Joan & Yendry

My life in my host family has been dominated by two things lately. The first one is Joan (pronounced like Joan Miró, not like Joan of Arc), who is my host sister's two-year old baby. The second is Yendry (pronounced like Jenny, but with a d-r), who is my neighbor's two-year old baby. My host sister is three days older than me, and she recently moved back to Osa with her husband/boyfriend (who is not the father of the baby). They now live in her brother's (my host brother's) house two doors down, but they were living in our house for about three weeks. During that time I became 'Tato' and we played a lot of hide-and-go-seek and had many arguments over whether random things around the house were his or not. 'Mio' is his favorite and most common phrase, usually he compulsively grabs and object, examines it, and yells 'mio!' while walking quickly away with it.
Both Joan and Yendry enjoy being lifted up high, and they adore bicycles and vehicles of all kinds. They both have little kid bikes, which they carry around with them, or attempt to sit on and asked to be pushed around. They demand coffee whenever someone is drinking it, they are constantly begging for water, and they love sweet breads. Joan's most common facial expression is confusion, but my host dad constantly says that 'looks like a leader', and to tell the truth he is very smart. He is speaking intelligible words now, and the other day he pointed to my bike and said "Bici Tato" then he pointed to my host sister's bike and said "Bici mami" and then to Yendry's little bike and said "Bici mio". Not perfect, but he is beginning to understand ownership as a concept that other people can participate in.
Yendry is not yet speaking as clearly or as much, but she is getting quite good at mimicking her mother. She yells for her brother in a loud squawk which brings him running from the vacant 'soccer' field a few houses down (where the barbed wire fence pops about three balls a week). She also puts one hand on her hips and says 'vea' which her mother uses to mean 'see' as in "See, we're gonna get 'em, see..." in a passable imitation of a female Cagney.
I am in an unofficial guardian capacity, mainly as the one who runs down to the soccer field when it starts raining and carries them home, but recently both of them have started to run up and hug me around the ankles whenever I get home from work, which is the best reward I could ask for.

Clowning Around

Many weeks ago, before the end of February, one of my schools was treated to a thrilling spectacle. A Television personality, from Costa Rica's Channel 13 came down to one of my schools, perhaps my favorite, and put on a performance for the children. He was good, and his slapstick routines were impressive, his stories had nice morals and he performed an exceptional 'Little Red Riding Hood', the best part was that when he left he stayed in character and just disappeared. Everyone in the room enjoyed it, even the stodgy old teacher (with a heart of gold). That school is probably my favorite because I go there Thursday and Friday, it is around 14 kilometers away, so I take the bus although some day I hope to start going by bike. It has around 80 students, and the town is really small. What I most love about it is the shady school-yard, and the sewage ditch that the soccer balls always fall into. The students take off their shoes and jump into the murky, ankle-deep water, bring the ball up and promptly have to dive in again.
In other, and perhaps more exciting news, we have discovered a Chinese Restaurant in Puerto Jimenez, and it serves egg-rolls! Kristen is my Peace Corps buddy in Osa, and she loves egg-rolls (Tacos Chinos in Costa Rican spanish), so this find radically changed how much we enjoy Puerto Jimenez, and has cut down on our ice cream journeys.
Also, our Library Project is off to a good start! The people over at the Iguana Lodge built a library in Puerto Jimenez, but it has been closed for months because their long-time employee quit, and the new-hire only lasted a few weeks. We went out to the hotel (were treated to a fantastic lunch) and began negotiations to find and train some new employees and get some keys so that we could begin to organize the library. It is currently separated into languages, and after that alphabetically by author's first name. This will be a lot of work, but hopefully we can use it as a resource to start reading programs in our schools, and to get some English books into the classroom. We may begin asking for book donations soon, but not until we're sure we can get this running!

Note: these pictures are of a family trip to Matapalo a few weeks ago, and have nothing to do with the content of this blog.

Out of Site, Out of Mind

To take a slight detour from the rigidly chronological structure this blog has taken so far, I will explain a bit about why I haven't written in a long time. The main reason is that between the constant presence of visitors at my host family, teaching in school, as well as starting up four new community classes (bringing the total up to six) I have had precious little time to sit down and think about what I've been doing. Another factor is how much fun my weekends have been, and since Sunday is my only full day off, trips out to Matapalo, bike rides down to Puerto Jimenez, or even simply to the beach in my site have occupied most of my free time.
Lately there has been a different reason: IST. In-Service Training proved quite valuable to me. I was slapped in the face with the knowledge that I need to cut back how much I am working, we learned new teaching techniques and activities so that I can present the same information in radically different ways, and most importantly all of TICO 21 was able to be together. Unfortunately I spent all of my free time with other PCVs and was unable to write more.
Thats enough of a mea culpa, the most thrilling part of IST was that I finally figured out which soccer team to support in Costa Rica! I'm going to have to keep it a secret from my host family because I am neither a fan of 'La Liga' (Red and Black) or 'Saprissa' (Purple and White), the two powerhouse teams in Costa Rica; instead I have been converted into a fan of 'Brujas' (Hot Pink), a team which won the league two years ago, but a Bernie Madoff type financial scandal caused a player strike after pay was withheld for weeks. The team is struggling to stay afloat, its stadium is the 'Cuty' Monge in Desamparados (a city literally named Helpless) and the team name means 'Witches'. This is closest Costa Rican mainstream culture has gotten to the absurd, and I love it.
We went to the 'Liga' Stadium in Alajuela, saw 4 goals, and watched Brujas lose 4-1(we missed the first goal). From the outside the stadium was indistinguishable from a sweat-shop, or an empty lot sided by sheets of rusting corrugated metal. Inside, however, it was well maintained and the red and black decor gave me more respect for La Liga. My friend Ken and I were wearing pink button-up shirts and slacks, and received some verbal abuse from the crowd, but being the only Brujas fans we were cowed into silence. It was an exciting game though, because at least one of the goals was spectacular, and the Brujas goal was entirely unexpected. The two images that stick in my mind were La Liga's #14 walking around the entire stadium shaking hands through the fence, and the Ultras mesmerizingly twirling red and black umbrellas.
Also while we were in San Jose they opened the new 'Estadio Nacional' and played both China and Argentina to a draw! The stadium was just down the street from the hotel, so every night we were treated to a lackluster fireworks display, and thronging crowds of people from all over the country.

Here is my IST Limerick:
While in San José for some IST,
We stayed at the Corobici,
While in sessions for TEFL,
We all became fretful,
At least breakfast and lunches were free!

This picture is of one of my dwindling community classes, the one below is of a lesson in the Elementary School.