We have been quite busy since our last writing. We have been sharing our liturgical dance almost every day this week. We danced for a church youth and children's group. They were so excited and happy with our dances that they want us to teach them as many dances as we can before we leave. The first day of teaching 16 people came to learn. There were all ages from 6 years old to 40's. We have been spending a lot of hours teaching them. It is incredible to see their eagerness to learn. The majority of the ages are around 10 to 18. I have found it quite challenging to teach dance movements in Spanish. I just keep searching my brain for words in Spanish that can help me explain the movements. It seems to be working out very well. The pastor of this church has asked Candice, those learning the dances and me to dance as a part of their Sunday service before we leave. So that is our goal. God has made it really clear this is where he wants us to spend a large part of our time.
We are missing a lot of the modern conveniences like a shower with a nozzel instead of a pipe just coming out of the wall. There is no hot or even warm water in our home only cold. I kinda have to psych myself out by saying it is a pool not a shower and once I get in the water I'll get used to it. I do miss air condition especially in the middle of the day when it is the hottest. As the sun goes down it gets cooler. The sun sets here a lot earlier than at home. It starts getting dark around 5:30 and totally dark by 6:00 p.m. The sun rises around 5:30. I hear the mom, Gina of the family up in the kitchen and the dad, Alex or Gina's father starting the fire in the huge oven outside our bedroom door. This old traditional dome shaped oven is what is used to bake their bread in each day. They make "pan simple" (white bread long roll), "pan dulce" (large round white roll with sugar inside), "empanadas" (turnover or a pocket white bread with cheese and sugar in it) and the most sought after "pan rojo" (large white bun with red sugar glaze). The bread is ready for selling at 1:00 each day and the "pan rojo" is all sold by 3:00pm. We helped make the bread one day. We are certainly not as skilled or as fast as they are. Everything is made from scratch and by hand. No machines! This "panaderia and heladoria" bread and ice cream store has a lot of people coming from 7:00am to 9:00pm each day. When Candice and I are in the store or sitting out in front of the store we attract a lot of attention. We clearly are not latino and we stick out. There are opportunities every day for us to talk to the people here. Every time I ask them if they have a church here and if they know "DIOS" God. I explain why we are here and about the liturgical dance. Many non-church goers are curious and are now considering coming to watch us. I tell them about the joy, love, peace, and hope they can have with a relationship with Jesuscristo.
Our room is not connected to the house and our door opens to the backyard. We see unusal things from our door or window. One day as I was walking out the door there right in front of me was a extremely large pig, yes pig. I asked Gina if that was their pig and she said no. The pig just roams where it wants to and at this time the pig wanted to be near our door. He left after awhile, but came back again. Alex lured the pig away from the house with a bucket of slop - the family keeps a bucket of food scraps ongoingly for this purpose. The pig still comes back regularly. We usually smell him before we see him. The meowing cat seems to have gotten the message that her kittens are not here or she doesn't remember she had kittens because she has not returned. Although we still have things that return that we would rather them not return. The ants and roaches seem to return regulary. Candice and I decided we would have to take matters into our own hands. When we left Spanish class one day, we looked for and found multipurpose bug spray. We sprayed our room throughly and got rid of them. They came back though so every few days we use the bug spray and that seems to decrease their presence in our room. This morning when Candice woke up she found a dead scorpion in her bed. Okay! now this has got to be the worst yet. Although it is better to have a dead scorpian than a live one. It makes us think that the bug spray is doing its job. YEAH!
Candice had a surfing lesson this week. It seems that Tamarindo Beach (about 15 minutes from our home in Villarreal) is well known for its great waves for surfing. There are a lot of surfing schools in Tamarindo and people of all nationalities come to Tamarindo for the surfing instruction. Candice fell 5 times when she was first trying to get up on the surfboard. After about 30 minutes she started getting up every time. She loved it. We plan to work it out for her to take a couple more lessons before we leave.
There are always soccer games playing somewhere here. All ages seem to love soccer - el futbo in Spanish. One evening the family we live with gathered all their family; moms, dads, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, sons, daughters etc.....about 30 people and played futbol. Candice played also, she loved it. We learned that they do this about once a month. There is a community soccer field that they can reserve. It is interesting to see this professional soccer field made of green astro tuff with the offically marked lines in white and red in the middle of buildings and homes that are falling down around themselves; very delapitated for sure.
It's getting late and I need to go to sleep. Keep the prayers coming....we feel the love and prayers! Know that YOU are loved and prayed for each day.
Beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God. - Jude 120-21
In His Service,
Lisa and Candice
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