Berrios Blessings: What's a the end of the Rainbow?

Monday, January 7

Today was my first day of class with a new teacher and 3 other students in my class. My teacher’s name is Patricia, and she is covering for Sonia this week. Sonia and her family are on vacation. They are vacationing on a farm that has no electricity… to each their own.

Our class was exhausting as Patricia had us do many new activities. We listened to a dictation on the computer and had to write down all the words we could. We listened to her dictate a paragraph and had to work as a team to write down the whole thing word for word. We only completed two sentences and they were choppy at best. We also wrote about our neighborhoods back home, and as she read them out loud we had to correct each other’s mistakes and guess who wrote it. With 3 other students in my class, I enjoyed it very much. Stevenson, Deidre, and Rysen are all so different, but we all have the same desire: to learn Spanish!!!

Tuesday, January 8

We had a blast in class today. The four of us had to ask each other questions from the reading, so it gave us a lot more practice with forming questions and answers on our own. After that, we review past tense and practiced writing a biography about someone famous. Rysen wrote about Justin Beiber…

After that, we worked on forming sentences and asking each other questions using past tense verbs, and it was quite entertaining. I realized that I was having so much fun, but at the same time getting some good Spanish practice at the same time. That activity alone gave us a chance to practice forming sentences, listening to Spanish, correcting ourselves and each other’s mistakes, and practice with both vocabulary and past tense verbs. After that, we worked on preparing for culture class for a little while.

After lunch, Eddie made his first solo trip to Turrialba to mail a bill and run a few errands. Just the post office alone took 45 min. to an hour… that was not a “quick” trip as intended. Oh well… it's okay.

I headed to Zumba class with Jaden and he just sat on the couch and watch the class for a good 20-30 min. It was so cute how entertained he was.

We had a quiet dinner composed of left-overs and did some studying before heading to bed.

Wednesday, January 9

Class was good again today, but much more low-key. It seemed everyone was not feeling 100%, so class was a bit less energetic today. We ate lunch with Gatica and she was sharing some interesting stories about her past. I cannot imagine the life she had, and hearing her talk about it is almost unbelievable. One thing she shared is that her mother made her get married at the age of 15. That is incomprehensible to me, but it was a reminder that not everyone is like me. It is good to be reminded of that sometimes, because as humans, we tend to forget that not everyone’s life is the same as yours. It also reminds me to be thankful for my mother and loving family and they way they raised me.

After lunch, Deidre and I took a quick trip into La Suiza because she needed to go to the bank, and we wanted to check out the supermarket there. It is much closer than Turrialba, and they have many of the things we would need when we go grocery shopping. It was nice to chat with her and hear how excited she is about her trip to the beach this coming weekend.

This afternoon, I did homework while Eddie went to play basketball with Rysen. Stevenson and I had to work on our presentation for culture class, too. It is different living on our own. I think we feel like we have a lot more time to ourselves, but that also means we have to work at socializing with the locals more to get a chance to practice our Spanish. Also, we are getting used to life here so not much surprises us anymore, which accounts for the lack of photos in my posts recently. We hope to have a few more adventures coming up so we will keep you posted!

Thursday, January 10

As we all prepared for Culture Class, we took a few minutes to practice it and review it in class. Our topic this week was Nativity Scenes (or Portales). Each group had a topic affiliated with them and Three Kings Day, a holiday celebrated on January 6^th.

We were all a rusty after having a few weeks off, but it was interesting to hear all about the prayers, the songs, and the food that goes a long with the customs if the Costa Rican culture.

After class, we made plans with the other students to have dinner and a movie night together. All did not go as planned but we had fun hanging out and entertaining ourselves with music, kids, conversation and Skittles. We thought about the movies we would watch and games we could play, but we just never got around to it.

Stevenson and Jaden

When we got home, we hung out with Stevenson some more. He told us more about his life over the past 5 years, and he has such an incredible story it is almost unbelievable. His steps of faith and God’s faithful provision were inspiration to both Eddie and I as we sat and heard about the friends he made, the people God used to lead and provide for him, and even the challenges God gave him to be generous with what little he has.

Eddie and I finished the evening off with a movie in bed called “Chronicles” after some precious snuggle time with Jaden.