Nicaragua

We got in from Nicaragua at about 7 pm last night. I had such a good time! Here are some highlights, and pictures:

Nick and I set off from Santa Rosa on the 7:30 bus last Wednesday. We then caught the 12:30 Ticabus to Granada, Nicaragua. Taking a Tica bus is VERY different from taking your run-of-the-mill chicken bus in Central America. They are air conditioned, have a bathroom, and they show movies. So the 8 hour trip turned out to be super comfortable. When we got to the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, we went through customs, no problem. In line to get back on the bus, I was chatting with a couple of Israelis, who just finished their obligatory service in the army, and are now traveling for like 6 months, before starting college in the fall. They tell me that most young people (like 70%) travel after the army. In any case, while we were chatting, a border official came and pulled both of them out of our line to be searched again, and questioned more extensively. We figure it is because they had Israeli passports. Anyway, it turned out that the police didn’t have a translator, and the Moshe and Gal didn’t speak Spanish. So, they asked me to translate for them. So, I translated all of the border official’s questions into English (which Moshe and Gal speak perfectly, in addition to Hebrew). Everything turned out fine, and we proceeded on the bus to Nicaragua.

When we arrived in Granada, it turned out that the Israelis were heading to the Bearded Monkey Hostel, and so were we! So, we shared a cab. Nick and I ended up spending the entire trip hanging out with Moshe and Gal, who are super sweet. I was joking with them, saying that I bought their friendship by spotting gal a dollar for the cab, but she says I really bought their friendship at the border.
Our hostel was cute, and had a good atmosphere. It was a huge colonial house, which now serves as dorms and a restaurant. In the center there is a big patio with plants and hammocks. We ate breakfast there every morning, and I had some ridiculously delicious banana pancakes, and free coffee- how much better can life get, right? Pictured at left: Moshe drinking coffee during our hostel breakfast.

On Thursday, the 4 of us walked around the city, and checked out all of the historical sights (see pictures). Granada has a really pretty avenue (Calle La Calzada) running down the center, with restaurants, shops, and houses on both sides, and it ends on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. Despite how idyllic this one street looks, though, there is a lot of poverty in Granada, and Nicaragua in general. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in all of Central America, behind Haiti. There were a lot of street children and people panhandling, and it made me a little sad to see it. There are problems in Costa Rica, especially in the bigger cities, but Nicaragua was definitely a shock. One really funny little boy came up and tickled me when we were eating dinner one night, and asked if I would buy some of his gum; we did.

On Friday, the America-Israel alliance traveled to the Laguna de Apoyo. It is a really gorgeous crater lake, outside of Granada. Our hostel has a house there, where you can either stay overnight, or just go out for the day. We went out as a day trip, and it was BEAUTIFUL! The sky

was clear, and the house had comfortable hammocks to lounge in, and there were kayaks and a dock to sunbathe on. For lunch, Moshe cooked us some Israeli food. I feel like I learned as much about Israel and that area than I did about Nicaragua and Central America. I can now say at least 5 swear words in Hebrew (who knows why those are always what you pick up first) plus the polite words like “good morning” and “thank you”. In fact, if you are reading this, Moshe and Gal: What up, kalba? Pictures: Nick kayaking; the view from the house's porch at sunset

On Satruday, we all went to the Masaya, which is a less touristy, artesanial community. We walked around the market, and I bought some sweet pants. The, we took a bus to the Masaya volcano. We did the night tour that they offer- and it was totally worth it. We saw the volcano, and crater- which was emitting a ton of smoke, some lava tunnels, a ton of bats in the caves. The last part of the tour, we had to put on gas masks,

and they took us right up to the edge of the crater. The smoke and gases were pretty strong, but we could see a little bit of the red glow of the lava. My eyes were burning, and I was coughing something awful- but you only live once, right? To get home, we walked out to the road, and tried to flag down a bus. We managed to find one going to Masaya, and there we walked to another highway to try and catch a ride. Our ride from Masaya was… interesting… A mini bus stopped, but was already completely full. However, the driver did some arranging, and managed to stuff us in. The bus is probably meant to hold like 30 people, and I would say that there were at least 50-60. Moshe was the last one on, and he had to ride hanging out of the open doors while we went like 60 on the highway. It was an adventure. When we got home, we ate dinner, and talked to the front desk about how to check out in the am, since Nick and I were going to be leaving super early the next morning. I was glad to learn that there would be someone around to give me back my $3 deposit that I paid on our locker. Before going to bed, we shared a group hug and said goodbye to our new friends.

Nick and I woke up at 5 am to get our stuff together and be at the busstation by like 6:15. However, we had a small hang up. I was trying to open up the locker where our stuff was stored, in complete darkness so as to not wake up the other 8 people sleeping in the room. But when I stuck the key in the lock, it totally came apart. Seriously, the main part fell out into my hand, and some little balls also fell onto the floor. Using my IPOD for light, Nick and I tried to fix it, but it was hopeless. I went and got the nighttime guard for the hostel, and we carried the entire locker into another room (with light- thank goodness). The lock was 100% jodido, so Nick and I walked, in our PJs, to Granada’s fire station (which was luckily right around the corner). They leant us some bolt cutters, and after some skillful wielding by Nick, we got the locker open. The guard was laughing, and told me that I was definitely not getting my deposit back… I told him that I had kind of figured that.

Well, we made it to the bus staion, and back to Santa Rosa. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. When we got on the bus, and I finally hada few minutes to distress- I realized that I had woken up with weirdo hives all over my body. I freaking hate how weird my skin gets. They are not “the itchy” that I usually get as an allergic reaction- they are different. I still have them today, but am hoping that if I keep dosing myself with antihistamines, I will stop looking like I have leprosy. Actuyally, I have no idea what leprosy looks like, it is just the disease that I usually compare my skin got. Similarly, whenever I am sick ,I say I have SARS. That’s just how I operate.

December 9, End of the semester stuff

Today was the last day of classes before the Christmas vacation. However, their Christmas vacation is actually their summer vacation, so we don’t go back until February. Everyone finished their finals, and some really surprised me with how well they did. I am definitely gonna miss my 6th graders… even though we had our differences before, we worked it out, and I ended up getting along with them really well. We also made birthday cards for Eric, the old volunteer, and I mailed them. They were super cute, and pretty funny. Here is a picture of what the inside looked like.

Tonight, we had a Christmas party at my house with my adult students. Or, more accurately, the 4 of them who showed up. It was nice though, we had food, and it was neat to sit around and talk (about actually topics, not just the very limited ones that they know how to say in English). I made Guacamole, and it was a hit. Also, I handed out grades and Christmas presents. It was cute. I have put up some Christmas lights and decorations, plus, Patri finished painting my house this weekend, so it was pretty nice to be getting in the Christmas spirit. Pictured below: 1-Patri painting my kitchen; 2-Some of my adult students in class.

On Sunday night, we went to a baile at Los Pinares. I am not sure that I have ever had so much fun. I got to practice my Meringue, Salsa, and Cumbia skills- and I am definitely improving. Also, they played some serious Maná and other Spanish rock, and we just jumped around and had fun. I was exhausted when we got home, but whatevs. I still don’t understand why Sunday nights are such big going out nights here, especially since everyone has to work so early on Mondays, but I digress. We also got together to pick names for a Secret Santa gift exchange among my friends- I am hoping to find a cool present this week when I go to Nicaragua.

Nick and I taught a workshop in the colegio on Monday, on chess (ajedrez). I haven’t played in like, years, but it was fun. We taught them some of the basics, and then practiced in pairs. Funny story- I was playing with one of the other teachers in the colegio- Errol. I took his queen, and he says: “what the fu*k?!” I was laughing so hard, because it was in English. I teased him, and accused him of being the one that teaches my students all the bad words they know in English, because it definitely isn’t me, and they know quite an impressive number.

