yo les amo niños

I guess almost a week has gone by since my last real update! This was such a weird week though. No field trips, so it felt like nothing important happened. We had a lot of free time for studying and working on labs. It was nice. I lost track of what day it was. All day yesterday I thought it was Wednesday. Such a weird feeling. One morning this week, we did gardening… I raked weed whacker clippings for two hours. Actually kind of hard labor when it’s in the Costa Rican sun. I have a gnarly blister. We also got to go to the University of Costa Rica for a lecture and we walked around San Jose for a bit. UCR is tight and huge. It was fun being in the city for a little bit.

Yesterday morning we had another outreach experience at the little escuela in Atenas. It is an elementary school that focuses on environmental issues, which is perfect for us! This experience is SO COOL. I didn’t really talk about it much last time, so I thought I’d just talk about it a little bit.

Okay so there’s this small school that’s about 20 minutes away from the center kind of in the wilderness near the local organic coffee plantations. It’s a beautiful hilly drive. The school has a total of about 20 students, kindergarten through 5th grade. There are two classrooms and a little cafeteria and a little bathroom. So precious. So last time three of us got to teach about 12 kids English. We made little notecards with English and Spanish words on them for things in the environment (monkey-mono, sun-sol, tree-arborlés, etc) and then they would draw the picture of what it was. (See pic. So cute)

We also made these posters with pictures of the environment and then labeled them and basically made them repeat words to us in English. We kind of free for alled, I tried to teach them, but my español is no bueno. One girl asked me if I had met Michael Jackson the singer, and I had no idea what she was saying and I kept saying sí sí… Luckily one of my co-teachers corrected me, but it was so difficult.

So we went back yesterday to paint a mural on their bathroom building. We designed it beforehand (about the value of water), and basically we just drew the shapes on the wall and let the older kids kind of paint by number. They all did such a good job and it turned out to be so beautiful! Also, the Spanish was way easier this time. I got to practice all my color words and was able to communicate with them pretty well. The kids are adorable and their school was super cute.

The six of us finished up the mural with touch ups and outlines and it’s amazing! It was really rewarding to be able to spend time with kids and try and promote a positive image of Americans. Even though the school is so small, we were able to give them something that will last years and years. So much fun! Here is the building before we started painting (and me awkwardly standing in front of it) and in the middle with all the kids painting and the final product with the entire school in front:



Tomorrow we are going to stay with families in town for the weekend. I’m so ready to get out of the center for a little bit and be a part of real life. I’m staying with a woman and her three-year-old son. Hopefully we’ll hit it off and I’ll have a connection in the community. We also have midterms next week…. What have I learned so far? Haha, just kidding. We’ll see how it goes. Other than that, just the same ol’ routine. Tonight I baked delicious brownies and cookies for my host family. And ate like half of them. Whoops. It’s okay I’m running everyday. Whether or not I’m getting fat is debatable, haha.

My dear friend Nellie (who is Will Vunderink’s COUSIN, for all of you who think that’s really weird) took all these awesome pictures of the kids and me teaching and the murals. So, that is why all of these pictures have me in them. But muchos gracias to her. And all my love to all of you.

OH and my longest childhood friend Natasha JUST GOT ENGAGED!!!!! I will be a bridesmaid in one year. So crazy. Sooo happy for her.