Last day in Costa Rica

We are back in San Jose and everyone is leaving for the airport for the trip back to reality. Last night it took approximately 4 hours to get from Monte Verde to here - about 1 1'2 hours on unpaved road and the rest in traffic on paved road. Gina said that the road we were on goes all the way through S America to Canada so there were lots of trucks in front of us. I could have used my hand signals from my comedy routine if I was driving - luckily I wasn´t !
Our hotel here is so beautiful and is a great way to start and end this adventure.
I plan to post some pictures within a week or so. Most people had digital cameras so there should be good pictures soon - and then there are my 4 clunky disposable cameras that will need to be processed. If I didn´t have that many cameras I could have bought a few more souveniers :)
My plan is now to come back after taking a Spanish lesson or two. I don´t think I´m doing well on my own with my CD´s and books. Or maybe do the Spanish emersion that Gwen and Gary did - now I need to hear more about that.
Until later - adios
S-

Sky Trek

A quick update - I just got back from the Sky Trek adventure and it was an adventure. I must say that there was a chance to turn back at about the 3-4th zip and I thought of doing it. The hardest part for me was climbing the towers and being so high. At least one of the zips was over 10 stories high and I do have a fear of heights but I made it and continued through the 11 zips. It was exciting, scary and my heart was racing but it was worth it. I recommend it.

We are getting ready for lunch and will be leaving for San Juan in an hour. The adventure is almost over but the memories and the talking about it (sorry Shan and Chris) will continue for a long time!
S

Friday morning - pre Zip Line

Last night we had a great celebration with the families in Los Tornos. Mario, the community leader for our project brought us all a cervaza = Imperiel = very good beer. We were all seated at the front table, the men who worked with us were seated at a side table and the rest of the community were in chairs facing us. It feels a bit strange to be set apart from everyone but I think that is what they feel is appropriate. Many made speeched about the friendships and work done onver the past 2 weeks. David, Marios brother said, sincerely that if we ever needed any help, they would help us. It brings tears to my eyes just typing that because I know how little they have. We were all given little wooden puzzle boxes with our names on the bottom. Mine was a dolphin and it will be treasured.
On the way home, Gina spotted a sloth = so we all scrambled out of the van to watch it crawl along the phone line. I was really hoping to see one on this trip, and I finally did.
This morning Christine and I got up at our usual time = about 5:30 am and walked into town for some cafe con leche and do a little more shopping. The rest of the team, except for Eric = who is always an early riser = still has not stirred. We have to pack this morning before the zip line adventure, come back to the hotel for lunch and take the taxi in to San Juan for our last night here.
I hope I can keep some of these memories alive. I do not think I will ever see such a beautiful place. The different shades of green on the hill and mountains, the lush vegetation, the smiles of the Ticas = I really feel lucky to have done this trip.
S=

Thursday evening - we're done working!

I am in an internet cafe in Santa Elena getting ready to be picked up by a taxi to take us to our closing celebration with the village of Los Tornos tonight. This is going to be a very emotional time since this afternoon I was already getting tears in my eyes. One of the men said that they really appreciated all of the teams who have come and worked with them but it was sad when they didn't know if they were ever going to see us again. There is already a closeness with the people here, even with the language barrier. It will be sad to leave them.

But on to a lighter note - I was just told that a phrase I have been saying for the past week or so is not quite right. I've been saying "I'm caliente" when I should have been saying "I'm calor". It seems that the first phrase means I'm horny, not I'm hot due to the hot weather. I was wondering why no one responded in kind to me!

Today at the community center, we had to leave after lunch since the twice monthly visit from the catholic priest was happening at 3 pm today and everyone had to prepare to go to church. Then they will come back to the community center to prepare us a meal and have music. Busy people.

At lunch we had a new simple treat I'm going to do at home. They had pealed whole bananas with honey and seseme seeds on top - very tasty. Have I mentioned that weight loss has not been part of this trip - even with all of the manual labor. They feed us too well.

I hope to post a couple more blogs before I leave for home on Saturday. I will want to give an update on the Sky Trek adventure tomorrow morning. Then we will be leaving for San Jose to stay at our first hotel on our last night. It will be exciting to have a hotel with a reading light and TV.

