4 Days in

So, Im here and alive and well. Thats a good start.

Living situation--
Host Family:
The house is in San Pedro in the Cedros area.
My host moms name is Carmen and she is a doll.
Other house occupants: Kelly, California Brian (who serves as the translator between Carmen for Kelly and I), Carmen´s son and daughter in law and Chici (Carmens mini dog)

The orphanage--
It{s called Pani
It is pretty well off... Someone donated their house for them a few years ago. So they have one large room for the girls, one for the boys, a dining room, kitchen, living room, pool, side shed, and a garage (which they use for a play area). I was very, very surprised with its condition.

The kids--
There are about sixteen, they{re not all there simultaneously so I{m still learning some of their names.
Ill write more details about them later. They{re all very sweet though, but they seem to benefit from our company since they dont get much attention or playtime otherwise.
***I was told photography was not allowed. I{m going to try to get around that. Ill add photos when I can.*****

What my days look like:
7 am: Wake up and run (Yes, Jim Irvin, I am keeping up with the workouts... and I scale mountains daily... so I might be more than useless on hills this season)
8-10 am: Breakfast with Carmen, Brian, Kelly and I; clean-up; shower
11/12-1:30: Start walking to Maximo Nivel (again, our volunteer organization) it{s about a 30 minute walk; read; study
1:30-5: Walk to the orphanage, about a 20 minute walk, work there with the kids. Right now we{re more mentoring and providing company rather than teaching english
From there we walk back home, which takes almost an hour ebcause its all up hill... or up mountain rather... Eat dinner with Carmen, and pass out from exhaustion




Fun Facts learned
-Dont ever flush toilet paper down the toilet, they will clog.
-There are no addresses or street signs so having a five second memory does not serve me well.
-Walking around the house without shoes is offensive.
-Punctuation on these keyboards/computers is confusing.
-My organization failed to tell me that I would be dealing with a different organization when I got here, Maximo Nivel --- not Global Crossroad.
-Saying Cuantos Colones sounds really stupid... the correct way to say it is Cuanto Cuesto (my spelling may be wrong).
-In order to make the @ symbol on Costa Rican computers you must press Alt, then 6, then 4--- but only use the numbers on the side keypad.
-Internet cafes are abusive.
-The amount of Spanish I know is useless. As Kelly put it, Chici, the timid little dog in our house thats the size of a foot, understands and speaks more Spanish than we do.
-Here, they think vegetarians eat chicken. They don{t understand when you try to tell them otherwise.