ARRIBADA!

Remember when I said that I didn't take that picture of the arribada, but I probably would?? Well, I did! The arribada finally came! YAAAY!! And it's every bit as cool as promised! It's just the first day, and apparently more and more will come for the next couple of days. Everyone here is really excited, but also a bit stressed because they're all working from 8pm-4am. Since I technically work at the library, I am exempt from this work and get to roam about taking pictures instead. Great deal!! My trip to Santa Cruz, however, was fairly disastrous: since the arribada came this morning, none of the volunteers could come with me and I had to fly solo, which was a bit lonely, and then once I got there (a two hour bus ride) I learned that the town didn't actually sell any books at all! I had asked several people if there were any librerías in town, and was told that there were four, so I thought that surely I would be in luck. However, all the stupid librerías sold was office supplies, like paper and pens and stuff. Very frustrating. People seemed confused when I said I wanted to buy books and said that perhaps at the supermarket I could find some. And I could - Harlequin romances. Gah! And I put up signs yesterday for the big read-a-thon that starts tomorrow at 3pm, with new books promised, so I'm a bit stressed about that. I'm going to Guiones (another nearby town) tomorrow morning with some of the volunteers, I heard there were some bookstores there. We'll see if they actually sell books. Cross your fingers for me! The two other American volunteers are coming with me to buy some Thanksgiving food supplies, we're planning on preparing a Thanksgiving meal. We don't have an oven, though, so it should be interesting. Anyway, check my facebook for more pictures of the arribada (YAAAAY!) and I'll let you know if I'm able to find any books. Love you all!

Hello all! Time is going so fast, I can't believe that I only have two weeks left here in Ostional! They're going to be very busy. I'm going tomorrow to Santa Cruz to buy new books for the library and Scott Drucker and I are going to put together a reading rewards program in the afternoons. He brought four skateboards with him that we're going to give away for the final prizes, but we only have ten days or so for the readathon to take place, so it's all going to be very fast. I've been spending my days here working on art projects for kids with Domenica (one of the biologists) in the mornings and contacting International Book Donation places in the afternoon (so far I've gotten in touch with five, but none have emailed me back yet...sigh) and teaching classes and such. This weekend I had a good time going with Scott and his film crew to film some of the local guys here surfing in Guiones, they're really good! I didn't surf, I just bobbed about in the waves and generally got in everyone's way. But it was very fun. Yesterday, I went with my host family (sans Pablo, who had a big meeting here at MINAE) to Junquillal, a small town outside of Santa Cruz, to watch a game of soccer. The bus ride was wild! Two soccer teams (mens and womens) along with fans crammed onto this creaky old schoolbus and we bounced around for two hours through rivers and over mountains to get to the town. First we watched the men's game and had a picnic, arroz con pollo. They were very impressive! Ostional won, 3-1. Then came time for the women's game, and Merylin informed me that I would have to be playing, since some of the women couldn't come to the game. I tried to explain that I would almost certainly be detrimental to the team effort, but she thrust a uniform upon me and herded me to the bathroom to change. It was quite an experience! We played at 1 in the afternoon - 95 degrees and humid, and there were no subs! I thought I was going to have heat stroke. For some inexplicable reason, the coach put me as their center offensive player, so I was forced into a good deal of action. Good grief! Mostly I just ran (huffed and puffed) back and forth and tried to look like I was doing something useful. I don't think anyone was fooled.
But I did get two shots on goal! Close,ish. I was very proud. Unfortunately, about half an hour into the second half, one of our players had a disastrous crash with their goalie. Our player was rolling around on the ground screaming bloody murder (something about her knee), and their goalie's head was bleeding! Someone conked out our player with chloroform or something right on the field and hauled her off. Everyone was screaming and children were crying and everyone was too traumatized to continue, so they called the game. After everyone calmed down a bit, people were very nice to me, telling me that I did a great job and all. I think it's because they were concerned about the purple hue of my face and wanted to make sure that I wasn't about to pass out or something. I didn't get any pictures, so you'll have to imagine it. On the way back, we had to wait for our player to get treated at the only hospital in the region, so we didn't get back to Ostional until around 10 at night. Whew! Quite a day. They've invited me to play again next Sunday, but I don't know if my heart can take it. We'll see. I'll probably post soon about how my book-finding adventure in Santa Cruz goes. Love to all! The photos are of the film crew in Guiones, my host mom Merylin and Alvaro at the soccer game, and Brisle watching the game. More on facebook!

Hello everyone! Hope all is well up north. My daily routine has settled into the following: I wake up at around 4 with the roosters and turkeys, grumble, fall back asleep, wake up again around 7 and have breakfast, go to the Refuge and work on researching book donation organizations around the world and help the biologists here with English (I'm editing someone's thesis for English mistakes and translating their tourist brochure into English), then I go home for lunch, and then I come back and teach English classes to the various students who come in. It's been really interesting to teach, and I've discovered that the English classes at the high school here are completely sub-par. The kids that I'm teaching have been supposedly taking English for three or four years and are still struggling with "How are you?" and simple vocabulary. Their homework is also completely ridiculous - things like "Read this paragraph on computer programming and answer the following questions" and the questions are like "In what ways does a computer differentiate from a mechanical calculator?" Absurd!! They can't even remember what "read" means!! It's clear that they're just supposed to look for similar words in the paragraph and copy the answers without understanding them. How on earth is that even useful!? So they come here to learn the basics so that they could actually try to communicate with someone rather than talking about mechanical calculators and blade accessories in blenders (another assignment). There are a few older students who have a pretty high level of English thanks to their own hard work at home and I've been struggling to teach them, because I am woefully ill-prepared to teach and don't really know what I'm doing, but we make it work. Then I go home for dinner around 6 and either go back to the Refuge from 8-12 for turtle patrol or watch TV with my family here and fall asleep by 9. Of course, that is a very productive day that leaves out all of my reading for fun and swimming that happens most days. Hurrah! Also, exciting news! Scott Drucker, the ICADS student from five years ago who set up the foundation for this little library during his internship, came back to Ostional this week because he wants to make a documentary about Ostional and he brought with him a $200 donation that he's giving to me for the library! So I get to take the bus into Santa Cruz soon and visit bookshops to buy new books and games for the library!! I'm very excited. In less exciting news, I'm going completely bonkers with my rice-and-beans three meals a day for five weeks menu. I've also been feeling a bit nostalgic for some other things at home, namely a comfortable bed sans bugs and clean, dry clothing. And of course all of you! I don't think that I could ever live here permanently, everything is covered in sand and bugs and nothing ever dries and everything smells a bit like mold. Ahh! But of course on the flip side, there is a gorgeous ocean and monkeys and turtles and iguanas and fruit trees galore, so I shouldn't complain. Love you all!! Oh, and I'm still waiting on the arribada - they've been telling me that it will arrive any day now since I got here five weeks ago, I'm beginning to think it's all a myth.