Monday, October 8
Today was Amanda’s first day of class. During devotions, one of the teachers
was talking about being thankful to God and about how we often forget to thank
God for many things. Truthfully, I
did not understand anything she was saying, but Eddie was sitting next to me
and he helped me out. Anyway, we
then took turns talking about what we were thankful for. I struggled to get one sentence out in
Spanish about how I was thankful for technology so I could talk to my
family. Then it was Amanda’s
turn. She blew us away with how
much she was able to speak. She is
going to have no trouble becoming fluent in this beautiful language. When we took turns talking about our
weekend, I struggled again. Plus
Eddie took all my ideas because our weekends were pretty much the same. Then Amanda rattled off all about her
trip to Costa Rica, the people she met, and her experiences so far. I am so proud of her and Eddie (and
thankful for their knowledge as they can help me along the way).
Then, it was time to start class. My teacher had trouble getting to school this morning so she
was late, but I took the opportunity to study for a few minutes until she
arrived. Diana (Jaden’s
babysitter) is trying to learn English, so she was asking me the English word
for the Spanish flashcards I was working on. It is interesting to be on the other side when it comes to
learning a language.
Once Sonia arrived, we began reading a story in
Spanish. She had me read it aloud
to her. As I was reading it, I was
thinking, “I have no idea what this story is about.” After I finished, she allowed me some time to go back and
read it silently to myself so I could try to comprehend what I was
reading. With only a couple of
unfamiliar words, I was able to understand the story pretty well once I read it
slowly and translated the words to English. We turned the page, and what do we find? Comprehension questions about the
story. I think I did pretty well
in answering the questions. We
spent most of the day working on vocabulary words under the category: household
items. She showed me
pictures of her house, and drew a map of her house to teach me the names of
each room. She then asked me to do
the same. My first problem was,
“What house do I draw… I don’t have a house.” I ended up drawing a map my parent’s house, which meant I
had a lot of talking to do to explain my map.
One interesting thing I learned about Sonia today is that
she is very crafty. She showed me
pictures of her yard. She makes
little statues out of bottles, flowerpots, aluminum cans, and whatever else she
has access to. She paints them and
uses a flowerpot for the head and plants inside the pots for the hair. She also took an old pair of rain boots
that had holes in them and painted them and made them in to flower pots. I also learned that she was the one who
decorated our classroom. She
panted the tree that is on the wall in the picture of me in my classroom. She painted the same on in different
colors on the wall of her bedroom.
She showed me a lot of pictures of her house, her garden and her cat (which
is her favorite model).
After class, we ate lunch with Amanda, Francine and
Jennea. Eddie asked Francine and
Jennea to share their testimonies, and it was wonderful to hear about their
lives. We came away from that lunch
feeling much closer to our fellow students. We didn’t have time to share ours, but we will do that
another day.
Today was our first chance to experience a Costa Rican
birthday party. Cristy is 12 years
old today and her mother threw her a birthday party. Cristy is Samia’s niece and her family lives next door. Samia baked a chocolate cake with
a dulce de leche
filling and strawberry icing. It
was Muy Rico! The party included bean tortillas,
white bean and beef soup, arroz
con pollo, potato chips, coca-cola, strawberry ice cream cones, cake (queque), and of course: a
piñata. The piñata experience was
one to remember forever. I
expected the typical “hitting” of the piñata, but that is not what
happened. Instead, they handed out
plastic bags to everyone (recycled from previous use) and Carin (Samia’s
sister) stood on top of the couch and ripped a hole in the piñata. She then began throwing candy around
her living room to the mobs of middle school and elementary school guests. Even the adults were diving for
candy. There was so much yelling
and laughing and flying candy that I didn’t know where to look. I was holding a two-month old baby at
the time, so I was just worried about protecting him from flying candy. I am glad Jaden got to experience his
first piñata, but I guess he will never remember it. After the piñata, Cristy opened her presents. We left the party exhausted but
happy to be included in such a family-oriented occasion! Feliz Cumpleaños, Cristy!
Tuesday, October 9
Jaden had a rough start to his day today. We he woke up, we noticed about 20
small red spots on his face hands and stomach. It turns out, they are bug bites from a mosquito–like bug
and that they will go away quickly.
Already, the ones on his face have almost disappeared this
afternoon. We have learned that
the bugs like to live under the bed, so we have to spray under the pack-and-play
to make sure we kill them before we put him to bed.
While I was in the bathroom washing my face, Jaden came to
stand near me. He either lost his
balance or just leaned into the shower curtain and fell flat on his back and
head on the tile floor. It scared him
and me, but he is fine. He doesn’t
even have bump on his head.
After breakfast, he likes to wander out into the back
yard. I was with him, but not
close enough because Willy (the family dog chained up outside) was so excited
to see him that he jumped on him and knocked him down. When I got to him, he was crying and I
noticed a small red scratch on his face.
Poor Jaden… He had a rough morning… all before 7:30am! He is okay now, and doesn’t have any evidence of his many
minor injuries today. Praise the
Lord!
Well, we had another day of class. Eddie and Amanda are enjoying working together. He says she asks a lot of funny
questions so we can always hear laughter coming from their classroom. One of her questions about certain
masculine and feminine words was, “Who decides this stuff?” It’s a good question, because some
words that don’t follow the rules are confusing… but not as confusing as
English for someone learning a second language. She also cracks Eddie up when she swats at random bugs that
aren’t even there.
