Teacher, Britney Spears is my Hero because she came to Costa Rica

Hello Fans and Avid Readers-
I write to you on the eve of my 23rd birthday without much to tell you. There has been a lot of rain as of late and yesterday it started raining at 5 in the morning and did not stop until 1 o’clock this afternoon. Wild huh? It was merciless, it came down on the tin roof like thunder and had it rained like that in LA, I would have feared for my life. But they don’t call it the Rainforest for nothing. I have finally turned in grades for all of my students. I had to fail one student in 6th grade, who refused to take the first exam. 2 in 5th who come to class but refuse to do any of the work and failed both exams, 1 in 4th who only came about 7 times this term, 1 in second who is 13 years old but refuses to attend class and one in 1st who just isn’t ready to be in school. He runs out of the classroom every 5 minutes and refuses to do any work that the rest of the class is doing. He already failed 1st grade once, and I feel bad putting him at risk for failing a second time, but I really am doing my best with all of my failing students. Extra Credit, here we come.
We had our midservice meeting last weekend with the other volunteers. It was mostly fun, but ended on a rather sour note. Leilani (one of my Directors) told me that my host mom-director had called to voice some concerns about me. I am apparently not involved enough in the community. I spend too much time in my room. Though, I do that in America too when there is nothing else to do. I have nothing to contribute 97% of the time here, so I don’t feel like venturing out into the “town” to be oogled. Sarcasm doesn’t work in Spanish so I can’t be funny. That is depressing in and of itself. I also spend too much time in my room and I let the kids watch too many movies. (The last one is probably true, but I am making an effort to cut back to 20-minute sessions on Friday’s instead of 40-minute sessions.)
I started watching heroes with my 6th graders in an attempt to get some critical thinking out of them. We watched an episode and then they all had to invent their own super hero ideas/costumes/names etc. It was actually a lot of fun and I think they enjoyed it. Now they each have to make a comic strip starring themselves. They each wrote about their own heroes in class today. Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie, a chicken, a dog, a football player and a mother all made the cut.
A funny thing happened on the way to San Jose. I was on the bus and we came to a rest stop. The woman sitting across from me had an adorable newborn bbaby. She asked me if I was going to the bathroom and before I had a chance to finish saying, “No, not yet.” She had thrown the baby into my arms. It was kind of weird, but it reassured me that I want to have kids. Not too soon, actually not soon at all, but eventually. All of these Tica women with their babies at age 20 are throwing me off. When I get back I probably won’t even want to see a baby, let alone have one. Plus there is that little issue of having to find an hombre.
I am growing more and more attached to my students every day. 4th 5th and 6th are particularly incredible. They can write pretty well and are starting to get more comfortable reading. Next stop-conversations. Who’s excited? I AM!
That’s all for now. Until next time.
Oh also, my cell phone is completely and totally dead and broken, so don’t try to call me on it or text me or anything, because, it won’t work. Sorry.

Tales from the Orchard

Sorry that I haven’t written in a while. Nothing has been going on here. You know why? Because it’s a jungle and nothing ever happens here. There are Toucans and bats and vultures around, but that’s about the height of excitement. My family tried to teach me the ways to call of the different animals that live here. Watching my host Mom imitate a chicken call was probably the best thing that happened to me all week. I laughed so hard that I cried, which is apparently not common here because my host sister Melissa asked me why I was crying. I know she’s only 9, but she is so dumb sometimes I want to hurt her. I know I should be more tolerant, because she’s just a little kid, but man, I feel like I am always trying to escape her. Not my site. Abigail, Quito and Wainer my other host siblings/First graders are all adorable. Biga and I have devised an interesting game of hide and seek where she wraps her arms around my waist and I spin around trying to figure out who is there. It’s actually pretty cute.

By the way, my brother asked me what my days are like here and I felt like I should elaborate a little bit for all of your benefit. So here goes.

Monday May 12, 2008
5:30 AM – Wake up to the rooster crow. Use pillow as snooze button over the next hour or so.
6:30 – Get up, eat Pinto for Breakfast (Rice and Beans mixed together) today I also had toast and jam. Pound first cup of tea.
7:00 – 6th grade
8:20 – Recess, Buy a snack and drink a liter or so of water. Hang out with Diego, my only friend, who works at the Pulperia which caters to the 60 odd children on recess.
8:40 – 5th Grade Vocabulary Exam
10:00 – Lunch (Rice and beef stew with potatoes)
10:10-10:30 – Assembly-Sing National Anthem, Pledge of Alleigance, nod when it seems appropriate, keep kids in line and hold hands where necessary.
1030-11 – Kinder- Social Deviance and lots of singing. Plus spontaneously should out words that I make them repeat, just for fun, like “Vulture” “Zebra” “Lego’s” “Monkey!” and my own personal favorite “Chika Chika Boom Boom”
11-12 - Second Grade, lots of coloring, very little English. Today I showed my second graders where America and Costa Rica were on the Map. They are learning to read so it was kind of sweet
12-2 Take shower, unwind, put materials together for class
2:00 – Head to town, send emails, make copies
4:00 – Head back to site and weather permitting, go on a run or at least a long walk
5:00 – Shower again and watch movies, cover self in enough bug spray to kill a dinosaur, Compile grades for 5th grade.
7:00 – Dinner of rice, beans and Plantains.
8:00 – Watch more movies, listen to music, journal, write the books or watch the latest Telenovela: Nuevo Rico Nuevo Pobre, which I just can’t seem to get into.
9:00 Ready for bed.
9:15 – Pass out before the rest of my family can, so that I don’t hear them snoring.

And that’s about it. I read a lot too, but I am almost out of books again so I am trying to hold off on reading for the time being.

So, yeah, that’s my life. Pretty exciting. No? Also, I finally got a slew of mail, so if you feel like sending me things, you can send letters and very small packages to:

Radford Lathan
Maestra de Ingles
Escuela El Vergel
Palmar Norte, Osa
Puntarenas, Costa Rica