Danger ZONA!!!

Dear Friends-

Crisis Mode.  It’s October.  It’s my favorite time of year.  Halloween, the presidential election, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas are all right around the corner and I am in the labyrinth/jungle that is the Zona Sur.  This means I am missing out on pumpkin pie, costume parties, football season, scarves, corduroys, fall shoes and Christmas music.  I need your help.  If you love me, make me a care package. Include mixed CD’s of your favorite new groups or Christmas music, Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese, newspaper clippings, old copies of the economist, fun size candy bars or lollipops (not chocolate), pictures of yourself or postcards from your current location and anything else you deem necessary or just want to donate to Escuela El Vergel in order to get it out of your house.

 

Radford Lathan

Maestra De Ingles

Escuela El Vergel

El Vergel, Palmar

Osa, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

 

Alright, now that that’s done, some information on my life.  I came to a startling realization yesterday, the most rewarding thing that I have done in my life this far is not teaching or any kind of volunteering.  It was the LA Marathon, which leads me to believe that I am not nearly as generous of a person as I previously thought.  It only benefited me and I’ve never felt so good about life or myself.  As such, I am trying to pick up running again.  It has been extremely difficult with all of the rain these past few months and I am sure that it’s not going to get better, but I am making a point of going out for walks or jogs every afternoon that it doesn’t rain.  (Besides, I have to work off the rice ring that has surrounded my middle.)

      I went to Portrero Grande last weekend to visit my friend Jen Turner.  It’s very close to me geographically speaking, but the buses and waiting time make it a long trip to get to her.  (Getting back only takes about an hour but getting there can take about three.)  She had a baile (dance) in her town and invited me to come and help her tear up the dance floor.  It was a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, I seemed to attract the town drunks and crazies and spent a good portion of the evening turning down eccentric and intoxicated Costa Ricans.  Her host family was very nice and let me stay in one of the cabinas that they normally rent out, for the evening.  It was swell.  It was definitely the best twin bed I have slept on since my arrival in Costa Rica. 

      Classes are going relatively well.  4^th grade is still excellent.  They had an exam on the rainforest today.  It was adorable.  They had to tell me the layers of the rainforest and endangered species and things that we can do to prevent deforestation.  I also broke the news to my 1^st graders that paper comes from trees.  It pretty much blew their minds.  Some of them are still trying to recover.  (I jest.)  3^rd grade went well today, most likely because only two of them showed up.  There have been workers at my school remodeling the Cafeteria for a couple of months.  This past weekend they made me a couple of extra desks so that there are enough desks for all of my students in my classroom.  They also closed the gaping hole in the back of my classroom so that chickens and children can no longer enter at their leisure.

Cynthia, the kindergarten teacher has asked that I start tutoring her in English.  I agreed, but haven’t actually had a session yet.  I am excited to work with her.  It will be good to work with someone who has already gone through puberty.  The only problem is that her younger brother also wants English lessons, but I don’t want to give them to him because he kind of gives me the creeps.  But then again, so do most Costa Rican men.   

  Right, well, that’s all from this end.  I trust you are all staying out of trouble north of the border.  I haven’t made any students cry yet this week, so that’s an improvement and I haven’t told anyone that their work is trash, so I guess I’m not such a bad teacher after all.  Then again . . . It’s only Wednesday. 

Bad Teacher. . .

I made one of my Sixth Graders cry on Monday. 

I know, BAD TEACHER.  But he did kind of deserve it.  Also, I would like to point out that this is not an 11-year old sixth grader.  He’s fourteen.  And he calls me Radford instead of Teacher, which believe it or not, is kind of disrespectful.  It would be like calling your teacher “Jane” instead of Mrs. Smith.  Plus he’s really unhygenic and always says inappropriate things so I already have a chip on my shoulder about him. 

You see, we are studying World Cultures right now and each of my sixth graders was supposed to make a poster board illustrating information about their Country.  They had 5 weeks to complete the project.  Now, this particular student drew (out of the hat) Panama, which I didn’t think would be particularly difficult as we are 3 hours from the border and there is a lot of interaction between the two countries.  However, last Wednesday, he asked me if he could change his country for Mexico.  I told him that he could. 

