The Eric and Renee Fogg Family

Precious little ones

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:51:00 +0000

So what do I (Renee) do during the hours our kids are in school? Well the Lord has blessed me with 60 plus kids to love on.

In Shell is an orphanage started close to 10 years ago by a single North American woman. Recently they completed a new 2 story building on the outskirts of town and are in the process of building a school.

I spend several mornings a week providing Occupational Therapy services and of course love and attention. It is amazing how kids thrive when they receive one on one attention - even if only for a brief time.

The orphanage is very well run, clean and bright. There are just a lot of kids to take care of so anyone with a few hours to spare and love for kids is welcome. Most of these kids have parents and have been "signed over" to the orphanage for a period of time, generally due to poverty or the inability to care for them due to a physical or mental handicap. Parents can visit whenever they would like - although many of them live several days walk into the jungle and cannot afford to come very often.

Currently the orphanage has a full-time national physical therapist and a month from now a missionary couple will be moving here from Holland (the country, not our fair city). She is a Speech therapist (her husband will be working with Eric) and with me on board, we will have a full team of therapists. Very exciting!

Below are some photos of a few of the precious ones I get to work with:

Teacher and principal needed

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:46:00 +0000

This blog is a little different as you will see- the school where our kids are attending is in need of a teacher and principal for this upcoming school year. (2012-2013). If you know of anyone - please pass this along. Shell is a great place to live and the community is very involved in the school;

TEACHER and PRINCIPAL NEEDED!
Nate Saint Memorial School, a small K-8 school for missionaries’ children in Shell, Ecuador, needs a teacher and a principal for the 2012-2013 school year.
We typically have a staff of five teachers and average 25-35 students.
Each teacher is responsible for all course work for two grades. We require that our teachers are credentialed, and raise their own support.
We would prefer that the principal position be filled by someone with a teaching background and they would also need to raise their own support.

If you feel called to serve missionary children please contact Margie Grant at rgrant@maf.org for more information.

Mighty the cat……

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:35:00 +0000

What a last couple of days we have had. This time its our own fault. After my mountain trip to Daldal I came back with two guinea pigs. From an American point of view, they were rescued from being eaten. From an Ecuadorian point of view, we want to keep food as pets.

Adrianne and "Pepi"

Kevin and "Bingo"

Anyway, we went to the maintenance shop to see if we could find a guinea house for them or make one. While looking around Adrianne and I heard a faint squeak. After a little investigation we found a newborn cat (less than 1 day old). He was very small and laying in the middle of the cement floor. He was dirty and cold. We rescued him.

Mighty the cat

As it turns out, it’s not that uncommon for ferell cats to have a litter, and if they cannot support all the kittens, they pick the small one and abandon it. This was our case.

We took the little guy home and Adrianne and I warmed him up, read all about orphaned kittens on the internet, made a homemade brew to feed the kitten, got a syringe and began the process. As it turns out, it’s a really lot of work. The kitten needs to be fed every 2 hours. To enhance the fun factor, cats cannot go to the bathroom on their own. For the next 10 weeks (if he lives that long) after feeding it, you need to rub it to make it go to the bathroom. Fun Stuff!

Anyway, the first night was really rough. Adrianne slept about 20 minutes and was constantly worried about the cat. She lacked the confidence to feed it alone, so I got up with her all night.

Renee was sick this whole time. Her stomach hurt and she spent the entire day in bed. For the next three days it was crazy. Renee was sick until Monday afternoon, Joshua got sick and vomited in his bed, the cat was always needing something and WOW!

To give some relief, the neighbor girl took the cat the next night, I watched it all day Monday and another family took it last night. We stopped by a local vet who said to buy a clock that makes noise. This is suppose to remind the cat of a heartbeat and sooth it. Needless to say, every clock we looked at to buy or borrow is digital. No sound. Nothing is easy.

We tried not to give it a name until we were able to determine if it was going to live, but we could not resist. He has earned it. Whether it’s because of temperature, food, love or attention – that little and I mean little cat makes himself known. We have named him Mighty.

All the neighbors with our new pets

.........The maintenance guys just found another kitten from the same mom, but it was dead when I got to it.

Have you ever walked to 12,000 feet in mud?

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:58:00 +0000

I received a last minute call that I was to go visit two different mountain communities with Bruce, Alfredo, Juan ( a contractor for HCJB) and Tanya (hygiene trainer). Bruce came and picked us up in Shell and we left about 7:30 am Thursday.

We drove for 3 hours before arriving in Yanacocha. The town was about 100 families or about 700 people and they had installed a hand dug well using a large concrete pipe. The pipe was placed vertically and people climbed inside and dug out the dirt. As the dirt was removed, more sections of the pipe were added and the process continued. They had completed the project and built a pump house over the well point. Everything was very well built and the people were excited. The next phase of the project is a distribution system. This system is expected to need nearly 10 miles of hand dug ditches to being water to each community. This project is going to be one of the first projects to help raise funds for. These are very hard working people and they have a heart to complete the work they have begun.

Typical houses in Yanacocha.

As we drove to Daldal we stopped at the oldest church in Ecuador. This was built in Aug of 1534. The Spanish came to this mountain community and claimed the land for Spain. If you get time, read up on the conquistadors. It is a very sad story of enslaving the people and ravaging the land. Their history is very different from the USA. Indigenous people here have only received land ownership within the last 50 years. As I understand it, some people groups are not even full Ecuadorian citizens yet, even though they have lived here for nearly 1,000 years.

Oldest Church in Ecuador - Aug 1534

Information in the old church

In Daldal, a community of about 160 families, we spent the afternoon walking to 2 of the 4 springs the community had captured for the water supply. The trail was high, long and hard. The people had carved the trail nearly 2 kilometers into the high hills to get to this water. I was very impressed – but as it turned out – I had not seen anything yet.

That evening we ate guinea pig for dinner. It tasted like a mix of chicken and pork. The meat was very fatty and it did not help that it was deep fried. Guinea pig is called “cuye” here and is a nice delicacy. One guinea pig costs about $10 cooked, which is quite a bit considering you can get a really nice chicken dinner for about $2.00.

