Oh man, my blog posts are getting further and further a part!
Guys - I have been in Costa Rica for a whole month - whaaaaa?!?! How did that happen?
This past month has been filled with more wonderful moments than I can count. I am nervous for when the wonderfulness will come to a screeching halt and the first bad experience happens, but so far it has yet to come my way and I am determined to keep it that way.
Picking up from where I left off last post...
Febrero 3
'Twas a normal weekday. Attended my first class, Rural and Urban Sustainable Development with Helen. Meira walks in, Helen greets her with a "Good Morning" and without mocking intentions, Meira says "Good Morning" in her worst british accent. Safe to say there was no one in the classroom who wasn't laughing (Helen is british). It might have been a "you had to be there sort of moment" but nonetheless, it was hilarious to us. We were all in a giggly mood already, you know those days where everything is funny? Yeah, it was one of those, so the laughing continued throughout class. To add to it all, our professor thought Terina's name was Tyranny, so we bursted out laughing again when she called on her for a question (when we probably definitely should have just politely corrected her, which we eventually did), but poor Helen - I hope she didn't take it personally.
Since I was done for the day (Environmental Issues cancelled), I went home. Was greeted by a lovely green and red hummingbird by the birds of paradise in my front yard, and found an empty casa, so I decided to go out and buy some things on my "want/need" list. First stop, Yamuni (a department store) to get this "Klean Kanteen" I had been eyeing up. Next stop, True Value for some gardening gloves (no more ant bites for me!). Could not remember the word for gloves in Spanish so I decided to wander down every aisle until I found them.
Third stop, office supply store for some notecards to review for Spanish test (& some postcards that I have to figure out how to mail). And finally, went by the bakery to pick up some cake for el aniversario de mis padres! 44 anos, increible. When I got back to the house, I could hear them inside, so I hid the cake in my purse and darted to my room. It was getting close to lunch time (said my growling belly), so I made them a little card and set it up on my desk with the cake. As I was walking out the door for the ICDS office to eat some lunch, I told mi papa there was a gift waiting for them in my room (sneaky, sneaky).
After some (too much) hummus, apples, and yogurt, I reviewed for Spanish test. Trying to remember all the irregular conjugations in the preterite is no fun. The rest of the day is a mystery, as I did not write them down and nothing is ringing any bells!
Febrero 4
Came out to the kitchen for breakfast and the card I made them for their anniversary was on the fridge, hehe. My host papa guided me out to the backyard to show me some orchids that were blooming (that I had already spotted a few nights before). But then he also showed me a bunch of Guaria Morada's (which are the national flower of Costa Rica) that I had not spotted! So pretty.
Went to Community Engagement and Spanish. Community Engagement we talked about the Human Development Index. Spanish was the dreaded exam. No fill in the blanks, all written - as in you need a good vocabulary bank (something I lack). The first section was describing what the four seasons are like in our hometowns using ser, estar, hacer, haber, and tener at least once and correctly (of course). Second part was describing the routine of a girl that was illustrated in little boxes on the page - using at least 15 different verbs (present tense). Third part was describing what a guy did over the weekend, also using illustrations in little boxes and at least 15 different verbs (preterite). Originally, Silvana told us she expected us to finish within an hour - it took us an hour and half. Oy vey.
Everyone else seemed on the same level of uneasiness as me - so I survived. To let of some nervous steam off afterwards, a group of us played soccer in a field up the hill from my house and the ICDS office.
One of the local guys joined us. I may have been in a dress and barefoot, but it didn't stop me from joining in! Once the sun started to set, and everyone's gas tanks were at E, we ended the game. Hannah, Maylin and I decided we had worked hard enough - we deserved a visit to the panaderia (almost got run over by the train on the way there - crazy how fast it comes and you have no idea until it's 50 ft away and honking it's horn as it swirls around the corner). Chocolate cake, que rico.
