Taking it Outside [Finally!]

Last week we had the pleasure of being able to spend the afternoon on the glorious Sarapiquí River with a couple of rafts full of friends.

We had initially heard about the trip a couple of weeks prior, but had had a goal-setting meeting set up with the kids running for student government in our escuela on the same day.  To our good fortune, classes ended up being cancelled for census training (school teachers conduct the census in Costa Rica, so they have four training days that lead up to the week long event) and our meeting was consequently rescheduled for a different day.

We met up mid-morning at our friend Rebecca's house in a nearby community and were able to catch up with friends that we hadn't seen since late January (or longer) and eat some delicious home cooking.  It was nice to hear what other volunteers have been up to and to brainstorm how to make some projects go a little smoother.  After lunch we headed up to the road with full bellies to catch the bus to the community of La Virgen where our rafting adventure began.

Donning PFDs and helmets we received a quick lesson on how to sit in the rafts and learned the basic commands used by our guide.  We had the usual forward and back as well as stop, then there was a new one that we hadn't heard before in our prior rafting adventures, floor.  Not quite sure what to think of with that command we dutifully practiced moving from the sides of the raft to the center.  And then we were off.

The water was great, cool and clear and moving right along.  We quickly encountered our first small rapids of the day, let out whoops of joy and success and then learned a new command, Pura Vida.  This one signified our survival after passing through rougher waters (where the floor command was used, getting us out of harms way), our paddles were raised into the air and we shouted, with smiles on our faces, Pura Vida!

After repeating this process a couple of times we were told that we could leave our rafts and take a break, floating in the swift waters.  Once we had all rolled or jumped into the water we splashed around and floated to where the rafts were being tied to the roots of a nearby tree.  At that point we found out that the tour also included cliff jumping.  Everyone quickly got out of the water and made there way up the steep climb to our jump off point.  

The first to jump was Sarah, who also happened to be a diver during school so she gracefully flung herself into the air, pulled off a beautiful flip and then plunged into the water.  Others quickly followed and the longer I stood on top of the cliff the more my knees began to shake.  One after another my friends were jumping into the water.  Chris jumped, spinning around and quickly disappearing into the water (camera in had of course!) and then a couple of others.  I was left with one other volunteer and our guides.  It was then or never, so I jumped.  It felt like I was falling for hours or even days before I felt my feet hit the cool water.  I instantly bobbed to the surface, my PFD doing its job and laid back to float downriver, allowing my heart to return to its normal beat (and reveling in the fact that I had been able to temporarily overcome my slight fear of heights to make the 30 foot leap of faith!)

The process of killing a shock + water proof camera:
1) Take pictures of friends on rafting adventure
2) Film yourself jumping off of a 30 foot cliff
3) Take more pictures of friends until the static takes over the screen
4) Turn camera on to purple and blue lines, viewfinder becomes useless

A couple of people jumped again and then we climbed back into our rafts to continue on our way.  We'd hit patches of rough water, shout pura vida, laugh out of pure and simple joy and paddle when our guide commanded it.  It was such an amazing way to spend the day that we didn't want it to come to an end.  We had one more break with cliff jumping and fruit (I couldn't bring myself to jump the second time, even if it was only about 8 feet high - what can I say, I'm chicken!) before hitting the last of the day's rapids.  

With the end in sight we hit our final rapid and lost our first and only paddler for the day.  We went through the white water sideways and in a slow motion instant I watched as Chris tumbled over the side and underneath the raft.  As our guide attempted to pull him back into the raft we ran into a rock wall and the rescue attempt had to be aborted.  A brief moment later he was pulled back to safety, at which point our guide informed us that we had reached our last swimming point before getting out of the water.  And so, we all tumbled back into the water and floated until we were told we had reached the end of our tour.

Then we wrapped up our adventure with big plates of Gallo Pinto, is there any other way to end an adventure in Costa Rica?

Now, back in the comfort of our home our camera is sitting in a bag of rice and our fingers a crossed that our adventure companion will dry out and come back to life.  If not, we still have another camera with us, it's just a little more delicate and more often than not, sits on the sidelines when the good stuff happens.

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!

daily adventures

you can check out daily images and words from our adventures new and old at tarahandchris.tumblr.com

we'll continue to put longer posts here

The Wild Things Come to La Colonia!

April 23 is International Book Day.  The 23rd isn't just a random choice, it coincides with the birthdays of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes (you know, Romeo and Juliet and Don Quijote de la Mancha) amongst others.  In La Colonia we didn't celebrate any of those authors that happened to be born on April 23, instead we celebrated the lesser known (in Costa Rica at least) Maurice Sendak (you know, Where the Wild Things Are - Donde Viven los Monstruos in Spanish).

