Business Trip

David says:

Yesterday was Taiwanese culture day in la plaza de cultura downtown San Jose. It seemed very appropriate because Friday night Sarah and I got together with a Costa Rican friend of Matt Chitwood who Matt met in Taiwan. We met Jose and his family and went out to dinner with them. It was great to make the connection.

We came into San Jose Friday morning because our 13 SNU students are joining LASP for their cultural trip to Limon to study racial equality in Costa Rica. It should be a great trip for them. And Sarah and I needed to come in to San Jose to rent a car until our Isuzu Trooper is released to us and also to buy the next round of food supplies. We are now responsible for purchasing the food for the student group. We are hoping that we can limit it to a trip into the city once every two weeks. Anyway, we can’t pick up the car until Sunday morning so we are using the extra time to see some movies and enjoy being in the city. Friday we saw Children of Men, which was an interesting movie. Last night we got together with Sophia, my Costa Rican sister, and her friends to see Babel. This is also interesting and well done. Today we will make several stops on the way out of town in order to pick up a number of different supplies for the students.

Interesting Cultural Tidbit: I learned this today in a taxi ride when I was sneezing. If you sneeze once they say “salud” (health), if you sneeze twice they say “dinero” (money), if you sneeze three times they say “amor” (love), and if you sneeze a fourth time they will say “perdio todo” (you lost it all). It’s pretty funny when you get the sneezes.

Funny Story: On Friday night we spent the night at LASP’s sabbatical house. On Saturday morning when we left we put the keys on the table as we locked the front door behind us. The thing about front doors in Costa Rica is that they are preceded by a carport gate that is locked and then a driveway gate that is locked as well. So when we locked the front door with the keys inside and then realized the carport gate was locked, we realized that we were locked out of the house but also locked into the carport. We were in trouble and it felt like we were caged animals in a zoo. So the next 20 minutes consisted of Sarah and I finding wide enough openings in the gate that we could possibly squeeze through. We ended up being able to push the gate open enough that we could crawl 10 feet up and through a small hole. I passed all of our stuff through the hole to Sarah and then followed. It wasn’t too hard and it didn’t look too suspicious since we were trying to break out and not in.

People everywhere!

Sarah: Whew! Quite a bit has happened since we last wrote. Our busyness has picked up enough that it’s been difficult to stay on top of blogging. We promise to at least TRY to do a better job, for those of you who are faithful in looking for updates from us. :)

First, our boss (Wes) flew in from Southern Nazarene University (SNU) to help prepare for the semester program for the SNU students. David met him in San Jose and they did some looking around to price items that would help us set up our new kitchen facilities. They arrived here in San Gerardo de Dota around the same time we were welcoming our first group of the year to QERC. They were a group of 18 from Spring Arbor University, and David got to do the hosting for the few days they were here. He led them on hikes and was even their guest speaker. They were a fun bunch of students who were spending a few weeks in Costa Rica traveling around and learning about different ecosystems and organizations throughout the country. It was good preparation for our new students to come!

While they were here, and the few days we had to work with after they left, David and Wes spent the majority of their days in the bodega (our garage/storage area), turning it into a functional kitchen. To this day I still can’t believe they accomplished it, but with David’s organizational skills and Wes’s gift in electrical work, it is finished. It will be great to have use of this new kitchen, so that the students can have a hand in preparing their own meals, and so that they don’t become tired of the repetition of eating at the restaurant every day.

During this time, our students arrived in San Jose. David, Wes and I drove into the city to pick them up last Monday and we spent the rest of the week going through an orientation with the rest of the students who also arrived to participate with LASP (Latin American Studies Program). We will be doing some traveling and listening to some guest speakers with them throughout the semester, so it was a good experience both groups to meet and get to know each other a little bit. Plus, the LASP staff does an incredible job of preparing students to fully experience another culture, so it was great for our students to be a part of that training. I stayed with the students the whole week, while David and Wes returned to finish the kitchen and make sure everything was in order for our arrival.

We arrived here at QERC a week ago on Friday night and dinner was even ready for us in our new facility. Everyone got settled in and after a quick intro to QERC and a short debriefing of orientation, we all were able to sleep peacefully here in the valley. Saturday the students had a short Spanish interview with their new Spanish teacher, Paola, and then were able to relax and do some exploring to finish off the weekend.

