Christmas Time in Costa Rica

We have celebrated Christmas several times already having various parties and activities with friends and missionary family. We started the month with a trip to the Christmas tree farm to purchase a tree. Olivia wanted to wear her Santa's hat, Abby had just lost another tooth, and we were all excited to get our tree until... we saw that the prices for trees had doubled this year! The cost of the tree is still cheaper than what we would pay in the U.S., so we count it a blessing to still get a real tree. Guess it sort of makes up for the gas prices, right?



After our tree adventure, the kids received a gift early this year, their first pet. Sniffles, a.k.a. Galatea (a name given by the previous owners) joined our family as another missionary family heading to Chile could not take him with them. After a quick adjustment period, he is hopping all over our yard and seems to thoroughly enjoy all the space and greenery!



We also celebrated Christmas with our friends of Roca Viva Iglesia. We rented out the camp nearby and an inflatable for the kids while the ladies made a craft project. We all enjoyed the fellowship and food, including the Christmas cookies the kids made with me in the camp kitchen. Above, Abby, Miranda, and Sylvia are creaming the butter and sugar. Below are a couple of girls from our church that came to enjoy the day, as well as receive a small gift bag to celebrate the holiday with us.

A week later, we were celebrating Christmas with our ABWE missionary friends in our home once again. This year we had the children prepare food, decorate cookies, and make a small gift, all for their parents who arrived later on that afternoon. Below are the photos of Abby and Jordan Davoll working hard on their cookies, as well as the cookie "aftermath" as I call it!

Below are the girls showing off their sticky hands from making coconut balls and pigs-in-a-blanket. They worked hard learning Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman in both English and Spanish to present to the parents. The teens helped along side of the little ones, in addition to leading us in a time of caroling. It was a wonderful time with everyone and now we are looking forward to enjoying the next few days with our kids alone as we celebrate Christmas. We hope to help them focus in on the true meaning of Christmas in the midst of all this hustle and bustle - I am sure your month has been as busy, if not busier, than ours. May you spend the time worshipping Christ the Savior as you enjoy this last week of December!

Turrialba Volcano

We managed to have a one night get-away with our teammates, Cam and Kerry Woolford, last weekend. We took advantage of one of the single language school students who will be leaving us in December to go serve in Colombia. She took care of the kids while the parents took a trip up the volcano to stay at the Turrialba Lodge. The lodge itself is rustic in style and since it is the coldest time in Costa Rica, as well as being higher in elevation, we gravitated to the wood burning stoves in the main building.



The lodge also runs a lecheria, or dairy farm and had many animals on site to enjoy. Below is a picture of the sheep waiting to be milked. Since they don't give a lot of milk, the cheese is rather expensive, about $10 a pound!



This little guy was an orphan sheep that escaped and couldn't find his way back into the fence. Once we caught him, we gave him a few strokes and put him back with the others.



The scenery is incredible since the volcano is on the lodge property. It erupted about 20 years ago but is now active again, spewing smoke daily since April. We spent most of our time just enjoying the outdoors and the other animals on the farm.



On Saturday morning we rode up to the crater of the volcano on horseback. Despite the 2 hour trip up, it was well worth the pain from the saddle as we gazed at this incredible display of nature's power. Below are some pictures of the crater and the smoke that seeps continuously from the side of the volcano.

I snapped this picture of the clouds because it reminded me of a screensaver I had seen. You can tell how high up in elevation we were by this shot!

This plant is referred to as a "poor man's umbrella." Fitting name, wouldn't you say?

Roca Viva Ladies Conference

On October 23rd and 24th we were privileged to have a missions team consisting of 5 ladies from Northbridge Church in Kalamazoo, MI. The ladies specifically wanted to serve Roca Viva Baptist Church in areas of need and developed their entire trip around ministering to their sisters overseas.




On Friday, they helped Roca Viva host an outreach activity, Sabores de Roca Viva (Tastes of Roca Viva). Each woman was encouraged to invite a friend and we were excited to have close to 45 in attendance! Grace spoke on five types of friendship every woman needs with an invitation to learn more about our church and the friendship of Jesus Christ via the friend that had invited them. In addition to the wonderful variety of food, the entire night of fellowship seemed to be enjoyed by all! The activity generated much interest in the church and further events and we are preparing a small cookbook of the night's recipes to give as a gift on followup visits to the ladies.

On Saturday, the ladies hosted a Women's Conference for our church ladies at the restaurant of one of our members. Despite some technical difficulties, the event was a blessing to all in attendance. The ladies shared on specific topics relating to the difficulties we saw currently affecting our ladies, such as forgiveness, abuse, and unity.

In addition to these topics, several of the ladies share topics on how to start Women's ministries in Roca Viva. Each woman received a gift bag including the book "El Poder de la Mujer que Ora" (The Power of a Woman Who Prays). Although the bags were a personal encouragement for the ladies, they were encouraged to use the book as a way to start a small group or discipleship relationship with other ladies. Others shared testimonies of their salvation and experiences discipling and being discipled in their walk with God.

Baptisms at Jardin Sagrado

Here is a short slideshow of some of the activities and the baptisms we had at the camp in Orosi Valley. We had a Family Day on Sept. 27 where we celebrated the baptisms of 6 individuals, Carlos, Francini, Sylvia, Kodo, Vernon, and Kelly. Dave had to make the file a bit smaller but hopefully you can still enjoy the photos!

