En el bus

My new assignment is in Siquirres, which is 3-ish hours by bus from San Jose.

The ride was up and down windy roads through the jungle. Alternately sunny and rainy, we were trapped motionless on the road for about 30 minutes ... no clue why, but I've assumed a crash on the road. The entire way there was construction on the side where I've assumed they are building a second 2 lane highway to ease the bumper-to-bumper traffic heading to the port of Limon.

I watched kids jumping into rain swollen streams and road workers sitting down for lunch. About halfway we stopped at a large restaurant for a break, and hawkers came onto the bus to ply their wares -- it looked like fruit chips, but I'm not sure. They were walking up and down the aisle shouting out the name of the stuff.

After the break the 40-year-old next to me spent a good 45 seconds staring at a dick-pic on her phone which she clearly wanted me to see. Sadly, I did.......

Vuela lejos, pequeños maestros

On Thursday we got back to work, learning about our specific assignments and learning how to perform the administrivia required by the program.

A flurry of reassignments occurred -- myself included -- and everyone came away excited to get started.

Friday was mainly questions about the actual content and then the chicks were pushed out of the nest, into the wilds of Costa Rica.

Derek, Kristy, Arnelle, me, Patti, Paul, Amy, and Will

perros perros

One of the teachers was telling about a Netflix series on dogs, where they discussed a 'uuuuuge dog rescue site in CR where they have hundreds of dogs.

Originally they would allow tourists to come an play with the dogs, to keep them socialized. However, the government has said the infrastructure cannot support tourism, and has closed the park to visitors until repairs are made. It's expected they will re-open to tourism in 2020.

You can donate from the website it you'd like to help.

Waterfall gardens finale

At this point my phone died, and I was actually relieved… but I didn’t get any shots of the waterfalls! However, I did get photos of people. Crazy, right?

My new Aussie friend Kristy

Amy, Kristy, me, Will, Patti, Paul, Jessica, Arnelle

Frogs and orchids

Waterfall gardens 6

Waterfall gardens 5

Farfalle and larvae

waterfall gardens 4

Waterfall gardens 3

That rascal!

waterfall gardens 2

Coffee plantation 3

Coffee plantation 2

La Paz Waterfall Gardens

So Derek was able to get us a day trip to La Paz Waterfall Gardens for Wednesday. We were picked up by Nestor, Jessica (our Aliarse rep) and Julio (our incredibly knowledgeable guide. We stopped on the way at a coffee plantation, and then spent the rest of the day at La Paz.

Hydrangeas the size of basketballs!

My Coco!

I'm loving Coco! Seriously. These dogs are def what I'd call yappers, but they don't yap in the house. They have a little stuffed Elmo that they like us to throw for them and Coco brings it right back. They love the university boys most, but the Aliarse teachers get a lot of lap time as well.

Coco

Mostacho looking at the camera

Photos courtesy of Amy

Water, water....

During the day on Monday the local government sent announced that on Wednesday in downtown San Jose a water main is being replaced (water maintenance, yay!) and many people will be affected. No water 6 am to 9 pm. Aliarse jumped into action, determining how far afield the turnoff would be, and looking for alternate locations to host our days of class.

As they searched farther and farther afield, it was determined that 1/2 a million people -- 10% of the population -- and much of the central valley -- would be without water. For 15 hours.

So, Derek jumped into action and petitioned Aliarse management for an excursion for us -- so that we would be fed, have water, and see some of the country. We went home hoping he gets the daytrip approval.

We took a stroll before dinner to the grocery store, where I picked up two different types of CR beer. Hey! Gotta shop locally, right? And we sat in the covered courtyard after dinner discussing what we'd learned.

It’s a great group of very mindful, professional folks and I think we’ve just about solved all the problems of the world so far this week.

Getting serious...

On Monday we meet Derek (from NY) our teacher coordinator, and the other teachers - Will from San Antonio, Channal from Ocean City MD, and Paul from Manchester.

Derek has a Nathan Lane-style about him, always cracking camp, and sometimes I actually think he's gonna break out into song.

The first day of orientation is all about cultural differences we can expect and the hard-core truth about our students and the skills they need to learn from us in order to find and keep gainful employment.

A full 25% of the population is in the Poverty or Extreme Poverty classification.

High school graduation is approx 35% in CR, keeping many families on a treadmill of poverty. Teenage pregnancy tends to keep the girls uneducated, and poor resource management (such as over-fishing) add to the male unemployment problems.

As is globally, CR as a hotter climate tends to move much slower and much more casually than the colder countries. Our English classes will often serve to introduce the idea of "being on time" to many of the students. We may also be the first to introduce accountability - with homework assignments.

The students are given a scholarship from the government to attend the course. They're paid the scholarship directly each month, and then they pay half of that to the program for the English classes and use the other half for bus transportation or day care for attending the classes. This introduces learning about financial management, teaching our students they need to mindfully allocate their funds.

The only reason a student can be removed from the program is absence or incessant tardiness. 3 tardies counts as 1 absence, and 6 absences gets you kicked out. Again, a basic life skill needed to keep a job.

The basic level of the skills we'll be enforcing has come as a real shock to some of us.

Water and sewer...

We had a long discussion about the drink-ability of the tap water. As you would expect, most of us are experienced travelers and have at one time or another been told "don't drink the water, don't eat the uncooked food, don't eat the street food"... But Luis, a university student who prefers sitting with us over sitting with the other students even though he speaks not a lick of Inglese, googled for us that CR has had water purification since 1961 and is one of only TWO countries south of the US where you're allowed and welcomed to drink the tap water.

They certainly have no lack of water in this country, as I myself have seen 12 hours of rain on Friday, 5 hours of rain on Saturday... So making this abundance drinkable is a fantastic accomplishment!

These advances do not include the sewage systems, sadly, and (as often seen in India and Thailand) we aren't allowed to flush the paper. In each bathroom and stall there is a trashcan where the paper goes. Conversation in our bedroom confirms that both Australians and Americans are having difficulty with the ick-factor of this. Oh well... I can do anything for 4 months.

Oh god, the food....

As is breakfast on Monday. and the mid-morning snack served by Aliarse, and lunch, and the mid-afternoon snack, and dinner again with Ivania, and I begin to realize that those 10-US-lbs I was hoping to lose would not simply melt off as did in Poland.

The food is so good, I'm just gonna have to get Nazi about portion control.