We slept that night in a house where the owner had left us the key and the radio blasting behind a locked door (supposedly to keep robbers away). We ended up cutting the power to the house to sleep.

Bruce (my boss) and one of the spring boxes

In the morning we ate breakfast early and began the hike to the 3^rd spring site. The people said it was a long way – I should stop trying to guess what that means – but we started walking/riding local horses to the site. I really enjoyed the horses. They were friendly mountain animals that had carried heavy loads for most of their lives. They responded well to the reins and very rarely slipped, although the mud was intense. I gave my horse to Alfredo who was having a hard time walking and I walked to the site. The site, as it turned out was nearly 5 miles away for the village uphill nearly all the way. We ascended to nearly 12,000 feet when we arrived at the base station. I was exhausted, winded from the elevation and just plain whooped. I had not slept but 2 hours the night before from the new environment, and the chickens going at it at 2:30 in the morning. I am not sure whoever came up with the notions that chickens wake up with the sun, but they obviously never had a chicken.

One of the springs.

Anyway… After this very long walk, we arrived at the base station. It turns out the community had carried by horse all the materials necessary to build the spring capture to this site and then carried it on their backs to the site further up the hill. I was completely exhausted, but I was not going to let the older ladies show me up like this (as they were walking with us). We began what seemed like it “could not be that far” types of hikes. We ascended another nearly 700 feet, up a 45 degree slope or better to the site. I had to stop several times along the way to catch my breath. Needless to say the ladies beat me to the top and they carried a lunch with them for all of us. I tried to take several pictures of where we were to give perspective, but I am not sure the pictures will tell the story.

I have a very healthy respect for these people. They worked crazy hard and completed task in one week with the entire community that most Americans would think crazy to even attempt. They worked in an area that not even a horse had a chance of going to and without any equipment of any kind. They only had hand tools and a strong spirit. In the end they have captured enough water to supply all the area and they are thrilled with their systems. They should be. They captured 4 springs and hand dug the pipe, by my estimate, about 7 miles for their community.

I tried to capture the perspective, it's a hard climb. The little spec of silver in the background is the base house we "parked" our horses at. This is about half way up to the spring.

View from the spring.

My new car (sort of)

After a huge lunch of potatoes, fish and rice, we headed back to our homes. Bruce dropped Alfredo and I off in Ambato where we caught the bus home. It was a nice ride in a very nice bus, but I was dirty, smelly and ready for a shower.

On a side note, I asked the lady of the house for a guinea pig for Adrianne. She sold me two pigs for $2.50 each. I washed them up when I got home after the long car/bus ride and we presented them to her. She picked the brown one and named it “Pepi “. They boys took the white one and named it “Bingo”.

This is her laundry room (very typical)

This is her daughter.

This is her daughters bicycle.

Overall it was a good trip. It really re-set my perspective of hard work and what Gods people are capable of when they set their minds to work. I think the church and many people have lost perspective of what it’s going to take to reach the world.

This picture is not bad, we just ascended into a cloud.

As I thought I was dying climbing these hills, here is the verse that my son Joshua had this week that came to mind. I quoted it while struggling to make it to the top.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The jungle, green & mud, green & mud & more mud

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:05:00 +0000

On several days we went for long walks. We walked to other villages, looked in the virgin forest for more water sources and some of us got eaten alive by the flies. The flies here leave a ring around the bite with a small hole. They itch really badly and take days to heal. Two the team must have had sweet blood, because they looked like red pin cushions after a few days. I was very fortunate and was only bit about 20 times in the week.

On our first walk, we crossed what appeared to be a small, 4 foot wide path outside the village. We were informed this was a street, had a name, and defined the outer boundary of the village. The street ran in a large circle around the village and the people were not allowed to live outside of the ring road. Inside was the city, outside was the jungle. To me it looked like a small path, but it was very important to the culture. You see, the people do not see themselves as living in the jungle. Each community has streets (small walking paths) with names, neighborhoods (2 or 3 houses together) and a school with a common house. Inside the ring road is the city. Outside of it is the jungle. Each town was amazingly organized. What appeared to be at first random, was anything but random. I was very impressed with the life people lived. In general they ate well, had a school, had family close by and live in a near heaven condition. They used money, but did not need it, had goals for their children and with clean water (all three villages we visited had some sort of clean water) had a very low disease rate.

City border - edge of town (ring road)

Jungle Highway

The last place we visited was Washingtza. GPS points “S 02 02.291 – W 77 33.773”. This was a small village of 8 families. I met a new friend here named Wilmer. He wants to be a pilot someday and fly into the jungle. We had a great time chatting and sharing dreams.

In Washingtza, we stayed in a partially finished church building being built by outsiders. I am not sure if you ever read “when helping hurts” but this was a really close example to it. I need to speak to some others and to determine how much this helping has hurt, but I suspect it’s a classic textbook example. Anyway, we stayed in the partially finished church and it was way better than sleeping outside. Dry roof, reasonably clean floor and decent food: Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Church where we slept

Inside the church where we slept

This village had a spring that was protected by an HCJB team last year. The trouble is the spring does not give enough water for the community. We ended up doing lots of walking around the jungle looking for alternate sources, but none were found. We think it will be better to capture two different springs for this village and that should do it. I think this would be a great place for a well, but the people do not have the mind to put one in. Wells it turns out are not very popular in the jungle. HCJB knows of only two communities that have installed them and like them. People have been getting water from springs for so long, that a well just is not in their current mindset. Most of the time, springs are fine, but this community is a little short of water.

Location of current spring (one of 2 - the other is protected)

Bugs, soccer, and more bugs

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:25:00 +0000

First the soccer: One should never play soccer with the locals and expect to win

It was a great attempt. Our team played soccer against the locals at Iñayu. It was a riot. People were playing in shoes, rubber boots and bare feet. The locals, mostly young men of 25 and less, made our guys looks really bad. They must have scored 4 times more goals than us. We even re-arranged the teams to make it more fair, but it helped very little. We had a great time.

Afterwards, we all went to the local river and swam. This village has a small waterfall at the end of the runway that is really quite nice. We enjoyed the evening temperatures and had a great swim.

