Look! New Link!

A direct link to our mission's blog (one that has been updated a few more times than this one, recently) ... Ecuadorian Adventures

thirteen questions

From Tiffany's blog, originating for this one:

1. What was your favorite game as a kid?
Probably playing with Barbies. Don't judge me.


2. If you had to pick reading or watching tv and movies for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Continual access to the internet above all else.

3. What is your favorite non-blog website?
Our bank's Home Banking website, xe.com exchange rate watch, CBC news... Can you tell we aren't in country?

4. What was your favorite book as a child? What about now?
Don't know what it was when I was a child. Nor now. But Ephesians is wonderful.

5. If you had a weekend sans all responsibility and an unlimited budget, what would you do?
Take my husband to Paris.

6. What do you *really* think of Twilight?
I'm trying hard to not Google what that is.

7. If you could go back and name your kids again, would you pick the same names? What if you could change your own name?
We don't have kids. I like my middle name, Ebony, but apparently Latinos aren't really able to pronounce that, so Candice works for me!

8. If you could buy one thing today, no matter the cost, and not another thing for an entire year, what would you buy?
A large-sum grocery store gift card so I wouldn't go hungry for the rest of the year....
I'm smart, I know.

9. Look to your left. What do you see?
A parking area for the Hospital Vozandes Orient ambulance.

10. What word do you use too much?
"Cómo se dice ...(the word that goes here often changes).. en español?"

11. What is your favorite body part on yourself?
The colour of my eyes and the fact that they look like sunflowers when I'm in the sun is kind of cool.

12. How often do you wash your hair?
Every 3rd day. Day 1 takes time, day 2 is the best, day 3 is just laziness, and if I left it 'til day 4 it gets kind of itchy.

13. What would be your ideal job? Are you doing it?
Stopping world hunger.
I'm trying.

Wordless Wednesday

Blog debut

I was going to call this post 'two timing' but I thought with the last title, I should go for a little more taste.

Alright people! I'm tired and pressured on time, so this may not be elegant. Here it go anyways.

We invite you to our new blog (don't roll your eyes yet!), check us out at candiceandtom.com . We figured we needed something a little more generic to keep all of our ventures on instead of making new blogs every time we ventured out.

This one will still be active and be our 'personal' blog site.

Why do we need two, you ask? Well, that's a whole 'nother post. In short, I like my freedom in being able to post things like this, and not have to worry about people pulling our support thinking we're heathens.

Apparently things get political, whether you like it or not, when you become agents of organization such as, well, a church.

Sleepin' around

From April 1 to May 29

1. Our house - Tuis
2. Ronald's house - The Jungle
3. Our house - Tuis
   
4. Hector's house - San Jose
   
5. Resort - Pacific coast
6. Hostel - San Jose
7. Our house - Tuis
8. Clem's house - Atanis
9. Tom's parents - Winnipeg
10. Candice's parent's house - Dauphin
11. Comtois' House - Winkler
12. Friends' trailer - Minneapolis
13. Tom's parent's house - Winnipeg
14. Tom's Uncle's - Vancouver
15. Tom's Grandma's - Victoria
16. Candice's cousin's - Nanaimo
17. Tom's Grandma's - Victoria
18. Tom's parents's - Winnipeg
    
19. Candice's parents' house - Dauphin
20. Candice's brothers' house - Winnipeg
21. Tom's parents' house - Winnipeg
22. The Lehmann's house - Montreal
23. Tammy's house - Montreal

That's an average stay of 2.6 days in one location.

Good thing we like traveling?

The Plains of Abraham

Little did I know I would be learning all about Quebec's history this week. Or that we'd be house sitting and watching over two young adults. And, come to think of it, it was only a little while ago that we found out that we'd be heading to South America really soon.

I am continually reminded that God's plan is always bigger and better than anything we can dream up on our own.

For he is good. He is faithful. He is omnipotent.

10 things I did this week

1. Began blogging again. I've been longing for this for a while and finally found the time after our presentation was executed. Anyone want to hear about anything in particular? It will help with where in the world to start.
   
