Zumba and Horseback Riding

Saturday, January 26

I love it when I can look back on the day and praise God for it and know that it is a day I can say was well spent.  Today was one of those days.

There is a University here in Turrialba called “Catie” and there is a gymnasium on campus.  Tony (April’s husband) manages the gym.  Deidre was invited to teach a Zumba class at the gym at 10:00 this morning.  We arrived around 8:30 so that she could get set up and warmed up.  We did about 30 min. of practice Zumba, and then she led and hour long class.  Then, Joanna (another Zumba instructor in attendance) led 4 more songs.  After almost 2 hours of Zumba, we were all very exhausted.  It was a great class with lots of energy.  There were about 25-30 people there; and, as Tony handed Deidre a boquette of flowers at the end of class, he even invited everyone to Deidre’s class on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s at CISA.  It was a successful morning.

 We took the 12:15 bus home and had some lunch.  We had a few surprise visitors (Ryan and Kirsten and family and some neighbors) and then Amanda and I headed out on our next adventure.

We met Kerlin in town and she led us to her friend’s house who owns several horses.  We watched them saddle up the horses and get them ready for our horseback riding excursion.  This was Amanda’s first time riding a horse, and she was braving it even with a language barrier.  That alone was the only reason I was nervous.  I didn’t know any words that had to do with horses in Spanish.  How was I going to follow their directions?

Well, we mounted our horses and learned very quickly that they responded very well to the slightest touch of the reigns.  They were good horses, and we had a blast.  My horse wanted to run right of the bat, but I was able to keep him under control.  Amanda’s horse was kinda slow at first, but he was very calm for her.  We headed out down the trail and it lead up to an open horse pasture.  We crossed to the other side and headed up the trail up the mountain.  It was a bit muddy, and the trail was strung over with quite a bit of weeds and branches.  We learned quickly that the long, skinny leaves called “cola de mono” were very prickly.  The guy in the lead took out his pocketknife and cut as many as he could out of the way for the rest of us to pass by safely.  He couldn’t quite cut them all down, so we did get a few scratches, but nothing detrimental.  At one point, there was a fallen tree across our path. 

Amanda watched as the first horse jumped over it.  Immediately, she said “I can’t do that” and got off her horse.  Someone helped lead her horse over it and she climbed back on.  On our way back she braved it as she watched the other horses calmly step over it.  They took us to a clearing where we got a gorgeous view.  

We snapped a few photos and went on our way back down the mountain and over the river. 

 On our way back, Kerlin asked me if I wanted to run with my horse.  I wanted to but they told me to watch the other guys first.  Once we got to this dirt path, two of the guys took off with their horses.  They were running so fast I thought I’d miss them if I blinked.  No way was I going to let my horse do that.  Canter, yes.  Sprint, NO WAY!   Plus, this is where the language barrier was getting in the way.  They kept saying something to me in Spanish that I didn’t understand.  In the end, I think they were just telling me to hold on tight because my horse really wanted to follow them.  Thankfully, I did and the horse did not take off.  I wasn’t quite as brave as I had hoped to be.

We returned home just on time for Eddie to get ready to go to his first guitar lesson.  A man from church asked him to give him lessons, and they decided to start today.  After that, we had youth group.  It was a low-attended night, so Eddie just decided to lead us in a few get-to-know-ya games.   We had a blast with the kids, and now I am just praying that God calms Eddie’s nerves as he prepares to lead the Sunday service tomorrow morning.

Sunday, January 27

Greed: that was today’s sermon topic.  Hector led worship this morning, and then Eddie took over when it was time for the sermon.  Once again, my husband amazes me.  He stood up in front of the congregation and led the service once again.  I love to watch God at work.  He has been using Eddie in this small little town in ways we never would have imagined.  Hector has trusted Eddie to partner with him in the sermon series on the 7 deadly sins.  Wow… little did we know that Eddie would be getting practice with preaching and speaking Spanish all at once. 

Since the congregation is used to Hector doing things non-traditional, Eddie used his preaching time to break us up into four groups for a discussion of God’s Word.  We read from 1 Timothy and Philippians and he guided us with discission questions and allowed time for each group to respond.  I have never seen a church service where everyone is so engaged the whole time.  A group discussion in church is not something we are used to, but it seems to work well here in this community. 

After church we cooked lunch and just as we were about to sit down, our neighbor came by with a bunch of bananas (more free bananas… we have bananas coming out our ears) and his daughter invited us to come over to eat.  Eddie never passes an opportunity to try new food, so he said we would come over after lunch to taste it.  Amanda stayed home with Jaden (who was napping) and we walked over to the neighbor’s house.  They offered us carne, yucca, salsa, corn tortillas, and cooked green bananas.  I tasted all but the yucca, and the green bananas were gross (just as I had suspected); but the meat and the salsa were delicious.  We visited with them for a while before Eddie headed to town to play basketball with Ryan.

I spent the afternoon cleaning up the kitchen and making banana bread.  When Eddie got home, we took Jaden and the banana bread and visited Gatica and her family and we also visited Hector.  We had never seen Gatica’s house, and we got a full tour.  They have two separate rooms with their own bathrooms specially built to accommodate students.   Their home was warm and inviting, and very lively.  Their kids and grandkids were there, so Jaden had a lot to entertain him.  We even watched their bird doing flips in its cage.  I had never seen a bird that could do gymnastics before!

I am glad we got a chance to visit Hector.  He was a little down and I think our visit cheered him up.  We also got to discuss possible beach plans… we are hoping to go this coming weekend!  We have lived here for 4 months and have not made it to the beach yet!!!