pura vida!

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buenos tardes! i have so much to say in 20minutes, so i´ll do my best to summarize, haha we all know thats NOT my forte!
so after a long day on the 23rd we arrived safely in the town of San Jose! We stayed in this´country club´gated community type place. pool, tennis courts, large soccer field, and then these simply (yet beautiful) cabins that they rent out to families to sleep in. i think we were all in enough culture shock flying in, and then driving through San Jose , that this just really just slapped us in the face! The gap between the rich and the poor is incredible.. some people have everything that we have and more, and then some reside under tin roofs and have to walk down the street to get to a bathroom. that night we found out what groups we were with . ( the 16 of us YCI´´ers got split in two groups of 8.) SOMEHOW I GOT THE PERFECT GROUP! i totally would have been happy with either project and probably with most of the people, but the group i ended up with is so rocking. Wicked wicked dynamics - everyone is excited to be here and can joke about anything. kinda dundas humour too !
the next morning at 530 we were awake and packed ready to jump on our buses to the communities for the next 8 weeks. Yesteday was ALSO a long day, but definetly the most full of events. My group is currently living in the village Rio Chickito, about 5 hours north west of San Jose. The drive was long and bumpy (never felt such potholes, the drivers are horrible too) hot yet full of fun games of 21 Q´s to keep me alive and happy. so we got to the village,and were welcomed by smiling costa rican faces. the president of the community (about 100 ppl living here) greeted us with his family and extended family. we unpacked -cant wait to show you teh pics of our misquito nets hahah so princess like - and then jetted out to the soccer field to play the BEST game of ´football´ of my LIFE. (ahha ardy. but seriously.) from the mountains surrounding the field, to the ´ninos´(kids) throwing me high fives and BUENOS PUERTO )(good goal) all over the place .... i dont think i have felt so content in a long time.´ my friend ryan put it perfeclty when he said IT doesnt get Better than This! the kids then showed us the real meaning of the word BAILO (dance!) we danced to their crazy spanish music for about 2 hours straight, and boy, did we ever feel inferere!! i dont think i´ve ever seen a 9 years old SHAKE like these girls did! ah. the boys were very shy, but i think its just because they were pooped from the soccer game.
meals have been rice and beans, more rice and beans and some delicious fruit every once and a while. today we woke up and went down the road to the vice president of the communities father house. he took us on a beautiful tour of his families outdoor PALACE. they have a gorgeous house )definetly the most well off in the village) but their yard, wow i cant even begin to describe it. tropical paradise! the pictures will expain more, but flowers, tall palm trees and chickens running around is the simplest description i got.
weather¨NOT february as i know it!! woohooo is all i have to say. its been 31-31ish today and yesterday, needless to say we´re loving the difference in temp from canada.
in terms of the volunteering, we start on monday. our group leaders are two espanic woman )25 and 26) and are really all about us getting to know the area before we start work. when we do start we´ll be re-constructing 3 kitchens in Rio Chickito, building a fence around Léscula (the school) , be running english classes and hopefully get to do a conference or two . so physched to get this all started!
we´re here for one month, then move onto another project in San Gabriel for the last month. more conferences, fences and fun with school kids!
today we´ve ventured into the larger town about 45 mins away by bus to get veggies and fruit (dont worry mom ALL to be PEELED by us!) and check our emails, etc in the local net cafe.
quick names of ppl on my trip- adam, roger, ryan, ayendri, shannon, lauren and petrina. they´re all between 18 and 20. ya, as i said, i really think i lucked out with the people. to the banff Beaver dudes and dudettes, i´ve started a QUOTE SHEET on our wall. haha we love it already.
right then, im way over time limit. tis been good, hope this gives you a feel for whats been happening!
by the way PURA VIDA means PURE LIFE , them costa ricans really know how to live it here. loving the culture to the max
until next time we come to town!
LOVE FROM HILS XOOXOXO

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Comments

[hailskayls]

i love this girl
hey hunnnnnnyyy.....it's kayls. im so happy for you sounds like you are having a great experience. as are hails and i! we are just living it up over here...and like you enjoying the warm weather. can't wait to read more blogs. i miss you and love you so much! have fun baby...buenos dias! (i learnt a little spanish in dominican.....)