Thank You

Thanks to everyone who read this blog throughout the 17 months I was in Costa Rica. Thanks for all of the comments and e-mails. They made my weekly trips to the Internet cafe a little less frustrating.

Also, thanks to everyone who donated money or supplies to my school. From pencils to dictionaries, the students are still benefiting from your generosity. There are still enough pencils in the supply cabinet to last several years, I think.

There is no way to express how thankful I am for everything, but I will try by posting some of the thank-you notes my students made during the last week of class. They made them for you, not me, so enjoy them.

Paradise

Aside from the nasty cold I picked up from my adorably snotty nephew and niece, all is well here in Dallas, Texas, USA. I arrived at my brother's house at 1:15 a.m. Saturday to find the mother-in-laws of the house each with a crying baby and matching looks of fatigue and concern. My brother and his wife were away at Vegas for a little peace and quiet (although that hardly seems like the place to go). 

Miraculously, I made it on time the next morning to an interview event with Texas Teaching Fellows. As part of the interview process, I gave a five-minute sample lesson, participated in a group discussion, completed two writing samples -- one in English and one in Spanish -- and participated in a one-on-one personal interview, which was conducted in both Spanish and English. I know the lesson went well, and even the Spanish part was fine, but I'm not too sure about the rest. The worst part was the last question in the personal interview.

"When is the last time you failed at something, and how did you deal with that failure?"

My answer:

"Hmm, let's see... The last time I failed at something... Let me think about that... Well, I know I fail at things all the time... It's not that I think I'm perfect or anything, but... well, hmmm... You know, nothing's really coming to mind just right now... Nope, I can't think of a thing... Sorry..."

At least now I have an answer to that question. 

I should know by the end of the week if that botched answer was enough to keep me from the program. If it wasn't and I am accepted into the program, I will most likely move back to the U.S. in June to begin a summer teacher training institute and look for jobs in the Dallas area.

If I'm not accepted into the program, I will stay in Costa Rica through August, maybe even December, and in the meantime figure out the next step toward becoming a teacher in the States. As they would say in Costa Rica, it's whatever God wants.

As of right now, I am just enjoying spending time with my family, eating cheeseburgers and going to Target and Wal-Mart as many times as I want each day. Next week, I will go back to Costa Rica and go camping on the beach for four days. From cheeseburgers and retail to starry nights and campfires. It's paradise all the way around.

In the classroom

Proof that I don't just sit around in a hammock all day. And that homemade haircuts are never the way to go.

Nice to meet you, too

Hot hot heat

Finally, I am able to check in and say hello. I’ve been super busy of late, mostly planning for classes and finding other things to do to take my mind off the unbearable heat. Here’s a rundown of what’s been going on.

It’s so hot.

A group of women from DeWitt (my hometown) came to Costa Rica to relax and do mission work. I spent a few days with them, joining their search for the Scarlet Macaw. It was one of the best weekend trips I’ve taken in Costa Rica.

At my insistence, my 15-year-old host sister hacked my hair off, straight across, right at my chin. It looks really, really bad, but at least my neck isn’t all hot with sweaty hair stuck to it.

The president of the state-owned, monopolized utilities company landed on my town’s soccer field in a helicopter the other. It was the most excitement the town has seen ever. He was there in support of a new book about the history of my town.

A fellow volunteer came to visit and observe me in the classroom. We swam in the river, went to the local bar and made a quick bus adventure to visit other volunteers. One of the guys has Wi-Fi in his classroom. No fair!

I made plans to attend an interview with Texas Teaching Fellows in Dallas on March 28 to be a bilingual teacher. I’ll be in Dallas through April 6, so if you happen to be around, let me know.

I was flipping through flashcards in class when I had a bad dizzy spell. The room just kept spinning. Shortly it passed and someone yelled, “Un temblor!!!” It had been an earthquake, not a dizzy spell. I’ve felt two more since then.

I’ve decided to boycott the Internet café in Buenos Aires. The Internet is too slow, the room is too hot and the girl who works there isn’t very friendly. I’ll show them.