Are you into bugs? If you are, this is the place for you. I tried to get pictures of every bug we ran across, but we missed a few. Large spiders that eat butterflies, Bull ants (very large). The picture is from Google as my picture did not have the scale of your hand to give it depth. These bite hard and can make you very sick for several days.

Bull ant (congo ant as called here) - Bad bug - they make you very sick for 2 days if they bite you

Grasshopper type thing

Walking stick (we also found a big one nearly a foot long, but I did not get a picture)

Friendly Spider

Large snail - they eat them sometimes

Butterfly eating spider

Cool caterpillar (sometimes eaten)

More bugs…. We had a very large tarantula in our room, saw several large caterpillars and the one we did not get a picture of was the walking stick. My boss, Martin, found a walking stick nearly a foot long.

Look this up on Google Images if you like.

On a more common front, we had an obnoxious chicken that would walk into our room in Washintza in the morning and crow like the sun would never come up. He was about to be our next dinner (we wanted him to be anyway). There were several dogs, that really needed help and one had had his leg bit off last week by a wild cow. Needless to say the owner of the dog shot the cow and ate him. Lastly were the ducks. Due to the high rainfall (300 inches a year in some places) and the constantly wet environment of the jungle, people have taken to raising ducks. Ducks are disease resistant, love the water, eat plants and are easy to care for. It was not something I would have thought of right away, but a great idea.

I had to reduce some pictures for our internet connection. If you would like an original, let me know.

Food and worms (yes they served us maggots)

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:07:00 +0000

This guy has been drinking Chichaw all day. This is one of his two wives.

We always had a table cloth of banana leaves. Very handy and environmentally friendly.

Martin and Alfredo shown with our standard dinner of boiled plantains, potatoes and yucca. This meal was special because we received fruit.

Onto the food. I am sorry Chris, but you will have to skip this part. If any more of you do not want to hear about strange things to eat, you can skip this part also. We ate crazy stuff. Really it was better not to ask. The first thing you are given when you arrive is a drink called “Chichaw”. This drink is made from Yucca, a root that grows in many places in Central and South America. The root is chewed by the wife and spit out, fermented for three days into a very strong alcohol and drunk by the men. I am sorry for all you ladies out there who take offense to this, but as far as I could tell, women do not have anywhere near equal rights in the jungle. Roles are very defined. Anyway…. This drink is really strong and it’s a considerable offense not to drink it. The lady of the home will pass it to you and you drink some, not much, just any amount will do. You hold the cup (usually a dried ghord) for a couple minutes while talking and then return it to her. She will take it back from you, refill it and give it to the next guest. You never pass it yourself to another person.

Maggots (cooked) - they love them. Very special treat.

For breakfast, lunch and dinner we had “Papa China”, a kind of potato that is always boiled that tastes good, boiled plantains (a kind of banana), yucca (a boiled root) and usually a small portion of meat. We know we ate the following meats: Chicken, wild pork, smoked guanta (a large rat looking thing) – it was really good, night monkey and one or two other things we could not identify. They did serve us cooked maggots and many of the guys ate them, but I did not. I was really full and they did not look appetizing. By the time we returned to Shell, I was ready to eat something else.

This one is food and fun.

Trivia:

Look up Guanta for a cool meal on Google Images. Smoked it is incredible. Best meat we had.

Co-pilot is better than walking

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:19:00 +0000

I cannot tell you how nice it was to start my first jungle trip (Jan 23^rd to 27^th) in a Cessna 206 for half an hour. A Mission Aviation Pilot named Chad flew us to Iñyau near the Pastaza river in the jungle of Ecuador. I tried to find it on the map for a reference for all of you, but I could not find it. If you have Google Earth, the GPS points are “S 02-09.722”, “W 77-29.082”. As many of you know, just before I left for this trip I hurt my back playing Ultimate Frisbee with a group of missionaries. I almost did not make the trip, but I am really glad I went anyway. I have to admit that it took until Thursday before I could stand up straight. I really missed my brother the chiropractor at this moment (don’t tell him I said so).

The people of Iñayu were very friendly and took great care of us. Part of the arrangement with HCJB Global is that the community provide food and water to the team while we are helping in the village. We ate well, but what we ate will be a mystery for years to come.

Typical living arrangements - wood houses or grass huts

First the people: about 20 families lived there and they were considered very progressive. They already had a captured spring, a water tower made of logs and a complete distribution system to each house. The solar pump brought water from the captured spring to the tower for distribution. Their trouble was the tower was rotting and falling down and they wanted a better design with more storage capacity. I was impressed by their willingness to work, the progress they had already made with water and their resolve to improve. I have little doubt that this community will complete the task at hand.

Failing water tower for water distribution system

I met a bunch of new friends, not the least of which was Herman. Herman is about 6 years old and very fun. His parents (Herman and Gabriella) were extremely nice and wonderful people. She was 24 years old, had five kids with the sixth on the way. Her oldest was 9 years old. You can do the math, but this is pretty typical in the jungle.

HCJB Global had invited three students from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan to come down and work on their senior design project. Bret, Travis and Josiah came with eyes wide open and a willing heart to gather information to make the project possible. They were fun to work with and adventurous.

We stayed three nights in the village of Iñayu in a wood sided school with a new tin roof. It was very nice and I would be glad to return there anytime.

Our sleeping arrangements - bug huts saved the day and night!

One of the most fun pastimes was taking pictures of the kids. Each kid wanted his picture taken and then rushed, I mean pushed shoved and clawed, to see his image captured on the back of the camera. They thought that was the most fun ever.

Water fall at Iñayu

Trivia:

Did you know the jungle rule of thumb? Every minute in a small airplane is equivalent to one hours walk on the ground.

A shortage of photos

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:25:00 +0000

I know that blogs are nearly as interesting if there are no pictures to support the stories - however do to some technical difficulties, we have not been able to post photos of our first 2 weeks here in Shell. We hope to have that remedied soon.

Currently Eric is with 3 co-workers and 3 college students in the Amazon. He is expected to visit 2 different villages to repair a water system and take inventory of the needs of another village. At this time we are not able to contact him as normal communication systems do not work out there. For emergencies he does have a satellite phone. He has not used it - PTL.