Tomorrow Nick and I are going to Nicaragua for 4 days. I will blog more on that later, though.

El Doble Miedo

Heeeeyyyyyy-

Last night, I met up with my friend Jóse (the tech guy at Habitat) to go to dinner in Barva, where he lives. He has been telling me for months about this restaurant, called Pepinos, where they have a "hamburger" called the Doble Miedo. As y'all know, I can eat, so he challenged me to finish it. I am ashamed to say, I couldn't do it (or maybe I would have been more ashamed if I had finished it... I am not sure). In between 3 different buns were sandwiched 2 hamburger patties, pulled beef, french fries, ham, bacon, pickles, lettuce, and I don't even remember what else. I used like 27 napkins.

Jóse showed me the central plaza, and I totally fell in love with the city. There are a ton of sculptures in the main park, and a lot of really cool art. I still get surprised about how much variety there is in Costa Rica- Barva seems like a different country from Santa Rosa. The city is famous for its fiestas, where they make really crazy masqueradas (traditional masks). Every trash can has a clown scultpure/mask on the top; kind of creepy, but I liked it.

New Volunteer, dancing, and lots and lots and lots of rain.

This will be a comprehensive update. Some interesting things have happened, some less interesting things have happened. I will try and keep my stories as much from the first category as possible.

First things first: I have my camera back! Like 4 months after I broke my supposedly waterproof camera by taking it in the ocean, I got a new one. I would like to thank all of the people who made the waranteeing of my camera possible: Matt and Stephanie (for taking it to the states), Nancy and Caty (for dealing with Costco) and the warantee and mailing it to Brent, and Brent and Shanda (for carrying it the last leg of the journey back to C.R.). Thus, blogs from now on should be pretty picture heavy.



It literally hasn't stopped raining for 9 days straight in Santa Rosa. Ok, that's not true, there was about an hour on Saturday when it wasn't raining, just cloudy. In a town with few to no clothes dryers, this is rough. But hopefully the weather will get better soon. If not, I might go into a depression.


There is another American volunteer in Santa Rosa right now, so I am getting my English-language fix. His name is Nick (see picture), and he is 18 and from Massachusetts. He is taking a year off between high school and college, and decided to come volunteer for two months with Habitat. He is living in Abdon and Ligia's house, so I obviously see him a lot. He is going to be helping me with my projects (including what is left of the school semester for English classes) plus doing a few side projects. We are looking at teaching some workshops on random stuff in the high school, as well as doing some much needed building repair there at the colegio. Also, it looks like he is going to come with my on my next out of the country trip. yeah! We were going to go to Nicaragua, but there are Sandinistas rioting in Managua, so that is not looking like such an atractive option. Then, we were going to go to Bocas del Toro in Panama, but there has been some crazy flooding this week. I guess we'll just wait and see.


I went out dancing in Cartago on Saturday, and it was probably one of the funnest nights that I have had yet. Dixie, Nelson, Carita, myself, and a new friend who I hadn't met previously (who they call Tractor, but is actually named Melvin. I know, weird name) went to las Gemelas and Sunset. I got to practice my dancing abilities, and just have a good time. We got back at like 2 am. I took pictures, but they somehow got erased during the transfer to Nelson's computer process- I guess that's what happens when I haven't used a camera for 4 months, and try to download pictures without reading the instructions.

Milestone: I passed the halfway mark of my trip last week. It's all downhill from here. I have like 4.5 months left. It's honestly been going super fast, and I already know that the rest is going to fly by. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, but I don't think that I am really going to celebrate. Maybe Nick and I will eat a can of green beans or something =)


This picture is of my 5th graders playing a board game about vehicles that I made. It went really well... so I took a picture.

Beach beach beach

So, this week I am staying at Playa Tamarindo with my cousin Brent, his wife- Shanda, and their two cute-as-pie-daughters- Ansley and Riley. It's really gorgeous here! The water is warm, the condo is beautiful, and its great to be hanging out with the fam. Here are some pictures.This is definitely a break from my usual Costa Rica experience, and I am gonna live it up =)

We have had a fun week- swimming, going to the beach, going to the pool, laying out, eating... all of the things that you usually do on a gorgeous tropical beach. I have totally fallen in love with Ansley and Riley, and am really appreciating the chance to get to know Shanda and Brent even better. We went to playa Avellana today, and i loved it! It was beautiful, and super pura vida. We ate a restaurant named Lola's, which is named after the pet pig that the owners keep as a pig (see picture). I would definitely go back, and never leave.

We are heading back to San Jose tomorrow. No bus for me! We are going in the rental car. I suppose I will have to go back to work =( but am super greatful for this nice break.

Obamanos!

Obamanos!

I am super psyched about the election. While I wasn't able to follow the progress throughout the day, Costa Rican TV is still quite interested in the U.S. election results, and I got the important news: Obama won! I am sitting here reading the transcript of President Obama's victory speech, and I am really impressed. I don't want to sound cheesy, but today I am really proud to be an American. People here are asking me if I voted, and if I think that Obama will make a good President, and I can orgullosamente say that yes, I did vote (provided the ballot reached its destination. We can only hope), and I think that Barack Obama will be the President that changes America for the better. ¡Si se puede!

Phone call

I just got a phone call from my dad. It was the first time that he has called me- usually I call them. Caty was down at the house in Benson, and they were having dinner. They called to tell me that my cousin Andrew passed away today. That was rough. I am actually sitting in my house, not really wanting to go to sleep, but not knowing what to do either, so I am going to write a blog. Pennebaker says that even writing about upsetting feelings in a diary is enough to help you deal, so I figure my blog should suffice (there’s a random bit of psychology knowledge for ya). Like I told Caty, I am crying, but not bawling. It is more that kind of crying that you could hold in if you had to, but it feels a little better just to let it out and let yourself grieve for a bit. I don’t even know what to say- he was in his 20s. They don’t know what happened. I am definitely praying for Bill, Beth, Melody, and Shannon right now.

Halloween Party!

As those of you the United Status are well aware, today, October 31, is Halloween. In Costa Rica, however, they don’t really celebrate the holiday. There are scattered people that I have met who refer to it as noche de las brujas (night of witches) but there is not nationalized celebration. And they definitely don’t trick or treat. So, I decided that, since I am and English teacher, and October is National Culture Month, I would share our Halloween customs with my 5th and 6th grade students.

We actually had a week of Halloween. We spent all of our class periods this week learning Halloween-related words, and playing games. There are now 40 students in Santa Rosa who know words like “Haunted House”, “Jack-o-Lantern”, and “Mummy”. I made BINGO cards with pictures for all of the words, and we played that to practice. I also made a Halloween word search for the kids to do, and we had a coloring contest. Then, today, as an incentive for their good behavior the past couple of weeks, we had a party, complete with balloons and prizes and everything! There were prizes for the winners of the coloring contest, and I brought candy eyeballs and Halloween lollipops, and a ton of candy. I would only give it to them, however, if they said “Trick-or-Treat” first. We also played the Mummy wrap game! (Thank you Barrera family). For those of you who may be reading this who did not grow up going to Emily and Katie Barrera’s Birthday parties, I’ll explain. The concept is fairly straightforward: in pairs, you take a roll of toilet paper and make your partner into a mummy. I had prizes for the most impressively constructed mummies. The kids went nuts with the toilet paper, but I didn’t even mind; we had a great time. The 5th graders dressed up, but the 6th graders thought that they were too cool for disfraces.

