World Traveler

my last blog post!

2008-05-13T12:24:00.001-06:00

damn it's good to be home!
thanks for reading
xo

a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

2008-05-06T17:44:00.009-06:00

tab-> thats africa, baby

2008-04-30T07:58:00.006-06:00

i have malaria. when i started feeling flu-ish this week fellow volunteers suggested i get tested for malaria just in case. thanks to them, i caught it early so i only have a mild case that is easily treated with the meds i've been prescribed. in a few days i should be just fine. i feel sick, but its not the horrifying situation you're probably imagining. to be honest, its worth it. it's unreal being in tanzania.

once again i feel like im in a completely new world. a world where the government had to mandate that public schools serve porridge every day to ensure that those children get fed. a world where women walk over 10 km down from mt. kilimanjaro into town carrying bananas on their heads and their babies on their backs. a world where 25 million out of 32 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS. a world where the local witchdoctor has to sleep on a piece of paper with your name written on it so he can see you in his dreams before he can magically heal you in the morning.

i haven't really felt shocked about anything in this 'new world', but i think that's only because i've been ready and waiting for whatever came my way. even malaria!

safari weekend

2008-04-27T23:10:00.003-06:00

14 of us left right after placement on friday and got into the crater site where we would stay the night just before the gates closed at 6. we got up at dawn to spend the morning in the ngorongoro crater, where we saw flamingos, buffaloes, zebras, ostriches, elephants, a lion&lioness, hippos, a black rhino(a rare sight because they're endangered), and gazelles.

that afternoon we went on a tour of a masai village. a tour guide briefly told us about their history, their tribal culture, and how they continue to live traditionally despite tanzania's cultural developments towards modern life. right when we pulled up the women put on necklaces and began a choreographed but somehow not at all unified song/dance performance for us. it was as if they couldn't all agree on a song and dance so they pieced together different ones. a few of the women pulled us up to dance with them (pretty much just jumping up and down) but that was almost more awkward than being in the audience.

while the tour guide took us in to one of their stick&cow-dung built huts to show us how they live, the women set out jewelery to sell us. we all liked the idea of buying goods directly from them to be supporting them and at the same time scoring some sweet authentic stuff, but they were asking for $10 for a tiny beaded bracelet.. obviously we were not the first group brought there to learn about the masai, but i think we were the most uncomfortable.

sunday we spent driving around the lake manyara national park. we saw some of the same animals as we had seen in the crater, some new ones, took a lot of pictures, and drove home when we were all safari-ed out.
i spent most of the weekend with my eyes wide open and my jaw at my knees, poking rachel and pointing. it was incredible. i still can't believe how close we were to some of those animals. for the rest of my life i will be able to say that this safari was one of the coolest things i have ever done.

safari pitcures

2008-04-27T22:18:00.001-06:00

our safari group in the ngorongoro crater

on our way to the crater we spotted these prehistoric looking creatures

zebras and buffalo, coexisting

mufasa

a hyena gnawing at a dead buffalo's head. yummy.

youll notice me sitting in the car. poking my head out the window. freaking out.

water buffalos play-fighting

you can call me teacher rebecca

2008-04-23T12:07:00.005-06:00

sunday night rachel and i sat down to write a lesson plan for our classes the next day. we cut out five different shapes of five different colors, so we could call the students up by color and have them each identify what shape their color is and then call them up by shape and have them each identify what color their shape is. then we planned on splitting them up by color and having them work in groups to match up all their cut out shapes with the written words on a piece of paper. next we wanted each kid to relate the shapes to vocabulary words -sun, desk, eye, box, roof- that we would review with them when we reviewed the shapes, using a two column word match up.

we started our lesson with teacher oliveri's class on monday and we're maaaaybe half done. the kids all loved getting something handed out to them, something bright and unique, but it took them a bit to adjust to a new activity.

they usually spend the first couple hours of the morning coping sentences from the blackboard (i.e. This is a shoe.) into their notebooks and working on 10 simple addition problems, while we go around checking their work and helping the ones who are struggling. they spend the next TWO hours reviewing the morning's lesson, which just means repeating every word out of the teacher's mouth.

Teacher: What is this?
Students: What is this?
T: This is a shoe.
S: This is a shoe.
T: S.H.O.E. SHOE!
S: S.H.O.E. SHOE!

i doubt they retain more than 5% of the lesson. the other problem is that some kids are much smarter than that and they aren't being challenged because its impossible
for the teacher to give them personal attention.

we were hoping to finish the lesson with teacher oliveri's class today so we can run it with teacher ishmael's class, but our whole volunteer group missed placement to go on a spear making/cave spalunking/market shopping/waterfall hiking excursion. (great pictures ensue- i'll post them when i have time.)

in any case, i love helping teachers oliveri and ishmael out because its draining to run a classroom that big by yourself. rachel and i might not get to run that many different activities in the few weeks we're here, but we're trying to introduce creative ideas for them to hopefully implement in the future.

kibbutz revivim through pictures

2008-04-23T10:50:00.012-06:00

rachel and phil in front of the mini-studio-apartment-like rooms where we lived

goldie, hard at work overseeing volunteers

ladies of the machsan begadim (laundry room/our workplace)taking a break from folding

gan charuv, one of the nurseries that i occasionally worked at, celebrating passover

iftach, possibly the cutest boy in the gan

the ugliest animal in the chi negev (zoo)

the refet

one of many sculpted trees in the crazy tree garden

the cactus garden

chag sameach!