The kids are fully engrossed in school, homework and playing with the neighborhood kids, a new experience as we lived on acreage in the states without close neighbors. They are loving the freedom to run around and everyday we have kids knocking on the door for them to come out and play. The rule is: if the front door is open then we can be disturbed. If closed, please try again later.

As for me, I will begin using some of "rusty" pediatric occupational therapy skills at the local orphanage this week as well as getting involved in a women's Bible study.

Our house is currently in maintenance mode as we are planning on moving into a nearby house in 5 weeks, so we do not want to invest in paint or hang things on the walls when we will just have to remove them and cover the holes in 5 weeks. It is amazing what a few posters and tape will do to brighten a room however. Eric has already fixed 2 termite ridden doors and unfortunately (nature of the jungle) I have 3 more waiting for him when he returns. Adrianne is excited that she has a bed and stand for her room (night #2 here she awoke to a 3 inch centipede crawling on her face) and the boys received their comforters from home via the college students who came down. Soon we hope to have a stand made for our mattress as well as the boys rooms and then a kitchen table. As they say in Spanish, poco a poco (little by little).

Expect to see a few photos soon!

Today marks a week

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:32:00 +0000

Today is the 7th day since arriving here in Shell. The time has flown by. We were and still are being warmly welcomed by the missionary community as well as the local people. It is interesting to note that as we have introduced ourselves to various shop owners, employees, etc.. around the community they do not immediately respond with their name. Their first question is, "How long will you be living here?"

Shell has a very transient missionary community, as it hosts medical students and residents and short term teams year round for a little as 2 weeks up to 6 months to a year. We are honest with them when we tell them, "at least 2 years, perhaps longer." At this point, they then respond with, "Bienvenidos, me llamo _______. (Welcome, my name is__________). If they know we aren't here for a vacation, or just passing through, then they are willing to honor us with their name and perhaps in the future their friendship.

So the first week has consisted of a lot of cleaning and repairing. The house that we moved into was freshly painted, but had not been lived in for 2-3 months, which with the jungle as your backyard is a long time for ants, spiders and termites to move in - as well as mold to grow.
As of today, we can begin creating our own dirt.

We have walked the 4 blocks to town frequently already, trying to figure out where and how to buy groceries. No Wal-marts here - but we have Cynthia, who runs the meat market and takes orders over the phone and we have Rosita who runs a convenience store that carries peanut butter because the missionaries like it and then we have the lady who drives 2.5 hours with a truck full of veggies to sell them in town. Not one stop shopping but it does provide more opportunity to get to know the local people.

The kids started school today - next Monday will be the official beginning of 2nd semester but this will allow them time to get used to the schedule. Nate Saint Memorial School is a four room school house with a library and office. Each room hosts a split class beginning in 1st grade and continuing through 8th grade. Adrianne is one of 4 kids, while Joshua is one of 5 kids. Kevin has the largest class with 6 kids. Do to the transient missionary community, Joshua will have to say good-bye to 2 classmates and Adrianne 1 classmate in 2 months.

Eric begins his official first day in the office tomorrow. He has been spending several hours each day in the maintenance department of the hospital for several reasons -0ne of which is the fact that they have tools! Of course he has needed to use the tools to repair doors, etc. He has also made fast friends with the men that work there.

As for me, I am working to make the house a home, helping the kids with transition (as well as myself!) and catching up on paperwork that we did not have time to complete in Costa Rica. Over the next few weeks as a schedule is established I will be starting to provide some Occupational Therapy services at the local orphanage and possibly the hospital as they have need.

Until the next time!

Transitions

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:30:00 +0000

Well we knew it was inevitable, but it began. Our son Joshua is struggling with the very real “Yucks” of leaving behind friends from Costa Rica. Although everyone is excited to get a new home, it comes at a cost. This new home lacks a routine, new friends and we have not yet arrived in Shell. This part of the missionary life is impossible to get away from, but it does not make it any easier to deal with.

We are doing our best to meet the needs of the family with hugs, time, talking and more hugs. Arriving in our new location, settling in and meeting new friends will really help the process.

Can you say flexible?

We have been enjoying our time in Quito with our new friends the Weeks. We have had quite a busy schedule. We were suppose to go shopping Monday Jan 2, but the President at the last minute declared it a semi-holiday (you have to make up your vacation day), so we shopped where we could and bought some mattresses.

Tuesday was about the only day that went as planned. We had 6 hours of orientation and heard several seasoned missionaries tell what they “wished they knew when they arrived that they know now”. It was a good experience. That night Kevin was not feeling so good.

Wednesday is where things started to go off track. Kevin got sick with a high fever and I stayed home with him while Sunshine, Adrianne and Joshua spent all day with Shelly who graciously trucked the family around. The stores were crazy busy. Turns out the people get paid every 15 days and each Wednesday there is a discount at many stores. This Wednesday was the first Wednesday after a payday - after a holiday – it was REALLY busy!!! I sat at home and called many of my water ministry friends and checked in, got some prices on upcoming HCJB projects and attended to Kevin who steadily got worse all day.

Thursday was not in the schedule at all. We were supposed to go to our directors house for another day of orientation and in a way we did. The whole family went along (Kevin too) and by 10:00 am Kevin was very miserable. We called a doctor from HCJB and he made a house call when he went home for lunch. We had never had a house call by a doctor before – it was really nice. The doctor said it was not pneumonia, but it was not good. He made a appointment at the HCJB clinic for Kevin and 1 hour later Sunshine and Kevin were off. The three different doctors looked him over and started him on H1N1 flu virus medicine. They did not confirm the diagnosis, but gave it a very high chance that that was what is was. Thursday night, Sunshine and Kevin stayed in an upper guest room of our director in an effort to keep him away from the rest of the house. It was good, but it was a long night for all.

Friday was the day we were supposed the leave for Shell. That got moved to Monday. We ended up shopping for appliances and sofas. I should have taken pictures of the sofas available. The style is very modern and square – but the colors – WOW! The “in” colors are orange and lime green. Nearly every store had the same stuff with some variance. The prices were OK, but really nice stuff was outrageous. We even found a store that sold new furniture in the style of the 70’s. They had stuff you just had to smile at.

