Monday, November 30, 2009

Happy thanksgiving

so my mom left early Sunday morning for san jose for a doctors apointment leaving poor carol to cook for me and isidro, who actually is a super good cook. She made delicious arroz con leche which was like rice pudding. All day Sunday and Monday were super weird without my host mom but It did force me to talk to my dad and sister a lot more which was good.Sunday evening we received two new volunteers: Jackie and becky, who are both from Vancouver bc and also two bicycles that were donated by a local bike shop that promotes cycling all around the world. Everyone gathered around to see the new bikes being put together, even isidro paused his telenovela to come see the excitement.


Monday was more helping the volunteers and of course chatting away with them as well. Its exciting having so many people to get to know and all of them have such interesting stories. I also helped isidro shoe one of his horses and later he asked if I knew how to cook and when I said no he told me I need to learn because when I have a spouse I will have cook for him. He really missed arabella when he had to make his own lunch.

Later after class I walked into my room and on one of the boards on my ceiling was the biggest hairiest tarantulas I have ever see. Just when I thought I had seen it all. So of course I immediately ran out of the room and went to find Dylan or marcos or somebody brave enough to kill. Finally I found isidro who came to my rescue and smashed it lightly with a broom than swept it up into a banana leaf and was back to work. But he seemed to find it rather amusing when I jumped up onto my bed after the tarantula hit the ground. I couldn’t wait to tell arabella all about it when she got home later that night and of course she thought it was pretty amuzing too, man its good to have her home. Tuesday morning arabella taught me how to make pancakeas, which are so good no syrup necessary, than it was back to grouting the counters in the kitchen. We had a short class and than walked to pick some basil nearby and than walked to the soda where I had another amazing chocolate banano.

That night instead of waking of to the sound of my friendly bat I woke up to the voices of sarah marcos and arabella all whispering. Totally freaked me out cause it was one in the morning and I couldn’t imagina what had gone wrong. Turns out poor marcos had gotten a moth stuck inside his ear and was seeing if arabella could get it out. Fortunatly the doctor who comes twice a month to the town just above us was going to be there so he just waited until monring. I woke up really early the next morning and got up and because I was up early enough Arabella asked if I wanted to come help milk! Milking a cow is wayyy easier than it looks. She demonstrated how and than gave me a pitcher and went on to milk the rest oof the udders and while she managed to fill up two pitchers I got maybe three inches of mine filled. But she did tell me it takes a lot of practice so I guess I better start practicing.

Wednsday was Nicole and Dylans last day, which is crazy cause they were the only two when we first got here. We had a big bonfire complete with fireworks that marcos had gotten just for them and after a while of talking about scary movies and the local brujas or witches we went to the bar one last time with them. One guy came up to me saying he had heard I worked in Alaska and asked where and when I said Dillingham he asked if I knew tom who is the plant manager or big boss up there. I guess this guy workes on the stellar sea that used to be owned by peterpan and knows hart the QA boss and some others. Crazy small world. Thursday was thanksgiving but we went on working just like usual when marcos came walking down to the house carrying a bag that started moving and than a head popped out the top. He had gone all around the nearby towns looking for a turkey for sarah, cause he knew how important the holiday was to her and how sad she was she was missing it with her family. AWWWW. But this wasn’t your typical butterbull it was still clucking. So isidro swiftly broke its neck and than we helped to clean off the feathers than sarah and arabella cleaned and gutted and cooked the bird. It was a thanksgiving dinner to remember. Sarah and whitney creatively had made stuffing with rice and toast and there was homemade bread and corn and squash own sugar and mashed potatoes and gravy, everything made from sctrach and it was delicious. I called home and talked to my family only for a few minutes and was pretty bummed I was missing out the traditional culver thanksgiving but this one I will never forget.

Ari and I had decided to spend our last weekend in Manuel Antonio after hearing all about the beach and national park there and after inviting some people we all decided to go. So Friday night we played some more phase ten and all the volunteers but dave and whitney wrote in the guestbook cause It was their last night. Friday night was crazy, me and ari decided to sleep in one of the cabanas that are located in the middle of the jungle. After having dave and whitney tuck my mosquito net in for me and after giggling for what seemed like hours we all fell asleep in the pitch black listening to the sounds of creatures moving outside.

5:00 came way too early and after one last group photo with the all the volunteers we got on the bus. Isidro and arabella also were on the bus but going to san jose to visit their daughters. We rode for almost a half hour where we got of at a small bench or bus stop to wait for the next bus which sadly didn’t come for another two hours. But as we were sitting their here comes Jorge coming to join us. We had invited him several times and he had never really given us an answer but here he was. So we finally got on the two hour bus that took us to quepos and from there we got the shuttle to manuel Antonio. After all 10 of us had checked into the hostel we headed to the park where thank goodness Jorge was there. The ticos hear have incredible sight and senses and knowledge of their surrounding and the wildlife in costa rica. He pointed out several sloths and howler monkeys and other kinds of monkeys and animals that would have been impossible to notice. We hiked up to a view point looking over the bay and than to two different beaches where we swam in the clear warm water and soaked up some sun and than walked some more to see more racoons and large rodents.

After showering and having a delicious dinner of all you can eat spaghetti and balony we headed out where everyone got a couple drinks and than we headed down to the beach where we just talked and sunk our feet in the sand and enjoyed the waves crashing onto the sand. A guy we met at dinner also joined us and we learned that he has biked here all the way from san diego and plans to go to the tip of panama. It was incredible to hear all about his stories. The next morning we all just hungout one last time and than headed to the beach where me and Ari said good by to everyone. It was crazy that 5 of the volunteers had only been there a week or so but we had all become so close. Only whitney and dave are coming back. It was crazy taking one last pictures and saying good luck with the rest of your life and how we will all be in touch. I hope that’s true cause I already cant wait to see where these people end up and even if we never do see each other again we all will always have our good times at siempre verde in the middle of nowhere costa rica.

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