they LITERALLY would NOT fit

Sooooooo... Thursday morning and afternoon I spent going through more ESL material that ILCO had in its library as well as reading scripts in a voice recorder for a video about ILCO that the communications/delegation coordinator, Rodolfo, is working on.  At 2 Nehemias and I set out for the bus terminal to go to El Jardin/San Julian.  We took a bus from ILCO offices to downtown San Jose, then a taxi from downtown San Jose to the bus terminal.  There we bought a bus ticket for Puerto Viejo.  This bus trip takes about 2 hours, from San Jose to Puerto Viejo.  It's not a bad ride, actually quite beautiful when you are winding your way through the mountains.  During the day, before it has rained, the temperature can get quite hot, but as soon as we get in the middle of those rainforests, the temperature drops a good 15 - 20 degrees. It's fascinating.  I actually used my jacket for the first time other than to protect myself from rain.  The one drawback of this ride is that the bus seats are really close together.  Now, I already know what you're thinking; "Yeah, must be a tight space... pretty cramped... just like riding on a small airplane... I hate when my knees touch the back of the seat..."  No.  You do not understand.  I have ridden busses in Chile, Argentina, Spain, and the Dominican Republic.  Those were tight spaces.  Those were cramped.  Those were not comfy.  I LITERALLY could NOT fit my legs in the space between the back of the seat in front of me and the end of mine.  Still, I can see you picturing my knees pressed into the back of the seat in front me, making indentures, my knee caps pinned against the cushion.  No.  I LITERALLY could NOT fit my legs in teh space between the back of the seat in front of me and then end of mine.  Nehemias let me in first and by the time I had finally positioned myself that allow me to put my butt in the seat, my feet, legs, knees and upper thighs were all completely in his space.  As most Latin Americans have no problem intruding on others' space, this seemed to be even a bit much for Nehemias who consequently looked at me strange as my legs enveloped his seat, until the geometry of the situation finally lit a candle on the situation and he smiled at me, sympathetically.  He let me sit on the outside seat where I could put both legs in the aisle.  I don't know what class of kindergartenders that bus was built for, but it has certainly been misplaced.

Nehemias is from Peru but has been living in Costa Rica since the 80's.  He is an older man and is the pastor for the El Jardin/San Julian area.  He specializes in agriculture, growing plants and flowers and things of the sort.  He teaches a class at the local school and has been the main resource for the ecological sanctuary that has been built at the Lutheran church in El Jardin.  It is quite big, very fertile, and gorgeous.  Members of this community use the garden to produce food, make soap, and grow medicinal plants for home remedies.  Nehemias hopes to make this community more self-sustainable given their poor economic condition.  Nehemias is a soft-spoken man who is well-liked and is always engaging in conversation with strangers about the church and how much it would like to be a part of every community members life.  He is definitely an example of respectful evangelism and this is only strengthened by his unassuming nature and the sincerity that is so evident to others when he speaks.

After the 2 hour bus ride from San Jose, Nehemias and I got off in Puerto Viejo.  Right outside the bus stop is a huge field that is the local school's where the student body's marching band was practicing.  They had enough students for about 5 drumlines, along with some random horns and uninspired wand twirlers.  They sounded energetic though and their music echoed off the cement walls of the town.  Nehemias showed me the pastor's house in Puerto Viejo; a small place with a bathroom, bed room, and large front area with picnic tables and a hammock.  This is where I would have stayed when I worked on Mondays and Tuesdays in El Jardin/San Julian had not the bus schedule made it impossible for me to work with students before or after 1pm in the afternoon, as this is when the first bus arrives in El Jardin and the last bus to leave.  I was also lucky enough to have a few of the families in these communities open their house up to me.