Most of the night Kevin’s cough was going strong and he could not sleep. We were told by the doctor that nearly all medicines are not effective with this cough. He said that in a study, straight honey was just as effective as nearly all medicines and he was right. Another plus was that it tastes good.

As of Saturday morning the schedule was altered again and we are now planning on leaving on Tuesday. I have left out the 25 other changes that have kept us on the move, but the family is handling them very very well. Our hosts have been amazing at adjusting and helping us to locate everything we need. What a blessing they have been.

I will keep you posted as life progresses – thank you for praying for our family through this time.

Papallacta (potato town) at 11,000 feet

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:24:00 +0000

Papallacta is a combination of words. Papa (it means potato in Spanish) and llacta (which means town in Quichua). It is a small village up in the mountains east of Quito.

It is famous for the hot springs and the HCJB Global hydroelectric plant that was built here 30 years ago. A year ago HCJB Global sold the plant to a German investment group but the missionaries can still use the guest houses. This is where we stayed. The place was very nice. Clean, large, with HOT WATER straight from the tap (not Potable – but hot)!!! (What a thrill after fighting cold water for a year).

On the way up here we stopped and bought a paper man. Ecuadorians have a tradition of making a full size paper person with clothes and making a mask of who it reminds you of. At the New Years Eve celebration the idea is to burn the person to signify the burning of all things old to start the New year. The mask on our “man” was the president of Ecuador- however we were told that it is not considered disrespectful to burn the paper man version of the president– just an ending of the old year and old things.

We spent a morning at the hot springs with the entire group of 17 people. Lots of fun. The place was very pretty and the water ranged from almost too hot to near frozen river water. After a peaceful afternoon in the town we again returned to the hot springs for an evening swim.

Dinner and games were the story of the night as everyone waited for the New Year. The boys started a small fire outside to prepare for burning the paper man and a spot was set up for fireworks. Fireworks here are not like the USA. You can buy near professional grade fireworks rather cheaply. We had bottle rockets 4 feet long and the rocket was larger than an aluminum soda can.

As the fireworks progressed we had a near accident as one of the smaller rockets tipped over and shot into the crowd. Praise the Lord no one was hurt. On New Years Day we cleaned up and headed back to Quito for a week of shopping for household items and orientation.

Day 1 in Quito

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:11:00 +0000

YES – you are never going to believe it – Repack!!!

10:00 am (10 hours after we arrived) we had a meeting with Human Resources at HCJB to go over paperwork and get oriented. We had lunch for $3.80 each (considered expensive) at a little restaurant and had a great meal (soup, lemonade and chicken with rice and veggies). We were able to recognize many places we had visited 2 ½ years ago and we met some familiar HCJB people.

Most of the afternoon was spent repacking. Due to “weight packing” as described in previous blogs, we had everything all mixed up and we could not find anything. The morning we woke up (8 hours after arriving) we had to unpack everything and repack for our trip to Papallacta in the mountains. We had been blessed to be invited to the hot springs with a group from HCJB to meet the team and spend New Years Eve with them. We were looking forward to this.

Already we have noticed many differences between Costa Rica and Ecuador. The houses have less bars and fences, the town smells a lot less of diesel smoke, the language of Ecuador has different terms for the local grocery store, the people act and dress differently, and the prices are CHEAPER!!! We are so thrilled to get away from the high prices of everything in Costa Rica. Gas is $ 1.50 per gallon!!! (subsidized). A bottle of water is 3o cents, bathing suits for kids are $5.00. The rest of the day one, we toured around the neighborhood and visited friends. Needless to say we went to bed early.

Not just any day

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Saying good-bye to Lidia (our house helper) who became a member of our family! If only we could have her come with us to Ecuador!

Another good-bye to Uncle Jim and Aunt Melanie -fellow classmates.

Last time eating at Paulista's - our favorite pizza place and the first place we ate at when we arrived in CR.

Eric and the staff at the hardware store.

One last photo with the Richline family.

Wednesday Dec 28 did not start like any other day. Everything we owned was packed and ready to go. Last minute friends stopped by to say good bye and by 9:30 am we were off the airport. The drive was amazingly pleasant. Nearly all of Costa Rica is shut down between Christmas and New Years and the roads were clear without traffic. We arrived more than 2 hours ahead of time and the line to check in baggage was just over an hour long. For me the worst part of traveling is the constant waiting in line at every turn, but it passed. We were pleasantly surprised that not only did our luggage make weight, but the airlines for whatever reason said we did not have to pay the expected $150 luggage fee. We double checked, but they confirmed that it was waived – Praise the Lord!

Saying good-bye to the neighbors.

Our good friends, Maria (who taught me to make Costa Rica cuisine) and Raphael.

Security in Costa Rica gave us a little trouble about the weird assortment of stuff we had with us and they nearly confiscated some of the kids Magnetics game, but they let it go.

Now I know that many of you have reminded us that flying to Ecuador via Miami is not a straight line. In fact it is nearly 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Let me reassure you that we did not do this for fun, it was just plain cheaper this way. I then switched seats with a man who wanted to sit next to his girlfriend and ended up in first class! Nice – I did share some of my chicken lunch with my wife – back in row #29 though.

We were very much anticipating arriving at the International wing of Miami, eating well during 3 hours of layover all kinds of American junk food and a steak and leaving the International wing for Ecuador. This no longer happens! We were directed right into Immigration into a room with no less than 1,000 people all standing in 34 different lines. The lines were so long that each line touched the back of the room some 75 feet from the officers booths. After another hours wait in a much shorter “for citizens only” line we were passed onto baggage. Although our baggage was checked all the way through we still had to pick it all up, go through customs and recheck it back in on the other side of the customs. Fortunately, Renee saw a baggage carrier named Papi that had helped us out 2.5 years ago when we passed through the last time and she ran over to him and he walked us right through everything. What a blessing.

Back through security with the family and off to T.G.I Fridays for a burger – Man was it good!! We had not had real beef for a year and the french fries were hot, salty and fabulous.

