Oh how the days pass – I can barely remember what we did this morning, let alone, four days ago! We are in full vacation mode and the boys are asking every hour “when are we leaving for vacation?” They are very hyped about our upcoming travels and spending time with animals and the opportunity to fish and ride horses. From all that I have read on the Internet and ‘word of mouth’, the La Carolina Lodge will not disappoint! We leave Tuesday for the Volcan Tenorio and Rio Celeste area and will return on Thursday.
Mike’s school week concluded with 8 hours of parent-teacher conferences on Thursday and a ½ day of school on Friday in celebration of Dia de Cultura where each class represented a country. Mike’s class represented Chile. Mike found himself welcoming kids into the classroom and speaking about Chile and using Spanish vocabulary he never new he had! Mike arrived home about 1 p.m. and we then walked into Santa Elena while Goudy watched the boys. We walked part of the way with three of his students and chatted them up to find out what their plans were for their vacation. Mike and I accomplished a lot, visited the bookstore, did some banking, bought my ticket to San Jose for Monday ($8.00) one way, purchased some iron pills at the pharmacy and stocked up on food/snacks at the Super Compro for our upcoming trip. Mike bought a ton of plastic containers for his classroom organization as well. We ended the night watching “The Kite Runner” on the laptop. The rain was so loud against our fiberglass roof that we had to resort to using my headphones from my IPod in order to hear any sound as the speaker on the laptop was drowned out by the heavy downpour.
Thursday, the boys had a ‘play-date’ with Jackson, one of their classmates. Nicolette and her husband live about 10 minutes away on the Rockwell farm. They have a charming house with a ‘to die for’ view of the Gulf of Nicoya. She and her husband own the Santa Elena Pension, are opening a bar, have just expanded the pension with a brand new building and have another venture in the works. She also owns a jewelry store “Luna Azul” right on the edge of Cerro Plano. They are transplants from Texas, but are here to stay for the long run. She has really personalized her house, has painted it, fresh flowers in a vase, hardwood floors, ceramic tile – ‘a real home’. I felt a little envious as I started to compare it to our house (concrete floors, smashed guayba fruit smeared all over the windows (compliments of the boys) and the only thing growing in a glass on top of our counter is a week old stalk of rosemary. Nicolette quickly reminded me of her first Tico house (they have been here 5 years) and the fact that each of the three houses she has lived in has had its own uniqueness and advantages. The boys had a great time playing, while Nicolette and I sat on the porch, enjoying the view while she recounted her story of how she and her husband got to where they are today. The boys devoured an entire watermelon and frolicked in Jackson’s fort.
I’ve been taking advantage of the library at the school in attempt to keep the boys excited about reading. They love to read anytime and any new book puts a twinkle in their eye. The library is filled with a musty, mildewish smell which clings to the pages of the books, so once home and opened, the familiar smell of the library is ever so present. Some of the books are so tattered and torn you wonder how on earth they can endure another pre-schooler’s handling – but they do! Quite frequently, I open a book and read the stamp imprinted on the front cover “For the Students of Monteverde Costa Rica, A gift from the citizens of your sister city, Estes Park, Colorado”. I usually get a mixture of books, some in English, some in Spanish.
Food and Insects – not for the squeamish. Thursday, I along with Goudy and the boys attempted to make grapefruit juice. In a secret mission, Goudy and I lifted the boys over the barbed wire fence marking our neighbors property to the east (there is a nice big house that sits on the property, but we have never actually SEEN anyone there). The boys were eager to collect the fallen grapefruit and escape back to our yard without being detected…mission accomplished!. After the boys cleaned the grapefruits, the boys cut them open and put our little juicer to work. “Is that a piece of pulp”, I asked, “nope it is insect larva”, NICE - we decided we could weed those little critters out using the strainer, so we pushed onward. A little sugar and water and ‘Que rico’! Speaking of insects and larva in food, it has been our week for quite these discoveries. For those of you that know Mike, he does not like to throw away any food, even if it is on the brink of going bad – so eggplant it was for dinner last night...or so we thought. Our friendly little insect larva appeared once again and wiggled and squirmed away on the cutting board – luckily Mike came to the realization that this eggplant was better suited for the compost. A good choice! Finally, while boiling some water for pasta, little did I know that there were dried insects (looked like the land shrimp we find on our floor every night) in the package of noodles. It wasn’t until after I munched on a few hard noodles while waiting for the water to boil that I spied the bugs as they floated up to the top once I dumped the noodles into the water. Did we buy the noodles this way? Or had the insects found their way into the bag while sitting on our cabinet shelf – no importa? Just life!
Today, Saturday, after my run, we walked up to school with the bins we had purchased yesterday in hand so Mike could start to organize his classroom and ready for some project work with the kids once back from vacation. The weekly game of ultimate Frisbee was taking shape. You can see them practicing in the pic above. As the afternoon wore on, more folks showed up, and the game got competitive. My boys enjoyed playing in the sandbox and the play-yard. We then headed to Pax and Raquel’s house to play with Sierra. She is a very mature 10 year-old who is chomping at the bit to baby-sit Michael and John. Stewart their neighbor, and Sequoia, her brother were also there, so good play for all. I enjoyed talking Spanish with Raquel and Pax and were thrilled when they commented on the improvement in my Spanish – YAY! Sierra’s room is filled with her crafts and jewelry making beads – the boys were captivated. She will watch the boys tomorrow at school when Mike and I attend the morning Meeting.
Finally, I think the rainy season is here – it is a good thing as we are so dry. We have had rain the last week, each day, which will hopefully continue. There is concern that come Spring, water may be rationed and only permitted for use before 7 a.m. and after 11 p.m. – Let the rain dances begin!
P.S. - Last weekend at the Farmers Market, the kids enjoyed an activity "making masks" compliments of an art-teacher from San Jose. It was great, I sat down with them on the make-shift table (an old door) while Mike purchased all the fruits and veggies. Michael was in craft heaven, John just enjoyed getting all his fingers in the glue!
Signed: S
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