Update: January 31, 2006

Life over the Gift Shop or “Poor” and loving it!
By US standards our standard of living has slipped down a notch or two. Our 600 square foot apartment which sits on top of the “Liberia Alex”, a small gift and stationary store, is clean, but not especially well furnished. In fact one of our new friends refuses to sit on the small sofa – she says it’s a back breaker. Our 14” TV gets lots of channels, but we can’t understand most of them. To complete our home theatre system we have a portable CD player hooked up to some computer speakers.

We have no car or cell phones. To make sure our fruits and vegetables are clean, we soak them in a little bleach water for 20 minutes. We have only cold water for washing our hands, dishes and laundry. We place toilet paper in a small trash can next to the toilet (those of you that have been on the MSCC Mexico trips are familiar with this lovely practice!)

Robberies here are so common that every person on the administrative staff at our Spanish school has been robbed at least once, sometimes at gunpoint. The property that we are on (along with the rest of the neighborhood) looks like a prison with bars on the windows and doors, and tall iron gates and fences topped with concertina wire and barbed wire. (Check out the attached photos.)

So, yes things are very different here, but we love it! Here’s some of the reasons why:
Our apartment owners (Oldemar, his wife Rocio, and son Alex) are great. They are always available to answer our questions, and also to help us practice Spanish. Rocio is especially fun to talk to because of her high energy, enthusiasm and laughter.
Our commute to school is a 2 minute walk.
We are meeting some inspirational people. Some of our fellow students gave up all they had in the states in order to serve God in some of the poorest places in Latin America. It is great to hear their testimony and see their dedication and faith. (The most amazing are those that are doing it with 3 or more children!).
We have warm water for showers. Once we figured out how to get it to work, we have come to appreciate the little heater that is mounted on the shower head.
LAM (Latin America Mission) has provided us a great support group, a small bible study group called “Shock Absorbers” to help us adjust to being here.
After a little bit of waiting, we got internet in our apartment. With Skype we are able to call Mark’s parents, and all our kids for free. Plus, we get to see them (and our grandson Calvin) on video. It’s great.
More important than anything else, we have the feeling that this is exactly where God wants us to be. It is difficult to describe why we feel this way, but we have no doubt that we made the right move in coming here.

A Typical Day
At 5:30 AM it begins to get light, and the alarm goes off. On most mornings we get up and run, (when lazy, we snooze until 6). After prayers, showers, and breakfast we make the brief walk to school. Being in school again, after all these years is challenging for our old brains, but it is fun to be learning something new. We are in school for four hours per day; two hours of grammar, one for conversation, and one for phonics. All the classes are conducted in Spanish (the first few days were a little difficult). Outside of school we typically spend 3 or 4 hours on homework, studying, and practicing conversation.

We walk to a store at least three times each week. They seem to have everything we need here, but the names (of course) are in Spanish, and the packaging is often quite different (for example, catsup and mayonnaise in squeeze bags, which by the way, works great).

On Saturday we usually go to “la feria” (farmer’s market) about five blocks from our apartment. There is a wide variety of fruits and vegetables here, and we can walk away with several bags for just a few dollars. Each week, we are trying to buy at least one new fruit or vegetable to try. Last week it was camote – a potato type vegetable that has a slight sweet potato taste. This week, we are trying carambola (starfruit) juice. Electrical appliances are not cheap here (they are made cheap, not priced cheap). However, despite our rather tight budget, we decided to buy a blender when we heard about the wonderful fruit shakes and juices that people make in their homes. The blender sounds like it is going to self-destruct when we use it, but the drinks taste great.

On Tuesday’s and Thursday’s we go to chapel at the school. Mark plays piano, flute and sings with one of the worship teams. It is nice to have services in English to attend. On Sundays we have been going to Spanish-speaking churches. We can’t follow all the words of the songs, but we love the worship. Adrienne has been brought to tears a couple of times feeling overwhelmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. During the message, we scramble to keep up using our bilingual bibles, dictionaries, and a lot of guessing. We think we are getting the general ideas.

Hopefully this gives you some idea of what life is like for us down here. We have also had some opportunity to see some of the poverty in this area, and to do a little ministry work -- we will tell you more about that in our next letter.

Thanks to each of you that have prayed for us, or given financially. We really appreciate your support. We are also praying for God’s blessing on each of you.

Please continue to pray for us:
Praise God for getting us here safely, our living conditions and location, and especially for giving us this opportunity.
For our children. (Even though they are adults and spread out in three states, we still worry about them and miss them since we are so far away).
Success, energy and patience for learning Spanish.
Protection against sickness, homesickness, culture shock and self-doubts.
That we’d seek God’s guidance in both the big and little decisions.

Blessings,

Mark and Adrienne

PS: We would love to hear from you…
ladyadie@comcast.net or mark.parcher@comcast.net

Also: Check out some of our photos at http://www.parcher.us/gallery/Costa-Rica