A video worth watching

Culture Quiz Answer

Thanks to everyone that posted your answers in the comments. Here is what happened, and what should have happened:

What happened:
As you may have guessed, like a good gringo, I went with option A.

I politely told the lady who was offering the food that I had already eaten and was full and satisfied. Thank you, but I am full and happy. And as reflected in the comments, this would have been a perfectly acceptable and polite way to respond had I been at a social gathering in the United States. The person offering the food would have happily moved on to the next guest to see if someone else would like to partake.

What should have happened:
Actually the B/C combo answer is probably the most correct.

Immediately after the woman offering the food had moved on to more willing recipients, the pastor we were sitting with (who had also previously eaten, but took another plate) informed us that culturally it was impolite for us not to take the plate of food specifically prepared with us in mind. Ouch. He explained that it is better to take the food and not actually eat it, than to decline it. You can pick at it a bit, save it for later, or just wait for an appropriate opportunity to dispose of it, but to not take it is bad. Very bad.

I like the share it with your kids idea too. This works as long as they didn't get their own first plate at the same time you did.

Lesson learned. (The hard way)

Since this incident we have asked several people to tell us more things like this that are social landmines waiting to be stepped on by some hapless gringos. What we have found though is that it is difficult to think of this type of thing before it happens. Try to think of some in American culture. It is not as easy as it would seem.

So when you are traveling in Latin America and someone offers you a second plate of food after you are stuffed to gills already, remember the Blackstocks and do the right thing.

Culture Pop Quiz

Are you ready?

You are in El Salvador at a New Years Day celebration for your local church.  It is a park with a swimming pool and the kids are having a great time.  Your host family feeds you a wonderful plate of food which you eat completely leaving you very full and satisfied.  Several minutes later, another very nice lady from the church offers you another full plate of food that she has just prepared.

What do you do?

A. Politely tell her you have just eaten and you are very full already, but that you appreciate the offer.

B. Graciously accept the plate of food but do not actually eat it.

C. Graciously accept the plate of food and somehow manage to consume all of it.

Please post your answer below in the comments.  For my next post I will tell you what I did do, and what I should have done.  Good luck!

Consumerism

Check out this video about being a "good" consumer. Obviously it is an exercise in irony.

Here in Costa Rica we too are bombarded with the endless commercials during this time of year (most of which are squarely aimed at our children). When you think about all of the money and effort that are put into the consumer mentality, it is quite mind boggling. Enjoy. :-)

Am I Dreaming?

They say that there are multiple seismic tremors every day in Costa Rica. They say that lots of small, harmless tremors are good because they release pressure from the tectonic plates and make large earthquakes less likely to occur.

During our time here in Costa Rica, a little more than a year now, we have had only 3 or 4 tremors that were noticeable to us. Usually they were very short, and by the time you had figured out what was happening, they were already over.

This past Tuesday night, around midnight, I was awakened by the sensation that I was moving. Now, I am known to have vivid dreams that have a tendency to blend with my reality, especially in that muddled state between asleep and fully awake (just ask my wife, she has quite a collection of stories). So when I felt like I felt like the room was moving, my first instinct was to assume I was dreaming.

As I became more and more awake by the second however, it became apparent that this was no dream. We have a large dressing mirror hanging on the wall above our dresser and it was loudly slapping against the wall. Wind chimes are a very popular decoration here, but they are normally put inside the house where they are exposed to very little wind. The purpose of the wind chimes here is to indicate the presence of a tremor. Ours was making a lot of noise.

Once the reality hit that this indeed was an earthquake, two thoughts were running through my mind. 1) Is it going to be over in a second or two like all the ones before it? or 2) Do we need to get the girls and get out of the house?

I regularly pray that God would give us wisdom in the event that we need to get out of the house, because the small tremors and a potentially deadly large earthquake can begin in the same way. The 5 sets of locks that keep us safe from those outside the house that would do us harm, are the same 5 sets of locks that would keep us from exiting the house quickly in an emergency.

