Volcan Irazu

This week has been all about getting acquainted at school school. The students have been coming for just two hours each day so Giselle, the new teacher I will be working with, can meet with parents to learn more about each students' needs and abilities. We will have nine students in the group this year with an even wider range of ability than last year. Most are blind and visually impaired but some have perfect vision; most have limited mobility but some can walk and run faster  than me; most are nonverbal but some can hold full conversations; most are pretty calm but some are really active or aggressive. Since the days are so short, only a couple kids have been coming each day. This has given me a chance to get reacquainted with them and work one on one with them, which is always fun.

At home, it's been pretty quiet. Literally. With only four people in our fairly spacious house, it seems a bit empty. Plus, Molly has been away with her parents for most of the week so it's really only been three of us! On Tuesday night we celebrated "El Dia del amor y la amistad" at the friary. Friar Jorge, who was visiting from Rome, made a delicious dinner. He is originally from Argentina and dazzled us with all sorts of Argentinean-style BBQ.  It turns out that he is the Assistant General of Latin America, which basically means that he is responsible to the Minister General in Rome for all the Conventual Franciscans in Latin America. Big deal! We were excited to be able to share a little bit about FrancisCorps with him, since (as far as we know) we are the only Franciscan volunteers (within the Conventual order at least) in Latin America.

Volcan Irazu

Yesterday, Molly, Nicole, and I, along with two of our new student-teacher friends, took a bus trip to Volcan Irazu for the morning. It was a really easy trip from San Jose to the national park, where we spent a couple hours enjoying the view of the crater lake. We met some interesting folks - other tourists, local nuns, etc - and were really happy to finally see a volcano without a view obstructed by clouds! (Pictures below!). Hope all is well with you at home!  

Back to School

It's strange to experience the Back-to-School season in mid-February. Although the weather is reminiscent of late August back home, it is just odd to see school supplies lining shelves next to Valentine's Day gifts and decorations. During my few weeks of work in San Jose with Margie, I saw dozens of stores advertising huge sales on books, uniforms, school supplies, shoes, and other sorts of back-to-school necessities.

All the public schools in Costa Rica started on Wednesday, including Centeno Guell. Staff reported on Monday for some general meetings and re-organization of classrooms. I arrived on Monday morning to find out that the Ministerio de Educacion Publica (MEP) has still not named a department director for us. At that time, none of the teachers even knew which groups they would be working with for the school year. I was shocked. I thought back to all those years of going up to the doors of Bret Harte and Rosa to see what teacher or team I was with at the end of the summer, or waiting anxiously for my class schedule to come in the mail from Cherry Hill East.  That is just so not the case here! 

Anyway, I spent this past week at school helping get the classroom ready (which really just meant unpacking everything I'd helped box up in the same room two months ago!). I will be working with the same group of students for the next few months, but the group is growing from 6 to 9 students. Alexandra is returning as the assistant, but the teacher is new. Giselle will be in her first year at Centeno but has spent many years working at Helen Keller, a high school for blind students and integration center for adults with multiple disabilities. It sounds like many students from Centeno end up at Helen Keller after they turn 21 and end their cycle at Centeno. I'm looking forward to working with her!

At home, we've had two great weeks of co-minister dinners. Last week, Juan Gabriel joined us on the eve of his 28th birthday, so we made him a cake to celebrate. Nicole decorated it with the symbol for his favorite soccer team, La Liga. This is just a sign of how much we love him...as a house, we have become Saprissa fans, and our two teams are the biggest rivals in the country!

Liga Liga Liga!

This week, Katherine and Fray David joined us. Fray David has recently moved into the friary here in Moravia. He's about 30 and will be working with the elementary school st St. Francis. We are excited to have another friar around to get to know!

Super Bowl spread

Last weekend, as promised, Nicole, Margie and I went back to Jaco. We went just for the day, which was perfect. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate as well as last time, but that means no sunburn (always a plus!).  The following day, John joined us for a little Super Bowl celebration a la Tico. We made tortiallas and then tortilla pizzas, along with frijoles molidos and chips and such. Our watch party was pretty tranquilo but very fun. Also this week had the pleasure of having both the Connell family AND the Boyle family join us for dinner. Amanda and Molly's parents were both in town and came over for dinner (on different evenings). It was so fun to get to know them!


Finally, sadly we took Amanda to the airport this morning to head home to Spokane, WA. She's been having some pretty significant health issues here, so it's best for her to go home and recover. We will miss her terribly but all know that our experience as a community of five is not over, and that this is absolutely the best decision for her. We appreciate the support of Friar Rick, Jordan, as well as all the friars here in Moravia who have been so attentive to her (and all of us). The house will feel empty with only four of us here until July!

Jaco

After a week at daycare with Margie, I was ready to hit the beach this past weekend and take advantage of the beautiful weather. Chasing around 20-odd kids between ages 1-5, while fun, is draining! I spent the week cleaning buggers, persuading children to nap with backrubs, and - best of all - plucking lice out of kids hair. Yep. Unfortunately, the daycare has had a couple outbreaks of lice this year. Margie is now an expert at prevention and at combing through hair, and I learned too by going through her hair earlier in the fall. Don't worry about us; we take all the appropriate measures to keep those little guys from getting anywhere near us, but my heart breaks for the kids who aren't appropriately cared for at home. A few come to daycare without being bathed or in dirty clothes.   

After work on Friday, we met up with our new gringo friends, a group of students teachers who just moved into our neighborhood. We boarded a 5pm bus for the beach, and spent Friday and Saturday nights in Jaco. Jaco is a pretty touristy beach, and we stayed in a really cool hostel full of backpackers from all over the world. We enjoyed some awesome food, beautiful sunshine, and a very warm ocean. In fact, the water was so warm and the sun so strong it hardly felt refreshing! Best part? We found an express bus that gets there in an hour and a half (instead of 3) so we might go back on Saturday!   

Margie and I camped out ALL day on the beach until the sun went down

sunset!