The bus ride from Puerto Viejo to El Jardin takes about an hour to an hour and a half.  It is necessary to savor the first 5 minutes of the bus ride as it is the only part of the trip on a paved road.  The rest is treaded on skinny gravel roads that snake through thousands of acres of bannana and pineapple plantations.  As the drivers speed through these back roads, the tires churn up all the loose rocks that sit listlessly on top of the dirt.  This means that, proportionally, the faster the bus travels, the more rocks are spit in different directions.  The speed of the bus also kicks up a dust storm that would put the whole midwest to shame and it seetps into the bus from the open windows.  As you ride, you can hear the gravel hit the belly of the bus, the axle, and the glass bus doors with a noise so sharp, loud, and unexpected it would make Lot's wife scream.  The unpatterned nature of these smacks, bangs, and doinks makes you a little on edge until you begin flinching and ducking at each resulting collision like a shell-shocked war veteran.  This joy ride was also spent wedged between two fine young gentlemen whose aversion to the unspeakable heat the non-air-conditioned bus produced caused them to sit spread eagle with their outside legs plastered to mine in a mixture of cotton and sweat.  There are no bus stops on this ride which is what makes the trip 1 1/2 hours instead of 45 minutes.  As soon as someone pulls the string to alert the bus driver that they need to get off, he will stop.  In result, the bus could, theoretically, make a stop every 50 feet, and towards the end of the trek, when the houses started getting closer and closer together and we began to approach the town instead of the vacant fields of banana tress, this became much less of a theory and more of a realtiy.  This is how I arrived to El Jardin.

Nehemias and I caught the 5pm bus from Puerto Viejo so we arrived at dusk around 6:30pm.  We first came to family's house occupied by one mother and two daughters.  The mother's name is Estebana, the oldest daughter, 20, is Hazel, and the youngest daughter, 10, is Marilin (like Madi - leen).  I sat and talked with them for a while and told them why I was here.  I explained that I planned on visitin the school in El Jardin and the high school in San Julian the next morning so that I could talk with the principals about helping out with English classes and offering reinforcement classes after school to 12th graders who have their national exams coming up in November.  Marilin attends the school in El Jardin and Hazel attends the high school in San Julian.  They both informed me that they didn't think either principal would be at school the next day because it was Friday and many Fridays the principals don't come in (don't ask me why).  So, the decided they would call their teachers, ask for their respective principal's number, and ask them to be there the next day.  I found it strange that they would have the home and cell phone numbers of their teachers and have such easy access to this information for their principals, but as is life in Costa Rica.  Word of mouth.  They both called to no avail and I was left feeling pretty disappointed as I left their house.  I knew that coming to El Jardin was purposeful in meeting many of the families and people who would more than likely be taking me in over the next few months, but I had really wanted to get started on working out the schedule with the principals.

That night I walked to another family's house where I would be staying that night.  Somehow, in the middle of the country, this house was capable of seeming more off the map than the rest of it.  Three dirt roads later we finally arrived at their house.  It was pretty and has just been built within the last two years as their house on their banana plantation had caved in due to its antiquity.  The family was made up of a mother and father and five children (three boys, all older, and two girls).  The mother told me she had never had a foriegner stay with her before so the night was spent with a lot of tip-toeing around each other.  I spent most of my time in the kitchen talking with the mother and the two girls as the men/boys watched TV in the living room.  She told me of how she met her husband, what they did for a living, where she was born, etc.  She always seemed cautious not to talk too much and always seemed surprised when I laughed at her jokes.  The girls were just as hesitant as they eyed me for the better part of the night and smiled as I looked in their direction.

They took me out to the back porch where they had three bright green baby parrots in a box.  They had found them in a rotten tree trunk on their banana plantation and had raised them.  They were gorgeous though I made sure to stay a yard length away in case one of them decided to snack on some fingers.  The mother fed me dinner that night - rice, beans, and pork - and then I went to bed around 9pm as did the rest of the family.  Around 4:30am I heard the mother stirring in the kitchen preparing to make breakfast for her husband and children.  By the time I got up at 5:30am, she had already washed their clothes, made their breakfast, put away the dishes, pumped the water, ironed clean clothes, and swept the house.  I ate breakfast there and walked back into town with one of the girls.  As we were leaving, the mother strapped on her boots and walked with us.  I asked where she was going and she said to work.  Wow.  When I relayed this story to Stephen Deal, he said that that is the life of those who live in the country in Costa Rica.  To bed with the sun and up with the chickens... or roosters... or something like that.  To hear about that expression sounds quaint and honest, to see it was impressive and unbelievable.  The other daughter didn't have school because her teacher was not coming in that day.  When we got into town we found out the entire school was closed that Friday.  I asked the little girl why and she said "because nobody's coming in today."  Right.