S-

Wed - Sod and Sun

Wednesday was bright and sunny - another rare day this time of year here. Although some rain would have been helpful after lunch, none came. It did cloud over a bit just to give us false hope, I think. I did sod and digging again today. The good part was that I didn´t have to walk up and down the hill to the cemetery. The school is right next to the community center where we meet each morning. We were all getting bit by who knows what today. After work, some people went on a night walk and the rest of us went into town to get some gifts for the bus driver (who hasn´t been charging us to ride everyday - it´s his bus) and the man who gave us the tour of the coffee farm and plant. We also got a new soccer ball for the community center. Thursday night is the community celebration for us.
Wed night we went to our team leader Gina´s house. It´s really far on a road that most taxis will not go down so we had to walk part of the way. Gina lives in a really cool house owned by a woman who retired from Berkley (sp?) when she turned 50 to raise her two sons here. She came to the dinner so I grilled her on why she choose Costa Rica and what is was like living there. She is a permanent resident and has been here for 6 years. She said that she only needed to prove she had a lifetime income of $600 a month to be here - even with 2 children! She said she knows people who do live on that amount. I plan to keep writing to her when I get back.
I think many of us are ready to end the labor part of our work here - none of us work with our hands for a living so it´s been hard - good and fullfilling but hard. I am sleeping better most nights and we all talk about having lots of dreams - not sure what that means.
Interesting tidbits -

I saw an HEB truck tractor here.

Most people have dogs but I hear there are cats - they just stay hidden because the dogs all run loose. I have not seen one dog on a leash since I´ve been here

Today is our last workday and it´s almost breakfast so I´ll close for now. Tomorrow is finally the Zip Line - I hope to be less sore by then!
Happy Birthday Shannon!!
S-

A day of sun

The weather has changed for the better - we had a bright sunny day for working. In fact it hasn´t rained much for the last couple of days. Of course after working in sod (I´m helping to put sod in the school yard - the same sod we dug up from the cemetery) by lunchtime some of us were hoping for that afternoon rain. It didn´t come so more sod until we took our trusty bus back to Santa Elena for an early evening of horse back riding.

I don´t remember the last time I was on a horse and it showed. I was riding Superman and I was really hoping he wouldn´t fly - that he would be back in his Clark Kent persona and he met my expectations. The rest of the group had various levels of experience and were loving the galloping and running. I was hanging on for dear life - the only thing that really hurts this morning is my left hand so you can imagine how hard I was holding on. My butt isn´t sore but I´ve had many days of bouncing on a bus to help toughen that up. The rest of the wild west riders did a number of runs around a field, exhileration showing in their faces while I sat still on Superman, very content. When I had the chance to look up from my horses head (I wasn´t sure what to do when he kept putting his head down and then looking around at my feet), the scenery was beautiful.
When we got back to our hotel room, my room mate Christine was napping. I sat on my single bed and out from under her bed came a scorpion - big and black - bigger than Texas scorpions. Now I can kill small bugs but when it gets close to the size of my shoe, it gets to live. I got this one on a newspaper and just as it´s tail went up and it started towards me, I threw it out the door. I will be a bit cautious with my clothes on the floor for the rest of the trip since I noticed the big gap under our door.
The good news is that we had our favorite meal tonight at the hotel - pizza and guacamole - and a home made donut. Yep, dieting isn´t on the agenda this trip.
Today after work we are going to our leader Gina´s house to eat and see her great view. We are winding down and it´s a bit hard to think that this trip will soon be coming to an end.
But I still have the Zip line on Friday so stay tuned.
S

Monday came quickly

This will be a short entry - not much to tell. Our alarm didn´t go off but we managed to get up by 5:45 am and were dressed and ready for breakfast in plenty of time. I really enjoy my morning coffee here but of course I enjoy my morning coffee anywhere! It is especially good here, though.
We headed off to the worksite again and today I helped throw sod that had been dug to a pick up truck, then did my concrete mixing, my concrete block carrying and some shoveling. It was extra hard going up that hill at lunch today, I think I´m starting to tire out a bit. It started raining after lunch, as usualy but quit right after we all decided to cancel the zip line until Friday. I sure hope Friday will be a good day since that will be our last chance to do it.
Tomorrow many of us are going horse back riding after work. I have not done this in about 10 years so it should be an experience. I don´t think it will be any bumpier that our daily ride to and from the worksite.
We hoped to see the sloth today as were were walking to lunch. We were told that a sloth only comes down from the tree once a week - to go to the bathroom! One person in our group, actually my funny room mate Christine said ¨didn´t they ever hear of gravity?¨ It would save them a trip! But no luck today.
Tonight some are going in to town to shop and I´´m getting ready to take a hot shower and read - sounds like heaven to me tonight.
Hopefully I´ll have something more interesting to talk about tomorrow.
S-

