This week is a bit choppy because there were only two days of school at Centeno. Due to a national teacher's conference, I only had classes Monday and Tuesday.  On Tuesday we said goodbye to a volunteer who had been in my department for the last five months. Anni is from Finland and has worked with the 3rd Cycle class (I'm with 4th Cycle, so her kids were just a little younger than mine). I have gotten to know her a bit in the last two months because if I ever have down-time I go to that classroom. It was nice to have another volunteer around...I'm going to miss her!  Tomorrow we have off work to begin our fall retreat with Frair Rick who is en route to us now.

On Wednesday and Thursday, I went to work at the daycare with Margie. What a difference! Working at "La Guardaria" takes so much energy, but the days fly by. I really enjoy spending time with the littlest kids, even when that means changing poopy diapers (which I usually just make Margie do...sorry!) and having little kids smack me for no reason but attention. They're adorable. Also, last night Sor Nela, the Selesian sister who runs the show at the Guard (as we so affectionately call it) invited us to join other volunteers, staff members, and the moms of all the kids for a presentation by a psychologist about setting boundaries for kids. The psychologist gave an excellent background of theories behind the need for discipline and some great practical advice, especially for the moms. The presentation brought be back to Child Growth and Development, a course I took at BC, and was a wonderful refresher and practical application of the theories I studied in depth in college. I really appreciated it, even though I'll only be at the Guard sporadically.

Last night, Fray Tonio joined us for community night and showed us all sorts of pictures from his life, beginning with birth all the way through his Franciscan vows. He talked to us about what he did before he entered, his family, growing up in Costa Rica, etc. He is so much fun, and it was really nice to have the chance to get to know him better!

Cultural Observation of the Week
As I may have mentioned, its been raining a LOT here. One of the first things I noticed here is that no one wears rain jackets! It's unbelievable. Many people have a light jacket or sweater (or even a scarf if you can believe it) with their umbrella, but not a single person wears anything remotely water resistant. Whaaaaat? I'm so confused. I wish someone would explain. Our rain jackets are just another giveaway that the gringas are a-comin' down the street!  As I walk through the streets among the hundreds of people battling to stay dry, I narrate what I call "Umbrella Wars" in my head. See, there's a strategy to carrying an umbrella against foot traffic on narrow or crowded sidewalks. It usually involved eye contact and either tipping your umbrellas to the side so you can pass, or the taller person (often me) raises their umbrella up so the shorter one can duck beaneath. It takes strategy; on one of my first days I knocked a guys sunglasses off his head with the edge of my umbrella when I tipped it sideways to pass. Sorry, dude. But then again, why are you wearing sunglasses when it's pouring rain? There are some things I just may never understand.

Work Update
This week at Centeno was quick; there were no classes on Wednesday so I went to work with Margie at the daycare in San Jose. I had a blast working with her little kids and dynamic staff. The day flew by because we were so busy! At my own site, I realized just how fast the rest of the school year will go. Next week is another short one, and the kids are done at the end of November. In fact, we started making Christmas ornaments this week...it's way early! Usually at home I hold off on the decorations until after Thanksgiving, but that's not exactly on the calendar here. Oh well.  Otherwise, I'm learning more and more about my students every day.  For example, I learned the hard way that Marco Diego is very protective of his desk area; if he moves stuff out of his space, don't mess with it. I made the mistake of trying to get him back to work, which ended up making him angry and landed me with a nice bruise from his very strong grip on my wrist. I've also proved my good reflexes with Joselyn who loves to eat paper and grab other students glasses;  you'd be impressed how quickly I jump up to intervene!

¿Como se llama usted?
I've officially given up resisting being called Carolina. Since 8th grade, when we were able to choose our Spanish names (I chose Chela and it stuck through high school), I have resisted the name Carolina because I think everyone will want to call me Caroline in English. Silly, I know, but after a lifetime of confusion, I like to clarify when I can. Even in Ecuador, I was donned "Caro" and it stuck. But after trying to introduce myself in vain as Carolyn, I've given in. Everyone here will call me Caroline anyway. I've tried to get Caro to stick again, but I think people at school think I'm saying Carol. Oy vey. I guess they can call me anything they want, as long as they don't call me late for dinner :)

Grammar Corner: In Costa Rica, the "usted" form is much more common than the less formal "tu" form that most of us learned in school. Like most of Central America, they also use the rare "vos" form; ever the grammar nerd, I'm determined to learn the conjugations for this new pronoun, but it's proving tricky because it's used so sporadically. Sometimes I just give up at "tutear" (use the tu form) anyway.

