July 16 - July 19

7/16/2012 at 9:50pm

Librarian interns all enjoying the sun (including Matt).

What a wonderful day!  I couldn’t go to Las Torres as I believe I mentioned, and the guy I was going to translate for this morning didn’t show up, but I am translating for him tomorrow supposedly.  I got a ton of work done with programming in Excel and looking at data, and I also did my blog and sent out emails and such.  And for lunch, though I left without one, Ryan and Abby each gifted me a sandwich because they each had two, so it was cool.  Then we and Jon and Matt walked to the cheese factory only to discover they had no yogurt or brownies, so then we went to CASEM and I got some really good chocolate.  I came back, finished working, and then left early to go home since it was supposed to be the day off that I never took anyway.  I got a ride to Cerro Plano in a cuadra (4-wheeler) and then Coco picked me up in Santa Elena, so all in all I made it home in a half hour.  Pretty cool. 

I then brought leftover cheesecake to Gaby’s house for him and José and their dad (also named José), and then Gaby and I went out and played Frisbee out front for a while.  I accidentally fell and bruised/scratched up my hands and my knees, which was no biggie (even though I was kind of embarrassed because I basically did a face-plant and looked kind of stupid, but not too embarrassed), but since my hand was bleeding a bit Gaby freaked out and was like, “We need to go to the pulpería and get you a band-aid!”  And I didn’t want to because it was hardly anything at all and I just wanted to keep playing, so eventually I convinced him otherwise and we went to the plaza to continue playing.  Eventually we started playing soccer with the kids instead and even though I’m bad I had a great time and marked the coaches hard-core and just played defense the whole time. 

I went home, showered, then brought Luis to the church so he could participate in drum lessons with Gaby while I helped run the sound check.  I eventually got caught up in playing piano and singing with Jeffrey, who also taught me how to play cumbia on the piano, and eventually Gaby joined in, and then I remembered I still had Luis so I dropped him back off at home and came back and hung out at the church just playing with Jimena and being crazy and socializing.  We played some dinámicas in the beginning and did an activity with our favorite bible verse and worshiped and talked with people we didn’t know well, so I talked with Aymeth and se is a super wonderful girl.  God has great things in store for her.  We then prayed and I had the wonderful opportunity to pray for Courtney, Rosi, and María as they prayed to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.  I am so happy and my heart fills with such joy for them and really everyone there at the church and I just feel tears well up in my eyes when I think about how there’s going to be a time soon where I have to say goodbye for now.

7/17/2012 at 9pm

Little scorpion I found while cutting apart pizza boxes!
Don't worry, it was dead.  It was also much smaller than the
other one I found a while back in the kitchen.

I’m sitting here with a glass of Atol, very much exhausted to the point that I feel it in my head.  But I had a good day, good in the sense that I feel it was progress made.  I helped Abby today for 45-60 minutes this morning with translating for a local expert in trees, and I can now successfully identify three different species of Lauraceae: monteverdenses, whitei, and floribunda.  When I came back I plowed through some work for ASADA and Jenny, and after lunch I helped Jenny by facilitating the dinámicas for the leadership workshop.  Jossette was there, too, helping watch the kids.  Some things I can learn from and improve on in the way I lead and direct: I need to explain more thoroughly yet simply all the directions for the games, and I need to be sure to express safety cautions at the start and how to stay safe during these dinámicas.  We had no accidents thankfully but a woman with epilepsy did have a seizure today at the end.  It was the first time I had ever witnessed something like that and so the only thing I could do, that I knew and was supposed to do, was double-check her pulse and put her in a safer position on the floor and wait it out.  She was fine but I have no idea if it was a trigger that set her off or what.  She’s fine though.  After the workshop, Jossette and I chatted more and then I ended my workday as I started my workday: working on the choreography for a dance I hope to perform on Saturday at the church if I’m allowed.  It’s a ballet/lyrical dance to “Angels Fall Down” by Skillet, a song I absolutely love and have danced/worshiped to before (except in the privacy of my bedroom where the tears that fell down my cheeks in worship were hidden from others).  Abby and Ryan already liked it at the beginning of the day and Jossette nearly cried at the end of the day, so I think I’m getting there.  I just need to practice daily until I finally perform so that the choreography flows and I can focus more on worshiping God with this dance and expressing it to the church.

Me and the lovely Jossette hanging out after the workshop.

