rain all in the same day, a little bit of it all to make everyone happy. Also, the beauty of the rain. I love walking outside at dusk when it's not pouring cats and dogs, and sometimes even larger animals. I love when the sun is setting and the street lamps are coming on and the wet streets reflect the golden sheen of the street lamps, matching that of the sunset. It's pretty awe-inspiring....to me, at least. So, while I don't exactly come from one of those run outside in a storm, splash around in the puddles, rain-loving backgrounds, I'm learning to look for the beauty in it in my own way.

3. Inadequacy. This stands in a category on its own. While it still pertains to the topic of things I don't love experiencing in Costa Rica, it takes on a little bit of a different sentiment. In so many things here, some days on a multiple times a day basis, I have felt completely inadequate and incredibly frustrated in that. This seems to have been happening even more recently, since I've been working more at my site. I've begun working at a church in a little community called Las Fuentes. I'm the type of person who, work-wise, likes to be told what exactly to do and how to do it- like a formula or instructions. But there is no formula and no instructions in beginning something new in a place that is learning the whole partnership ordeal right along with us. There are some legitimate options for me to work in- things that we believe God's leading us toward, that will benefit the community. However, I have these feelings of incredible inadequacy. Who am I to come in and teach people, whether it be English or Biblical principles. I don't know how to do these successfully. And while sometimes these fears seem to override all rational thought, I know that it is Christ that works in and through us, bringing adequacy through our surrender and obedience to HIm. And although I have that knowledge, sometimes I have to pull it out of the corner of my mind, dust off the cobwebs and bring it into the light of truth and belief. Not always easy. There are some verses that I especially cling to when I find myself drifting towards the pity party located on inadequate feelings boulevard.

In regards to adequacy in receiving salvation and servitude: 2 Corinthians 3:4-6

"Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

Talking about our weaknesses and God's strength in that: 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

"And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

Isn't it amazing, yet heartbreaking at the same time, when God keeps using outside circumstances to teach you lessons that didn't penetrate your thick skull the first 35 times He spoke them? I had that experienced that in church this morning. It was comforting in a confirming sort of way but also startling in a swift kick in the pants sort of way. So, in the midst of juggling all these things in my head especially these last few days, the lady that gave the message in church this morning spoke on the first part of 1 Corinthians 3. She talked in great detail, siting other verses, as well, about how some plant seeds, others water, but God grows. As my dad likes to say, "the results are God's department." We need to be obedient and plant and water where He says, despite maybe our lack of receiving feedback or seeing direct fruit or even foreseeing fruit to come. The verses I particularly liked were 5-9:

"What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."

God is the one who purposes us in certain ministries to do the work/task that He's given us and equipped us for. And He is the one who grows the seedlings we've obediently planted. We may never know the growth stories of all the seed that was sowed in our work, but that is not necessarily part of our job. Sometimes, however, we do have the privilege of seeing how God has used us, in all of our inadequacies and weaknesses, to impact lives for His kingdom. And my prayer would be that in those times, God would receive all the glory and we would be just merely reflecting it back to Him.

A pictorial guide to life, that is mine.

2009-05-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

So, one day, I was sitting on our couch reading when I heard some scratching noises on the window. When I turned around, I saw this massive beast just sitting there....watching me. He was probably a good 18 inches long. Kinda crazy.

Pictured here (left to right): Pastor Gilbert, his daughter, Madeline and myself. Gilbert and Madeline are who I'll be working closely with in their church, located in a little neighborhood called Las Fuentes.

We got to help out at the church in Las Fuentes as they put on a kid's program and handed out Samaritan's Purse boxes to kids.

Aiyla with some girls after they received their box from Samaritan's Purse

These next pictures are from the guarderia (day care/drop-in center) in Los Guido, where Krysta and I worked for a while and now where Tracey Dixon is working. In this picture: Axel and Gabby- Gabby is who runs the guarderia

Daniel and Dixon

Genesis, Tiffany, Dixon and Aiyla holding Ian

Easter, Lizard friends and Las Fuentes

2009-04-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

Sorry I haven't been doing as well keeping up with the blogging- usually I either feel like there's not much worth writing about or there's so much to tell that I don't know how to sit down and write it all out so that people actually kinda like reading it. Sooooo, that's what's been up. Any-who, let's see....Easter!

I experienced my first Easter and Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Costa Rica. It's very interesting because the Catholic church has a ton of processions and things going on at this time, and because of this the Evangelical Church (at least those in our area) try to stay as separate from the Catholic church as possible. So, while we got to watch some of the processions and events put on by the Catholic church, we heard only a few words about Easter from the Evangelical church. Because of their desire to not be affiliated with the Catholic church, they have swung to the opposite extreme, not really mentioning Easter at all. I can see, to some degree, the steps they've taken to be separate from the Catholic church, but I don't think its quite right to do away with it all together. I don't have the answers for how they should do it or what would be the right way to handle it, but its definitely got me thinking...

