Profoundly Simple

I spoke at devotions for the elementary students on Friday. We studied the Tower of Babel, and I had the kids recite a verse and act the story out. Several gathered together on the floor with their hands inside the circle and chanted “We are so amazing! Look what we can do!” over and over as they moved their hands upwards to symbolize building the tower. Several students worked together on the other side of the stage to be God and say, “I love you! I miss you!” over and over. It was hard to hear God’s voice because the people were so busy with their own plans and pride. “He often speaks to us quietly,” I reminded the kids. Then a few students broke away from the tower group and acted as Satan, saying “Don’t listen to God! Build the tower! Build the tower!” as they stood between God and the tower builders while we did the skit again. We talked about how Satan was really excited because his evil plan was working; he does not want people to listen to God. He doesn’t want them to know that they are loved.

The kids recited two verses that they’d learned. The first was Psalm 145:8 which says, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” We went on to talk about how God is rich in love, which means he has a lot. And he continues to pursue us, but it makes him sad when we ignore Him. We talked about the reality that he also gets angry, that we should fear Him and listen to Him when He talks to us because He doesn’t waste words; what He says is important. Then the kids recited another verse that they learned: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him” (Psalm 103:11). We love to do actions so we can remember the verses better. The kids decided saying “Whoa!” really slowly after we said “those who fear him” would be the best way to remember what it means to fear God, to represent how amazing God is. It makes me smile every time they do it!

On the way back to the room another teacher declared enthusiastically, “Wow! I’m amazed at what you can do with first graders. That was so simple and so profound! I’m going to e-mail my son who works with youth in the states and tell him about it.” I was speechless. When we got back to our room we decided to pray together to thank God for helping us remember our lines helping us to do our best job. We pray randomly, as I feel led, and though I ask if any of the kids want to pray with me, they usually say no. Once or twice another student has said something. That day NINE kids prayed out loud for their friends or family, and virtually all of them shared prayer requests, which is not something that we typically do. Wow! “How is God blessing me this much?” I almost cried when so many of them raised their hands to volunteer. Miriam almost prayed in Swedish, too, but she started to feel shy after the first few words, though the kids encouraged her a lot. I love it when they cheer each other on. After they decided who they wanted to pray for, we began. They are so simple and honest and sincere. Mackenzie’s prayer began, “Thank you God for myself…” He went on to ask God to take away his cough as well. Later Kira reminded me that, “You said God was big, well like how big?” She continued to wonder, “Do you think he’s 100 feet long?”

I love kids. I love teaching. Here's one more fun quote....I can't resist.

We have been learning about mammals, fish, and now birds. I asked them if they remembered why male birds have bright colors, as opposed to female birds whose feathers that are usually brown or other colors that are not as noticeable. Jonah M. raised his hand and said it’s because the birds are saying, “Hey, hey, look at me! Do you want to be MY wife?” I smiled so big, thinking, “I guess I did say that when I was teaching!” I was trying to keep the mating, attraction discussion vague and general. Sometimes it’s funny to hear my words come out of other people’s mouths!

Loss

The camera I brought from the States stopped working, so I bought a new one here in Costa Rica. I was excited to make a “big purchase” and work out all the details and ask al the questions in Spanish. Just a week later I went to Tortugero with some students from the Spanish Language Institute and it fell in the water at the end of a boat ride. We had been looking for animals, and I had just seen a few toucans, monkeys, crocodiles, etc.

I was standing on a narrow wooden platform next to the boat tossing my poncho back to the boat driver because the ponchos belonged to the hotel. I moved to the side of the platform so other people getting of the boat had room to walk by, and as I did my hip brushed against a large wooden pole holding up the roof of the boat dock. My camera was in my pocket one second... and in the river the next. Luckily the man standing next to me had very long arms and fished it out while I was standing there with my mouth open thinking, “I have not even owned that a week. There are pictures on there of Miriam and Culture Day.”

Someone suggested putting the camera in a bag of rice so the rice would absorb the moisture. We tried it. It didn’t work. We tried blowdrying it with my tico mom’s hairdryer. Jimena couldn’t stop laughing. It didn’t work. We set it in the sun to dry out more. It didn’t work.

Overall, it was actually nice to have something to grieve that was so visual: the camera was in the river. Other things that I have to grieve, like the sense of family and home are much more abstract and the loss is harder to identify, grasp, and process.

My First Kiss... Almost!

