Teaching at the school is going well. We've started work on the Science Fair projects, which is no small task this year! I have six classes, six groups per class, of projects to do and have the kids completely ready with them by late September! We'll be running through lessons in the near future, that's for sure! While I have not been in the high school again this semester, I will be meeting with the principle to discuss possibilities for next year. This is also a new development thus far for me: I plan to stay in Costa Rica until July-ish of next year, then within a month or so end up back in Cookson, OK, working with the people in that area, predominately the Cherokee. But until then, I'm very excited about what next year might hold for me! I am also planning on doing some work with the mission teams that come down here, mostly provide help for VBS's and such so I can continue to work in the Colegio in the mornings.

pilgrims to La Negrita

August 1 was the final day of the Catholic's pilgrimage to La Basilica de los Angeles de la Virgen in Cartago, about 1 hr. from my apartment. Some of the pilgrims walked all the way from Guanacaste (a 5 hr. bus ride from San Jose), and started the Sunday before. Over 400 years ago, Mary "appeared" to a little girl as a doll, whose name/image is now known as La Negrita (little black doll) and this Mary is the patron saint of Costa Rica. All Catholic's are "encouraged" to make the pilgrimage to her church each year to ask forgiveness. This year, approximately 2.3 million people--the equivilent of the central valley's population--walked to the Basilica. The reason for so many? Last year's was canceled due to swine flu. (I find this ironic, for some reason.) The Basilica is extremely beautiful, and should the Pope visit, well, you'll know where to find him. However, aside from it's beauty, the building has a strange feeling inside. Not surprising, I suppose, when you see people walking on their knees to La Negrita.

Michelle, Denita, Graziella

A few weeks ago, my tutor (the one with the purple and pink skirt), Graziella, and her dance group performed tipical Costa Rican dances for the community. A group of gringas, dancing like ticas....it was really fun! She put in a lot of effort, and they danced great! The white dress is more common to the more social, city-girl dancer, while the middle dress is common from the country. The bright colors of Graziella's dress are tipical for dancers who put on shows--they are fun and flashy! Each of the dresses in the picture and of the women in the whole groupd are hand made, even the decoration on the blouses. Talk about an act of love! I also hope she can teach me, and that I can get a dress for myself:). Also, she is an extremely talented spanish teacher, and I am very blessed to have her tutoring me 4 hours a week. I can understand quite a bit now! For instance, Sunday I ended up in a drug awareness session for teenagers (long story!) and I understood 80% of the presentation! I'm very excited about that!

A few weeks ago, we had a Music Day at school. The different musical groups of the school performed some pieces, along with a high school duet pair. The choirs were fun to hear and do well. I just wish the high school was not still forcing the kids to play recorder. Hopefully, I will be able to help out in some way. One music teacher is teaching some of his students some other instruments, but said equipment is old and of a limited variety, as the pictures show. This is another area I'm trying to help with.

A few weeks before I left for vacation, I was able to visit the orphanage site. The walls are up and some flooring was done, by now probably all done! It is very exciting to see it going up. I know the Tatum family is very ready to be in their home:), though Meredith and I will miss them terribly!

I have had a wonderful time back in Texas for vacation! Lauren and Jon's wedding was absolutely beautiful and went very well. Same for the reception. We all had a wonderful time, and I was able to visit with many friends, catch up, and just have fun with them! I can't wait to see her pictures. And thankfully, I didn't make a single mistake when I played piano at the wedding, of which I am very proud of myself for doing. I don't think that's ever happened to me before! Then Mom and Dad and I headed up to Ruidoso, NM for a few days. It was great! You could smell the pine trees in the air, and it was in the 50's when you woke up in the morning! One day we went to the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site north of Tularosa. It was awesome! I was in heaven, aside from the scorching heat, that is.

Well, vacation time is finally here! I managed to finish things up for the semester at the high school (hope they figured out the rest!) and the primary had it's English Day. Meredith's brother came in Wednesday afternoon and we headed up to Volcan Arenal for a few days! It was a great trip and the place just beautiful! The volcano even rumbled several times a day while we were there, so that was fun:)! And the breakfast...absolutely wonderful! Of course, I like any kind of free food generally:).