Sunday - our last day of rest

It´s 9;42 am Sunday morning (thanks to my atomic watch) and I´m walking around the town enjoying the music coming from the churches. I stopped at one church with particularly interesting music - much of it seems to be modern and the singer has a drummer and then a karoke-type machine that makes the rest of the instruments. People were clapping after each song and swaying to the music. I stood outside looking in when a man at the door came over to introduce himself. He said that it was a Methodist church - very surprising to me. Costa Rica was pretty much founded by the Quakers and then there is also a large Catholic influence. To me, the music is the international voice of people and no matter where you are music brings out the feelings of unity - that the people of the world really aren´t very different.
OK, enough of my Sunday morning spiritualism -

The 2 people who Canyoneered yesterday came back and said it was the most difficult and scary thing they have ever done. One would need to be exceptionally physically fit to do it - so I´m glad I didn´t even consider it. Unfortunately since they were mostly in waist deep water or flailing themselves over the sides of mountains, they couldn´t bring their cameras. I would have loved to have seen that.

We were going to go to the hot springs last night but it seems a bit crazy since we were all very hot in the open air. It is hot and very muggy here. I have sweat dripping off of my face most of the time. I found a fan that I am now carrying everywhere I go. We ate at an open air restaurant near our hotel - most of the restaurants have open air areas and none have electric fans. I am really enjoying the Costa Rican food - mostly rice, beans, chopped veggies (I´m not sure what they are) and some kind of salad. There are so many veggies and fruits here that I have never seen before - I finally had a margarita and the fruit they had on the side of the glass wasn´t a lemon or a lime - it was very tart and tasty but I have no idea what it is called. The only thing I have not eaten so far were the red beans - kidney beans to me - not my favorite.

Three in our group went white water rafting today and the rest of us are shopping, reading and touring the town. We leave a 4 pm to go back to Monteverde and another week of 5;30 am wake-ups. I´m ready for everything except that walk up the hill. I´ll try to take a picture to share on this blog when I get home, so you can see that I´m not a total sissy ;) By the way, in case you haven´t noticed, I can´t find some of the symbols on the keyboard so I do with what I find.
S-

Saturday in Fortuna

We finally finished up the work week in Los Tornos and 2 from ¨the office¨were getting ready to head home. Six of us came to Fortuna which is at the base of the Arenal volcano. One, my room mate decided to go to the beach by herself - and she doesn´t speak spanish so she should have some good stories to tell when we all get back Sunday. The other 2 decided to stay where they were since they have friends in the area.
The trip here was probably the most spectactular scenery I have ever experienced. We had to take a taxi-boat-taxi (they say that as if it is one word). The first taxi part was again on unpaved road for about 1 1|2 hours. For those who understand - the roads in this area are much worse than Gold´s road - but the views are amazing, almost spiritual. Then we took the small boat which took us toward the volcano. Lastly, we got out of the boat, climbed up a dirt hill and got into another taxi - this time on paved roads- to our hotel. I guess you can tell this is a tourist area since the roads are paved and the downtown is a real downtown - not just a couple of buildings.
Our hotel is very nice - my room has a balcony overlooking the main street - which is good during the day and very noisy at night. We finally have a TV and reading light - I feel like I´m in heaven. My new trusty timex alarm clock is with me at all times and I really like how easy it is to use - there are no wake up calls here!
This morning part of our group went on a river tour to see animals and many kinds of birds. The tour was very near the Nicaraguan border and we even got our pictures taken at the border sign. We saw and heard howling monkeys - one of which was a rare albino. The best thing we saw was a tree full of iguanas - I hope my pictures turned out. We didn´t get to see the sloth but many of our group saw one on the way from the Los Tornos community to our in progress work at the cemetery. Unfortunately I missed it but saw the pics.
Some of the things I´ve been thinking about Ticos (people from Costa Rica) include:
1. There are some of the friendliest and kindest people I have ever met.
2. They would never tell anyone they did something wrong - and we have done plenty of things wrong on the building site.
3. They take great care of what they have - and it isn´t much.
4. They have learned to be very imaginatie - making what they need from what they have or things they find. What a lesson that is.
5. They all seem content - at least the poorer people in the towns we have been working. The bigger city here - Furtuno - is getting a bit more like us and that is sad.
6. When they beep their horn it is either in greeting or to let someone know they are getting ready to pass them. They don´t seem to follow rules of the road - double yellow line means nothing, alto doesn´t necessarily mean stop, but no one has shown road rage.
7. There is a calmness here - things are slower ¨Tico time¨and it isn´t taking much effort to get right in to their groove.
I am already dreading this trip to end. But enough of that talk - I have lots more adventures to complete and share.
Wish you were all here.
S-

Thursday - Guess what - it´s raining again!

