"Un Problemo Poquito"

Homes in San Jose
This is what lots of the homes look like
The Ice Cream Man
Leia being such a good girl in the car
They do have lots of American fast food
Girl waiting for bus stop in front of her home
Leia asleep at the airport while waiting for car rental
The crew: John, Heather, Jeremy, Jonah, Sarah, Kalina, Leia, & David
Jeremy and Sarah
The days are running together. We left Wednesday night from Arkansas and traveled to Dallas, Texas where our flights were scheduled to leave early Thursday morning. Begin calculating; awake since Wednesday morning at 5:00am for everyone. It is now 3:30am Thursday when we arrive in Dallas. We stopped at an IHOP where we managed to swallow some food with our eyes half open. We were so sleepy that after we finished our food we dozed off in the booth where we were sitting. I am sure the waiter was a little curious as to our state of appearance.

Now 4:45am and Jacob Dugger and David Gaddy arrived at IHOP to follow us to the airport, so we wouldn't have to pay to leave our car. A money saver!! Thanks so much guys; I know you lost precious sleep doing that. Arrive at the airport. WOW!! I knew we needed to be there two hours early, but I never imagined that we should need to arrive three or four hours early. You could barely navigate yourself to the back of the line with your luggage without bumping into people everywhere. We are sweating it....are we going to get through this line in time to make it through the, what seems like, neverending security line. Checked in and off to wait in the security line. God saw us through, because we made it through the line moments before they closed the entire security line due to a breech of security caused by a crazy woman insisting she take her large shampoo bottle. "Un Problemo Poquito;" Jeremy, Sarah, and Jonah Chrestman are in the closed security line. Pitstops to the bathroom, barely, and John, Heather, David, and myself board the flight. The flight was delayed so that all passengers trapped due to security could board. Jeremy, Sarah, and Jonah were the last three passengers to board.
We made it. Our flight left Dallas at 7:00am and we arrived in Costa Rica at 12:00pm. Our rental car company was waiting outside the airport with a sign displaying our names. Yay, we have a ride to the rental company where we will get our car. "Un Problemo Poquito." We are now on "Tico time." Back to the time calculator. Awake since Wednesday at 5:00am, and it is now 1:00pm Thursday. Ready to shower, eat, and nap. We wait, wait, wait, "5 more minutes," and we wait, and we wait some more, and "just 5 more minutes." An hour an half of "5 more minutes," our shuttle screeches to a halt at the curb in front of us. We pile into a very small van like sardines. The car rental place is "just up the road." An hour later of driving through construction (not like at home), kamakaze drivers, and inhaling nauseating exhaust fumes we arrive to a garage.
Okay, great we are here and can get our transportation. "Un Problemo poquito (GRANDE)." I called and arranged for car rental reservations two months ago. I have a confirmation number with a car rental price that includes car for nine days, full coverage insurance, and unlimited mileage. Not to be so. They have the confirmed car that we agreed on, but much larger price and now only eight days of rent. Time calculator check...it is now 3:30pm. Car rental sales associate says there is no way that we can have it for the confirmed price. We told him that we only had enough money to pay for what we had previously been told. His fingers were going mad on the calculator pad. Everytime the man figured our newly found price it changed. It changed three times, and each time the price kept going up. After another hour of haggling we came closer to the original price, not exactly. but the time calculator is adding very fast now.
Car loaded and off we go to the hotel. Another hour an half of driving to get to another part of town. As we pull to the curb I am suddenly wondering, "are we safe?" There are metal bars over every window, gates around all properties, and razor wire at top of gates. I go into the hotel, along with my folder that has all of my confirmation paperwork. I walk to the desk, give my name, and he says, "Un Problemo Poquito," and I am not kidding. I said, "You are joking!" The story starts out that our apartment, that we are sharing with John and Heather, is not available. Only half of it is available. We now have one room. They now only have one room with four people and an infant. They have no other apartments and no other hotel rooms. I tell him we have been traveling for more than 24hours and have no where to stay, and I have this piece of paper that says we have an apartment for nine days and a price that is confirmed and both advertised on their website. Jeremy and Sarah's room has a hole that is 5 inches tall and 12 inches wide open to outside. A squirrel sat in the opening when they went to look at the room. Similar story for them. They had confirmation of room and price, but smaller room for same price. He says he is so sorry. Just a "un promblemo poquito."