Back to mi casa, neglected to take a shower (my mama was horrified that I played in my bare feet), and ate a yummy dinner with fish, veggies & rice. On days that I have Spanish class, I find myself more confident in talking with my family - so, after dinner we hung out in the kitchen a while. We got into talking about gardens, and I was telling my host mother than I love the smell of basil, she kept repeating basil over and over and said "muy dificil" (I was thinking, "you are telling me lady - that is only one word, try speaking a whole new language," but I didn't say anything...mostly because I probably would not have been able to, jaja). But at least she doesn't have as difficult a time as Ilana's host mom with pronouncing things. Her host mom's son lives in the States in a town called Melville, and the first time she told me I thought she was saying Melbourne (lotta different letters in there than Melville). Anywho, after our chat, I headed to bed for some zZz's (and probably an episode or two of Grey's).
Febrero 5
Quick snippets of the day (aka, the only things I wrote down):
Rolled out of bed at 7:10am, heard the house phone ring quite early so I knew something was up. Turns out there was a fire nearby, and subsequently the telly was not getting signal. So at breakfast we ate as mis padres stared a blue screen waiting for signal to return so they could watch the morning news.
Homework for my Rural and Urban Sustainable Development class: Mediate and reconnect with the forest. Check!
Another funny note from that class, Helen commented how she "loved my participation" - and I think it was because it was the first class I wasn't yawning the entire time. I feel so bad, I don't yawn because her class is boring, just cause I mornings are definitely not my thing! But the fact that she said that means she noticed my yawning all the other days :( oops. **Note to self ** Figure out how to function in the morning!
Febrero 6
First day at Maylin and my community service site in San Rafael with Molinos Verdes de Moringa! I woke up before my alarm, so I was freaking out that I had overslept. Getting there was a bit of a struggle. Ani helped us navigate there. First bus went smoothly, but then when we got to downtown San Jose to catch the second bus, wasn't so easy. We went to the first stop that we thought was it - but no one seemed to confirm that the bus was going to where we needed it to (apparently they had recently shuffled the bus stops around so no one was sure where the new bus stops were). After asking about six different people, we made it to a bus stop (not the one we needed), but the bus driver said he could make a special stop for us and get us close to where we needed to go (so nice!).
Once we were dropped in the general area, two calls to our supervisor, Jose, before we finally arrived at IPI (Colegio Isaac Martin: Instituto de Psicopedagogía Integral - the school we are working at). Jose took us on a tour of the garden, es muy muy muy bonita.
Everything is so well-maintained and there are butterflies fluttering about everywhere you look (will have a post with more pictures). We even got to see some monarch caterpillars. After the tour, we were assigned our first task, turning these cute little flower-shaped beds into larger rectangular beds. We dug out the borders and lined them with plastic bottles filled with recycled rain water.
Ani decided to take some goPro footage for ICDS (which May and I were quite reluctant about because our dripping sweaty selves would now be documented, but it was enjoyable hard work!) Getting home was still a challenge, hah. We were on the wrong side of the street to catch the bus home, but finally waved the right one down. I got home and just sat on my floor and ate the rest of the sour cream & onion Pringles I had bought the day before (yes I ate a whole can in a day). Finally got the motivation to shower and afterwards met up with Maylin at the ICDS office to get some eats. Ended up waiting around for Ilana to finish making her mac n' cheese so we could eat all of it, and then went to get empanadas and smoothies at Aroma y Sabor. We brought the food back to ICDS to eat and hang out, which was followed by everyone trying to get homework done before our big weekend plans and me just chillen like a villan..
Febrero 7
Tortuguero trip set up by ICDS!!! Set to depart from the ICDS office at 6am - which meant waking up at 5:40am...no me gusta, folks. I was planning on sleeping on the way there, but of course I was too captured by the beauty of the landscape that I didn't sleep a wink. The first hour of the drive, we were winding through the mountains, clouds covering the tops, and hidden waterfalls along the road that would make me gasp out of excitement every time I spotted one.
