Kharma, by Jodi

After church yesterday, Staci told me there are a couple of families in our branch that the gringo families are going to sponsor and get presents, groceries, and make dinner for this Christmas. Staci decided to be in charge of grabbing Christmas presents and I got put in charge of getting groceries. We had to stay late after church because we'd been invited to a family in the branch's home for dinner and they live near the church. There were 4 baptisms after church today, so the plan was to attend those and then follow them to their home. Sadie and Tessa were tapped out on church time, so I was sitting in the car with them while they had some down time. 

Now, here's the problem with the location of our church building. Costa Rica is full of 7 Eleven type convenience stores. Grocery stores are pretty spread out and everything is expensive. But, in Santa Cruz where the church is, there is a store called the Maxi Pali right across the street. It's as close as you're going to get to a Walmart in our area and the prices are actually reasonable. Every week when we go to church, it's all I can do not to run over there after church and stock up on everything we need while we're so close. 

So, since we were doing something good Samaritan like and since I had nothing else to do at the moment, I decided it would be ok to grab the groceries for this family while we were waiting for the baptism to end. Of course, I didn't take any of the kids so they wouldn't be complicit in my sinning. I hurried and grabbed what we needed and went to check out. Unfortunately, I didn't have my wallet, so I had grabbed Kevin's. And for the first time since we got here, they refused to accept Kevin's credit card without him there. I gave a fair amount of push back, but they wouldn't acquiesce. So, everyone in line behind me got to wait while I ran over to the ATM at the front of the store and got cash out to pay for our purchases.

Then, I went to the car, loaded everything up, put the keys in to start the car and...nothing. Our car has never given a hint of having battery issues and then out of the blue, it won't even make an attempt to turn over. It was just dead. So, I ran back over to the church in my dress and told Kevin what had happened and he and the Young Men's President drove Troy's car over (as Troy is conducting all the bishopric interviews for the week by himself since Pres is out of town) to jump our car in the Maxi Pali parking lot. Nice, huh?

So, we got the car running and headed to the Hidalgo family's home. They're a local family in our branch that lives about 10 min from our church. I wish I'd taken pictures, now that I think of it. They live in a typical Tico home that Bro. Hidalgo built with his son's. There's no glass on the windows, just window openings in each room to allow air to flow freely through the house. They have wood shutters that they can close and lock up, but their whole neighborhood consists of their brother's and sister's families, so they don't worry much about locking up. Their kitchen is their front porch. They have a big wood table with a cement oven for baking and an area to build a fire with a grill grate for cooking. And they're so proud of everything they have. 

They've got a rusty car up on blocks in the yard with a missing wheel, that looks like it will never run again. And they've got a dilapidated shed next to that with all sorts of junk that they'll probably use as firewood. They throw everything organic out into the trees for nutrients for the soil. And all other garbage, they just burn in the oven. Their toilet didn't have a seat and instead of a handle to flush, it was this pull string contraption. 

Sis. Hidalgo told us her sister had just killed a cow, so their fridge was stocked with meat. They cooked us an amazing feast and we sat out on their porch on an array of broken chairs and tree stumps. 

We're also pet sitting Pres and Dianice's dog while they're in San Jose for a wedding. They have a big, chocolate lab who we also discovered is an escape artist upon returning home from being gone all day. He had dug his way under our fence and was no where to be found. It was only about half an hour before dark and we were pretty panicked. Kevin and the kids and I split up and starting searching everywhere. After looking for about 20 minutes, I ran inside to change out of my dress and grab a bike so I could cover more ground. As I'm rushing around, the phone rings and it's Troy and he has the dog.

It was absolutely crazy. Their neighbor had seen the dog that morning, not long after we left for church. They'd had a lab that died a year ago and thought for sure it must be someone's pet. So, they took him in their yard, fed him, posted his picture on a couple of local facebook sites, and waited. Then, that evening, Troy was out walking his dog and Argos (Pres' dog) came running out of the neighbor's yard. Troy knew we were pet sitting and recognized Argos and took him to his house and then called us. Seriously, Pres would be absolutely devastated to lose his dog and Argos had been out all day. If that family hadn't taken care of him, I don't know how far he would have gotten by the time we realized he was gone.

Then, this morning, Argos woke me up to go out. So, I got up and let him out and since Jack was awake, I asked him to watch him so I could go back to bed. Well, Jack apparently thought that was boring and playing Minecraft was more entertaining, so he stopped watching the dog and Argos got out once again. I came out a while later to find Jack sitting on the couch, playing the iphone, and no Argos. So, we all set out again to find the missing dog. Luckily, he hadn't gotten far this time. Jack is officially grounded from Minecraft for life, though.