If you have never personally experienced an earthquake, it is hard to imagine what it is like. I have never been in a really big one, and God willing I never will be, but I have spoken to some people that have. The ground under your feet that has behaved in a predictable way for all of your life begins to do things it is not supposed to do. There is a feeling of complete lack of control. This is not something you went looking for, it has found you. And there is no way to get away from its affects, only attempts to position yourself in such a way as to not have something fall on you.

God knows when the earthquakes are going to come, small or large. We are trusting that He will give us wisdom about what to do if a big one comes.

You can read below and article that talks about this most recent activity.

Have you ever experienced and earthquake?

Early morning 6.2 quake was felt all over country

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

An earthquake that was estimated at a magnitude 6.2 struck at a point on the Panamá-Costa Rica border at 12:12 a.m. today.

The epicenter appeared to be a few kilometers inland from the peninsula that both countries share.

The location was listed by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center to be 55 km (35 miles) west-southwest of David, Panamá, 45 km (30 miles) south-southeast of Golfito and 220 km (135 miles) southeast of San José.

The quake was felt in San José as a short and a long tremor. The duration may have been as much as a minute.

The area of the quake, Punta Burica, and nearby Puerto Armulles in Panamá are a frequent location for such events. There have been no reports of injuries or damage yet, the magnitude of the quake is in the danger range.

Online seismographs at the Obvservatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica showed that the quake was felt all over the country.

A quake hit the same area early Dec. 25, 2003, and killed two persons and damaged at least 70 homes. That quake was registered as a 6.3 magnitude.


U.S. Geological Survey, National
Earthquake Information Center
Red dot shows estimated location of quake

A Family Favorite Video

This video is one our girls favorite to watch. In case you weren't clear on the plot of Star Wars, this little girl will clear things up for you. Enjoy!

Our Creative Daughter

Here are some merfolk that our daughter (5 years old) Avigail put together. She first drew the different body sections on colored paper, then cut them out and glued them together. She is very creative and likes to draw and make things.

She is a true joy to us.

Learning from Mistakes

Learning from mistakes should be a integral part of our lives.

Mistakes happen, so why let them go to waste? Post-mistake is an excellent time to evaluate what happened, what went wrong, and how you can keep from making the same mistake again. While learning from our own mistakes is vitally important, learning from the mistakes of others can be incredibly valuable as well. Sometimes we can learn life lessons from the time other people spend in the well attended School of Hard Knocks.

This morning I was reading in the book of Matthew, chapter 8, and I came across the familiar story in verses 23 to 28 about Jesus and the disciples as they crossed the Sea of Galilee in a ship.

It would appear that in this story that the disciples didn't handle this very intense, very difficult situation correctly, evidenced by the fact that Jesus rebukes them for their fear and their lack of faith.

So in my desire to learn from the mistakes of others, I started to think about what the disciples should have done instead. What would have been the right way for them to deal with the circumstances they were going through?

They get into the ship and start sailing; an activity these well-seasoned fisherman had engaged in many times before. Somewhere along the line, Jesus goes down below to take a nap. Up on deck, the wind starts to blow, the skies begin to darken, and the storm begins to descend on this small ship in the Sea of Galilee.

These men have surely been through a rough storm or two in their lives. Growing up around the sea and ships, following in the footsteps of their fathers, these guys were not freshmen sailors.

So as the storm grew in intensity and strength, what was going through their minds? Was this storm worse than any of the previous storms they had experienced in their lives? How much worse? At what point in the storm did they decide that this particular storm was going to cause them to perish?

One of the greatest practical applications of this passage is trusting in what Jesus said. Jesus told the disciples they were going to the other side of the lake, as told in Luke 8:22. He didn't say, "We are going to get on a boat and then die in the middle of the Sea of Galilee together. So the clear lesson for us is to trust in what God says He will do, even if it looks like your boat is sinking in a storm.