2. Did a major presentation on Sunday... Jammed it together on Friday and Saturday. Videos to be posted on the LEC-CR site.
   
3. Flew back to Montreal. I guess that's inherent to the above.
   
4. Took my computer in to the Mac store. I nearly hugged the guy that authorized it to be fixed under warranty even though that ended last month. I told him he made my month! A broken hinge where all the do-dads are for the screen is not a cheap fix. And now is not the time to be computer shopping.
   
5. Staying at amazing friends' house for the time being. We could live here for a while. Hope they're cool with that.
   
6. Agreed (someone disappointingly, see #5) to house/teenager sit for a friend when she's off the east coast this Thursday for 9 days. We first had to turn down the offer to go with them on the super budget-friendly trip. Sigh.
   
7. Signed up for Spanish classes; suppose to start this Thursday. Four hours of Skype a day with a teacher in Ecuador. Cool, eh?
   
8. Been told a number of times that I don't have a tan. Yeah... I guess we didn't spend enough time laying around on the beach to work on it. Ugh.
9. Phoned Costa Rica a few times when preparing for the presentation. Seeing all of our friends' beautiful faces without being able to talk with them is heart breaking.
   
10. Thought of yous a lot. Especially Sonya! Could someone please up date me!!!
    

We're home!!

I was surprised as anyone on the plane last week when I squealed with glee as we pointed our nose to the east and the pilot threw on the jets.


We were returning to Montreal!


Why has my heart kept skipping a beat when I see familiar sights? Friends? Church family? Why did my inners feel all warm while cruising through downtown Montreal on Friday night? Or when we sat and watched the city lights sparkle from on top of Mount Royal?

Because we made it!
Full circle.
We're back.

Tom has the best metaphor to sum it up: It's like we ran a race, and just crossed the finish line. All we have left now are the 'interviews'.

And we've been doing them. I did a speaking engagement at a women's breakfast this past Saturday morning and Sunday evening we had a 2 hour presentation on LEC-Costa Rica. Then an intro to Ecuador...

Lots of people here are really excited that we're back. Some somewhat sad about us taking off again right away. To be honest, at times I dream of just being able to stay... Grab an apartment, set up shop, make a home-cooked meal from my very own fry pan and call it a night. But I know God has other plans right now, and following His is far more important than my fry pan.

Besides, the place we're crashing right now has some super fantastic pans!

And, as per usual, after praying for plans to be revealed at just the right time, God shows us a gleam of something we never imagined would be in our future. Well, at least not this soon*.

Sometimes I'm really glad we don't own crystal balls.






*No, I'm not pregnant.

More on Ecuador

Alright, we're still in Victoria (meaning we're down to chisling Internet access from Starbucks) and because the laptop we brought decided to break on day number 2, you'll have to bear with me, Starbucks connection, a latte, and my iTouch, which = short poorly composed blogs typed with one finger. More details to come after arriving back in Winnipeg on Friday, or after getting back into Montreal next week. But until then...

- We fly to Quito June 5th, 2010... Yes, that's a month away.
- We'll be in there for 6 weeks
- We'll be working with HCJB (http://www.hcjb.org/) a phenominal Christian based humanitarian organization that has 2 main ministries: radio and medical
- Tom will be working with the engineers on transmitters and cool stuff like that, while my work will focus on nutrition and health aspects working in their hospitals.
- We will primarily be based out of Shell. Shell is a rural town on the edge of the amazon. It also has an interesting history (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Mera?wasRedirected=true )
- We are VERY excited about this opportunity to put our professional skills to work, in a full time manner, in the mission field. We have been in dialoge with HCJB for a few years and are thrilled to have worked things out to take this opportunity now. So are the people on the ground, apparently.
- I will be back in Spanish lessons, via Skype, starting in about 2 weeks, to focus on medical Spanish. I really want to hit the ground running.

- Any questions???!

Let me know your thoughts! If you have any. You are more than welcome to call us nuts.

