Feliz Navidad a Todos!

Greetings and Merry Christmas!

It's been an eventful week and a half in Granada! I'll try to keep it to the point, but there's been quite a bit going on.

Overall, we are off to a good start with our work as volunteers in Granada. Our organization, La Esperanza, works with local schools and communities to fill educational needs. On our first day in the office, we were immediately given the job of outfitting 80 kids before school starts (it's their summer break now). Quite literally, that's all they told us. "We would like you to find uniforms, shoes, backpacks, and supplies for the kids in this school." We were given minimal information about where to go, what exactly to buy, what specific kids to outfit, etc. We quickly learned that La Esperanza is very disorganized.

So, our mornings have been spent trying to organize this project. We found a tailor and seamstress in the village to make the clothes, a guy to sell us shoes, got most of the kids measured, and have learned various ways to track down kids who are not at summer school. None of them have phone numbers or addresses, so it's tricky.

Little by little, we're making progress on our morning project. There is another volunteer from North Dakota named Nick who is working with us on it, so we've made a good friend in the process. We hope that we can track down the remainder of the kids and get them all what they need before the start of school.

The afternoons are a bit different. Much to our amusement, Nina is once again working as a speech pathologist, only now in Spanish! There is a six-year-old boy in the village who can't speak, and because of Nina's expertise, La Esperanza has sent her to work with him in the afternoons. His name is Junior, and he is extremely cute and smart. Upon hearing a description of his problems, Nina thought he might be autistic. However, after meeting him, it was clear that he is not. He definitely understands what's going on around him, and understands spoken language easily. Nina thinks that he probably has Apraxia of Speech, which I think means the connection between his brain and his speaking muscles doesn't function properly. That is my very amateurish explanation, but you get the idea. Ask Nina for scientific details.

I have been assigned to a soccer program in the afternoons, which has been a lot of fun. However, there are lots of volunteers who play soccer, so the past few days I've gone with Nina to Junior's house. He has an eight year-old brother named Whitman, and I have been playing soccer and hanging out with him while Nina works with Junior. We are thinking about making this a permanent arrangement since Whitman wants to play during the therapy sessions, but Nina really needs one-on-one time with Junior. I've enjoyed creating a diversion for the last few days, so we might keep it up.

Yesterday was wonderful. We started the day by visiting a local orphanage for girls and delivering homemade cookies and toys. The girls were tons of fun! We sang Christmas carols in Spanish and English, and of course got into some camp songs, which was bound to happen. We really loved this orphanage, the girls in it, and the Nuns who run it. They expressed interest in some extra help in the afternoons with English instruction, so we're hoping to do that as well.

After the orphanage, we went to Junior's house so that Nina could do her afternoon speech therapy. While they worked, I experienced a funny cultural clash with Whitman. We were playing soccer, when Whitman suddenly told me to stop and be quiet. Very slowly, he took a sling shot out of one pocket and a rock out of the other. He started creeping toward a tree, and carefully took aim at an innocent little bird on a branch. Let me tell you, this was no Fischer Price slingshot, and he came within inches of cutting that little bird in half! The bird, of course, flew away fast. Whitman then went over to its nest, looking for something. In Spanish, I asked him what he was doing. "Looking for eggs," he said. Then I asked if he's ever killed a bird with his slingshot, and he said, "Of course! 140 so far!" He then started creeping through the woods, telling me to follow him. He repeated the shooting/egg search ritual about four times, while questions danced through my head. Should I be stopping this kid from killing innocent animals? It doesn't seem like he has any adult supervision anyway, so will he even listen to me?

After about the fifth attempted murder, he went over to a tree and got really excited. "Look, Look!," he said to me. He came down from the tree and I saw that he was carrying a nest with two baby birds! He was really excited and ran off, shouting about how he wanted to show it to Nina! On the one hand, I knew I should stop him and tell him to put the nest back, but on the other hand, I really wanted to see Nina's reaction. So I followed the kid, laughing quietly to myself. He wouldn't have listened to me anyway.

Nina's face did not let me down. Whitman was so proud, and Nina had a look of utter disgust. After the initial shock wore off, we both started telling Whitman that the fun was over, and that he had to put the baby birds back. "They need their mother or they'll die," we said. "If they stayed in the tree, snakes will eat them," he said. We went back and forth for a long time, until finally Whitman let out a loud sigh, rolled his eyes, and said under his breath in Spanish, "how can I explain this to this guy?" Once again, he told us emphatically that the babies would be eaten if they stayed in the tree. He then ran to his grandmother and gave her the baby birds. None of this seemed strange to anyone but us. Nina just looked at me and said, "we're in a different culture." Toto, I don't think we're in Indiana anymore.