What mistakes then can we learn from in this story? What would have happened if the disciples had weathered the storm for just a few more moments? Was the plan of Jesus all along to wake up and calm the storm? How could the disciples have chosen to be controlled by faith instead of fear?

These are intriguing questions, but ones we will not know the answers to until we are with our Lord. So in conclusion, here are some practical points of application I drew out for my own life:

• Trust God. If He said He is taking me to the other side, then I need to trust Him in that. Even if I don't see how it could possibly happen. The disciples were afraid, and Jesus rebuked them for that. They feared the storm instead of trusting of Him who would never leave them nor forsake them. I John 4:10-19 talks about the love relationship we need to have with God through His Son Jesus Christ, and that this love relationship casts out fear.
  

• Learn to nap with Jesus. Why should I worry about something that God is not worried about? I need to follow God's lead in all things. If the only concern of Jesus during the storm is whether to sleep on his left side or his right, then why am I freaking out because I think I am about to die? I should be resting in Him.
  

• Hold on in the storm. It may seem that God is asleep and not aware of the tempest around me, but it is not true. If I will wait on Him and trust, He has a plan to deal with the storm in just the right way and at just the right time. Hold on a little longer. So many times the test of our faith is in the waiting.

A Spirit of Fear

Shortly after Keeley and I were married in June of 2001, we had the opportunity to go on an overseas missions trip together to Belarus in September of that same year.  In hindsight, I don’t think either of us would endorse a newly married couple going on such a trip so soon.  Better to wait six months to a year to allow for the inevitable adjustments to be in place or at least begun.

Of course we all know that in September of 2001 is when the attacks on the Twin Towers occurred in New York City.  This history changing event occurred while we were in Belarus with a group of about 30 from our church, and around 30 others from churches around the US.

We were out in a small village inviting people to come to a local Bible study when we first learned of the attacks.  Since the people we were speaking with spoke only Russian, their interpretation of the events that had been interpreted by a Russian newscaster which were then translated back into English by the translator that was working with us left us with a muddled impression, to say the least, of what had happened that tragic day.  One elderly woman we spoke with said that terrorists had destroyed a large shopping mall and had kidnapped President Bush (you can imagine how “trade center” might end up coming across in translation as a place to shop).

Once we got back to the church where the missionaries and the rest of our group was, the facts and details of what had actually transpired became to come together.  Because we had no access to television, cable or otherwise, our only source of information was an extremely slow dial-up connection to the Internet.  One of the missionaries would download updates and share them with the group several times a day. 

When discussing the experiences people in the US had when the attacks occurred, people always talk about having the television on almost nonstop, and seeing video footage of the planes hitting the towers over and over again.  Not having that element of television in Belarus definitely gave us a different perspective on the attacks.  It wasn’t until weeks later after returning to the United States that I saw the video footage for the first time.

Many people have told me that watching the reporting on television during the days following the attacks only served to feed a spirit of fear in them, so they had made a decision to turn it off.

In these recent days as the United States is dealing with a financial mess, once again the television is filled with nonstop reporting and stories that for the most part serve only to feed a spirit of fear.  Even here in Costa Rica, the financial “crisis” in the US is a hot news item, and cable TV allows us to see most of the major US news channels. 

While watching one of the many reporters talk of impending doom, I was reminded of a team meeting we had in Belarus shortly after the news of the 9/11 attacks had been announced.  Many of the people in our group had children back in the states that were staying with friends or family while their parents went to Belarus, so of course their concern for them was at the forefront of their minds.  For many, a spirit of fear had set in and there was a look of panic and helplessness on their faces.  KCBT Pastor, Alan Shelby, was our team leader for the trip and he called the meeting to address the group.  Alan, with great wisdom, spoke to us and encouraged us to approach the situation soberly and in faith.  One of the things he said that has stuck with me to this day, and serves us equally well in the situation we find ourselves in today, was, “There is nothing that has happened which gives us cause to distrust God”.