2008-04-20T14:01:00.003-06:00

believe it or not, i observed the passover holiday in africa. it was bizarre not being with my family, but i was glad to be able to do something.
a friend sent rachel the link to this woman's blog who lived here, in Tanzania, for two years- in it she talks about an israeli-run restaurant in Dar Es Salaam named Nargila. apparently they know all the Jews who live in Tanzania (near 40) and they celebrate Jewish holidays there year-round. this year the chabad sent two of its finest to help them put on a seder.
it took a rocky 8 hour bus ride each way to be there for just one night, but was well worth it. they were unbelievably hospitable (let us shower in their house and put us up for the night) and it was a great seder (a little bit of english, a whole lot of hebrew).

by the way mom- we turned down a full moon beach party in zanzibar to observe passover in dar. just thought you should know :)

Step Up Center

2008-04-18T16:39:00.001-06:00

rachel and i are working together at the Step Up Center –a place for kids in the surrounding area similar to the Mobile Creches center we were at in India. there’s a nursery of 30 three/four year olds and two classrooms of about 30 five to eight year olds each. the classrooms are tiny and cramped, but because of donations made by past volunteers (educational posters, wall paintings, and such) the place looks great. rachel helps one teacher in one classroom and i help one teacher in the other.
we have so many ideas of activities we want to do with the kids and subjects we want to teach them, but its going to be really hard because there's so many of them.

AFRICA

2008-04-12T11:35:00.006-06:00

welcome to my first post in a long long time! we left kibbutz revivim (aka the greatest place on earth) late thursday night and arrived safely in kilimanjaro, tanzania friday afternoon. the ride from the airport to our home-base in moshi was absolutely beautiful. i can't wait to walk around and try to capture it all with my crappy, almost completely broken camera.
we have program orientation the next couple days and then we'll begin our volunteer work. there are all these volunteers who have been here for weeks and weeks who are leaving today and tomorrow while the rest of the volunteers in our group are getting in so i'm having a hard time remembering any of their names. the staff here is wonderful, just like the ccs staffs in india and costa rica both were. they must have a killer applicant-screening process.

in any case, i'm thrilled to finally be in africa! sorry about slacking on the blog thing from israel, i promise to keep the updates frequent for the next month!

call me

2008-03-02T12:43:00.001-06:00

011-972-52-3137-237

shalom from the holy land

2008-03-02T12:09:00.003-06:00

after two hours of dealing with luggage problems in the indian airport(you are only allowed to check 20 kg per person to israel), a nine hour flight to milan, a three hour layover, and a four hour flight to tel aviv, we arrived here safely. i'm so happy to be back in israel where i always feel at home.

our last week in india was jam-packed for us with all the things we hadn't yet done. that meant shopping at the pahar ganj pmarket and the jan path market, seeing the lotus temple, and having dinner at the american embassy. our last day was ridiculous. rachel and miraculously managed to get henna, get our saris (we had them fitted earlier in the week), waltz around in our saris like princesses, have a feedback meeting with the staff, do last minute shopping in pahar ganj market, go out to a farewell dinner with our group, pack, and leave for the airport. it was pretty reflective of the entire india program- i always had too many things i wanted to do and see. overwhelming but exciting.

now we are living as volunteers on kibbutz revivim, an old habonim kibbutz about a half hour south of ber sheva. phil has been working a couple different jobs, while rachel and i work in the machsan begadim folding laundry. its so laid-back here - i absolutely love kibbutz life. hopefully by the time i get home my hebrew will be as good as my mom's. on weekends we've been meeting up with our habonim friends on workshop, who are split between one house in akko and one house in carmiel. after spending so much time away from home in a foreign country as crazy as india, its great to have family and friends to be with here. and to have falafel.

varanasi

2008-02-11T03:55:00.001-06:00

we spent our last weekend in varanasi, india's holiest city. to indians, varanasi is known as shiva's city (shiva being one of the three main gods, the god of destruction)because shiva went there and never left. to tourists, varanasi is known as crazy. all of india's beauty, history, filth, and excitement are packed into this one city. it is completely and totally overwhelming, to say the least, even after having a month in india of building up my tolerance level.