I also brought lollipops to my high school and adult classes, although we didn’t devote a whole class period to Halloween vocab or anything. They threatened to come to my house and ask for candies, and I informed them that I would have some ready. No one came, but I had some candy sitting by just in case. In the nighttime, we had a little fiesta at my house. Dixie, Veros, Nelson, Carita, and I had a Halloween pijamada (slumber party). It was very 3rd grade (with ghost stories) but there was also beer (which there wasn’t usually in the 3rd grade). I have found out (on this and other occasions) that all ticos (Costa Ricans) have a ton of ghost stories, and they always swear that they’re true. So, we sat around in my living room, and shared scary stories. I only have 1 ghost story, but it is probably the best story that I tell. Actually, I pride myself on the fact that I can relate it pretty accurately, and still retain the scariness, in Spanish. Granted, its better in English, but I’ll take what I can get. So, I told the story about how my “friends” (you know who you are) played a trick on me in high school, taking me out into the desert and scaring the life out of me. I always tell the story as it happened to me… meaning that you don’t find out it’s a joke until the end. And, in the retelling-as in real life- its f-ing terrifying. In the middle of my story Marta was outside of the house throwing something in the trashcan, and her white hair in the moonlight totally freaked Carita out; it was classic.

Between my classroom parties and my friends coming over, I managed not to miss Halloween too much, though I would be lying if I wasn’t a little bit homesick.

rebellion

I think I have figured out how to thwart the webfiltering program at Habitat enough to post blogs =) That's all. I was excited about it.

Fiestas de San Rafael

So, on Sunday Dixie, Veronica, and I went to the fiestas of San Rafael, and met up with a bunch of our friends. San Rafael (aka: Churuca) is a town like 35 minutes from my village, on the way to Cartago. It was quite a party; there were a TON of people, and they had a huge Tope (horse parade). There were like 2,500 horses or something crazy like that. It is a lot the like the rodeo parade in Tucson, but pure horses. Everyone gets dressed up in there western gear and tailgates on the back of their trucks, and drinks. Really not so different from AZ at all; I never imagined that when I came to Costa Rica I would be wishing that I had brought my cowboy boots, but I do. It was fun, but got a little bit shady near the end when people started fights and throwing bottles and such. We got out of there in time to avoid that locura though. After the parade we went to a bar called the Cartagines and danced salsa, and some of my friends sang karaoke. We then ran to catch the last bus to Santa Rosa. For some reason that I now don’t understand, I offered my seat to a woman who was older than me (but not so old that I was obliged by the unwritten laws of the Costa Rican transit system to give her my seat). That was a bad idea because I then had to stand for the whole 45 minute ride up the mountain, which was considerably harder than usual because I had had a few beers. Speaking of beer- I have been budgeting pretty closely, so I hadn’t really planned on drinking at all. I bought one Imperial at the beginning of the day, but that was all I planned on spending. However, the culture of Costa Rica is so generous, that whenever I didn’t have an Imperial in my hand, someone would hand me one. Thank goodness, we made it home perfectly safely, I didn’t fall down or knock anybody over, and the fiestas of Churuca were a success.

A computer in my casa?! October 25

Yea! This is the first blog written from Santa Rosa! Habitat finally gave me a computer to use up here on the mountain! Granted, there’s no internet or anything, but at least I can blog more often, and also work on grant proposals and such from here! How many exclamation points do I need to use to express my excitement!!!!!!!!!? I would like to give my thanks to one Jose Montero, the new technology-guy/intern at Habitat, who made all this possible. Since he’s been in the office, things have actually been getting done! For instance, some of you may remember that when I first got here, I had a laptop for about 4 days, then it just stopped working. Since then, Habitat has consistently been promising to arreglar me one of the many broken computers that were sitting around, but Jose was the first person who actually put those plans into action. So, thank you José. Also on a happy computer-y note: my personal thumb drive hasn’t worked in the whole 4 months I have been here, and I was pretty bummed that it broke. However, when I stuck it in this máquina, it worked totally fine. My resumes and grad school documents and personal photos that I brought with me aren’t lost after all =) It’s a good day. On to more important issues:

On Wednesday we had a meeting with the whole Habitat Housing Community. I was much less nervous than the first time when I met everyone (at Eric's despedida in July). I was WAY more comfortable talking in front of everyone, and definitely made more sense that 3 months ago. Helen was going to come and talk to the committees about what Habitat can do to support them, but she had car trouble and couldn't make it. After an initial reaction where I was freaking out about what we would talk about, Abdon came to the rescue and managed to make it a very productive meeting, where we talked about a lot of issues that the families are facing right now. The global economic crisis is hitting these Costa Rican families hard. Many families barely make enough to get by, plus now the interest rates are going up on their houses (due to poor economic conditions everywhere). Some are seriously concerned about how they are going to pay their bills. This has lent some urgency to our projects in Santa Rosa. For instance, the hydroponics committee has pretty much decided that, instead of growing hydroponic lettuce, they want to join forces with more members of the housing community and start an association of organic farmers; they are going to grow mushrooms! I think that its a great idea- they have found a market where they really think they will be successful. They are in the process of legally forming an association (a lot like a farming cooperative). The proceeds will go directly to the families who participate. I am pretty excited about it, especially because this has been executed completely without my help- a sign that the project will be self-sustainable after I leave. I have offered to help however they need me, though. At the meeting we also decided to throw a fundraising BINGO to benefit the housing association. The recent torrential rains have trashed the roads in the Habitat neighborhood, and it looks like some of the funds from the BINGO will go towards these repairs. I also used this gathering to get the last few names, ages, and sizes of the kids in the Habitat neighborhood that I hadn't been able to track down when I went to visit their houses. There is a business that is going to donate Christmas gifts for all of the kids in Habitat Houses. I think its awesome that a business is so willing to look out for these kids, especially over the Holidays.

Ok, really, I don’t have all that much to write about, but am mostly just excited that I CAN write. This new addition to my household will mean that you all will get a more in depth picture of what I am doing, but that there will be like 4 new entries in one day… that I will upload when I drag my butt to the internet. Ok, love, love, love ya friends and family. Keep the emails coming!

So, I am pretty much the worst blogger ever! I apologize to all my readers (I sound so important when I say that) for being so inconsistant in my posting. It is that some days the Habitat webfiltering blocks blogger, but today it let me get on, so I am goign to aprovechar, and I will try to make up for my previous blogging deficiencies with a long, detailed blog today. I will try to keep it from being boring though.

Examenes- This week was exam week for my adult English class in the noches. Actually, they were scheduled for last week, but there were such aguaceros (torrential rain) that one night 0 people showed up for class, and the other night only a few could come. So, we postponed the tests. on Friday they took the written and listening portions, and on Monday they did short presentations as an oral exam. On Monday, I baked apple pie and brought it so that we could eat while they were doing their presentations. We have recently been learning food vocabulary, and they had mentioned that they wanted some typical American food. I figured apple pie was about as comida tipica as you get. I am so proud of my students! Most of them got As and Bs, and the lowest grade was a 65% (but she admitted outright that she hadn't studied at all). The high schoolers have their tests tomorrow and Monday, and I hope that they do as well.

Teaching-Yeah, um, my 6th graders made me cry on Tuesday. Its not even as if they were any worse than usual (they are ALWAYS awful), but if just got to me more that day. I was tryign to explain to them how I had a fun day planned, where we were going to have like a little ? words olympics (they'll be learning words like "How much" "Who" and "How long"). However, they wouldn't stop talking long enough for me to explain it! There are 3 girls in particular who give me nothing but attitude, it is a serious falta de respeto. Anyway, I let my emotions get the best of me, and I started crying, then, I was embarrassed to be crying, and that made me cry more. It was awful. I am going to try and meet with the principal tomorrow and talk to her about how we can make these rude kids obey.