In other life stuff, we have pretty much officially named and been assigned to ministry sites! These will be the sites where we'll be hosting teams at least for the summer and probably into the fall, in which time we'll take a qualitative kind of inventory to see how these sites are working out and seek God to see if He wants us to continue pursuing these same sites, or if He opens up other opportunities or what all will happen. It's hard because the sites are still very much in the baby stages--like newborns, we're just learning how to adjust to them and all. I'll be working with a church in a community called Las Fuentes. The pastor of this church is very open to our help in a number of areas, including working with his daughter in helping to lead a youth group of about 50 youth, from ages 12-25. Its not exactly clear quite yet all that I may be doing or involved in there, but I'm very excited for this partnership and working along side the pastor and his daughter. I should be getting more details fairly soon, so I'll be sure to keep you all updated when I find things out =) The other sites will consist of construction projects, being lead by Jeremy Janzen. Krysta will be in charge of a site that will look like a tutoring center and library, as well as, leading a kids club at a church. And Tracey Dixon will be heading up a site at the guarderia (day care center), looking to implement some kind of program for the wee ones there.

It's an exciting time for us as we begin to flesh out each of our ministry sites and get to the heart of working with the people. But please continue to keep us in your prayers- that we would have discernment in finding our place in all of these partnerships and just for working out all the little kinks and everything. And also for each of the sites as we begin to prepare for the summer teams to come- it'll be a whole different ball game! But I'm really excited for it! Well, thank you for your continued prayers, support and care. And for now, I'll leave you with some pictures from our team Easter eating extravaganza and our most recent discovery in our apartment. God bless =)

Easter dining preparation- Cardamon cross bread and lamb-shaped cake

My first lamb-shaped cake---following in the steps of Krysta's family tradition

The best of the best Easter spread

Right in the middle of the picture, you can see the new addition to our home...that we actually shooed out not too long after

the happenings

2009-04-04T13:43:00.000-07:00

Since coming back from our trip to the jungle, Krysta and I have had the opportunity to begin working in a guarderia (day care). We've been volunteering there to see if it has potential to be a solid SI site. This guarderia has been open for about a month. It can have up to 30 kids at one time, of which there is one lady in charge of keeping track of them all. So, we've been going to help with some crowd control, feeding the kids, and playing with them in non-destructive ways. It's been a fun time of getting to know the kids and getting a feel for working in this type of setting. We've also had opportunities to meet with a number of other people that we're looking to maybe partner with, such as a pastor who would like help with the youth program in his church, or another organization that wants to open up a tutoring center and library for kids in their area. It's pretty relieving and amazing to see how God is putting into place each of these sites and I'm excited to see how He's going to work it all out!

Some other exciting news....my parents came to visit! About a week after we got back from the jungle (I guess that would be about 2 weeks ago now) my parents arrived in Costa Rica. My dad headed out to the jungle with the men's team, while my mom headed to the urban jungle setting of our apartment. It was fun to have my mom staying with us for the week. She even made a few trips with us to the guarderia and seemed to like the kind of controlled chaos of it all. When the men's trip was over, instead of returning back to the states with the other men, my dad and Dave Hansen (SI president) stayed here a few more days to check out our sites and get an idea of where we are heading as SI Costa Rica. It was a good time of being able to show my parents what my life down here looks like, as well as, giving them a more solid idea of what I'll be doing....and just hanging out with them was fun too =) I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to have them come and visit and I feel refreshed from it.

In these last few days, we've gotten a little bit of rain, but overall it's been pretty blazing hot. Depending on who you talk to here, this is normal weather for now and apparently Semana Santa (Holy Week- the week before Easter) is supposed to be one of the hottest. There also tend to be a lot of activities that go on during this time, due to the large part of Catholics in the population here. So, I will be writing again soon to let you know about all of the goings on in this time. Until then, have a good one and God bless! =)

Jungle Journey!

2009-03-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone----
So, we just got back from the the jungle in Shiroles, the Talamanca region, in the south of Costa Rica. Krysta, Aiyla and myself led a group of 22 college students from James Madison University in Virginia there for a week long trip. Overall, the trip went very smoothly and the team was amazing! We had great times of sharing in the morning devotions and evening meetings. And we got a lot of work done during the day. We mixed a TON of cement to help lay brick and a sidewalk. We also had quite a few people painting, helping with sanding and varnishing, as well as digging ditches and moving rocks for drainage ditches, as well as various other odd jobs. Even the Sharps (the missionaries down there that we work with) and the Costa Ricans we worked alongside commented on how much we got done and how well the team worked. In the afternoons, after we'd finished working for the day, we didn't have a VBS program but kids from the community would come to the compound to play soccer and other games with the team.

Although I've helped to lead trips like this a number of times, I still get a little nervous and anxious in the beginning and various times throughout the trip, BUT even more than that it confirms my heart for this exact thing. I LOVE being a part of facilitating these kinds of trips- taking away all of the things we worry about at home, such as technology, worrying about makeup, freaking out about wearing the same thing 3 days in a row, maybe not smelling the best all the time, either due to the massive amounts of sweat we produce in this time, clothes/towels not drying all the way because of the humidity or basically bathing in deet everyday. I love the stripping away of all of these things, and seeing people turn their attention away from themselves and learning what God is doing and wants to do in their lives. I LOVE being someone who can kind of host and help to guide people through this kind of experience and time, and then seeing them open up and allow God to work and mold them. And even as a leader and having done this kind of trip 8+ times now, its amazing to see how God still works in me, giving me fresh perspectives and new lessons to learn every time. I love it!