apparently, indians from all over make their way to varanasi to die so they can be cremated in one of the two famous cremation ghats along the ganges. one of those ghats happen to be the closest ghat to our hotel, so (unfortunately) in an effort to get to the main ghat we ended up looking out over the cremations taking place. needless to say, i was horrified. rachel saw me immediately burst into tears so she didn't look down. phil and rachel had usher me back to our hotel so i could calm myself down by repeating to myself that each of those people chose for their deceased bodies to be disposed of in that way. i can't stop thinking about what i saw, but i wanted to explore india and that includes the parts that are harder to swallow.

they recently started allowing tourists access to certain temples, so we decided to go inside one called the golden temple. we had to buy marigolds first to give as an offering to shiva. once inside we were pushed into a crowded line of hindus, shuffling around barefoot waiting to rub one statue and throw marigolds at another. cameras were not allowed so you'll have to imagine the chaos.

at dusk, we got a beautiful panoramic view of the city from the free boat ride offered by our hotel. i had to avert my eyes from the cremation ghats, but we got to see the rest of the ghats where people were bathing themselves or meditating. it was nice to be able to observe the craziness of the city from afar. we stayed on the boat an hour longer to watch the big ceremony they perform (possibly nightly) on two of the ghats. select few from the highest caste did some special things with goblets of fire and then later with hawk feathers, accompanied by chants and drumming, ringing bells with the left hand all the while. its a huge deal in varanasi, so everyone gathers to watch. from what i understood it is a tribute to the holy ganges.

the taj mahal

2008-02-07T10:35:00.000-06:00

we had wednesday off from our volunteer placement so we took a day trip to agra to see the taj mahal.

we could not contain our excitement.

from the train station to lunch to the taj and back to the train station, we had one rickshaw driver who quickly became our dearest friend. he spent all day trying to get us to stay the night so we could have dinner with his family.

the taming of the simee

2008-02-05T09:45:00.000-06:00

there are three teachers at mobile creches, one for the older kids and two that switch off with the younger kids. of those two that switch off, one is wonderful and loves the kids and keeps them in line. its fun to help her because she loves giving us the floor to lead an activity and she can handle the trouble makers. the other kind of just sits there and doesn't really do anything. thats makes for a challenging day, which i would consider a good thing if only i knew how to discipline 30 pre-schoolers in hindi. its a toss up which teacher will be there, but you can guess who we hope for.

the first two weeks, simee (the teacher for older kids) had us walking on eggshells around her. she sits quietly at the head of the table on the floor (the table is about a foot off the ground, so everyone sits on the floor), messing with her cell phone or doing paperwork, until the kids' chit-chatting spontaneously sets her off like an explosion. she screams at each of the offenders individually and more often than not she beckons them to her to be smacked. sometimes she spends the whole morning chastising them and making them recite their times tables or the alphabet in english. i obviously never feel her wrath, but she still scared me more than any teacher of mine ever did. we quickly learned from talking to other volunteers experiencing the same shock, that hitting kids is just a normal part of the discipline code here. the idea of authority figures hitting kids seems so backwards to me- i was reminded of how when we were kids my dad's mom used to tell dani that if i misbehave she needs to smack me. i used to pray she was joking.

somehow, despite her scary disciplinary tendancies and the steel wall of a language barrier between us, we've become friends with simee. last week she started trying to talk to us and every so often she'll shoot us a smile. we got as far as figuring out that she has been married for 8 years and has a 7 year old son. this past weekend she even invited us over for tea at her place.

she lives maybe half an hour away from us, close to mobile creches, in an average delhi neighborhood. from the second we stepped out of our rickshaw we had a whole group of people surrounding us, some offering us quidance to apartment #208 and some just staring at us, dumbfounded by our presence. we were seated in apartment #230, no simee in sight, confused and a little aprehensive about being there. finally someone led to around two more corners and up four flights of stairs to a tiny two room apartment (each maybe the size of a king-size bed) seperated only by a curtain, where we found simee. we met her husband, her son, her brother-in-law, and her sister-in-law's daughter and drank chai tea. we couldn't really talk which made it kind of awkward but her brother-in-law turned on some music so we all danced. it was a pretty bizarre outing but i absolutely loved it.

qutub minar pictures

2008-02-04T10:48:00.000-06:00

qutub minar, the largest brick minaret in the world

iron pilar with sanskrit inscription

the oldest mosque in india

a whole new world (dont you dare close your eyes)

2008-02-01T22:46:00.000-06:00

india -as i see it- is very hard to describe, but thats only because its so hard to understand. one of the speakers who came last week said "for everything you learn about india, the opposite is also true." we were told to dress modestly and always cover our shoulders, but i've seen indian women wearing tank tops and sleeveless dresses and they're not so modest in commercials and ads. we were also warned against public displays of affection, but this is the country that created the kama sutra!