Anyway, all is well with our adventure. I am writing this blog from the comfort of Rodney's Managua home. We arrived here this morning to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with him. Tomorrow he has lots of family coming in for a huge dinner, and we are so grateful to have a family for Christmas! As always, Rodney is being way too good to us.

We hope that everyone has a very merry Christmas! And now, some pictures/videos:

A street in Granada, looking toward the volcano:

The girls of our house:
Junior!:
Junior practicing his signs/talking with Nina:
Whitman with the cussed bird nest:
With Junior:
At the girls' orphanage:
Leading a camp song at the girls' orphanage:Today (Christmas Eve) at Rodney's house:

Rodney, in the Christmas spirit!:

And now, a video of some fun songs at the girls' orphanage:


And a video of a random Christmas parade that happened by our house the other day:



That's all for now! Feliz Navidad!

Love,
Nina and Paul

Spoiled rotten in Nicaragua

Hola friends and family. Sorry for the delay in updating our blog, but here goes...

We left Costa Rica on a 7:30 a.m. bus last week and didn´t arrive in Managua, Nicaragua until 5:30 that evening. The actual ride wasn´t bad since we had asked for the front row with ample leg room! We enjoyed the scenery, movies on our laptop, and fellow passengers. The border was an interesting experience to say the least! Before officially leaving Costa Rica, we all had to exit the bus, where we were greeted by 30 men who all had a variety of currencies and were competing for currency exchanges. After getting exit stamps on our visas and passports, we all got back on the bus. We drove literally 10 feet over the border and were asked to get off another time to enter Nicaraguan customs. We had to gather all of our luggage (we quickly regretted packing so many bags) from under the bus and line up. Once it was our turn, we were asked to press a button. Paul and I couldn´t fathom what was going to happen, but we pressed the button and got a green light on the street light, which apparently meant we were free to go. It was great lugging those 4 huge bags for nothing!

We were greeted at the bus station in Managua by our now dear friend, Rodney. My sister-in-law´s (Becca) mom (Sally) was born in Managua. Rodney is her cousin. We were very thankful she helped us get in contact with him because we had our best week of our trip with him! We were spoiled rotten, although it was easy after roughing it on the farm for 3 weeks. We were driven around by his chauffeur, Juan Ramon, and were served coffee (on a silver platter), breakfast, lunch, and dinner by his maids/cooks. One of his maids has a 9 month-old son, Rodrigo, who also lived in the house. We loved playing with him since we had been too deprived of children. We enjoyed learning and eating the typical, home-cooked Nicaraguan food at his house, which was easily the best food we have had during this trip. We FINALLY had hot showers. Not only were they hot, but there was so much pressure that it felt like a massage. Either we truly haven´t had a good shower in a long time or this was the best shower head in the world.

Rodney served as a great historian and entertainer. He caught us up on Nicaraguan history and culture. We also enjoyed watching movies with him in the evening. Luckily for us, he speaks fluent English, since he has lived over 15 years in the states throughout his life. We loved getting to know this amazing guy, who is now who we call our Nicaraguan grandpa. He took us with him to donate Christmas money to old friends of his who are less fortunate. He told us that he wanted us to see how some people live in this world so we can appreciate everything we have. Everywhere we went, it seemed as though everyone knew and loved Rodney.

He even took us to his beach house twice during our 5 day stay. On our second trip to the beach, I got locked inside the bathroom! This was a new house that Rodney looked after as it was built for his friends, so it was a good thing I tested it out. We now know the bathroom door definitely does not work. I had to climb up to the window and yell for help to everyone. Finally, Rodney´s friend heard me and came over to see where I was. Apparently, Paul didn´t move from his hammock when Rodney told him I was stuck in the bathroom because he thought it was a joke! They got a ladder and helped me climb out from the window. It was nice to be saved by others and not my husband. Just kidding, he eventually showed up and pitched in!

Rodney drove us 45 minutes to Granada on Sunday and helped us move into our volunteer house. It would have been an easier transition if we had gone straight from the farm to this house. Instead, we were spoiled rotten by Rodney and have found ourselves wondering where the hot showers, hot meals, and personal driver were all this week! Honestly, the place is not bad at all. We have our own room and bathroom with, yet again, cold showers. We felt a little like we were on the Real World show when we met all these young people from all over the world who are now our roommates. There is an American guy from North Dakota, 3 girls from Holland, and 2 girls from Chile. They are all very easy to get along with, so we lucked out.