So, Monday comes and he doesn’t want to present.  I tell him that he doesn’t have a choice because he is being graded as if this were an exam.  I tell him that he doesn’t need to worry because everyone is being graded the same and that he just needs to do his best.  So he tells me, “Okay Teacher, but I don’t want to use my poster, I’ll just tell you the information.”  Then I tell him, “No, that defeats the purpose I have to see the poster.”  And I take it off of his desk.  Much to my surprise, there is no information on Mexico or Panama on the poster.  Rather, he has taken it upon himself to present on COSTA RICA.  Which I did not assign for obvious reasons, and which we had already done in class as an example.  I asked him, “What was your country?”  “Mexico.”  “Why didn’t you do that?”  “Because, Teacher.”  At which point I snapped.  So I may or may not have told him that his poster was basura (trash) and that I wouldn’t grade it.  So I turned to ask if anyone else wanted to go and he left the room in a hurry.  I assume that there were tears considering his haste, but I didn’t actually see them. 

Then later that afternoon, his very pregnant mother came to talk to me about what had happened and to ask why he hadn’t done the project.  It was awkward.  So today he came in during recess and remade his poster (Costa Rica again) and presented the information to me. 

I don’t think I’m going to miss him next year. 

I think that I used to be a good person, but my patience has been spent and I’m sick of bending over backwards for kids who don’t care.  In other news, you probably won’t be hearing from me much over the few weeks.  It rained all day today and the weather is probably going to continue until the end of October.  As such, my afternoon trips to Palmar are going to be limited.  La lluvia me dar pereza.  (The rain makes me lazy.)  I am getting lonely again and am pretty sure that another bout of loneliness is about to hit the Zona Sur, but am not making any preparations to prevent it.  I’m pretty sick of Costa Rica and I am ready to be somewhere else.  I feel as if I’ve seen it all and am having a tough time of motivating myself to do any kind of travel or exploration.

Three of my students left school this week.  They all moved.  No notice, just didn’t come to school on Monday and then their Mom came to say that they were moving to San Jose the next weekend.  I’m sad that I didn’t get to say good bye, but to be honest, all three had a tendency to cause troubles in my classes.  Still, they were the cute trouble makers, who were always nice outside of class.  Ah well, maybe they’ll do better in San Jose. 

My first graders learned “May I see” today and spent the rest of the period asking to see things around the room.  We didn’t get a lot done, but at least they’ll remember how to ask for things nicely.  I had to send a note home with one of my 4^th graders too.  I’ve been putting it off for about 4 months now, but it was finally time.  Surprisingly, 3^rd grade went exceptionally well.  This was probably because we spent the majority of the class coloring and not actually learning English.  Oh well, if I’ve learned anything this year its to pick your battles and 3^rd grade is not a battle that I am going to win.   

I’m ready for October. 

  

News Delay

This just in: Tom Brady out for the season, David Foster Wallace Commits Suicide, My boss comes to visit, Orange ipods and letters from possible stalkers.  Ewwww.

Hello out there.  How are things in the land of plenty?  Costa Rica is the rich coast indeed and I can’t wait to get back to America.  3 months and ten days, but who is counting.  Based on my internet lurkings I have discovered several important facts as of late.  The first of which is that Tom Brady is injured and out for the season.  What will this mean for the Fighting Radtastics, my fantasy football team?  Not much in all likelihood as I still have Eli Manning.  The second thing that I have learned is that there are now ORANGE iPod Nano’s, which may actually be the greatest thing since rice and beans.  Our Southern California Trojans are fighting on as always and to the best of my understanding demoralized Ohio State last weekend. 

However in regards to Central America it has been a busy week.  We spent last week gearing up for Independence Day (September 15) and have had school assemblies every day for the last seven days in preparation.  Last Tuesday was International Children’s Day and so we played outside all day.  There was a lot of running around and there were a lot of kids begging me to carry them around.  I gave away pens, pencils and coloring books as a means of buying popularity. The day before I had the pleasure of teaching with the one and only Reginald Wilmont Lathan. 

