Life Update

I really have no excuse for the lack of entries since July…I’ve definitely been busier than I was before I stopped posting but my journal is pretty empty as well. Maybe I’ve had a two month period of writer’s block or something. Anyway, here’s the condensed version of the past 2 months.

After my parents left, I met up with some WorldTeach friends to go to Panama. We spent a few days in Bocos del Toro which are some very isolated islands, a 45 minute boat ride away from the mainland. It was really relaxing to just hang out at the (beautiful) beach. I was supposed to head home afterwards but then we received word that our two week vacation from school would now be three weeks because of swine flu. Well, that the technical reason given, but in a country where only 6 people had died from swine flu, it seemed a bit extreme to cancel school. (Naturally, in this soccer obsessed country, all soccer games went on as scheduled.) Personally, I think the Ministry of Education just wasn’t ready to end their vacation. In any case, I decided to take advantage of my extra week off and took the night bus to Panama City with 3 other volunteers. We stayed in a really nice hostel and spent a few days just exploring the city. Of course, we had to go see the Panama Canal. Possibly the best thing about Panama was how incredibly cheap it was…I came home with a new swimsuit and a new shirt for $5 total!

The others decided to travel some more around Costa Rica but I only stayed in San Jose long enough to go to the emergency room for an ear infections (both ears) that I developed while in Panama. Between not feeling so well and the amount of hours I had spent on buses, I was pretty “traveled out” and went home to San Ramon for the last few days of our vacation.

School started again the last week of July and we finished our 2nd trimester in the last week of August. My little corner of the cafeteria, aka my classroom has been upgraded thanks to a grant I received from World Teach. My ant infested, wooden desk and chair have been replaced by a beautiful new desk and rolling chair. I also have a brand new bookcase to store the upwards of 200 English children’s books that I found in a storage closet and the kids love reading the books when I give them time in class. Some even ask to read during recess now! I’m taking advantage of this interest and starting a program similar to Book It at the school. We’re only half way through September and already most of the kids have met their goal for number of pages read for the whole month! Anything to get them to turn of the novelas for a little while and actually do something to stimulate their brains :)

Outside of school, I started Spanish and dance classes again after vacation. It’s nice to actually see my Spanish improving week to week and my host family says the difference between my Spanish abilities in February and now are like night and day. I also started helping a girl named Fressy with her English and she helps me with my Spanish. We get together about once a week and it works out well. I can honestly say she’s the first girl my age that I’ve met who is not married with kids!

As for the dance classes, I was all set to perform this Saturday in San Jose, but it turns out our dresses won’t be ready by then. I’m still going to watch and help out with the other dance groups though. Hopefully, we’ll be invited to another performance soon.

There have been lots of parties lately. We celebrated Albertina’s and Daniela’s birthdays, along with Costa Rican Mother’s Day in August. Last week was Children’s Day and we took all the school kids to the pool for the day. I wasn’t planning on swimming but when I saw that most of the thirty-some-odd kids have no swimming skills whatsoever, I decided I better be in the pool. This proved to be a good choice, as I was able to grab the 4 year old who decided to jump in the 5 foot area of the pool.

This past Tuesday, the 15th was Independence Day. The festivities started on Monday with a torch run. Basically, there’s a torch (similar to the Olympic torch) that passes through all of Costa Rica. Some high school kids were going to run it from Turrialba to Santa Teresita (about 1.5 hours in a bus). San Ramon is in between the two towns so five of the school boys and I headed out to the edge of San Ramon with our own torch to run with back to the school. We started waiting at 8:30 and the torch didn’t arrive until 10, so by the time we had to run, we were already hot and sweaty. It was my job to run behind (huffing and puffing) and remind them to hold the torch above their heads so they wouldn’t light their hair on fire. Thankfully, we made it back to school burn-free. Later that night, we had the parade of faroles. There is a big competition to make decorative lanterns. I was a judge in the completion and was slightly embarrassed that my host sister and two host cousins won three out of four categories, but the other four judges agreed that these were the best. Even so, I got a lot of grief for “rigging” the vote.

On the actual Independence Day, we only had a 1 hour school assembly and then nearly everyone went to Turrialba for the parades. It was band after band and it was really cool to see. There were tons of people in the center of town, so I was paranoid I was going to lose Daniela but we all made it home safely.

I think the most memorable moment of the past two months was September 5th, the Costa Rica vs. Mexico soccer game. Lizzie, John, Dan and I decided to attend the game in person. The energy in the stadium was just incredible. The Costa Rican president was even there. Unfortunately, we discovered how much Costa Rica hates Mexico when we lost 3-0. The Ticos were throwing things and yelling obscenities at the Costa Rica fans…to the point where the cops, in full riot gear, had to stand guard between the two sections. I was just glad it wasn’t a Costa Rica vs. USA game!

I can’t believe I only have a little over 3 months left here. I can definitely understand why some volunteers choose to stay a second year…I’ve finally built a life for myself here, with a family, friends and even somewhat of a social life but the year is almost done! If it weren’t for the fact that I can’t go another year earning $100 dollars a month, I would definitely stay. But I will be back in the US December 22nd. Until then, I plan on making the most of the time I have left.