Jakob's post gave you a little taste for what our first day was like...it was wild. Imagine showing up at 8 am at anyone's house before school and it would be chaotic but throw in over 30 kids ranging in age from 18 months to teens...whoa!
But the kids were really friendly and adorable - the littlest one is named Mario and he must be around 18 months. He took an instant liking to Jakob and they rolled a soccer ball back and forth for some time...until some of the older kids jumped in and ran off with the ball. For some reason Jakob is now really motivated to learn some more words in spanish...like "stop" (alto/parar?) and "play nice" (jugar bien) and "share" (compartir)...
The placement is the home of Don Victor and Dona Melba - they must be saints for taking in these kids. At the Home Base (where we are living) there is a binder with the stories of these kids - heartbreaking and terrifying - but amazing because Dona Melba is giving kids a chance who, without her help, would be living in the streets - if they even made it that far.
Dona Melba's is a short walk from where we live so it is convenient to get there too. They are currently remodeling their house to make more rooms for the kids. I got to help Don Victor with some work - sanding down a bed frame that we will put some varnish on and will be used in the new bedroom. I think I got the easy job being outside although the kids would come running through my work area with Luke and Jakob chasing them to round them up! Stine walked some kids to school and an older boy named David gave Stine an interesting walking tour to the school - David stopped to get himself some candy a couple of times...
As for the walk to the park Jakob mentioned in his post...I would never have guessed that would be so tough but not really being able to yell the right words to "redirect" the kids from cars flying by on the main road was a bit frustrating...I'm now motivated to look up a few special spanish phrases too...like "get your @$$ over here!" - is that appropriate?!
I will take pictures sometime next week after we have settled in...
2 comments:
Hi Chris & family,
Glad to hear you made it easily w/out any airline side trips. I love "Jose's" description of it being hard taking the kids to the park and them not listening, ha!
Love the blog, the pics, the stories. Keep em' coming and continue to have fun & to be safe.
Beth
Hi Chris and Stine!! How cool to hear about your first few days in Costa Rica... Chris, I personally don't think 'get your a$$ over here now' would be inappropriate, in fact it would show them that you mean business!! : ) We miss you guys alot, but are having fun in Washington nonetheless. Can't wait to see your pictures and hear your stories. Alex says, "Hey Luke - Have fun at Costa Rica! See Ya, Bye." He really liked hearing Luke's interview. XOXOXO Liz and Terry
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