Well, its been a while since I've posted, or written anything for that matter, so I'm going to just write a brief summary of the highlights of the last few days. On Friday I spent time in Norma's class leading an open discussion again and correcting some math homework that none of her students understood. It was hard to hear that the excuse for kids not understanding was “family problems,” so I probed for answers about special help for kids in situations like that and was pretty discouraged about the responses I got. After Norma's kids left (they get out early on Fridays, apparently), I went to the first and second grade room to help record grades for a while, and I finished out the day in the ESL room.
On Friday night I had a great conversation with my host family over some fabulous desserts, and on Saturday morning I went up to see the volcano with the ESL teacher who invited me earlier this week to join him on his trip up. It was cool to see the volcano and the views up there were beautiful. On the way back we stopped for lunch at a restaurant run by the family of one of our students, so that was fun too. Sunday consisted of an unexpectedly big trip to Cartago. I was thinking we were just going into town for church, but we ran errands for a few hours and then had lunch at a relative's house before coming home late in the afternoon.
A lot of what we picked up in Cartago was for the cafecito my hosts served at a village further up the mountain on Monday. The village is so remote that they only have mass once per month and its the only time most of the community members see each other. Therefore, they like to serve refreshments after mass, and this month my hosts were enlisted to help. Exams were starting at the school, so there was nothing for me to do there and I was able to go with my hosts to the mass and cafecito. It was a pretty busy day, and I enjoyed being out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains.
Even though I'm not always sure what to be doing at my host family's house, things are going a lot more smoothly with them and I'm feeling much more comfortable at the house and at the school. I'm learning so much about Costa Rican realities and culture as well as about God. My patience and trust in God are growing and He's showing His faithfulness each and every day. While I'm still excited to get back to San Jose, being more settled in here is making my time go faster and I'm looking forward to this week at the school.
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