My host-family

After orientation we got an info sheet on our family that told us a little bit about them. We also got a map with everyone's approximate location. I am the closest to the institute...which is cool I guess...less walking in the morning and at night. It seems like I am pretty far away from everyone else, though, which isn't so cool. Seems to be that everyone else has a neighbor who is in our studio.

I ran away and hid in studio while the families showed up for their orientation, and downed some trail mix left over from Keith's house...just for good measure. Finally I figured I had to face the facts and head to the kitchen. Sat there while the families got oriented and noticed two little kids walking around about the same ages as my family...lo and behold, they were.

I packed up the things I would need to bring with me that weren't in my suitcases and waited for the approach. My host-mom is Daisy. She's older and has a daughter, Marlen, who is about 36 or so. Marlen has two kids, Raul (who is almost 4) and Mariana (less than 2). Mariana is quite the little punk. She always seems to have something to cry about and has no sense of how to share yet. Raul is a bundle of energy and a half. He makes me laugh.

We got to the house and I gave Daisy her gift from Buffalo, a snowglobe that made it in one piece all the way across the country, into Honduras, and into her hands in Costa Rica! Thank Goodness! It has the city hall inside, and it snows, obviously. It has a small light inside as well, which is kind of cliche or something, but Raul got a kick out of it, so it's cool by me.

Even though I offered to share a room, I ended up getting my own, which is cool. Marlen and the kids live two houses down the road and just stay at "Tita"s (Grandma's) every once in a while. Daisy is one of the 4 founders of the women's co-op here called CASEM. She said there are now more than 100 women involved, which is pretty neat. She loves to quilt, and there's no translation necessary, as it must be an american word that they picked up, so they just say "quilting" with an accent! She and Marlen both seem to be great artists and their paintings are gorgeous.

Raul likes soccer and told me he wants to be a cowboy when he grows up so that he can ride a horse and take care of the cows. haha. He speaks really quickly and excitedly which is quite entertaining. Daisy said he learned my name the day they received my info sheet, which I think is really cute.

The kids and Marlen went to a birthday party for one of the neighbors while I unpacked and Daisy worked on sewing a purse. When Marlen got back the phone started ringing off the hook for both her and Daisy. It was amusing how many people stopped in, I think there were at least 3 women plus various children throughout the afternoon.

Daisy made chicken, rice, and fried tortillas for dinner which we ate before I did dishes and we walked down to meet Marlen at her house. She suddenly seemed much happier to talk to me and show me through her house. They explained that it used to be her father's wood shop. I still don't know if he and Daisy separated or if he passed away. Marlen's husband is separated from her but Daisy said he is a great dad and a really good person. He still lives in town somewhere and they see him all the time.

After a quick tour of this massive house, we all jumped in the jeep and drove to the school gym where there was an entire night of soccer games going on. It was mostly men in the stands, and all male players. The first game was incredible! I seriously have never seen such skill on an indoor court! During the second game the ball kept getting rocketed our direction so Marlen and Daisy were getting nervous that it would hit one of the kids and we had to leave. Problem with not having a cell phone is I couldn't call Fernando or Keith to let them know I was leaving as Fernando was talking about meeting me down there.

On the way home, we stopped at Dona Noemi's house so that Daisy and Marlen could look at fabric. The kids were being crazy-mischievous and I'm seeing that living with little ones is definitely not going to be all fun and games. Crying ensued and as soon as we got into the car they both conked out. 5 minutes later we were back at Marlen's. I helped carry the kids out of the car and into the house, we said goodnight and Daisy and I walked up the hill to the house.

It's 9 pm. I'm going to sleep. Totally physically and emotionally exhausted from the day and I need to be up at 5 to shower and get my things together before I head down to Santa Elena to catch a bus to San Jose for soccer. At least I get a few days away before the studio work starts.

Strangler Tree Adventure

Host Family Day

Ok--so this morning I was nervous beyond belief. Woke up rushed down to eat a quick fruit b.fast (I wasn't feeling the beans and rice this am), then ran back to the cabin where I found there was no running water to be had and therefore went sans shower...boo. Packed all of my stuff up, as Anibal was going to bring it over to the institute, and headed back to make myself a sandwich for lunch before jumping into the busito and heading to Spanish class. All of this by 8am!

Spanish was great. I really like the professor, Cristina, who is from Spain. She's really enthusiastic and our class is kind of a free-for-all since all of us speak Spanish. We worked a bit on the past tense today with the Juanes song, Historia de Juan, which is really depressing. I love Juanes, though, so it's all good. Fernando is finally (we hope) going to get his missing bag delivered to the institute today.

After class we had a good deal of time to just relax...which ended up being much easier said than done. I managed to get on facebook, but because of the skype rule I couldn't call home or anything and I was too nervous to do anything legit, like writing the blog or taking care of bills or anything.

I think Anibal picked up on everyone's nervousness and suggested a walk to the neighboring property (shhh--private land = illegal trespassing). We were all in awe. We just, you know, wandered up the mountain behind studio into the rainforest and stuff...no big deal?! haha. He took us to a hollowed out strangler tree. This is basically a parasitic plant that starts as a vine, wraps around a well-established existing tree, "strangles" it, and basically decomposes all of the old tree that it needs to in order to take over the root system and survive on its own. Best part about the 3 or 4-story tall strangler? It's inhabitable! So I jumped on the opportunity to climb up the center of this monster. Totally incredible! It almost made me forget that we were moving in with our host families today until we had to walk back for the homestay orientation.

