I got up at 3:30 AM on Saturday 9/12 so that we could be ready to leave by 4:30. Our flights (Hannah was on a different flight for the first leg)
left at 7:15 and 7:19. After stopping for several hours in Denver and Houston, we finally arrived around 9:00 PM. We were picked up at the airport by Jocco and Wayne.
Sunday we went to church and had a wonderful time. The branch in Puriscal is quite small and meets in a house that has been rented by the church. I stayed in Primary with Matthew and Elisabeth. There were five children in all of Primary (3 girls and 2 boys). The Primary president is a convert of one year. She had a difficult time coming up with enough material to keep the kids occupied for two hours. We ended up singing a lot of songs. Matthew slept through most of it. Hannah went to the mutual class (actually the garage). She seemed to enjoy it, the kids were very helpful and tried to speak as much English as they could. There were 7 girls and 6 boys.
Monday we went down to the San Jose area and paid a visit to Price Smart (but everyone calls it “Price Mart”). We bought some much needed food and supplies. In the evening Hannah and I visited an internet cafe so that we could send emails and check on our bank account. The money that we wired on Wednesday still hadn’t shown up. Needless to say, this made us a little nervous. To make matters worse, Wayne informed us that when he tried to wire some money down he couldn’t get to it and ended up sending it back so that he could re-send it to his lawyer’s account and then transfer it over to his account. The stove top where we are staying has not been working. However, we do have a griddle, a microwave, and a toaster! Due to this lack of standard kitchen appliances we have been coming up with some interesting meals. For example, one evening we had “Grilled Pizza Bread!” Thank goodness for Mailen who makes really great carrot cake muffins.
Tuesday I took a trip with Jocco to some property he owns. It is far off the beaten path and simply gorgeous! Most of the rest of the day was spent getting a phone hooked up (sorry, just a local number) and trying to fix the stove top. We did take a little walk along the road to a local store and bought some butter cookies and worked on learning Spanish. We also figured out how to get our Costa Rican cell phones working again. In the evening I went with Jocco to visit families in the branch. We visited a partial member family and a non member family. My Spanish is already getting better, but I still have a long way to go before I can keep up with the Costa Ricans.
Wednesday we went to the bank first thing in the morning to check if our money had come in yet. The bank opens at 8:30. When we got there, there was a line half a block long. Not to worry though, because Jocco sent one of his employees and he was at the front of the line! We took his place at the front of the line and got right up to the clerk. The clerk told us that there was a hold on the money and I had to go to the branch where we opened the account. Next we got a ride to the San Jose temple with Wayne and Marguerite. The session was wonderful and challenging since I did it in Spanish. After the temple we went by the Thrifty car rental and picked up a Toyota Yaris to get us around while we hunt for a car and place to live. Dave lent a hand by calling the bank and faxing over a copy of my passport. According to the people at the bank, our funds should now be available for withdrawal. Since we don’t have internet access, I haven’t been able to verify if this is the case. On the way home, we also did a little shopping for groceries. When we got back, the stove top had been fixed, so now our cooking options are greatly expanded.
Costa Rican Learnings
- Hot water is practically non existent in sinks.
- Water in showers usually gets heated by electricity as it passes through a device known as a “suicide shower.” Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.
- Condensation on objects removed from the refrigerator occurs way more quickly than it does in Utah.