Yes, Papa Lathan and I had a key time over the weekend.  He arrived on Friday night and I met him at the airport.  We went out to dinner near our hotel and planned the rest of our weekend.  On Saturday Morning we drove down to Manuel Antonio.  I got us a little bit lost on the journey, but considering there are no street names, I feel like I did okay.  We went out to lunch at Agua Azul, a restaurant with spectacular views and mean bacon cheese fries.  Dad was delighted to see that they were also showing the Notre Dame-San Diego State game.  Kristi came to join us for drinks and we all decided to go out dancing that evening after dinner.  We also (shh don’t tell mom) gambled at the black jack table at the Casino across the street.  It was lame and we lost all of our money, but I think we all learned out lesson.  After blackjack we went dancing at Barba Roja in order to dance the night away and tear up the dance floor.  It was exactly as glorious as you would expect. 

Sunday we did some beaching and swimming by the pool before we packed up the car and headed south to Dominical.  The 44km dirt road is a lot easier in a car than it is in a bus.  We stopped for lunch in Uvita, but it was thoroughly uninspiring.  As we approached my site my Dad was in near disbelief.  As the jungle intensified around us, he told me that I could come home because it was “too lonely out here.”  We spent an hour or so with my host family before heading back to Palmar and our air-conditioned room for the night. 

Class on Monday was a great success and everyone wants to know when he is coming back.  I think that my students wish they had gotten any other member of my family to be their teacher for the year.  I got two new students on Monday, who just moved from San Jose.  Luckily they have both had English before and so have been catching on quickly to all of the material. 

The rest of last week flew by.  I got a love note written in English from a local which was thoroughly creepy and sounded a lot like a love song on a pop station.  We had assemblies every day to celebrate Costa Rica’s independence from Spain.  I had a bout of Stomach Flu.  It didn’t rain for three full days.  Mikki-Jean came to visit me for the first time, which was exciting for me but as it’s Costa Rica, we didn’t do anything worth writing home about.  Sunday night the school hosted a march that was part of the Independence day celebrations.  Everyone makes a little cardboard house and puts a candle inside of it and marches along the highway to signify the new of freedom and independence.  Or at least that’s how it was explained to me.  Monday morning I went to Palmar to watch the parade of bands and small children celebrating their independence.  (Coincidentally, I also had my first Costa Rican Snow Cone and might I say, I would not recommend it.)

Tuesday my classes are going to be audited by Leilani; who is my boss from San Jose.  She gets to sit in on my best class (4^th) my worst class (3^rd) and my in between class (1^st).  I’ll let you know how that goes.  Once again, thank you for reading.  Keep living the dream.  See you in three months and a few days.  Fight on!

Just another Tico-venture

It would be an understatement to say that I love my fourth graders.  They are amazing.  They are sweet, sassy and incredibly smart.  The 4 girls make up for the occasional laziness of my two boys.  Thursday was no exception.  I was hardly looking forward to class since it was the end of the day and I had already taught 1^st and 6^th grade, including a new student in each.  However, my fourth graders (who are learning about the rainforest and its preservation) helped re-energize me and turn my day into “one of the good ones.” 

Together we made a giant poster of the rainforest including each of the four layers and the animals that dwell in them.  They asked me why I had to leave at the end of the year, which I appreciated.  I told them that it was just time for me to find a new job and they told me that I didn’t need a new job.  Then I joked with them that they might not even remember me a few years down the line and Daniella (one of my smartest students) insisted that she never forgets anything, so that was impossible. 

After we finished our poster we watched 10 minutes of Harry Potter.  Costa Rican children aren’t really encouraged to let their imaginations run wild, a point I discovered when Harry Potter escaped his muggle relatives in a flying car and my students said, “A flying car! What a lie!”  I did my best to assure them that it’s magic and we can’t understand how it works, but that it is possible.  What’s next?  No Santa Claus?