About an hour/hour and a half into our drive, we stopped for breakfast. Gallo Pinto, plantains, eggs, cheese and hot chocolate - super yummy. Also discovered the amazing powers of Lizano sauce (which may or may not be named after my Community Engagement Professor Joaquin Lizano).
A little bit further on the bus and we stopped for snacks (last opportunity to buy anything before going to middle of nowhere on a canal), naturally I loaded up on chocolate and water. I got so excited because a pack of milka chocolate bars were labelled as like 600 colones, which is around a dollar...turns out they were five dollars. Swapped for the cheaper six pack version, just as satisfying (hehe). The rest of the ride was bUmPy. Took some pretty beatin' up roads to get to the canal, past fields and fields of banana plantations. We even made a pit stop at a tree alongside the road to see our first howler monkeys of the trip!
Once the jiggly ride was over with, we unloaded the bus and moved to a boat which would take us the rest of the way. Being in mangroves, it was time to load up on the bug spray - and was a greasy mess for the remainder of the weekend (but hey, well worth it cause I escaped with out 2 bites, whereas others got eaten aliveee). The boat ride there was very leisurely because they allowed us to do some wildlife spotting - saw turtles propped up on logs, basilisks, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, herons, and...drum roll....a SLOTH!!!
(some photo credits to Hannah, Maylin, Jean and Katie)
'Twas incredible. As if seeing all this wildlife wasn't enough, the boat pulled up to this amazing little piece of land along the canal that was our home for the next two days - Lirio Lodge.
Greeted by smiling faces and coconuts, we were assigned our tents (yes, tents) and left to explore for a bit before lunch! Katie and Ellie were my bunk mates, so we dropped off our stuff quick, got what we needed for lunch and volunteering afterwards, and then explored the grounds. Inevitably I went straight for the hammocks along the water.
Lunch was served (pasta with mushroom sauce) and then we were back on the boat to ride about 5 minutes across and up the canal to the police station, from which we walked back to a school where we volunteered at for about 4 hours.
This school is run by one man who grew up in the area and now commutes everyday to teach. Alone, he teaches under 20 students every year (this year he will have 11 students), all age groups. The students have to travel quite a ways to get to school, and in the rainy season are soaking wet by the time they get there because the school cannot afford a boat with a top to shuttle them. They used to have to walk in mud to get back to the school from the police station, but two years ago the group of ICDS students that came worked on building a path out of coconuts and sand bags so that this was no longer an issue. Even with the coconuts, it was a bit mushy, so I cannot even imagine what the conditions were like before the path existed. After introductions and gifting the school a world map (which was a big deal because most of the students do not know where they live in relation to the rest of the world), we were split up in three group's and would rotate cleaning up the grounds, cleaning up the schoolhouse, and painting in preparation for the first day of school on Monday!
First I was assigned cleaning the classroom. Apparently bats like to go inside the room, so there was bat feces everywhere, which is very toxic. So, we brought all the desks and chairs outside to thoroughly scrub and swept/mopped the classroom. Next, I was put on cleaning up the grounds duty. We collected coconuts and branches in wheelbarrows, and then threw them in parts of the landscape that were low in order to even it out. Last, which everyone ended up doing the most, was painting! They were working on constructing a second building for classes, so we painted the interior and exterior, as well as put a fresh coat on the exterior of the main classroom building. Once everything was cleaned up and we completed all the tasks, everyone went out to the beach to get our first look at the Atlantic. The work we did was so rewarding, I wish we could have seen the kids faces on their first day.
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| After Cleaning! Wish I would have taken a Before picture. |
Back down the coconut path to the boat, but not before playing with the police station's adorableeeee black lab puppy! What a pleasant surprise after a hard day's work.
Once we were back at the lodge, a bunch of us had our eyes on taking the canoes out for a swirl. Kip and I took one; Jean, Ilana and Meira in another; and Maylin and Hannah in the kayak. Another group came as well, but their canoe was filling up with water so they went back inland. So relaxing, canoed until sunset, and we even spotted a howler monkey!