My class consisted of a lot of speaking. Sonia gave me a rope and I had to
gently wrap it around two fingers while I talked in Spanish. She wanted me to wrap and talk, wrap
and talk until I got to the end of the rope. It got easier as we practice that activity. I am way more uncomfortable with
speaking than listening, reading or writing. I know it will come with time, though.
She also wanted us to go for a walk with Ana and
Jennea. We walked down a path near
the school. She showed me the
“live and die” plant that I am so fascinated with. I had a chance to ask what it was called. It is called “dormi luna” I think, which is close to
the word for “sleeping moon.” She also
showed me some banana trees, some cas trees, and other flowers and fruit trees.
She picked up a cas (which is a Costa Rican fruit similar to a guava) right off the
ground and took a bite. She
offered a piece of it to Jennea and me.
It tasted very sour, like a lime.
She also picked some coffee beans and told me to taste them. I was very hesitant, but she told me the
flesh that surrounds the actual bean is very sweet. I was surprised but took her word for it. Of course I liked it… it was sweet.
She tried to find some “manzana agua” which translates to “water apple” but they had
all fallen from the tree and begun to rot, so I didn’t get to experience that
fruit. I never knew that there
were so many fruits that God has made that I never even knew existed.
 |
| This is some sort of flower with an name that sounds like "maraccas." They are exported frequently and they last for about 15 days after they are cut. |
After lunch, I walked home with Jaden while Amanda and Eddie
stayed at school to study. Eddie
has already finished about 40 pages in his book, and Amanda needed to catch up
with him so they can be on the same level. It started to rain on my way home and hasn’t stopped since
(it is now after 5:00pm). Eddie
just got home wearing a garbage bag for a raincoat since he forgot his.
I spent my afternoon talking with Samia during teatime, and
I also went to get haircut at her friend Erica’s house. As I sat in the chair, getting my hair
cut by someone I could hardly communicate with, I was being whistled at by the
neighbor’s pet bird. She asked me
many questions as she cut my hair, just like any hairdresser I know. The
problem was that I could not comprehend anything she said on the first try, so
she repeated herself a lot. There
were only a few things that she said that I never could figure out. In the end, it was a pleasant
experience. Plus it was cost much
less than a haircut in the states… only $6. I gave her $10 just to show my appreciation and she thought
I was confused. I finally told her
(with the help of a Spanish Application on my phone) that I wanted to give her
a tip. Finally, she accepted.
Wednesday, October 10
 |
| Jaden and Diana |
The most exciting thing that happened in class today is that
Sonia helped me prepare my presentation for tomorrow’s culture class. All I had to do was look on the Internet
to find pictures to go along with it.
It was much easier than last week’s prep time. Now I just have to work on my pronunciation.
Jaden continues to enjoy his freedom running around the
school campus. The door of my
classroom is often open, so I get to see him walking by from time to time. Here is a picture of him “riding” his
babysitter’s bike.
After school today, we saw José Pablo playing baseball in
the plaza with one of his friends, Gabriel. Of course Eddie stopped to play. I went home to drop off my bags and then took Jaden back out
to play. He was fascinated with
watching them try to hit the ball.
I even got to take a turn batting, pitching and catching. I was reminded of the simple life they
live here. No mitt, no helmet, no
bases even. All they needed was a
bat, a ball, and a friend to play with.
It was fun and we had a chance to interact with the kids without struggling
through the language barrier. When
it began to rain, we headed inside.
Thankfully, we were close to home.
Samia and her friend Gabby came home and prepared dinner… I
honestly do not even know what it was, but it was good. I had seconds and thirds. Jaden has had his ups and downs with
food here. Since our arrival,
Jaden has resisted eating any meal we try to feed him. The good thing is, he doesn’t really
resist when someone else feeds him.
Every night for dinner (and every morning for breakfast) I sit him in
his seat and try to feed him. Some
days are better than others, but for the most part he is not interested in what
I give him. Then Samia or Freddy
will pick him up and try to feed him and he eats like he has never eaten
before. Tonight he was standing on
Gabby’s lap and shoveling beans and “unknown food” in his mouth faster than he
could chew. Needless to say, he is
not starving and overall he loves the food here. He is just demonstrating a stubborn streak that I have no
idea where it came from I’m afraid runs in his blood… stemming from both of his
parents.
After dinner, José Pablo wanted to play a card game that I
brought with me called “Blink.”
Eddie and I have played it once before a while ago, so I had to refresh
my memory on the rules.
Thankfully, there were rules written in Spanish included in the box. Jose Pablo read them and said “No entiendo.” I know what that means because I say it
about a hundred times a day… “I don’t understand.” I demonstrated the game and we played a slow round
until he and Gabriel understood.
The cards have objects on them with various colors, numbers and shapes,
so it is great for practicing simple Spanish words like rojo, azul, verde, uno, dos tres, estrella,
flor, etc. It is a
two-person game and each game is quick (about 2 minutes long). After a few turns for each of us, we
decided to have a tournament.
Guess who won!?! I won’t
make you guess: me, of course!!! Jose
Pablo challenged me to another game of Blink tomorrow where he said he will get
“revende.”
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