It seems the form of hospitality in the country does not comprehend the word "no," "no thank you," or "that's okay, I'm just fine."  I tried all these expressions and was still left eating three more meals than I had anticipated, all refusing money for their services.  Though I was appreciative, by the fourth plate of rice and beans, I could eat no longer and left the majority on my plate, the need to be hospitable becoming less of a concern.

We left the house at 6:30am and I stopped by Hazel's house to say hello.  She told me that she couldn't get in contact with either principal but she would try El Jardin's school principal right then.  He finally answered and she shoved the phone in my direction.  I spoke with him and explained who I was and what I was doing there.  He was very friendly and assured me that he would love to have me at the school; however, he would not be in today and encouraged me to come on Monday to talk to him.  That was progress enough.  I then asked about the San Julian high school, Hazel called, and it turned out the principal would be in that morning.  I walked to the church where Nehemias had slept and told him the news.  He got his stuff together, we borrowed a bike from Hazel, and set out for the school in San Julian.  It's about a 2-3 mile distance but it is mostly flat so the ride wasn't that bad.  In all honesty it felt good to get my blood moving after the long bus rides the day before and there is something very playful about riding a bike that always lifts my spirits.  So, despite the beating sun, the bike ride went smoothly.

Right before arriving to the school, Nehemias pulled over and we stopped at the Lutheran Church in San Julian - a small one-roomed building.  We washed our faces with cold water and sat inside the sanctuary and talked.  Nehemias explained many things about the communities (El Jardin/San Julian) that I did not know.  He told me how most of the population were undocumented immigrants from Nicaragua.  He explained that the majority of the parents are Nicaraguan but most of their children were born here in Costa Rica, making them by default Costa Rican citizens; however, as these children are born in the country and not in hospitals, they are not given proper documentation.  In order to get these documents, they must go to San Jose, have their parents documents, and prove their citizenship.  This can take months and a few trips to San Jose.  Nehemias told me that since most of these families are well below the poverty line, they do not have the resources to make trips to San Jose or send for their documents in Nicaragua.  In result, many of these children, though technically Costa Rican citizens, grow up their whole lives in this community but graduate high school and are treated as undocumented immigrants, which they technically are.  Just as in the United States, if a student is an undocumented immigrant or does not have a social security number, birth certificate, etc. they are allowed to attend public school but are not permitted into the university.  Nehemias explained all this to me to show me what a struggle it would be to get students to attend a class outside of the school as their motivation levels are low considering their future prospects in regards to a college education.  He also shared that many of the girls in these schools already have children, jobs, drop out for a certain period of time to help bring in an income to their families and then return to school.  He said that they have many obligations outside of school that they will attend to.  Many classes have been brought to the community but people only attend sporadically and that was his fear for my English classes.  His best suggestion was to do the classes within times already set up by the school and go from there.  My one saving grace was that having graduating high school was still beneficial to the students and passing this national exam was still important to their future, even if college was not in the plans or simply not an option.  For that I hoped that many students would take advantage of what I have to offer.

We arrived at the high school in San Julian around 9am and asked a student where the principal was.  He went and got her and we introduced ourselves.  I told her why I was there and for what and as quickly as I met her, she passed me off to the English teacher, told me she was glad to have me, and to just work everything out with him.  I didn't mind though because the English teacher was truly the one I needed to speak with about scheduling, material, and the general attitude of the students.  He told me the days/times he taught English, with whom, told me about reinforcement classes after school, and other information that was extremely important.  I asked him what students needed most help and he said that the freshman need the most help because many of them come in speaking no English at all.  He also mentioned the sentiors because of their national exam.  I told him that I would come back Monday to finalize a schedule with him as I had not spoken with the school in El Jardin yet.  He was very open and confident and it went really well.  Nehemias and I biked back to El Jardin and stopped at Hazel's house to give her her bike back.  The trip turned out to be very productive afterall and I thanked God for that.