I went on another Bike ride with my 6^th grader Christian today, who, coincidentally, I caught cheating on his last exam.  My 5^th and 6^th graders all cheat on almost every exam; I just don’t always catch them with hard evidence.  He had a worksheet poorly hidden in his desk.  We rode a few kilometers down the Pan-American passing a number of “new” waterfalls that have popped up since the rain started to intensify.  I feel desperately out of shape, but any exercise is better than none, or so I have heard. 

This past weekend, I had my in-service meeting in San Jose with the other WT volunteers.  It was pretty good.  Our meetings lasted about half of the day and we covered a lot of our questions and concerns for the end of the year.  We went out dancing on Friday night and to see Wanted at the movies on Saturday night.  I also joined a fantasy football league, which I am not proud of, but it will serve to pass the next 3 months and 17 days or whatever it is. 

On Sunday I tried to catch a 10:30 bus home only to find out that it was actually a 10:00 bus and that all of the buses were booked until 2:30.  Rather than sit in the bus station for four hours, I ventured over to the hospital/doctors office a few blocks from the bus terminal and went to the pharmacy for some over the counter-prescription meds.  Following that riveting experience, I ate lunch in the Hospital Cafeteria and then headed back to the Bus Station.  Mikki Jean and I lucked out and had seats next to each other on the bus despite not having bought our tickets together.  The ride back was uneventful, except for the remnants of landslides that we passed on our way into San Isidro.

So, that’s all for now.  Papa Lathan arrives tomorrow and we are headed to the beach for a day or so.  Then it’s back to El Vergel for classes on Monday and he flies home on Tuesday.  You know it’s a Lathan vacation when . . . 

I Fell In Love With The Pipa Man

News Flash, this just in: I love the OSA Peninsula.  

I have been in Costa Rica for 8 months. I have seen beaches, I have seen “cities” small towns and rivers.  I have headed North, East and West, up mountains and down into valleys, but I have been missing out because the Osa Peninsula has got it going on. 

A few weeks ago, I decided that it was time for me to schedule a trip down to Puerto Jimenez for a few days.  I had been putting it off for some time now because from everything that I had heard, the bus ride was unbearable and there wasn’t very much to do except for hiking and surfing.  Since I don’t normally do either of those things, I wasn’t chomping at the bit to go.  I figured that it would at least be worth it to visit my friend Erin Rodell, the lone world teacher on the Osa. I am her closest volunteer and am technically also in the province of the Osa, but not on the peninsula itself. 

Class was cancelled for us on Monday so on Saturday morning, I hailed a bus from my site directly to Puerto Jimenez.  The trip took a little over three hours.  (Considering that I regularly spend more than 6 hours on buses to get to a designated location, I thought this was stupendous.)  Erin got on the bus with me in her site, a town called Sandalo, a few miles away from Puerto Jimenez.  That afternoon I met a peace corps volunteer (Raquel) and another local English teacher (Ana).  Ana invited me to spend the night at her house so that I wouldn’t have to get a cabina. 

We rented beach cruisers and biked to the beach for a couple of hours that afternoon.  We played in the ocean and watched local surfers as we gossiped and compared teaching notes.  As the sun started to set, we got back on our bikes and headed to Ana’s house, passing Scarlet Macaws and giant iguanas on the lonesome dirt road.  We took showers and then decided to go out to dinner for patacones (fried green plantains) and Ceviche, which I had not yet tried.  It was delicious and I can’t believe that I waited so long to try it. 

That night we went to a bar and met up with a slew of ex-pats, retired Brits and Belgians who were more than happy to exchange tales of living in Costa Rica and supply us with drinks as the night wore on.  Ana made the acquaintance of a Tico tour guide who became enamored with her almost instantly.  We shook him off and returned to her house by midnight. 

The next morning Erin and I went to a local Soda (restaurant) for a very typical breakfast of scrambled eggs with hot dog, coffee and of course, gallopinto (rice and beans).  Ana went to a friend’s farm for the day, so Erin and I had free use of the apartment and her extra bikes.  We took the bikes back down to the beach and on our way ran into a local vendor who is endearingly referred to as “The Pipa Man.” 

