folcanos are dangerous business

we went on a group field trip yesterday to hike around the arenal volcano. unfortunately it was raining so we couldn't cross the river (out of fear that things would be flowing down it) and our hike was cut in half. allen, one of the program directors, told us that the last time he took a group to hike around the volcano there were minor earthquakes. oh how i wished it would earthquake. he also said that if it were to errupt than it would be pointless to run. scaaaary.
i brought back a volcanic rock to give gabe.

vivan los ninos!

we've pretty much got a rhythm to our day now, me and the ninos.

we start out with some casual drawing.. nothing too serious. then we move to some sort of puzzle-like or lego-like game, depending on whatever i bring that paticular day.

after a bit, they're bored of that and tensions begin to rise so we switch it up with something more active. sometimes we'll go play outside (this 2 year old is better at soccer than most high schoolers), but we usually end up putting on costumes and dancing around. the girls put on skirts and the boys put on button up shirts. adorable. then we blast some kids' tunes and just rock out. our favorite song goes:

"vivan los ninos! vivan los ninos! que siempre tienen ganas de jugar!!!"

then we sit down to do an arts&farts&crafts project, which holds their focus for the longest part of the day. that is, unless the girls decide to throw temper tantrums in which case i start a game of hide and seek or something of the sort. by this point in time, they're usually dying to go back to drawing so we start the whole cycle over again!

wherever, whenever the jews congregate

out of 22 volutneers in group 75, the 6 jews got together to observe yom kippur. friday afternoon we took off in what should have been a 4 hour van ride to jaco beach. unfortunately, it took us a much longer time to get there and we missed pre-fast shabbat dinner. we knew we were in the right place when, on the sign, underneath the hotel's name it said "bruchim habaim." the hotel is run by israelis, who led us to services taking place at a different hotel.

saturday was a very lonely yom kippur for me, being my first away from home. i didn't really feel homesick until i thought about the whole family rocking out at moriah and breaking fast together. also, it my first time praying with a 'michitzah' (seperation between the men and women). its just not my style.

we learned there's a huge population of israelis in jaco beach that ocassionally gets together. they were all very welcoming and unexpectedly comforting. everything this past week has been so foreign to me that being surrounded by jews and hearing hebrew just felt gooooood.

rachel, phil and i walked over to the beach to do 'tashlich' right at sunset.

it was not just beautiful, it was powerful. don't laugh. it was.

we spent all day sunday at the beach, hanging out with the chabbad boys from services. turns out i'm far too clumsy to surf. we were in a really tourist-y part of jaco beach, which was a fun way to spend the weekend but definately made us all grateful that we're seeing the real costa rica.

on the van ride home, our driver pulled over right before a bridge. he told us to get out and look around at the beautiful sight. it was gorgeous. postcard gorgeous. and there were crocs in the lake under the bridge! i was pretty grateful for the distance between us and them, they're scary lookin.

ill get better at this, i promise

i hope you guys make gabe read this.. because i'd really like for him to hear about the biggest culture shock about living in the ccs house. apparently san carlos has a pretty weak plumbing system so they dont flush down their toilet paper. talk about gross.
another huge culture shock is how slow time goes by here. they call it "tico time." everyone is so laid back compared to the fast-paced lifestyle im used to. nobody here is ever in a rush to do things or get anywhere. i started talking to the woman behind the register at the supermarket last week and was surprised to not be interrupted by some disgruntled mother whose valuable time i was wasting. the only structured time of my day is meal time. i love it here.

all the volunteers living in the ccs house, hereby reffered to as group 75, went to the hot springs last thursday. its absolutely beautiful there and oh so relaxing. every thursday we go on group excursions. luckily we aren't supposed to go see the volcanos until next week, because one had a small eruption wednesday and we would not have been able to go.

friday we went to help out at the peace festival. we split off into pairs and ran different activities for all the kids. rachel and i, being the talented artists we are, did face-painting. now i know how to say "mariposa" (butterfly), "corazone" (heart), "estrella" (star) and other such words in the genre of things-rachel-and-becky-can-draw. between speeches that i couldn't understand, the fully decked out kids did adorable dance performances.

First Post! Yowza!

hello hello!!
everythings wonderful here and i am blissfully happy. were living dorm style, rachel and i are in a room together sleeping on bunk beds. the food here is delicious and we live next door to a bakery.
there are 20 other volunteers here, mostly 18-22, all very interesting people.
my placement is "Hogar Comunitario Divino Nino", a government subsidized day care center run out of this woman's house. she's called "tia" (auntie) and there's 10 kids that go there, all under the age of 5. she spends all day preparing their meals and cleaning up after them, so she doesn't actually have any time to organize activities for them. they would spend most of their time watching tv or rough-housing.
enter becky.
its only been two days and im already in love with these kids. if its possible, they have shorter attention spans than i do, so we do 10 different activities every 5 minutes. they call me "Beea," although im not sure whether its an endearing nickname or just because "becky" is too hard for little kids to say.
in only two days my spanish has vastly improved. i know only the most important phrases for working with kids; 'sit down', 'stop that', 'do you need help', 'lets clean up', & 'what do you want to play'. my "tia" doesn't speak a word of english, nor do any of the kids, so the language barrier makes things a little difficult.
i love and miss you all, but im off to bed. we wake up pretty early because our carpool-vans leave the house at 7:30. i'm ready to pass out anyway. kids are exhausting.

with love,
becky