First communions- On Sunday, we celebrated the first communions in Santa Rosa. There were two celebrations in my extended host family: Frander and Gerard, my host nephews. Eric (the volunteer who I replaced) arrived in Santa Rosa last year on the day that they were celebrating the third graders' first communions- he told me that it was craziness; he arrived to meet our whole host family all at once (there must be like 50 of them) at a big party in Gaudy and Hilbert's house. Our family is definitely escandolosa (loud!) and I can understand how hard and overwhelming it must have been for him to be instroduced to the community in that way. At least I have three months of family under my belt already, so I was a little bit more prepared, but it was still a LONG day! We went to mass in the morning, and most of the family sat together. I woke up with an awful cold and was sneezing all through the service. I was pretty miserable, and Marta kept looking at me and giving me this look that seemed to convey "Mikey, you look miserable, but its kind of funny". From the misa we headed to Wilma's house to celebrate. On the table were two beautiful cakes, one for each boy. One was shaped like a Bible, the other said ¡Felicidades!. There were a ton of people there, but it was probably one of the most successfully executed parties I have ever been to, in any country. When we arrived, there were chairs set up, and there were actually enough! Then, Margoth and Silvana brought around little cups of rompope (a lot like Eggnog- with alcohol for the adults, virgin Rompope for the kids) for everyone. Padre Pablo then led us in a prayer, and we toasted the two young men with our rompope. Then, everyone immediately had a bowl of delicious posole (a soup of hominy, pork, and other delicousness). As soon as we finished the posole, someone took the bowl, and replaced it with a plate of rice, some tasty pork, and a potato salad. Plus, a homeade refresco of kas. But wait, there is more! After this main course came desert: individualized dishes of something that they called crema alemana which was kind of like pudding, but fluffier, and with graham cracker crumbles on top. Then, there was a short respite, and out came a HUGE container of icecream, which was spooned into cones and given to everyone who could manage to stuff something else into their stomachs. By this point, it was about 3pm, which is the traditional time for the Costa Rican cafecito. Out came the coffee, accompanied by a variety of pastries, crousants, and cakes. There were also tacos. Throughout all of this, the two huge cakes sat on the table, and I kept thinking"they can't possibly expect us to eat the cakes!I will explode!" As it turned out, the cakes were for the next day, (but they brought me a piece at my house!). By the time Marta, Patri, and I left, it was 5 pm, and I was exhausted. My cold definitely hadn't improved. I went home, took a sudafed, and fell asleep until about 6:30. When I woke up and wandered back over to Marta's house, she informed me that we were going back to Wilma's. I tagged along, and there were still about 20 people sitting around chatting and drinking and eating. I couldn't believe it. I apparently don't have the party stamina that Santa Rosans do. I probably gained like 20 pounds, but I didn't even care. It was a really fun day, and I was glad that I was able to celebrate it with my familia tica.

Centro Infantil- Dustin (the other international volunteer, who lives in Alajuela) has been a huge help with our childcare center project! He got in touch with some architects, and it looks like he found one that is willing to draw us a building plan, for free! This is awesome, because once we have plans, we can estimate costs, and once we know about how much it would cost to build the building, I can start fundraising and grant writing and searching for that amount. So, Dustin came up to the village last weekend to take pictures and measure the lot that has already been donated. I am super excited about these developments, and hope that things keep going smoothly. Also, I am applying for a grant of like 8000 Euros from the German Embassy- it will be totally awesome if we get it! However, there are a lot of hoops I have to jump through first, so we'll see.

That's probably good for now- a little update on how I have been doing. Tuanis-

Post rapido

Heyo-
I, as always, am waiting for a bus, but am gonna try and write a quick post in the 15 minutes that I have. Actually, I am gonna make two short lists: one of things that I am loving about being here right now, and another of the things that I am not digging so much right this second. That way, more content, less time. Who needs sentences? (this coming from the girl who spent all of last year studying pronouns =))

Loving:
-My friends here
-The fact that we got a donation and maybe (fingers crossed) will be building a hydroponics greenhouse soon.
-The fact that Caty and Nancy are for sure coming down on December 26th to visit me! I am so excited! I have so many ideas for things for us to do!
-Walking in the mornings- the only time its not raining- gorgeous.
-The card game UNO, and dominoes.

Not loving so much:
-Rain all the time.
-Mudslides that trap us on the mountain
-How expensive it is to call home.
-How inefficient somethings can be.

Ok, times up, gotta run. I'll try and post more later this week. I am working at a Habitat bnefit concert on Saturday-Mal Pais- and will probably be able to parar at an Internet cafe.

Hugs!

Greetings from Panama

Hey y'all- This blog is coming at you straight from Panama City, Panama. When I decided to come to CR, they told me that I had a couple of options in th Visa department: I could go through the official channels and get a work visa and residence permit or I could just stay on a tourist visa, but I would have to leave the country every 90 days to keep it valid. So, here I am in Panama, spending 72 hours outside of the country in order to be legit for another 3 months.

The bus ride took 15 hours. I am traveling with the only other Habitat volunteer in CR, Dustin. We left San Jose at noon on Wednesday, and got to Panama City at 4 am. We hung around the bus station for a couple of hours, and then headed straight to the Miraflores Locks at the Panama Canal. When we got there, we were informed that it didn't open for another 2 hours... so we waited some more =) . Once we finally got in, it was pretty impressive- we saw a huge ship get pushed through the locks on its way to the Atlantic. There was also a museum anda video- it was one of the more touristy things I have done since I left the U.S. I liked it.

After the canal, Dustin and I embarked on a search for our hostel. We took a cab from the locks, and told the driver what hostel we were hoping to stay at. He dropped us off on a corner, and told us that it was right around the way. Well, we walked to where it should have been, and discovered that it had been torn down =( The same story applied to our second choice. That cab driver is a hobo. Finally, thanks to Dustin's navigational skills, we found the Voyager Backpacker's hostel- not exactly luxurious, but it has beds, and only costs $11 a night (including breakfast).

Panama is WAY hotter than Costa Rica (especially in comparison to Santa Rosa). Our hostel doesn't have AC, but at least it has fans. I am super reminded of a hostel that we stayed in in Rome- The Yellow. It was hot and a bit sketchy, but had character. The rest of today we spent eating lunch, gelato, and window shopping. Apparently, everything is waycheaper in Panama, so our host families gave us lists of things that they want us to bring back. I just woke up from a nice nap, took a shower, and feel way less sticky and hot now that its dark out. Dustin is downstairs using a payphone, and then I think we're gonna get dinner. So, that's Panama so far.

Emo Mikey

Last night, I went out to dinner and drinks with my cousin Brent who is here in CR. He is here opening up a site for Amazon.com. He was in the newspaper here like a month ago and I showed all my coworkers. I am really proud of him; he is super successful but still really young and fun. Since he is from the older generation of cousins and from Texas, we actually don't know eachother all that well. We didn't grow up together like the cousins that are my age or from AZ. I was telling him that he has the family image of being "the funny one". And, my family aren't liars-I had a good time hanging out with him. He also brought me a big bag of goodies like Goldfish crackers and Doritos and Reeses- I am super excited! We went to dinner at this restaurant in the mountains of Heredia. It was comida tipica, but pretty good. I honestly was just excited to be able to speak in English and make movie quotes and have someone know what I was talking about! After dinner we had to push our taxi up a little hill, and I totally ate it and fell. Embarrassing! Apparently the wine at dinner affected me more than I thought =) We also went to a bar in central Heredia, and talked about a lot of different stuff. It was nice to have a meaningful conversation- when it comes down to it I just can't have those kinds of talks in Spanish- I am not that good yet.

He kept joking with me that I should "sell out" and go into business or something, so that way I can have money to help people the way I want. We actually talked a lot about my future, and it got me thinking. Most days, I am content to not know right now what I am going to do with my life. I have changed a lot from a year ago when I was applying to graduate schools and thought that I had it all figured out. When I came here I told myself that I was going to stay open to all different types of opportunities, and not be closed minded. Brent made a good point- I only know the things that I have encountered- but there are definitely a ton of things out there that I haven't even heard of that I could love to do, and would be really good at. About a month and a half ago I made a list of some of some possible life scenarios that I would like to be in-in like twenty years. Then, I made another list of what steps I need to be taking to make those scenarios possible. I don't know. I still don't have it all figured out, and I need to stop thinking that I do. Sometimes I think that I get so caught up in thinking that I know everything, I end up acting ignorant and ridiculous. Like with politics- I have been espousing my views on Barack Obama and singing his praises, but when it comes down to it, I really don't know that much about him. I am probably not making any sense. Just thinking out loud.

