Chicken Feet

Hola from Costa Rica!

Dennis is doing very well today. His headache that began on Wednesday went away after breakfast this morning and has not returned. Today he went to physical therapy where the therapist worked with him for 45 minutes strengthening the muscles that have not been used because of MS. She mainly worked with his left leg and his abs. He also received his second spinal injection of umbilical cord derived stem cells. There were no complications. He came back to the hotel and laid down for several hours which is protocol for a spinal injection. He is somewhat tired and sore tonight, but that is to be expected with the lipo surgery, physical therapy, spinal injections, etc. As you would expect, we are watching for improvements in his condition, and he seems to have more strength in his left hand.

The kids and I went to Los Guidos again today. We had fun playing with the kids and my kids are beginning to connect with some of the children at Los Guidos. I connected with a little boy named Isaac. We played bubbles and chalk for much of the afternoon. I think his favorite thing was putting bubbles and chalk in my hair. : )

You must be curious about the title of today’s blog. No, we aren’t playing dominos in Costa Rica. Madi told about our experience in an email to a friend:

“For lunch today, they served the children chicken feet and it was boiled and it look exactly like they had cut it straight off the chicken, but they were white. It made me want to throw up to know that the kids were eating them. They looked rubbery, too.”

This is the first thing we have encountered that I don’t think I could have even tried to eat. Thankfully, we are served lunch separately from the children and I think they understand that there are certain things that gringos aren’t accustomed to eating. We had a wonderful meal of, of course, rice and black beans as well as meatballs covered in a red, tomato-based sauce. We also had fried plantains, which are kind of like bananas. I once tried to make these at home and they were awful. They were much better here, but still not a favorite.

Costa Rica is home to a variety of fruits and I found a webpage that describes many of them. We have had drinks made from cas, tamarindo, and oranges. They blend the fruit with sweetener and water. Today Edward bought us mamones, the red spiny kind. My kids did not like them, but I thought they were really good. You pull away the red spiny outside and eat the soft, white inside around the seed. The inside kind of looks like a canned pear. My children have eaten their weight in oranges, all peeled with the top cut off so that they can suck the juice out. We have sampled guacamole made from the avocados and it was wonderful. We have also tried pineapple, papaya, mango, bananas, and watermelon here at the hotel. I would still like to try pejibaye, which is a fruit that is boiled then cut and spread with mayonnaise. It honestly doesn’t sound very good, but it is a favorite here, so I think we should try.

http://www.cupotico.com/info/General/Costa_Rica_Fruits.html

There was much rain in San Jose this afternoon. It was almost dark at 4:30 because of the dark clouds in the sky. Earlier this week Edward told us that it rains 14 feet/year in San Jose. Today I told him, "You didn't tell me that it would all come in one day!" Actually, this is their rainy season and it has rained every day that we have been here, usually in the late afternoon.

We had to travel a different route to Los Guidos this morning, because today is Edward’s (our driver/translator) day to not drive in San Jose. The day you can not drive is indicated by the last number on your license plate. Out of the 3 cars in his family, they all fall on Friday. I think it took almost an hour and a half to get to Los Guidos by the alternate route. I didn't mind because we saw new things like rivers, bamboo, and banana trees. The kids didn’t mind because they watched Alvin and the Chipmunks in Edward's van. We all had a good laugh because sometimes Edward forgets to set the movie to English. Because he understands both languages, he didn’t notice until Nate hollered from the back of the van, “Hey, it’s in Spanish!” We took the alternate route home as well, but had to go into San Jose because the rain had caused some of the rivers to cover the road.

Tomorrow Edward is going to take all us to see the Poas Volcano and the Lapaz Waterfall Gardens. We may also do a boat ride on a river in the rainforest. We should see a variety of rainforest plants and animals. We promise to post pictures!

Thank you, again, for sending emails and commenting on our blog. It is good to here from those at home. Thank you so much for praying for us while we are here in Costa Rica.

Love, The Trammell Family

"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." - 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17