Okay, where to begin. LOTS has been going on in the past couple weeks, most notably a visit from my family! But before we get to those details, I actually have been productive and gotten moving on some projects. At the escuela, we painted the recycling bins and they are now lined up outside two classrooms and being used...somewhat correctly. I also hosted a charla for parents after sending home flyers with every single of the 150 students at the school, and 8 women showed up, one of which was my host mom and another a high school girl I convinced to come when I was on my way up. Still, it's enough of a group to start working, but people are not that optimistic because they've tried to form a recycling committee in the past and apparently didn't do much. It's pretty tough here because nothings is organized on the municipal or national level, so it all has to come from grassroots volunteer projects, which generally lack funding and commitment. But I figure starting with little kids who HAVE to be in school anyways is the way to go, so we'll see.

I am also starting a community newsletter project with some of the students in my English class, and I went to sell ads to micro-enterprises in Quebradas last week with another girl and really had no idea what to suspect since this is a new concept and a lot of the businesses don't currently do advertising or have a logo or anything, but people were really receptive and excited about it and more than 20 businesses have bought ads. I didn't even know there were more than 20 businesses in Quebradas until now! So that was very exciting but now that people have really invested in the project, we have to deliver a good product for not that much money, which is getting a little complicated. If anyone has a really good printer at home maybe I can just send it home to print? No, I kid, we will figure something out and it WILL be sustainable...

Okay now to the fun part. I met Dad, Lynne and Liza in front of the church in San Isidro last Thursday after they drove down from San Jose. We went to lunch and I gave them a mini-tour of the town and the giant farmers' market before bringing Liza back to Quebradas for the evening. She met the fam and helped me with my English class and watched me stop and talk to many neighbors, and she learned is the norm in small communities unlike LA and NYC, and then mid-day we headed to Chimirol, where Dad and Lynne were waiting for us at Monte Azul, a beautiful hotel/lodge/bed and breakfast where we spent the next three nights. I will refrain from describing every delicious meal we ate there, but some of the highlights included fresh-squeezed pineapple juice, organic coffee, homemade feta cheese, and, of course, chocolate cake. We spent our first afternoon exploring the trails and waterfall at the hotel, our second day we took a day trip to Matapalo, a quiet and peaceful beach on the Southern Pacific Coast, and our third day included massages and a cooking class at the hotel. REALLY rough life, I know. A really fun part was getting to know the staff there. There are four partners who run the place, one Tico who grew up in Berkeley, CA, and three gringos. The rest of the guys are local and were all very fun. For half the time we were the only guests there, making the staff to guest ratio at least 2 to 1. Anyways it was a wonderful hidden treasure to know about for future visitors, and I have a feeling Dad, Lynne and Liza will be back...

Monday I brought the fam back to Quebradas, where we spent the day with my Tico fam. Duglass took the afternoon off of work and Sylvia prepared a big feast of olla de carne, then after a tour of "downtown Quebradas" where Lynne got her hair washed at the new salon, we came back to the house for cafecito and ended up just staying in and hanging out and ordering in pizza for dinner because it was pouring rain. Everyone was in their pajamas and joking around and seemed to get along really well, despite the language barriers. Liza spend the night again and on Tuesday we made the trek up to FUDEBIOL, with a stop at the women's recycling paper group for a meeting. Then we met Dad and Lynne for a picnic at the reserve and in the afternoon, the group of neighbors I am working with on a bilingual nature guide course took them on guided tours of FUDEBIOL that they had prepared the week before. Then I accompanied the family back into town for more coffee and bread before saying goodbye.

It was a really nice mix of getting to take a mini vacation with my family and introducing them to my community and my new life here. And of course it was very sad to say goodbye, especially because Liza is off to college next week and I don't know when I'll see here next, but I feel so lucky that I've already had visitors and have more to come. It definitely helps me get through days when I'm feeling kind of lonely and wondering exactly why I'm here again. But now things are very busy and I have a trip back to the states to look forward to in three weeks! Hope to see some of my dutiful blog-readers on both coasts!