I am actually feeling pretty down today. I have been on the verge of tears all morning, and I am not exactly sure why. I kind of felt this way after Matt and Stephanie left from their visit down here, too. It's almost like I can ignore the things that I miss about home until I hang out with someone that reminds me. Now I just feel really homesick and alone. Then I feel worse, because I know that in the States I would have Caty or Britney or Erica to go to, and they would cheer me up, but here I don't have anyone like that. I am missing my girlfriends, and going out to eat with them, and just simple everyday stuff that we did.

I need to stop writing. I am turning into that EMO girl that writes about her feelings in her blog. Next thing you know I will be posting poems with really deep meanings and getting tattoos of broken hearts and crying roses =). Actually, getting this crap out has made me feel a little bit better (thank you Pennebaker). Don't worry, I am sure that EMO MIKEY won't be here that long, and PEPPY OPTIMISTIC MIKEY will be back for the next blog entry.

Solo quiere basilar

It seems like this week I had quite a few moments where I thought: I need to put this in my blog. Some were funny, some serious. So, here you are:

One of Marta's grown daughters, Leonore, invited me to the rezo (prayer and Rosary) that they hold annually to remember her husband's death. I accepted, even though I was pretty nervous about going to a recitation of the Rosary when I do not in fact know how to say the Rosary, especially in Spanish. I can stumble through it in English (we Presbyterians know the "Our father", and I can pick up on the rest by the second recitation) but I am absolutely hopeless when it comes to Catholic ceremonies in Spanish. As I may have already noted in an early blog- I demonstrated this incompetence when asked to say grace at dinner at Don Abdon's house. I said the classic: thanks for the food, for each other, watch over and guide us- pretty proficiently. But then everyone looked at me awkwardly, and someone else mercifully led them through the Lord's prayer without me. I didn't know that was part of grace here. Similarly, I went to mass once and was pretty lost. In any case, I went to the Rezo, assured by Marta that no one was going to be offended that if I didn't recite along with them. Leo's oldest son Pablo is a priest, and he was officiating. It was actually a really awesome experience. The whole family got together, prayed, and then had a cafecito. I admire that they still take the time to remember their deceased husband/father/uncle/son in a formal way, even though he died thirteen years ago. Marta was pretty curious how we mourn someone in the United States. She says that mourning is a big deal here, with 9 days straight right after the death, and then a big ceremoney one year later, and then continued prayer sessions every year thereafter. I explained to her that, while traditions vary by family and religion, I have not experienced grief as as such a formal and extended process. We have a funeral, and we pray there, but after that there is not usually any official celebration. If there is a continued remembrance, it is usually initiated by the family, and usually doesn't keep happening for thirteen years. Of course, every family is different: in my three years volunteering as a grief support group facilitator in Tucson, I was invited to a couple of death-anniversary remembrance ceremonies. Also, my sister and I, and sometimes our friends, try to go to the site where my mom died from time to time and maintain the cross that her friends put there. I do appreciate the respect that Leonore's family has for the memory of their dad; and it wasn't sad. They prayed, and then they drank coffee. It was simple, yet I am sure that their dad would be glad to be remembered in such a way.

This fairly serious family event on Saturday contrasted completely with lunch on Sunday. I thought I was going to go insane! There were probably 15 people in the kitchen; Patri was cleaning out and defrosting the refrigerator, and so there was water and food everywhere. Marta was cooking and serving soup, Gaudi and Sharon were yelling to each other across the house, while Macho was jumping up and down and screaming, but apparently for no specific reason. Leo, Rosita, and I were trying to find room on the cluttered table for the soup bowls we were being handed, while also locating spoons, and quieting Macho, and arranging chairs. It was, to say the least, chaotic. I finished my lunch in half the time that it took everyone else, mostly because I couldn't follow the 5 different conversations closely enough to contribute. So, I ate quickly and in silence, and then hastily gave up my seat to someone else who needed it. I had to go lay down afterwards, because I was a little bit stressed out. After more than two months here, I am pretty confident in my Spanish skills, but this was defiinitely a scenario where they failed me. My Spanish also proves pretty weak when I go out dancing with Dixie and Nelson; loud music isn't conducive to serious conversation in any language, but it's even harder for me when it isn't my first language.

Speaking of dancing, I went to Los Pinares (the only bar in Santa Rosa) with most of my friends here to watch the Costa Rica-Surinam fútbol match on Satruday. I even dressed in Red and Blue (national colors). We destroyed Surinam, 7-0. It was fun. Afterward, we stayed and danced a bit. I was wearing my crocs (not exactly high class attire) but didn't really worry about it (I stand out no matter what I wear here). I got more awkward when Rene asked me to dance Merengue with him- I am not so good at Merengue yet. And then, to make matters worse, the DJ (who lives in a Habitat house) decides to give me a shout out over the loudspeaker and comment on my dancing skills. I was bastante embarrassed! But wait, there's more: Cuti (the DJ) then proceeded to play a Phil Collins song and dedicate it to me. Everyone sat down and stopped dancing, and I was left to regret ever having mentioned to Cuti my dorky obsession with old Phil Collins music. I survived the verguenza (embarrassment) however, and ended up havind a pretty fun night. For some reason, my friends decided that I needed a theme song. They narrowed it down to 2 options. The first one's lyrics go: "ella no tiene novio, solo quiere basilar" (She doesn't have a boyfriend, she just wants to joke around). The other option goes: "¿Tan bonita para que? Si no tiene alma, ¿Tan bonita para que? Si no tiene corazon" (which means, So pretty for what? if she doesn't have a soul, so pretty for what? if she doesn't have a heart?" I had to assure them that I do indeed have a soul. But, since I have shown no interest in finding a romance in Santa Rosa, they insist I must be heartless. In any case, it was funny, and they were all singing, and the bartender had to come ask them to be quiet.

The Child Care Center committee is making me happy: they are taking more initiative to plan things, and are not relying on me to do all of the work, as much. This is a necessary step, especially since the Child Care Center is a really long term project, and there is no way that we are going to be able to get it up and runnign while I am here. It's just not possible. So, I was ecstatic when Doña Rosario approached me and said that she want to organize a karaoke night to benefit the Centro Infantil. We are planning to hold the event in October, with food and prizes and music. We even had a meeting and divided up planning responsibilites. I hope that it all turns out well. Today I worked on writing a grant for the Child Care Center (first in English, now I am translating). It's boring. But hopefully it gets us some plata (money). Sometimes I worry that I am doing all of this work, and it won't amount to anything. But that's only on days when I am being negative. Usually I am pretty optimistic. Today, I am somewhere in between.

That's all I have for now.