I went to church today with a team from Georgia. Allie's parents are heading it up, so it was fun to see them again. Her mom translated the sermon, which was really cool to see. I was proud of myself for catching most of it! Granted, he had to pause for the translator, which is a huge help, but hey, I got it! It was a really nice service. They have a band that leads the worship music, and you could really feel God's presence among those singing and worshiping. It was awesome!

Well, I'm heading back to Texas tomorrow for a wedding this coming weekend, and to renew my visa:). And to see family and friends, of course! And I'm very excited to be going back:). Six months is a very long time to go without anything from home or being there. It's also going to be a time for me to be emailing and praying about this coming semester and next year. The principle's got some ideas, but I'm not sure we're on the same page and was unable to keep our appointment to discuss them, so please pray that the right thing will come about, whatever it may be.

My plant is still alive! Although, I'm not sure if it should be getting more sun...it's hard to tell:) I'll move it before leaving tomorrow, and when Meredith returns from Panama this weekend, she can be the judge:) She and the Tatum's are heading south tomorrow before I leave to renew their visas too! I just wish the timing had worked out to where I could join them:).

And now I must finish the last few things for tonight and get my beauty sleep, because tomorrow's going to be a long day! Keep my travels in your prayers!

Paz

So for the last two weeks, and this coming week, I have been subbing over at the high school for one of the music teachers. It's been fun! The best part is they speak English, so there are no problems with them understanding what I say:). Normally, their music class is taught in Spanish, so there were a few problems when it came to me doing what the teacher left to do...... In the end, I got the OK to create a new exam which was a project the kids did. Overall, it went well and the kids seemed to enjoy it. There were some that were quite funny and very well done, so I was very proud of them! I am teaching the 9th, 10th and 11th (seniors) graders. On the downside, I have had to create that exam/project on extremely short notice, and found out Friday I'll be continuing lessons this coming week.....during their other exams and right before a 3 week vacation! Aaahhhh!!! But for those of you who are teachers, or simply find this rather odd/amazing, it is very cultural here to wait until the last minute (or close to) before telling people what they need to know. So it's been good to finally be the one experiencing it since it had to happen eventually:). But it is certainly not easy, and I am very ready for vacation!

I recently bought a large plant that is now in our living room! Meredith was gone for 9 days to go see her brother get married...in South Korea! I started to need another living thing with me, other than bugs, and had been thinking about buying a plant for a while. So I went down to the nursery and found one I loved! And I absolutely love it, and no, I have not killed it yet!:)

The rainy season has been rather slow and light, but we have had quite a lot of clouds for the last few weeks, very little sunshine, and I'm ready for some! I was actually cold this past week and had to wear a light sweater to work! In June! How crazy is that??? On the other hand, I will soon be heading back to Texas to renew my visa, and my parents have been kind enough to tell me that it is 100 degrees in Llano!!! Que loco! From 60 degrees to over 100...what will I do??:)

My spanish is coming along. I really like my tutors, they're great! I can understand much much more now, as long as they speak slower than normal:). It will be fun to practice with friends back in the states and neighbors!

Now, my breakfast is about ready, so I must go.

Ciao!

Nicaragua Pics!

immigration--lines that make Houston customs look tame, i'll never again complain:)

the second most conical-shaped volcano in the world, next to Mt. Fiji

the place we stayed:)

San Juan del Sur, beach

Catedral de Granada

venders and construction in front of the cathedral

view from the bell tower

trash on the road

on our way to Masaya for church, overlooking the lagoon, Granada in the distance and Lake Granada

the kids of the church performed some traditional dances

then the women fried chicken for us! the chickens were running around when we first arrived....and ended up tasting real good!