Time calculator....It reads, "You need SLEEEP and Food." I am tired and emotional at this point. We are so thankful for John Ward, a friend of Jeff Raboin's who lives here. He calls his church and they are so gracious to let us stay the night there. We unload our car in what appears to me as the worst part of town. More bars, more gates, razor wire, security systems, and mulitple locked doors before you are actually in the building. We walked to a Dominoes, ordered pizza, and headed back to the church. We all showered, made out beds, and began our search for somewhere to stay. Heather and I searched over an hour for places to stay. Budget is of major concern. We have a set dollar amount that we can spend. Hotels soon became out of the running for a place to stay, as we cannot afford $150-300/night.
I had previously seen house rentals when we were searching before. I found several homes that were in our budget, but no one wanted to rent to us last minute or already had renters at this time. David called one and she said she could not do it last minute like that but gave him some phone numbers of others he could try and call. This phone call began at the beginning of our rushed search, so he didn't write them down. When I felt like I had searched everything I could I called her back and asked for the numbers that she had given him. She was so sweet and asked me what had happened to our previous arrangements. After explaining our day, she told me that she would let us stay. All I can say is, "an answer to many prayers."
Time calculator check....we have now been up 36 hours. We finally went to sleep after rearranging beds that were in a room with a 7 inch gap at the top of the doors for critters, bugs, and whatever else to enter. Car alarms, whistles, barking dogs, squaking birds, roars of cars and mopeds were the music in our ears as we drifted to sleep.
This morning we met a local Costa Rican and his brother who is a lawyer. The meeting was very imformative and a huge success to us after yesterday. Roberto, the lawyer, expalined the residency process and the fees involved. He is currently getting a cost breakdown of the fees for us, so we will know exactly how much we will need to start the residency process.
"Un Problemo Poquito," I have a sharp wire on my braces that is stabbing the inside of mouth that wax will not cure. I asked John Ward if he knew where we could find an orthodontist. He said, "Ummm...Let me walk up the street and see what we can find." A few moments later he yells from ascross the street, "Hey, this lady has some wire cutters. She said come over and they can take care of it." In my mind...what am I doing?? But, I am desperate. The place is clean but the equipment I am pretty sure is from 1940s or maybe earlier. The bracket on my brace feels like it is going to be ripped off my tooth. I don't think the cutters have ever been sharpened. He filed the raw edge with an odd piece of equipment, but no more flesh cutting wires. And it only cost $10.
The drive to our accomodations was beautiful beyond belief. It is hard to imagine how the Garden of Eden could have been more beautiful than this. Lush greenery is seen as far as the eye can see. It is so nice to be out of the city. We drove on the edge of the mountain through the snake-winding road. We came to a river that was brown, but so beautiful. We stopped and just took the scenery in.
The home we are staying in is very nice and clean. The owner was so sweet when we arrived and has seen to everything we could possibly need while we are here. God is so good. Yesterday happened for a reason, and in the process we are placed in the country where we can admire his artwork every breathing moment we are here. This evening we went into the town, ate local food (interesting), and browsed through some stores. We scouted prices of furniture, groceries, appliances, clothes, and things of that nature that will help us to better know what our cost of living will be here. Some things are cheap and others not so much.
If you had asked me yesterday when the crocodile tears were at the brims of mine and Heather's eyes I would have said, "Un Problemo Grande!" But after the events of today we see that God has a way of turning bad situations into something far better than what WE had PLANNED.
WRITTEN BY: KALINA AND EDITED BY DAVID, JOHN, AND HEATHER