Spanish Tutoring - Hannah

During this last month we've had the opportunity to work with some Spanish tutors. We had been looking for a while to find someone, but it took time. During December, there were a couple times we found someone, and things looked promising, but then they didn't show up or return our calls. I hear that December tends to be a vacation month--summer break and Christmas--and people like to take it easy; maybe that's why we had so much trouble.

But starting this month, we found Maria Elena and Armando.

Maria Elena comes over for an hour, a couple times a week. We all sit around the table and she speaks almost all Spanish with us. She asks us questions, taking turns with me and the other kids. Sometimes when I see how well the other kids do, I think, man I'm slow.

Talking about verb conjugation and past, present and future tense is a little above Jonah's head. So sometimes he tells me sadly that he doesn't know much Spanish. Yesterday he did his best effort to learn along with us. He was very proud of his cute paper.

The kids have also been going to a weekly language class in town. It's taught by a sweet, grandfatherly man named Armando, who lived in the States for a few years. All the kids in the class but mine are Spanish speakers learning English. I sit in and Armando has me say English phrases every now and then, so the kids can hear how a native English speaker pronounces things. Armando encourages the kids to talk to each other, which is super helpful for my kids and hopefully it will help build their confidence. It's also helpful to have the kids see that even though it's difficult for their classmates to learn English, they're trying.  

I'm hopeful than when school starts up again in a couple weeks, the kids will be better prepared than last year, and will be willing to speak a little more.

A Visit from Alisia and Todd - Hannah

We've had a great few days visiting with my lovely sister Alisia and her husband Todd. I've missed them and have absolutely loved being able to spend time with them. One of the added bonuses of having them here is that since Alisia is a professional photographer and Todd is a professional filmmaker, I can simply hijack their photos.

Here are a few photos from the last few days, so I'll just let them do the talking. Soon I will post some from our beach photo shoot.

Housecleaning - Hannah

Today I had a lady come clean my house.

I've seen her at my neighbor's house, so I asked my neighbor about her. He told me how honest she was--if she was in his house for a month, with five million dollars on the bed, it wouldn't go anywhere. Also, she charges the equivalent of $2.40 an hour. My kids wouldn't work for that much. There is a sector of service workers here in Costa Rica who work for very little--I'm not sure how they live on what they make. It's got to be a lot of rice and beans.

So today I splurged and hired Ania to clean. She's very quiet and unassuming, a hard worker, and did a great job. I was impressed to see the many ways she uses a broom. Having someone clean the house is not something I would do regularly, although it's very tempting at that price. A few days ago when I told the kids it was time to clean up, one of them said, "But the cleaning lady is coming. Why do we have to clean?" Because I don't want lazy kids, that's why.

On a side note, at lunchtime I think I asked Ania if she has a man. I meant to say, "Are you hungry?" ("Tienes hambre?"), but it came out, "Tienes hombre?" Ah well, if she noticed she didn't let it show.

I am worried she was disappointed when she asked if I would like her to come back next week, and I told her I would call when I wanted her to come again. It's not that she didn't do a great job, it's just that we need some work too.

Anyway, I appreciated all her work and am now enjoying my clean house.

San Pedro River - Hannah

Today some friends showed us a great river in San Pedro. Laura and Franklin, and their sweet daughters Anna, Sophia, and Camilla, are in our LDS branch. They were very fun and adventurous, and we went to a place that would have been difficult to find on our own.

We walked up the river and explored--I decided I need to buy some water shoes.

We made a rope swing from the vines.

We saw some wildlife, including this tiny frog, a bright neon frog, and a marten.

We found a few "water slides."

We enjoyed the cataratas (in Spanish this means waterfalls and cataracts). 

Laura found some orchids growing from a tree, so she pulled them down
and gave me some that I planted once we got home.
I'm looking forward to seeing the blooms.

We climbed up the waterfall.

We swam in the pool.

We did some cliff jumping--even me this time. 

I think I redeemed myself for not doing it last time.

We spent time with this happy man, who especially
enjoyed the trip after a particularly long work week. 

We watched this cute kid doing some "diving" :)

We enjoyed lunch together.

All in all, it was a great day with these people.

Riteve: Costa Rican Safety and Emissions Inspection - Michael

I've been stressing about the car passing the safety and emissions inspection, which is due this month. It's an annual thing, but unlike Utah, there are only select places you can get it done. The closest place to us was about an hour away.

I had read all of the horror stories about how picky the inspectors can be; however, that doesn't make any sense, because I see lots of cars on the street that don't seem like they could have passed in years.

I've been primarily concerned about getting the speedometer fixed, because it's specifically listed on the Riteve site. Last week we took our car to our mechanic to have him fix the speedometer. He wasn't able to fix it at the time but fixed a bunch of other things. He also offered to drive our car down for the inspection, for a small fee.

We decided it would be worthwhile to have him do so. That way I wouldn't have to take time off work, and Hannah wouldn't have to deal with the drive or trying to communicate to the inspectors about the car.

On Monday, our Check Engine light, which is pretty much always on wasn't on. (The car won't normally pass inspection if it is on). I decided now was the time to try it. I worked things out with our mechanic to come pick up the car and take it down the next morning.

Fortunately he advised me to make sure my oil and other fluids were okay. The oil dipstick came out dry. We were able to add oil before we burned up the engine.

