Making Dulce

Here's a video of the sugar cane juice bubbling away to make all sorts of delicious dulce. In fact, enough to put you in a dulce coma....

Because I still refuse to be a tourist

Here are some pictures of my family (my sister, brother, and mother), and a picture of the kinder that I "teach" at.

I'm Lazy or Really Busy

Its been about a month since my last post, and that was just about missing paint, so I will give you all another update. I'm still teaching the kiddies in the primary school. They are overall pretty amazing kids, and I really am falling in love with all of them. I will start teaching the adults in September and having my first real meeting this Wednesday about the class. I am also trying to put in an aqueduct system for my school, and possibly for my community (as I always say: Vamos a ver!). Life has been fairly tranquilo, although as always busy. I saw my first real poisonous snake, it was dead so don't worry about my life being in danger, and my family still refuses to tell me what will happen if the big black spiders bite me (all I can get out of them is they aren't dangerous because I can kill them with my shoe). I'm continuing on my rice and bean diet and failed at convincing my sister that Italian seasoning tastes really good in spaghetti because spaghetti is, well, Italian. I will be baking cookies this weekend too. And for all the women in my life: Happy Mother's Day from Costa Rica. I can't give you all a call and tell you that you are amazing people who have taught me so much and will continue to teach me and be amazing support. I love you all so much!

Paint Thief

There is a paint thief in my house. I have left my watercolors on the top of my dresser/closet/shelving unit, and come back to it to see all the drops of paint have disappeared, only the dried watered down paint remains. First I thought it may be due to the moisture in the air, but realized my clothes would be growing mold by now if that was true. So it is either the tiny ants that wonder around the house, the moths that come in late at night, or perhaps a Tico leprechaun that has an artistic side. Either way the investigation is on.

The Circle of Life

This past week has been one of my busiest and about to get busier. First, I attended 3 important Costa Rican events all in one weekend: a 15th birthday party, a funeral, and a baby shower. Also there is a group of Canadian students that are working on our community kitchen and the church garden. They are all about 16 and well behaved. Next week there is a group of students from the States coming and last year they were, well not the best group of volunteers to come through, so we will see. At least there will be a lot to laugh about with my host mom if this group turns out the same.

Other news, is we are preparing for the fiesta for the school. I may or may not be killing a cow with my uncle, but I'll definitely be spending all day making tamales. I'll also be dancing and maybe winning some bingo.

I've also been doing more house visits. For all you archeology buffs out there, there are giant rocks that have ancient maps of the area carved into them. The indigenous people used these to show where the cemeteries were and where different people's property was. It was pretty neat to see and hopefully next time I visit I can take some pictures and post them.

Overall things are good. I am slowly but surely visiting all the houses in my town and finally remember people's names. Meetings are happening and also not (rain sometimes puts a hamper on how much people want to get out of their houses) (below are pictures of a downpour I got trapped in, also more pictures of the town). I am also still teaching English and helping out with projects. The CAT (community analysis paper I have to write) is starting to stress me out a bit, but one day at a time and I think I'll make it through. And if you ever miss my voice you can always skype call me.

Almost a month in

Well, I've almost made it to the 1 month marker in my service. All is well so far. There seems to be so much to do right now. Next week I'll be helping to plan for the student groups who will be staying a week each (there are 2 of them, one from the states and the other from Canada). This means I need to think of a lot of fun activities to occupy them in the afternoon after they work on projects around the town and eat lunch. I'm also teaching English classes to the Kindergarten, the primary school. Theres about 4-5 kids in the Kindergarten and my class is basically I play with them and tell them different English words for various things (and become exhausted after they all decide they are going to misbehave in various ways at the same time), the primary school kids are much better and its a lot more fun. I have 30 minutes a piece with each group (1st-3rd graders, 15 of them and 4th-6th graders, 14 of these). We do lots of games (some I need to tone down unless I want the parents killing me for ruining their uniforms) and I even give tests! Overall its been quite fun, although I know for sure now I never want to be a teacher.

In the community, I'm still going on house visits. I'm going to try to do many of these next week, since there are fewer meetings this coming week. Of course, this also means I have to call people and talk Spanish on the phone. I was brave enough one night this week to answer the phone (actually twice, but the first time was my friend Georgina). Its strange to think how important actually seeing someone's mouth more is in understanding what they are saying. Although, here in Costa Rica, even if you just set up a time to visit you'll probably end up having lunch or at least cafecita with a snack.

As always I hope all is well with my friends and family. Pura Vida!

Its offical

I´m all settled in to my new home. I´m not going to type much here because the keyboard at this internet cafe is awkward (too bad theres no word in Spanish for awkward). I´ll give you a brief update and later upload an actual blog.

Next week I´ll be starting my English classes with all the kids in the primary school, so that should take up most of my Tuesdays and Thursdays. I´ve already attended some meetings and some project ideas are floating around, including a panadaria (bakery) and a biodigestor. I´m starting to remember peoples names but still have to ask 2 or more times what people´s names are which causes quite a bit of vergüenza. Anyways, I think my Spanish is getting better, or at least people are understanding that they need to speak slowly and are getting used to my bad grammer. Hope all is well in the States and will follow up with a better blog entry and news on how my first class went.