Are there problems?  Yes.  Are there people struggling financially?  Yes.  Will the condition of the economy have an affect on the average person in the US?  Probably.  But none of these things give us cause to distrust our God.  Is God only faithful to provide for our needs if the US economy is in good shape?  Of course not, He is always faithful.

I read this morning the following verses and was reminded of God’s faithfulness and how unaffected He is by the world’s economy.

Matthew 6:28-33
28  And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29  And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

A Good Reminder

I was going through some discipleship material this morning and came across a section talking about the importance of allowing our Heavenly Father to care for us.  Obviously He wants to care for us, but He will not force us to receive His care.

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.  I Peter 5:7

Such a great verse, and one I needed to be reminded of this morning.  Cast some of my care upon him?  Sure, no problem.  But cast all of my care upon him?  That is a bit more difficult.  That requires that I let go of the control I attempt to maintain over situations in my life.

Thanks for the reminder God.  I needed it.

A New Normal

Life is a series of new normals isn’t it?

We get established in patterns, they last for a period of time, and then something happens to cause those familiar patterns to change.  Sometimes the change is for the better, sometimes for the worse, and sometimes it is neutral.

For the last year our normal has been Language School.  Up at 4:30 am to get ourselves and our kids ready before heading off to classes.  Family time, homework, and studying in the evenings, and a constant effort to keep all of the elements in balance.  Get up the next day and do it all again.

After a 3 week visit to the States, we are back in Costa Rica and the process of developing a new normal has begun.  We are excited about this new phase and looking forward to getting the new set of patterns in place.

Although there is still a lot of studying and work to be done, it is incredibly freeing to not have the pressure of homework assignments and exams dominating our evenings.  That is a part of the old normal I am glad to leave behind.

Finding our new normal will be a process rather than an event.  So many of the factors to be considered are dynamic and cannot simply be put down in a list on a piece of paper.  Step by step it will come though, and soon the label of the “new normal” will blend into our daily routine.

Some Language School Graduation Videos

Here are a couple of videos that were played at our graduation ceremony on August 14th. The first one is a slideshow, and the second one is a parady video for fun.

US Soil

The caffeine from the Starbucks cafe americano begins to course through my veins.  It has been over a year since I had my last one; the familiar cup and the little cardboard don’t-burn-your-hand thingy bring back a flood of memories.

We are in the Houston airport, in route to Denver, Colorado.  The layover is long by choice (if you have every tried to navigate US Immigration and Customs with two small children you will know why).  Our flight doesn’t leave for another hour and a half, so we are killing time at a relaxed pace.

Three days from now will mark the one year anniversary of our move from Kansas City, MO to San José, Costa Rica.  Just yesterday we walked down the isle and received our diplomas at our graduation from Spanish Language School.  What a wonderfully difficult year it was; full of highs and lows, challenges and victories, laughter and tears.  By God’s grace we made it through to the other side and now have a great foundation of Spanish to continue building on.

We had heard stories of missionaries going back to the States for a visit and experiencing reverse culture shock.  Although we have only been gone for one year, it is a bit of a shock to be back in the American culture we had lived in for so long.  Keeley and I were saying how strange it is to navigate the airport process without having to think ahead about how to say something important in Spanish.  I found myself having to be intentional about using English with the guy that sold me a sandwich at the food court.  A good problem to have I suppose, it means the Spanish has become much more a part of me than I think I realize.

There is a forecast of snow in the mountains of Colorado where we are going to spend this weekend.  Both Keeley and I are salivating at the thought of playing in the wonderful white stuff.  We enjoy our two seasons in Costa Rica, rainy and less rainy, but admittedly the more drastic changes of seasons we were accustomed to have been missed.  I think our friends are going to loan us some coats since ours were sold to the highest bidder at our everything must go garage sale a year ago.

One of my goals for this visit is to not gain much weight.  In case you didn’t know it, the portion sizes in the US are HUGE compared to those in most other countries.  The fine custom of sharing time with good friends over a meal is one we enjoy, but it is also one that could send us home to Costa Rica with some extra pounds as souvenirs.  There are several foods that I have been missing from the states, but I think the one at the top of my list is Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage.  Crazy, I know.  But I really enjoy some greasy Jimmy Dean for breakfast.  Yumm.

