"Days go by, I can feel 'em flying like a hand out the window in the wind..." -Keith Urban
Time here has been going by pretty quickly! Which I guess is a good thing, because that means I'm busy and happy.
After moving to my third host family (to sum up, the first family had an inappropriate/creepy son-in-law who lived at the house, and the second gave me a hallway/living room instead of a bedrom), I am finally REALLY happy with my living situation. My host parents, Aleyda and Heinner, are both kind people who have made me feel really welcome and treat me like part of the family. Gabriel, my five year old host brother, is one of the new loves of my life. He says I'm his girlfriend. Heinner works in construction and actually built me my own room onto the front of the house. Pretty awesome. I have a pretty nice balance of having a family environment and having some independence. For example, I get to cook my own food, but a lot of times we end up sharing food and eating dinner together.
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Baking peanut butter cookies with Gabriel
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My work here is going really well. I am teaching about 25 hours in the schools here each week. I have good relationships with my co-teachers, and I even teach an extra class in the community with one of my co-teachers, Isabel. In addition, I teach a night class by myself once a week. Aside from my work in the schools, I am starting an extracurricular program for the students here in my town. It's basically what an after-school program would be in the states, except it will take place in both the morning and afternoon, because the school schedules work differently here than at home. So far, I have 17 volunteers and about 45 kids registered for the program. I am super excited to get started! The first day is August 20. So right now, I am busy getting ready for the big day! I have high hopes for the program to be something sustainable even after I leave Costa Rica. Most of the volunteers who will lead the lessons with me are parents of enrolled students. And supplies and snacks will be donated each month by the parents. In addition, the community is currently donating a free space for the program. So basically, the parents will be able to sustain the program, I hope, when I am no longer here! And Isabel is going to help me eventually go to the municipality to ask for a land donation to build a center for the program that would basically be like a community youth center. That's obviously way in the future, but I could not be more excited!
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| Some of my sixth graders hard at work |
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| Third grade :) |
I have settled into a routine here and am really feeling at home. People know me now, and I am always greeted on the street by children who call out "teacher!" It's such a good feeling. Today, one of my students ran up to me from behind, gave me a huge hug, and handed me this (when my mom saw this fruit during her visit, she called them hairy strawberries)...I swear it's a compliment, even though it might not look like it:
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| The "hairy strawberry"...I forget the real name! |
In other news, my parents came to visit. It was great to see them! I really missed them.
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| My best friend <3 |
We had a really nice visit, even though we were stressed about some stuff going on at home. I got to spend time with them at there resort, which was a little weird. I'm used to trying actively NOT to look like a tourist, so I felt super uncomfortable in the resort. On the plus side, I got to have some good conversations with the Ticos who work there and who were usually surprised that I speak Spanish. I made an effort to always talk to them in Spanish, because I felt like I wanted them to know I'm not one of "those" gringos who comes to Costa Rica for the resort life and doesn't actually learn about the Costa Rican culture and language.
Here are some pictures of my town:
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| A view over La Inmaculada from my street |
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| My house! |
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| My new best friend! |
Anyway, all is well! Miss you all,
Rachel
