My host sister Cristina gave birth to a baby girl, Deirlyn Pamela González Abarca in early January of this year.La niña is pictured in yellow at 1 month and in red at 3.5 months. She's now over 4 months old and is the largest baby I've seen yet! Introducing la gordita...
(The little fat one. It's actually a term of endearment.)
The month of January also kicked off the continuation of my English classes, which were turning into a grand disaster. I teach in two schools, Jabillo and La Y Griega, and have an adult course that allows for recognized certification. I also started an Open English class to compensate for the fact that the course is closed to new students. I began this second adult course because there were minimum 10 people interested in English that claimed they couldn't enter the original course for some-excuse-or-another. So at one point, I was giving classes from Tuesday through Saturday, which was not a good idea… especially throwing in the Tico apathy factor. (I know have one class in la Escuela Jabillo on Wed. and teach all day on Thursday, which is tiring but it's nice to have it over and done in a day.) Once people realize that they must study to learn, they quit. It’s pretty disheartening, but you focus on the people who really want to learn, who actually have a thirst for knowledge. For example my student Marlene, a 28-year-old housewife with an 11-year-old and a 4-year-old, had never had an English lesson in her life before my arrival. She’d never even been to one day of high school. She has now survived the apocalyptic dropout rate and passed both of her exams thus far, surpassing students who are currently in high school receiving other English classes! She can hold a basic conversation in English and read entire passages of text. Her progress is my motivation to keep teaching. As long as there is one person dedicated to learning, I will teach…
Also in January were the Fiestas de Coyote, a benifit for the colegio (high school) in a more developed town closer to the beach. Fellow volunteers Pete from the Isla Venado and Kathryn from Ostional came in to visit and we rocked to the merenque and danced with all Kathryn's graces. Due to a shady car wheel, we were later stranded in Playa San Miguel...
(What a tragedy, right? Poor us... of all places to be stranded, we wind up stuck in one of the most beautiful beaches in the country!)February marked the beginning of the busy season. Those of you who actually read this (or better yet, those wonderful people who have been here to see it themselves!) know that Jabillo only has 150 or so people and therefore, does not have a movie theater (among many other things!) So instead, I brought the theater to the rural zone. We kicked off the school year (Feb-Dec here in CR) with a Screen on the Green type event sponsored by Panasonic. Only replace Green with one-room-plastic-encased-windows-boiling-oven-school and you have a more accurate description! With no AC it’s needless to say that the movies in Jabillo are not a good way to escape the heat (but I’ll say it anyway!) Regardless, there was a great turnout and the kids were enthralled with the big screen and surround sound, so the event was a success despite the contribution of only two parents for the food fundraiser. (We still made over $50, which is great considering we were working with empanadas and Coke!) Carros (Cars) and (Los Cuatro Fantantasticos (The Fantastic Four) were a smash in the campo that day!
