Travels

Things move fast for us here, it seems.  Sarah has found a job, we have joined a bilingual church, we've had a holiday in a beautiful area on the Caribbean coast, and we've made a start in getting a 'Chat Cafe' started.  This was all very exciting, so let me explain a little more.

When Sarah arrived, we thought it would be great for her to get some Spanish language lessons for a while as she was looking for work.  She enrolled at a local language school, where the course was two-weeks long.  She enjoyed her time and, as well as learning the lingo, she also had a dance class (!) and a couple of cooking classes.  Another feature of this course was that the school had lots of students who were learning English with them, and so they paired up an English speaking student with a Spanish speaking student so that they could do a language exchange (or a 'tandem' as they called them).  Sarah still meets with one of the people she was in a 'tandem' with.

While she was studying, she was also job hunting.  She had a couple of interviews and has landed a job at an International School (Europe School).  She will be taking over the Year 6 class from a teacher who leaves in October, so, at the moment, Sarah is acting as the school librarian.  It is a great school, with nice grounds and friendly staff and students.  The one drawback is the commute, which is about an hour each way.  We're thinking that if we stay a second year, we might move nearer to the school (especially as nearly all my teaching is on-line).

Another interesting thing about the school is it has a no-screens policy for the primary students.  That means no phones in class for them, no videos can be shown in the class by the teacher, and no interactive whiteboards.  There is also a limit on the amount of photocopying that can be done, and all the documents that teachers might want to print and copy need to be approved by the head first.

Graham's work as been relatively tame in comparision.  No major dramas, but I am continuing to enjoy the classes.  One of my students is the Spanish cultural attache at the Spanish Embassy in San Jose.  He's a lovely guy, but I made a bit of a faux pas.  On the 15th September, Costa Rica celebrates getting its independence from Spain.  asked my Spanish student how he was going to celebrate.  Oops!  Thankfully, he has a good sense of humour and a gentle temprament.

We had the opportunity to have a lovely holiday for a few days.  We took a four-hour bus ride from San Jose to a small, usually quiet area called Cahuita.  The bus was comfortable and the only problem with the travelling was when the bus on the way home broke down at the bus station and we had to wait for a replacement to come along.

Cahuita has both a couple of beautiful beaches, and a national park - where there are lots of interesting animals and birds to see.

The first night wasn't quite as we expected it to be.  We had chosen Cahuita because it is a quiet, peaceful village where not much happens and you can enjoy the gentle sounds of nature... or so we thought.  On the first night we were there the village was playing host to an Afro-caribean music festival.  This meant that there was loud music until about 3am.  Our beds were vibrating with the soundwaves.  Not quite what we had come for.  Still, the next couple of nights were really peaceful.

It was a holiday of unexpected things.  For example, when we checked into the room at the hostel, we noticed there was a mosquito net hanging above the bed.  Being highly experienced travellers, we looked at the net and decided we didn't need it.  So, we slept without it.  The first morning, when we woke up, Sarah took a photo of my back.  She'd never seen quite so many mosquito bites in one place!  We've now learned that if there is a mosquito net, there is probably a need for it!

Another unexpected thing was when we were walking in the rainforest.  It was a cloudy day and, as we were standing under some trees, I said to Sarah - look, it's raining.  She looked confused, and said it wasn't raining where she was standing.  Then we looked up and spotted the howler monkey who was... well, I'll leave the end of that to your imagination. 

A similar incident happened as we were walking back to the accommodation and spotted a beautiful blue and black poison-dart frog on the path.  We were busy admiring that when we realised it had started raining again.  Being wise from the previous experience, we looked up and spotted an iguana who also who had felt the need at that moment to... well, you know.

A final surprise was the first time we saw a sloth.  We were sitting under a shelter in the park (no, not sheltering from the howler monkey), and a couple of Americans came running up, telling us to look in the tree above where we were sitting.  We did and saw a sloth moving quite fast (they can if they want, apparently).  This guy was escaping from and eagle that was trying to eat it for lunch.  It clambered up into the tree and sat in the most densley packed branches it could find - out of the eagle's grasp.  We were fortunate enough to see two more sloths in the park.  These were being more slothful and weren't moving at all.

Apart from all these adventures, we are doing well.  Graham's sciatica is getting better, thanks to numerous visits to the chiropractor here.  He's also had a stomach bug for a while and seems to be recovering well from that.

Our next project is to start and English club, in association with a few of the churches in the local area, for people who want to practice some conversational English.  We'll probably meet for about 90 minutes or so on a Saturday morning over a coffee with whoever wants to come.  We've done this in a few other places and it has proved to be quite popular, so we'll give it a go.  More about this in the next blog.