10 things I've done this week

1. Panned for gold in the Nanaimo river. We did actually find some!
   
2. Visited with Tom's 93 year old grandmother. She is too cool.
   
3. Rented a car and drove the Malahat with my handsome hubby. Chemainus fudge rocks!
   
4. Drank a number of Starbuck coffees, simply to use their wireless. I've done worse things for less
   
5. Bought a big thick woolly jacket to keep my behind warm. Most our stuff is in storage in Montreal
   
6. Felt really homeless and really free, usually at the same time. Our new term is 'with out residence'
   
7. Ate Chinese food
8. Studied nutrition terms in Spanish
   
9. Discovered my suitcases need replacing
   
10. Booked tickets to Quito, Ecuador
    

Wow, what a time it’s been since returning. It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been back in Canada for 2 weeks. It seems like Costa Rica was a million years ago, but at the same time we seem to still be struggling to ‘fit in’ here and it’s a constant reminder that we’ve been gone a while. Our mind-frames are different… Our outlooks, passions, and desires for life seem to clash with the norm, making light conversation less than light, at times.

As can be expected, everyone has questions… Some are harder to answer than others. And the ‘hard’ part is the fact that we don’t have answers.

We’ve kept busy over the past 2 weeks, which has helped distracted us from the fact that we are no longer in Costa Rica. Although sometimes I feel that our hearts are still there. We’re still a little displaced yet.

We flew into Winnipeg on April 14th and spent a few days there, then spent a few in Dauphin. On the weekend we skipped town and headed down to Minneapolis with two of our bestest friends. The trip to Mini was probably the best thing we could have done. Spending a few days with close friends that understand missions (they went to Haiti a week after the earthquake in January), marriage without children, wanting to dedicate your life to serving Christ, and uncertain life plans due to feeling a call towards ‘non-normal’ careers, we could talk to them about anything. So therapeutic! (And don’t get me wrong, the shopping didn’t hurt either!!! Nor did dressing up western style, taking in a benefit concert, catching a movie, or camping.)

And now? Now we are now out west. We flew to Vancouver after returning from Minneapolis. Tom has family here and in Victoria; I have family in Nanaimo. We’ll be around these parts for about 10 days. Wish us luck when we go panning for gold on Saturday.

Life has been fantastic in many ways since returning back to home turf (we love traveling!). But it’s also been difficult in other ways. A part of me wants to suppress all feeling and live it up while we can… But my more mature side is encouraging me to take this time to process. Processing after a major life event (which Costa Rica was, for us) is natural, normal, and needed. And sometimes processing results in a non-smiling face… Which sometimes results in misinterpretations by those you are staying with.

Sigh.

But for those of you that may be wondering, we do have some life plans ahead of us. After returning from the west we will only have a few days left in Manitoba, then we’re heading east. But only for a few weeks… Because we are heading back out to the mission field!!!

Anyone want to guess where?

Blog Stalker

We went to Winnipeg Evangelical Church today. It's always nice to stop in and take in a sermon from Pastor Ron in the ol' familiar church Tom and I started in. It's the church I went to when I became a Christian, and both Tom and I were baptized there (nearly 3 years ago!).

As per usual sometimes, because we attend so infrequently, and often before or after big events, we were asked to rise; this time to accept an applause from the congregation for our work in Costa Rica. We love WEFC, we feel at home there, and quite supported.

After the service people often come over to say hi. It's really nice, but sometimes it's met with a challenge... Sometimes we can't remember people's names :I (We justify this by thinking that because Pastor Ron announces our names, they remember ours.)

But today, today was a bit different!

After the service we were saying hi to people and saw a young lady coming towards us. Tom said 'Uh oh, here comes the challenging part... I have no idea who this is."

Then the young, beautiful lady announces, "I'm your blog stalker!"


It was awesome! It was really nice to meet her (you!) in person. After she delurked on my blog a little over a year ago (over a crock-pot recipe), I started following her's. It was great because it was like we were old friends! We knew stories of each other, and where we were at in life.

Really cool, and the first time that's happened to me; meeting a virtual friend in real life.

When we parted she said "I'll be sure to follow you on your next adventure!"

How cool is that?!?!

That's It!!!

Back!

A ton processed.

A ton to do before leaving in 6 sleeps.




(which is really too bad because I have A LOT of blog fodder going on right now...)