So, we saw the team off at the airport on Sunday and then headed back to our apartment. This, for me, has proved to be one of the more difficult parts. Its very different to finish a trip like that and not return home to family and friends and my home church and English speakers, but instead to just go back to our little apartment in Desamparados, minus the 22 others that we had just spent 24/7 with. Although, I may not seem like it, I like to be around other people, even if I'm not doing a lot of the talking, so saying goodbye to teams like this can be pretty rough. This is a huge factor in short-term missions, though- the teams have to leave and go back home and all- so, it's something I've dealt with in the past and will continue to have to deal with, so I just keep looking to God for the know-how on how to correctly maneuver my way through these kinds of feelings. So, please keep me in your prayers in regards to this. Thanks =)

In other news......my parents come this weekend! My dad will be part of the men's team heading out to the jungle for about a week, during which time my mom with be staying with us women folk! And after the men's trip, my dad and Dave Hansen will be staying a few extra days to hang out with me! Wellllll, and everyone else here too, i guess ; ) So, that is very exciting and I will let you all know how it goes. Also, tomorrow, we are going to meet with a pastor, who I may very likely be working with in programs with/through his church. Sooooo, I will also let you all know how that goes, as well!

After that entire novel that I basically wrote you, I will leave you with this- a video tour of our new apartment and a group picture of our amazing JMU jungle team! I hope you enjoy them! God bless!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHYhiVd9aTs

Guate-great!

2009-03-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

So, I'm starting to lag in the blog area a little bit- sorry about that. I'll try to do better =) Let's see----last week we were in Guatemala where we met up with I think 30 something women coming from the states, the Dominican Republic and even those who live in Guatemala for the first ever SI women's outreach. It was awesome to see so many women from so many different walks of life and places to come together under a common cause. And, I have to admit, that a women's outreach is something that I've been vying for for a while now....or at least since the men's trips have been up and running! =)

For me, personally, this trip presented sooooo many differing aspects, it was exciting and challenging for me. First of all, my mom came on the outreach, so getting to spend time with her was a HUGE plus! Also, it was fun to have all of us women who are a part of SI Costa Rica be there together. There were also a number of women on the trip that I already knew, from the Central Valley or from our training that we did in Colorado back in September, so it was kinda like a little taste of home...in Guatemala. It felt even more like home because about a year and a half ago, I was a summer intern in Guatemala for SI and lived there for about 2 months helping out with the summer teams, so it was really fun to get to see my old host family and people that I hadn't seen since then. It was great!

Having been there before also presented some challenges in this trip. When I was an intern, I had my responsibilities and knew what I had to do and how to do it---after the first outreach or so. But coming back and being part of an outreach, rather than the one facilitating the group, and being at a different site than I'd been before created a slight identity crisis in my thinking. I wasn't sure what I was doing or how to do it, which is how I've felt in Costa Rica these last few months. But I think it hit me harder in Guatemala because of my previous experiences there. This trip I was a part of the Health Care site, which at this time, involved us going into a small community, El Gorrion, and to survey every home with questions as to their living conditions, health and the community as a whole. This would provide a basis for future work in this community, revealing the real needs, as seen by the people who actually live there. An amazing idea! We split into 3 groups and took separate sections. I was the translator for my group. I was glad to be able to serve in this way and I loved being able to talk to these people and hear what they had to say.

However, I know that this was only a small outreach, but in this and in these last few years of my life, I feel like God keeps stripping me of what I think to be my titles or "what I should do," and places me in situations where I feel pretty useless because I have no medical background....or being at an agriculture site, never having built chicken coops before.....or not really knowing how to run a kid's program or VBS and being put in charge of it....or working at a plant nursery, having very very VERY little knowledge of anything green. And I know that all that knowledge comes with experience and you can't expect to get it exactly right the first time, or second. And part of me loves having that variety of opportunities and changing it up and whatnot. But the other part has a strong desire to find something more specific that I can really excel at and really pour myself into that. BUT I also know that in our weakness, God is strong and that He will use me as long as I make myself available and in doing such things as these, where I feel super inadequate, I'm forced to lean and rely totally on God...which is where I should be all the time.....so, this is my current struggle. And I realized that in Guatemala and see that it continues now that I'm back in Costa Rica. In this realization, I know that I have to choose to have the right attitude/response, no matter what the situation. So, I'm working on that.

Even now, being back in Costa Rica, I feel this pressure (probably self-inflicted) of choosing a direction or focus---especially when people inquire as to my potential site, which is a legitimate and good question. However, I feel I always draw a blank when it comes to answering. I want to serve God where He would have me be and I know that He wants me in Costa Rica, but beyond that......we will see. I'm excited, a little anxious, but mostly excited to see how it all unfolds!

Sorry if that all kind of jumped around, but it was all to say that Guatemala was great and thought-provoking. And now, after having been home not even a full week, Krysta, Aiyla and myself are off in a few hours to meet a team at the airport to take them to the jungle for a week. And this I love!!! It's exciting, but I am a little nervous, because Krysta and I have been on plenty of jungle trips, but we've never lead one completely on our own before, so please keep us in your prayers! I'll let you know how it went when we get back =)

Oh, I almost forgot! We got a P.O. Box here in Costa Rica = a more secure way for you to send things, if you want!!! We're pretty stoked about it. So, here's the address:

Cailah Pritchard
Apartado 946-2400
Desamparados, Costa Rica
America Central

Hey- thanks for reading! And for now, I'll leave you with some pictures from Guatemala (courtesy of Erin Janzen =)

In Antigua. Where's Waldo- can you find Krysta and I?????

The only picture I could currently find of my mom and I in Guatemala---sorry, Mom and self...

Aiyla and I LOVE the bus!

