Host Families and Habitat for Humanity

Monday, February 7, 2011

                On Saturday I moved in with my host family!  We packed up all of our things from our dorm rooms, and had a big reception at Whitworth South for all of the families.   

 My room at Whitworth South that I shared with Hollie and Heather

The knobs in the shower said C and F, meaning caliente (hot) and frio (cold)

 

 Each room has its own bathroom

Each room also has a desk and a fireplace

Hollie standing by the closet

 All of our beds and things sort of packed

                Everyone came around 10:00 Saturday morning, and we greeted them at the door and then went to the comedor (cafeteria) for cookies and coffee.  My host mom’s name is Orella.  She has two daughters.  Yara is 12 and Wanda is 20.  Orella, Yara and I sat in the comedor and talked a little bit about our families, what we liked to do, etc.  It was a little hard to understand her at first, but I’m getting more and more used to it as time goes by.  All of the families and students ate lunch together, and some students presented a skit to all of the families that showed some funny examples of mistakes that we as host students might make during our first few days. 

                After lunch we all left campus with our host families.  Orella’s house is beautiful!  All of the floors are tile or hard wood.  The front door is inside of the garage.  A lot of the houses here are like that.  The front door opens into the kitchen, which then goes to a dining area.  Across from the dining area is a rock wall that has several plants growing from it.  The rocks continue from the wall to the floor, where there are a few flower plants growing.  At the top of the rock wall is a sprinkler system that is more like a waterfall down the rocks.  When turned on, water trickles down the rock wall, watering the plants.  It is such a peaceful sound, I absolutely love it.  My room has a window that opens up to the rock wall, so I can see it while I am lying in bed.  I have a bathroom all to myself that has an enormous shower.  The house is very modern, not at all what I was expecting.  I have wireless internet and a tv in my room with satellite (and all Spanish channels).  My room has a bed, a desk, a night sstand, and a walk in closet.  I am really blessed to have such a wonderful home and family.   

                Orella’s husband is an artist.  He’s away on business right now, so I haven’t met him yet.  Their house has his work hanging all over the place, it’s really neat!  Yara is such a sweet girl, she’s a little shy, but has begun to talk more and more as I have gotten to know her.  Wanda is at the very end of her summer break, so she’s out with her friends a lot.  I haven’t gotten to know her very well, but hope to soon.  I’m a little intimidated to talk to her for some reason.  I’m not sure why, but I know that I need to get over my nerves and get to know her.  Orella is a very sweet and loving lady.  Every day she cooks me breakfast and dinner, and lunch on the weekends when I’m not in class.  She cooks with a lot of butter and salt, so it’s a good thing I’m doing the Insanity workout on weekday mornings!  Her food is really good.  We had fish the other night, and a Costa Rican version of a tamale for lunch yesterday.  Breakfast is always some kind of bread served with coffee. 

                Today I took a bus and taxi to San Jose with my friend Isaiah to go to our internship at Habitat for Humanity (Habitat para la Humanidad).  We have class on Tuesday-Friday at Whitworth South, and Mondays are set aside for us to do internships all day.  Initially, I really wanted to be on the work sites doing translation between workers and homeowners, but after talking to Tifani at Habitat, it looks like that won’t be possible.  Unfortunately, Habitat is going through some changes that aren’t exactly good.  They are currently transitioning from a volunteer organization to a more corporate organization.  That being said, there has been a large lapse in the number of houses being built, especially in the Costa Rica area.  Tifani started working for Habitat last November and was supposed to stay there for a year.  She wasn’t happy with the way things were being run, so she decided to finish early at the end of this month.  I will be taking over her position as Volunteer Coordinator.  My job will be to coordinate people who want to volunteer in the office setting of Habitat, kind of like what I’m doing.  It isn’t exactly what I imagined I would be doing, but I’m going to go into the job with an open mind and make the best out of it.