Bar fight

So, the past two weeks were the annual town-wide fiestas (think a combination of tiny county fair and rodeo days). They kicked the weekend off with a Tope- which is like a parade, except there are only horses. A bunch of horses. We basically ate and danced all day. I can now do something that resembles an ugly form of Cumbia. Thus, keeping with the festivities, I went to my first baile in the village, at the only bar there is in town: Los Pinares. It was fun, crowded, and everyone in the community was there-the prinicipal of my elementary school, some of my fifth graders (apparently they don't ask for ID at the door). Dixie (my best village friend) was having some boyfriend drama because her novio said he was going to come, then called and said he was sick, then showed up like 30 minutes later dancing with another girl and not even acknowledging Dixie. In my book, that is enough to be pissed off about, but she seemed to be taking it pretty well. As the end of the night came around, we were all dancing to some salsa, and Dixie was dancing with her brother, Rene. Rene proceeded to punch Damian (Dixie's now EX-boyfriend) in the face, and Dixie was quite caught up in the middle of it. Usually, when a fight at a concert or a bar breaks out, I would try and get as far away as possible. However, I don't have a ton of friends in Santa Rosa yet, and I didn't exactly feel like watching Dixie get the crap beat out of her. Thus, I proceeded to jump in too =) The boy I was dancing with was spending his time trying to pull me out, as I was simultaneously trying to extracate Dixie. With the help of the bouncer, the situation was diffused: Dixie was crying and had a broken high heel, Dixie an Rene's mom (who was watching all of this ensue) was outside yelling at Damian in Spanish (I didn't quite catch all of it, but it wasn't good), and I gathered up all of our stuff from the table we were sitting at and that everyone else had left in the drama. So, there we were, outside in the cold, regrouping to head home. Suddenly, Rene runs right past me and jumps on Damian (I am not quite sure why he would come back). I turn, wielding 2 huge umbrellas that I had just collected from the table, and start yelling in Spanglish about how Rene is to stop right this instant and come home with us! Looking back now, it was hilarious. At the time, a little disconcerting. In any case, the night ended up fine, and now I have a single girlfriend to hang out with, instead of one that was always busy with her lame boyfriend!

While bar fights are fun and all, I have been doing other stuff. Last week I went with a group of like 30 people from Habitat International on a tour of a housing community in Northern Costa Rica, as well as some sight seeing. Basically, I was invited along because 1- I speak Enlgish, 2- I can tell the international people about what we are doing in Costa Rica, and 3- I can be charming and try and get them excited to send funds to our projects =) It turns out that the group was made up of the people who work for Habitat in the States doing fundraising and finances. This was a really awesome group of people to spend my day with! I don't think that I have posted it here yet, but lately I have been thinking about changing my life plan (I'm still mulling it over though, nothing definite). I may want to go into non-profit management when I get back, specifically into resource development (read: fundraising). Thus, it was a lucky break that I found myself on a bus with 30 people who are doing exactly what I would like to be doing in the near future. I got some really good advice on how to go about enacting this new, different life plan, and made some really good contacts. So, we'll see. Also, it was nice to eat at nice restaurants and see touristy stuff like volcanoes for a day (especially since Habitat was footing the bill).

Let's see, what else have I been up to? Dustin, who is the only other U.S. volunteer in the country, came and saw my community this weekend. He came up to S.R. on Saturday, hung out, met my friends, saw the houses, etc. We went to a party at Dixie and Rene's house, and somehow Dustin ended up getting people to do the limbo. It was fun, though not nearly as dramatic as the previous weekend with all the dancing and fighting; I hope that he wasn't disappointed.

I am sure that I am forgetting a ton of stuff, but oh well. Thanks for all the emails I have been getting! I love hearing from y'all!

Cooking, coffee, dancing; in that order

Hey all-

I feel like August hasn't been all that eventful; not much to report. I have been integrating into Santa Rosa pretty effectively, even making friends. I walked with a bunch of my host cousins and some friends from Santa Rosa to Cartago (about 2.5 hours, but all down hill) on a Catholic pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Los Angeles. The Virgin of Los Angeles is the patron of Costa Rica, easily equatable to the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico. People walk from as far as Nicaragua (some on their knees) to come to Cartago and see a tiny little statue that, legend has it, was discovered like 300 years ago, someone tried to take home, but kept miraculously reapperaring in the same spot. Plus, she has healing properties. When we got there there were, literally, like a million people, so needless to say we didn't see "la negrita" (it's a statue made of black rock) or even make it inside the church. Still, it was really impressive. It felt like a rock concert (and there was music) but instead of drugs and beer there was praying and people on their knees.

The day after our long walk (not gonna lie- I was pretty sore) I went dancing with my friend Nelson from S.R. It was so fun! Straight out of Dirty Dancing Havana Nights (ok, that was a lame reference. I am just kidding. But it was fun). I am still ignorant of Merengue and Cumbia, but am getting a hang of salsa, and Reggaetón doesn't change from Mexico to here. Plus, I am digging the Brazilean dance stuff a lot. When I got home it was the madrugada (new word=really late night) and I was exhausted. I have also started doing yoga again daily, so if I get fat, don't blame me. Or maybe, do blame me. I drink a ridiculous amount of coffee each day, and with that ususally comes a ton of bread.

I am finally getting used to the food, or rather, my family is getting used to the way I eat. They just don't do vegetables here. I gave up waiting for my fridge to come (it has disappeared into the pits of Cartago delivery men) and just asked Marta if I can keep stuff in her's. I went grocery shopping on Saturday at Hipermas, which is pretty much a Tico Walmart. It was like heaven! I realize that I am probably going to hell for equating Walmart to heaven, but it was really awesome to be able to buy everything you need in one place, without having to beware of pick pockets (a danger in the Cartago food mercado). However, I will keep going to the mercado for some veggies, because I seem to have made a friend. One of the vendors hooks me up everytime; last week I bought 5 tomatoes, 4 bananas, a star fruit, and a cucumber for US $1. Anyway, I cooked Mexican food for my host family (tacos, nothing fancy), but they actually liked it. I think I am going to introduce them to enchiladas next. You would be surprised at how much they don't like spicy food here, though. They say I have strong taste buds, which we all know is very much not the case. Also on the food note, I can now make torillas, from scratch. I am pretty proud. Plus, they are actually pretty good- round, fairly thin. I'll have a tortilla exhibition when I get back.


After about a zillion failed meeting attempts, I finally got together with the director of the colegio (high school), and arranged to start teach English classes to the ninth graders. Santa Rosa's colegio is actually a "telesecundaria", which only goes up to the ninth grade. There are 3 teachers, and what they don't know thye have videos for. The person who is currently teaching English to all 60ish students is a Chemistry and Science professor. He is really nice, but admits that his English abilities, while pretty good, don't necessarily make him qualified to teach it, expecially conversationally. It would be like me trying to teach Spanish in the States. I could do it, but it would be ugly. Anyway, I started last Friday, and it went pretty well. They are all really quiet, and I have to convince them to participate. Pretty much the exact opposite of the problem I have with the 5th graders. Speaking of 5th graders, I showed up to school on Monday, and my classroom was FULL of construction materials (for the roof they are putting over the patio). Doña Emily, the directora, told me she was sorry, and that I would have to figure out something to do. She didn't actually seem that sorry, but there was nothing I could do. I canceled class on Mon. and we had class outside on Tuesday (it wasn't that bad). I didn't mind having an extra day off from the kids.

Pretty much, things are good. Sometimes I wish that the projects could move a little faster, but that's just the way it is. Miss y'all

5th grade diablos

Remind me not to teach 5th grade when I come back to the U.S., ok?

Playa Conchal...acabangado

So, this weekend my friends Matt and Stephanie from Arizona came to visit me. They took a vacation from their vacation from thier vacation, since they were in Guatemala and made a little side trip down to see me. It was awesome! But now that they've gone I feel way more homesick that I have thus far. My host family tells me that acabangado, is the word they use to say something akin to homescikness, or missing something. In any case, I'll tell you about the weekend trip, because it was amazing!

Matt and Stephanie's flight arrived on Friday, and I met up with them at the National Theatre in San Jose. We walked around the city, and met up with my new Peace Corps friend Mario at our hotel, Talamanca. The hotel was weirdly nice, with a huge bathtub and paintings of the coloseum anda terrace. When we walked in, it was kind of surreal. We joked about filming a talk show on the huge couches. All 4 of us went out to dinner and ate some pizza that tasted like nacho cheese (which did not detract from its deliciousness) and I discovered a love for Latin American beer. On Saturday, we got up and took the 8 am bus to Playa Conchal, in the Guanacaste Province. I had gone 2 days earlier to buy our tickets, and had gotten totally lost. -Everyone I asked for directions told me to go somewhere completely different. One woman I asked for help told me that I should give up, find a taxi, and get the hell out of that part of town because I was going to get mugged. I obviousl didn't heed that advice, and 2 rainy hours later finally found the nearly invisible bus station.

