I'm gone. I'm in a different country. I only know 3 people who speak fluent English. This is day 9 and I feel like I've been here for months. I've been journaling so I'll just let you read for yourself what I've been up to.
8/10 - Other than almost being denied boarding from Sac to Houston, my trip was rather uneventful. I had the standard "wake-up, fall asleep, repeat" cycle that is all too familiar to my travels. My second gate was moved last minute and the immigration line took forever but that's pretty standard I'd say. I found Daniel (He's Czech), on of the SMs, without much trouble and took a taxi to the bus station. We waited 2 hours for the 2nd and last bus of the day to Monteverde. The bus ride was also relatively uneventful. After trying to keep my eyes open to enjoy the scenery, I collapsed into slumberland. Again, it was standard vehicle-sleeping for me: Head back, eyebrows furrowed, mouth wide open. I did warn Daniel that this would happen so hopefully he doesn't think I'm too much of a weirdo. 4 1/2 hours later we arrived. The last hour or so was breathtaking! The sunset was brilliant orange, red and which emphasized the majestic mountains that our bus was scaling. All the vegetation is so green fuschia. More green than anything I've ever seen. Trees and luscious grass stretch as far as the eye can see. I can't wait to see this place in daylight. Tonight I'm staying in the principal's home. She was very kind and had spaghetti for Daniel and I when we arrived. The sauce had chicken in it but I ate it anyway without complaint or mention of the fact that I'm vegetarian. I really hope that the family I'll be staying with is vegetarian. I highly doubt it, but I'll hope anyway. I guess I'll just have to suck it up and eat meat for a year. It won't kill me. I'm in bed before 9 pm (8 without the time change), showered and ready to fall asleep. God is so good! I'm so thankful to God that my trip was so smooth. Tomorrow I see the school and meet the other SMs. Woo!
8/11 - When I woke up, I almost cried. I was nervous to meet the other volunteers, sad because I was no longer a vegetarian (this is marginally funny, but I'm still sad), sad because I was still so tired, scared of meeting the kids and sad because I couldn't hug my mom and make it all better. Now, it's 10:30 and I still want to cry, but only because I can't hug my mom and because I'm tired again. I met Nate first. He's really an awesome guy. I feel really comfortable around him which is good because there are only 3 other SMs total so naturally it's good that I get along with him. Daniel leaves in September so after that, there will only be 2 others. Calle (pronounced Kali) is really awesome too. After morning worship, I went with her to the Kinder room. I helped her out all morning and I loved it. Those kids have already stolen my heart. We sang songs and played recess, had snack and did art and flashcards. I was really proud because I got "the punk," Christopher, to play catch with me and to sing with the group. He's only 3 and needs a little one-on-one time which is hard because it's usually only one person taking charge of Kinder. Calle is awesome for accomplishing all that she was with them. They're darling but fiesty too.
After lunch, I observed Daniel's Social Studies class and Calle's Science class. It turns out I like little kids more than I thought. I liked Kinder best. After school, we had a staff meeting and discussed the upcoming Mother's Day program (Monday). Calle and I are in charge of the little ones. Then I helped Nate with his evaluation of Yolanda and Calle taught me the chords for "Somewhere over the Rainbow" on ukulele. I was stoked. After heading back to Yolanda's house, Nate Daniel and I headed to the reuñon de jovenes in town. It's a youth group gathering. They're all really nice. They're incredibly active in their group. They take turns every week teaching the lesson. They invited us to go with them to San Jose this weekend for an Adventist Youth Conference. We're going! Now that we’re back from he reuñon, I’m staying at Yolanda’s another night. My stuff is at another teacher’s house because my family wasn’t home when I needed to move in. Interestingly enough, her name is also Yolanda. Her son, Fabian, goes to the school. He desperately wants to use my computer to play games. I’m not going to let him. Poor kid. Yolanda (principal) had food waiting for me when I got back. She’s so sweet. I stood up for myself and told her that fish makes my stomach hurt, which is basically true. I puked last time I ate it, immediately after consumption. So I didn’t want to risk it. She was really nice and said not to worry and that it’s important to say when something doesn’t sit well with me. Very kind of her. Tonight I’m sleeping in my dirty clothes because my stuff is at the other house. Hopefully I’ll get to change before school.
