Fires and Bumps in the Road

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Well it's been a while since my last entry so this is mostly going to be a rambling, catch-up post.

I guess the primary bit of news here relates to Ella's challenges at Home School Beach Academy (where Charlie seems to be thriving).

Ella was absolutely miserable at her school. While Charlie was able to quickly make two friends (Marshall, an Albertan who's been here for 6 years and who's dad works on an oil rig in mexico and Liad who's family has moved here permanently from Israel), Ella found herself in a class of all Spanish speaking kids. In addition to that, the school is in the process of being accredited by the national Ministry of Education, and that requires them to teach at least two classes completely in Spanish. None of us were told about that little detail.

If the shock of being in a Spanish-speaking country, away from friends and family wasn't enough, the day to day feeling of isolation was too much for Ella. Ella also puts an intense pressure on herself to do well at school. The fact that two of her classes were taught only in Spanish put her in an immediate position of feeling like a failure. Socially, I'm sure if she'd made a bit more of an effort, and if the other kids did as well, she'd be having the 'multi-language, cultural immersion experience' that we'd dreamed of for her. But that was our dream, not hers.

Charlie on the other hand, is thriving. He isn't even being taught math any more - they just give him the workbook and he figures it all out on his own. In my opinion this is the ultimate learning experience - learning to learn.

What we had to accept is that our idea of having the kids learn Spanish and make Costa Rican friends while on a 5 1/2 month visit is just not very realistic. And in the end, Cher and I couldn't handle the nightly and morning crying sessions. We're all supposed to be here to have a great time while experiencing a different culture and hopefully learning some Spanish. It shouldn't feel like torture for any of us.

Frankly, Ella's misery was starting to bring us all down so we enrolled Ella at Country Day School Guanacaste starting this past week. This is a local American school that just happens to be one of the best private schools in Costa Rica. The kind of school we could never afford at home :- ) It's built on the grounds of a former resort and the school looks like a resort. The first few days were a little rough (yet another change), but she's settling in well and has some made some very nice friends (Mathild from Quebec, Colleen from Denver and Joey from L.A.). By complete coincidence, her grade 5 teacher, Mr. Sean Willick, was a Green Party candidate in Fort Erie and is friends with our friend and Dundas Green Party rep, Peter Ormond in Hamilton. We think we've even been to the same fundraising events as Sean. The bit of connection to home helps make the world seem a little smaller.

Ella's joined the swim team and also had her first surf lesson yesterday. She's totally excited (can I say "stoked"?) for her next batch of lessons, continuing this afternoon. I'm getting inspired to grab myself a board this week and get going too.... Surfing is the one missing piece of our experience here (although Charlie's got a head start on us) and I'm eager to learn this skill before I go home.

My dad was here for 3 weeks and it was really great to be able to spend time with him. He quickly settled into his usual routine of sitting on the patio with his little radio and a glass of wine (or three). Once the kids were off to school, Cher or I would chop up a huge plateful of fresh pineapple, mango and papaya and we'd all grab a fork and sit around the table, enjoying the luxury of fresh, sweet fruits, feeling the breeze and listening to local radio. I do love the music here.

With my dad unable to walk very far, or ride a bicycle, we needed to rent a truck for the duration of his visit. I must say, we got a little spoiled having a vehicle and being able to spontaneously go for dinners anywhere we wanted (including other beach towns along the coast). On top of that, Ella's new school does not have a bus service to this area. The need to have a car became imminent and renting for the remainder of the trip was out of the question. Cars are subject to an (approx) 50% import tax here. They are very expensive to purchase and subsequently, very expensive to rent. Our little Toyota Rav 4 rental cost us $2,600 for 23 days!

After looking around for 3 weeks we finally purchased an old 1994 Isuzu Rodeo (which Ella has named "Bernie the Beast") from Jacquelyn, an expat that was returning to her home in Texas. The engine seems to run fine and the body is in decent shape, but the bumpy roads here take their toll; the front grill is being held on with zip ties, the body and chassis moan and shake and parts of the interior will literally fall off as you drive. But it gets us from "point A to point B" (Avellenas to Brasilito?) and the stereo works (which helps to drown out the sound of parts falling off). No A/C but the driver side window doesn't close so who needs a/c. This will only be a problem during the rainy season and we have a month before we need to worry about that or need to learn the Spanish for "can you fix my power window and do you have any zip ties?". I do check the interior for big spiders and scorpions in the mornings because the window being open at night means anything could get in there.

Charlie made a really insightful and funny comment as we were driving the other day, "I've seen stuff here in one month that I wouldn't see in ten years back home.". Between numerous grass and forest fires, car accidents, trees falling over in the high winds, cowboys sharing the road with cars and cattle, etc... it really is a different and exciting place. For example, Cher took Ella to the local doctor yesterday (who is amazing by the way) to check out some stomach pain and the doctor had to leave to "go help someone that is stuck under a fallen tree... they are trying to get her out with a chainsaw".

Working here has been a bit of challenge. We quickly installed a second high-speed internet line from a different company and a different technology (one ADSL from ICE and one Cable Modem from Amnet). If one goes down, the other is usually fine. This has occasionally necessitated a mad, mid-call dash from one part of the house to the other. In general though, it's working out and I can see how it is possible to live here and continue to work at an internet or phone-based job.

We've figured out which are the cheap restaurants (with good food) and have determined that it costs about the same to eat out as it does to grocery shop. Needless to say, we've been dining out a lot! A large pizza at El Huerto (baked in their large, outdoor, wood oven) is $10 and is delicioso!

The Papagayo winds, which have been keeping the house nice and cool, are due to end any day. This will leave the rest of March and all of April hot and breezeless, with no rain in sight until maybe the end of April. I fully expect we will finally break down and start using the A/C 24 x7 which is a shame.

On the music front, I've played 3 gigs since i got here. Which means I am playing more than at home. No one seems to have a PA system so the first two gigs were completely unplugged (wandering-minstrel-like) and the second one involved me playing through a single microphone (for guitar and vocals) into a little 30W amp. It was a really fun gig at a call beach bar with a very enthusiastic crowd. I am looking forward to playing there again soon but I really need to buy a guitar amp here with two inputs.

Well, if you're still reading, thanks for sticking with the update. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the next round of guests on Monday, my sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew and nephew's girlfriend (Zlata, Mike, Tara, Joss and Liz). I'm sure it will be a fun week and I've been holding off on taking a sunset sailing/snorkelling trip until their arrival. I will be booking a few days off work to hang with them.

That's all for now.



Hasta Luego!

Dan

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Photos

Surf Lesson for Ella
She ALMOST got up on her feet.. expectations are soaring for lesson #2. :- )
Coco is a great instructor, working out of Mar Bar.

Traffic in Matapalo
Pretty much every morning I need to patiently work my way through herd of cows on the way to Ella's school.

Ella's birthday.
Birthday girl AND winner of the watermelon eating contest!

There are fires constantly burning here.
This one was on the edge of town. Two days before this a fire took out power to the whole community. Amazingly, the grass is already growing back at this spot.

Fun gigs!
I had a great time playing at the Rip Jack Inn!

Pretty spot on the roadside.
I love the mingling stone and flowers.

Panda.
Surf dog.

Deda
So nice to have him here for 3 weeks!

Bernie
"the beast".
It rocks when it rolls.

Where's Hunter S Thompson?
He'd love this place.

Comments

[Kathy Garneau]

Thanks for the update!
Hi Guys, I am happy to hear Ella likes her new school. Loved reading your blog. Thanks for sharing your adventures. Does Ella write a blog too?