The Institute

Studio:


The Institute:

So we got up today and headed to the Monteverde Institute (MVI) where we'll have our classes. Anibal gave us a tour and introduced us to the people we'll be seeing around and then we got split into our different Spanish classes. Tuona, Fernando, and I are in the advanced class with our professor, Cristina, who's Spanish. We learned some Costa Rican slang words...which I quickly forgot. Set up studio, had lunch, and headed back to Sta. Elena for a grocery stop before going back to las cabinas for dinner and chillin.

Had a girls night with Tuona and Sam before going and catching a bit of a movie with Fernando, Bryan, Josh, and Tyler.

Leavin San Jose

Hotel el Sesteo:



Keith:
Waitin by the pool:

The little bus (Kevin, Josh, Keith):

Got up early, ate some of the best fruit ever, and got our stuff to the reception to leave for Heredia, where Anibal goes to school, for our first lecture. I had no idea that we were starting school stuff so soon. The lecture was in Spanish and was translated by Anibal. It was fairly interesting regarding the growth and resources of Costa Rica and the zones and districts that were set up by different groups including one which convened with the UN and which gets funding from Europe. Its really strange to think about receiving funding without understanding what the exact payback is...Political? Tourist? Trade? Who knows?

JASKIN!

So, at the suggestion of Yvonne, I asked to see Jaskin today. His house-dad told me that he was at school but when I told him that I am Jaskin's madrina he sent some of the little ones off to find him. At first I was pretty sure he didn't remember me. It was a bit strange but when he had to go back to school he asked if I'll be around tomorrow-yay!

The work project time was spent busting apart trusses, making a box to mix concrete in, and watching the practice of slicing up a pig. I also met Juan, Santiago's helper, and little Miguel who was home from school with a sore throat.

Breakthrough! On the walk from to La Via Santiago actually spoke to me! Amazing. He seemed more willing to answer questions and to let me help today but still doesn't delegate work as well as Geraldo did. I base this on the lack of hand tools available for all of us to take part in "de-nailing" and the lack of uses that he found for the people who didn't have tools. We were literally making up jobs for ourselves to do...the ceiling tile sweeping, for example. I need to be more patient but I'm glad that Mark noticed that we weren't being used to our potential.

truss=bigo

box=cajon

to mix=mezclar/hacer mezclas

pig=cerdo

Siesta locale:

CUA Group:

We made it to Honduras :)

This afternoon Erin gave us a tour of Flores which was new to me. I got attacked by fire ants at the wood shop-MAJOR OUCH! I also got the privilege of meeting a lot of the artists at the high school including the famous Alex Noe whose paintings I absolutely love both for their creative content and skill.

Oh! And we totally hit up the tienda...

"China tienda?"

"China hammock?"

More of La Via, No Jaskin

Got up at 6 to run with the boys again today. Farley came, too, as did Keith and Mo. I made it further today with the help of Keith. I hope I'll be ready for soccer next week! Running at this altitude may help: It feels like a monkey crawled into my chest and doesn't want to move.

All the usual stuff then La Via for more take-down. I made friends with a gorgeous dog today! I want to take him home. He's friendly but very shy. There were boys at the soccer field today but Jaskin wasn't there. I asked Adan if he's still here and he is...Maybe tomorrow.

Spent most of my day sweeping off the good ceiling tiles to be reused. Most of the girls continued to pull out nails and the guys started pulling down the trusses (still intact) from the roof.

nail=clavo

This afternoon I slept through playtime on accident. I feel terrible. Keith said it's no big deal but I look at it as my reason for being here so sleeping through it isn't acceptable to me.

After dinner we watched a video by a volunteer on the Mission. I was pretty good and the closest I've gotten to knowing about Father Emil so far. Afterwards Keith, Pat, Sara, Andrew and I played a rousing game of Apples to Apples. After going multiple rounds without a win I finally made a comeback to win the game :)

One of the long-term volunteers, Meg, leaves tomorrow. So while the CUA group was at their meeting, Keith and I went up to partake in the dance party with a bunch of the kids. Good times.

First Work Day

Getting closer with the CUA group already. Tyler reminds me of Lissette. She's really entertaining...the name Tylerisimo totally fits her.




We did ceiling demo today at La Via. no sign of the boys as they were at school the entire time we were there. Our new work leader is Santiago. He's nice but he's very confusing. I get the feeling that he doesn't want to talk to me because I'm a girl. Oh well.


I helped clear debris while Keith and the LSU boys tore down the ceiling. It's basically wooden trusses holding up corrugated roof on block walls. Ceiling tiles that we tore down were hanging as a drop ceiling from a latticework of wood.


A good portion of people spent the day pulling nails out of the wood so it could be reused.


With the tiles down it was easy to see the holes in the tin that have been allowing water to demolish the space for 15-20 years. The sun shines and you can see the beams of light come through, reflecting off the dust that we've been creating in our destructiveness. No wonder this building can't be used when it rains!



This afternoon we went to the mother's project. I was super-awkward and it took a while just watching other people play before I joined in on some soccer with Keith, Daniel, and Bonessa. Soon enough, passing became Meghan in the Middle, which turned into a full-fledged game! Fatima, Glindy, Marco, Andrew, Will, and Pat joined in, too. Good times.


Back to La Via tomorrow.