Retreating...

We're off for a few days to do some major processing (and have a few meetings in San Jose). We'll probably be back on Friday.

Wish us 'luck'.

Salivation

Making lists of things we are looking forward to helps ease the ever-increasing pain of having to leave. And, because making lists of things we are going to miss makes us cry...

Anyone want to sign up for any of the following?

• BBQ'ed meat (sounds like we have a taker already... Anyone else?)
• Indian food
• Sushi (home made would be wonderful... hint, hint)
  
• BBQ'ed corn
  
• Parmesan cheese. Not from the shaker. (You know who you are!)
• Ukrainian food! Specifically: perogies and, if possible, beet-leaf buns (yeah we know we're pushing our luck!)
• Thai green curry anything
  
• Non UHT treated milk
• Rice wrap spring rolls
• Sweet chili sauce
• Salmon. Salmon. Salmon.
• Memories of Thialand light peanut sate sauce (or the homemade equivalent)
  
• Spinach salad.
  
• Jalapeno Havarti on a trisquit
• Activia yogurt.
  
• Chicken or portabello mushroom burger.
  

To be continued... More than likely.

Happenings

• Tonight we went to a dance class. Learning the salsa and meringue was 'fun'. I don't think we'll do that again. I'll wait 'til Tom reads this to find out that I don't have a huge desire to go back either.
  
• Last week we played hockey with the youth. Tom and Ben hunted down wood, sawed-it 'up to make hockey sticks, and learned the children how to play. The kids loved it... So did the audience that grew around them wondering what in the world they are doing playing soccer with sticks.
  
• When I was putting the slide show together over the last few days I was really impressed that there were so many pictures of us working and smiling. Did you notice them too?
• On Saturday we went for a long hike to process some thoughts (and get some exercise, and enjoy a few moments to ourselves...which sometimes we have to run away for, and enjoy the non-scorching heat... Although I still managed to get a sunburn). And after those few hours, we still aren't ready to answer questions about our life plans. May God's will be done. That's all I ask. We're trusting. It's a fantastic place to be.
  
• We still don't own any flights from Manitoba to Montreal. I think we've truly gone Costa Rican... Tranquillo! We'll buy them and make a plan tomorrow.
• In a feeble attempt to ease some of the strange feelings we get when trying to process not living here, we've been listing things we're looking forward to doing/seeing/eating when we get home. Anyone want to volunteer to cook us a piece of red meat? For a nearly-vegetarian girl I can't believe this is amongst the tops things I want. I must be lacking sufficient hemoglobin to provide adequate oxygen to my brain. (heehee, smart jokes) Honestly, I'm willing to gnaw on a piece of iron right about now.
  
• We introduced some of our friends here to green beer in celebration of Saint Patrick's day. Seven of us shared 4 dyed beers in true Costa Rican style... 3 days after Saint Patties day.
• The fact remains: grease is hard to remove from dishes without hot water.
  
• I'm sure if we checked our blood levels, Tom and I would be way over the safety limit for ByeGone... The brilliance in a bottle that is about 12 times stronger than Raid. We love the stuff.

The calm(ish) after the storm

Wow.

Lots has happened over the past few weeks.

And this evening we find ourselves, for the first time in a long time, with an 'empty' house.
No house guests.

No drop-ins.

No gigantic bugs threatening to take over the place.

And man, have we been productive!

Neighbors visited, moms called, reports written, videos assembled, and blogs written! Check out my thoughts on Chirripo and the new video posted on the LEC-CR site. I hope I at least captured a taste of our adventures in Chirripo for you. Let me know what you think.

So many things

Where do I begin?



I really don't know.



The truth is, I haven't started.



 I'm not necessarily in denial, but just haven't started the process.There's just....



So many things.

So much to say.

So many lessons learned.

So many things to process.

So many things to plan.

So many things to do.

So many things to wrap up.

So many things to look forward to.

So many things that can make you feel sad.

So many things to dream about.

So many things to remember.

So many things to forget.



There's just.... So many things.


Once this process starts, it may not be pretty. 

If you act silly, someone's bound to take a picture.