                Isaiah and I took a taxi to San Jose, which cost around 5000 colones, which is about $10 in American money.  We decided to be adventurous on the way back, so we took the bus instead of a taxi to save money.  The cost of the bus was SO much cheaper, I was amazed.  We paid around 500 colones each for the return trip, which is equivalent to $1 each.  Needless to say, we will be taking the bus from now on.  We walked around Heredia for awhile, and I bought a guabana (guava) smoothie from a smoothie store.  I think I have an unhealthy addiction to all things guabana, this could be a problem.

                Now I’m at “home” working on some homework.  The sky opened up today and poured rain for a solid 45 minutes or so right after I got back from San Jose.  I have never seen it rain so hard in my entire life!  It was incredible. 

The rain today.. so amazing!

I was standing in the garage when I took this picture

Visiting Carlos

Friday, February 4, 2011

                These last few days have been very busy in Costa Rica.  Classes started on Tuesday, and my schedule is insane right now.  In Costa Rica, classes are set up differently than at Whitworth North.  We are taking classes in a block schedule, basically like a series of Jan Terms, one after the other.  Right now we have a 4 week block of intensive Spanish classes.  Basically, we are learning the information that would normally be taught in a semester in 4 weeks.  Most students are taking one Spanish class and Core 350.  Core 350 is a class about world problems and what we can do to help solve them. 

My schedule goes like this:

Mondays are set aside for internships.  I will be doing an internship with Habitat for Humanity, though I am not quite sure what I will be doing there.

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays:

6:30 wakeup and review homework

7:00 Insanity workout with Bree, Kaitlyn, Ray, Derek and Nick.  Seriously, it’s insane, and I am soooo sore!

7:45 breakfast with the Insanity crew

8:15 shower

9:00-12:00 Spanish 302

12:00-2:00 Lunch break/finish homework

2:00-5:00 Spanish 419 Latin American Culture and Civilization

5:00-5:30 Dinner

5:30-12:00 Homework

                On Wednesdays the only difference is that I start Spanish 419 at 1:00 instead of 2:00, and we go until 3:00.  Then from 3:00-5:00 I have Core 350. 

                Needless to say, I fall into bed at night and pass out until 6:30 the next morning. 

                The weather is so weird here.  The wind is incredibly strong, and is always blowing.  Lindy said that we have gusts of 50-60 miles per hour.  It’s kind of freaky to see the windows bow in and out as the wind pushes against them. All of us are holding our breath in anticipation of one of them shattering.  I thought living in the Tri Cities would prepare me for the wind her in Costa Rica, but I was wrong.  The wind here sets off the car alarm on Fernando’s car.  Fernando is co teaching my Spanish 419 Latin American Culture and Civilization class with Lindy Scott.  He’s a native Costa Rican, and a really fun and interesting person to talk to.   

                   I feel like such a wimp when it comes to the weather.  Every day I wear leggings under my jeans, a long sleeve tshirt, a zip up sweatshirt and a jacket over the sweatshirt.  The mountain we are on is called Monte de la Cruz, which roughly translates to Mountain of the Cross.  The clouds are so close that I feel like I can reach up and touch them.  Actually, sometimes I can, as they blow across the lawn outside.  I’ve always wondered what it was like to be inside of a cloud, and let me tell you, it’s not pleasant.  The mist sticks to your entire body, and then the wind blows against it making me freeze.  I’m looking forward to moving off campus and in with my host family in San Rafael (known as San Rafa) tomorrow.  It’s much warmer in the cities because they are not in the mountains. 

                Yesterday several of us walked over to one of our neighbor’s houses.  His name is Carlos Gracia, and he has an incredible story.  He was born in Cuba in the 1940’s, and moved to Texas when he was a young child.  He went to Cuba to visit family several years later, and was there when Castro took over, and was not allowed to leave the country.  Carlos went into the military for several years and worked as an Artillery officer.  After several years of schooling in Russia, he got his Doctorate degree in Military Science. He was able to leave the military after suffering two heart attacks, and moved onto some property in Costa Rica that his father owned.  He has lived there ever since.  Carlos told us that he needed to find a new hobby, so he began gardening and taking care of animals a few years ago.