Team Costa Rica super great ladies! (l-r): Erin Janzen, Tracey Dixon, Krysta Williams, Yours Truly, Aiyla Shockency

Costa Rica, Guatemala, Costa Rica

2009-02-20T18:20:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone-

Sorry I haven't written anything in a while, but things have been a little all over the place. We have officially moved into our new apartment! Meaning that we have obtained a refrigerator, oven, washer and dryer (about half of which are fully functioning at the moment). We've had a few set backs/complications with our appliances, but we're getting them all figured out.

Tomorrow, all 5 of us SI Costa Rica women head to Guatemala to meet up with a women's outreach that will be taking place there over the course of the next week. We're going to get a better idea of how a fully functioning base looks and hopefully to learn from how they've done things and what the role of full time staff really looks like. We'll be meeting up with 20 or so other women, many of whom are coming from the Central Valley of CA and are known to us.....like my mom! So, we are very excited for this and anxious to see what God has to teach us in this time, reaping from others' wisdom.

Hopefully, by the time we get back from Guatemala our phone line and internet will be set up and COMING SOON: a video tour of the new apartment!

Please continue to be praying as we begin to make decisions of where and who we'll be working with. We've been presented with a lot of opportunities and we're seeking God's guidance and leading to place us in the right places. I look forward to sharing what we will have experienced in Guatemala and other ministry opportunities that are coming up soon! As for now, I'll leave you with a picture that Krysta and I took with our amazing language teachers!

The thrill of the hunt

2009-01-31T17:46:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-15T11:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

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!

Day of action of giving thanks

2008-12-02T15:45:00.000-08:00

'El dia de accion de gracias' is how they translate into Spanish, Thanksgiving Day, although it's not celebrated here. In order to prepare all the food in time and for it to feel more like Thanksgiving, we took the day off of school. All of our team collaborated and made all the traditional Thanksgiving foods. However, chicken was made in place of turkey because turkey is REALLY expensive here. It was similar, though, they are like cousins, right? ; ) So, we got together that evening with the Dixons and Janzens and had an amazing Thanksgiving fiesta and hang out time! It was also rough, though, not being at home with my own family and missing hanging out with them. I'm definitely looking forward to when they get to come and visit me here!!!

We had to go back to school on Friday, which wasn't very Thanksgivingy feeling and we were kind of exhausted, but the teachers were very understanding. Language school is going pretty well, for the most part. There are definitely those rules and exceptions to the rules that exist in every language which cause plenty of frustrations, but overall I think we're moving along pretty well. There are 3 levels of books in our language school- beginner, intermediate and advanced (imagine that!) and each level has a number of books. Last week, we actually got moved on to the Advanced 1 book! Exciting! But also tiring and confusing trying to keep all that we've learned straight. Please continue to pray for us in this area of understanding and being able to speak what we know.

Saturday we got to go and pick out our very own Christmas tree to make our apartment feel more homey during the holiday season. We weren't exactly sure how we were going to get the tree back to our apartment, not having a car and all. So, we just went hoping that we'd figure it out there. After we picked out the tree we wanted, we asked one of the taxi drivers if it would be possible for one of them to help us get our tree home. So, the guy started asking around and found another guy with a mini van taxi that was willing to take us and the tree. So, he helped us strap it to the top of the mini van taxi and helped to unload it and everything and it wasn't even really expensive! We had found some lights and ornaments at the Costa Rican equivalent of a Dollar Store and decorated it all up. Its very cute and makes us super happy every time we see it!

Soooooo, Monday was really exciting, as we got to go to the office of Food For The Hungry, meet the staff and talk with the director. It was good to here more from him about their vision and to be able to see their facility. They seem to have a lot in common with the vision that SI has, so we may be able to partner with them in some form in the future. They even offered to help us with anything that we may need, which was encouraging to know that we have someone to call if a need arises.

Well, I feel like things have been picking up a little bit, but I know that it'll be nothing compared to when we begin working in intentional ministry in January. Please pray that God would continue to prepare our hearts and even emotions for that time, as I still feel that I'm in a semi-fragile state. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for diving into full on ministry, but I want my heart to be right and full, so that I can really pour into others when the time comes. And, oh, it will come! So, please continue to keep me in your prayers for that and for my finances, as well. Thank you to many of you, my support has come in leaps and bounds, but I've still got a little to go before I am fully funded. Thanks again for being faithful and God bless!

Con cariño,

Cailah

Our whole team at Thanksgiving: Erin Janzen, Jeff Dixon, Jeremy Janzen, Tracey Dixon, Krysta Williams, Judah Janzen, Sawyer Dixon, Ella Janzen and Olivia Dixon

Our Thanksgiving spread

The kiddie table: Judah, Sawyer, Ella and Olivia

Krysta putting the finishing touches on our beautiful tree!

non-fair weather friends...

2008-11-25T18:09:00.000-08:00

Hey All (6 of you that read this =)!
I hope you are doing superb-ly (?, superb?) I can no longer speak any language "well." This is what occurs when your brain turns into a kind of mush that confuses rules and words in languages that you know and/or are learning. Sometimes, Krysta and I find ourselves speaking a more gring-a-fied spanglish, inserting words in spanish (with English pronunciation) into our otherwise English sentences. For example, I would say, "Alright, I'm gonna get ready to acostarme (go to bed)." While it sounds, and may actually be a little crazy, we actually understand each other fine this way and I feel that we are on the verge of doing it sin darnos cuenta (without realizing it ; ).

