Life in Costa Rica

We have now been in Costa Rica for over two weeks. We are getting settled into our new life and routine. Now, we all go to school everyday. The kids go to Sojourn Academy which is a Christian school that is actually part of the language school. They have normal classes, but also have Spanish classes. Charlotte and I go to the Instituo de Lengua Espanol. We are both learning so much, but the task of learning to communicate in Spanish at times seems monumental. We have three classes - an hour of language, an hour of phonetics, and two hours of grammar. The teachers are all Christians and native speakers. They work hard to help us grasp our new language.

Tasks that we have been good at now have become very difficult due to the language barrier. When we order at a restaurant, we feel like 5 year olds trying to order our food. Even going to the grocery store is a challenge. Not only are the product labels in Spanish, they are packaged much differently, many familiar products are unavailable, and to top it all off they are priced in colones instead of dollars!! Attending church services is also difficult, as we understand very little of what's going on.

Each day gets a little easier as we learn new words and phrases. We look forward to the day when we can understand a Spanish sermon and worship in Spanish, and also share our testimonies in Spanish. Please pray that God will help us to learn the language quickly, so that we can be effective in serving him in a new culture.