 

As we rode past, the following conversation took place:

Pipa Man: Buenas Mi Reina (Good morning my queen)

Erin: Adios (Goodbye and Hello in Tico Spanish)

Me: Como Esta? (How are you?)

Pipa Man: Enamorado!!! (In love!) 

He instantly became my favorite person of the day.  He may still be. 

We spent the next few hours at the beach reading, swimming and sunning.  When we just couldn’t take it anymore we headed into a nearby restaurant for Pina Coladas and lunch in the shade.  After lunch we went home for quick showers and then biked to Raquel’s house for a cafecito of coffee and crackers.  We stayed there until about 5 and then took the bus to Erin’s actual site. 

I helped her teach class on Monday, which was a lot of fun.  Teaching is a lot easier with a partner.  And when your class isn’t 80 minutes long.  I helped her with 1^st, 4^th 5^th and 6^th grade.  I was extremely impressed with her older students because they were able to speak well and ask great questions in English.  It’s a school that has had volunteers for 7 years, but considering my 6^th graders can’t even remember how to ask for a drink of water, I was impressed. After classes, I got back on the bus and headed to El Vergel, it was then that my exhaustion caught up with me and I napped on my backpack for the majority of the 3-hour ride home. 

So that’s it for the Pura Vida this weekend.  I have meetings in San Jose on Friday, with all of the other World Teach Volunteers, which should be exciting, mainly because that means I also get to take off classes on Thursday for travel time.  I will email out my hotel information for Saturday night in case you feel the urge to give me a phone call.  Later days all. 

 

Teacher Carolina  

Super Trooper

            The Costa Rican Education system is flawed as are all school systems.  Granted, Costa Rica boasts a literacy rate higher than that of the United States and has a great system to keep even the poorest kids in the country in school, (free breakfast and lunch every day).  I’m glad to have had the opportunity to teach, but working with kids who barely speak their native language while trying to teach them a second is just unreasonable.  Every time my kindergarten or first grade class gets cancelled my heart leaps.

Today was one such occasion.  All of my classes except for my 30 minute session with Kindergarten were cancelled today.  This meant I got to skip out on my normal 80 minute session with my 10 madding 6 year olds.  I was able to take advantage of the morning by heading into town and making a couple of important phone calls and sending some emails.  It’s not productivity by American standards, but it works down here.  I finally found a place in Palmar to buy popsicle sticks, which was a major victory considering that I have been looking unsuccessfully since my return to Costa Rica.

            I have learned a lot about Costa Rican Education this year, like the fact that students only have 4 main subjects: Spanish, Science, Civics and Math.  (English is new to the agenda and Brunka the native arts and language class is technically an elective.  They don’t have PE, but recess generally serves as such and can last for over an hour.  Furthermore, kids don’t learn to read by learning the alphabet here.  They learn by phonics, which is fine except for the fact that lots of them can’t spell and most of them have never read a book for leisure.  The English that we are allowed to teach is limited to vocabulary, which would be fine if the students could read and write. As it stands however, we are generally forced to rely on my elementary skills as an artist for pictures of everything.  You haven’t lived until you’ve “written” an exam without using any words in English or Spanish.  

            Even so, I grow to love my school more and more every day.  My Director and I have been brainstorming different ways to build a new classroom for the English Teachers in the future.  The other schools with Volunteers in my area have really nicer classrooms than I do and one of them is getting a new room before the end of the year.  This inspired my host mom/Director and myself to spring into action.  (Expect monetary solicitations in your inboxes soon.  You have been warned.)     

             

            I have been working on arrangements to visit the OSA Peninsula this weekend.  Despite the fact that I have been here for 8 months, I have yet to venture South.  I am ready for the most biologically dense place on earth: or as ready as you can be for Jumanji.

            I have no class Monday or Friday of next week due to an In-Service meeting, so I will once again be teaching a 3 day week, I would be excited except for the fact that I keep missing the classes that I actually enjoy.  I have taken great strides with my second graders as of late.  I’m not sure if it’s the material or if we are actually bonding, but they are excited for class and well behaved when they need to be.  It’s like I’m a real teacher instead of just “la ticher” for a change.    

