English Class at the Tutoring Center

My friend and co-worker Diego approached me several months back about the idea of teaching an English class for some of the guys from his soccer team.  I had gone to a few of their indoor games and on the beach trip with them over the summer, and apparently after that they shared with him that Tara is "tuanis" and "pura vida," which both, essentially, mean "a cool person."  And because they know I'm a teacher and work in Los Guido at the Tutoring Center, they wanted me to help them with English so they could better communicate with our teams from the States and also to just be able to actually use English rather than the little practice they get with it in their schooling.  I have never taught English to teenage boys before, but because I have a heart for Los Guido and the kids and youth that live there, and because I enjoy teaching English, I agreed!  

I am happy to say that I know have two weeks of English classes under my belt and it's been a lot of fun!  We meet in the tutoring center for a little over an hour on Tuesday afternoons after my tutoring students have gone home and the boys have gotten out of school.  The first week we did a few activities where they got to know me a little bit and I also got to know them.  I also had them do a little questionnaire for me to let me know what kinds of things they would like to talk about and learn about in our class.  Overwhelmingly they told me that want to talk about 80s music (and music in general), soccer, food and their families.  Easy enough.  However, if you know me very well, you probably know that 80s music is NOT my favorite decade to choose from.  I will admit that there are some good songs though, so I'm willing to give it a shot.  :)

This past week I went with an 80s artist that we all know and love, Jon Bon Jovi.  We first talked about rock stars and what kinds of things we thought that they ate, how they traveled, etc.  Then we learned a bit about Bon Jovi's daily routine by reading a passage about him.  Then we learned some vocabulary words from "Livin' on a Prayer" and sang it with the words afterwards.  Of course, we also had to watch the music video to the song too.  The guys seemed to be really excited to learn about a singer that they had heard before and liked, and it was a great way for me to get them to read, listen, talk about and learn in English.  We ended the class by reading Psalm 55:1 together and talking about praying to God about whatever is on our mind and hearts.  The homework for the week is to memorize this verse and be able to say it for me next week.  We'll see how it goes! :)

Here are some pics from our class this past week:

Asking my students to tell me what they think rock stars do.

Sentence frames for my students to say in English

Reading about Bon Jovi.  It is our dream to have a pull down screen to use with the projector in the Tutoring Center.  :)

Reading about Jon Bon Jovi

Filling in the missing lyrics to the song

English class week 2!

  

6 months later

Last week marked my 6 month in Costa Rica so I figured I'd write a list of things that are part of my life now that weren't 6 months ago:
There are 4-5 men I say hello to daily on my walk home, most of them my dad's age or older
I'm proficient at cutting both a fresh pineapple and fresh mangoes
I sometimes forget a word in English and can only think of it in Spanish
I've tried surfing and would consider trying it again in the future
Have not driven a car in over 6 months
Can give (simple) directions to a person in my neighborhood if it is asked of me
Know which grocery store to go to to buy Dr. Pepper
Carry tissues and hand sanitizer with me at all times because you just never know
Am no longer frightened by cockroaches and calmly get the Raid can whenever they show their nasty little faces
And I have never once gotten lost despite my fears and request for prayers regarding my (lack of) direction and spatial intelligence. Hopefully that won't change when I get a car!

We'll see what changes are ahead in the next 6 months!

The time my parents came to visit

This past week has been one of the most eventful weeks of my time here.  As most of you have probably heard, we had a pretty significant earthquake last Wednesday here in Costa Rica.  I was running a bit late that morning and so I left the house around 8:35am and soon saw the gates surrounding my neighbor's home shaking pretty violently.  At first I thought it was the children being silly and pulling on the gates, but I soon realized that the ground below me was shaking as well.  Not realizing that it was an earthquake, I continued walking for a few seconds and then got enough sense to STOP walking until it stopped.  I think the whole thing lasted about 40 seconds or so.  The rest of my walk to the bus stop was very interesting as I passed a school where all the children where outside in their duck and cover positions, and many a mom was running towards the school with concerned looks.  I had a few of my neighbors ask me if I was ok and I let one man know that "I'm from California so I've experienced an earthquake before."  When I got to work, Jose informed me that the epicenter was in the Guanacaste region, which is several hours away from us here in Desamparados area, but that there had been damage there and it had been a significant quake.  A very interesting day to start the morning and the students were talking about it all day long.

That evening, I took two buses from my home to the international airport to pick up my mom and dad!!  I was so very excited to see their smiling faces and to get big hugs from them.  We went to the rental car place and got their car for the week (along with a GPS) and made our way to my home.  After catching up a bit, we went to sleep to be ready for work in the morning.  