Back on land, everyone was now deciding whether or not to take a shower - I, of course, opted not to (I knew I would just re-spraying myself with greasy bug spray after, so why even bother). Everyone ended up hanging out at the hammocks before dinner, singing disney and broadways songs and laughing to our hearts' content. After dinner, there was more hammock time, a bonfire that was interrupted by a downpour, some more hammock time, some card playing, and then it was to the tent's for the night.
Febrero 8
The next morning there was a yoga class offered by a guy who was staying at Lirio, and most people went to it, but I had a morning canoe on the brain. So Ellie, Wendy and I took a canoe out unti breakfast. Again, so relaxing - I can't believe I haven't canoed before this trip. (Ellie noted that I really enjoy everything water oriented, I think it is confirmed I have to have a house on some sort of water front, whether that be lake or river or ocean).
Perfect timing for our return to breakfast, which included pancakes and SYRUP. Safe to say I got seconds.
After breakfast, we had a little trip up the canal to a turtle rescue site. It was crazy how our captain navigated the little passages in the canal and knew where he was going. Along the boat ride we saw more monkeys, various birds, fishermen, a dog swimming in the canal trying to find where his owner was fishing, and beautiful scenery.
Along the trail to the turtle rescue, we ate termites, encountered a gigantic spider and walked along the ocean. Sadly, the turtle rescue was closed in preparation for nesting season, but one of the locals who worked for the organization was nice enough to tell us about their work and answer any questions we had.
Poaching is a big issue, and also the temperature rise because the temperature determines the sex of the baby turtles (I believe the warmer it is, the more likely it is a female). We were cutting it close on time, so we loaded back up on the boat (which luckily picked us up at the turtle site rather than where he dropped us off earlier that morning, cause I was not feeling the walk back the trail).
Quick ride to the lodge, picked up our things, bought some yummy bread, and back on the boat to backtrack the canal to the bus.
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| Mr. Basilisk saw us off! |
Realizing I hadn't eaten much of my chocolate yet, I snacked on that and enjoyed the views on the drive home. Three stops along the way, one for this yummy fruit that I can't remember the name of (but it was purple and had the texture of a peach/plum), another for ceviche, and another for lunch at the same spot we stopped for breakfast. I was seriously considering buying my own container of ceviche but then was too lazy to get out of the van, which actually worked in my favor. Everyone who bought it was unable to finish their's on their own, so I ended up just finishing everyone else's off and probably ended up with a whole container for myself...hehehe.
We arrived back in San Pedro wayyy earlier than expected (3:30pm instead of 6:30pm), so I was of course thrilled as I had not completed the research that was due for a presentation the next day. Ellie and I wanted to work at the cafe that we had my birthday lunch at (Kai Cafe), but turns out it is closed for good, so sad!! I was really looking forward to their pasta again. So we just ended up working on it separately at home. Greeted my host parents, and my papa's host brother Nando, then went to take a shower.
Had a nice Facetime sesh with the Eagle Clan, and had a big craving for hot dogs since that was what they were currently cooking for dinner.
Ironically enough, when I went out to eat dinner with mi familia - my mama had cooked lentil soup with hot dog slices, I told her she read my mind, jaja.
Febrero 9
Woke up and noticed their was some blue paint from volunteering in Tortuguero left in my favorite ring. My ring states Gandhi's words, "Be the change you wish to see in the world," and the paint was stuck in the lettering...quite fitting.
First class of the day was with Joaquin - time to present on Nicaragua in relation to the Human Development Index. Went very well (I think). During our lunch break, I finally caved and got PB&J supplies at the grocery store (since the first grocery trip I had been craving PB&J because everyone else has been eating them for lunch). In Spanish, we got our tests back! I got an 8.2/10 - not too shabby, especially for how I was feeling after the test. A lot of little grammar mistakes are what put me back, so easy fixes (hopefully) for next test!