This last Saturday we had the opportunity of meeting and talking with a young couple- the husband is Costa Rican, the wife is North American, but has lived in Costa Rica for about 8 years. The husband actually used to work with YWAM and the wife works with Food for the Hungry in and area called Los Guidos, which is in Desamparados. This is an area that we have strongly been considering going to work in. Talking with this couple was AMAZINGLY encouraging as the vision that they have, as well as for Food for the Hungry, seems to match the vision we have for Students International Costa Rica. We are hoping to meet with the director and staff from Food for the Hungry some time next week. We look forward to being able to share and potentially partner with this ministry in the future. It was really exciting to hear that other people have the same heart for these people as we do and to be able to learn more through their knowledge and experience. We'll see what happens!

In other matters.....it has been COLD lately!!!!! Okay, we realize that in comparison to some places, what we are feeling is not really that cold, however, it is colder than we expected and a lot colder than we have ever experienced in Costa Rica. Please witness for yourselves:

A Costa Rican snowman!!!!

Okay....so, this snowman was actually made from an overabundance of ice in our freezer. But he held up pretty well!

The other day in the grocery store, Krysta and I, no joke, saw a lady wearing a furry wintery hat and a long wintery coat--inside--in Costa Rica. Yeah- we think its cold, but not that cold! It was kinda crazy. But there has been a lot of rain and wind and sideways rain and clouds and misty rain. I think its probably been almost 2 weeks in which we haven't really seen the sun much. Not my and Krysta's favorite, but, hey, we're figuring it out.

On a few side notes, after two weeks of being the only two students in our language school, two older women from the states have come to study for a little bit. Their names are Francie and Susanna and they are really sweet and fun! Then, last Saturday or sometime around then, Krysta and I got to watch a little demonstration of Costa Rican cheerleaders in the parking lot of a McDonalds near our apartment. They were actually pretty good- a little scary at times (near power lines and all), but overall very entertaining. They made me miss gymnastics and Krysta miss dance. But they still made my heart happy, as did meeting the new students at our school. So, things are going relatively well- not without their dips and low points of frustrations with language and missing family, friends and home, but we press on! =)

and so are the days of our lives....

2008-11-16T17:15:00.000-08:00

So, as the weeks go on, I feel like we've begun to fall into our own groove of things. It's nice to not feel completely clueless ALL of the time. There are still plenty of opportunities to do so, though! This has been a really good time of sorting through all these new experiences and feelings, so that when January comes around and we intentionally begin ministry, hopefully we'll have gotten a pretty firm grasp on things. As for now, we are taking advantage of this time to really focus on language and cultural learning.

This last week, Krysta and I were the only two students in our language school- the other six or so students that had been there before left. Kind of crazy! But it was a good week. On Friday, during our conversation class, we got to go with our teacher to the National Museum. It wasn't super big, but it was really neat to see. They have a beautiful butterfly garden there. We got to walk around, dodging all of the amazingly colored and huge butterflies. We also got to see some really cool exhibits of Costa Rica's history, as well as an amazing wood sculpture exhibit. It was funny because as our little language school class was walking around with our teacher, there were a bunch of elementary school students that came around at the same time- we fit right in! ; )

On Saturday, Krysta and I were able to hang out with Tracey, Olivia and Sawyer Dixon for a while (Jeff was out of town). We went to the Feria (local farmer's market) with them, had fresh fruit smoothies and then hung out for a while. It was a good time talking with Tracey and the kids are always entertaining. That night, Krysta and I had the amazing and unexpected opportunity of going to the Russian Ballet at the Costa Rican National Theater. This was exciting for both of us! Well, maybe a little more so for Krysta, as she has a background in ballet, while I just pretend to. The tickets were a lot cheaper than anything we would have ever found in the states and we had great seats! But I did feel bad because there was a little girl sitting behind me and she had to sit on 2+ pillows to be able to see past my big, ballet-blocking head. I felt less bad afterwards when we were walking out and I saw that probably about 1/5 of those in the audience had to sit on pillows. Afterwards, Krysta and I went to the Gran Hotel, a place we have been a number of times with teams, and enjoyed a nice cup of cafe con leche there, which was a perfect ending to a great day/week!

Krysta is in awe of the butterflies

the infamous Morph butterfly

Sawyer strapping himself into his booster seat

Then he just crawled and walked around with it on for a good while.

And then decided to climb the toy box, still strapped in. No worries, he didn't fall.

Krysta and I, pre-ballet, very excited!

You couldn't use a flash inside the theater, but you get "the picture"....heh.

Krysta enjoying her coffee at the Gran Hotel, after the ballet.

Brain drain in a happy home full of produce

2008-11-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

Hello All!
A lot has happened since I wrote last, or at least that's how its felt. Let's see......Krysta arrived safe and sound! The Monday after she arrived (last Monday) we started language school. The first few days we were still staying at the Dixon's house, so we had to hop on 2 buses, taking about 30 minutes to get there. It wasn't too bad, but we thought that having somewhere closer would make it a lot easier and save on bus fare. Our classes go from 8:15am- 12:15pm. We begin with 2 hours of grammar class, in which Krysta and I are the only 2 students, which makes it pretty much like private tutoring- its nice! Then, we have a short break to grab some coffee if we like and then we go back for 2 hours of conversation class. There have been a few times in which we've had this class with one or two other people, but for the most part, it's just us 2 in that class as well. This is good too, it's just a little more difficult for me. Can you imagine or even picture me talking for 2 hours straight?! Yeah- me neither, which is why I'm glad that Krysta is in the class and our teachers tend to talk quite a bit. No worries- I do talk, I just practice listening maybe a little bit more ; ) It's good- we're going over stuff that's kind of review, but also going over the rules is good for me to ensure that I continue improving my Spanish. Usually by noon, my brain has been drained of all of its functioning juices, leaving me in a catatonic sort of state---and then I go home and attempt to let all that we just learned sink in. I think its working ; )

