Happy Costa Rican Independence Day to you!!

You've asked "How are you settling-in?" and "How is your support?".

Our little family is sort of perched in San Jose, rather than settled-in. We've learned to work as a team to cross the roads safely. Last Wednesday, our neighbour, Kim, and her daughter were crossing a four lane road one block from our house. They began to jog across, when a semi truck seemed to accelerate toward them, laying on the horn. Kim ran toward one curb, her daughter ran back toward the other, as the semi roared between them. The week we arrived, a missionary was struck by a car just as he reached the sidewalk. Motorcyles here weave between stopped traffic. Even residential sidewalks are used for parking, and sometimes passing. So, when we are out with our three children we have to be very alert at all times. Ethan, Lauren, and Katelyn look and listen at each road crossing, then we all RUN across the road. The street directly in front of our house is a residential street, but we get coach busses, semi trucks, and speeding cars going by, all of which spew poorly burned exhaust. Don reckons San Jose muffler shops are not overly used. Muggings are common in San Jose, they are considered petty theft. Between the traffic and the thought of being pick-pocketed (we don't actually entertain the thought of being held-up in front of the children, though it has happened to others attending the school, recently in this neighbourhood) we five Murrays stick VERY close together whenever we got outside our gate (not usually after dark at 6pm).

When we go to the park, we're always sure to bring umbrellas. At the moment, it usually rains each afternoon, but as we head into October, we're told to expect rain all day everyday. This makes for lots of muddy laundry, but we still go out. Its warm, usually 28 degrees in the morning, then down to 22 degrees when it rains and overnight. The old equipment at the many local parks are all wet and swamped by puddles after the daily rain. Ethan comes home positively filthy from pick-up games of soccer with local children! The girls have had to learn not to ooooh and awwwwh at the many stray dogs. Lots of people have pet dogs here, but we've come to understand that lice and flees are a real problem; so our children cannot pet any of the dogs that they see in the parks. This "is like torture" to my canine loving kids, who are missing their own two dogs.

When it rains, the streets become gushing rivers. Last week, Don's classmate cut her foot on the flooded uneven sidewalk, she needed five stitches. The gutters here have gaping holes on each corner, where the metal sewer grates have been long-past stolen. These holes are locally called "gringo catchers", as you have to know that they are there, to avoid falling into them. Twisted angles and cut feet, ankles and legs are common injuries here.

Katelyn has only recently stopped asking if most buildings that we pass are a jail. Every house/building has bars on the windows and doors. The walls and fences around each building are about 12 feet high, usually topped with coils of razor wire. Armed guards stand outside of many buildings. Our block has a privately hired guard who does a twelve hour shift twenty-eight nights out of each month (two nights a month we are not guarded, while he has a "holiday"). A year and a half ago, there was a rash of break-ins in the neighbourhood, so the neighbours worked together to build a guard "house" and hire Don Antonio. Unfortunately, the children overheard our neighbour explaining why we all need to chip-in $30/month to pay the guard; the girls haven't sleep great in Costa Rica, they often wake up worried about robbers. The nights are very noisy! Dog fights, car alarms, in-efficient motors can be heard most moments day and night. The rain makes a deafening noise on the roof, so that you have to cuddle to have a conversation. We've had to warn the children that they can't go too near the ironed bar fence when they are playing in the front yard, we'd been warned that you can be grabbed through the fence if someone wants what you are playing with. Petty thieves here have a reputation for being very good with long poles, fishing items out of a front yard; so the children have had to get used to ensuring that no soccer balls, footwear, flashlights, or gecko-catching-devices are ever left out in the fenced front yard. Here's a photo of the "guard house" on sidewalk across the street from our house.

The other day, after a long walk to the grocery store, Ethan said, "I thought we came here to help. So why are we the poor people?". That morning, he'd played soccer with local tico children, all of whom had cleats (which they call "tacos" here). Ethan had running shoes "which are slippy" but work fine. So he'd been feeling a bit "poor" over that. At the grocery store non-tico (American) food is very expensive. Cheese at the deli (where it is cheapest) is marked by the kilo at $20/kilo. Cereal made in Costa Rica, but bearing the name Corn Flakes, etc, is $8/box. So we are eating lots of porridge in the morning, and lots of beans and rice in the evenings. Thank goodness we have a local bakery that is not expensive, so we often have fresh bread for lunch, but beans are really the cheapest thing to spread on the bread. We often splurge and get a little jar of peanut butter, but between five of us . . . .

These are examples of some of the cultural/environmental things that we are adjusting to in San Jose. Maybe some other time I'll tell you about the bugs . . . . We are being obedient by being in San Jose. Don and I felt we could learn spanish anywhere and the school fees here seemed expensive. But the Spanish Language Institute that we're attending has a renowned reputation and is used by many many mission organizations, training people who are headed out to serve as missionaries all over Central and South America. We really feel that we are here to be diligent in learning as much spanish as we can in the eight weeks we're here (six weeks of classes, one settling-in week, one adventure-seeking reward week). The children's prayers have become fervent authentic prayers: "Lord please protect us from diseases" (they've heard about dengue fever from the mosquitos), "Lord please bless this food" (we are so fortunate to have potable tap water, but the chlorine taste is a reminder to be thankful that we can drink the water), "Lord please keep us safe!!!".

This picture is a view from our language school classroom window. This is our neighbourhood!

We feel so very blessed to have you journeying alongside us for this year of mission work. We greatly value your prayers! We are still in need of financial support to address the costs of our travel and daily living expenses. All of our work is volunteer work so our travel and daily food, etc, is not provided for by the organization, we purchase these things out of our donated funds. At present, we are about 50% funded, and in need of $20,000 to be fully funded. Thank you to each of you who have chosen to come alongside of us prayerfully and financially. We are awed by your generosity. If you would like to contribute financially, Kimberly at the OMS office in Ontario, is wonderful 1-800-784-7077 or 905-522-1605. She can take credit cards by phone; on-line donation is available through the OMS website @ http://www.omscanada.org (click on the bottom right logo "Canada Helps Org); our account number is: #08053. All donations are tax-deductible.

One Mission Society Canada
132-293 Wellington St.
N. Hamilton, ON
L8L 8E7

Thank you for your prayers and concern for our family. The Lord has impressed upon Don and my heart, each individually, that he is our strength and our protection; the walls and bars and guards and tight holding-on-of-little-hands is wise, but our trust for health and safety is in the Lord. Blessings to you, for a great day!