Please be praying for Josiah. He has a sore on the bottom of his foot that is infected. He had a hard time walking today. One of our friends at school is a doctor and took a look at it and told us what antibiotic to put him on. One of the great things about living here is that you can walk into a pharmacy and tell them what prescription you would like without even having anything written from a doctor. So now he is on antibiotics, and I have another appointment scheduled for Thursday with the Doctor that comes to our school.
Also be praying for my hands. I have had exima for the past 13 years. Some times it is worse then others. My hands have been swelling, and blistering. I was in pain today just holding a pen and trying to write for two hours in grammar class. Mary Dennett gave me a name of a really great dermatologist in the area and I’m going to try to get in there as soon as possible. It has been such a blessing having the Dennettes here and the help of our big brother and sister Steve & Diane.
Update on our date! We had a wonderful time! We went to an Argentine restaurant. For those of you who know us well, we loved Portsmouth NH, and this restaurant reminded us of a restaurant that would be in Portsmouth. The food was great, and about half price of what we would have paid in the states.
We are enjoying the food here very much. We are addicted to pineapple salsa that I make. And these wonderful all natural popsicles that you see the boys eating in the pictures. (The pineapple is less then a dollar and the popsicles are twenty five cents a each). We are learning our way around and trying to learn from the ticos of where to shop for different things etc. We have our grocery bill down a lot after taking some tips. I think a have learned my lesson after paying $5 for dental floss, $4 for Q-tips, and $3 for a role of scotch tape. It is about 550 colonies to one American dollar. Sometimes American products are cheap and sometimes they are 2x as much. Also, it is hard to figure out the price sometimes…until you get home and whip out a calculator with the receipt.
Thank you for taking the time to read our blog! We enjoy hearing from people! Thanks for the posts! The Diems
September 22, 2008
September 20, 2008
Who is Oscar Arias Sanchez?
Last Monday was the Costa Rican independence day. Which ment we had a long weekend off from school. Steve brought Josiah to the little parade by our house put on by a local school. They make lanterns out of paper, lit a tea light, and marched around following a marching band. Kids as young as Elliott where walking around with little lanterns too.Monday we went down town to the park with a group from our school. We saw the president of Costa Rica (Óscar Arias Sánchez - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Arias_S%C3%A1nchez) and their were ambassadors from around the world. It was neat to be that close to them. We had TV cameras on us
almost the whole time, because it was unusual to see “gringos” there. There were also people taking pictures of our kids to put into newspapers etc. When we went back to school Elliott’s teacher said that she saw him on TV that night. And this morning the guy that we buy coffee from in the open market said that his daughter saw me and Elliott on TV! It would have been neat to see it, but we don’t have a TV yet. 
Tonight Steve and I get to go out on the town without the kids! There are three single girls that are teachers at the grade school on campus for the year. They called us up this week and asked if they could watch our kids for us Saturday. Josiah is excited about playing superman with them. God has provided so many great people to encourage us in different ways.
Last night we had pizza with the Dennett’s and their kids at our house. We really enjoyed getting to know them better, and just encouraging one another with what the Lord has been teaching us along this journey of serving the Lord. Josiah loves there son Brody, they are the same age and very much alike. It’s sad that they are only here for one trimester with us…. But we are excited for them to move on to where the Lord has called them to serve. They have been a great source of encouragement to us in the first month here, and before we came too. Today I’m going out with my big sister Diane, and a couple other women from the school to a little thrift store near by. It will be nice to get out for a little while.
The boys are adjusting well to there school. Josiah surprised me with how much Spanish he can comprehend, he is doing great! Elliott is doing wonderful in his class as well. He loves his teachers, and is taking his regular morning nap there too. Praise the Lord! 
Continue to pray for our health, this week no one was sick! We know that is because of answered prayers by all of you. Also pray for our safety, it is a very real issue here, pray that the Lords shield of protection would just continue to surround us. Thank you for your prayers! Also pray for our time management that we would continue to spend the amount of time needed each day to learn this language well to convey Gods love to others.
Thank you for taking the time to read our blog!!! We love getting responses and hearing what you think about it. If you read it, let us know! We enjoy seeing who took the time to check it out!!!
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September 13, 2008
Queque con Carne
We have been learning more about the culture, learning to love the food, and learning to love the language. We are enjoying, and looking forward to learning more about the “Ticos” (What Costa Ricans call themselves).