Outside of all the school stuff, we've been pretty busy. Last Tuesday, Krysta and I were able to check out an apartment that Jeff Dixon had found for us. We'd really been hoping that this apartment would work out, as its super close to our school- you just go down the street from the school and turn left at the giant cactus to get there (I love that the directions include a giant cactus). We met the landlord, took a look and decided that it would work out great for us! So, the landlord, who is this super nice, older, American man drove us around the neighborhood in his car showing us all the good places to shop and whatnot. He did this on more than one occasion. So, Thursday of last week, Jeremy Janzen and a guy, Roni, that they know from their language school, helped Krysta and I move in! The next few days we spent finding places for everything and stocking up on food and everything. It's been SOOOOOO good to have a place of our own to come home too- it definitely makes it feel more permanent. If you'd like to see pictures prior to our moving in, you can check them out here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/krystaleanne9/Apartment#

I also made a little video tour after we moved in, which you can check out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJDtQykhzsg

On Sunday our landlord, John, offered to take us to the feria (farmer's market), which takes place once a week. One of the biggest ones happens to be right down the street from us! So, we took off Sunday at 7am to check out what all the feria had to offer. John was super sweet, kind of like a grandpa type. He bought bags for each of us to carry all of our purchases around. And when we arrived, he took us to a little stand and bought us churros! Then, he took us around to the hundreds of stands, giving us little tips and showing us who had the best prices. So, we stocked up for the week, collecting a varitable cornucopia of fruits and veggies. Needless to say, we will not be suffering from scurvy any time soon!

Because we now have a more permanent living situation, we have also set up a phone line through our magic jack (via the internet) and it is a California number! I also have my skype account set up and sign on fairly often, and we are also able to receive regular mail through our language school. So, if you would like to have any of this information, just let me know and I'll e-mail it to you! Please continue to pray for my support to come in, as well as this time of preparation for the work that we'll be starting in January. Thank you!!!

Con cariño,

Cailah =)

planes, trains and auto-buses...

2008-10-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
So, I have just about completed my first week here in Costa Rica and, although it hasn't been jam-packed, I feel like I've experienced quite a bit. So, I arrived to San Jose, Costa Rica, last Saturday around 9ish pm. Customs took a while and hauling my fatty luggage around didn't make that process any easier or faster.....but Jeff Dixon (director of SI Costa Rica) was there to pick me up from the airport and it was good to see a familiar face. So we took a taxi back to the Dixons house, where I'd be staying until we figured out a living situation for Krysta and I. Jeff and Tracey (his wife), along with their kids, have been super welcoming and helpful during this first week. The next day was a low-key day of going to the park and visiting with the Janzens (another family that's part of our SI team here. On Monday, the Dixons and Janzens didn't have class at their language school, so we made a trip (along with one other family they know) to the Volcano, Poas. It was incredible! Not too much of a hike, but with amazing views! That day we also visited a place called Sarchi, in which they are known for their handmade furniture.
During the following days, we were able to check out an apartment that looks pretty positive for Krysta and I, which is VERY exciting!!!! The only thing is that, we haven't been able to check out the inside yet because there is currently a tenant in there and the guy that owns it wants to make sure that guy is out and get it cleaned before we see it. But judging from the outside, I don't really see how bad the inside could be. This apartment would be a huge answer to prayer, though, because its in a safe place, with a 24 hour security guard and gates, within walking distance to our language school and anything else we might need, its very affordable and the guy is willing to lease it to us for a shorter period. Soooo, it's pretty much perfect, or so it seems....we will get to check out the inside on Monday and I'll keep you all updated on it. On our way back from the apartment, the rain came and poured and we got drenched, which I expect is just the first of many times to come =)
Other events from this week include Tracey and I (neither of whom are super great with directions), venturing into downtown San Jose. We made it there and back fine, thanks to Tracey! We walked around a little and then had coffee at a little cafe we found. It was really nice. Then on our way back, when we were on the bus, we were stopped, along with the rest of traffic, when we heard a honking kind of noise--which is not unusual, by any means. But this honking kept going, sounded kind of different and it kept getting closer. So, we looked out the window and lo and behold, it was a train! And we were on the tracks, blocking it, but no worries, it was going slow enough to stop. But I guess some people either didn't notice that or were still freaked out, because a bunch of people from the back of the bus started making a mad dash for the front- I have to admit, I was a little unnerved by it, but we were in no real danger because the train had stopped, yet it continued to honk/blow it's whistley-horn-ma-bob-thingy. Sooooo, that was interesting and fun!
This week I've also had a number of opportunities to go out and explore the city on my own.....many of which I have not taken ; ) HOWEVER, I have been working my way up to it! I've made my way around the Dixon's neighborhood a few times, but today, I took it a few steps further. I took two buses on my own to where Krysta and my language school is. I spent some good time with my good friend Joe (cup of Joe, that is----coffee) and a book. Then, I found my way back and did it all without getting lost or even missing any stops, which is pretty good for me! Not super exciting, but it made me happy. It was kinda funny, though, I used the bathroom in McDonalds and while I was washing my hands, I asked the lady next to me (in Spanish) if she had the time. I don't know if she just didn't hear what I asked or didn't understand, maybe she just assumed I wasn't speaking Spanish, so she didn't try to hear or understand, because she thought I was asking her something about the water faucets. They were automatic, so she was showing me that I just needed to keep my hands under them to keep the water coming. But eventually, after multiple times of me asking her the same thing in different ways (and pointing to the watch on her wrist), she showed it to me so I could see the time. Sooooo, either my Spanish is WAY off or cross-cultural communication has a lot more to do with it than just language.
Well, Krysta comes tomorrow and that is exciting! We're looking to start language school on Monday and move into an apartment soon, so things are moving along quickly! But I will keep you all updated and try to write more often, so that these won't be as long every time. I know that if something is super long, I may not be as inclined to read it, but this is all just adding to the rambling........so we'll be in touch! =)