This past week has been busy as the students have been taking their Spanish classes and getting involved studying their other classes through SNU. Most have been working on getting their research projects set up, and will hopefully begin their research soon. We also have been getting all ready for another group to join us! Talk about a full house--last night a group of students from Calvin College arrived to stay for a few nights. We are packed in and have NO extra space--our guys from SNU are even sleeping at another facility up the road! The leader of the Calvin crew is Dave Warners, who spent his sabbatical here a couple years ago. His family lived here at QERC for 6 months, so it has been great to share stories and learn from his wisdom--Dave is a true field biologist.

Anyway, with so much action going on, we are excited to be a part of these new developments, and are really looking forward to seeing how our SNU students adapt to the culture and jump into getting involved in the community this semester!

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano y Felicidad

Sarah says: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! This is a bit late for Christmas greetings, but the last post was so long that we thought it would be a bit overwhelming to add any more. :)

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day doing the Hille traditions, with the exception that it was warm and sunny here instead of snowy and cold. We ate a Christmas Eve dinner together and then opened gifts that night. We all took our turns secretly filling each others’ stockings with gifts we had gathered over the past year, and then Jordan, Rusty, Jenna, David and I fell asleep out in the lounge area upstairs watching “Elf”, for another Hille Christmas Eve tradition. Christmas Day we woke up and all had fun opening our stockings, and headed out for a hike late morning (not a normal tradition!). Everyone made it to the waterfall and we took turns carrying the kids so they could experience it too.

The day after Christmas some of us took off on another short hike to see more of the cloud forest here in the valley. We saw some beautiful birds along the way. Anthony Chamberlain and his family, plus some extended family (11 total) came in the afternoon to stay overnight as well. It’s a blessing that we have a big building and can host lots of people at a time, so friends of ours can feel free to bring their families to see this part of Costa Rica.

On the 27^th we got up early and left QERC, with a stop at our friend Mirian’s house for breakfast again and some more good looks at the quetzals. From there we headed on to Manuel Antonio, where we spent the rest of our time with the Hilles. After a quick lunch, David and his parents and Rusty and Jenna took off to do a zipline, while Jordan and I stayed back with Gracelyn and Gabriel. While we had fun playing in the pool and taking naps, the others were flying from tree to tree. They came back with hours of stories and convinced Jordan and I that we might even be up for it someday.

The next day we got up early and headed into Manuel Antonio National Park. Right away we saw iguanas and an agouti, and after hiking around a little bit we saw white-faced capuchin monkeys and a number of 3-toed sloths. After hiking up to the lookout, we spent quite a while on the beach swimming in the ocean. Once we felt like we were hungry enough to leave the park, we headed back to the hotel. As we were hanging out in the afternoon, Jordan spotted some squirrel monkeys on the rooftops. We headed over to check it out and a nice family gave us bananas to feed to them! That night we ate dinner at a restaurant that was made out of an airplane where we were able to see the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

Friday we got up and left, and stopped near Jaco beach to take a tram ride through the jungle. It was a beautiful view, and one last hurrah before reaching our final destination of San Jose. For our last night, we went to Fogo Brasil, a Churrascaria. David and I have been to a Churrascaria actually in Brasil and we were excited to experience it again. It’s an all you can eat buffet, and the waiters will continually bring out different kinds of meat until you tell them you’re full. It was a fun way to spend our last evening together.

The Hilles left on Saturday, and David and I found ourselves back at QERC alone once again. New Years came at an interesting time for us, as we were kind of looking forward to some down time and sleep! We were able to make it to midnight, and finally found a channel on TV around 11:30 that was showing New Years celebrations. Today it was back to work, as we have some new and exciting changes happening here at QERC. In just one week, 12 students from Southern Nazarene University (SNU) will be arriving in Costa Rica to spend a semester studying abroad. They will spend the majority of their time here at QERC, and will be joining LASP (the program David and I studied through 5 years ago) for certain activities and excursions. Before the students come, we will also be hosting a group of 18 students from Arbor Spring University to spend a couple days here at QERC. So, David and I are finding ourselves with quite a bit to do in the next week! We are excited to see these new changes take place at QERC and are thankful that we can be a part of it.

May God bless every one of you as this New Year begins!