corruption is another confusing issue. india is considered a spiritual center of the world, deeply rooted in its religious values and traditions, yet many government officials and businessmen are as corrupt as they are in america, if not more so. apparently the people who are hired to clean the piles upon piles of garbage from the streets just pay off the officials they're supposed to report to with part of their salary, so they get free money and india stays dirty. public bus drivers do the same to get liscenses without taking any sort of driving test, which doesn't help the already miserable traffic plagueing india's streets and causes the deaths of thousands of people every year. speaking of traffic.. crossing the street my first week here was probably the scariest thing i've ever had to do. whoever honks the most earns the right of way and no driver ever pays attention to pedestrians. rachel said she felt like she was playing frogger. with her life. one of the ccs staff members told us the safest way to cross the street is with a cow because nobody would ever dare to come near it.

over the past couple weeks i've come to realize that my logic just doesn't apply here. like the cow thing. back in the day cows were a source of milk, transportation, and plowing the fields, so they were deemed sacred creatures. now we use planes/trains/automobiles and we have machines for working the fields. the cows are everywhere, roaming around aimlessly, while a quarter of the population goes hungry! it doesn't make sense to me. i just want a burger!

the thing about india is, you can't really make generalizations because its so damn big. there are dozens of religions practised, hundreds of different languages spoken, more cultural variations (dance, rituals, food, values, ect.)than you can imagine. the differences from region to region are so vast that its hard to imagine how india can be unified at all. my mind is on the verge of explosion because im trying to absorb as much of what i'm learning/seeing here as i can. unfortunately, you can't fit thousands of years of history into 5 weeks of living in delhi.
guess that means i'll have to come back :)

half-time

2008-01-31T02:23:00.000-06:00

we've had a pretty busy week. monday we went to see a mosque, a hindu temple, and a sikh temple. the mosque is not only the largeset mosque in delhi, it is also one of three in the world to have one of muhammed's beard hairs, which we got to see. they also showed us one of his sandals and a stone with his footprint.

at the hindu temple i learned that the swastika, a symbol of power and perfection, has been a part of hindu culture for thousands of years which explains why india seems to be covered in them. it really freaked me out at first to see a swastika on a car's bumper or a store's sign, for obvious reasons. i mean i'm still not really comfortable with seeing them everywhere, but now at least i understand why they are there.

one of the staff members is a religious sikh, so he explained the religion to those of us who were clueless and told us about some of the rituals and customs as he performed them. there were 10 gurus whose writings were compiled into a book, to be revered as a g-d after the last guru died. each temple has a copy of this book for sikhs to honor and pray to and fragments of it are chanted in each temple all day every day.

tuesday we had a speaker come and talk about the women's empowerment movement and the gender issues pertaining to india. ultimately, at the core of most of india's problems today is the struggle between staying traditional and adapting to modern life.

yesterday we were led through the national museum by one of the museum's first curators and today, some of us are going to see the qutub minar tower. it was built between 1193 and 1369 to symbolize Islamic rule over Delhi. at its foot is india’s oldest mosque and in its corner stands an iron pillar, bearing 4th century sanskrit inscriptions of the period.

our india trip is officially half over. luckily we have another two and a half weeks left!

rishikesh

2008-01-30T13:12:00.000-06:00

last weekend we took another excruciatingly long train ride, this time we went north to rishikesh - the yoga capital of the world. it is a beautiful city divided by the ganges river, united by a couple narrow, over-crowded bridges. the first thing we did when we got there was walk down to dip in the ganges (to purify our souls). it was absolutely freezing so we settled for dipping our hands in. that was all the purification any of us needed :)

while the three gents of the group did their own thing, the six of us ladies walked around and shopped. i found myself spending a large part of the afternoon in a jewelry store getting my palm read. he started out with some lame statements that could apply to just about anyone, but then he started saying things that were so true it was creepy. like that i can't drink wine (i'm allergic to sulfites in wine), and that i shouldn't smoke because i might get asthma like my mother. now i'm fascinated by palmistry.

we all met back up again at five to go to a yoga class right by our hotel, in a floor to ceiling window-paned room overlooking the ganges. our teacher was unbelievable- even the boys enjoyed the class. actually, i think they liked it more than the girls did.

at night there was a wedding party going on right in front of our hotel, so we got to see the groom ride in on a white horse and all.
on sunday rachel and i did more exploring while most of the rest of the group got massages. then we had a lovely seven hour "express" train ride home..

republic day pictures

2008-01-29T07:58:00.001-06:00

republic day

2008-01-24T10:11:00.000-06:00

january 26th, known internationally as Dani's birthday, also happens to be a national holiday here marking the transition of India from a British Dominion to a republic. India gained its independence on august 15, 1947, but it was on january 26, 1950 that India ratified its own constitution and swore in its first president.

there's a republic day celebration at our mobile creches tomorrow, so the older kids have spent the past couple of days making decorations and painting pictures of the flag in preparation. the seven and eight year olds of the bunch usually aren't included once the ten-twelve year olds take over, so we've been focusing our attention on them.

it took us most of last week to figure out how to pronounce all of their names, but now i finally feel like i can comfortably call on each one. they prefer to call me "boochi" or "boocha," neither of which are endearing. one means 'girl with boy's hair' and one means 'boy with girl's hair.' jr.high boys are mean.
the rest of the kids call rachel and i "didi" which means 'older sister' and they call phil "bhaiyya"(baya) which means 'older brother.'