I feel bad because I was a little irritable with Abby and Ryan and even Coco a bit today, though I tried to keep calm and hide it by just staying silent.  I think it worked.  I’m just tired I’m sure, of course.  Speaking of Coco, he wants to build a habitación behind the house for him and María to live in.  He’s only 18 and she’s only 16.  I love them both dearly but I do not approve of this.  They’re both super young, especially for Costa Rican standards, to be living together, and my papí wants to use the wood for a house in Caveceras.  But I digress, and it’s okay.  We went after dinner to go pick up some tourists from Bajo del Tigre, which was exciting, and then when we came back abuelita came over and we all made Atol.  After doing a rough translation of “Angels Fall Down”, I began writing this, then read five more psalms with Luis (like two days ago), and now I’m planning on showering to get the Zepol and bug spray and sunscreen off of me and to hopefully smell better before tomorrow.

My presentation on Monday is at 10am and has to be about my internship as a whole, possibly all in Spanish, maybe just Anibal or someone else translate… I haven’t decided, but I need to ASAP.  I plan on doing the PowerPoint (at least most of it while I wait on data from Alberto) tomorrow, along with my Spanish final assignment that I keep forgetting about.

7/18/2012 at 7:50pm

I hope to go to bed by 8:30 tonight because Abby, Ryan, and I need to arrive at MVI at like 7:15ish give or take in order to get as much work done as possible before we head out to the preserve at 10am.  We have letters so we should get in for free.  But anyway this all means I need to sleep, so Luis hopefully will get over here to read with me before we go to sleep if he wants to do that.

Fun moth that I saw flying around and then took from the tree!

Today Giovanni gave me a ride all the way to the gas station which was great so that I didn’t have to walk the hills.  I pumped out my report for ASADA and finalized as much of my data as possible.  Now all I have to do is stick together a PowerPoint and decide which language I want to present in.  I’ll probably end up doing English for ease of translation.  At the end of my day I worked super hard on the choreography for Saturday and I just pray that this dance would be entirely for God and that He would be glorified through it, not me nor anyone else.  I ended up dehydrating myself by accident (too much coffee and physical activity) and so was really nauseous and had a headache for a while but I knew right away why I felt like that so eventually I sat down, drank water, and felt better around an hour later.

My mamá and Auri sleeping in Andrea's room.

So yeah, it was basically work all day and just trying to do as much as possible.  When I came back I went to the church to test the space but they were all working in there so I basically just said hi to Josúe, Yeiner, and the other Josúe (and then Pastor Josúe when he came in… I think one of their names probably isn’t actually Josúe) and then went home, ate dinner, said hi to María’s brother who was visiting and to Luis’s friend Josúe, and showered.  Too.  Many.  Josúes.  But anyway, dance for Saturday is a go according to Zaray and so now I need to see about possibly procuring a dress and maybe testing the space tomorrow before the service.  Friday is a dinner date with Jannelle and Rick again, and I am helping Zaray earlier in the day, and Saturday morning and afternoon I’ll be helping Evelyn over at Guillermo’s with the other leaders from the camp to do Obstacle Course Part Two.  What a busy weekend!  And party on Sunday in the church!  Yeiner wants to do a cake fight again… Oh boy.

7/19/2012 at 10pm

Abby and Ryan on the suspension bridge.

The Internet was out in various places around Monteverde yesterday and today so I was hard-pressed to be able to tend to a couple of situations that were occurring over Facebook (finding a time for dinner tomorrow night with Jannelle, going to Jossette's to possibly procure a dance skirt/dress, etc.) but it all worked out later tonight when I went to Abby's to borrow her computer.  Her little hermana Eva is so adorable and is learning so fast!

Anyway, today I put together most of my PowerPoint and then Abby, Ryan, and I walked all the way up to the Cloud Forest Preserve and hiked around for like three hours.  It was exhausting but also super duper cool because we got the opportunity to run around on a suspension bridge.  And yes, I admit that the bridge was my favorite part even though the waterfall and forest itself were cool.  It was just so cold and damp all day that I was very chilled when we finally returned, took the bus back (for the first time!), and got dropped off in Santa Elena.  But my mamá heated me up some coffee and then she made some delicious soup from chayote, potatoes, cilantro, water, and a packed of something similar to ramen, spices included.  It was delicious.  And then my papí decided to be silly and talk about his chili sauce he was using in the soup being an aphrodisiac, which I couldn't decide was more humorous or awkward when he then mentioned I should go tell my nonexistent boyfriend.  O.o

I then went to Abby's and to the church and I was going to block out my dance for Saturday but the floor was being cleaned so I didn't.  The service tonight was chock full of super text-driven teaching and I had the chance to learn so much tonight that was good to know or that I didn't know previously.  And then a couple of people, Seidy and José (not Josúe, who I thought he was by accident yesterday), commented on me leaving.  I was on the verge of tears with José when I hugged him (he's gone this weekend) because he's such a sweetheart with a servant's heart and I wish we had more time to be better friends.  Gaaah this weekend is going to be so rough.  I finally started knowing everyone, and now I have to go.