Bugs and Futbol

Phew…! What a week, once again. We had “Spiritual Emphasis Week” last week. It was really good. It is a week that the school designates as one to be refreshing and encouraging to the student body. The teachers are not allowed to assign homework and tests, and a special speaker comes in to minister to us twice daily. The couple that were our speakers were from Tennessee. They had been missionaries to the American Indians in Arizona and New Mexico, and then to the Spaniards of Spain. He and his wife had some great wisdom and experience to lavish on everyone. Becca and I were also greatly involved in the worship aspect of the services. Of the 9 total services we were involved in 5, which began to tire us out by the end of the week, but it was still good, all to God’s glory. I also started a tutor last week, two times a week. Jumping up to Becca’s class has been bittersweet. While we are going over some useful things, I incurred some gaps in my foundation from making such a big jump. Therefore I have a tutor twice a week after school for an hour. It has already been helpful, but that extra hour can sure drain whatever brain capacity I may have left.

O.K., ready for another weird experience? Yesterday as I was sitting on my couch I looked across the living room (its not that far) to one of our houseplants and thought I saw a spider, or at least something caught in a web. It was in a palm tree type plant that we have inside our house. So I went over to investigate and saw a very weird looking spider underneath one of the palm branches. As I looked a second time, a little closer I about fell over backwards with that creepy crawly feeling only bugs can give you. Not to mention I was leaning sideways practically upside down to see the underside of the palm leaf. Of course this provoked Becca’s interest and I let her run her own investigation. It was the same as mine. She thought she saw the same “spider” I did and didn’t think much of it. I told her to look again, just as I had, and her reaction was just like mine, she just about fell over backwards with that creepy crawly feeling only bugs can give you. Now that you are all wondering what it was, it was a caterpillar. But this wasn’t your ordinary bug. It’s head (which we thought originally was the spider) was about the size of a small thumbtack, and disguised in such a way and to make the back part of its head look like a slug or snail, with those two creepy little eyeball things. The color of the head was tan/reddish. Now, upon further investigation, there were a few more inches to this thing. The rest of its body was completely camouflaged with the rest of the palm leaf, green mostly, but at its tail end were again those funny things that looked like the eyes of a snail. I am assuming that these are defense mechanisms to confuse prey as to which end to bite. So Becca and I cut that particular leaf off and took Mr. Scarylookinguglything outside to investigate more. As I tried to coax him off the leaf, not only was he weird looking, he was downright aggressive. He did not like to be disturbed, and let me know about it. We finally got over our “willeys” and got him off of the leaf and took some pictures of him. Upon further investigation, we found a LOT of caterpillar droppings in and around our palm plant, and of course many leaves that were all chewed up. Looking back we had both been hearing something occasionally falling (yep, it was his droppings hitting the floor) or had seen the plant move out of the corner of our eyes. I never thought such a little thing could give such fear, but that is usually the way life is huh? The things we fear tend to give us the “willeys” and make us want to run and go back to our comfort zone. So whether it is a caterpillar displaying all of God’s greatness, or a language and culture that is different, fear comes in many different packages when we don’t understand something.


"Mr. Scarylookinguglything"



Leaf or Grasshopper? (taken by Becca)

On to other news, last night (Saturday) I had the chance to go to the World Cup Soccer game between Costa Rica and the USA. In a word, AWESOME! The Latin’s, and the world for that matter, have a reputation for being crazy about their soccer, or “futbol”. I wasn’t disappointed. Luckily, for my own personal safety, the USA got beat soundly, 3-0. But to see all of these people, going this nuts for this long, in the POURING rain, was amazing! Half of the entertainment was the people. For those of you into soccer, you no doubt saw the game stateside on ESPN or some other network. But it is very likely that most of you did not even know that the USA had a National team and they played Costa Rica last night. Last night confirmed for C.R. that they are now going to the World Cup, held next summer in Germany. The USA had already secured their slot, as well as Mexico, from our region. Since the USA had already secured their slot, they basically sent down their Junior Varsity. Which was a smart move, but we didn’t see all their star players who previously had beat C.R. the last 2 times they played each other. So today, Sunday, we are definitely making a day of rest. We both have studying to do, and various other projects to get caught up on. We have been running so busy and loving every minute of it. It is amazing how fast time is flying, especially that we are quickly approaching our half way mark here at language school