PICTURES

2008-01-22T03:34:00.001-06:00

Photobucket Album

pushkar

2008-01-21T11:13:00.000-06:00

while most of the rest of the group went on a day trip to agra this weekend to see the taj mahal, phil, rachel, and i spent the weekend in pushkar. there's some sort of programming for us every afternoon (usually feedback, sometimes a speaker)including fridays, so we took an overnight train late friday night. we made friends with the two business men sharing our unit who had almost as many questions about american culture/values as we did about those of india. once we got to ajmer, at 4 in the morning, there was a gaggle of obnoxious rickshaw drivers trying to overcharge us for the miserable half hour ride we would have to take to get in to pushkar. dismal, to say the least. they dropped us off at a gate and after a lot of frusterating confusion we realized we would have to walk down and find our hotel. it was unreal. if it weren't for the wandering cows and stanky messes of trash, i would have felt like we were on a movie set. in the cold dark of the night, with only a map sketched out on the back of a packet from another volunteer as our guide, we had a depressingly hard time finding our hotel.

we got a couple of hours of sleep in our dinky bathroom-less hotel room before waking up to see the beatufiul sunrise over the lake. we spent the day making our way around the lake, shopping and exploring temples. pushkar is famous for the brahma temple- the only temple in the world where lord brahma, creator of the universe, is worshipped. the lake is considered holy water, so there are bathing ghats surrounding it where hindus (and curious travellers) bathe, pray, and meditate. you have to take your shoes off to walk down there and you're not supposed to take pictures (but we did anyway from the porch of our hotel). alcohol and meat are also illegal, which i think is because pushkar is a pretty orthodox city.

while walking around everyone kept shoving flowers in our hands to put in the lake and pray. we had been warned against accepting the flowers and going to the ghat because they're only after our money, but we were all curious enough to not mind. one man, nandu, sat with me by the lake and instructed me through the rituals with a lot of repeat-after-me's, helping me pray to the god vishnu to keep my family healthy and happy and something about me getting a husband. before this wonderful little cultural exchange was over he asked me to pledge a donation. shocking. i gave him 100 rupies ($2.50).

our train got back to delhi late sunday night. oh how i had missed the head-splitting honking and jaw-clenching traffic. in india they joke that you can survive without breaks, but without a horn- you're done for.

m is for the m in mobile creches

2008-01-17T06:54:00.000-06:00

sooo there are two groups of kids that we're working with at our placement, the three to five year olds and the seven to twelve year olds. apparently the grammar schools here work in shifts; the morning shift for girls and the afternoon shift for boys. as a result of that system, the boys who went to day care at mobile creches as tiny tots come back in the morning before going to school.
for the first hour we're there one of us goes to review english and math lessons with the boys while the other two play with the twenty-ish pookers. then all three of us work with the big kids until noon when we're picked up for lunch. they already know the alphabet and some basic phrases so we're there to reinforce what they've learned and to help build up their vocabulary. with the toddlers we'll be doing a lot of educational games and arts&crafts-y activities, which my costa rica experience has definitely prepared me for. i feel a lot less secure about my ability to control 15 rowdy boys, so we'll see how that goes...
they haven't yet given us permission to take pictures there, so i won't be able to show you how unbelievably adorable these kids are until they do. it's winter here (comparable to a mild fall in chicago) and they're in a cement building all day, so the teeny tiny little kids are all bundled up and just precious.
promise i'll post some good pictures just as soon as i take them!

by the way

2008-01-15T11:58:00.000-06:00

the time here is 12 1/2 hours later here than it is in chicago.

today was sort of an observational, introduction kind of day. rachel, phil, and i are working together at one of the Mobile Creches, which are temporary (and ocassionally permanent) day care centers set up for the children of migrant construction site workers all around india. one of the ccs staff members came with us today to introduce us there and to help the teachers explain to us what sort of help they're expecting from us.

there's a line behind me for this computer (a communal ccs house computer hooked up to the currently-working internet) so i'll write later :)

