Fun at the Feria

I finally have some free time! Since my last update, I went back to class for the rest of the week and Thursday, I taught my first English class to the 6th grade students in Tarbaca. We designed the lesson assuming they knew absolutely nothing, but it turned out they were familiar with the basics, hello, my name is, how are you, etc. So we got to work on some new vocabulary and they were really fun and enthusiastic to learn, which was kind of surprising and exciting. After class they showed us their favorite game, which is taking folded up cardboard boxes and ¨sledding¨ down a grass hill on top of them. Brigette and I attempted to follow with mixed success...

Thursday night there was a blackout in Tarbaca for about an hour. Fortunately my family was well prepared with candles and all 7.5 of us (there are now a grandma, sister, and baby living with us for a few weeks) piled into Yazmin´s room to read ¨Leyendas Ticas,¨which I think were kind of like ghost stories although I couldn´t quite follow the plot. Yesterday was training again in San Jose, and this morning we got up and took the bus (after waiting an hour and being passed by two that were too full) to Acerri for the feria, which is like a farmer´s market every Saturday. There are SO many fresh fruits and vegetables and people playing music and dancing and the weather is perfect, it´s AWESOME. Mark and Jake´s families come down at 4am to set up and sell eggs, oranges, tomatoes, squash and broccoli, so we helped Geraldo sell some eggs. Pictures to follow.

Tomorrow Mark and Jake´s families are taking us to some river about two hours away, where apparently we can swim, fish and cook sausage. Next week is Semana Santa, Holy Week, which means everyone has work and school off and everything is closed leading up to Easter. We have class Monday through Wednesday but then get a four day weekend, during which my family is planning to cook all day every day and go to church. They don´t do Passover here so I suppose this will have to suffice as my celebration.

More pictures and stories to come...