Yesterday I was going through my box of medicines when I found nearly $200 worth of Costa Rican bills that I had forgotten about. Woo-hoo!

That’s pretty much it. I was supposed to go to San Jose today to shop for a better haircut, a black cardigan sweater and faster Internet café, but we had no water this morning, and it’s entirely too hot to go anywhere without first bathing. Finally, I took a bucket bath, but it was too late to get to San Jose, so now I am in another town called Palmar Norte. It costs a little more and takes a little longer to get here, but it’s better than Buenos Aires. I’ll show them.

I have a ton of great pictures to share, too, but the Internet here in Palmar doesn´t seem to be that much better. I can´t get the photos to load. This is so frustrating. I´m going now to take deep breaths. Bye.

Back to school

The first week of school has come and gone. It was fun, much more fun than it was last year when I had absolutely no idea what was going on. The students, strangely, all acted like little angelitos, and the director was surprisingly pleasant to me. My first graders all now know to say “I am fine, thank you,” when asked, “How are you?” although if you ask them what it means in Spanish, they look at you with a blank stare. We’ll keep working on it.

Yesterday, I sat through a two-hour staff meeting. Staff meetings are never fun, but staff meetings in a different language are even more tortuous. The part I did enjoy, however, was the presentation of brooms. I’ve mentioned before how important brooms and sweeping are in this country, right? Well, each teacher got a new broom and a new dust pan yesterday, just to start the year out right. All of the brooms had turquoise broomsticks, and all but one had pink brooms. One had a blue broom. The janitor (also my host mom) had the honor (for obvious reasons) of handing out the brooms. Everyone was excited and began immediately to write their names on the broomsticks. But then someone noticed that Felix, the lone male teacher, had gotten a pink broom. How funny! A man with a pink broom! The director suggested he change with someone so as not to be stuck with the ever-feminine pink broom, but it was too late. He’d already written his name on it! But there’s a reason she is the director; she quickly solved the problem by unscrewing the broomstick and screwing it back onto a blue broom. Now Felix can keep his classroom floors clean and keep his manhood intact.

Along these same lines – the lines of floor-cleaning obsession – Andreina, the baby of the house, recently got her very first T-shirt mop. Remember when she got the little baby broom? Well, now she has a tot-sized mop made of her very own unwanted T-Shirts. That little Tica really is growing up.

Life goes on in the campo

Where to start? It's been cooler than usual in the mornings around here. I had to wear a jacket to school three days in a row. I checked my thermometer to find that it was 70 degrees. And I was downright cold! Strange how our perceptions can change so quickly.

Host family life as been going well. Greivin (boyfriend of host sister, pronounced Gray Bean) has been clearing the yard to make way for an addition to the house. He and Liliana and the baby are moving into a room on the back of the house, but they need a kitchen.

The first step in the project was to cut down a palm tree. Here’s how that works here: A guy (in this case Gray Bean) shimmies up the trunk of the tree. He has a machete tied around his waste with a piece of string. He holds on tight to the trunk with one hand and swings the machete with the other. He chops and chops until all the palm leaves, stems, stalks and coconuts are in a big pile on the ground and nothing is left of the tree but a long, skinny trunk. Then he ties one end of a long rope around the top of the trunk and loops the other end around a couple of trees nearer to the ground. Then he scoots down the tree a bit and begins chopping away at the trunk until he is just too tired to chop anymore or until a swarm of bees begins to sting him. Then he comes down to help a few guys on the ground pull the rope until the top part of the trunk falls. As it falls, they all scream and make the sign of the cross. Then the guy cuts away the palm stalks lying on the ground and takes them inside to the woman of the house so she can cook them for supper. Then everyone else in the house (including myself) yells to the guy to cut open some coconuts for drinking, and he does so with just a few quick swings of the machete. Then he comes back the next day and repeats the last few steps of the routine until the entire tree is down and the bellies of the household are happily full of hearts of palm and coconut juice.