Volcan Masaya crater, the gases were strong and smelly and we could only be up there 20 min.

the fanciest cathedral we say, Catedral de la Virgen Auxialadora (I think)

another cathedral, it was closed so we couldn't go in

the first one we visisted

inside the bell tower

view from the bell tower

Meredith and me in the Central Square
we were serenaded by a Nicaraguan Mariachi group during dinner one evening

on a boat tour, this was the island with the fort

the island with a restaurant


monkey island

Well, the last time I tried blogging, the internet decided to stop working, so hopefully that doesn't happen this time! A lot has happened since Holy Week! I am now out of language school and back at the colegio full time, and it's great! And to top it off, I'll be starting in with some music stuff in the next couple of weeks at the high school, so I'm super-excited about that! My main goal right now is to get the kids to at least appreciate, hopefully like, music class, and music in general. I'll also be teaching some--or all, not really sure yet how it's going to work out--how to read music. They teach the solfege system here, not the actual notes. Weird, huh?My parents came and visited a few weeks ago. It was sooo good to see them! We had fun:) I took them to the symphony, shopping dowtown, Volcan Irazu, Cartago, and the wood factory near the airport, Sr. y Sra. Ese (Mr. and Mrs. That). And church of course:).

at the orphanage site

the Tatum's house: it's coming along!

Dad, me and Mom at Volcan Irazu

Me and mom at the second highest point in Costa Rica. We were higher than the clouds!

Main Crater, Volan Irazu

While we were in Cartago, we went to see the Basilica de la Virgen de las Angeles. It's a beautiful church, absolutely stunning as you can see in the pictures. However, the emphasis of worship is given to Mary, not God, Jesus, or even petitioning the saints, but solely to Mary.

Part of this is because, in all actuality, the culture is matriarchal. I really felt I was in a pagan temple. Everything felt so very wrong. They even have Holy Water where the rock is where the appearance of Mary is said to have been in 1675 and people bath in it and take it home for healing, etc! It was very bizarre.

It also made me realize something: people always ask me what my mission is in particular down here with the children and I've always been a little stumped since the majority of the population (and I mean the very large majority) is religious--Christian or Catholic. Well, when Will came over to visit with my parents, he said something about this and I realized that part of what my mission is here is to be an example of what it means to be a practicing Christian. Since many of our students are Catholic, they do not know about God's love or Jesus' sacrifice so we don't have to crawl on our knees to the Basilica each August. They don't know we are free. And the ones who are Christians (they differentiate between Catholics and Christians) struggle in this Catholic culture. They have to turn completely away from anything that slightly resembles Catholicism to practice Christianity. So here I am: a Christian, gringa missionary loving children through Christ and sharing his Grace.

After my parents left, I went to Guanacaste for a week with two families (and Meredith!) to help babysit in exchange for staying for free. And it was totally awesome!!! We had these houses that were surrounded by vegetation, so you felt like you were in the jungle (monkeys included!) and then we were practically right on the beach, so you could just see the ocean through the trees and hear the pounding of the waves. It was like you were on a deserted island all by yourself. I was in paradise--literally and figuratively! And while I got a bad sunburn, it never really peeled, so I ended up with a decent tan!

monkey!

this is the natural color of the crab, and yes, he's alive!

bright blue fishies in the tide pool!

I was invited over to Andrea's house the other week. She's the teacher I assist at the colegio. So I ended up spending the afternoon and evening with her and her husband. It was really fun! Since Ticos are so relationship-oriented, it's an honor when you're invited over for coffee and what-not. And she says her parents want to invite me over for a Tico dinner! I'm sooo excited!

My spanish tutoring is going very well. Graziella is a fabulous teacher! And a wonderful friend on top of it, too. It's just fun:)

I also got to see Billy Abraham! He and a collegue of his came down to give some lectures for a week at the Methodist Seminary. I was able to go one day and got to visit with him. I hadn't seen him in almost 10 years! He hasn't changed a bit:) but given his reaction, I must have;). It was really fun to listen to what they were saying and especially watch him and Paul debate:).

typo??? (traigo)
on the way to hear Billy

I met our new interns last night! We have 3 boys and a girl that have arrived to work this summer with Ray and the work teams who come down. They seem like a great bunch of helpful people and I can't wait to see what they do! It also made me excited for this summer and to see and experience all the fun things that are going to happen. Keep them in your prayers!