 Some bulls we saw on the walk to Carlos' house

                Carlos does this unique type of gardening called hydroponics.  This means that he grows his plants in water.  Hydroponics uses a balance of fish and the plants to create a unique system of fertilizing and filtering the water so both the plants and the fish survive.  Carlos has the fish in a bucket on the ground, and rubber tubing leading from the bucket into a system of PVC pipes that have plants growing from them.  His system was fascinating, and he was very knowledgeable about all his plants and animals.  Carlos’ yard had several varieties of trees including mango, orange, banana, and passion fruit.  I’ve never had passion fruit before.  The skin is rubbery, and you break it open and eat the inside, including the seeds.  The inside of the passion fruit is super slimy, and a little hard to eat.  The taste is definitely worth the work though.  The mixture of the seeds and the slime (I know, it sounds gross, but really it’s soooo good!) is a bitter sweet taste. 

 The passion fruit we ate at Carlos' house

A banana plant in Carlos' yard

 Some strawberry plants that Carlos grows in his hydroponic greenhouse

 Sarah holding a crawfish and Carlos in the background

 Ravi wasn't too sure about the creature

                Carlos also had two beautiful German shepherd dogs, chickens and a few crawfish.  Jenny Holsinger and her family came along for the trip, and it was great to see her two kids Justin and Ravi explore the yard.  The inside of his house was very unique.  He lives in an A frame house, so the walls are at a very steep slant.  I loved the layout and how simple the interior was.  His stairs leading to the second floor were in the kitchen, and they were so different than any stairs I had ever seen before.   

 Carlos' two dogs

The stairs leading up to the second floor

Carlos' front porch

                Today I went to class and did homework, nothing too exciting.  I think these classes are turning out to be much more demanding than any of us students anticipated.  My schedule is definitely very full.  Jenny and her family went into Heredia today and bought some fruit at a market and shared it with me.  One kind of fruit was called a manzana de agua (roughly translated to water apple), which tasted like a mix between an Asian pear and an apple.  It was delicious!  It was hilarious to hear her son Justin, who is 3, try to say the name of the fruit in Spanish.  I’m impressed at how quickly they are picking up on the language though!  Another kid of fruit they bought was called lee chi we thing.  It had a spiny exterior shell that we had to crack open, and on the inside was what looked like a grape with the skin peeled off.  Jenny’s husband Adam said it was nature’s dessert. 

                Tomorrow I meet my host family for the first time and move in with them!  I’m so excited, but nervous at the same time.  I’m looking forward to improving my Spanish and getting to know the people I will spend the next 4 months with!

Exploring San Rafael and Heredia

Monday, January 31 2011-01-31

                Costa Rica is 2 hours ahead of Spokane.  So needless to say, waking up at 5:30 this morning to eat breakfast at 6 here was a bit of a challenge.  This morning we had granola with yogurt.  The yogurt here isn’t the same as it is in the States.  It comes in what looks like a small milk jug, and is much more of a liquid than a solid.  When we were done eating, I took what was as close to a sunscreen shower as humanly possible.  Every inch of skin that was exposed had at least two layers on it.  There is no way the Costa Rican sun is going to win the battle against my pasty white skin. 

                After breakfast we caught the 7:00 bus to San Rafael, a small town about 10 minutes away from Whitworth South.  We were split into groups and given a list of places to find in the city.  My group mostly wandered around San Rafael and found interesting places to look at.  The church was by far my favorite place I saw all day.  Each city in Costa Rica, no matter how small, has a large church in the center.  This church had large statues inside, and enormous detailed stain glass windows.  I could have stayed in there for hours.  

The outside of the church in San Rafael

The inside of the church in San Rafael

Inside the church in San Rafael again

 

               

                An hour later we caught the bus again to go to the larger city of Heredia.  We were each given 10.000 colones (the currency here in Costa Rica) and split into our same groups and were given another list of places to find throughout the city.  500 colones are equal to $1.00.  Colones come in coin and paper form.  The coins are in values of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 200 colones.  Bills come in 1.000, 2.000, 5.000, 10.000 and 20.000.  Apparently commas aren’t used in numbers here. 