It is good to be back.  We definitely miss people and relationships, although Costa Rica has become home for us.  This will be a great visit and we are grateful for the opportunity to re-connect with people in person.  I plan on posting again soon with some of the things we have learned in the past year in addition to Spanish.

Lord willing I will get a chance to bump into you in Denver or Kansas City.  Pura vida!

What do you mean I can’t drive my car today?

Recently the government here in Costa Rica put into effect a driving restriction that is intended to reduce traffic and “save gas”.

The restriction is based on the last digit of your license plate number, and the plates work a little differently here.  Instead of each person that buys a new or used car being issued a new set of plates, there is one set of plates issued for a new car and that set of plates stays with the car throughout it’s car life.  So the plates I have on my 1996 Toyota Corolla are the same ones that all of the previous owners have had as well.

So here is how the restriction breaks down.  Cars with plate numbers ending in:

• 1 & 2 Can’t drive on Mondays in the restricted zone
• 3 & 4 Can’t drive on Tuesdays in the restricted zone
• 5 & 6 Can’t drive on Wednesdays in the restricted zone
• 7 & 8 Can’t drive on Thursdays in the restricted zone
• 9 & 0 Can’t drive on Fridays in the restricted zone

Many people live and work outside of the restricted zone, so for them this new policy is nothing more than a minor inconvenience.  We, however, live well within the borders of this zone.  This means that for us, on Mondays since our plates end in 2, it would be against the law for us to so much as move our car out of the garage.

So this morning we walked out of our house to head to Language School, leaving a perfectly good car behind in the garage.  We located a taxi nearby and paid him around $3.00 to shuttle us over the school about 5 minutes away.

Although I am not fond of the inconvenience this poses to us on Mondays, nor am I fond of the idea that someone is telling me I can’t use the vehicle that I own when and where I want (it is my right after all isn’t it? – oh, wait, wrong country :-) ), the amount of cars and backups in the traffic circles is significantly less and this is a very good thing.

A friend of mine at the Language School who also has a car was going to ask me about setting up a car pool where he picked us up on our no-drive day, and we would pick them up on their no-drive day.  This was a wonderful idea, but unfortunately he and I both have plates that end in “2” and therefore share Mondays as our no-drive day.

In reality, this will only affect us in a big way for the next four weeks as we finish Language School.  After that there will be fewer reasons to venture out on Mondays during the restricted driving hours of 6 AM to 7 PM.  Good times!

The Water is All Tapped Out

Utilities going out for hours at a time are a common occurrence here in Central America.

If the power goes out once a week for several hours, we simply accept it as a normal part of life.  We have a gas stove, so even without power we are able to cook, and Keeley has plenty of candles to light the house.

About once a month the water stops working as well.  Usually the government controlled water company notifies everyone in advance of the outage and we prepare by filling up an extra jug or two.  But sometimes accidents happen….

This past Thursday there was a landslide that caused major damage to a very large main pipe that feeds water to a large part of San Jose.  The water stayed off until Sunday evening with only short times of limited flow mixed in a couple of times.

Our supply of emergency water jugs, used mostly for filling up the toilet tanks in order to flush them, were depleted by Saturday evening.  What we had thought was an exaggerated amount of jugs started to appear insufficient.

The McGyver in me started thinking about how to collect the copious amounts of water that fall from the sky just about every afternoon.  I have included a picture of my rain collector that we used to gather some to-be-boiled drinking water.

Here are some things we take for granted:

• Turning the faucet handle and having water come out
• Flushing the toilet anytime we want
• Washing clothes at the touch of a button
• Taking hot (or cold) showers
• Having enough drinkable water to make some delicious Costa Rican coffee in the morning

Although inconvenient, we survived the Great Water Outage of 2008.  Sure made us think about how much we appreciate water and how hard it must be to not have it on a consistent basis.