INDIA

2008-01-14T21:16:00.000-06:00

we've been in india only a day and a half and i love it already. rachel and i got in at noon on sunday after 30 or so hours of traveling (that includes a lovely 10 hour layover in london heathrow) to an empty flat. another volunteer, jennifer, came in from boston at the same time as us so we spent the terrifying 45 minute drive from the airport talking to her.
the staff at our flat explained that there's somewhere around twenty of us living here in this gated apartment complex separated between 3 flats. we spent our lonely first couple of hours unpacking, eagerly waiting for phil (and everyone else kind of) to come back from their sight-seeing tour. after our blissful reunion with phil we passed right out (at like 5) and slept through the night, missing dinner and the Lorai celebration.
yesterday was pretty jam-packed with boring orientation lectures that, as semi-experienced ccs volunteers, we could've given ourselves. when we were all good and antsy, the head program coordinator, bella, sent us out in groups on 'missions' to force us to get out into the town and talk to people. my group had to buy food from a market (to practice our bargaining skills), hand it out to people on the street and engage people in conversation. we ended up in a small temple on the side of the road where we learned it was the holiday of the sun and therefore also a day of donations.
they took us out to lunch for real indian food, which is nothing like the indian food i tried with my family before coming here. it was way too spicy for me, but gabe would certainly love it.
our last excursion was to a boutique to buy appropriate attire to wear to our volunteer placements. i can't wait to go to the markets and buy loads more dresses and shawls aaaand to get some henna tattoos.
i've got to go get ready for my first day at my placement, wish me luck!

p.s. the Internet here is not so reliable so i'm not sure how often ill be able to update this

happy thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T05:56:00.001-06:00

i'm sitting in my sister's dorm room at king's college in LONDON, BABY!!!!! my family is busy planning out our day (i think we're going to walk over to see the london dungeons) while gabe reminds them that he wants to buy a lighter. we got in yesterday at 7:30 in the am, napped a little, and then set out for the day. mom, dani, gabi, and i went to the wax museum (AWESOME) and then browsed around a big market. we met up with daddy and dustin to eat dinner and see the lion king. all fabulous.
we're going to have thanksgiving dinner tonight at a friend of mom's house tonight - i hope they have pumpkin pie!

happy thanksgiving to all and to all a good night!

goodbye party

2007-10-26T06:21:00.000-06:00

last night my tia threw a goodbye dinner party for me, rachel, and phil. it was at her house, with her 3 kids, her husband, her mother, and 3 out of 12 of her siblings. i was really nervous that it would be too frustrating or awkward (or both) to be enjoyable, but somehow everything worked out fine and we had a perfectly wonderful evening. this is in part thanks to phil's ability to speak spanish and to rachel's ability to make everyone laugh (usually at her expense). we exchanged gifts, addresses, and a few tears before rachel, phil, and i had to catch a cab home.

today will be my last day at the hogar comunitario with the kids. i wanted to blog now because i know when i get home this afternoon after having to say goodbye and i have to start packing, ill be too heartbroken to blog. i spent most of yesterday preparing my final activity, which will be painting a bench. the only plastic lawn bench i could find was $50, so (thanks to rachel's brilliant suggestion) i went to the local home-depot-ish store and bought wood to make my own. phil had to help me build the bench because i don't know squat about wood or benches. all things considered, it turned out pretty great. today the kids will (one by one) put their hand prints on the bench, unless i come up with a more creative idea in the next hour. this way, we'll have a fun last day and there will be something beautiful left behind for them to remember me by.

i get home pretty late tomorrow night, so (if you live in chicago) hopefully i'll see you sunday!
thank you for reading this and for commenting and thanks anat for making this for me in the first place. i'll start this back up when i'm travelling again.

pura vida <3

felipe

2007-10-23T22:32:00.000-06:00

today phil came with me to my placement. once they warmed up to him, we had a great day. they made paper-chains to hang up on the wall, colored, played with clay, and played soccer outside. i cant even count the number of times we had to remind them that futbol is played with your feet, so picking up the ball is illegal.

phil showed them his trademark magic trick where he can make a toothpick disappear. then he sticks it in his ear and (magically) pulls it out of his mouth. they loved it so much that they made him do it 5 more times (not even to try and figure out how it works, they were simply fascinated by it- hence why i love kids).

when my tia began her daily quest to feed everyone that walks in her door, phil gladly accepted. every morning she offers me breakfast and i tell her i already ate at the house and every day at noon she offers me lunch and i tell her i'm going to eat when i get back to the house. she does not like this. phil, however, made her ecstatic by letting her feed him.

after we left he said she reminded him of his grandma. i bet you're thinking the same thing.

our last weekend

2007-10-22T14:16:00.000-06:00

manuel antonio (aka never never land), picture taken by rachel from the national park

we ventured all the way out to manuel antonio, a big town on the pacific coast. its a big tourist spot because of the huge national park there, which we actually did check out. we saw some screeching monkeys, a mysterious unidentified animal, and what looked like an inflated rat.
we also spent a fair amount of time at the beach. some of the boys in our group learned how to surf while the rest of us just lounged around (and shopped).

today i brought twister to play with my kids. they had a hard time figuring out which hand is right and which is left, but we had fun nonetheless. we spent the rest of the day drawing and playing with clay. i've grown accustomed to sitting my kids down after lunch and reading them a story, so they rest a little. today while i was reading in the living room i looked over at the kitchen table and saw my tia sat down and had fallen asleep. i didn't wake her until my bus came to get me and i had to leave. i mean, she's the one who really needed the rest.

