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This past/last week was awesome! We had the opportunity to help teach English activities at a local daycare center. Two creative teachers from San Diego arrived with a fun-filled program for children, but the adults enjoyed it, too. It was a blessing to interact with about 25 children those early mornings. We decided that learning Spanish from little ones might be easier as their vocabulary is limited and their books have short, repetitive sentences! 
The day care cooks invited us to eat with them one day and we enjoyed truly traditional food. The fresh watermelon juice was delicious!
Like-minded people enjoy parties and food, so we hosted a pizza party for 12 people in our very tight apartment. The only things they had to bring were their own cups and chairs! We shared fascinating stories of international travels, language guffaws, and great friendships.
Later in the week, our San Diego neighbors invited us for dinner to help clean out their fridge as they will be leaving Costa Rica this Saturday, too. The pasta dinner with Italian background music from Youtube was a welcomed change from our normal diet of chicken and rice!
On Friday, the Fourth of July, we had our final field trip with our dear teacher, Zeidy. We all bussed our way to the small town of Coronado to see a gothic cathedral and to have lunch afterwards.
Zeidy taught us a lot of new vocabulary related to the church and the gospel. Zeidy grew up Catholic, but she is now Protestant. Her background knowledge of the Catholic religion was very informative, and, of course, much of the vocabulary relating to faith lent itself to our common beliefs. This was a divine field trip!
After we visited the cathedral, we oriented toward our favorite coffee shop/ restaurant for physical nourishment. 
Yes, we did! Each of us and each of us ate it all, and it was "muy rico." But, we still studied! We learned a little bit more...the present perfect ...between bites of rice, chicken, frijoles, salad, and steam vegetables.
The CALL Program here in Costa Rica is genuinely attentive to the needs of the language learner. They crafted a 4-week program that specifically met the criteria we needed for future mission assignments. Zeidy is one of the terrific Spanish instructors here and fed us meaty lessons each day - no milk or sweets! We learned so much, and we are committed to continue with our Spanish lessons once back in the states.
It was time for graduation! Yes, a "Pomp and Circumstance" graduation to the next level, wherever that might be. Sometimes, we had to put our two left brains together to remember vocabulary or how to conjugate verbs, which proves another benefit of a good marriage. We discovered too often that two heads were better than one. We often collapsed with laughter both inside and outside of class because the intentions of our language processing were the opposite of what was vocalized. Our fourth week has ended and we are heading in the direction of home, carrying something new.
We anticipate how God will use our left brains!
Keep Looking Up! And, thank you for following our blog.
J:m and L:nda
