April or How Has Another Month Gone By Already?

We know that this is a little late coming, but the pace of life has actually picked up here in the land of Pura Vida.  April came and went in a flurry of activity as you may have noticed based on previous blogs about dips in the river and playing with monsters.  There was a bunch of other stuff going on too; more mundane activities that make up our daily lives and that aren't worth a bog of their own, but come together pretty nicely at the end of the month (or beginning of the next).

April 1
We're glad that it's Friday - hard to believe another week has passed, even if it did leave us exhausted.

April 3
We had scattered showers which was pretty perfect for a day without power.  We even broke out the blankets because we got chilly this morning!  What a wonderful feeling - although, I guess it just means we're more accustomed to the stupid weather here.

April 5
The girls all felt great about their exams.  They're all hoping for 100s!

April 6
On the way home we picked up chip bags to add to the collection Chris had accrued at the cole over the past few days.  When we got home we opened them up and Chris rinsed them out - his response was that they had better make some pretty awesome bags. [note: chip bags are really pretty greasy and disgusting, even more so when they're not your own]

April 7
I would try to give some hints and tell someone to turn around and everyone would turn around even if they were already untangled; I would suggest going over someones hands and everyone would start trying to climb over hands - even if their hands were at the bottom of the pile. [regarding 6th graders attempting to do the human knot]

We went to Josselyne's church tonight and as seems to be our custom here, left before the message because it's just too late.

April 9
When I got home María told me that Puppy woke up dead.

Seems like rainy "season" has arrived.  Still not sure what determines a season here, but I'm keeping track of the weather in my planner.  So far about 33% of the days in 2011 have had at least some rain.  Maybe this week will augment that.

April 10
Well, there's nothing quite like starting the day with chocolate cake and peanut butter.  Except that it holds no nutritional value.

April 11
Happy Juan Santamaria!  It's a little like President's Day.  We have off, but don't really do much to commemorate the day.  Although a cardboard house was burned down on Friday.  We've never burned anything in honor of President's Day.

On the return trip I spotted a cayman under the bridge by Maria and Evelyn's.  I wasn't sure if I was really seeing anything more than a stump, so I did what any curious person (OK - maybe any curious child) would do and picked up a handful of pebbles to toss in it's general direction.  After a couple of tosses it decided to move.  My curiosity appeased, I too moved and continued running home.

Tomorrow may be a day that resembles something that we're used to; no promises though!

April 12
Yazmin and Francine got their exams back.  They both got 100%!  They thanked us, we told them that they earned it after all of their hard work.

Chris worked with Alberto a little on a writing assignment.  We haven't seen him for a while because he's teaching now! [note: Alberto has been studying to be an English teacher at the high school level and finally received a job placement!]

April 13
We're all set to do camp next week - we have a key to the gate and on Friday we can get the key to an aula (classroom).

April 14
We got a call from Orlando this morning in which he told us that Chic@s would be cancelled today because there wasn't English and there was going to be a meeting this afternoon.  Bummer.  At this rate we might be done in August.  I guess that's one of the fall backs of doing the program as a part of the school day. [note: Chicos and Chicas Poderosos is a life skills program for youth that we are doing with 6th graders]

When I took them to the school Susana asked me about aerobics.  I told her that if she got a group of women together I could teach.  By the time I left she had a minimum of 5 so we should be starting the Monday after Semana Santa.

April 15
Monster masks were just about as much fun as they sound.  The kids had a great time and they came up with some pretty great creations.

First we painted.  At one point we were painting a house at night.  When she saw that I had painted my grass green she laughed at me and when I asked why she said it was because my grass was green.  She proceeded to tell me that you can't see colors at night because it's dark.  Then I had to paint over the grass with black, but then to make it pretty I had to paint over the black with green.  I'm learning new things every day.  Then we played cards, she "read" books to me and then jumped rope.  I was pretty exhausted at that point so I took a nap after she left and before eating lunch. [note: she is Liseth, our 6 year old best friend]

The cookies from Linda smell incredible.

April 17
Plus, I got to see the cayman twice!  It was about 5 feet long and poised perfectly so that I could see the whole thing.

Camp starts tomorrow.  We've got a bag of art supplies ready to go.  We'll see how many kids show up.  There was a lot of interest on Friday, but who'll remember tomorrow?

April 19
I spent the two hours tracing coloring pages so that there would be enough for today and tomorrow.

Kids were running, they were having fun, but nothing else really went as anticipated.  Isn't that just the way things go here though?  Or rather, isn't that the way life goes?

April 20
She did a tomato sauce, I fried the eggplant - she worried the whole time that I wasn't using enough oil, I on the other hand felt that it was too much.  The whole time Rafa was doing his usual, picking on María for thinking I don't know how to cook.  Process aside, it tasted pretty good; Tico style eggplant Parmesan(ish) served over rice.

April 21
A house full of María's family and three pieces of cake - that pretty much sums up the birthday.

April 24
The day starting with some beautiful running; a great way to spend Easter, fully enjoying God's creation.

We ran in opposite directions on the Progresso loop and at our first meeting a cow was unfortunately positioned between us.  Chris was coming down a hill, I was leaving the technical part of the run and there she was, stuck in the middle, not knowing where to go.  After some moments of confusion and Chris and I not knowing what to do (she kept running back and forth over the width of the trail) until she thankfully jumped through the fence, finding safety behind the thin lines of barbed wire.

April 25
The first night of women's aerobics went well.  There were seven women, we may not have started until 5:30, but that still left 30 minutes for class.

April 26
Ademar was watching from up on the hill.  He was annoyed that he couldn't hear the music so he brought me a better speaker!

The work's coming our way...

April 27
A quiet day today, nothing out of the ordinary, with a few birthday wishes for Chris from the students.

Tonight's class went well - 14 people!

What a life we lead...

April 28
It has been stupidly hot, so even sitting still we were drenched in sweat, but no one floated away, so we'll count that as a success.

April 29
We actually had a nice trip to Puerto today, despite the bus leaving ten minutes early and spending a bunch of money (as is usually the case on our end of month trips!)

We had a great time catching up with Rebecca over pizza.

Oh, and as a bonus we finally received the care package from Jeremy!  Yay for Friday Night Lights and Spanish movies!

April 30
Go us!

There you have it, our April in a nutshell.  Questions, comments, doubts (this is how most classes/trainings end in Costa Rica), let us know!