Paz

¡Hola! I'm sorry for not posting anything for a while. I went to Nicaragua for Holy Week and completely lost track of things. We had a very nice trip north. A group of students from the Language school went to Granada, Nicaragua. It is a very old city with a lot of the old architecture still intact. Those old building and cathedrals were beautiful to behold! The views from some of the bell towers in the cathedrals were simply breathtaking. It was also quite hot. I felt like I was back in south Texas:)--all that heat coming from above and below, but it was nice too, since it reminded me of home. After touring the cathedrals, we went to a nearby town, Masaya, to do a little of the tourist thing on top of a hill (and ate ice cream!) before going to church. The leader of this whole venture is a pastor, and he and his family will be stationed there once they finish school. The church is one where he is often appearing. After the service--which was nice--the kids put on some traditional dances for us, which were quite enjoyable. We then ate chicken for dinner that the women made for us--chicken that had been milling around and clucking, etc, when we first arrived! Fresh chicken is quite tasty, I must say. :)

Monday some of us went to a nearby beach for the day. The main beach was really crowded and rather cluttered/trashy, so most of us traveled a little farther north where it was far more isolated. Now, this area of Nicaragua is very dry--as I said, it was like being back in Texas--and the area before you get to the beach is sandy--not beach sand, dirt sand. It was also very windy, so when the wind would blow, we were pelted by a mini-sand storm. I never realized how sand could sting:). On the up side, the water was nice and cold--not cool, cold--and I found some whole shells while I was waiting for my sunscreen to soak in:).

Tuesday we went to a nearby Volcano. We could only be at the top for 20 minutes max because past that, the fumes are toxic for a human body:) We then went to Masaya again to meander through a very large market. They had everything imaginable there (and you could smell it, too!), and we had only made a quarter of the touristy section! But many locals shop there too. It was an interesting experience. I was almost overwhelmed by all the stuff!

Wednesday I went with a small group on a boat tour of Lake Nicaragua, on which Granada sits. We stayed near the mainland, going around and by some of the islands. Most islands had people living on them, which I hadn't expected, and you could see kids swimming in the lake, women doing the wash in the lake, men and boys fishing with nets, and the occasional commuter in a little row-boat as they headed to the mainland. One island had spider monkeys, and the guide let one into our boat. Her name was Lola. She was like a big, skinny, really hairy, tough baby, and kind of cute. The rest of our day was free, so I had a late lunch with the Tatum family, wandered through the central plaza where there were sites and vendors, then made my way to another house where some others from our group were staying. 4-6 stayed in houses that we had rented for our time there. This house was very nice, and had a pool! Of course, I think the house I was in was much nicer, far more fancy, but we didn't have a pool:).

We left Thursday morning, and instead of spending 5 1/2 hours at the border like on Saturday, it only took us about 3 1/2 hours on Thursday:). Now, when we got there on Saturday, it took 3 hours to get through this huge, snaky line in order for Costa Rica to stamp us out of the country. It then took a little over 2 hours for us to get stamped into Nicaragua. So we were all, during that time, in limbo/no-man's-land! We thought it was quite entertaining:) Thankfully, it was not so bad when we were returning.

The whole trip was quite pleasant, and I'm very glad I was able to go. I have no strong desire to return, however:). While Granada has it's beautiful parts, the city was still very dirty and smelly. The country we saw, and in the small towns and cities, was covered in trash in every direction. The country is extremely poor, and you can see it as you drive or walk by. Ironically, Nicaragua has the lowest crime rate of Central America....they say it's because so many have left to live in Costa Rica for a better life:). Doing work in La Carpio shows that here, they do live better. So find my pictures of La Carpio, and realize that that is better than what many have in Nicaragua.

I was very pleased to be back in Costa Rica. I have definately become accostomed to this climate:)

Pictures will be coming soon!

Paz