The bus ride took 6 hours, but it was worth it! We stayed in Playa Brasilito, then walked like 5 minutes down the beach to Playa Conchal. Playa conchal has bright blue-aquamarine water, and beautiful tropical fish (I know because I saw them when I went snorkeling). The sand is clean, and gorgeous. It is called Conchal because it is a beach made up of smashed sea shells. Everyone else thought it was the craziest thing ever that the beach wasn't soft sand (they don't have beaches like that in Costa Rica), and it was really pretty, but it also reminded me a lot of the sand in Rocky Point (minus the broken glass and hyperdermic needles). Apparently Mexico is where its at. I would show you some pictures, but my "waterproof" digital camera broke the first day at the beach (Note- Pucture to right is me using camera in water- a bad idea). Matt and Steph are taking it back to the states with them. It is new, so it will hopefully be under warranty. But for now, I am without picture capabilities, so I will need to get really good at desscribing things in writing. This picture I got off of the inernet, but really, it looks like that. Update- I stole pictures from Matt and Steph, so you have some idea of what it was like now.

We met up with 5 of Mario's Peace Corps friends, and they were all really nice. Between my two beach excursions, I have gotten acquainted with some seriously awesome people. We just had an all-around good time. Our hotel was nice and air conditioned, the restaurant was muy delicioso (if more expensive than I am used to paying for food here). I had the best hamburger of my trip, and maybe my life. They just don't usually do ground beef very well here. This burger must have been imported. We hung out, ate, drank, played in the ocean, and enjoyed ourselves. It didn't rain once, I didn't get sunburned or feel hungover, and have relatively few mosquito bites- I am pretty sure I found heaven. I was sad to leave on Monday morning, but still glad that we didn't miss our bus.

Matt and Steph were kind enough to come up to Santa Rosa with me for their last night and see how I live. Seeing thier reactions reminded me of how surprised I was when I first got there. It just isn't what you picture CR looking like. Seeing them off left me muy acabangado; it was nice to have people that already know the background for the stories I tell. It was also nice ot catch up in person and hear how everyone is doing.

I feel like if my first month-ish here is any indication of how the next 8.5 are going to go, then I am one lucky girl. I have seen two beautiful beaches on two different oceans, met a lot of really nice people, and even had some friends come visit me. I may be setting the bar for the rest of my stay too high. Veremos I guess.

Ciao

Buenas tardes. This has been an interesting week for me. Eric left for the U.S., so I feel like I am really getting started now, wokring on my own. The kids came back from vacation, and we have had a few days of successful class. They all say that I am more ¨brava¨than Eric, which means that I am meaner/more strict, depending on how you want to interpret it.

I am getting pretty comfortable in the community. Doña Marta and I made bread on Tuesday, and it was delicious. We also went and visited some of the fmily members. Marta is just a really cool older lady. She was telling me about hwo she got married at 14, and that her dad chose her husband for her. Luckily for her, Poncho is really cool. She was telling me how she is very anti-making your kids get married, and how women should have rights, and how it is fine ifI invite boys over. It was all quite cute. She is really progressive for someone who had to drop out of school at like 9 to work, and whose dad wouldn´t let her got to church without permission. SHe reminds me of my real grandma- really awesome.

The dramatic event of the week was that a horse died in Las Rosas (the Habitat housing community). My 4 year old host cousin came over to my house to tell me all about it, in pretty graphic detail. He wasn't sure exactly what it died of though, only that there was a lot of blood. I think this is rather an odd coincidence, because quite a few of the residents had been complaining to me about how a horse kept getting into their yards and gardens and messing stuff up. Foul play perhaps? Probably not, but it makes my life seem more dramatic if I pretend it was murder. I am pretty sure it fell down and broke its leg.

I went out for the first time in Heredia (where I stay on Wednesday nights when I work at the office) last night. I hung out with Mario, a boy I met at the beach in Cahuita, who lives in Heredia as a Peace Corps volunteer. It was weird, because I got carded to get into the bar we went to. You never get carded in Costa Rica! Anyway, I don't carry my passport around, but I had a copy and that sufficed. They show the weirdest things on television here! In the time we were at the bar, we literally say a man light his genitals on fire, and another one get a piercing in that same part of his anatomy. I don't get it. In any case, we ate dinner and had fun, and am excited to have made a friend.

The plan is to go the beach at Playa Conchal this weekend. Matt and Stephanie are coming to visit me, as a side trip from Guatemala, and it's gonna be fun. I'll let you know how it goes.

Who knew that Michael Jackson was still cool? I sure didn’t

Heeeeeyyyyy. So, it’s Wednesday, which means I’m in the office again. I feel justified in writing my own personal blog though, because the internet is down right now, so most of the work on the Habitat website that I SHOULD be getting done, I can’t do right now. This last week has been good. Pretty laid back. Eric was gone all last week translating in another province, so I had the chance to hang out in the community by myself. It was kind of nice. I spent a good deal of time with Doña Marta, drinking café and watching novellas (they’re like soap operas, but not just in the middle of the day). She is helping me get caught up on a couple of them, so maybe, one day, I will actually be able to follow the plot. I am still waiting for my refrigerator to show up; it’s been two weeks, and we can’t get a hold of the guy who has it. Maybe he stole it? More likely, he just operates on the Latin American clock, where things happen when they happen. Pura Vida I guess. Linguistic side note… Pura Vida is the national slogan, which literally means Pure Life. It is used as the generic reply to everything. Example: ¨How are you?¨ answer: ¨Pura Vida¨. I was also really excited, because Habitat issued me a laptop to use in the village. That way, I could write blogs and work on stuff there, and then just come into town to put everything on line. However, I used it exactly one and a half times, and it stopped working. We’ll see if I ever get it back. I have my doubts. Pura Vida.

I also officially took over teaching English to the adults. It is going pretty well. I gave them an exam on Monday, and most got decent grades. One of the girls told me that I’m much more ¨brava¨ than Eric, which I am pretty sure means that I am more strict, and put up with less crap. There are two boys (13 years old-ish) who come to the adult class and are ALWAYS TALKING, and joking. They’re funny, but it’s pretty disruptive. My first day, I taught them the words be quiet and quit talking. Now at least, when they get on my nerves, I can chastise them in English, and they’ll know what I mean. I also taught them no cheating before the test, however, I have my doubts about whether they all followed those instructions. Actually, I’m pretty sure that a few of them did copy, but since it’s a class that they elect to come to, and their grades don’t really count for anything, it’s their loss if they choose not to learn the material and cheat instead.

I went to my first Costa Rican party on Saturday. Dixie (Eric’s host sister/ my host cousin/ the community leader’s daughter) turned 19, and invited me to come celebrate. It was like a party in the U.S. in that there was lots of drinking (one girl flat passed out on the front lawn), food, and inter-gender drama. There was also, less typical of an American house party, lots of dancing. They rocked a lot of electronica (it all sounded the same- may have been multiple songs, or just one REALLY long canción) and then we switched to Salsa. I have always wanted to learn, and I got my chance. Nelson, one of Dixie’s friends, taught me the basics. I can now do the standard steps, plus some twirls, and even a little bit of combo-dip action. It was really fun! I can’t wait until the next event where I can practice my mad salsa skills. I had to do a bit of fending off of male attention, but it was all in all a good night.

