How long did that take?

The reality of dreads...
A common question is: how long did it take to get dreads? It depends on the size/quantity of the dreads. Lauren's 100+ are taking forever...
I only have 45, so for me, it took a couple hours during a movie, a couple hours on the bus, a couple hours on the beach, a few lunch breaks, another movie, and various homework times...so it was over a week until they were finished.

According to the dreadmaster Dehan, it takes about 12 hours to put them in plus crocheting the ends. I kind of prefer the straggly ends, but the dreads will come out if the ends aren't crocheted. This is what it looks like when only 1/2 is crocheted:
Apparently dreads can be a never-ending painful project. Hair is less of a thing of beauty, and more like a work of art, and fun to accessorize.
After 2 weeks, I decided the dreads are way too frizzy, and out-on-control,
so I let Dehan wax the top ones...not really sure what that means, but in involves "palm rolling" the individual dreads, and it hurts...

But then, I got to get even, because Dehan's dreads are growing out and needed some work, so I attempted to help Johan pull his hair...

Crocodiles

Friday on our way to Jaco, we saw crocodiles...

end of story...check out my other blog: indiachildren.blogspot.com

A quick up-date from Costa Rica

I have been in Costa Rica almost 3 weeks now, attending the “Children At Risk School” (CRS) and working with local childrens ministries. Our schedules are pretty full, so we stay busy. The best part is that twice a week we take a break from lectures to go work with kids, and apply what we are learning.

One of my requirements for this school is to have a blog with regular up-dates on what I am learning and the ministries I am involved with here in Costa Rica. So I have a new blog now. Check it out: www.indiachildren.blogspot.com

I also want to say a huge thanks for your prayers and support! I was able to pay the $1300 for my school which was due the beginning of this month. The remaining $500 is due in Feb and will come from my regular monthly support. By mid-march I’ll need about $1400 for my plane ticket to India.

Your prayers have been a huge blessing! Physically I have felt better than I had since before the parasite, which I got in India last spring. Now little things make me happy like riding a bus and not feeling sick. Being healthy makes life and ministry so much more pleasant. It’s amazing!

Thank you for being a part of this ministry!
- Becky

A Dreadful Day At the Beach

I’m been thinking about it for about 18 months now. The blame for that goes to the persuasive visionary guys at YWAM Idaho. Fortunately I have the motherly/sisterly influences in my life to thank for speaking wisdom and keeping me from doing such crazy things…until now.
The long process started during an evening movie.
The next day, Dahan, Daniel, Emily and I got up at 6am to take a 2.5 hour bus ride to the beach (plus a taxi, another bus, and some walking). So I went out in public looking like this:
It is funny how neat and orderly I am. Even as Dehan was making the dreads, I would comb out the remaining hair and clip it out of the way, so it wouldn’t get tangled any sooner than necessary. It’s more amusing in light of today’s class on “Inner Healing.” Our speaker asked, “what are the things you hide behind?” My immediate thought was, “being perfect, meeting people’s expectations, and being who they expect me to be”, the irony is, at that moment my hair was half dreaded.
But I also love the element of surprise, when people say, “I would not have expected that from you.” My little sister changes her hair style all the time, while I’m usually too cheap and lazy to do anything, but when I do…maybe I should not go to such extremes…
But it is so windy here that my hair gets tangled anyway, so at least this way, it’s neat and orderly tangles which I can hopefully remove in 2 months. I do dread the thought of taking them out, it’s probably more painful than getting it done, but not impossible…I will however need a hair cut to fix the damage...
I'll have take them out before I go to India, because thanks to the reputation of all those druggy hippie tourists, Indian Christians believe demons live in dreads…so I obviously can’t have dreads and be a Christian. This is why I have dreads now, in Costa Rica…pretty much a once in a life-time opportunity which I couldn’t pass up...

The First Weekend

Due to having homework, and taking notes in class all day, I don't feel like writing on my blog too...so I made a video instead...here's what I did on my first weekend in Costa Rica...

What's bugging you?

Since our room is sandwiched between the showers and the dining room, it is rather noisy. In the morning, the showers sound like a torrential down-pour. The coffee maker right on the other side of the wall is also rather loud. Throughout our first week, we also heard various sounds in the night. One night it was someone running, someone yelled “thief” and there were sirens. It sounded like it was right on base, but I guess it wasn’t. The idea of someone breaking in, made us extra aware of the odd sounds in the night, like the trash can getting knocked over. Then we discovered it’s just a raccoon who keeps getting into the kitchen…good to know.

“What’s bugging you? What’s bugging you? Do you have a pesky pest?” sorry…just thinking of a song from one of my favorite “Backyardagains” episodes…

Anyway, last night it sounded like something was right under my bed, so I figured the raccoon must be right on the other side of the wall. Then this morning a mouse jumped in bed with my roommate Rachel. So later I checked under my bed, and the mouse had gotten into my granola bars which were sealed, in a zip lock bag, inside my backpack…ambitious little guy. Now the remaining snacks are in a plastic storage container…

Throughout the course of the past week, our room has changed some, so here’s a lame little video collage of our room…which like I said, is kind of lame…not even sure why I’m showing it…



I do feel suddenly inspired to make a more exciting video...check back in later and watch it...first I gotta go make it...

New Blog

Just to make life more exciting, I'm officially one of those people who is probably over-spamming the world in blogs. So for your reading pleasure, I now have my new blog for my Children @ Risk school. Check it out: indiachildren.blogspot.com

Assignments

Thus far, I have learned that speaking Hindi in Costa Rica does no good...I knew that was going to happen...but I didn't anticipate responding "ha - yes - si" or "nahee, no...nooo" complete with a head bobble. One of my classmates has a heart for India and as been there, so at least someone understands why I'm bobbling my head...and laughs at me.

In other news, one of our assignments for the CRS is to create a blog with weekly entries about what I'm learning, etc. I could figure out how to change this blog to meet those requirements OR I just might become one of those excessive bloggers and start a second blog for my CRS assignments...in which case that would become the more "official" blog, while this one will remain for my random ramblings about my life, etc...

I don't know how I feel about maintaining 2 blogs, so I'll let you know what I do...

In case you're wondering what life is like here at YWAM San Jose, here's a little compilation of pictures and video clips...