The classic long-arm shot in my kitchen when they first got here. 

Thursday morning mom and dad came to the tutoring center with me.  Even though they had rented a car, I wanted them to walk with me to the bus stop and ride the bus so they could experience a bit of what my everyday life looks like. 

Walking in my neighborhood

Waiting for the bus

Dad and mom were super helpful with labeling books, putting pictures from the summer in frames to be displayed, cutting things apart, and helping with both English and math with the students.  It was fun to see them interact with my students, and I got a lot of "you look like each other" comments from my kiddos.  

At lunch time I wanted mom and dad to see a bit of my neighborhood, so we went for a walk.  Come to find out when we returned that I had brought my home keys instead of the tutoring keys with me, and Jose had also left his keys inside because I had told him I had keys.  :(  Almost 2 hours later, Jose was able to track down some co-workers who had keys to the Center and we came back in for a few hours of tutoring and art in the afternoon.  We had a great time of practicing math facts, English, and just talking while we were "stranded" outside.

Playing games together out on the sidewalk

Practicing English

One of my kiddos in her school uniform

Beautiful day in Los Guido

Friday morning we came back to the tutoring center and Mom helped me with Girls' Club while Dad helped two of my co-workers with a repair in the tutoring center.  We left at lunch time to do some exploring of San Jose before the soccer game in the evening.

Frappuccinos en Plaza de la Cultura

In front of the National Theatre

Cailah joined us for the soccer game between Mexico and Costa Rica.  Our team lost but we sure had a great time!

Saturday morning we headed out for Monteverde for the next few days and had a fabulous time.  Rather than describe everything in great detail, I will post a selection of our adventures together and write a brief description of each.  :)

Even though I look kind of grumpy, I loved the beautiful scenery outside our hotel balcony.

Ready for our "night hike" in the rain

Going zip lining!

My adventurous parents

So relaxed in the middle of the cloud forest

Walking through the forest on the hanging bridges

The hanging bridges were a fabulous way to take in the gorgeous cloud forest

Exploring Monteverde Biological Reserve with our guide, Giovanni

Sweet little waterfall named "Tobacco Spit" in Spanish.  Too pretty for that name in my opinion

So beautiful it's almost unreal

Checking out the coffee plantation at the Don Juan coffee farm

Beautiful sunset over the cloud forest

We got back to my home on Tuesday afternoon and my parents were so sweet by helping me clean around my house and out in our garden area.  Then they headed out to go to a hotel for the night before taking an early flight on Wednesday morning.  What a blessing to have them here with me for a week, both to get to experience my life as an SI staff member in Desamparados and also to enjoy some of the most beautiful places the country has to offer.  Can't wait for them to come back in the future.  :)

Club de Muchachas

Yesterday was the first day that I didn't have any team members of Intern Rebekah or fellow staff member Tracey with me at girls' club.  To be honest, I was a bit nervous because I'm still very much a learner of the Spanish language and get a bit flustered trying to communicate at times.  When I sat down to really think about what I wanted to do with the girls, I realized that I hadn't ever shared with them much at me- my heart from my family, friends, Spanish, for them, God, etc.  We spend each week talking about them and for sure I've shared some things here and there about myself, but not so much from my heart. 

I decided to talk to them about deciding to come here and how I'm content and happy to be here working with them and building relationships with them, but that at times, it is difficult and I miss all the people I love back in the States.  We talked about John 14 where Jesus is telling the disciples he is going to leave soon but that he will leave a helper, the Holy Spirit, to be with them at all times.  I shared with the girls that it's ok and even good to miss people that we love, and I know they can relate to this because they get to know team members and staff members who come and go, and that's hard on their hearts at times.  Some of the girls also have experienced having family members leave for a multitude of different reasons.  They didn't share very much about what they were thinking on this topic, but I could tell they were really listening and there were some tears that I saw slip down their cheeks as well.  I hope that as I am able to open up and be honest with them about my heart and what the Lord is teaching me, we can continue to build on our relationships and they will open up to me too.

We continued the theme of the morning by making homemade cards for people we love.  I absolutely LOVE being creative in this way and it was really fun sitting and laughing and giving ideas to these young ladies as they made their cards.  Lots of glue, ribbon, scrapbook paper, buttons  and lace were everywhere, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  :)

Kristtel and Wendy, two of my special girls

"Te quiero mucho" is what it is supposed to say, so sweet :)

Yuriely's "Barbie-like" drawing of me