Dixon, the mechanic, showed up the next morning just before 5:00 am to take the car down. He asked me if I had a fire extinguisher or jumper cables in the car. I didn't, so he stopped by his house on the way out to take his with him. It was a little unsettling to have him drive off with the car and the title (the title is required for the inspection), but we trusted him.

In the end, the car passed, and Dixon didn't steal our car. I think it probably helped us pass to have a Tico take it in.

The Check Engine light came back on the next day, and the speedometer still doesn't work, but we're all set for now.

Cool Stuff - Dylan

 Here's some pictures of some cool stuff that I found:

I walked down a hill, saw this flower, took it off a bush and took it to our house.

I found these bananas up the road from our house.

Weather - Hannah

Check out this graph from worldweatheronline.com. It shows the weather in Puriscal, Costa Rica. And for those gringos out there, 18 degrees celsius is about 65 degrees farenheit, and 30 degrees celsius is about 86 degrees farenheit. The lovely temperature doesn't vary a whole lot throughout the year.

And here is the rainfall. We're in the midst of the dry season right now, and the rain will start to pick up again when we're heading back home. Again, for the gringos, 100 mm is about 4 inches.

Bags - Hannah

A lot of food that comes in bottles or cans in the United States, here in Costa Rica comes in bags. The first time I went to the store, I was with a friend and looking for mayonnaise. It was right in front of my face but I didn't see it until my friend pointed out that it was in a bag.

Tomato sauce, Mayonnaise & Ketchup

Sweetened Condensed Milk & Salad Dressing

I have a theory as to why there is this difference. Many people here don't have cars, and when you're carrying bags of groceries home, either walking or riding the bus, cans and bottles can be heavy. Reducing the grocery weight makes it easier to get the groceries home.

I like having things lighter, and also having them take up less space in the refrigerator. Also, I like avoiding the messy-knife-in-the-mayonnaise-jar situation. Think, trying to deal with toothpaste from a jar, and you'll understand why sometimes squeezing from a bag works better.

Fruit - Hannah

Costa Rica has fabulous fruit. With the change in seasons we've seen some fruits disappear and some new ones appear. For one, mango season is now here. And these mangoes are incredible! Michael made a mango smoothie yesterday after church. What a pretty color!

We learned that you can slice up unripe mangoes--green mangoes--sprinkle them with a little salt and lemon juice, and they taste great. They have the crunch of a cucumber with the subtle taste of the mango. One of the vendors at the farmer's market first introduced us to the idea.

When we see new fruits at the market, we get a few to try. Sometimes we like them, other times not as much.

I don't know what this one is called, but we decided it had hints of various flavors: blueberry, concord grapes, and whipped cream. Sweet!

We also have seen some new varieties of small pineapples. Some are the typical shape of pineapples that you'd see in the United States, just smaller, and all of them we've tasted have been incredibly sweet. The one on the right is a white pineapple--the inside is more white than yellow and it's super juicy.

Citrus fruits are also plentiful, though honestly, they're still somewhat of a mystery. They all seem to be called limons; they vary in color on the outside and the inside, and they also vary in taste. If I want a lime, I'm never quite sure what to buy. Though I find a citrus fruit that is green on the outside, it might be orange on the inside and taste like an orange, like this one. 

The oranges don't compare to my Grandpa's delicious California oranges, and the only thing I can compare the mangoes to is the peaches from our tree back home. I love, though, that you can find great fruit here all year round.

Trash Collection - Hannah

The trash collection system here could use some rethinking. There tends to be a lot of trash strewn along roadsides. This is largely because everyone puts their trash bags out to be collected, but dogs and other animals often get to them before the trash collectors do. So the animals rip up the bags and spread the garbage around.

We don't get trash collectors at our house. If we want our trash taken away, we need to bring our bags to the top of the hill on Monday morning. Fortunately, our neighbor Renzo offered to take our trash away more frequently. On his way to work, he drives by the spot where the garbage is dumped, so we just put our trash bags in his truck.

Some people use these contraptions to keep their trash bags away from the animals, but we don't have one. Even still, these are often surrounded by garbage as well. 

One advantage to having lots of animals around, is that they do take care of food scraps. We don't have a garbage disposal, so we collect the food scraps throughout the day and then dump them over the side of our hill. The birds, squirrels, and dogs pick through what they want, and what's left is decomposed fairly quickly, aided by the high humidity. 

We like to dump our leftover rice in front of the hummingbird bush. That way the birds come out of the bushes to snack, and we get to watch them.

The Garden - Hannah

I finally got my herbs planted. They've been sitting in the garden area in pots for a couple months now, and the roots have been tearing their way through the bottoms of the pots. 

Recently someone stole the basil pot, so I decided to finally get around to planting the rest. The basil wasn't looking real healthy anyway, so I hope whoever has it is at least enjoying their single caprese sandwich. 

I planted some mint, rosemary, parsley and a chaote. Michael calls the chaote, Costa Rica's zucchini--everyone has one, they produce like crazy, and everyone's trying to give them away. In a stir fry, they have a nice crunch like a water chestnut. I know people do all sorts of other things with them here as well.

Anyway, enjoy seeing the garden without weeds. Given my track record, it won't last long.