Independence Day Festivities

September 15th is Costa Rica's Independence Day, which actually seems to be celebrated throughtout the week. Ticos adorn their houses, cars, and businesses with the national flag and it's corresponding colors. Flags of all sizes are sold on the streets by vendors. As the 15th actually approaches, a number of celebrations take place. Olivia attends a Costa Rican preschool which celebrated the day with a "parade" in a typical bus. All the kids dressed in their typical Costa Rican dresses and caballero clothes, climbed aboard a modified tour bus and waved to passersby as they drove around town. As you can see by the photos, Olivia thoroughly enjoyed greeting everyone as she yelled "Costa Rica" out the window!

The parades of the faroles (torches) start the day before on the 14th as children make their own laterns and torches and bring them to school. Below is a farol that Abby made for her school parade in the shape of a house. Students carry them to school and have parades in their schools as well as at night time. At 6 pm the Costa Ricans gather together in a central park, usually near the catholic church, and sing the national anthem. They light the faroles and have a parade of lights following the anthem, provided the rain doesn't put them out.

On the 15th, parades fill the streets as school percussion teams flood the air with rhythmic songs they have practiced all month long. Younger children dressed in typical costumes join in the celebration as they watch older brothers and sisters perform with their school bands. The bands are usually made up of percussion instruments only, like a drum corp, along with flag bearers and sometimes dancers as well.

We went to our local parade to see Kevin Salley, the son of our teammates Joanna and LaMar. After the kids waited patiently for 2 hours, we realized that as his school approached, the drummers were behind us and were joining up with the flag bearers farther down the road! With a bit of quick manuevering, I was able to get a couple of shots. At least one of us got to see him! Aidan, Abby, and Livy were ready to get back for lunch and didn't seem to mind the fact that they actually never got to see the one person they knew in the parade!

Abby, Matthew, Alexa, and Olivia waiting patiently for Kevin's school to pass by.
Kevin and his 10 lb. drum he lugged all the way down the parade route!

Backyard Nature

Although I am waiting til next week to post my next blog about Costa Rica's Independence Day, I took a walk in the backyard today and had to give you a taste of our "Biological Preserve." For you bug lovers, we offer a wide variety of insects, spiders and other creepy crawlies (see last year's blog on our tarantula infestation!). Perhaps one of our readers will write me a comment to tell me what kind of spider this is - I have two in our yard right now and have never seen anything quite like them!


In addition to the bugs, we have several types of beautiful tropical flowers and some fruit trees, including lemon (seen above), cas, and banana. Our lemon tree is small (only produced 5 so far) but the lemons, although green like a lime, are sweet rather than sour. Cas are small green citrus fruit that the Costa Ricans blend with water to make a sour juice similar to lemonade. Our banana tree produced a small bunch last year, quickly devoured by a grey squirrel that walked the tight rope, or should I say the clothes line, to reach them. The bananas are harder, smaller, and not as sweet as those grown on the plantations.

We have several butterflies and Colibri (humming birds) that visit our flowers as well. While I was out I managed to catch a photo of these two, while two other colorful varieties escaped my lens. Now I know you are all thinking about how wonderful life must be like to live near the rain forest and have such a variety of insects and plant life to keep you busy, but it is easy to forget that wildlife doesn't always remain out in the wild! Two weeks ago we found a crab in our office and our empleada, Marta, found a black scorpion in the utility room! Just a few more critters to add to the roaches, snake, tarantulas, millipedes, moths, beetles, and other creatures that have made our house their home too!

La Anexacion de Nicoya

The 25th of July is a tradional day of celebration for Costa Ricans. It is the celebration of the Annexation of Nicoya - when Costa Rica aquired the Nicoya peninsula from Nicaragua. Festivities included the reading of the historical account and traditional dances in all the schools. This year Olivia was able to participate in the celebration since she attends a Costa Rican preschool. Thanks to some visiting American friends, Caleb and Charity Gibbs, we got some great shots of the kids in their vestidos tipicos (brightly colored dresses). The program was so crowded I barely got to see Olivia perform. Fortunately, Caleb is very tall and thanks to him, I have a bit of culture to share with you.

Olivia spies Aidan and Abby watching from above on some playground equipment!

Olivia awaits her turn. Her classmate's tears have washed away most of his mustache!

Olivia gets her turn to demonstrate the traditionl dance with her teacher.

How precious is this little girl! She knew how to swing her skirt and everything!

What a cute caballero! The little boys came dressed in handkerchiefs and mustaches!

Graef Family Protraits

We had the opportunity to have some family pictures taken while we visited the States in July. As many of you know, I have been sick with some odd symptoms that the doctors now believe are a result of an autoimmune disorder. It was a real treat to stay with Aunt Sheri (http://www.sherisphotography.com/) and have some portraits of the kids taken. This is not something we have an opportunity to do in Costa Rica and I have only found one photography studio that takes professional pictures. Aidan and Abby do not get official school pictures either so I was glad to get their photos taken as well as Olivia's 2 year portrait done. Below are a few of my favorites. Hope you enjoy them too!

Aidan, Olivia, and Abby

A special treat for us, pictures with Grandma! Mom was invaluable during our stay with her and it was so nice to capture a bit of it via the camara!