I won´t go into too much detail about our volunteer work quite yet. We´ll save that for another blog since it has only been 3 days. We are enjoying the children and Spanish practice greatly! We like Granada a lot. It is a beautiful town with colorful colonial buildings. The guidebook insisted the best hair cuts are in the barber shops in Granada. Paul was surprised to see nothing was correctly written in the guidebook when he tested it out. I don´t think the lady quite understood his English requests. She brought out the clippers before he knew what was going on, so he politely just walked out bald. I still haven´t been able to stop laughing everytime I look at him, which isn´t too nice of me! It has been a great source of entertainment over the past few days.

Thanks for following our blog. We´ll update again shortly with more pictures and info on the volunteering. Here are some pictures for now:

Rodney's house:
One of our many wonderful, Nicaraguan meals. Sorry it is sideways. This internet is too slow to wait for it to re-load the right way:
The house where I got stuck in the bathroom! That roof apparently took the local guys 1 day to build:
Paul relaxing at the beach:
Look, Dad - I'm wearing one of Rodney's hats to protect me from the sun. Evidence:
Rodney relaxing in a hammock:
Check out this beautiful beach sunset:
Paul at sunset:

Nina with Rodrigo and Irania at Rodney's beach:
Our bedroom/bathroom:

Our garden and drying lines:
Some of our roommates in our kitchen:
Our TV room (you can't sit on the furniture without a sheet because the bats like to use the bathroom on them. I was surprised to hear we are living with mice and bats):
Paul's haircut. By the way, this was taken today...2 days after the damage had been done. Imagine what it had looked like fresh!:

Love,
Nina and Paul

Endless Muscle Pain

Greetings blog enthusiasts!

It's been an awesome week with lots to report, although it was our last week in Costa Rica for a few months! Tomorrow we are leaving by bus for Nicaragua, where we'll be working with kids in a school program. We're very excited about this next stage of our journey.

This was our last week on Frank's coffee farm, and we did everything from processing coffee to pulling weeds. Nina also cleaned and carefully organized Frank's tool shed/coffee processing area. Frank has many redeeming qualities, but organization is not among them. Nina, who is meticulously organized, became determined to help him out. By the end of the day on Saturday she had his place sparkling clean and seemed to have set up a really nice organizational system that he will almost certainly squander. It's his loss, I suppose. Also, we were finally able to roast coffee with him last Tuesday, which means that we have now done every step in the process, from picking to drinking!

However, the main highlight of this week was our hike up Cerro Chirripo, the highest mountain in Costa Rica and the second highest in Central America. I (Paul) have done a lot of hiking in the eastern United States, and the climb up Chirripo is as strenuous as anything that the Appalachians have to offer. At 12,533 feet, it is way taller than anything in the USA east of the Mississippi, and it's strait up. We started in a little town called San Gerardo, which is under 5,000 feet elevation. From there to the summit is 13 miles of continuous climbing in which you gain nearly 8,000 feet. The hikers in the crowd should appreciate these numbers (the highest mountain on the Appalachian Trail is a mere 6,643 feet by comparison).

It took us two days to conquer Chirripo. Thursday we left at around 5:30 AM from San Gerardo and started climbing. We were mentally prepared for the ascent, but not for the mud, and the combination of a steep climbing and slick trail would have made for good entries on "Costa Rica's Funniest Home Videos." After the first mile or so, the mud let up, but the climb seemed almost endless. We reached the Chirripo lodge after 10 miles and 6,000 feet of elevation gain, with plans to reach the summit early the next morning.

Friday morning we woke up at 3:00 AM, something I hope that I never have to do again. The idea was that we would try to make it to the summit (3 more miles of trail and almost 2,000 feet up) before sunrise. By 3:30, we were hiking by headlamp. Things were looking good until about a mile before the summit, when we started to feel light rain. Luckily, the rain never got too hard, but our hopes for a beautiful view at sunrise were unfortunately dashed. We did make it to the top, though, and can now add Chirripo to our bag of mighty peaks!

I will begrudgingly admit that as a veteran of the Appalachian Trail, I was spouting off some cocky talk about Chirripo before we left. According to Nina, I said that since I was able to hike the AT, this would be "a piece of cake" (although I can't imagine myself capable of such arrogance). Suffice it to say, it was no walk in the park. We really had to work to make it to the top, particularly with the high elevation and reduction in oxygen. However, it was the descent that really left its mark on us. We climbed the last three miles and descended the entire 13 all on Friday, which left our knees, calves, and quads feeling like raw meat. It's three days later, and we're both still limping.

