La Escuela

The reason I came to Costa Rica is the school. The Adventist School has 38 students, four of which are Adventist. There are two full-time teachers, one part-time, the principal (who teaches sometimes), and an assistant. With so many workers, you may wonder why they needed me and Nickele to come in the first place. It turns out the most important thing these kids learn is English, and many of the employees don’t speak English. And there’s nothing like having a Native English Speaker. Even so, I’m glad there are other teachers here. They are all very sweet and help me and Nickele a lot. Here’s an overview.

Dulce: I’ve already talked about Dulce but just in case you’ve forgotten, Dulce comes everyday to teach the kids in English.

Doris: Doris teaches the 2^nd and 3^rd graders. She’s very sweet and probably the most patient with the kids.

Nadir: Nadir is awesome. She’s from the States but has been living here with her family for a couple years. Sadly she’s headed back to the states with her son to be with her husband in December.

Tere: Tere does everything. She is definitely the reason our school is clean.

Yolanda: Last but not least is Yolanda. She is the principal of the school and keeps the place going.

All in all, we have a good group here at the school and I know that each of them are working hard to make a difference in these kids lives.

Dulce in so many ways

One of the people I met right away when I came to Costa Rica was a lady named Dulce. Dulce is a wonderwoman – she does everything. She works at the local public high school, works at the Adventist school teaching English, runs the local Pathfinder group (which has 50 members which are all trained in first-aid/CPR so that they can go help in a national disaster), and she does night tours at the reserve. One of the first things she did with us was to take us shopping so we could try the local fruit. Here are the results:

Mango: They are cheap and they are YUM! I could eat them everyday and be happy.

Banana: Again, cheap and plentiful. Nothing wrong with them at all.

Pejibaye: Pretty good. They kind of taste like potatoes. I imagine they’d be delish in soup.

Jacote: They weren’t my favorite but I will try them again when they are riper.

Guayava: Not my favorite.

Granadía: Weirdest fruit EVER!! I mean really, tadpole looking seeds inside and coral like shell. Odd!

Mamon Chino: SO good! Pink and spiky on the outside, white and gooey on the inside. They are marvelous and ubber fun to eat.

Life is good - and life is even better when you can take the time to just enjoy the differences in the world. Fruit seems like a good place to start.

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Adventures!!

Even though Nickele and I have been here in Costa Rica just over a week, I feel like we’ve been here for months. We’ve done a LOT in that amount of time. The most notable thing probably has to be our weekend camping trip with the youth group. Even before we left the church we knew this was going to be interesting because it was definitely going to rain and it never rains lightly here in Monteverde. When it rains, it POURS.

We were not disappointed. It rained all night and when we woke up the next morning we were surrounded in mud. And of course, the camping trip would not be complete without traipsing out into the forest where we eventually did some jungle vine swinging and some waterfall swimming. Definitely an adventure to remember.

I also have to share a little about the family I live with. I live with a single mom named Yolanda, her 8-year-old son Fabian and another renter Ivan. Yolanda is a cook at one of the local restaurants and is very sweet. Fabian is like any other 8-year-old, very cute and VERY curious. I think he knows more about the things I owe than I do….And I suppose I can’t forget about the dog Toulouse. I have no idea where they got the name but every time I hear it I think of the movie The Aristocats.