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!