Rural public schools and baby coatis...

Hola amigitos!

All´s well down here still. I made it safely to the Villalobos-Leiton household, who welcomed me again with open arms and delicious arepas (pancake-ish delicoiusness but not really because it tastes delicious without syrup). My little sisters and I quickly began playing cards, and I am now decidedly our 4-month-old dog Boni´s favorite (she can now jump with confidence onto and down from any item of furniture, but still seems to see no problem defacating pretty much anywhere). Last Monday, I went with my host mom Marielos to the local public primary school to see what I could do as a volunteer. The 3rd grade teacher gave me a half-hour to prepare for 40 minutes alone with his class. Um...alrighty then... I did my best with some head-shoulders-etc. and some basics and did ok I think. The school is an absolute madhouse. Kids are constantly running around yelling, teachers have almost zero control, and the miniscule amount of material that gets taught in a 40 minute period makes me cringe. It´s a wonder the kids learn anything. Ideally, I would have been working with a few kids outside the classroom who needed extra help or wanted to learn more English, but either I did not effectively communicate or they simply haven´t gotten around to giving me any kids (I have 2.5 days left). So, I eventually found the English teacher (who hasn´t spoken a word of English to me and says she doesn´t like talking and doesn´t seem to like working too hard) and have pretty much been going around with her making exercises, translating the exercises for the kids, and helping with pronunciation. In the 3rd grade class, we made it through a list of 10 fruit names in 40 minutes...sigh. Needless to say, it´s a little frustrating, but I´ve come to realize I can´t really say or do much as a 2-week volunteer from a privileged background yada yada...but still--the poor kids. Aaaanyway, so I do my best to teach what I can and I´ve managed to make some cute little Tico friends who yell NatanYELL a bunch and the other day the Phys Ed. teacher and I (and our repsective teams of 2nd graders) had a pretty intense ´obstacle´ course relay...

On Saturday Enoc (papá) Sebastian (13yo bro), and I helped redig and expand there vegetable garden, which was fun--Enoc said if money didn´t matter he would just garden all the time (And if we make it to the treasure on Isla del Coco, we´ll do just that). Sunday, we all went down the mountain about twenty minutes to Marielos´neice´s wedding. The bride was gorgeous and her 5yo daughter Jennifer and my 5yo sister Brenda were all dolled up as the bible- and somethingorother-bearers. It was a very Catholic service, from what I could understand of the Father from outside the church entrance (the Leiton family is huge). After the wedding, we went over to this salon-garage thingy (that reminded me of shoddy tin contra-dance barn)for a late lunch and what was supposed to be a big crazy ´cumbia´ dance. The food was good, but I won´t lie--I was disappointed more people didn´t dance. However, I was content to atlernate between watching the cute kids gorge thesmelves with marshmallows (I did the same, along with coke-guaro drinks) and an incredible couple dance alone on the dance floor. After that, at a little after dark, I realized that Marielos must be one of the bride´s favorite aunts, because I got to go to this private family barbeque in the bride´s mom´s house. We toasted marshmellows, delicious beef kabobs, and tortillas on a big gas grill and had chips, beans, and more coke-guaro. The whole time, Jennifer (bride´s 5yo) was either poking me in the stomach, playing footsies, throwing pistachio shells at me, or offering me pistachios (and then pulling them away). Eventually, the bride and groom opened their wedding presents (virtually all kitchen appliances or dishware), and then we took a taxi home at 11 through pouring rain...

The next day, I got sick to my stomach for the first time since I got here...probably too many marshmallows with too many guaro-cokes or too many pokes in the stomach. The next day I felt better and went for a hike through the cloud forest up at the biological station. After about 2 hours, I had found a few frogs, heard some strange noises I´d never heard before (the norm) and the birds had stopped calling pretty much because it was late afternoon. So, on the way down through the elfin rainforest (what the cloud forest at the top of the ridge/continental divide is called), I took outwith my iPod and put on the Lord of the Rings Soundtrack, which is what was always going through our heads throughout the semester as we hiked through rainforesty hills. It was incredible.

The next day, since I´m leaving Monteverde soon and will probably be busy with the fam from now on, I decided to get up at 230 and go up again to the towers in hopes of seeing a good sunrise (and perhaps a view of both oceans--supposedly it´s clearer during the rainy season). The night hike was fantastic, complete with a very close owl-sighting, a miniature sleeping Norops lizard, bat wingbeats centimeters from my ears, soaking wet vegetation (and thus clothes), and a symphony of weird noises that during the daytime aren´t noticed but in the dark are satisfyingly terrifying and adrenaline-inducing. I got to the top at about 530, at which point the towers were completely shrouded in clouds and it was cold. I had some bread, tried to nap, failed because I was cold, and headed back down to try to find quetzals on my own for once. I failed at the quetzals, but I found a bunch of frogs (one literally half the size of my pinky nail) and just before the end of the trail, a whole family of coatis jostled through the brush and across the trail in front of me. I saw one adult and at least 6 little furballs with raccoony noses and long ringed tails. I froze, and the whole family went straight up into sapling-ish trees down to my left and went still. I could see where they were, so I tiptoed down the trail, only to be stopped in my tracks by this ugly growling/hacking sound from up to my right. It was either Papa-Coati telling me to get the hell away from his progeny, or it was the thing that had initially scared the family (I hoped jaguar, like always, but naw). Anyway, so that was exciting. I have the rest of the week at the school, then the family is going to visit grandmother who lives down the in the next valley by a gorgeous waterfall (we went there once before). Monday I leave for Nicaragua. Plan is the same, although I´m going stop and hike one of the volcanoes that´s on the big island in the middle of giant Lake Nicaragua and then spend a day looking at cool architecture in Granada before I head up to Mainer Nate, the beach, and little Nicas. Internet is pretty nonexistent up there, so I may not be in touch for quite a long while. Regardless, I´ll be home by the beginning of August. Hope all´s well everywhere!

Viva la vida pura

P.S. Ha! 3 posts in June--that´s once a week. What now, dad?