Advertisement
Published: November 26th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Many of our friends and family have sent us emails and called us to make sure we are ok - because we haven't posted any new information for about a month. Well, we are doing just fine - busy with school work, life at the clinic, etc. Also, we have not gone on any exciting side trips so we did not have any dramatic photos to show the world.
Here are some the things we have been up to since we last posted.
First, we finally got internet hooked up at our house. It took 4 days from the first visit of a service tech from ICE - the government telecommunications monopoly. And of course this was 7 weeks from the day we got our phone line first installed. And, this is just to get ISDN installed - which is the early version of high-speed internet, no longer even sold in the US. But, we are happy to be able to connect to email, without walking over to the internet cafe (or searching for non-password-protected wireless access points!). And, we have discovered that Skype works just fine at this speed and enables us to call folks in the US
for just 2 cents a minute. So, the Struthers family now has a new holiday to celebrate - November 7 is hereby declared to be "Dia de la Internet." We haven't decided whether in future years we should observe this occasion by staying off the internet for an entire day or just sitting online all day long!
The "true" holiday celebration this week was Accion de Gracias - aka Thanksgiving. Obviously, this is not a holiday that is celebrated here in Costa Rica (they really don't have a connection to the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock!). But, there are enough Americans around that several of the stores stock whole turkeys, stuffing mix, canned cranberry jelly, and pumpkin pie ingredients. So, we hosted a fantastic gathering of 22 people - a combination of the Ticos we work with (none of whom had ever been to a Thanksgiving fiesta), the 9 American volunteers who were in town (including a family of 4 from Massachusetts), and an American family we have met down here (who provided us with many of the serving dishes, utensils, and turkey pan we used - not to mention baking FANTASTIC pumpkin pies). We took the day off from
the clinic so that we could get the house ready, cook the turkey, etc. and then everyone arrived around 3PM. We even had the American football game on the TV to give it the full effect - though the 80 degree weather definitely made it feel different from home. It was a really wonderful way to celebrate the day. We even noted the (somewhat) similar set of circumstances to the first Thanksgiving - a bunch of gringos (Pilgrims/us) sitting down and sharing a feast with the locals (Native Americans/Ticos) who had helped them survive in the new land - though our voyage was a little easier than the ride on the Mayflower and getting internet hook-up doesn't seem quite as critical as surviving disease and the cold of a New England winter!
The boys are in their final week of school - which means EXAMS! In each of their 7 main subjects - 3 English speaking, 4 in Spanish - they have an 80 minute test on what they have learned the past 2 months. Kind of intense for a 7 and 9 year old, but Sam and Kyle seem to be taking it well. Sam's Spanish teacher is
particularly tough, so he and Nancy have been drilling vocabulary like crazy - which has the added benefit of expanding her knowledge as well. It is also tough because the weather has been particularly nice the past week - so the boys are stir crazy to go outside and play.
The clinic has been exciting. We were "in charge" for 2 weeks when Christian and Dayan went to El Salvador to help get the new FIMRC clinic there established. We had a "translator" (a friend of Dayan who is bilingual) but she was sick two days so we had to manage on our own - plus 2 volunteers who were in town. Everything went fine - we even went down to the community soup kitchen to teach about 65 local kids about brushing their teeth and to distribute toothbrushes and toothpaste that one of the volunteers brought. The next day, we returned to pass out clothes and toys that she had brought - this time, 125 kids showed up. It was clear that they appreciated getting something that was their own that was not simply handed down by or shared with a sibling.
Once C & D returned
safely from El Salvador, we started taking "orders" for shoes for the kids. The clinic has an annual Navidad fiesta at which the children each receive a new pair of shoes. So, waves of moms have been showing up at the clinic - not to get medical treatment for their children but to give us their kids' shoe sizes (which, by the way, is in the European size - so you have kids listed as having size 29 shoes!). We signed up about 225 in just 3 days! Steve's folks have raised a bunch of money from friends and family that they will bring down to help us purchase shoes for the party. And, his dad has agreed to don the Santa Claus suit for the party - that should be quite entertaining.
The weather is definitely starting to change from the rainy season to the dry season. We have already had days when it did not rain at all. The temperature is a few degrees warmer than it had been the past few months. And, the wind has really started to blow - apparently December is quite windy, but the breeze sure keeps things pleasant.
Our landlords
have begun a massive landscaping project in the adjoining lot that they own. They tore down the fence that separated the two lots, have started trucking in huge loads of dirt, and have started to spread it around. Apparently the plan is to turn it into a huge lawn like what we have directly in front of our house. And, possibly, put in a swimming pool - but we are not holding our breaths on that happening any time soon.
Other than that, life has settled into a relatively steady rhythm. That will change with the end of school, the arrival of Steve's parents for about 3 weeks in December, the waves of college volunteers that come down during holiday breaks, and the whole excitement of Navidad/Christmas. By the way, it is interesting that without the "buffer" of Halloween and Thanksgiving, the Christmas decorations and advertising starts much earlier here - we started seeing lights, Santas, even nativity scenes up as early as November 1. So, we can only imagine how big a deal things will be when we actually hit December.
One final item: Nancy spotted our Funny/Out-of-Place T-Shirt of the Month. It was worn by a
middle-aged Tico man walking down the sidewalk in our town and said "SEIU Workers for John Kerry" (for those who might not be familiar with the acronym, SEIU stands for the Service Employees Union).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0675s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Rick Heydinger
non-member comment
Great Update
Nancy/Steve/Kyle/Sam: Great update. Obviously things are going well. Loved the pictures and glad to see that you are spreading the word on Thanksgiving, the best of all holidays.