This was our second week of school third week in Costa Rica, time has gone by fast. This week I missed two days of school because Josiah was sick this week. Almost everyone we have talked to in school has gotten some sort of virus within the first month of being here. Then Steve got sick. He was up all night, poor guy. So the next morning I got the two kids breakfast, lunches made ready and packed for the day, and off to school we went. I had a test in grammar, which I think went well. Some of our friends from school walked me home on Friday, so that I didn’t have to be alone. Safety is a big thing here, please be in prayer for our family as we walk every where we need to go. God is gracious and has protected us in ways that we have seen, and in many ways we probably will never know.
I went to the fruit market this morning with my big sister and her friends (our big brother had his appendix out this week). God provided so much help yesterday and today. Last night Brian Dennett brought over a couple of things for us that we needed. It was a blessing that I didn’t have to try to go out on my own with the two boys to the corner store with what little Spanish I know.
This is a long weekend for us! Praise God, because we all need a little extra rest and relaxation. This Monday is Costa Rican independence day. The children have been practicing for the parade all week right in front of our house. It was fun to go out of our gate and watch it with Josiah. Friday Josiah and Elliott where in a little parade at our school. It was really cute!
Back to adjusting to the culture... I made some banana bread this week, left it on the stove covered in tin foil. The next morning I came down excited that breakfast was done, took off the tin foil and saw a million little bugs no bigger then a speck of sand all over the banana bread. We have a sweet little lady one day a week to come help teach me Spanish who also teaches me to cook a Costa Rican meal with her. She came that morning, I showed her the bread, and she said “No problem.” She put it in the oven for a couple of minutes, took it out and all the bugs were gone. She proceded to eat it and enjoy it. Later that afternoon after school I came back and we cooked dinner together, and then we were working on my home work, and she offered me a piece of the bread. I said “no thanks,” and she asked “ Do you trust the Tico way of doing things?” I paused and thought that this is going to be the first time amongst many that I will set aside my fear of getting sick to show that I trust there ways too. I ate it, and we made jokes and had a great time. We called it “Queque con carne (Cake with meat).” I didn’t get sick either!
Adjusting to culture has taught me a lot about my own spiritual life. We can read all about it in books…like learning how to become a great Christian but we continually need to take that step of faith and trust that God will meet us there. God is there, whatever situation God has placed you in, God is there, and has equipped you to handle it. Pray for us as we put these thoughts into action. We know this and have been taught this and we are called to live it.
This was our second week of school third week in Costa Rica, time has gone by fast. This week I missed two days of school because Josiah was sick this week. Almost everyone we have talked to in school has gotten some sort of virus within the first month of being here. Then Steve got sick. He was up all night, poor guy. So the next morning I got the two kids breakfast, lunches made ready and packed for the day, and off to school we went. I had a test in grammar, which I think went well. Some of our friends from school walked me home on Friday, so that I didn’t have to be alone. Safety is a big thing here, please be in prayer for our family as we walk every where we need to go. God is gracious and has protected us in ways that we have seen, and in many ways we probably will never know.
I went to the fruit market this morning with my big sister and her friends (our big brother had his appendix out this week). God provided so much help yesterday and today. Last night Brian Dennett brought over a couple of things for us that we needed. It was a blessing that I didn’t have to try to go out on my own with the two boys to the corner store with what little Spanish I know.
This is a long weekend for us! Praise God, because we all need a little extra rest and relaxation. This Monday is Costa Rican independence day. The children have been practicing for the parade all week right in front of our house. It was fun to go out of our gate and watch it with Josiah. Friday Josiah and Elliott where in a little parade at our school. It was really cute!
Back to adjusting to the culture... I made some banana bread this week, left it on the stove covered in tin foil. The next morning I came down excited that breakfast was done, took off the tin foil and saw a million little bugs no bigger then a speck of sand all over the banana bread. We have a sweet little lady one day a week to come help teach me Spanish who also teaches me to cook a Costa Rican meal with her. She came that morning, I showed her the bread, and she said “No problem.” She put it in the oven for a couple of minutes, took it out and all the bugs were gone. She proceded to eat it and enjoy it. Later that afternoon after school I came back and we cooked dinner together, and then we were working on my home work, and she offered me a piece of the bread. I said “no thanks,” and she asked “ Do you trust the Tico way of doing things?” I paused and thought that this is going to be the first time amongst many that I will set aside my fear of getting sick to show that I trust there ways too. I ate it, and we made jokes and had a great time. We called it “Queque con carne (Cake with meat).” I didn’t get sick either!