The plan for after class was to play soccer with everyone, but it was a rainy day (actually heard some thunder) so we decided to figure out an alternative plan. Our group is notoriously indecisive - so it took us ten minutes in the stairwell, fifteen minutes and two brownies later at Aroma y Sabor (two brownies because the first one Wendy got had a piece of plastic in it so they gave her another for free), a pit stop at my house to drop my things off and bring in my laundry hanging on the line outside, and a walk up the hill past Iglesia de Lourdes to figure out what we were going to do. Ditched the plan for french fries and just went to a newly found tienda by the church for some snacks and headed back to Natalia's house for a movie night! The tienda was a nice surprise, such cheap snacks and so close to my house.
Danielle ran home quick to get her HDMI cord to connect Ellie's laptop to the television for Mulan.
Great way to spend a rainy night in Costa Rica - watching Mulan with my ladies. Once our sing-along ended, it was approaching 7:00pm so I had to scoot home quick for dinner. It was already dark but I live very close to Natalia, so I walked a ways with the rest of the group to where they would get taxi's and just power walked home. My tica mama was so happy that I brought in all the laundry from the line, she said it was very unexpected, as it rarely rains in February here.
Febrero 10
In Helen's class, I found out that the reverse peace sign in the UK means F-off (akin to our middle finger in the US). Apparently it is because the French would cut off the British soldier's archery fingers in wartime, so when they still had their fingers, it was a sort of "f-you" thing to hold them up to the French. I also found out Costa Rica is one of the top 10 most paranoid countries - which I can definitely see in the culture (seems to be for good reason). Everyone has a gated house, most with barbed wire around the fencing, and then locks galore, and they do not go out often at night.
For Environmental Issues, we had a field trip to at 1:00pm to Jardin Botanico Lankester! Private bus hired by ICDS took us to the botanical gardens in Cartago. We were free to wander around the property for about an hour and a half.
So much beautiful flora to see! Branched off from the main path with Ellie and Meira, where we came across this incredible path of leaf-cutter ants.
Then I wandered off on my own for a bit to the ferns areas (felt like I could get lost in the gardens, but in a good way). The grounds were amazing, there was even a little Japanese garden to explore.
The best part, which I accidentally saved for last, was the orchid greenhouse.
I do not think I would have gotten to the other parts of the gardens if I had gone there first. Orchids of all shapes and sizes were there (and I took wayyy too many pictures of them).
It is unbelievable how intricate they are.
Came back together about 1.5 hours later, bought a little pear juice box (I'm addicted), and we were back on the road to San Pedro. Homework: write a little paper about our experience and another paper on the effectiveness of botanical gardens as a conservation method - I am good with that.
Febrero 11
Had an inkling that I was getting starting to get sick (which turned out to be true). Woke up late, showered, and went to class. Jorge was our professor for the beginning. Something interesting he pointed out was that he does not like the fact that Costa Rica is considered the "happiest country" because it allows for passivity. By adopting "pura vida," Costa Ricans have an excuse not to change. After Jorge's lecture, Joaquin took us out on the town for an observation exercise. Initially we were going to observe students at UCR (Universidad de Costa Rica),
but we outnumbered the amount of students on campus, so we booked it to Mall San Pedro to do the exercise there. We were told to disperse, strictly observe for 20 minutes, noting any cultural differences/similarities we see, and then write for 15 minutes. Ilana and I had spotted a Mrs. Fields on our way in, so we went there to grab a cookie for observing - disappointing appearance. So I grabbed some french fries and observed away.
Some things I noted: a lot more men in the mall, everyone wearing long sleeves and jeans - no skin but clothes can be tight, women hold hands here, everyone on their smartphones (same as in US).
Walked back to ICDS for lunch - hot and humid (bleh). Ate a PB&J and grabbed a smoothie before leaving for our Spanish field trip! Had a private bus take us to Artesanias D'Crochet. Such a neat business started by Dona Rosa in 2000. She handmakes jewelry made out of recycled organic material from fruits and vegetables. Spent the afternoon asking her questions about her business and the products she makes. It takes around 26 days to make one piece of jewelry, but that is from her collecting the waste at the market, cleaning them, drying out the fruits/vegetables in the sun (takes the longest), pigmenting them, and then finally piecing them together to form a piece of jewelry (which is the shortest, takes about 20 minutes or less). Truly an awesome business to be running!
