This one is extremely long and possibly boring, yet informative.

Hello everyone! It’s Thursday the 11th of February, and I have now been living in Costa Rica for about four days, yet somehow it feels as though I've been here much longer. This isn’t due to not having fun, but rather its because I am extremely productive each and every day, which makes me feel healthier and more content with myself than I have felt even once during the past nine months of post-mom-death-depression. Each morning, Katie and I wake up at around 7 or 7:30. We joke around with each other and act ridiculous, Katie showers (I am a night showerer, and she is a morning showerer, which works out perfectly for our cohabitation and general relationship), we put on comfy yet unflattering clothing and sunscreen, I try to convince her to eat some adult gummy vitamins, she lends me anywhere from one to three things that I need but don't have, despite my overpacking (i.e. a belt, sunglasses, etc), she makes fun of me for not having anything I need, and then we head into the kitchen for breakfast. Normally Maybell has already sent her children off to school, and is in the midst of making us breakfast. Breakfast is a meal I have begun to eat regularly for the first time in years, because I eat dinner and go to bed much earlier here in Costa Rica than I do at home, and am therefore finally living a regular-human type of life. Yay me! Yesterday we had Gallo Pinto, which is basically rice and beans but it has extra herbs in it that makes it particular to Costa Rica. Gallo Pinto is a traditional cuisine eaten often here, in the mornings with eggs and toast, in the afternoons and evenings with some sort of meat and sometimes also potatoes and/or fried plantains. Me gusta mucho el Gallo Pinto. Sometimes for breakfast we just have cornflakes or fruit. Katie and I chat with Maybell during breakfast, then we head out on our walk to Maximo Nivel, the program center and the place where I have my Spanish classes. We can take the bus to Maximo, but we've found ourselves enjoying a nice half hour walk in the mornings, and during many of the evenings home as well. The weather is so nice here and there are always people walking around, so we chat and look around at people outside the stores on the way to Maximo.

When we get near Maximo, Katie heads towards a bus that will take her into San Jose and then outside the city to her project, and I come here to Maximo to do my Spanish homework or to check my email, etc, before my class at 11. I have Spanish class with one other girl named Lina, who was my first friend here. She is extremely nice and from Munich, Germany. Lina's been traveling around Latin America for the past four months, so her Spanish is a little better than mine, but the class is helpful to the both of us because its so small and really based on conversation and picking up vocab while we chat. Our teacher is my favorite human alive. Her name is Gabi. She's very small and cute, speaks only Spanish, is extremely relaxed and funny, and doesn't run a tight ship as far as class goes. The other day I told her that I hadn't done my homework because I went to a bar with some friends the night before and then had to go to sleep. She pretended to scold me and then she laughed.

After class Lina and I head out to our project with a brother and sister team from Washington named Cameron and Madi who are doing construction work at the center where we volunteer, and another girl named Deanna who’s been here for a few weeks. Our project is at a guarderia (child care center) where there are about twenty kids who spend either all day or after school hours, depending on their age, at the center. To get there we take two different buses out of the city and to a town in the hills outside San Jose. On the bus ride, I like to look out the window a bit and then to read whatever really stupid page-turner I’m immersed in. Currently it’s “Dear John” by Nicholas Sparks. Don’t judge me, the bus rides are long and I’m sick of reading things that require brainpower. I just spent the past semester reading only non-fiction or very complex literature, and I am officially on hiatus.

The kids at the center are absolutely amazing. The moment I arrived on my first day, they were hugging me, welcoming me, and begging me to play. One of the directors at Maximo informed us that most of these kids are very poor and come from single-mother households, and that many of them live in households with a history of domestic violence. The center is run by three extremely kind women who take good care of the kids, but it is in desperate need of supplies, repairs, and toys for the kids. The kids range in age from 6 months to eleven, and much of the energy and attention of the women who run the center goes towards taking care of the babies, while the kids hang out with each other. The outdoor area for the kids is basically just dirt, with one swing, one very rickety old see-saw that is definitely on the verge of breaking and seriously injuring a child, one usable plastic slide, and a completely broken and dangerous metal slide that Cameron and Madi are working on fixing. The babies have very few things to play with, and there are essentially no toys and only a few books for the kids. If anyone wants to send supplies, toys or books, please let me know and I’d love to coordinate with you.

When we get to our project each day we spend about 45 minutes just running around and playing with the kids, who are ecstatic that we’ve arrived because they can commence to order us to do things with them, mostly just picking them up and swinging them around. Their favorite activity is “avioncito,” which consists of me picking up a kid on their stomach, the kid making his or her arms into airplane wings, and me running around like a maniac. I swear my biceps have doubled in size and strength just over the past few days. On Tuesday, Katie, Cameron, Maddi and I went out, and Cameron and I were surprised to find that both our backs and arms were killing us after just one day of flinging the kids around. ☺ But I absolutely love seeing them smile, and can never say no.

After the chaotic play time, we usually like to organize some type of structured game like red light green light (verde rojo), freeze tag (quedar congelado), or freeze dance (baila congelado), which we just introduced them to the other day; SO MUCH FUN! Some of the time, I can’t understand what the kids are saying to me, so I apologize and say “Sabes que no entiendo nada!” (You KNOW that I don’t understand anything), to which they respond by rolling their eyes and laughing at me, then trying to slow down their speech in a condescending sort of way, and oftentimes finishing by informing me that I need to work on my Spanish. But most of the time we can communicate quite well, and I’m slowly but surely getting to know each kid, learning about their families and their time at school, and coming to know what types of things each kid likes to do the most. After playtime, Lina and Deanna and I usually have planned a short English lesson using visual aids, designed for the kids to learn a few words in English like those for clothing items or fruit. It helps us to remember the names for these things in Spanish, and it gives the kids something new to learn each day. Afterwards, we have coloring time. They LOVE to color. There are no drawing materials at the center unless we bring them with us, and I’ve never seen kids so grateful and excited simply to get a photocopied sheet from a coloring book or a piece of construction paper, and some crayons to share. It may sound corny and cliché, but little observations like this truly put the life I’ve led into perspective, and I find myself often thinking about how lucky I was and how lucky my little siblings are to be able to create any art project or to play any game, wherever and whenever. I enjoy coloring time, because we all calm down and chat with each other, and I know interacting with the kids is helping me improve my Spanish, even after only a few days. I’m so happy with my project, and am really glad that I’ll be able to spend the remainder of my time in Costa Rica working with these same kids.

By the time we are on the bus ride back from the project, I am usually thoroughly exhausted from the day. I get to Maximo around 6, Katie and I meet up and may grab a cup of coffee or a beer with some other kids, but normally we head off on our nightly walk home. It is so nice in the evenings because its cooled down from the standard 80 degrees, and I really have fun walking around. We get home and chat with Maybell while we eat dinner together. The other night, Maybell’s sister-in-law came over and Katie and I sat outside chatting with them for a couple of hours, which was so excellent. They are both very funny and very patient, and both have been hosting students and visitors in their houses for years now, so they are more than happy to help us with our Spanish and to talk with about their different experiences. After some of the stories we’ve heard, Katie and I know that we are excellent house guests. I understand SO MUCH in Spanish that it really amazes me, after all these years not studying it. My speaking skills are definitely lacking, but they improve each and every day, and I really do get so excited to find that I can sit and hear a story or an opinion of Maybell’s and understand completely what she’s saying.

Every night, Katie and I spend a couple of hours talking and laughing in our beds, then we fall asleep eventually, somehow. It takes a lot to shut both of us up, and I think exhaustion might be the only thing that can truly do the trick. Until next time, Pura Vida!

Xtine.