Practicum, Beach, Future Plans

Orientation is winding down. Last week, we did a practicum in the Orosi elementary school. I taught 3rd grade and 6th grade and I think it went fairly well. The language barrier does make it rather difficult to give instructions. For example, I was playing a game with the 3rd graders that and told them to run to the corner of the courtyard. I then demonstrated how to do this a few times. Sure they would understand this from my repeated examples, I yelled ¨Go¨ Instead of going to their corners, they all ran to me. Teaching a foreign language really is a whole different ball game.

This past weekend, we all went to Cahuita which is on the Caribbean side. It was like what I would imagine Jamaica is like with lots of Rastafarians. It was so nice to relax on the black sand beach and explore the national park with the other volunteers. We all stayed in the same hostel and had easy access to restaurants, the beaches, bars etc. so it was a lot of fun. On the way back the bus door flew off and crashed on the street. The driver nonchalantly put it back on and we went on our merry way. Such is traveling pura vida style.

Our last official day of Orientation is Friday. Then I will be back in San Ramon for the weekend. Since school starts late this year, Feb 16th, the WorldTeach staff thought 3 weeks of sitting at our sites would be really. Every group is supposed to do a service project, so they scheduled ours for next week. We will be working with Techo para mi pais, which is basically the Latin American Habitat for Humanity. Most of us will be heading to Limon to build structures for poor people affected by flooding. I´m excited to put my construction skills from 3 summers at Work Camp with my church to use! I don´t think I´ll be able to update for awhile due to lack of internet. Take care!