                We started off in a large plaza in the center of Heredia, which of course, had another beautiful church.  The church was built in 1794, and again had sculptures and stain glass windows everywhere.  After seeing all of the detailed churches here, I have a feeling I am going to be disappointed when it comes time for me to go home and I walk into an American church.  We then walked around Heredia for another three hours or so.  During our journey, we visited a place called La Casa de la Cultura (the house of culture).  We had no idea how to get there, so we had to ask for directions.  I was really nervous about approaching someone on the street and asking them in Spanish how to get anywhere, but I decided to suck it up and just go for it.  The lady who I asked gave me very clear directions, and I was surprised at how easy the Spanish flowed out of my mouth when I spoke to her.  

 The outside of La Iglesia Arquidiócesis de San José

The inside of the church

                Inside La Casa de la Cultura, we asked a man who worked there how to get to La Iglesia de Los Angeles, which was down town.  He was the cutest old Tico man ever!  Costa Rican men call themselves Ticos, and women call themselves Ticas. He took out a piece of paper and drew us a map of all of the city blocks and land marks along the way so we would know we were on the right path.  People are so friendly here, it’s wonderful. 

                One thing I find very interesting about Costa Rica is that there are little to no street signs.  When people give you directions, they tell you to go 100 kilometers to the right, or two blocks to the left.  It’s a little disorienting at times, but I’m sure I will get used to it with time. 

                We finally found La Iglesia de Los Angeles, which was another beautiful church down town next to a plaza.  The ceiling was my favorite part of the church.  It was a beautiful dark red wood-something I’ve never seen before.  On our way to the church, my group and I stopped at a panadería (bread stand) and bought sweet bread.  Oh my goodness, it was the best bread I’ve ever tasted.  The inside was so soft that it melted in my mouth, and the outside was a crunchy and sticky sweet crust.  My mouth waters just thinking about it again!

La Iglesia de Los Angeles

Inside the church

  

My group in an amphitheater in Heredia (Derek, Aaron, Sarah, Rachel and me)

                We visited a few more places around town, and then headed to la UNA which is the national university (Universidad Nacional) in Heredia to meet our 27/7s.  Our 24/7s are like our RA’s, student life personnel, etc here in Costa Rica.  Their names are Lara, Emily, and Bean.  Our group was the first to return, so we won the Heredia “plunge” as we called it.  While we waited for other groups to return, we had a few colones left and decided to go buy a smoothie at a smoothie stand.  All of the stores in Costa Rica are right on the street, including grocery stores, shoe stores, food places and pharmacies.  We decided to get a fruit smoothie made from mango, guava (guabana) and milk (leche).  It was the best smoothie I have ever tasted!  I could live off of those smoothies and sweet bread for the rest of my life. 

               

                On the bus ride back to Whitworth South, I met a group of teenagers who spoke very broken English.  My friends Rachel, Kaitlyn, Bree and I talked to them for the entire bus ride.  Kaitlyn taught the boys some American slang, such as how to use the word “chill”. It was hilarious listening to her try to explain the different meanings for the word.  The teenagers loved it.  The bus can’t make it all the way up the mountain, so we all have about a ¾ mile hike to campus from the bus stop.  Our 24/7s tell us that we will have very strong calves by the end of the semester.  My calves are already strong thank you very much.  It’s quite a hike, let me tell you.  I’m not looking forward to doing that every day.

My group in front of an amphitheater in Heredia.  (Derek, Aaron, Sarah, Rachel, me)

Rachel and me in front of the amphitheater

 Hollie and me waiting to get on the bus in Heredia

                Sad news: I wore my Chacos all day and didn't even get the slightest Chaco tan on my feet.. 