Bananas, anyone?
Well, the time has come. Our first batch of bananas has ripened! With the endless rain this week, we forgot to go out back to check on them daily so we probably let them go a day or two too long. But on Thursday night, we probably brought over 100 ready-to-eat bananas into our house. We froze about 5 dozen, portioned off a bunch to take to coworkers, and are enjoying the rest at home. If anyone has any good banana recipes, please send them my way!

Friday night in CR: chocolate, wine, and Gilmore Girls!

Guanacaste

On Friday night, Nicole, Molly and I joined our friend Jose for a trip to his home town in the province of Guanacaste. Since it’s a long weekend, we took advantage of having today off (it’s the national celebration of Columbus Day!) to go away. Our bus left from San Jose in the pouring rain on Friday night and took 5.5 hours to arrive in Liberia, a small beach town near Jose’s town, Sarinal. The bus had to take a couple detours due; all this rain led to some mudslides and road closures!  Upon our arrival, Jose’s dad met us at the bus station and took us to his home where he so generously put us up for two nights.

On Saturday morning we hit the beach, praying for a little bit of sunshine...and it worked! For the first time in two weeks, it stopped raining. We hit the road to a practically private beach called Matapalo (kill a tree?). The name turned out to be appropriate...we found a fallen tree crossing the path to the beach! 

Also on the way, we encountered a lovely French couple who had stopped for a monkey sighting. We hopped out of the car, grabbed the camera, and listened to the very loud calls of the monkeys climbing through the trees. Squint hard in the pictures below, and you can almost tell that it’s a monkey! 

These beach pictures can speak for themselves, but Jose and his friend Wilbur didn’t let us settle for the first beautiful, private playa that we found (above). Nope! We followed them across a river and over a small mountain, literally, to this secret spot:

Pelican Jim stopped by for a visit!

Notice how there's no one else around!

When the rain moved in, we packed everything in plastic bags and trekked back to the first beach where the car was parked. It was a trek indeed, but this time not over the mountain...we took the rocky coastline instead! Talk about excitement (and the wrong shoes! I thought my flip-flops were going to fall apart...)  On this beach, the sand was completely black and the waterline was rock-less. We were a bit closer to the giant hotel (which meant we actually saw tourists...ha!), but it was still quiet.

Check out the color change in the sand

With Jose, our fabulous host

Lounging for the rest of a very relaxing weekend :)

Unfortunately Sunday’s weather wasn’t quite as forgiving. It poured from the second we woke up until midafternoon. Luckily, we were able to enjoy a breakfast of Gallo Pinto and Tamales fit for kings and watch a soccer match before heading to Jose’s church for a bit. After enjoying some music and prayers with his community, we headed to the bus station and back to San Jose, and most importantly to Margie and Amanda who stayed behind because they weren’t feeling well. We missed them!

Artsy Week!

Beginning with the talent show at St. Francis last Tuesday, this past week has been filled with many shows and cultural experiences. This weekend, we went to see our friend Katherine perform in a play she also directed, titled Latinas. She and the other actresses are leaving this weekend for a festival in Washington D.C. where they will be performing it a few times. It was phenomenal; the show followed four women from four different Latin American countries as they were uprooted and relocated for a variety of reasons - studies, love, work, etc. At the end, the message was inspiring, especially for us as young women in a foreign country: no matter who you are or where you are, you are where you’re meant to be!  

After stumbling upon the blessing of pets at mass in the center of Moravia on Sunday (there’s nothing to distract you like a  church with standing room only and barking dogs...), we heard about a concert that would be held there that evening. Molly and I wandered up that way just in time for it to start and it turned out to be the choirs from a nearby university’s end of the year performance. The show featured all sorts of musical styles and was terrific. It turned out to be a nice way to end a relaxed but eventful weekend.