            I received my first package in the mail on Friday, which was wonderful and have been surviving on a diet of PB&J’s for the last 3 days.  All in all, Life is good.  That’s about all from this end.  Sorry nothing exciting has happened.  T-minus 3 months and 29 days.

The Pura Vida Comes Free

Today, my school received a volleyball and a net.  Of course, none of my students has ever really played volleyball before, but it still led to an afternoon of great fun.  Watching my host mom/director toss the ball back and forth with the slew of students on  the court.  The net was strewn between two mango trees and the court was covered in weeds, but that couldn’t stop us.  I tried to teach the kids how to set, but it seemed to be a pretty difficult task considering they have never played a game that you have to use your hands for.  So much for hand eye coordination in Central America.

            Escuela El Vergel has recently received some kind of grant and now the entire comedor (cafeteria) is being redone.  This has cut into my time with Yerly the school cook, who is as nice to me as anyone else in town if not nicer.  (Who would have thought that I would develop a relationship with someone that involved food.)  She is now cooking in the vacant house next to the school.  The remodel is said to include ceramic tables and an oven, I’ll believe it when I see it. 

We are taking our meals outside, but it proves to be challenging when it rains, which, in case you had forgotten, is every day.  Luckily we haven’t had a particularly difficult rainy season this year.  It’s been raining every day, but it usually doesn’t start until the late afternoon or evening. 

I spent last weekend in San Jose applying for jobs and downloading music on iTunes.  I went to see Batman again, which was even more incredible the second time around.  Someone in that movie is getting an Oscar.  Probably Heath Ledger, but it’s not undeserved.  I ate fast food, went window shopping and hung around my hotel room.  On Saturday night I spent some time with my Directors and on Sunday afternoon I came back to El Vergel.  It was actually a very nice and relaxing weekend.  I finished Then We Came To The End  which was incredible and started A Billion Bootstraps, which is unintentionally inspirational.  I even received some phone calls in my Hotel room, which was a first for Costa Rica.  Yay Skype. 

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and is a National Holiday, which I fully support.  I have spent the better part of this week helping my students make Mother’s Day cards and cutting up sheets of colored paper into flowers, hearts and clouds.  Even though there is no school tomorrow, I am going to attempt to stay in the area for the weekend to spend some quality time with my host family.   There is a baile (dance) in Rey Curre this weekend.  (That is the town with the nearest volunteer, Mikki.)  I’m not sure whether or not I’ll go but I think that some other world Teachers are going to make an appearance so I am going to do my best to at least find a ride to and fro.

I went on a walk/run with my 6^th grader Christian yesterday, during which we picked up a couple of 1^st and 2^nd graders who decided to race us on their bikes.  It was pretty adorable.  It threatened to rain the whole time we were walking but didn’t really start until we had gotten home; that was lucky. 

  My days have been pretty much filled with reading and Arrested Development DVD’s.  It’s been extremely satisfying.  I am just about ready to begin the Final Countdown for my return to the States.  I have 4 months and some change left here.  Graduation is supposed to be on the 20^th of December, so the latest I will be arriving home, in all likelihood, will be the 21^st.  I am trying to get my TEFL certificate in December through a program in Manuel Antonio, but I am not sure if it is going to work out.  If I can’t do it there, I might end up coming home and then trying to get it done in Chile or Argentina or something like that.  What a challenging life I lead huh?

I did miss Reid’s birthday this week, which is mildly tragic, especially since it’s the big 2-1 but I am sure to make it up to him as soon as I am able.  I’d better start planning immediately, just in case.  I would like to take this opportunity to remind all of you who have not yet visited that you should book your tickets immediately.  I’ll be home before you know it and who would miss an opportunity to go to Costa Rica?

That’s all for now.  Enjoy the Olympics, I’m unable to watch anything but the highlights to my great disappointment, but that’s still pretty exciting.  Have fun out there and don’t forget to be the change.