happy holidays :)

i hope everyone is (or had) a great hanukah, merry christmas and a happy new year. i will post another blog about my christmas here but now i just wanted to post some websites for you all. these are the blog and website of brooke and donny - the ones that came to my town and worked with us to help us start a recycling project, amongst other great projects like composting and environmental education. they have a great blog about their time here and on their website they talk a lot about their projects here. so check them out... they do some real great work :)
www.growinitiative.org
1love1world.blogspot.com
have a great start to 2010!

a few more...

here are some more pictures. im not really sure why i cant get them in the order i want but oh well. you´ll see the joys of the womens business... chicken farm. here they killed 22 chickens and i unfortuntely took part in the pulling out the feathers part. yuck! theres also some pictures from our schools festivals...like of the tamales that we sold, our ¨mechanical bull¨ if you will, and one of the cement tables and benches by they playground getting cemented in. we have 3 of them in total... there are also 2 pictures of gringos...or people from the states. the girl, brooke, was on semester at sea with me and then did peace corps in jamaica where she met donny. they have been traveling south ever since january and made it to my town about 2 and a half weeks ago. they have been doing a few educational projects with the kids and women about recycling and composting and will be funding our recycling project soon.
oook, enjoy the photos. happy thanksgiving... eat some extra turkey for me :)

some pictures :)

so here´s my last few months in a nutshell...

This is from the first communion in my town.. there were 9 kids getting their first communion...





These next 4 are from our trip to Nicaragua. The first one is on the lago de nicaragua... anyone want to buy an island on the Nicaragua Lake?? Next you´ll see the absolutely beautiful Laguna de Apoyo... id definitely recommend it if you´re gonna make your way down here. Then you´ll see the active volcano that we hiked up and then sandboarded down. nuts! Finally theres a shot of all of us in Leon. Id def recommend a trip to nicaragua!

so, clearly october and november have been busy as well since i haven´t gotten a chance to update in some time. i will try to get back soon to post some pictures... in october, i spent a week traveling in nicaragua with a few other ladies of tico 18 which was super nice. the rest of the time has been getting some more projects done in my town. we have almost finished the medical center, gotten the playground fenced in and accompanied by some tables and benches, and have legalized the womens group. this past weekend was a school fair where we had a bingo, food sales, a beautyish competition for the kids, and lots of sales of old clothes, plants, etc. they even made a mechanical bull using one of those big metal trashcans. we´ve also had a few dances and soccer tournaments and are planning fiestas for the end of january. so whoever wants to see some bull running, you should come the last weekend in january haha. the women´s association has some businesses that are going well, one being a chicken farm. tomorrow we have to go kill a bunch of chickens, ick. oh and boy and girl scouts has been up and running as well. so all in all things have been really successful recently. theres a lot more to do in these last 6 months (crazy!!) like getting the library up and running, working with the rest of the womens businesses, getting our recycling project working, trying to fight to get a computer lab, and lots more. any ideas are welcomed hahaha.
check back soon for some pictures. also, come visit!

September is a busy month

September started off strong with the dia del niño or children's day. I feel like I've fought for a children's day in the states for my whole life and here they have always had it. I mean, it's only fair... theres a mother's day and a father's day so why not have a children's day. So, on September 9th, all of the kids go to school and in their regular clothing instead of their school uniforms. I imagine that in more organized schools, the celebration is different. In my school, though, all the kids are sent to the plaza to play in the sun and get burnt. Then they dance to reggeaton music for a while, eat a hamburger and ice cream, and go home. So we left school around 11am and then headed to the river, had a day of games in English class, and then called it a day.

A few days later was September 15th, Independence Day. The celebration actually starts the night before, at 6pm on September 14th when the whole country sings the national anthem. Then, the children perform their typical dances in typical clothing. In my town, that's a pretty big deal. The children practice for a long time and really enjoy performing the typical dance. Then comes the faroles. Faroles are kind of like lanterns but out of paper or cardboard with a candle inside and then on a long stick. Each child brings their other home-made or store-bought farole and parades them around the salon while music is playing in the background. There are also typical food sales that go to help the school. Then, on the day of the 15th, all the kids have to go to school at 7am in uniform to sing the national anthem and then they can leave. I went with a few friends from my town to the city near us where they were having a big Independence Day parade. A lot of different schools and high schools participate... there are lots of bands and dance groups. So that was really nice too.

So first there was children's day, then independence day, and now new years. I'm in San Jose for the weekend for Rosh Hashana services. Another peace corps friend and I went to services last night and then we were invited to a congregation family's house for shabbat dinner. As always, they were incredibly nice and giving. The food was delicious as well. It always amazes me when I go there because the people there are so educated and cultured. And they have a ton of money. I just forget where I am when I go there. Especially because there is an equal amount of Spanish, English and Hebrew being spoken... Also, getting in to the synagogue is an interesting experience. Ahead of time, we had to send a copy of our passport and information about our home synagogue. Then, once we got there, we had to answer a million questions by a cop with a huge gun and another synagogue. Once we got in, we were to wear visitors passes at all times and weren't allowed to bring any bags in at all. When we were leaving Friday night with the family that invited us to their home, the husband explained the situation a little. He told us that Costa Rica is one of three countries that has recognized Palestine as a country... the other two are Venezuela and Iran. He said that because of that, the situation has been pretty dangerous recently.

Well, I hope you are all having a good September as well. For those of you celebrating the new year this weekend, hag sameach and shana tova. Have a happy and healthy new year :)

welcome to my house

i moved out after a year of living with a host family. its really nice to live on my own because now all of my friends in my town can come over for all of the things they have invited me to during the last year. we have meetings and stuff there too. my house is a little wooden and tin house furnished by the members of my town. it's a pretty typical house in my town with a gas stove, outdoor-ish kitchen, and wooden shudder windows. here are some pictures...






needless to say, theres lots of floor space so come and visit!

heres a bunch of pictures that i owe you... theres some from the 3 suprise parties from my birthday and then our NEW PLAYGROUND! i will get some pictures up soon from my new house and the works. everything is super busy here but going very well. cant wait to hear from all of you :)