The Pace of life is picking up...

Hello Friends,

At 1:00 AM on Wednesday morning I was rudely woken up to someone shaking my bed. As would be expected after being woken up just three hours after falling asleep, I was rather perturbed. After the intial annoyance subsided I realized that no one else was in the room and not just my bed was shaking, my desk was shaking, as well as my night stand, in fact the entire house was shaking. I soon realized, after my grogginess wore away, that what I was feeling was an earthquake. I had never experienced an earthquake before and didn't know what to do. Should I get up, run panicking through the house waking everyone up? Should I wake Ana up and see what to do? Should I just stay in bed, it's not that bad after all? As these questions ran through my mind I heard the door of Christian and Ana's room open and the padding of feet in the hallway. When the footsteps were not panicking and the made their way around the house and evenutally returned to their room, I breathed again and knew that it was fine to stay in bed. So I did and enjoyed the rocking sensation.

Later in the morning, when my alarm clock rudely woke me up, I remembered the exciting events of the night, but I could not figure out if I had been dreaming, if it really happened or if I was just plain crazy. I spent the first couple hours wondering unable to ask Juanita because of my limited vocabulary. Finally I went to help Orlando and Ericka organize the Global Teams office and I was able to ask Ericka. I learned that no I was not crazy or dreaming, it really did happen. So there it is, living through an earthquake now joins my list of adventures and "firsts." I did some research on the earthquake: it occured on the border of Panama and Costa Rica. It was a 6.2 earthquake, however, no damage or landslides were caused, Praise God!!!!!!

I am working on getting a volunteering job working with children during the week. Right now I'm really only busy on Saturdays and Sundays, and I would like something to do for a few hours a day. There are a couple of opportunities that I'm looking into. I'm praying that God will guide me where he wants me. I'm excited about being able to do this and I'm hoping that this will be a way to meet some peers, which would be really great!

On November 30 I will be moving in with my next family. They don't speak English, so it will be an adventure (I'm not too worried about it, I have a dictionary, that should be sufficient... right...?) The family is very nice and very funny (from what I can tell at Church). They live in San Jose, so I will be able to get places a little bit easier. They have three children as well: Steven (18), Stephanie (16- I will be sharing a room with her), and Freddy (11 or 12). Life will change drastically, but I'm okay with that. I'm sad to leave this house because this family is so amazing and has been so welcoming, but I think that the change will be positive.

I'm not totally sure, but, I think my internet access is going to greatly diminish starting November 30. I'm fairly certain my next house does not have internet, which means that i'll have to use internet cafes.

Next week I will be touring the city with Fernando. He is a 20 year old at the church who knows the city/busses/streets/etc. really well. He has offered to show me around, how to get places, seeing the important things etc. This should be great. He speaks basic English, I speak basic Spanish so Orlando wants us to help eachother.

Friday I had a blast going to the Theatre with Ana. The show was with two very famous men (both of whom I met after). It was in Spanish but I was able to follow it because of facial expressions, the physical humour, and Ana's little translations here and there. The play was advice for men about how to deal with women. One scene had them acting out questions that women normally ask and I found it very funny that the "dangerous" questions are worldwide (for example: Honey, do you think I'm fat? or Honey, what are you thinking about?)

My adventures have also continued with clothing. Beyond learning how to wash and dry my clothes I need to learn how to keep holes out of them. In the month that I have been here I have managed to rip holes in two pairs of pants (2/3 of what I brought). Luckily we were able to make it to a store and I now have new jeans (well new to me, it was a second hand store) hopefully I can keep holes out of this pair!

All in all the next few weeks will be rather busy: preparing to move, moving, starting to volunteer! But, even as the pace of life picks up I'm glad to see that God is working in all of this and that there is still going to be plenty of time to rest. I am hoping that I will continue to get full nights of sleep and that I will no longer be so rudely awoken.

I hope that you are doing well and that no one is shaking your bed at night! :-D Much love to you!