*below are pictures from our trip to the volcano, Poas*

Sawyer, Jeff and Tracey using what our van driver called a "poor man's umbrella"

the mouth of the volcano

Sawyer, Olivia, Ella and Judah overlooking the volcano

Olivia and Ella riding in the van

rows and rows of coffee on the way up to the volcano

Make like a tree...and leave-ing!!!!

2008-10-16T23:33:00.000-07:00

The time is here! Tomorrow I head down to LA, then Saturday my flight leaves around noon. And then it's Costa Rica living for me- Pura Vida! I'm on a little bit of a roller coaster of emotions, but I'm confident in God's calling. I'm still trusting that He'll bring in the remainder of the money I need and going to Costa Rica on that faith. I very much appreciate all your prayers and support and I look forward to sharing in this journey with you!

-Cailah =)

MTI and beyond!

2008-10-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

So, I meant to have written this a while back, but things got pretty crazy busy, pretty fast and they just now are calming down for a few days at least. MTI continued to be intense and draining, but the good kind. We learned a lot about just our personalities and tendencies, becoming more aware of how we may respond to things on the field, such as conflict and stress. More than just being aware, we learned how we can better handle these situations and deal with them in a healthy and Biblical way. It was a time full of amazing teachings, challenging lessons to learn and incredible, bonding relationships. I will definitely treasure the things I learned during this time, as I believe they will prove extremely helpful on the field.
My departure is nearing! And its becoming more and more real, which has left a little bit of a bittersweet taste in my mouth. I feel like I've waited a long time to go into full time missions and it is finally in God's timing for me to do so. But along with that comes the realization that I will be away from my family, friends and home. And even more than that, people's lives are going to go on even when I'm not around. I know that's kind of a self-centered realization but, hey, aren't we all, to some degree? Overall, I know that it will be super hard to miss out on what is going on at home, but I also know that God has called me to Costa Rica for this time and for His purpose and there is no other place I'd rather be than in God's prime placement.
As I get ready to head off this upcoming Saturday, I would very much appreciate your prayers in a few specific areas: support- I'm still in need of funds. I have my plane ticket and everything prepared to leave Saturday, so I'm trusting God that He'll bring in the money needed. Also, Krysta and I are looking for somewhere to live, at least up until January. We have a few options, but we still don't have anything set yet. Lastly, please pray for the transition of moving, living in a new place and starting language school there. Well, I'll be writing and I hope you'll continue to read and write, as well. Because, although I will not be as physically present in everyone's life on a day to day basis, I'm planning on being very present in EVERY other way. So, we'll be in communication, yes? Yes! =)

*below are pictures from our time in MTI- Palmer Lake, CO*

The view driving on our way up to Pike's Peak

Krysta, Erika and I froze while jumping for joy on top of Pike's Peak

A double rainbow we witnessed from the balcony at MTI

Garden of the gods- outside of Colorado Springs

Beautiful Colorado skies

Our amazing SPLICE group roasting marshmallows around the fire our last night together

Up and coming SI staff in our SPLICE program. (l-r): Aaron and Rachel Kelly- Guatemala, me and Krysta- Costa Rica, Heather Pasma- Guatemala, Caroline and Ryan Holloway- Dominican Republic--- all SUPER COOL people!!!

The beginnings of something good and Coloradan

2008-09-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

We are here! In Colorado! It's so surreal that we are actually here after hearing so much about it. Krysta and I arrived to Colorado Springs this morning at 11:30, which felt MUCH earlier due to the time change and our past few days' pattern of craziness, resulting in an extreme lack of sleep. But it was totally worth it- hanging out with friends and family! But we are now here and excited and meeting people and its great! We actually have a number of other new SI staff here with us: one young couple going to the Dominican Republic, another young couple going to Guatemala and another single girl going to Guatemala. So, we've talked with them some and met some other cool people and it's only day number 1, actually more like 1/2 because we haven't even been here a full day. Either way, its exciting. There are 35 adults in our program. And there are 20 children! I am really excited- this will be fun! Well, I should go because my eyes are starting to burn from the tiredness! Please keep Krysta and I in your prayers during this time- that we would hear what God has to speak to us and we would soak up all this information to put to good use in our ministry. Please also pray that while we are here, that there would be a surge in our support, so that we would become fully funded and have no problems getting down to Costa Rica on our projected dates. Thanks!

Con cariño,
Cailah ; )

In transition....still.