After the field trip, went home to rest a bit before our big night out with Luis for the Art City Tour in downtown San Jose.
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| Graffiti here is amazing. |
For one night (about six times a year), a bunch of art galleries and museums in the city are open for free admission! First stop was Museo de Arte y Diseno Contemporaneo. Pretty interesting exhibits - one of which was a commentary on tourists.
Once everyone finished up looking around, we walked down through the parks in that area to the central avenue (passing by the main corner/hotel for transgender prostitution). Luis had provided us with money for dinner, so some went to get Lebanese food while most went to a pizza place Luis had been talking up. Something interesting is that they do not put sauce on the pizza. Instead, they provide the table with a bowl of sauce that you can add if you like. The slices were unexpectedly hugeeee, everyone struggled to get down their second piece.
I got about a quarter of the way through my second and tapped out - I wasn't too thrilled with my second piece (supreme, first was pepperoni), so I didn't bother asking for a to-go box. However, the waiter was so kind, on the way out he ran up to me with my piece all packed up, ready to-go.
We had money left over, so we shuffled over to POPS to get some dessert. Una copa doble con galleta (cookies and cream), por favor. Yummm. Happy with the ice cream, we waited around for everyone to finish up dinner before heading to the Museo del Oro Precolumbino. Meira was trying to get us kicked out by touching everything - a security guard spotted her and just shook his head in disapproval (but he was smiling so he found it entertaining I guess, jaja).
Although it was the gold museum, they had some other exhibits that were not underground ready to be locked up at the end of the night by 12 in. thick vault doors (ironically I forgot to take pictures of the gold pieces).
Around 8:15pm, Maylin got the ice cream urge, so Ilana, Jean, Meira and I walked with her to get some (I resisted my urge to get seconds), and then went back to the museum to await our van pick-up. Everyone seemed tuckered out from the busy day. Hannah and I walked Natalia home, then said "Chao" for the night. It was late-ish, so my parents were already asleep - locked up the house, put my piece of unwanted pizza in the fridge and went to bed. A great, busy day!
Febrero 12
Had our first seminar in Rural and Urban Sustainable Development. Maylin, Natalia, and Wendy taught the class about the ties between Poverty and Environmental Issues. Large break between classes, spent it studying for my first quiz in Environmental Issues on Biodiversity, INBio, and Forests. Ended up falling asleep on the ICDS couch and waking up to a puddle of drool, my bad! But got in enough studying for the quiz before my accidental nap.
Also, something from Environmental Issues news sharing - check out Jason deCaires Taylor's underwater museum!! Now, thanks to Danielle, it is on my "need to dive here" sometime in my life list.
Febrero 13 (Cumpleanos de mi papa)
Feliz Cumpleanos de Cali!
After laying awake half the night freaking out about my throat, I decided not to go to Puerto Viejo with everyone and just take this weekend to recuperate. Luckily, hostels are cheap so I didn't lose out on too much money by staying home (just lost out on the fun). Hannah gave me some antibiotics in case whatever I have doesn't go away, but I am just waiting it out to see if it will subside on it's own (not one to take medication).
Friday's are community service days, and what a time we have with navigation and public transportation...especially when we are trying to get to our community service site. Maylin and I have to take two buses to get to our site in San Rafael, Moravia. Well, somehow we got both buses wrong! jaja. The bus we take from San Pedro to San Jose for com. service is at a different stop from the one we usually to downtown because they go to different parts of San Jose. Somehow we managed to get on the bus that takes us to the normal downtown spot even though we were at the other bus stop. Anyways, we had to figure out how to backtrack our way through San Jose to that area, ended up walking way too far on the central avenue, then too far to the right, ultimately making a big square before ending up where we needed to be (we were sure to make better mental notes this time so it doesn't happen again).