Speaking of music, funny story. I was visiting families with Eric on Sunday, and met pretty much the funniest Tico (Costa Rican) I’ve yet encountered. He is the dad in one of the Habitat families, and he’s a part time DJ. I know this, because he had us sit in his kitchen for a good 2 hours watching old music videos. Michael Jackson was definitely cooler when he was still black. I can make an informed decision on this matter because I was privileged enough to watch a good number of his music videos, spanning from black and good to alien and not so good. He was also pretty excited to hear about how much I like Phil Collins (I know, I’m weird), and regaled me with some music videos from him too. I was trying really hard to keep a straight face when he asked me if I knew who Michael Bolton was. Fantastic!

On a more serious, actually work-related note, last Thursday, I was able to travel to Cartago with the other members of the Child Care Center committee to see a functioning Guardería that a woman there started on her own. It was really enlightening. It helped me to see her setup, and listen to her suggestions for getting started. Her best advice seemed to be ¨start small¨. Right now, we are still looking into funding a new building on a spare lot that was gifted to us for the purpose of a day care. In the meantime, though, we would like to start a community home in Doña Rosario’s house. Here, we could start with a small service, watching a few children, meanwhile pursuing the construction of the bigger childcare center. That way, at least a few mothers would be able to have their children well taken care of while they went to work. It is gonna be a lot of work, but if we can make this child care center happen, it will really be a big help to the families in the community who could really use 2 incomes, but where the mom has to stay home and watch the kids.

The pictures are just for fun. One is of a bunch of cows that live next to my house. The other one is a Tucan. They have this weird zoo-ish place up the hill from my house, where they have 2 monkeys, a peacock, and a Tucan. I would think they'd get cold... but who knows. Ok, I’m gonna think about working for a bit. Love y’all

Teaching English

So, I thought it was about time I posted something pertaining to the work I´m doing here. One of my responsibilities here is teaching English class. I have a 5th grade class, a 6th grade class, and a class of high schoolers and adults 3 nights per week. The fifth and sixth graders are on vacation for 2 weeks, but when they come back I will start teaching them alone. I´ve been helping Eric teach for the past 2 weeks, so the kids have started getting to know me, and I have gotten idea of how Eric ran the class. On the last day of class, we had a party! It was a U.S. themed party (since its an English class); we made Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and ate oreos (a pretty American combination). At first, the kids were really grossed out by the idea of PBJs, but by the end of the class period they were (literally, and with Eric´s encouragement) eating the Peanut butter straight out of the jar with their hands. See pictures (ps, I was taking the pictures, so I'm not in any)

The nightime class is a different story. They are older, quieter, and for the most part more focused. They don´t have to come, so they seem to be much more interested in actually learning when they´re in the classroom. There are definitely a couple of high school boys that goof off, but its a good group. I took over the adult class on Monday. Eric is out of town this week, so I had the opportunity to teach my first solo class. I spent a lot of time (maybe more than neccessary) preparing the lesson, and walked up the hill to the school. The system here is weird. They don´t make keys to the school, for anybody. Pretty much only the director and the janitor have them. So, every night before class I have to stop by the janitor´s house to get teh keys. Monday, she was out of town. So was the rest of her family. We had no place to hold class. I enlisted the help of one of the adult students, and she helped me find the janitor´s sister´s house (I think it was the sister). That was who told us they were out of town. So, we ended up sitting outside in the park reviewing for the test that I had planned for Thursday.

On Tuesday before class, I again went to get the keys; they were home! Yay! However, I was promptly informed that, since the kids are on vacation, we aren´t allowed to use the school at night time either. I kind of wished that someone had thought to tell me this before, but ok. Again with the help of Grace (the same adult student who came to my rescue on Monday) we tracked down the keys to the community center and held class there. Plus, Grace fed me dinner, which was nice. We held class in the Salòn communal, sans chalkboard or any other teaching device. I guess the upside of all these complications is that I had to move the test back, and they get more time to study. We played some FRUIT BASKET UPSET to practice making sentences (thank you drama class) and everything went pretty well. Today at the office, I wrote their tests, and even made a kind of study sheet summarizing all of the concepts we´ve learned- Don´t tell Eric though. He´s really big on being environmentally conscious and saving paper, and he´ll probably be mad to know I printed fifteen copies of the study sheet =)

I have also become somewhat of the family tutor. One of my host cousins (Anjoletta) is in college, and comes by some nights for help with her English homework. She´s really nice, and I´m hoping we can become friends. Also, yesterday two of my 9 year old cousins showed up at my door, notebooks and pencils in hand, saying ¨teach us English¨. I let them come in, and we had a little English lesson at my kitchen table. They can now greet people, say goodbye, and say a few polite words like ¨bless you¨. They´re really cute. They informed me that they´re not allowed to be in the same class in school anymore because Gerard got caught cheating and copying Frander´s work. Random people on the street are always yelling ¨Hello¨or ¨Goodmorning¨. They´re all very proud of what English they know. I think I´m really gonna like the teaching part of this assignment. They´re all so excited to be learning that its really hard for me not to be excited to be teaching them.

Weekend in Cahuita

So, here is an update of my long holiday weekend; I was miserably sick to start off with. On Wendesday, I lost my voive completely, and had the worst cold ever. On Thursday, we went to the Habitat office, and I was miserable all day, but was toughing it out. Then, near the end of the day, all the skin around my eye started puffing up, and by the time we got home on the bus I looked like a cyclop because I was sick, couldn´t breath or speak, and one eye was swollen nearly shut. I get the weirdest hives (we call it ¨the itchy¨) at the weirdest times, often when i get a cold. So, I trecked out from Helen´s house in Heredia on Thursday night, found a pharmacy, and bought some benadryl. Interesting fact about Latin Ameircan pharmacy service: you can buy just one pill. I know this now because the pharmacist asked me how much benadryl I wanted, and i replied on (thinking that he would hand me one PACKAGE, of 20 or something) but no, I got one pill. I had to complete a second trasaction to get 10 pills. So, I went straight to bed, super drugged up, hoping that i could recover before our 4 hour bus ride to the beach the next morning (Friday, the 4th of July)

I woke up Friday a little improved, but not totally. I was pretty upset, because Eric and I were plannign on meeting some of his peace corps friends at the beach, and i didn´t want ot be trying ot make ne wfriends looking like a one eyed alien. However, a few benadryl, some ice, some big sun glasses, and a 4 hour bus ride later, I stepped into Cahuita presentable and ready to celebrate.

This weekend ended up being really fun! We decided to celebrate the 4th of July in true American style: by congregating with as many other Americans as possible, having a bonfire, and drinking =) Cahuita is on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, south of Limon. For you Source friends- it's just about a 30 minute drive north of Puerto Viejo where we did our mission trip in 2005. Anyway, Cahuita is gorgeous! There are two beaches, one in a national park with white sand, and another really awesome, secluded black sand beach. We stayed on the black beach the first night, then moved to a hotel closer to town on the second night.

Eric and I got into town at about 2 in the afternoon on Friday, and met his friend Ana at the bus station. Then, we went out, found a hotel, and headed straight to the beach. There, we met up with some P.C. kids, and swam for the rest of the afternoon. As I was getting introduced around, we were saying where we are from, and where we live in CR, and one guy named Marcus asked where in Arizona I was from. It turns out he's from Sierra Vista! (about 30 minutes from Benson). We know some of the same people. Small world. There was also another boy on the bus to Cahuita wearing a U of A shirt; turns out he went to the U of A. Craziness. The water was warm, and it was sunny, but not grossly hot. We all went to dinner at a really awesome pizza restaurant (I guess that's close enought to American food to count as celebrating our independence, right?) and then headed back to the beach for a bonfire. We all hung out and drank and talked and ended up jumping in the ocean. It rained, and there was even some biolumenescnece in the water. All in all, awesome. Only down sides: something in the water stung me (no big deal though) and I got eaten alive by mosquitos. Plus, there's a dengue outbreak in the area (one of the peace Corps volunteers had it. sounds awful). However, it´'s been a few days and I don't feel dengue-ish, so I think we're in the clear.

All in all, it was a really awesome 4th of July. I hope that you all had fun! Miss you!