Our adventures with International Book Day began on the 15th of April with a book reading and mask making session.  The kids had never heard the story and there were bursts of laughter as they followed the tale of Max to the land of the wild things and back to his bedroom.  The masks that the kids made were quite imaginative.  We had provided them with the basic mask background and some cutouts and they went to town.  All students were proud of their creations and were a little disappointed when we reminded them that they wouldn't get to take their masks home until after Semana Santa.

Students hard at work and showing off their creations

On Monday, April 25 our journey came to its end with a dramatization of Where The Wild Things Are during an assembly for the rest of the student body (rather, two dramatizations since we have two student groups during the school day).  Chris played the part of Max like it had never been done before, steering his sailboat (made out of a shower curtain, bandanna and broomstick) to the land of the wild things where I led the students in a wild rumpus, dancing in circles around Chris until he sent us to bed without dinner.  

International Book Day - Monsters and Dancing Books

All in all it was a wonderful book adventure and we're hoping to do some more dramatizations with students to get them excited about books.

Semana Santa [Holy Week]

The week before Easter in Costa Rica is called Semana Santa or Holy Week.  The week provides a break for students, time off from work for many adults (those who do not work in the tourism industry) and a time to visit family members that live in other parts of the country.  In other words, spring break!

For us, Semana Santa meant camp, a house full of María's family, birthdays and swimming in the river.  It may not have been a relaxing week as some may view a week of vacation, but it was an enjoyable one.

We offered camp to community youth Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  We did art projects in the mornings (drawing, coloring and origami) and played games in the afternoons (cards, tag games, relay races and soccer).  We had a great turn out on the first two days, but then kids started disappearing for their own family get aways.

There were not buses to or from town after 11:45 Wednesday morning through Saturday morning at 8:00.  In that time we walked with friends, celebrated birthdays (mine and a host sister's boyfriend's), ate a lot of cake, visited the cayman that lives in the river out by the colegio and caught up on some reading.  These were relatively low-key days during which we were mostly left to ourselves while María caught up with her sisters that she hasn't seen in several months.

We caught the first bus out of town on Saturday to go visit Rafa's sister and the river in Puerto Viejo.  After spending some tentative moments on the river bank we made our way into the river to brave the chill of the water and the strength of the current.  We walked upstream so that we could then float back to our point of entry.  We found sand sculptures during a beach walk and watched as a tour boat passed us by.  After thoroughly exhausting ourselves we returned to Rafa's sister's house to clean up and fill our bellies.

The rest of my weekend was spent making personalized bracelets for all.  This was the end result of teaching a "cousin" how to make a simple friendship bracelet.  She asked to see some of the others that I had made and those on hand were personalized ones that will be given out to students completing programs that we do. She in turn showed them to everyone else and that resulted in persistent questioning as to whether or not I could make bracelets for the visitors.  It was a lot of work but they loved them.

When everyone left Sunday afternoon, we took the chance to breathe deep and enjoy the silence.

Canasta Update

We're fifty games into our tournament, and we thought it was a good time for an update.

It's been a little rough for Tarah.  If the tourney ended today, Chris would be the winner of about a month's worth of massages.  However, we have over a year left to go and Tarah is riding a two game winning streak.

If you are interested, and I know you are, you can check out the numbers below.

  

screen grab of what I affectionately call "nerd numbers"

Celebrating Sports

Last week we had the pleasure of participating in some great events with our educational communities.  On Wednesday the schools celebrated National Day of Sports and on Thursday our colegio (high school) hosted its second annual mountain bike ride.  We had a great time with our students, but with the incredible heat that overtook our region last week we were exhausted by the time Friday rolled around.

We spent all of Wednesday, National Day of Sports, at our escuela (elementary school) and since they have two groups of students that cycle through each day, we were able to do everything twice.  The easy part was being line judges for relay races (sack races, hula hoop races, and clothes races); making sure students came all the way to the turn around point and tagging our hands before continuing on their way.  The challenging part was leading two aerobics classes for students and teachers (roughly 150 individuals ranging from 4 to 54) and playing in two teacher v. student soccer games.  We had a blast with these more physical activities but the kids definitely have more energy than we do!

On Thursday we arrived at the colegio shortly after 7am to stand in line to register and buy our numbers for the mountain bike ride.  There were about 75 or 80 students that showed up that morning with their bikes, ready to ride the 15 km that covers rough terrain, big hills and most importantly passes by the river where an obligatory break and swim take place!  My bike revolted on the ride - I managed to puncture a tire in one of the rougher areas that we rode through and I lost one of my bike pedals, but we both made it home in one piece.  The break at the river lasted for about an hour and included a refregerio (snack) of fresh fruit served out of the back of a truck, the throwing of several students into the water (not by us - by other students) and just hanging out on the beach.  We returned to the colegio in time for lunch and raffle prizes and then promptly rode home to enjoy cold showers.