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
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