This morning started off very bright and sunny and we were all in a good mood since we were thinking about our Sky Trek adventure after work. I think I´ve gotten in to Costa Rican time because I said the bus was early - at 7:20 even tho it is supposed to come at 7 am. It has been coming about 7:30 or later so the definition of ön time¨had drastically changed in my mind.
We had a great morning working on the cemetery wall - shoveling, sifting sand, mixing concrete and filling the blocks with concrete. I pushed the wheelbarrow up the hill to the cemetery twice before the Costa Rican workers couldn´t stand seeing a woman doing that so I was sent to the cement pile.
After lunch - by the way I am not losing weight unfortunately - we headed back to the cemetery only to have the rains start. They were so heavy that we couldn´t work so we played basketball with a nerf football and empty paint can. That is what I really like about the people here, they make do with what they have.
We found out that our adventure was cancelled due to the lightning. We heard that someone was killed on the ride this year due to lightning. In fact 6 people have been killed from lightning here this year. So, we were pretty happy not to be sitting at the highest place in the forest on a metal chair and wire tonight.
We signed up for some things for this weekend. We are going to the volcano - I think it´s called Arenal and I´m going to do a wildlife boat ride. Some are doing repelling and some are doing white water rafting but I decided I´d rather see monkeys. I also plan on spending some time in the hot springs so my calf muscles can finally untense!
We are getting ready for dinner and then we are walking in to town for dessert and drinks. Sue, Christine and I have already decided that we are splurging and taking a taxi back to the hotel tonight. One more hill and my legs are going to be so stiff I will not be able to bend over to take off my shoes!
More tomorrow -
S

Day 5 - I think

OK, I admit it - I´m dragging. Not being a morning person and doing physical labor is catching up with me. Not that I don´t like it. I´m sure I´ll be physically fit by the end of next week - but now - Oy vey!
I shoveled gravel and sand to make cement today and then filling blocks with the cement. The guys are so hard working and just seem to go on and on. I didn´t want to do the sissy work of scraping off the rust from some metal poles so I´m paying for it now. Luckily it started raining before lunch so I really only worked about 2 hours. We had another great lunch (I don´t want to bore you with that again) and then went to a small coffee co-op where they showed us how the coffee was made from the picking to the roasting. I was thinking that I wouldn´t mind picking coffee for a couple of hours - if I got a cup or two afterwards. The coffee pickers only make abour $5-$8 a day - hard to believe. But Gina, our local country coordinator just bought a large bag of orages for about 2 cents each.
We got back on that crazy bus and came back to our hotel about 3 pm. Some people went horse back riding - in the rain and the rest of us walked into town (up and down mountain remember) and did some shopping and had a couple brews. I´m now waiting for dinner ´- always thinking of food.
Tomorrow after we work, most of us are doing that Sky Trek where we are attached to wires and fly through the forest. I am a bit frightened since I am afraid of heights, but the group egged me on so I´m there. I hope to be around to write about it tomorrow or the next day. Really, I´m sure I will. The worst part will be the spiral staircase and bridge that gets us there. Yep, I think that is going to be a challenge.

I don´t think I mentioned that last night we went to the previous work project called Casem - now that I think about it maybe I did. Anyway, it was really uplifting since so many womens lives have changed because of it. Not only are they making crafts but they are getting together and finding out that many have been abused and those have gotten help.
Enough for now.
I do have to say again that this is a wonderful trip and I would recommend this group to you for future work-vacation plans (can we actually say work and vacation in the same sentence and get excited?)
More later
S-

