Summer break!

Before the fire...

Indian princes

Muddy hugs!

Juan, super activities director, and the kids

The overflowing bus

So far, it has been an AWESOME 2010 in Quebradas. After parting ways with my friends from home, I met Aunt Didi, Uncle David and Alec in San José and brought them back with me to Quebradas, where they spent two nights in Roger’s rustic and “enchanted” cabin, which was an adventure. It was really fun having them visit and a nice way to ease back into community life after lots of great vacation time.

I found out last week that, gracias a Dios, I had gotten a grant from an organization called Kids to Kids for a camp I was helping plan this week at FUDEBIOL. So we were able to confirm all the plans and buy the materials and everything came together at the very last minute, but the only person who seemed surprised by that was me. The idea of the camp was mostly to give kids something to do besides watching tv or helping clean the house (again) during their summer break, but also a first step in trying to better connect the community to FUDEBIOL and perhaps start a youth group that is supported by and supports the biological reserve. I was planning it with my friend Gina, who lives in Quebradas and used to be a Scouts director until recently, when she and her whole group resigned because of corruption on their familial Board of Directors. And I thought the parents on the sidelines of my soccer games were bad…

But lucky for us, that meant there was a group of motivated youth leaders with nothing to do this week who volunteered to come work at the camp. And it worked out GREAT. They were so good with kids and had so many ideas for activities, songs, games, etc. that I hardly had to lead anything and mostly just hung in the background organizing the snacks and other logistics. About 35 kids showed up ages 10-16, which is way more than I had anticipated, and I had ordered a bus for 20-25 people to go up and down from FUDEBIOL everyday, but somehow we all managed to fit. The camp started at 9 and lasted until whatever hour in the afternoon we ended up finishing, which varied from 1 to 4. We did hikes, arts and crafts, obstacle courses, relay races, and other crazy games whose names I wouldn’t know how to translate into English. On Thursday we had a campfire and all the parents were invited as well, which was really special. I think it was the first time a lot of the kids from the community had been to a campfire, and they sang camp songs and learned how to cook bread and potatoes on an open fire and then I taught everyone how to make s’mores, which was a big hit. And finally on Friday we closed with prizes and thank you’s and went for a swim in the river after.

The whole week was a great excuse for me to act like I was 10-16 years old and made me remember how much fun I had at summer camp and made me think how exciting it must be for these kids who had never done anything like this before. I came home on Friday so content with the week but also sad it was over and wondering if it would lead to anything more. The kids kept asking when were going to have another camp, and I am trying to encourage them to get organized and start a youth group or a Boys and Girls Scouts group in Quebradas, but getting people to invest their own resources in something more long term without a grant and amazing experienced leaders is a big next step, so we’ll see. What made me most happy was just to see so many kids up at FUDEBIOL enjoying the beautiful space and running around in nature, and I really really hope we can organize more programs up there to get the community to take more advantage of the space.

In other news, I was introduced to a new tradition of taking down Christmas decorations last week, which of course must be accompanied by a prayer session in Costa Rica. But the one I attended was extra special because it included a live acting out of the nativity scene. However, the whole production started 45 minutes late because a bull, who was tied to the gazebo and meant to be decorative, got lose and started running around as everyone screamed and about 20 people jumped into one car to hide.

Also, a new feature of my blog, as a result of my New Year’s resolution to cook one new dish a week (which means pretty much anything but scrambled eggs, stir-fry and pasta) will be an update on what I’ve concocted, as much to make me stick to my word as to entertain you, many of whom have already commented on my excessive sub-conscious discussion of food on my blog. Anyways, last week started off quite strong, with southwestern chili, pesto sauce, pineapple smoothie, and gazpacho soup. My least successful dish was tonight’s chili relleno, which was one of my favorite things my host mom used to cook. Lesson learned: do not attempt a recipe in Spanish unless you are absolutely sure of what all the verbs mean…