I was thinking of moving into a little apartment myself, but I think I’ll just stick it out in the house for now. I am afraid I might miss something if I move away. As long as they keep cutting down palm trees and passing out coconuts, I’m fine right where I am. Besides, I have decided to for sure come back home in July, look for a job (god help me) or maybe go to graduate school. I am not really ready to come back just yet, but that’s what the next four months are for – to prepare.

Let me know if you see any job openings for people with my unique set of skills: I can make pizza, write newspaper stories, teach English to people who don’t speak English, build a house with nothing more than a bit of wood, a hammer, nails, and a length of plastic tubing, and if really put the test, I could cut down a palm tree with nothing more than a big knife and piece of rope.

I'm still here

A few days ago a whole gaggle of gringos came marching by the pulperia, all sweaty and utterly exhausted from hiking up and down the mountains that form the horizon of my town. The trek leader stopped to chat and said she is always surprised when she haps upon a lone gringo living out in the middle of nowhere. “I always want to just snatch them – you – up and say, ‘Come with me,’” she said, clearly appalled that I would live in such hot, remote, dirty little place.

But I am happy to be here, as always. I am more accustomed to the heat this year than I was last year, so while it is still hot, it’s not quite so miserable as before. My host family is doing well, the baby is starting to talk, and the living room recently got a much-needed fresh coat of paint (tree-frog green and soft lavender).

Last week I endured one of the most difficult experiences of my life when I volunteered for Un Techo Para Mi Pais (A Roof For My County). One hundred and eighteen of us (20 gringos, the rest Costa Rican college students), built 26 small wooden shelters for families living in extreme poverty (mud floors and no running water) in the province of Limon. Some highlights included washing my face with sewer water, bathing in a men’s urinal and working four days straight in constant rain and mud. On the second morning, I cried and was just about to walk out on the project when my friend Dan gave the whole group of soggy gringos a pep talk.

“We are Americans from the United States,” he said. “We don’t quit. It’s in our blood to stay longer than is really necessary. Take the Vietnam War. Or the Iraq War. Or The Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy.”

With that we all felt a surge of pride and headed out into the rain and mud to prove we don’t quit. But ultimately all but three of us did quit. I left on the morning of the last day when the blisters on the bottoms of my feet had finally gotten the best of me. Oh what sweet pain I felt limping my way to the bus stop! I have photos to post, but the Internet is running so slowly today, I think I will wait to post them later.

Thankfully, I am back in the relative luxury of my own town and room. School starts Monday, which will surely provide me with more stories to keep this blog more regularly updated.

In the meantime, I know have a cell phone, which is connected and working here in Costa Rica, thanks to my generous and smart older brother. If you don’t mind paying the long-distance fees, call me anytime at 011-506-8892-6624. I’m always in the mood to speak English!

And last but not least, FELIZ DIA DE SAN VALENTIN Y MES DEL AMOR Y AMISTAD!

Videos

Because I have high-speed Internet at my fingertips, I am posting a few of the videos from last year. This one is of my host sister's daughter walking around outside the pulperia. I can't wait to get back and see how much she's grown and what new tricks she's learned.

Dancing

These are fifth-grade and sixth-grade students at their end-of-the-year party. Aren't they cute? The little devils.

So this is the new year

I’ve been home for almost two weeks, and would you know the world did not stop turning while I was away?

Everyone (as in everyone in my family and friend groups) just kept right on living in my absence. Who knew? While I was off with my nose buried in a Spanish/English dictionary, they’ve been right here in the United States of America making things happen.

Babies that weren’t even imaged when I left are born now and sleeping through the night. Homes that were just dreams are now realities. Marriages that were strained are easier. Jobs that were once hated are now tolerated. Waistlines that were once bulging are now thin. Wal-Mart became Walmart. Former Christians became Jews and boyfriends became husbands and conference rooms became offices and students became professionals and kids became adults – all without so much as a nod from me. The nerve!

The truth is I don’t know when I’ve seen the people I know seem happier and more content. Perhaps I was the problem all along. Or maybe time and distance have given me a better perspective. Or maybe it’s all just coincidence. Whatever it is, it has made being home better than it’s ever been.

And here we have yet another new year ahead of us. What a treat.

Happy 2009!