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.