right now, a few of us are sitting in the common room editing the english tests from a local high school for grammar and spelling mistakes before they are administered. i'm also drinking this green drink that's supposed to cleanse my system and nourish my body. when i finish the editing and the foul-tasting drink, rachel and i are planning on walking around ciudad quasada a little to explore and to shop.

luckily i'm fluent in spanish

2007-10-17T17:17:00.000-06:00

last friday was a holiday called "day of the cultures," where they celebrate the diversity of their population. then monday everyone got the day off of school and work (for the holiday), so they grouped us up and sent us to the placements that always meet (orphanages, nursing homes, ect). i went with emily and rachel c. to a home for teenage girls who had been removed from their houses because of domestic violence or drug abuse.
we made bracelets with them, played crazy eights, played some board games, and (obviously) talked about boys. they were excited to hang out with new people and to get to practice their english.

today my tia had a meeting, so i went with phil to his placement. his kids are ADORABLE. phil brought his guitar so we could perform. we rocked out to "i want to be sedated," "eye of the tiger," and the pokemon song phil wrote years ago. they weren't really digging the ramones but they went crazy for the pokemon song. i took a lot of pictures of them jumping all over phil but i'm having trouble uploading them so ill post them later.

to quote rachel's blog

2007-10-16T19:52:00.000-06:00

"During the week there are various optional activities for us to participate in. Twice a week I go to Spanish classes, but I'm having a hard time learning much because I keep confusing it with Hebrew. Every Thursday there is some sort of day trip, which I'll go into more detail about later. We also have different kinds of cultural activities. Things like a lecture from a historian, dance lessons, cooking lessons, discussions about current social issues, etc. I like going to some of them and I take notes because I do miss school...a little."
-Rachel Derman

which way is the beach

2007-10-15T18:41:00.000-06:00

we took a gruesome 6 hour drive out to the caribbean coast this weekend, to a town called puerto viejo. puerto viejo is completely rasta-ed out. everything is covered in red, yellow, and green and i was asked 15 times if i wanted to be given dred-locks.
our hostel was empty with the exception of two stained beds, a pipe sticking out of the wall as a shower, and some sort of red powder on the floor that mysteriously stained everything. none of that mattered to us though because the beachfront was right in our backyard!

i heart my tia

2007-10-11T18:49:00.000-06:00

my tia is truly a wonderful woman. she opens her house up every day to mother 9 children under the age of 5, thereby enabling their mothers to work. during the week she cooks every meal for them (from scratch), cleans up after them, changes them (the littlest ones at least)... ect., ect., ect., for close to nothing. this all wouldn't impress me half as much as it does if she didn't treat each child like he/she was her own. it took about a week before she was mothering me too (shes worried i don't eat enough so she tries feeding me 20 times throughout the day).

whenever she has a spare minute we talk, which is difficult and frustrating because it requires time, patience, and my handy-dandy dictionary. its always worth it though and i feel like -despite my toddler level vocabulary- we've really gotten to know each other.

once i leave, the kids will probably forget all about me in no time, but my tia already wants me to promise her i'll visit. i told her today after i'm done with school and after i've made enough money, i want to come back to visit her. her response was (roughly translated) "with a husband and kids, right?"

nature-freak

2007-10-10T18:08:00.000-06:00

group 75 went on an excursion this afternoon to a beautiful waterfall in la fortuna. i was never one to be all that wow-ed by postcards or computer backgrounds featuring waterfalls. i always preferred the sunset picture or the mountains. but seeing one up close quickly changed that.
i sat on one of the rocks beside the waterfall (far enough to be safe but close enough to get nearly pushed off by the rushing water multiple times) and i was beyond wow-ed.
i felt like i could stay there for hours staring at the enormous power the waterfall had on every rock and leaf surrounding it. it was the kind of fully sensory experience that makes you forget about the existence of absolutely everything else (people, places, the past, the future...) and you have be snapped out of it. i feel like i've been having that sort of experience almost on a weekly basis.

escuela

2007-10-09T16:50:00.000-06:00

for reasons unbeknownst to me, my tia cancelled day care today so i went with rachel to her placement. she is an english teacher's aide for grades 1-6. rachel helps her by coming up with creative lesson plans and writing up quizzes (which -prior to her arrival- they didn't have).

the thing is, the teacher's english isn't all that good, so its hard for rachel to figure out whats expected of her sometimes. she spends all the time between classes teaching the teacher. anyway, the kids are sweet and completely infatuated with rachel so they try hard in class to impress her.

it was interesting spending the day in such a different environment. i realized that in our completely seperate ways, rachel and i are having relatively similar experiences. i mean that only in the sense that we both struggle with the language barrier, mild confusion as to what's expected of us, and the overwhelming desire to do more every day than is phsyically possible. my wonderful day at school was topped off with the 5th and 6th graders trying to teach us how to dance after their classes were over.

