It's the Same But Different

Life in San Jose, Costa Rica makes me feel as if I'm living in two paralell worlds simutaneously.  In many ways our life is the same, but in many ways it is quite different. At times life feels "normal" and familar, and then something will make me stop and say, "Wait a minute. . . " 

Here are just a few observations.

Same: Get up, take care of the responsibilities of the day, come home.

Different:  Be home to stay by 5:30 p.m. for safety reasons.  Since we don't have a car, we walk or take a bus everywhere we go.  Although we want to blend with the Ticos (Costa Ricans), we don't!  We stand out like a flashing light, so it's best not to be out walking after dark.  One night we were out with friends until 11:00 p.m., and we felt wild and crazy!


Same: Favorite movies on TV, Top Chef, House Hunters International, UFC, loud commercials, The Today Show, Law and Order

Different: These shows will appear on various channels.  There isn't HGTV or Versus, but you can catch your favorite shows from these networks on a random channel. Another strange moment occurs when we are watching a movie in English, and then suddenly the commercials come on in Spanish.  It's these moments that remind me that "we're not in Kansas anymore."

Same:  Church service with worship, offering, sermon, familiar songs

Different:  Church services last for at least 2 hours.  Most churches have about an hour for worship, and then another hour for the sermon.  (You know Jim will be happy when one day he can preach here for an hour and no one will complain!)  Many of the songs are ones we sing at home, but of course they are in Spanish.  Feeling comfortable with the format, but completely out of place with the language makes one feel a bit confused.

Same:  Bathroom with shower, toilet, and sink

Different:  (Warning - this one is a bit nauseating!)  We can't flush the toilet paper (ugh).  This one has been difficult!  The plumbing systems can't handle the paper products, so we must dispose of them in a garbage can.  At first we just couldn't handle this, but we are becoming accumstomed to the process which isn't as awful as it sounds - I promise!








We will post more thoughts next weekend.  In the mean time, have a wonderful week!

(Pictures are from our neighborhood)

Melanie

San Jose, Costa Rica

We have arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica.  After almost two years preparing to serve with ReachGlobal, we are beginning our time in Latin America.  We will spend one year in San Jose studying Spanish at The Spanish Language Institute. The picture is the outside of our apartment complex.  We have found it easy to give directions to our apartment because it is the only "blanco" or white building on our street.  We don't have a street address, we just give directions based upon nearby landmarks.

God was kind to us in our travels to Costa Rica.  We fly standby, and that can be quite stressful.  You never know when a seat will be available.  We arrived at the airport in Huntsville, AL at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday (Jan. 2) with 10 pieces of luggage.  It took Hope, JD, Jim, and me to get it all to the check-in counter.  We were advised to bring everything with us and pay extra baggage fees as it is the cheapest way to get freight to Costa Rica.  We thought we might have to pay as much as $800 to get all 10 bags here.  The first blessing was that we only had to pay $250 for extra bags and overweight bags.  Wow!  Next, we were able to get seats on all our flights with no trouble, hand-wringing, or waiting.  We are so blessed!

We were met at the airport in Costa Rica by a gracious friend, and she hauled us and ALL of our luggage to our apartment.  That brings us to another blessing.  The ReachGlobal communications director for Latin America had secured an apartment for us.  When we arrived, we were delighted with the apartment.  It is clean and bright, and some of the furniture is better than what we have had in our home the past few years.  It all matches! The pictures are all of our apartment.

The communications director tooks us to HiperMas (Wal-Mart in Latin America), and Pequeno Mundo (Big Lots) to buy household items.  Wal-Mart must be the anti-christ as they are taking over the world.  I didn't even get lost because the HiperMas was laid out just like the Wal-Mart in Jacksonville. 


Jim was able to communicate in Spanish to get our internet/cable ordered.  We should be online sometime next week.  Once we have internet, you can contact us via Skype.  We will have our Skype active when we are at home.  You can call us from your phone @ 256-850-0525.  This is a U.S. number, so there will be no international charges.  If you have a Skype account, our Skype names are jim.wilson.efca and melanie.e.wilson.


The first language boo-boo has been made.  I should know better because Jim did this one when he was learning Spanish.  We were in a restaurant talking with the waiter.  I was trying to tell the gentleman that I would be able to speak some Spanish in one year.  Instead of one "year," I said one "an_s."  Uh-oh!!!!  Shouldn't talk about body parts like that!!!


We ask that you pray for us as we begin our language studies.