Carribbean side and Manuel Antonio National Park

More Pics from My Dad´s Visit

Weekend with my Dad!

My dad came to visit for the weekend. He was here for such a short amount of time that we had to suqeeze many activities into one weekend. We ended up doing a 12 hour tour called the 4-in-1. We got picked up by an air conditioned bus and had breakfast, then went to a coffee farm, the Poas Volcano (my second time!), and La Paz Waterfalls including butterfly farm, frogs, birds, and monkeys (in cages!). We had a huge buffet lunch and then took a boat ride where we saw iguanas, monkeys, and even a Cayman (kind of crocodile!) The next day we did a canopy tour. Here are pictures from our weekend!

More pics to come hopefully! I just takes a very long time for them to upload!

When it rains, it pours!

This is a video I took while walking home with my friend Marie from the day care center. This is what the streets look like here when it rains, because when it rains, it pours. Good thing the drains are so large!

More children

This is me in front of the day care center:




Here are some more pictures of some of the kids:

This is a video of the tail end of the kids leaving the classroom singing (or trying to sing) El Tren de Caramelo- The Caramel Train. I hope you enjoy because I think it´s the best thing ever when I watch them do it every day!

Ths Kiddies!

Here are some pictures of the children that I have in my English group. We squeeze together onto a small carpet right outside the classroom. The other kids in the class are constantly running out of the classroom to try to join us. The truth is they don´t have much to do in the classroom and they want to do something. You can see form the cpitures I have been photocopying lots of pages from the workbooks you all sent. So far we have studied colors and numbers. In the next few weeks we will focus on animals, body parts, and people.

Here is a video of one child reading a counting book (sent here by one of you kind people!). He is 6 years old and has been overjoyed by the opportunity to work with me. His brain is sucking up all the information and he wants to sit with me for more than an hour hearing me talk in English and read him books. I just feel bad that when I leave, his English lessons will be over.

AMAZING FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

Who knew my family and friends and even strangers could be so amazing! After beginning work at the day care center and realizing that between 50 and 60 children pass through each day and must share 11 books and a few puzzles, I asked for help. I realized how much we take for granted in other places- things like just having enough paper and crayons. I sent out an email to my family and friends asking for school supplies and books for the children at the day care center. I ahve now been receiving package after package after package and it really warms my heart! I knew that when you give people a chance to help they will more than rise to the occassion. I have brought almot all the stuff I have gotten so far to the day care and the teacher was floored! They have never had so many supplies! And to think, it is all from people who have never even met the children. I took a picture of all the stuff from the most recent packages. A VERY special thank you to my mom and dad, Penny and Mitch Kaplan, Audra and Dennis Frazier, Hortence and Charles Black, Lana Nagata-Hart, Dushane Ramsay, and many others! I have even gotten packages from people I do not know just because friends have passed along the email. I couldn´t have made as much of a difference without all your help. Here is a picture of some of the stuff you have all sent! I will take pictures of the kids soon.