Our first haircuts in Costa Rica

Well, the time came when Jonathan and the boys were desperately needing to get their haircut.  We found a friend at school who took us to the place that he likes to go.  We met a guy named Luigi.  Jonathan went first.  We tried to gesture and use our Spanish dictionary to tell how we wanted it cut.  It was a little scary not knowing how the haircut was going to turn out, but it came out great.

Then, it was David's turn.  We told Luigi to do a similar cut for David.  David did a great job of being still, and his hair cut turned out great.

 Then, it was Eli's turn.  He likes to keep his hair long, so we were not sure how to describe what we wanted Luigi to do, but we did manage to get across that he could just thin it up a little.  While he was doing the boys hair he put some sort of gel stuff and spiked their hair up before he finished cutting.  It made for a great picture of Eli.

It was a great experience!  Luigi was holding up different things (scissors, clippers, combs, etc.) and telling us the Spanish word for the item.  We will definitely go back.

Our new home & the surrounding area

Here is our house in Costa Rica!  Don't you love the blue and white colors!  We enter through 2 gates before entering our front door.  And each lock has a different key.

This is our street looking from the park just north of our house (Parque el Bosque).  If you look closely in the picture below, you can see our house in the distance on the left of the street.

 

 Here are a few pictures of Parque el Bosque (Forest Park).  It is a very beautiful park.  In the second picture you can hopefully see the mountains in the background.

 Here is a map of the area.  It shows how far we walk to school each day.

In the back of our house, we have a small open area where our clothes lines are located.

On our way here from the airport, we stopped and bought some food.  We found out quickly that cereal is very expensive here.  But, it was worth it to have some Cheerios.  David couldn't wait to try out our toaster.

Then, we needed to do some shopping.  We found their version of Sam's Club, which is called Price Smart.

We also found Walmart!  We had to ride the bus to get there, but we found it.  But, it is very expensive here compared to some other stores.  So, we only try and go there when they have something we cannot find anywhere else.

 

From several places in the city, you can see the mountains in the background.  We learned that the San Jose area is surrounded by mountains.

 We also found where the nearest McDonald's is located!  David is very happy about that.  It is pretty far away, so we will only eat there on special occasions.  His Happy Meal comes with pineapples instead of apples.  But, we were happy that we were able to get our order correct (with lots of pointing at the menu, of course).

On Saturday mornings, there is a farmer's market (called "feria") about a 15 minute walk away.  We found lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. 

There is a free Zumba class next to the market.  The people are really into it.  Just in case you are wondering, we have not tried to get out there yet.  Maybe later we could try to keep up with them.

Walking on the sidewalks here is an adventure in itself.  You never know when the sidewalk will suddenly change height, a hole will be there, or other "landmines" such as dog poop or garbage will be in the way.  Also, here in Costa Rica, the cars have the right-of-way over the pedestrians.  So, even crossing the road is an adventure.

We hope you are enjoying these updates.  Thanks for your continued prayers and support.  We could not be where we are today without your many prayers.  We pray for you also.  Please contact us if you have any specific prayer requests that we can pray for.  God Bless!

More pictures from school

Here are some more pictures from our school!  We have to walk about 10-15 minutes from our house to get there.

 

Here is a picture of Eli and David swinging on the swings with one of their new friends. 

This is  David's desk at school in his class.

 Some of the teachers performed a traditional Costa Rican dance for all of the new students.