2008-09-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
I hope you're all doing well! I just wanted to give a brief update of what is going on in my life right now, and how the Costa Rica process is moving along. This summer has been kind of crazy and all over the place, but I'm happy to be able to have had this time to spend at home before I head out in this new phase of life. I feel the pull of my desire to be in Costa Rica, but I also know that I need to take advantage of this time I have now to spend it with friends and family, as well as preparing for all that lies ahead.
Starting with this week, I have a feeling that this next month or two are going to fly by. This week is the annual Students International banquet, on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, Krysta (Williams, who is going to Costa Rica with me) and I head up to Sacramento to catch a flight to Colorado to spend 3 weeks in training at a place called MTI (Mission Training International). At this point, its a little tough to think that we have to wait that much longer before going to Costa Rica, but I've only heard good things about MTI and I'm sure that there are things that God wants to teach me there. So, I'm excited to go there with an open heart, to see what God wants to do through this time of training. We'll get back from CO October 3rd and I leave for Costa Rica October 18th. That'll be a crazy couple of weeks, I'm sure!
As far as support raising goes, I want to thank all of you who have stepped out in faith and obedience to help make it possible for me to serve in Costa Rica. For the one-time sum that I have to raise ($10,000), I have about 75% of it raised, which is such a blessing! In the area of monthly support, I need to raise $2,000 a month and so far I only have about 30% of that. So, if you could please be in prayer for that! If you would like to be a part of supporting me, you can send any donations to:
Students International
P.O. Box 2733
Visalia, CA 93279-2733

*any checks should be made out to Students International and have my name written in the notes section. please also attach a paper indicating whether this is a one-time or monthly donation.

Well, thanks again for all your support- financial, spiritual and otherwise! I'll do my best to update this blog on a more regular basis from now on, so that you can stay informed =)

Con cariño,

Cailah Pritchard

And so it begins...

2008-05-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends & Family,

I am preparing to embark on a new journey that I want to share with you all in hopes that you would like to be a part of what God has in store. I’m looking to move down to Costa Rica in late 2008 with an organization called Students International.
The mission of Students International is: “Bringing students and the poor together cross-culturally to encounter God, share the Good News, disciple and serve others in occupational ministries.” Each SI base has a number of different sites that are focused on ministering in different ways to different people. Some of these sites include: medical, sports, art, social work, construction and others. In this way, ministry can be more specific, yet diversified.
I will be heading down to Costa Rica with a team of people and we will be working to start up a new SI base in the greater San Jose area in Costa Rica. This team will include: Jeff and Tracey Dixon, along with their two children, Olivia and Sawyer, Jeremy and Erin Janzen with their children, Ella and Judah, and my good friend, Krysta Williams. The first few months there will be spent in language school and making more contacts and connections for ministry. After language school, I will be moving into an apartment with Krysta and begin to serve in ministry sites. We don’t yet know the areas of ministry we will be focusing on in the beginning, but during this time we hope that God will continue to create divine appointments and guide us in the direction He wants us to go. The sites we are currently looking into may be: education, social work and sports. We also look forward to continuing with the relationships we already have established. After becoming relatively established, we will be hosting teams of people that wish to come and serve in Costa Rica on short-term trips, as well as semester programs for college students. Those coming to serve will be staying in homes with Costa Rican families. As full time staff, however, I will be living in an apartment in the community that we will be ministering to. I know that there are a lot of “unknowns” yet, but as a team, as well as individually, we have all been praying for what God wants to do in and through us in Costa Rica. We are sure that God has called us to Costa Rica for His purposes and we are committed to seeking out His plans and following through with obedience to what He calls us to. Although we may not know many specific channels of how we will be ministering in Costa Rica, we are excited and willing to learn and pursue the areas of service where it is most needed.
I would love and be privileged to receive support from you for this journey and path on which God has placed me. There are a number of ways in which you can give your support. There is a great need for prayer support. Being bathed in prayer is very important to me, in order to continue to be guided by God, for maintaining physical and spiritual strength, and to combat spiritual forces that will be working against us.
Another way in which you can support me is by either coming to Costa Rica on a short-term trip or bringing a team down with you to serve. We will be working down there full time, but groups that come down are a huge part of the ministry, as well. They give a lot more helping hands to finish projects faster and help to create a larger area of ministry, reaching people that we may not have been able to reach, being fewer in number. I, personally, have a huge part of my heart reserved for missions and another huge part for youth and students. In working with SI, I will be able to combine these two passions, serving God to the fullest of my ability.
One more way in which you can lend your support is financially. We have projected that my cost of living will be about $2,000 per month. SI has asked for at least a two-year commitment to the ministry in Costa Rica. I will also need a lump sum of $10,000 for initial costs and start up expenses. This money will cover the training required by SI at a missionary training school (MTI), airfare to Colorado for this training, airfare to Costa Rica, Language school and moving/furnishing for our new home. I don’t know what God has in store for me after these two years, I may stay in Costa Rica, but I may be led elsewhere. As for now, my projected goal for serving in Costa Rica is two years, and in following that my goal for raising support will be for two years.
I would very much appreciate any type of support that you are able or would like to give. If you would like to contact me, personally, you may e-mail me at: cailahpritch@gmail.com. I will also be posting continual updates at www.cailahpritch.blogspot.com. To learn more about SI in general, visit their website at www.stint.com. Thank you for everything and I’m very much looking forward to beginning this new journey with you all! God bless!

Con cariño,

Cailah Pritchard

Pura Vida

2008-05-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Krysta and I, hanging out in Costa Rica, on the Caribbean coast

me and my Tico pals

the banana tram...in the middle of the jungle

pato, pato, ganzo...a universal favorite