8/12 – Fridays are half-days at school which was interesting. I noticed partwat through worship that I was not up front singing with the other teachers. That was bad of me. I forget that I need to jump right in. Other than that, things went pretty smooth. Well, almost. Christopher, the “punk” hit and older kid in the mouth with a phone and broke his tooth in half. Luckily it was a baby tooth. Yolanda will not be happy. All us teachers went to Aniela and Dylan’s house after school. It’s an amazing house. Their dad, Javier, built it. It’s all wood with incredible details with a tree in the middle. You can’t even hear when it rains. We swam in their pool that overlooks the descending mountains out towards Puntarenas. Breathtaking to the max! They fed us and then we hung out. They gave us a ride back to Calle’s home, which is a hotel room. Then Calle, Nate and I went into downtown. We walked around, schemed about tomorrow and then I finally met Fabian’s mom, Yolanda. I don’t know if she’s actually married to him, but her man, Chino, lives here to. Fabian calls him Dad, but I’m not sure. I need to get shampoo and stuff. She asked me if I eat meat. I told her chicken. I’ll tough it. Chicken is palatable for me. I told her fish makes me sick. Luckily she didn’t give me grief. I wake up at 5:30 tomorrow for the youth excursion. Woo? Haha.
8/16 – The youth trip was pretty fun though we didn’t spend much time at the actual youth convention. Actually, the convention itself made me mad, at first. It appeared that they were charging us for entering church. It turns out they weren’t. It wasn’t church yet, but I almost got seriously mad. It was hard to pay attention because it was such a production and they speak so fast in Spanish. In the evening, after sundown, we teachers went to the Mall and watched Captain America. It was awesome!!! I loved it. We muched on the candy I brought for them. Calle and Nate keep treating me. It’s almost impossible to treat them back; They’re ridiculously nice. Afterwards, we caught a taxi back to the house. The group said they would be back from the youth meeting by 10 pm at the latest but we waited outside until 11:30. The grandma was supposed to let us in but we didn’t yell enough apparently. Oops. But we had fun. WE all learned interesting things about one another. Ha. On Sunday, we thought we were going to leave after breakfast. That turned into after lunch, which became after a day at an amusement park. I t was really fun but I was stressed out about being “home.” It ended up ok though and it was fun. Isaac and Daniel did a dancing game. Monday was Día de las Madres (yes, different than ours). We spent the day preparing for the program since hardly any kids came to school. The program was rough, as all kid programs are, but the parents like it and the kids were cute. Win-win. After teardown, we teachers watched Black Sheep at the school. I missed dinner as usual. Today (Monday) is the first day that I actually ate dinner with my family since I’ve been here. I also got Internet today. Calle had me teach math today. That was cool. After seeing more classes, I feel that I can teach anything if I need to. That’s comforting. You know, the other volunteers are wonderful. Daniel is very calm and always knows what’s going on. Calle is exciting, a ton of fun and gets me to stretch (like teaching Math the other day). Nate keeps me laughing and I’m pretty comfortable around him. My family wants me to get my parents to buy and bring shoes to them (they’d pay of course). Now I need to sleep. I’m zonked. I wish I could bring in Pulga, the puppy. I want him to sleep with me. He’s cuddly and precious and I need a hug. He’d be helpful. Ha. Chino just said “Que Adventista” about me because I don’t eat meat. It’s true. I’m “corrupted.”
8/18 – Last night was the first time I’ve seen any stars at all since I arrived. I almost cried I was so happy! It’s actually not that terrible since I’ve been here barely over a week. I’m teaching Kinder in the morning and today and yesterday I taught Math. I had to “yell” at a kid who tried to cheat. He thought I wouldn’t find out because he thought I don’t speak Spanish. I sure showed him. The kids paid attention to me after that which was really nice. I hope that continues. Probably won’t. We’ll see. I’m also in charge of decorating Yolanda’s classroom. It’s going to be kind of a chore. Ok, in all seriousness, I’m not doing well right now. I feel like I have no privacy and yet, I still feel alone. If I’m not at school or with the other teachers, I get sad. When I have down time, all I want to do is sleep or watch movies. I’ve really done neither of those until now. I’m watching Dan in Real Life. I just feel very vulnerable and like I may break down at any moment. I really hope it doesn’t happen at school. I’m not getting enough hugs. That’s a huge part of it. I die without physical affection. Kinder hugs are the closest I get. And the puppy. I pray every day that I’ll adjust. I’m trying to be patient but it’s hard. I need some love.
8/19 – I taught Kinder all by myself today. Granted, it was only a half-day, but I did it. It was tiring but it was good. We made additions to the Noah and the Ark project we’ve been working on. So far we have the ark, Noah, the rainbow, clouds and 3 pairs of animals (tiger, elephant, horse). We were all really tired today. Around 11, I asked them if they wanted to play outside. They all screamed yes, grabbed a toy and headed out. I was helping Aniela pick out a toy so I came after them. I walked out and they were all sitting on the grass by the fence watching a repairman fix the power line. I sat down next to them and we just sat for probably a good five minutes. That’s a lot in Kinder world. Now we’re at Calle’s house watching a movie. Bring it on weekend. Bring it on.
