Vacaciones

Hello dear reader – we now present to you a brief tour of the kids winter/summer vacation over the past two months. The school year in Costa Rica begins in February and ends in early December, with most of December and January off for summer break. Here they just call it vacation. It’s the equivalent to summer break in the US. This is considered summer in Costa Rica, I think because of the sunny weather.

Since our last post, there has not been school, and we had over a month’s worth of visitors, as well as eyelid surgery for Luke to remove a skin cancer growth (it has now healed well). We are now preparing for the start of a new school year (Ethan and Cora will leave after the first semester in Costa Rica for another summer break back in the US).

After three months living “out of town” down a winding dirt road, Devin found an awesome new house for us to rent closer to town and in a sort of family compound with a Costa Rican multigenerational family! (There are cows right behind the house, many fruit trees, wonderful neighbors, kids for Cora to play with, and a lot of green space, all which we are grateful for daily.) It’s a great place to be and we are thankful for the change. It is very close to the kids’ school.

We moved just in time to begin hosting visitors! Our visitors included Devin’s cousin, our friends the Kniffins, Devin’s mom, and then Luke’s parents! Fun adventures were had by all.

We visited Arenal and Guanacaste, amongst some car worries and awaiting Luke’s operation (we’ll spare you the pictures).

We enjoyed Christmas with Devin’s mom and with our church! We all enjoyed learning some Spanish Christmas songs, like El burrito sabanero, a rollicking vision of a child shepherd(ish) excitedly following the star to Bethlehem. I think it uniquely captures a spirit of joy and anticipation to see Jesus in whatever humble circumstances of our journey we find ourselves. It feels like an invitation to come and see and follow and be of good cheer. We’ve been watching “The Chosen” as a family, which captures some of same sense of the excitement of following Jesus – what might happen next?

We had a break from Spanish classes as well over the break, but we’ve been fortunate to have some continued though less intense and frequent Spanish exposure. In between visitors, we’ve sought to connect with our local friends and new community, and build on those relationships as we are able. It’s been fun to see the kids’ friendships (as well as Spanish) growing – and we are grateful that continued during their break.

With Luke’s parents, we visited Monteverde and Cartago/ Orosi, seeing some old churches, from the relatively limited number of buildings that remain from Costa Rica’s colonial past.

There are new trees blooming (especially the orange Poro trees) and the mangos are in their green stage! We have some in our yard, and they are delicious. It is fun to get to experience the subtle (compared to up north) seasons here. The coffee harvest is about done (the coffee harvest corresponds to the school vacation months, an agricultural driven school calendar that is a “sticky” custom, similar to in the US).

With half our time to go (we just crossed the 5 month mark, and have 5 months remaining), we are grateful to be here and excited for what the second half will bring, with some traction established. And we find ourselves also grateful to return to the US after our time here, enriched by the adventure and growth as a family.