However, once we made it to the bus stop we had confirmed last trip, we still were confused and ended up just taking the same wrong bus as last time (that doesn't go straight to our site) because at least we knew how to get to our site from that route. Hopped off at Lincoln Plaza, walked down and up the hill, and made it to IPI. I think the source of our issue is that we keep asking people if the bus stops at "IPI" and they say something different, and thus it is a no go. But if we say "IPICIM", we may get somewhere!
Volunteering went smoothly, continued working on the borders for the new beds. Filled up more water bottles, peeled off the labeled, and buried the bottled in the ground for the borders. Not nearly as hot and sweaty as last week because it was windy and a sort of misty rain was cooling us off (no luck finding a rainbow though).
Around 12:00pm, time for us to catch the bus back to San Jose! Maylin was on a tight schedule to meet up with everyone to go to Puerto Viejo, so it was important not to miss the bus outside of IPI. Well, we walked out of IPI and there goes the big yellow bus without us on it. So we waited around thinking another would come soon - 30 minutes later, nothing. So we walked back to the other bus stop near Lincoln Plaza to await one. Bus after bus, none going into San Jose. We were beginning to lose hope, haha, until a yellow bus came rolling around the corner with San Jose - Moravia written on the top, wooo! 355 colones, 20 minute ride, back in business. Little stop by the panaderia right at the bus stop (where I will most likely be getting a snack every Friday), got myself a dulce de leche panuelo. They are the most impossible things to eat cause they crumble everywhere and the powdered sugar gets all over you, but I wore my crumbs and sugar loud and proud through downtown San Jose.
Got to the San Pedro bus stop without any issues, made it home, tried to find a watercolor notebook for my host papa (fail), quick shower, and had a mini Grey's marathon. Soon it was time for dinner, since it was my papa's birthday, his other daughter and her family came over to celebrate.
I finally got the names straightened out a bit. My other host sister's name is Silvana (like my Spanish teacher) and her husband and son (who I met for the first time today) are both named Sebastian, and then her daughter is named Sofia. Everything was going fine, eating some ceviche and chips with guac when they got a phone call from a family friend.
What I gathered from the frantic conversations were that Sofia's Youth Group was held up at gunpoint and robbed. Every Friday, they have meetings in a building just around the corner from my house (actually right across from where Maylin lives), and Sofia usually goes to them but she wanted to celebrate her grandpa's birthday so she luckily was not there. So, of course she was distraught the rest of the night. It was interesting to see my host papa's reaction to it, he was either very upset to see her upset, or seeing her upset just made him very stressed. I couldn't tell if him trying to calm her down was coming from an annoyed place, or from a I hate seeing you upset place. Probably a mixture. He kept telling her we did everything we could, they went down to check on everyone and offered for them to come back to their place, etc. But Sofia just kept bursting out into tears.
After things calmed down a bit, we sat down for some chicken, which was followed by queque! Funny thing, in Costa Rica they blow out the candle before everyone starts singing. There was a larger passionfruit tart cake, then my host mama cut up this itty bitty, cupcake sized chocolate cake someone brought. I feel like in the US, the person with the birthday would just eat that themselves. But here, it was cut up amongst seven people and shared. I have noticed that changing in myself - usually I am pretty selfish when it comes to sharing food, especially when it is something I realllly like, but here the ICDS crew has adopted the policy "mi comida es tu comida".
Some gift opening and cleaning up, then Silvana's family left and everyone in my house went to bed. I finished up what little bit of Grey's I had left to watch on Netflix (now I have to wait for season 11 to be on Netflix - grrr), then hit the sheets myself.
Febrero 14
Happy Valentine's Day! Sending hugs and kisses to everyone back home!
Woke up very late (11:00am - normal time at home) and had a late breakfast with my host mama. Found out today is the anniversary of her mother's death - muy triste. Really craving some chocolate so I guess I will finally get dressed for the day and go get some!
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