We left Frank's farm this morning for good, bidding them a fond farewell. We enjoyed our experience there overall, but we're really glad to be heading to a place where we can work with kids and practice our spanish. We'll be sure to update again when we're settled in Nicaragua. And now, pictures!

A view of the mountains from the farm:


Frank at the coffee roaster:Nina enjoying a typical Costa Rican breakfast of eggs, plantains, and gallo pinto (rice and beans):

Paul hiking up Chirripo:Nina bundled up in the Chirripo Lodge just hours before we woke up to hike to the summit. The temperature dropped into the 40's in the lodge:
Nina hiking by headlamp toward Chirripo's summit at around 4 AM:

Wet and cold at the summit, sadly with no view at all:
A beautiful view of the cloud tops as we descended and the weather finally broke:Finally, a video of Paul that Nina secretly took using our still camera right after the hike. Apologies for the sideways view and shaky camera work (Nina was laughing at the way Paul was walking around sore...ha ha):




As usual, thanks for reading! We love you all,

Nina and Paul

Life on the Farm!

We have had a good two weeks on the farm. Coffee season is coming to an end as we enter the dry season, which has shifted our roles on the farm a bit. We spent this past week building a stone/cement wheelchair ramp and patio at Sue's house, pulling more weeds than you can imagine, and planting new crops in Farmer Frank's garden.

Stone/cement project: Paul and I are not exactly what you would call "handy", but we are learning fast. We were put to work with their local garden guy, Christian. We thought we were lucky to be able to practice our Spanish since opportunities are limited on the farm. Well, we ended up not doing much talking and instead following Christian's lead and trying to look like we knew what we were doing. It was similar to a team-building experience, completing a task with no language whatsoever. We collected stones and sand from the river, mixed cement, and quickly set it while I tried to give it finishing touches with pretty stones on the surface, which the boys cared less about.

Pulling weeds: Neither of us get too excited when this is the activity of the day. Farmer Frank isn't the most organized man and you can hardly tell what is a garden vs. overgrown land. Since the farm is organic, herbicides are not allowed, which apparently makes weed control difficult. We helped Frank make his natural herbicide, which he admitted he drank (although it isn't recommended for humans) and it remarkably helped his memory but had the opposite effect on his bowels. Needless to say, we didn't drink any.

Planting crops: We had finished preparing a bed by turning and adding nutrients to the soil when Farmer Frank asked us to plant garlic, onion, and tomato plants. He taught us the handy phrase "what cooks well together - grows well together." Anyway, prior to handing us our first crop, he asked us if we had ever heard the theory that plants are concious beings. He told us about studies where the plants reacted to people's thoughts. He was telling us this theory because he wanted us to have "happy thoughts" while planting, so his crops grew well. I couldn't look at Paul because I knew I would crack up and I didn't want to hurt Farmer Frank's feelings. We eventually told him we didn't quite believe that theory (he claims he doesn't either completely) but that yes, we had positive thoughts about the crops as we planted. I hope mine grow as well as Paul's, because I honestly was thinking how ridiculous the theory was while I was planting! I hope I'm not caught when the garlic dies and onion grows wild!

Our life at the farm has been very simple and peaceful. We nap almost everyday and are asleep by 8:30 most nights. Paul reminds me of my nephews (they have an excuse because they're children) daily as he pees freely from the cabin porch instead of using our private bathroom around the corner. He says he's a man and wants to urinate outside as much as possible. I don't exactly get it, but whatever!

We have two more weeks of farm life before heading to Granada, Nicaragua on Dec. 13th. We will be volunteering for La Esperanza, which will give us the opportunity to work with children and improve our Spanish! We'll be living with other volunteers in a house. We can't wait!

Enjoy our pictures:

Nina with "Vita" who keeps reminding us of Paul's dog, "Sister." I think we call her "Sister" more than "Vita."
Paul making fresh squeezed orange juice with oranges right off the tree!:
Nina boiled a pot of hot water in order to shave and just to remember what hot water felt like:Nina writing never-ending wedding thank-you notes:
Paul enjoying a cheeseburger on Thanksgiving day:Nina enjoying a chocolate milk shake on Thanksgiving day. We were surprised to see how much Nina resembled the framed photo of her Uncle David, which is in Nina's parents' basement:
We have to cross this stream to and from our walk to the nearest town. The difficulty in the dark combined with Nina's clumsiness is always a disaster waiting to happen:A huge, stupid bug (you can't see its wingspan) who landed and was stuck on its back:
Paul sneaking the trash from our cabin to town. We were lectured at the beginning of our stay on the farm to limit the amount of trash we make. We truly are trying, but occasionally sneak a bag of trash out before we're caught:
Paul and Nina drinking a cup of coffee before beginning a hard day's work. If you can't tell, we wear the same work clothes almost daily:Thanks again for following our blog. We'll be in touch.

