Tuesday, January 09, 2007
No lizzards, but....
OK, I have about 10 minutes of what was supposed to be a half hour of computer access...long story....this is going to be quick.
I made it to Monteverde Sunday. There were 14 students on the bus with me, and I was the first one to be dropped off. My Tico family lives just outside of Santa Elena. The house is halfway up a really steep hill-road. There are no addresses here, only directions, i.e. 75 meters west of the Post Office, which happens to be mine.
My family: Hermalinda, who is in her late 50s. One of her daughters, Elena. Elena´s four children, Andres, 14, Ricardo, 12, and twins Melania and Melissa, who will be three this Saturday.
The house is extremely small. The biggest room, the kitchen and living-dining area, is about the size of the average middle'class kitchen in the US. There are two bedrooms where the family sleeps. I have my own room, which is attached to the house but has a separate entrance. This gives me some privacy but also means I have to unluck the door to the main house and traipse through if I have to go to the bathroom at night.
The good news--Elena is in the middle of having a small additional space attached to the house built for her. There will be a tiny tiny kitchen, a bedroom, and a tiny living area. But this means the boys and Hermelinda will have their own room.
It gets crowded - Hermelinda also babysits for two grandchildren whose mom is a teacher at my school. But I LOVE this family. The kids are really great. We spent an hour or two the first night talking about motocross. We went through every page of two magazines...you can imagine how much I had to add to the conversation.
Shoot, getting kicked off my machine. All for now.
I made it to Monteverde Sunday. There were 14 students on the bus with me, and I was the first one to be dropped off. My Tico family lives just outside of Santa Elena. The house is halfway up a really steep hill-road. There are no addresses here, only directions, i.e. 75 meters west of the Post Office, which happens to be mine.
My family: Hermalinda, who is in her late 50s. One of her daughters, Elena. Elena´s four children, Andres, 14, Ricardo, 12, and twins Melania and Melissa, who will be three this Saturday.
The house is extremely small. The biggest room, the kitchen and living-dining area, is about the size of the average middle'class kitchen in the US. There are two bedrooms where the family sleeps. I have my own room, which is attached to the house but has a separate entrance. This gives me some privacy but also means I have to unluck the door to the main house and traipse through if I have to go to the bathroom at night.
The good news--Elena is in the middle of having a small additional space attached to the house built for her. There will be a tiny tiny kitchen, a bedroom, and a tiny living area. But this means the boys and Hermelinda will have their own room.
It gets crowded - Hermelinda also babysits for two grandchildren whose mom is a teacher at my school. But I LOVE this family. The kids are really great. We spent an hour or two the first night talking about motocross. We went through every page of two magazines...you can imagine how much I had to add to the conversation.
Shoot, getting kicked off my machine. All for now.
# posted by Anne @ 12:52 PM 