The plane trip to Quito was uneventful (bummer) and despite being long, was nice. It still impresses me that you can travel 25% of the globe in one day and people still complain. This same trip would have taken months not 100 years ago.

After another hour or more wait in the Ecuadorians Immigration line we were graciously met by Martin (our boss) and Brent ,whose family we will be staying with over the next week. It was nearly 1:00 am by the time we left the airport. We were greeted by the rest of Brent’s family and soon after collapsed in bed around 2:00 am. Long, blessed day.

We are not home yet, but we are closer than we have been in over 2 years.

Packing, Repacking, Weighing, Start Over…

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:24:00 +0000

Let me tell you about how to pack 550 pounds of stuff in a 500 pound space. Miserable. We arrived with 12 travel totes, 5 carry on bags and 5 backpacks servicing as personal items. You would think it would be really easy to put it all back – well after a year of living in Costa Rica, the airlines changed the baggage rules. Turns out that if you travel between Dec 1 and Jan 15 and are heading south you can only take 10 large totes. We had to sell two totes worth of stuff, the totes themselves and get our lives down to 500 pounds (each bag could only be 50 pounds each – no more).

Sunshine started packing weeks in advance in preparation for this event. She made a general inventory of each tote she packed and made a large pile of everything we need to sell at the Student Garage Sale. She did great and we sold nearly everything we needed too. More packing.

Pause….

On Monday before we left we borrowed a car and went to the beach to relax and get some time alone before the last push to the end. It was HOT, really sunny, dead quiet, beautiful and perfect. We really needed that. Made it home safe that night, without a car incident – even got a bit sun burned.

One last stop at crocodile bridge. It was quite a feast as passerby's were throwing in chicken bones.

Unpause…….

As each tote was packed it became evident that it was going to be really, really, really close. It was. When everything was packed we had 10 totes, 5 carry on bags and 5 backpacks packed with about 30 pounds left in the pile. To make matters worse we were weighted out. Knowing that the totes would be weighed, but carry on bags and back packs are not we started the process of unpacking everything, removing the heavy stuff to put in carry on bags and back packs and repacking. 4 packing and unpacking times later, we got it. Then things got messy……

People started showing up at the last minute to give us departure gifts. It’s not possible culturally to say “No” to these gifts given with love and from the heart. Out with this shirt, this pair of socks can go, out with my hammer (bummer as it was the nearly the first tool I ever owned and I had it for nearly 30 years), Can we still make weight?????

About half the bags were over weight by half a pound or more (we figured we could push the envelope a bit), the carry on bags were really heavy and the backpacks were stuffed, but we made it.

Our last morning in Costa Rica had arrived.

The Yeahs and Yucks of goodbyes

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:50:00 +0000

The kids saying good-bye to their pet hamster- another student family is now taking care of him.

We have been very blessed to meet and make wonderful friends in Costa Rica over the course of the year. The down side is you have to say goodbye to each and every one of them. The process was both pleasant and painful. Our first day was with our friends Alejandro and Lorena. They took us to San Mateo to her aunt's farm and we spent the day there. No smoke, no noise, no schedule, no plan, no nothing. It was just what we needed after our 7 days since graduation.

The next two weeks were filled with lunches and dinners nearly everyday. In between we prepared and packed, fighting every pound along the way. We said goodbyes to our neighbors across the street, Maria and Rafael our good friends, had an extremely fun night with the pastors family, fellow students like the Richlines, Wilsons, Elaine and more. Each one was filled with hope and tears.

Part of our church family.

Adrianne and her friend Lauren.

Our friends -the Wheaton family

The Friday before Christmas was a party at our house with the Wilsons and Elaine. We had a nice dinner and played games on a hot and sunny day. Our first “hot” Christmas – very strange. We incorporated some of our family Christmas traditions as well.

Play date on Christmas Eve day - it was hot and sunny!

Last trip to the feria (farmers mkt.)

Shaking the wrapped cereal boxes -trying to guess the contents - a Fogg family tradition.

We had Christmas via Skype with the relatives and watched them open their gifts from afar. Not the same as being there, but way better than the phone. Technology is a great thing.

On Christmas Eve the kids tore their paper stocking that Sunshine had made off the wall and followed the clues to their gifts. Sunshine did a great job making memories of the transitional Christmas. Lastly we opened “snow in a can”. Elaine bought this for us. It was a white hard granular product that you added water to, to make snow. It was very fascinating. The powder (about 1 gram) expanded hundreds of times to make a product that looked amazingly like snow. It was damp and slippery and fun to touch. It looked a lot like the material inside a baby diaper, but smaller granules. We had a great time putting it under the paper tree Sunshine had made from posterboard.

Adrianne opening her "paper" stocking!

Making instant snow!

Playing with "snow" underneath our "tree".

I would like to thank each and every one of you who sent us an e-mail, prayed for us and kept us part of your Christmas from so far away.

Blessing to you all.

Superman and Tarzan – swinging in the trees

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 02:22:00 +0000

Our last blog left us in Monte Verde just about to go on a zip line tour. The company was 100% adventures (100% aventura)

and the day began in the cold rain with hanging bridges. There were 11 hanging bridges running through a young rain forest. The bridges were about 40 to 60 feet off the ground and the trip was very pretty. The bridges moved and swayed (mostly due to the kids jumping on them as they walked), but it was very nice. The bridges were not very scary, well constructed and not very high off the ground. We had a nice time. Of course the weather was not helping. After our 1 ½ hour tour we transferred to another location in the same company for the zip line tours. Again we almost did not do it due to weather. We were somewhat wet, cold and had to wait about an hour and a half for the zip line tour to start. The kids really wanted to do it, so we did.

None of us had ever done this before. The zip lines were really fun. The weather slowed to a drizzle and the fog was very thick. Despite about 40 people in our group, the process went rather quickly. The first 5 lines were less than 300 feet and in the upper canopy. There were lots of trees very close and you had a great view. This part of the tour completed with a 40 foot drop down a rappel to the ground.

The kids did amazing, I mean not just the fact that they were not afraid, but they were really excited to keep going. Somehow the cold and wet did not seem to matter anymore. The kids were really right about going on this one.

