Finally, a follow-up!

So, after a tense week, I can finally report that Roman and I are once again safe and sound, emailing from our digital outpost at Maribu Caribe. Many of you, I am aware, are reading Roman's blog as well as my own, and one of you in particular has raised numerous questions as to the frequency of my updates. And to that end I apologize that so many of you are having to read Roman's blog to find out just what, exactly, I am doing.

Well, here' s what we've been up to lately. When we left off, Roman and I had just been robbed at gunpoint outside of our new house in Corales 3. We lost my computer, all of my money, and Roman's passport and camera. And we also lost our sense of safety. Needless to say, the first thing we did after leaving the police station was to secure a room at Maribu Caribe and begin hashing out the details of what we would do next.

We struggled, initially, to reach common ground with regards to what we wanted for housing here in Limon. Obviously, having to travel between home and school carrying valuable materials had proven to be dangerous, so we reasoned that for safety, the school needed to come to us. After a few heated conversations, we were finally on the same page about where we needed to be and what concessions needed to be made for our safety. All that remained was waiting for our American counterpart to arrive and for meeting with the board to commence.

The meeting that occured last Wednesday was amazing in terms of how quickly people pulled together. We saw concerned faces from not only the school board, but from the local PEC (Provincial Elders Conference for you non-Moravians) and the board of World Missions. We began by addressing what was RIGHT with the school. I was especially eager to add that I had given a test the week before and had seen significant improvements from the initial pre-test that had been given before our arrival; something was obviously starting to take hold here in Limon. From that point, we began to clarify our roles and discuss the communication problems that had been plaguing us- starting with our rapid relocation from Pacuare to Corales 3 and going as far as setting up a chain of command for the board to follow.

After the meeting, we went to view two alternate houses. When we went to the meeting Roman and I had made the decision to request lodging at the school where we were working, but the Pastor in charge of the facility couldn't be at the meeting to approve the request. So, in the meantime, we were to view these alternatives to see if either might be adequate for hosting a school and keeping a home. We proceeded cautiously to a neighborhood known as Cerro Mocho, where there was an apartment above an outrageous mansion for us to view.

It didn't take a genius to see that we were in the perfect location the moment we climbed the stairs. The apartment was- and is- huge! With five bedrooms, three bathrooms, and ample space to move about, the space was a dream come true. We immediately began assigning the spaces. In the front half of the house we have two classrooms that house or instruments and materials, along with a bathroom, the kitchen, living room, and a nice balcony. There is a hallway separating the fore and aft of the house, and we live in the back portion, which is cordoned off by homemade curtains from the school portions. In this back half, we have our dryer (a room with clotheslines- we do all of our laundry by hand), my bedroom and bathroom, a bedroom for our missionary-to-be, a shared Men's bathroom, and Roman's room. Of course, since I have designated Roman as the "Man of the house," he has the largest room and biggest bed. Go figure, right?

We moved in on Saturday, following a brief trip to the American Embassy in San Jose to file for Roman's replacement passport, and set up our new home as best as possible. Between the two of us, we are having to share alot- from my camera to his laptop. This has not proven to be disastrous as of yet, and we hope that we will continue to be as content as we have been this past week while adjusting to our new home. If it is any indication of our return to normalcy, Roman prepared our first home-cooked meal last night... of Ramen noodles, alfredo sauce, canned peas, and tuna. And guess what- we ate it with a smile on our faces, on our balcony, on Indepence Day in Costa Rica, and we were happy.