A Typical Day -- part 2

We returned from our trip to the coast several days ago.  We felt like we were coming home to a familiar place here.  A nice feeling!  Caleb even said he missed Mario (the owner of our cabin, who has the best laugh around, and seems to really like the kids).  

We are reminded daily of the many blessings we have here – not only the beautiful surroundings, but also the wonderful community of people.  We are making friends with the local families, not because we can communicate fluently, but because they open their homes to us. One family down the road about a 20 minute walk have fed us and helped us with our Spanish several times.  Claire and Caleb have really enjoyed playing with their 7-year old son, Nathan, and their puppy. What’s remarkable is that this family makes a living running quite a nice restaurant, and we have yet to pay for a meal (we’ve tried!).  We’ve wanted to provide some business for their family by eating at their restaurant, but they insist that they are sharing a meal with friends. 

Now I’ll finally continue my description of our typical days here in San Gerardo de Dota.  I think I only got about as far as breakfast last time. 

I’ve been homeschooling the kids in the mornings after breakfast, usually for about an hour.  They relish the fact that they get to be done school after only an hour and then they get to play; to be honest, I don’t know how kindergarten teachers can keep the attention of a 5-yr old boy on learning for any longer than an hour! That being said, I see evidence the kids are learning.  It’s also been interesting, since I’m schooling them in English and German, but they are surrounded by Spanish speakers when they step out the door.  The other day the kids laughed when I was working on numbers with Caleb in german and threw in a Spanish number without realizing it.  This week we worked on squirrel monkey projects -- Caleb’s practiced his show-and-tell, and Claire created a Powerpoint presentation and written report. She is learning how to type with correct finger placement, so this was good practice. Vern will be the lucky audience tomorrow. 

After homeschooling on weekdays, the kids and I have the day together to do what we want while Vern’s at the field station.  Without wanting to sound too much like Swiss Family Robinson, here’s some things the kids enjoy doing around here and that keep us busy:  hiking up to the horse pasture behind our cabin; walking down the road to meet up with new friends; visiting the trout pond (sometime the kids get to feed the trout); climbing on the rocks by the river; treasure hunts in the yard; playing games in the cabin; playing soccer; buying food from the produce/meat trucks.  The kids have taken it upon themselves to plant some seeds around the yard: mango, papaya, oranges, and garlic cloves. When we told the kids there wouldn’t be fruit before we leave, Caleb suggested Mario mail the fruit to us. 

The kids have yet to say they are bored, thankfully.  I am enjoying a lot more time to read books that I normally wouldn’t have time to.  And the plain truth is, without a dishwasher, I spend a lot of time preparing and cleaning up meals. 

Costa Rican food is enjoyable.  Lunch is their main meal, and ordering a “casado” at a restaurant will get you an affordable and very diverse plate of food: rice, black beans, fish or chicken, a corn tortilla, stir-fried squash mixture, and fried plantains. Here’s a photo of my first attempt at a local dish (gallo pinto). 

The manager of the quetzal field station (Michael) has also been very generous with us, sharing food when we are in a pinch, allowing us to eat some meals there, and passing on copious amounts of advice and information.  He is American (living in Costa Rica for several years), so speaking English with him makes things easy. 

The cook (Nancy) at the field station has also been wonderful to Claire and Caleb, allowing them to play with her 3 daughters and feeding them lunch at her house.  Claire and Caleb seemed quite proud that they’d “survived” a Costa Rican lunch on their own and had eaten what they were given.     

Vern’s enjoyed getting to know the students at the field station, and has done several hikes and orientation sessions with them.  He is also trying to figure out where they are at in their academic programs, so he knows how to develop the material for the ecology course he’s teaching them in early April.   

On the home front, we now have internet in our cabina!  Latin American style -- Mario came and drilled a couple holes to run an internet cable from his modem into our cabin.  So we now have an internet cable coming in through our bedroom window.  That’s a big improvement – now my hikes to the field station and elsewhere can be for pleasure, instead of necessity.  Vern usually returns from the field station at 4pm, and then I’ve been doing some exploring on my own for an hour or so before supper.

I’ve been asked about how I do laundry, so I’m happy to say that I have access to real laundry machines!  It was a relief to find that out.  Mario and his wife let us use their machines.  Seeing many crinkled-up jeans and shirts on laundry lines, leaves me with the impression that most locals hand-wash and dry their clothes. Yikes.

The sun sets around 6pm, and it gets very dark because street lights are few and far between!  We don’t go anywhere in the late afternoon without packing our headlamps!  We could effectively market Petzl out here!

Several people have asked what time zone we are in – one hour ahead of Edmonton, so the same as Manitoba.

I think that’s it for now.  I have so many photos I want to share, so here's a mixture of shots you'll enjoy.    

Hike up to the pasture behind our cabin

Flame-coloured tanager, shot from our kitchen window!

Lizzie the emerald swift lizard, who lives in our yard



Horseback riding



The Savegre River, which runs through San Gerardo de Dota.

We hiked to some local waterfalls with the students from the field station. 





San Gerardo's main road



San Gerardo with clouds rolling in



At the beach last week, in Manuel Antonio National Park

 

A white-throated capuchin monkey at the beach -- one stole part of our lunch!  They work in pairs, with one doing the  distracting and the other stealing food.  Not our favourite monkeys....

A squirrel monkey at our hotel in Manuel Antonio; the troop moved through every morning and early evening.  They were fun to watch!

Mommy and Claire outside our hotel room during trip to Manuel Antonio NP.