          The rest of the day was spent relaxing after our busy morning.  We had some free time, and a few students decided to go for a walk around campus.  We had a training session about how to deal with culture shock and about living with host families.  The rest of the evening was pretty “chill”, and we ate dinner and have been relaxing ever since.  The wind is blowing SO hard right now, it kind of reminds me of home.. except the windows don’t shake quite as much at home when it gets windy.  It’s surprisingly cold on campus as well.  It was about 80 degrees in San Rafael and Heredia, but temperatures drop nearly 20 degrees on the mountain.  I always wear a sweatshirt and long pants while I’m on campus.  Classes start tomorrow morning.  I’m taking Spanish 302 from 9:00-12:00, then Spanish 419, which is a Latin American Studies class, from 2:00-4:00.  Five hours of class sounds a little exhausting, but I’m excited to start learning more Spanish!

Ready, Set, Costa Rica!

Saturday, January 29, 2011             

                I have come to realize that I get worse and worse at saying goodbye each time I have to do it.  I’m either a sniffling, teary mess, or an in an impatient can-we-please-just-get-this-over-with attitude.  Every time I say goodbye to someone, I tell myself that I’m going to do a better job than I have in the past, but that never seems to actually work out.  I have come to realize that maybe, just  maybe, I’m not supposed to be a person who is good at saying goodbye.  So, I have made a conscious decision to become really, really good at “see you later”.  Goodbye is just too final.  See you later is much more promising.

               

                I can’t believe today is actually here.  When I applied for this study abroad program nearly 10 months ago, January 29^th seemed like light-years away.  I honestly don’t think I ever expected it to come; it was just always some grand adventure that would be ahead of me for the rest of my life.  But sure enough, here I am, sitting in the SeaTac airport food court.  Let me tell you, if you’ve never sat in the food court at the SeaTac airport, you’re really missing out.  This is prime real-estate for people watching, which just happens to be one of my favorite pastimes.  I have never seen so many awkward men with mustaches in my life.  Also, I would like to take a moment to apologize to my parents if I ever threw a tantrum in any public location, especially an airport, and thank them for not just leaving me at the kiddie play place if I did.  There are a lot of lonely people sitting in the food court.  Maybe I’ll go join one of them.   

Sunday, January 30, 2011-01-30

               

                Okay, so a lot has happened since I was sitting in the food court in Seattle.  I did decide to go join one of the lone food court people, a guy who looked to be about my age.  I walked over to him, and asked, “Would it be really odd if I asked to join you?”  and he said, “Why of course not, it would be a pleasure,” in a thick British accent.  As it turns out, his name was Kirby, and he used to play professional soccer in the UK for a number of years.  Now he’s coaching a soccer team of 10 year olds in Issaquah, and he was on his way home to England to visit for about a month before returning to the US to continue coaching.  We looked at odd people sitting at tables around the food court, and tried to guess what they were talking about based on their actions and facial expressions.  Kirby and I must have talked for over an hour, which was a great way to help the time pass during my layover.

                I should have known that things were going all too well at this point, so something was bound to go wrong sooner or later.  When I got to my gate in Seattle to board my plane to Denver, the lady at the gate told me that I had to change my return date on my ticket because I was scheduled to be in Costa Rica for more than the 90 days that the country limits.  I told her, and showed her, that I had paperwork showing that I was going to be leaving the country to go to Nicaragua before the 90 days were up.  She was very unaccommodating, and told me that I couldn’t get on the plane unless my return date was changed to mid April.  Great.  So I let her change the date and decided I could try to figure it out during my 5 hour layover in Denver.

                When I arrived in Denver, the customer service desk was more than willing to waive the 90 day limit in Costa Rica after I explained my situation.  Nice people just make life so much easier, I need to remember that.  Thank you nice people at the customer service desk in Denver.