Oh! We also were invited to breakfast at our friend Marta’s house on Saturday morning. Marta is the athletic director at St. Francis and has kids that are about our age. She is originally from Guatemala and her husband, Paul, is from Mass.! He’s a BC football fan!  After getting quite lost on our way to her house, we enjoyed chatting with her about everything from cultural diversity in Costa Rica and racism to what her kids were studying in the States.

On Wednesday of this week, Centeno celebrated “Dia de las Culturas,” which is Costa Rica’s take on Colombus Day. Instead of celebrating Colombus himself, we celebrated the cultural encounter that has taken place across the centuries in Central America. My department represented Africa. After spending the last two weeks drawing, cutting, painting, and posting decorations of animals, animal skins, trees, birds, etc, we transformed two classrooms. I must say, this position will definitely give me new arts and crafts project ideas! Here are some pictures...enjoy!

You feel like you're in Africa, right?

One of our many cardboard animals

Cool, right?

Our classroom staff!

In other news, it’s raining. Again. Still. Forever. It has rained every day since we arrived, but lately the storms have gotten longer and stronger. It used to be sunny and clear in the mornings but now it’s just raining - drizzling, pouring, whatever - always. Our clothes take a couple days to dry on the line out back. But on the plus side, I got to teach Juan Gabriel, my student who speaks English, the expression “it’s raining cats and dogs!” We’re off to the beach for the weekend, and praying for some sunshine!

Feast of St. Francis

Happy St. Francis Day!


Today, my community joins the greater Franciscan community, consisting of Friars, sisters, nuns, and laypeople  around the world, in the celebration of St. Francis of Assisi. We had the day off work to join the community of St. Francis College for a mass, student talent shows, and special lunch with staff and friars from all over Costa Rica. Our celebration actually began last night with a really beautiful prayer service to commemorate Francis's "Transito" (Transitus) from life on Earth into Heaven upon his death on October 3, 1226. The service was help by candlelight in the church at the convent, where many of us gathered to hear scripture, sing, pray, and watch a beautifully acted interpretation of the story of Francis's death. The service was run by the Secular Franciscans (the "third order" founded by Francis) who are based here in Moravia.


This past week, we celebrated Molly's birthday with dinner on Thursday with Fray Tono and Fray Jorge, and then again on Saturday with Fray Walter and some of our new friends. (Friends! We have friends!)  

Nicole's beautiful birthday sign, and her friends from study abroad!

Molly's Ukulele made an appearance. We missed Margie who was sick :(

At work, I'm settling in with my class of the oldest kids. One student in particular, Juan Gabriel, really stands out. He speaks English and Spanish and absolutely adores talking to me in English. He lived in NY with his family and speaks English pretty darn well. I will be staying with students in the Deaf departments in the afternoon, so my goal for the week is to memorize the alphabet in LESCO (Costa Rican sign language! No, it's NOT the same as ASL!)

In other news, I've been on the hunt for maps of Moravia and found a few on Google maps!


On the map below, the bright blue line is my walk to work. I added blue diamonds with some cool landmarks in our neighborhood (the supermarket, Jumbo; the outdoor market we go to on Saturday mornings; the center of Guadalupe, where the parades have ended; Centeno Guell, my school!) It's about a 2km walk (just over a mile) and takes me anywhere from 20-30 minutes depending on how fast I walk and how many red traffic lights I hit!)

Zoomed in a bit more, you can see our casa, which is quite literally right across the street from St. Francis College. On the map above, SFC is the brown rectangle. Below, it's inside the yellow rectangle an dour house is in the orange rectangle. There's a gate that faces our houses's gate, which is manned during the day by Jose Maria...you might remember him from a previous post about getting locked out of our casa! The Convent and Church are in the top, far-left corner. Below SFC is Moravia's cemetery.

This is one of the only Street View photos of our neighborhood on Google, so I'll have to start taking my own. It's a view of Jumbo! The "Imeriaal" sign is advertising one of Costa Rica's favorite local beers. Notice the deep gutters on the side of the road...they turn into rivers in the afternoons when it rains!

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=9.954479,-84.051976&spn=0.01435,0.022724&t=m&z=16&vpsrc=6