I am still chuckling as I write... It happened this morning. Pedro is a guard outside of Sojourn, where I work. He sits in a telephone booth-ish building monitoring who goes into and out of the school, which is surrounded by a high wall and heavy metal gates. Each morning I wave and have a little conversation with him as I walk onto school property and head towards the office to clock in. Usually he's inside his little booth and peeks out to greet me with a "Good morning! How are you?" type comment in Spanish. And then I continue on towards the administration building. (Each building is small on campus and you walk outside to get from one to the next. Admin is one building. Secondary is a building. Spanish classes are in a building. Primary is one building. Preschool is a building. Upper elementary is a building. Picnic tables with a roof over them are the lunch room---like a pavillion. And there are little sidewalks with awnings over them that connect each building. The awnings are a new addition that I'm really thankful for because it rains a lot here, multiple times per day. But most of that is beside the point...) Back to Pedro...

So, for whatever reason, Pedro was outside his guard booth and walking towards it when I entered school property this morning. This means he was walking towards me. Now he's a darker skinned Costa Rican who loves to joke around and is really friendly... In friendliness, he moved towards me to kiss me on the cheek. It totally caught me off guard and I simultaneously backed up about four feet and assummed a "What are you thinking?" facial expression, complete with open mouth and bulging eyes. He did not advance, but explained matter of factly that he had been trying to greet me. "Oh yeah," I thought, "A kiss on the cheek is common here. This is not strange. He was not doing anything in appropriate." It took me a minute to process what just happened, during which he said (in spanish), "Well, a handshake then!" and grabbed my hand, pumping cheerfully. Glad he wasn't offended, I felt embarassed and apologized: "Tengo verguenza."

As I walked towards the admin building I reflected on the fact that I spend most of my time with people who are under the age of ten. And most teachers are girls (or they are American men over the age of 50 who don't do the typical Costa Rican greeting....thanks!). I have had women greet me with the brush your cheek with my cheek, kiss in the air... My tico dad doesn't do it. Neither does Fabian, the ten year old I live with. One of the other teachers said single people don't usually greet each other this way. She reminded me Pedro is single. (I think he might be 45.) He is very friendly, but he is not is not the one for me. For the record, I am not a fan of surprise physical touch in general. And I always fall for it when someone is behind me and taps me on the left shoulder and hides by my right side...while I look behind the left shoulder.

For whatever reason, it didn't surprise when/if other men in Costa Rica greeted me in a similar fashion, but it sure did today. Maybe I was in English thinking mode as I approached the school? The fact he wasn't in the guard booth and that was out of the normal routine/unexpected? Who knows... But it was my first kiss, and I almost ran away! Ha ha!

Other interesting happenings.... I went out of town for the first time last weekend to a Jaco, a small beach town, with my friend Mary. It was about two or three hours by bus. Two hours there. Three hours back. You curve around in the mountains/through the mountains to get there, and there was an accident, so we spent a chunk of time sitting and waiting on the way back. This was unfortunate because I really needed to use the restroom about a half hour before the hour delay... Yikes!

While in Jaco, I more or less recovered from my first sickness. Basically it was a bad cough, drainage, exhaustion, cold type of thing for a few days. It was pretty bad Thursday, and I stayed home from work Friday and my tico family took me to the pharmacy to get some medicine. I think I slept twelve hours on Saturday night! Yay! Sun, sleep, and fun involving water...that's a nice vacation! The waves were so big that I literally had to pull the bottom part of my swimmingsuit back up once...they just knocked it off! (Not all the way off, but there was significant movement. This may be too much information.) Isn't that crazy? I moved into shallower water after that.

Also in Jaco, my camera broke. Sad! I zoomed to capture the beauty of the beach, or maybe it was to get me and Mary in a shot? Either way, once I zoomed, it would not UNzoom. Zoom failure. What a way to go. This happened a few weeks ago, and I fixed it by recharging the battery, etc. But this time it was not a battery issue. It might be broken for good. We'll see. It's on my list of things to figure out, to ask people about. That list is kind of long right now.

Despite those things, Mary and I had a really nice time and plan to go back!!!

Other news... I got three new students in the last two weeks. One speaks Swiss and Spanish and German at home and does not know English. I am learning more words as I translate directions into Spanish for him. And I've started tutoring hime twice a week after school. The other two were in kindergarten and moved up. Their families are working towards deployment to Guatemala and Ecuador. One is pretty low and kind of rebellious, but he's coming around.

There is one hill in Parque La Paz that has a tree and a giant rock at the top of it and overlooks the city. I am planning to go there on Saturday for some alone time. Sometimes I miss being alone. General life can be tiring. If you read this before then, would you pray for rest, peace, that day? Thanks!