This is the information I gathered while I was there:

El Jardin school:

There are two groups of students that attend school.  The first group arrives at 7am and leaves at 11:30am (give or take of course).  The second group arrives at 12:00pm and leaves at 4:30pm.  There are six grades in this school - kindergarden to 5th grade.  They have five courses:  English, math, science, social studies, and Spanish.

Problem:  I had planned on splitting my time between the school in El Jardin and San Julian by working at the school in the morning and the high school in the afternoon so that the students could get two days of exposure than just one; however, if I only attended the morning session, I would only be working with one group of students and not the other.  I didn't see this is a fair option.

Solution:  I will spend all Monday at the El Jardin school so that I can be in contact with both groups of students without excluding one.  I decided that this was a good option because 1) the students already have an English teacher so only have one day of exposure to my lessons and resources is not as dramatic of a drawback.  I do not know the quality of English education, but this is how it has to be.  And 2) the main purpose of my working in the school is to essentially stir up excitement, enthusiasm, and motivation to learn a foreign language as it will be a subject they will take throughout the rest of their academic career and benefit them in the future.

San Julian school:

There are 5 grades in this school who attend from 7am to 2pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and from 7am to 11:30am on Thursday and Fridays (don't ask me why).  It turns out that since the national exams are coming up the first week in November, the students have reinforcement classes Mondays - Thursdays from 2 - 4 (except Thursday it's from 11:30 to 1:30).  They have these classes for science, math, social studies, and Spanish.  They do not, however, have reinforcement classes for English.

Problem:  The English teacher teaches English classes to the seniors on Thursdays and Fridays which I cannot attend because I will be doing individual tutoring sessions for ILCO staff.  Also, the students already have reinforcement classes for other subjects and they are probably not going to want to spend another two hours after their extra two hours working on English.

Solution:  The English teacher said that the freshman and seniors need the most help.  This means that I will spend Tuesday morning helping out the English teacher with his other classes (freshman, sophomores, etc.) from 7am to 10:40 am.  The teacher also told me that he could get one of his teacher friends to switch their reinforcement class day out for another so that I could do a reinforcement class on Tuesday afternoon from 2 to 4.

And this is to be my schedule in El Jardin/San Julian if all goes well on Monday when I talk to the principal of the El Jardin school and the teacher in San Julian again.

Of course, everything will change at the end of September when the seniors to do not have classes anymore until the first week of November when they are expected to take their national exams.  Instead, they come to school to study each day but do not actually have classes and it is not mandatory for them to be there.  (Please, please, please don't ask me why).  However, I figure during that time, the month of October, I can spend all my time on Tuesday helping with English reinforcement classes for seniors during the day.  We'll see though.  Playing it by ear is a way of life, I'm learning.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on Hazel and Marilin's porch waiting for the bus to pass by their house and take me back to Puerto Viejo at 1pm.  Marilin was working on homeworking drawing different fruits and vegetables and I helped her as much as I could.  She then took me out in their back yard and showed me all the trees they had.  You would not believe how many trees growing fruits they have.  To list a few:  bananas, platanos, water apples, oranges, lemons, nancies (I don't know what they are), and literally about 5 more that I can't remember.  They also have these fruits called mamones.  They are bright red and orange with soft spikes sticking out around the whole sphere.  You bite them open with your teeth and inside is a ball of fruit.  It has the texture of a grape without its peel and has a large seed in the middle.  I can't describe the taste because I've never tasted anything like it, but it was delicious.  I'll upload pictures of it soon.

Today is Saturday and I finally moved back into the house in San Sebastian after living at Xinia's for a while.  I'll stay the night here tonight then meet Pastor Abel at the bus terminal tomorrow so that we can go to San Martin tomorrow.  I'll attend church with him, talk to the community members and try to finalize a schedule with them, and then head back over to El Jardin.  I have to get there Sunday night because if not, I would get into town until 1pm and I'm supposed to speak with both schools to finalize schedules on Monday morning.

What a week, what a week.  And I haven't even been here a week yet... hahah.

Won't have internet until Tuesday or Wednesday night, I'll write then.  Keep up the good work and please remember to appreciate daily your clean tap water.