The next 6 lines were much longer with the longest being 720 meters (nearly half a mile). This was the most amazing part of the tour. The fog was so thick that each person zipped down the line and faded into nothing. While on the long lines you could neither see where you came from or where you were going too. Only a cable in front of you that faded into cloud infinity, very magical like.

The last cable had the option for you to lay down face down with two harnesses. One harness was around your chest and the other around your waist. You were set face down and sailed Superman style over a valley about 500 feet below, enveloped in cloud and flying along – no words can describe this part. Sunshine said it best, “it was like flying in the ultra-light, without the ultra-light”. But Wait!!! There’s more!!!

The final event was the Tarzan swing. This consists of two cables strung over the same valley the last zip line had passed over. You walked out on a bridge about 300 feet and stopped. The cables obviously keep going to the other side of the valley and on the way they hooked a rope. The rope came all the way back to you and it was like a big bag swing, only you were the bag. The guys hook rope to your harness, open the gate and you jump 50 feet down till the rope pulls tight and begins to swing you like a human rag doll. Let me tell you about Kevin.

Kevin was the first of our family to get a chance to make the jump. We were at the back of the line of the group and the last to jump. About ½ the group decided not to do it at all. We had watched about 20 people make the jump and the process was the same. Each person walked out one at a time, was hooked to the rope, the door opened, the guides held you by the back of your harness until you were ready to go and after a variety of waiting times, each person jumped (although we were sure at least 5 people were pushed by the guides). Not Kevin! They hooked him up, opened the gate and went reach for his harness to hold him until he decided what to do…. But he was gone. Not a fraction of a second later he had already jumped. In his words, “I figured that I might as well jump right away or I did not know when I would ever jump”.

Adrianne screamed on part of the ride and Sunshine decided to scream on purpose on the fall to let out the tension. Nothing. Turns out the stomach rising up into your brain prevents this from happening. I was last. How hard could it be, the kids and Sunshine had done it…Wow, it was a long way down – What a rush, biggest bag swing I have ever been on – you have got to do that if you ever get the chance.

The day ended without event as we left one day early and went back to San Jose to get warm and dry. This was one of the best days we had in Costa Rica hands down. Renee’s parents left after a week of the coldest, rainiest weather we had had in Costa Rica yet – her mom even purchased a fleece lined jacket to keep warm.

Graduation Surprise!

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:44:00 +0000

Wow! The next several blogs will bring you up to today. We have had so much happen that it’s hard to tell you about it all. Our lives have been too busy, but full of great stories, and lots of transition. Let’s start at graduation.

So Dec 9 was a great day. It was the first really sunny day in months as it had been raining and cold. The winter was finally coming to an end. We were all dressed up (a very, very rare condition for us) and we were off to school for our last day. We watched the kids final music program where Kevin played on the hand bell team and Joshua played his recorder and then on to the graduation ceremony.

The entire class was standing outside at the rear of the chapel when the music began. Students were organized by the countries there were going too and by alphabetical order (Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras) and as you can imagine Ecuador was near the front of the line. I was designated to carry the Ecuadorian flag. As we were walking down the aisle, I said to Renee “that lady looks like your mom” in one of those, “what a coincidence kind of ways”, well it was her mom along with her dad! They were sitting in the second row…… Renee began to cry, the procession stopped, there were hugs and tears , the crowd applauded – it was great. We were really surprised.

Over the course of the day the grandparents were able to visit our kids classes at school and surprise each of the kids. Turns out that after 2 months of planning they had flown in the night before and with the help of Ronnie (a tour operator that works with the language school) they had worked out all the details. Judy (Renee’s mom) had been so afraid that the word would get out, so she barely told her anyone until a few days before. Less than 5 people knew of her plans and she pulled it off.

The day after graduation we visited a barrio (neighborhood) with our church to hand out gifts to 300 kids. This area has a high population of Nicaraguans as 25% of the population in Costa Rica are from Nicaragua – due to the oppression there. It was chaos and exhausting but fun.

On a side note, we (the Fogg family) had been planning a trip to Monte Verde after school for a couple days to relax before the packing process began. We had been planning it with Ronnie who had asked us if we wanted to share expenses with another couple who was planning on going on the same days we were going. We said sure, anything to keep from paying more. Well, if you have not put it together yet, it was her parents that were the “other couple” and we were had again.

Monte Verde was cold, windy, rainy and beautiful. ( It is the cloud forest afterall). We stayed at a hotel that had no hot water, smelled of mold and was not very clean. Thankfully the food was really good. We almost decided not to go on the zip line due to the bad weather, but are we ever glad we did. I will post more about our adventure on the next blog.

busyness continued

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:17:00 +0000

A little internet trouble prevented us from finishing our last blog - so here it continues.
Photos from the Pastor Appreciation dinner:

Our pastor and his family.
After 5 days of fiestas, we had to get down to work and that consisted of taking our final oral exam. 35 minutes of one on one conversation/interview with a teacher. We received our a few days later and were both pleased, although we also realize that 30 minutes does not determine our overall ability to speak the language.

Late last week began the good-bye process. We were able to host our fellow third-trimester students for a farewell pizza dinner. One of the couples returned to the states early so we celebrated his birthday while saying good-byes.

The graduating class of 2011!

In 3 days, after 44 weeks of Spanish instruction, 4 hours per day, 5 days per week we will be graduating! Hard to believe how fast the time has gone. We will have the opportunity to travel north for a few days (in Costa Rica - that is) into the cloud forest and then we will return to San Jose to celebrate our Savior's birth with friends, before we head off to Ecuador on the 28th. Until the next Blog........

2 weeks of intense busyness!

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:59:00 +0000

These past 2 weeks have contained an incredible amount of activities. We will begin with November 23- Roblealta. For the past unknown number of years The Spanish Language Institute (our language school) has adopted a ministry known as Roblealta. Each year the school hosts orphans for a Christmas party. This year we had 135 kids who arrived in a whirlwind at the school. Games were planned, hotdogs served, a short program was given, pinatas whacked, and of course presents were unwrapped. Each child received one gift from one of the students or teachers. It was so fun to see the little girls kiss their new babies through the packaging and the boys hug their new match box cars. After 3 hours of chaos and laughter the kids returned to their mountain home and we began the set-up for the next day's event - Thanksgiving dinner for 120 people.