this just in

2007-10-08T17:32:00.000-06:00

The free trade agreement between the U.S. and Central America (CAFTA) basically eliminates all taxes on U.S. manufactured goods. This referendum has been at the forefront of Costa Rican news for weeks, because although people in America have yet to hear about it, the decision effects every worker in the country, rich or poor. In general, the progress which CAFTA engenders for Costa Rica, is another step in its economic development. Along with the agreement will come an influx of big American companies that will compete with smaller local businesses. Since these large companies can afford to have lower prices than the local businesses, what starts as healthy competition will end in brisk elimination. Farmers, who represent 19% of Costa Rican workers and 10% GDP, are the ones whose livelyhoods are at stake. Unfortunately Costa Rica doesn't have the resources to cut themselves a better deal than CAFTA, which is an agreement that is more in America's favor.
The results of the vote are 51.5% to 48.5% in favor of the agreement. Last night as we sat in our living room, people were driving around, honking, playing music, and shouting in celebration. Being here during such an important part of Costa Rican history has been an interesting and eye-opening experience about global politics.

r&r

2007-10-07T22:07:00.000-06:00

last friday, rachel's school had the off so she came with me to day care. the kids were all immediately taken with her, which was wonderful because they were on their best behavior to impress her. she still got to see what my days are normally like because that only lasted for the first hour or so. she also saw how sweet and loving the pookers are. as the picture shows, rachel's maternal nature made the kids forget she didn't understand a word of what they were saying.

the kids had just finished lunch and began running around wild, when a big ol' 4x4 pulled up. to my surprise, it was my dad!! (who wasn't supposed to come until 3 in the afternoon to pick us up from the ccs house) he wanted to drop in and catch me off guard to see where i volunteer every day.

i can't even express how wonderful it was to see him. along with rachel and phil, we had a relaxing weekend of hot springs and good eats. it was definitely nice being spoiled for a weekend. i think we all needed a little peace, a little quiet, and a little raph in our lives.

this one's for you, grams

2007-10-04T13:03:00.000-06:00

speaking as someone with no experience ever working with pre-schoolers before, i have to say i think these kids have behavioral problems beyond the average pre-schooler. it's pretty normal for some kids that age to throw a fit when told to share or to wait their turn but these kids throw fits and act out aaaaaaall daaaaaay.
with my limited conversational abilities in spanish, i asked the tia why they get so out of control. she explained to me they all go home to single mothers and their fathers, for the most part, are completely out of the picture. i mean, these kids are at this community day care center because their mothers work during the day and can't afford anything else. she said when they go home on nights and weekends there is no discipline in their lives, so it's hard to discipline them during the day.
sometimes i feel like they don't really understand what's acceptable behavior and what's not. which explains the necessity of a stoplight of rules i made for them. now when they're misbehaving i can point to the poster and ask if what they're doing is in the red or in the greeeen, and, subsequently, should they stop or go on.

in any case, we went on a group trip horseback-riding today and i'm pooped.

it's all fun and games

2007-10-02T12:23:00.000-06:00

as excited as the tourist part of me has been about being here, i think its about time i bring the focus back to my placement and what i've been doing with the kids. in addition to their regular daily activites of coloring, playing house, and throwing tantrums, i like to bring some fun and new things for us to do every day. they're always fun activities that i turn into semi-educational activities for the older kids by asking them to identify the colors/shapes/numbers involved.

the combination of cut up paper towel rolls and soapy water equaled a little mess and a lot of bubble-y fun. they had more fun popping the bubbles than they had making them, as any kid would. this is something we'll do again real soon because all the kids (from the 1.5-yr-olds to the 5-yr-olds) could participate and because apparently it helps improve their gross motor skills.

plasticina (clay) is another big hit with the kids. again, it has the messy appeal and its also perfect for all ages. we sculpt and mold whenever they want to because it's one of the few activities that can actually hold their attention and it's grrrrreat for their fine motor skills.

today we made fruit-loop-necklaces or at least we almost did until they started eating them all.

the bottom line is that im pretty much a pre-school teacher and im aboslutely loving it. every day is more fun than the last. these kids, as out of control as they can get, are perfect. i love them. and they love me too, errr at least the girls do. look:

back to the volcano

2007-10-01T17:19:00.000-06:00

nine of us from the house hopped a bus to la fortuna on friday, to spend the weekend in the arenal volcano town. we stayed in a backpacker's hostel, in a room almost big enough for all of us. it was one of the girls' birthday, so we went out to a nice dinner at a cute little touristy restaurant down the street.

on saturday five of us went zip-lining (all the boys chickened out and went to a spa or something). we were about 300 ft high and the longest line was about 1/2 a mile long. it was so exhilirating i could have sworn i was flying. you couldn't have smacked the smile off my face. we were supposed to ride horses afterward but it started to pour, so we skipped that. rachel and i are probably going convince phil to go zip-lining just so we'll have an excuse to go again!

folcanos are dangerous business

2007-09-28T14:46:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-09-25T16:40:00.000-06:00

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

2007-09-23T23:05:00.000-06:00

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

2007-09-23T22:14:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-09-19T22:51:00.000-06:00

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