                I slept for a total of maybe an hour on the 5 hour flight from Denver to San Jose.  We took a red eye flight, so I was able to watch the sun rise as we flew over Central America.  It was like the sky exploded into the most vibrant shades of red, orange and gold.  Once we landed in San Jose, we went through customs.  My passport finally has a stamp in it!  Then we got our bags at baggage claim.  I definitely was one of the heavier packers for the trip..as usual.  The car ride to the center took about a half an hour.  Driving in Costa Rica is definitely an adventure.  We were told that a US driver’s license is valid here, but there is no way that I will ever set foot in the driver’s seat of a car while in Costa Rica.  People here swerve in and out of traffic, and the streets make absolutely no sense.  At one point, we were following a bus, and when it stopped, our driver swerved around the bus, passing it on the left and narrowly avoided running head on into an oncoming car. 

       The center, or Whitworth South as it is called here, is absolutely beautiful.  The school sits in about 27 acres of land that include a few lakes, and several hiking trails.  The main building used to be a popular Italian restaurant.  It took quite awhile to drive up the mountain to the restaurant, so regular customers suggested that the restaurant owner build a hotel next to the restaurant so they could come enjoy his delicious food and stay for the weekend.  He built the hotel next to the restaurant, and died shortly after the completion of the building.  The owner's wife decided to close the restaurant, and both buildings stood vacant for nearly 8 years.  Whitworth bought the property and converted the restaurant to an academic building and the hotel into dorm rooms.

 This is a picture of the campus when we were coming back from our hike.  To the right is the main campus building which houses the library, classrooms, dining hall and common rooms.  To the left are the dorm rooms.

 There are 20 students studying here this semester.  Most are from Whitworth, but one student is from Wheaton College and another is from a school in Iowa.  There are 15 girls and 5 boys.  Lindy Scott is a Spanish professor at Whitworth.  He and his wife Denora are living at Whitworth South at the moment, and will continue to live here for the next few years to get the campus more settled.  They joined us for breakfast, along with Jenny Holsinger, a sociology professor at Whitworth who is doing her sabbatical at Whitworth South this semester.  She actually brought her entire family with her.  Her husband Adam and two children Ravi (7) and Justin (3) are so great to have around campus.  The boys are so excited to be in Costa Rica, and are picking up Spanish very quickly.  I wish I had started learning when I was younger.

                Juan is the chef here at Whitworth South.  This morning he cooked us a breakfast of pancakes with pineapple.  He doesn’t speak any English, so I love talking to him because it forces me to use my Spanish.  It was wonderful to get something of actual substance in my system after 18 hours of travel.  At this point, I had slept a total of around 5 hours in the last 2 days, so I was mentally and physically exhausted.  But of course I decided to go for a hike with Lindy and the other students rather than take a nap.

                 When Lindy said that we were going to take a 2-3 hour hike, I thought that it wouldn’t be a big deal.  I definitely forgot to factor in the fact that the campus is in the mountains about 6,000 feet above sea level, and we were only going to continue climbing higher.  The air is much, much harder to breathe at altitude of about 7,000 feet, let me tell you.  Not to mention that he hiking trails here are some of the most treacherous paths I’ve ever been on in my entire life.  They were paved at one point, but now are broken up into huge chunks of concrete that is about 9 inches thick in some places.  Thick drop offs of concrete paired with orange to watermelon size rocks do not make for an easy 5 mile hike, take my word for it.  Also, it wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had to take this opportunity to break in my new hiking boots.  Let’s just say that I have some lovely blisters on my feet and sunburn on the back of my neck where I forgot to put sunscreen. 

                

 A view of all the plants that we saw on our hike

 A view (vista) of San Jose from nearly the top of our hike

 We also saw several water falls like this one

 One of the many rotting bridges (puentes) we crossed

Definitely a nicer (and more flat) stretch of the path we walked on

Calla lilies grow all over the campus

                After the hike, I passed out in my room for about three hours.  It was the best sleep I’ve had in a loooonngggg time.  We will live on campus for the first week we are in Costa Rica while we are going through orientation and getting our bearings.  Then we will move in with host families and live with them for the duration of our stay in Costa Rica.  Now we are getting ready to eat dinner that Juan prepared for us, and then we have a night filled with orientation material.  ¡Hasta luego!