Day 4 - I think

Time is starting to have no meaning - except for the 5:30 am alarm. I really went on vacation to get up this early?
Same routine today - breakfast of fresh fruit and pancakes with wonderful coffee. I´m getting spoiled on this coffee. Then off to the worksite. It rained all night last night and the electricity went off for about 30 min so the roads are more potholed than ever. All I can say is a double sports bra is needed on these roads! When we arrived at the site we had our short spanish lesson and then walked down that very steep hill to the cemetery. On the way, one of the workers took us in to a coffee farm and showed us the red coffee beans that were almost ready to pick. We tried tasting one and it was a bit gel-like around the bean but not much flavor. I guess that comes with the roasting.
My jobs today included cuting and making rebar into a bridge like shape to help set the cement blocks. Then I went on to painting the chapel in the cemetery that another Global group erected. After a really good lunch (am I talking about food alot?) of asparagus omelet, fruit, R&B, and macaroni salad, it started raining again. Sue and I walked down the hill back to the site because we had left some clothes on the sidewalk and didn´t want them to get wet - like the rest of our clothes are now getting. Luckily, the local workers picked them up and put them back in the chapel for us. We sat with all of the workers in the rain and we could not communicate much at all. I really wish I had practiced my spanish more.
Finally we got back to work for about 45 min before the taxi that we hired picked us up to take us shopping. Shopping consisted on a long ride to a small village to see the last project of the Global folks. It is called Casem Womens Co-op and is a place for local women to meet and do crafts and sell them. They can do crafts at home if they have children so they can bring in income as a stay at home mom. Great concept and addition to the community. We also went to a coffee co-op where the farmers get more of the profit from selling their coffee. Lastly we went to a cheese and ice cream store and I had wonderful coffee icecream.
Interesting info about T P (toilet paper). It smells like baby powder. I think that is either to make us smell better or more importantly make the trash smell better since no TP goes in the toilet due to septic problems everywhere.
We are getting ready to eat our light dinner of pizza.
And of course, it is raining again.
S-

Day 3 Costa Rica

OK, here is the way the day has gone.
5:30 am - alarm goes off (too early!)
6:00 am - breakfast (actually it was ready closer to 6:20)
Great breakfast - the coffee is wonderful, more fresh fruit, healthy toast, scrambled eggs and R & B (rice and beans)
7 am - go to bus stop and wait for 7 am bus until about 7:35.
8 am - arrive at Los Tornos community center - luckily 2 people from our group saw the center pass us by and yelled for the bus to stop.
8 am - short spanish lesson with Mary
8:30 - team meeting about the projects for the day. We will be getting the cemetery site ready for the cement wall.
9 am - walk to cemetery - all down hill about a half mile
9:15 start work - I shoveled dirt and gravel, pushed wheelbarrows up the small hill into the cemetery, carried cement blocks and dug though piles of dirt to find sod that we will be using to plant at the school.
10:39 am - they said we had a coffee and cookie break at the community center (stright up hill that half mile again) Half of the group decided it wasn´t worth it and stayed on the site. The other half (including me thought - coffee and cookies??) Luckily one of the lead workers house was about a third of the way up the hill so we ended up stopping there - thank goodness.
Back to the cemetery in the rain and continuing to work and try to wait out the heavy rain. Way to late for me because I was drenched.
Noon we walked back to the activity center. Luckily I didn´t have to talk much because I couldn´t breath, talk and walk. I am out of shape.
Great lunch - fruit, b&r, chicken and salad. So much for staying away from ice, salad and drinks with water. We´ll see how that goes. So far I´m healthy.
Then it was back to the cemetery but it was raining to hard to work so we sat around talking until the 2:30 bus came about 3:15.
On to the shower, blog and waiting for out team meeting at 5 pm with dinner at 6. I am pretty sure one of the things on the menu will be b&r!
As to the location - it is so beautiful - green lush mountain views, walks past coffee farms, lots of fruit trees - but no wildlife to be seen yet.
I do like that they use the same electricity here as we do in teh USA. I could have brought my camera and battery charger but no - I still have my 4 disposable cameras.
I´ve taken up enough time on the computer - more tomorrow
S-

Day 2

Well, it´s only about 8:18 pm - one hour different from Central time since they don´t go on daylight savings time here. It feels much later. Seven people from ¨the Office¨ came on this trip and it´s so nice to meet and talk to them. They are all so nice - and fun. We got up at about 7 am and went to breakfast. We had fresh fruit, fresh juice, rice and beans (the staple) and eggs. I decided to try the local favorites and had banana leaf wrapped tamales. At first they were a bit strange tasting because of the banana but of course I ate them!
I can´t remember if I mentioned the interesting part of last night´s dinner. I had a skewer of something that looked like either prunes or liver - after tasting it, I still don´t know what it was.
So, we had our team orientation this morning for a few hours and then left for the worksite near Monteverde. It took us about 4 hours to get there because 1/2 of the way was on very rough unpaved road. I don´t know how anyone gets here. I´ll talk more about this town later. Tonight we went to the worksite where most of the town was waiting to meet us at the community center that Global Volunteers helped to build. They gave us a snack and then we talked about our skills for helping with the projects tomorrow. I told them I can mix cement, lay cement blocks, paint and do some carpentry. I had to admit, they were a bit impressed by this little middle aged lady. Of course the proof is in the pudding as they say, so we´ll see what they think after tomorrow. I am an ïsh¨kinda person.
Someone else needs to use the computer so I´ll close. Hopefully I will have time and energy tomorrow to give more details. So far, I´m very glad I came.

