El Presidente

---

In Costa Rican political news.... Kyle came home on the second day of the new school year and casually announced that he had been elected class president. Apparently, his responsibilities include sitting on the school wide student council and being "in charge" of the class when the teacher has to leave the room. He also claims that he has the authority to hand out "boletas" (demerits) if he sees kids acting contrary to school rules. However, Sam wants everyone to know that Kyle's powers do NOT apply when he is at home!

School overall is going well. The boys have gotten reacquainted with their buddies from last year. Sam is particularly happy that his teacher from last year has moved up with the class; she is very nice and speaks English quite well. Nancy and Steve attended the parents' meeting for each of the boys' classes and were pleased that we understood about 75% of what was being said. We laughed later about the fact that the issues raised by parents here were exactly the same as back home - toilet paper in the bathrooms, type of birthday snacks, parking lot safety, amount/difficulty of homework, etc.

Life at the clinic has been interesting the past month as we have been hosting the dozen medical students from Michigan State. Nancy has given a lecture - complete with PowerPoint and article reprints - each week on topics such as child development, breastfeeding, immunizations, and everyone's lunchtime favorite - parasites. She has also been able to do alot of hands-on training in the exam room. We also hosted them for a fun birthday celebration of one of the student's 25th birthday (god do we feel OLD!), complete with charades, singing, and guaro shots. For the uninitiated, guaro is a sugar-cane-based liquor that is a favorite of the Ticos (there are are many songs with lyrics about the pleasure - and the pain - of guaro).

Beyond school, work, soccer games, and caring for our collection of animals, the only other exciting event was attending our town's Tope. In typical Tico fashion, it started 2 hours later than announced and was a free-for-all of about 500 horses (ridden by generally inebriated folks) trotting and dancing down the streets of the city. Check out the photo of the old barefoot guy with the live rooster on his head!

---

Photos

Enjoying the festivities
from right to left: Christian, Tatiana (the clinic's psychologist), and Tatiana's husband

After guaro.....
mmmmm mmmmm love that after-taste!