Adjusting to culture has taught me a lot about my own spiritual life. We can read all about it in books…like learning how to become a great Christian but we continually need to take that step of faith and trust that God will meet us there. God is there, whatever situation God has placed you in, God is there, and has equipped you to handle it. Pray for us as we put these thoughts into action. We know this and have been taught this and we are called to live it.
September 5, 2008
Back to school!
It has been a week filled with experiences in and out of the class room. As I’m sure for most of you this time of year you are all going back to school or have children that are. It has been a little bit of an adjustment getting back into the swing of the academic life. Now we have two children, meals to cook, and a house to run.
We got off to a little bit of a rocky start the beginning of the school week. The first day I stayed home with the boys Elliott had a temp of 104. Josiah was getting over whatever it was that he so kindly passed on to his brother . Steve had a good first day of classes and that night Steve decided to give me break off from cooking and he ordered pizza. Firstly, because streets do not have names and houses do not have numbers the pizza guy just drives around the neighborhood beeping his horn for you to come out. It took over an hour and was really expensive. Basically we had crackers with a little sauce and cheese. Please don’t let this be a reflection of Costa Rican food! The food here is delicious! Muy Rico!
The second day of classes the boys went to childcare on campus, and I had my first day of classes. I had a quiz to take in one class and a lot of information to catch up on in Grammar class. We both have wonderful teachers, and there desire is to serve us so that we can better communicate Gods love to Spanish speaking people.
Later that night Steve went outside to go rinse the trash can out, he stood up to fast and hit his had on a low hanging metal pole. Josiah was actually the one that saw him first laying on the ground in the pouring rain. He said he wanted to go out and pray with his Daddy. I went out to go talk to him, and that was when I saw the blood dripping down his face. He was in a lot of pain. God was gracious. I called up our friends and they came over right away with one of my class mates that is a Doctor. He looked at his head for us and said he could probably have two or three stitches but thought he could go without them. He is doing fine now, just a little sore.
It was awesome to know one of my class mates was praying for me without knowing everything that was going to happen that night. Although we can not say for sure why these different situations came about, we are thankful for the Lords protection and provision of good friends while we are here.
Costa Rica is a fun challenge. We enjoy learning the language. The mountains are so beautiful here. The people are very friendly. Tomorrow will be our second time to the open market that they have on Saturdays. We enjoy the fresh fruits and vegetables and we love eating new food. Pray for us that we will make good use of the time that we are given to study Spanish, and also not neglecting our personal walk with God.
!Adios! The Diem Family
We got off to a little bit of a rocky start the beginning of the school week. The first day I stayed home with the boys Elliott had a temp of 104. Josiah was getting over whatever it was that he so kindly passed on to his brother . Steve had a good first day of classes and that night Steve decided to give me break off from cooking and he ordered pizza. Firstly, because streets do not have names and houses do not have numbers the pizza guy just drives around the neighborhood beeping his horn for you to come out. It took over an hour and was really expensive. Basically we had crackers with a little sauce and cheese. Please don’t let this be a reflection of Costa Rican food! The food here is delicious! Muy Rico!
The second day of classes the boys went to childcare on campus, and I had my first day of classes. I had a quiz to take in one class and a lot of information to catch up on in Grammar class. We both have wonderful teachers, and there desire is to serve us so that we can better communicate Gods love to Spanish speaking people.
Later that night Steve went outside to go rinse the trash can out, he stood up to fast and hit his had on a low hanging metal pole. Josiah was actually the one that saw him first laying on the ground in the pouring rain. He said he wanted to go out and pray with his Daddy. I went out to go talk to him, and that was when I saw the blood dripping down his face. He was in a lot of pain. God was gracious. I called up our friends and they came over right away with one of my class mates that is a Doctor. He looked at his head for us and said he could probably have two or three stitches but thought he could go without them. He is doing fine now, just a little sore.
It was awesome to know one of my class mates was praying for me without knowing everything that was going to happen that night. Although we can not say for sure why these different situations came about, we are thankful for the Lords protection and provision of good friends while we are here.
Costa Rica is a fun challenge. We enjoy learning the language. The mountains are so beautiful here. The people are very friendly. Tomorrow will be our second time to the open market that they have on Saturdays. We enjoy the fresh fruits and vegetables and we love eating new food. Pray for us that we will make good use of the time that we are given to study Spanish, and also not neglecting our personal walk with God.
!Adios! The Diem Family
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