Thanksgiving day began with classes as usual - after all the holiday is a US one. However, classes ended early and a few of us students organized a dinner/potluck for the students and staff. It was a great time of eating and giving thanks for the staff publicly. After the clean-up we celebrated Joshua's 9th birthday with our family.

In order for the school guard to attend the celebration - someone needed to watch the guard house - Adrianne to the rescue!
The day after Thanksgiving we had a sleepover with some of Joshua's friends in order to celebrate his 9th birthday.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving we celebrated Pastor Appreciation Sunday. Gifts were given, Chinese Food eaten and English Christmas Carols were played and of course a Mariachi band!

On the airwaves

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:37:00 +0000

Today was a real test of our Spanish skills or lack thereof! A week ago our pastor asked us if we would be willing to speak about the life of a missionary (not that we have much experience so far!) on his talk show, "Rumbas". This morning we received a list of questions to help prepare - we had about an hour to do this.

If all the questions were followed exactly we would be fine- of course we all know that life does not work that way. Each segment, we taped 2, was supposed to last 20 minutes. We deliberately spoke for over 25 minutes knowing that the producer would have a lot of material to edit!

When we were done - we were exhausted. It took every ounce of our concentration to interpret the questions correctly and then form an answer. I also had to remain facing a certain direction as a young DJ was "rockin" to some Christian tunes in the next studio. A conference room was next door with a large glass window into the studio and several of the church members were present so we had people waving to us also.

So apparently this segment is going to be aired this Saturday (not sure what time) on FARO del caribe. Not sure how the Lord will use this experience, but it sure was entertaining!

This photo about sums it up!

Dia de las culturas

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:08:00 +0000

Today was culture day here in Costa Rica - celebrating Christopher Columbus' 4th journey where he stepped foot in Costa Rica. Each class at Sojourn Academy and a few from the Spanish Language Academy set up a tables with items from different countries. A celebration was held in the gym which included dances, a "fashion" show of the different typical dresses of the various countries and Revelation 7:9&10 was read in 12 different languages. "After this I looked and there before me was a great nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the lamb."

A walk around the garden

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:50:00 +0000

The owners of the house we rent have a beautiful garden. Following are a few photos:

Eric found something to work on - he is in his glory! (So is the owner - who is not mechanically inclined)
The neighbors cat jumps over the wall each morning to try to eat the doves that eat the crumbs we leave out for them.

This is a poinsettia plant that has been blooming since we arrived in early January.

Immigration and tickets

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:58:00 +0000

Wow! What a couple days – I have to tell you a God story while getting our student visas for Costa Rica.

Yesterday at 8:25 in the morning the administrator of the school sought me out and told me that after 6 weeks of waiting for an appointment to get our student visas – we finally had one – in 30 minutes! I quickly packed my stuff, collected all three kids from school (everyone needed to go in person) and we jumped into the schools car and left. I need to mention that Renee has a tutor off campus at 8:30 in the morning and we needed her to come along. We raced over to the house where she was and I jumped out and went to the front door. By now Renee had seen me get out of the car and was running through the 100 possibilities of what was wrong – kids in the hospital, accidents, deaths maybe worse……. Anyway after she got in the car we were off.

Needless to say we had 15 minutes to get to the office and a 30 minute drive. The driver, a very nice guy, drove hard and fast, swerved a lot and managed to make nearly everyone car sick by the time we arrived 15 minutes late. After slowly but thankfully getting out of the car we proceeded to the office. I am so glad the guide came with us, there was not any chance we would have located this office without him. Anyway, after arriving we waited 10 minutes and were shown in. We had our pictures taken and were told to wait outside for another 45 minutes. We did, but the waiting room had air conditioning and it was really, really cold. Nearly all of the 70 or so people in the room were freezing and it was hard not to be. We were dressed for Costa Rica, not Alaska. The time passed reasonably fast and our names were called again. We went to receive our visa cards and Adrianne’s card had a typo. In Spanish Adrianne is Adrianna. Adrianne (Adrian) is a male name and they had her as male versus female on her card. We pointed it out and they said they would fix it right away. 2 hours and 15 minutes later we finally had our names called and left. We were all very tired, I was especially tired of “how much longer Dad” and we returned home. The return ride was much better as I spoke to the driver and let him know that we were no longer in a hurry and that the motion sickness was better now. He obliged and drove much better on the return trip.

But wait…. The story is not over.

You see, the student visas are supposed to be good for one year. We applied for our visas in February so we knew we had lots of time since we were planning on leaving on January 4, 2012. However….. 3 days ago the price per ticket on Jan 4 went up by $120 per person. We have been following ticket prices for weeks now and knew the best route and price. Ticket prices for December were much higher than January so we had decided to wait until the 4^th when they were cheaper. Discovering that the prices for January went up, we decided to “just check” on prices in December and discovered that the prices had dropped on December 28. We bought the tickets. HOORAY!!!!! The rest of the story. The next day (yesterday) was our adventure at the immigration office. Remember I said our visas were supposed to be good for one year…. But when we were handed them I noticed they expired early. I asked the lady and she informed me that that was correct, the visas for the entire family expire on December 31, 2011. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!! If he had not caused the ticket price to change on Jan 4 we would have been 4 days without a visa and had lots and lots of expensive problems, but today we are free and clear. So even when things do not seem to be going your way, maybe God is on the move and you just do see the reason behind it yet.

Oh and by the way, I did check to see if the ticket prices for Jan 4 had gone down to the original level, they went down, but not all the way. God is good.

Eric

Our kids and their Sunday school teachers

noreply@blogger.com (The Fogg Family) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:41:00 +0000

The costa rican people in general tend to be shorter than we North Americans, and they frequently comment on the height of Adrianne and myself. Here is Adrianne and her teacher, Natalia.
Joshua is constantly receiving hugs from his teacher, Karen. He "eats it up".