Day 1 - I made it!

Just a quick update
After an ök¨flight (person in front of me HAD to put her seat all the way back and the guy next to me fell asleep on my shoulder - I was starting to think we had a relationship going!)
Other than that, it was easy getting through the airport in Costa Rica and I was the first one who arrived from the group. Gina and her son met me. She is the team leader and really nice. I was told that there would be 3 women and 6 people from ¨the office¨. So I realized that I watch too much TV when I got excited about meeting 6 people from the Öffice¨ (TV show!) and she meant l people from the Global Volunteers home office. Oh well, my heart probably couldn´t take it.
I am in our hotel called Orquideas Inn - very quaint and beatiful gardens just outside of San Jose. San Jose itself isn´t very attractive - quite busy, crowded and not too updated but this Inn is really cute.
I met the other 2 women and hit it off with both of them. Sue and Catherine have both been on 2 other trips through Global Volunteers so it must be good for them to come back. Sue and I have the same philosophy on many things so we are enjoying some rousing conversations. Shes a very lively 68 year old. Catherine is an accountant and very nice and funny. She is my room mate so I´m sure we will bond more as time goes on.
Tonight we are meeting for dinner at the hotel and tomorrow we leave for our work destination (I forget what it´s called right now) but it´s about 4 hours from here in the mountains.
I am currently sitting in the reception area of the hotel since they kindly let me use their computer. I don´t want to impose so I´ll send more updates later.

I wish you were all with me - maybe next time?
S-

12 hours and counting

I feel like I used to the day before the big test - cramming to get it all in my brain. Instead, I'm cramming to get it all in my suitcase! This is probably the least ready I have ever been for a trip. I'm on my way to volunteer for 2 weeks in Costa Rica with Global Volunteers (www.globalvolunteers.com) I'm just starting to get excited. It will be a complete unknown. I will not know anyone there, I've never been to Costa Rica and I've again delayed in learning Spanish so I see a language barrier in my near future!

I have so much medicine, first aid stuff and antibiotic soap and insect repellant in my luggage I have little room for clothes. If anyone searched my bag they would think I was the biggest hypochondriac since Eve on Northern Exposure (I love that old show)
Global Volunteers sent lots of reading and preparation information and I've dutifully printed it all out, put it in a file folder (labeled neatly), and carried it with me, unopened for the past month. Last night I finally started reading it and now I know I have some interesting things to collect for tomorrow such as:
1. 2 pictures of me (not easy to find since I mostly destroy those that I find)
2. 2 copies of my passport (luckily I have a copy machine - done!)
3. Photos of my family to share (I wonder if old photos will count?) I do have a few photos of my daughter and son-in-law and one on my son and daughter-in-law, so I guess I'm clear on that.
4. Thought for the day (oy vey, I don't know what I'm going to come up with but I'm sure it won't be up to par with those volunteers who planned in advance) I don't think my comedy will work here.
5. A notebook or journal to record the day-to-day adventures. Each of us has to record the experiences of 1-2 days on the trip and then read them to the group the next morning. I'm a bit nervous about this but hopefully I won't be first.
6. Toy/s that we can play with with the children while we are there and then leave with the host when we leave. I came home at midnight last night from a business trip and passed a 24 hour Wal-mart. Believe it or not, they had NO frisbees! They said they are out of season. I had to pick up a small football. I hope they know what that is.
7, Daypack and water bottle - of course empty since we can't have liquids on the plane. I know I have a water bottle around here somewhere. . . .
And the list goes on and on -

They said to not bring anything expensive because it could be stolen so I am leaving my digital camera at home and purchased 4 disposable cameras. It will be a miracle if all 4 cameras get back home with me. I am also bringing clothes that anyone can take if they want. We are supposed to be working on a cemetery wall, painting, gardening and cleaning so I'm dressing for work. I'm actually very excited to do some physical labor - I need the exercise!

I plan to update by blog regularly in Costa Rica since they say there are some internet cafes in the area so tune in every so often over the next 2 weeks - I'm sure there will be many adventures to describe.

S-