Love,
Nina and Paul

The Java Jive!

Hola Familia y Amigos!

It's been a very eventful week! We have been away from internet for most of it, so we're excited to finally have a chance to share stories and pictures!

Last week we finished up our Spanish classes and said goodbye to our wonderful host family. We cooked Elaine Klein's famous chili, which most of them had never heard of, but they all really enjoyed. It was a nice way to end our stay with them, gorging ourselves on delicious food and exchanging pleasantries that we only half understood.

On Sunday at about 5:00 AM we left Tamarindo and the pacific coast and headed for San Isidro del General. The route by bus is rather tricky, which, combined with the fact that we are traveling with nearly everything we own, meant that renting a car made the most sense. Of course, it also meant that we had to brave insane Costa Rican drivers as well as an entire country devoid of road signs. Fortunately, most of the drive went pretty well, with the exception of a particularly stressful two hours when we were lost in San Jose. Between our sub par Budget Rental Car map and the fact that not a single road in the city is marked, it's a wonder we ever found our way out. However, we made it to San Isidro before dark, where we met up with Frank in a small bar and began the next chapter of our adventure.

For those of you that may not know, we decided to head to San Isidro to work on an organic coffee farm. We found the opportunity through an organization called WWOOF (shout out to Peter Richards for putting us onto it!), which I think stands for World Wide Opportunities in Organic Farming. The organization matches local farmers with people looking for free (or cheap) places to stay and work. Frank and Sue are from Canada, but have been here in Costa Rica for the past 14 years living a very simply, off-the-grid life. They were looking for a couple willing to work by day and live for free on their property. We were a good fit.

When we got to the farm Sunday night, Frank showed us around the place and introduced us to our home for the next while. Our cabin was the first structure they built after purchasing the property. It's one large room with a separate small structure for a bathroom outside. However, it does have electricity, running water, and a fulling functional kitchen, so I suppose we're not entirely roughing it. Still, we do have a fair number of bugs, as well as nightly visitors in the form of rodents, lizards, and large cane toads.

We work in the morning from 6:45 to about 12:00, although most days it's been a bit later than that. We've had various jobs, but the main one has been processing coffee. We did a little bit of picking the first day, but we're not nearly as fast as the two local guys who Frank hires for 10 bucks a day, so our main job has been to do everything that comes after the picking. The coffee goes through multiple steps that are way too boring to relate here, but it mainly has to do with extracting the beans from their shells, washing off sugars, and picking out beans that are not ready or have been infested by bugs. It's tedious work, but we have both found it strangely satisfying. Four days ago we didn't have the slightest idea about what goes into a cup of coffee, and we will certainly never look at one the same way again. Appreciate every sip you take and think of us!

Our afternoons are pretty laid back. After work we fix lunch, read, nap, and try to figure out how to get a hot shower. Frank has a coiled hose system on the roof which uses the sun to heat water. However, between a lack of sun and our general ineptitude, we can't get it to work right. There was no hot water in Tamarindo either, so it's been about a month since our last hot shower. In the evenings we cook dinner, read, and occasionally watch DVDs (borrowed from Frank) on our laptop . Because the sun goes down at 5:00, we're asleep nice and early, ready for the next day of coffee processing.

We're planning to stay here for the next few months to help Frank and Sue through the holidays. Upon our arrival, we were very sad to learn that Sue is terminally ill with breast cancer that has since spread to her ribs and brain. They don't know how much longer she has to live, and her kids and grandkids are all coming down from Canada in December. We will look after the farm while they all travel, assuming she is feeling up to it at that point.

Other than that, not a whole lot to report! The pace of our life has shifted dramatically from what we were up to back in surf city, but we are enjoying it a lot. The only thing we don't like so much is how out of touch we are with everyone, so thanks again to you all for taking the time to read! We promise that we'll make our way into town every now and then to get some internet and stay in touch!

Ok, without further ado, some pictures of the last week:

Scarfing chili with our host family:

Playa Conchal, near Tamarindo:
In a cloud going over Cerro De Muerte, or the hill of death (0ver 10,000 ft!) on our drive south:

Nina fixing a plumbing problem in our bathroom on our first day of work at the farm:
Our cabin:
Our kitchen:

Washer for our clothes:

Nina sorting recently picked coffee:
Frank in the drying room, looking at some coffee:
Paul in the drying room, examining a coffee grain:
Nina with a basket full of recently processed coffee grains:

Paul working the machine that separates the coffee beans from the shell:
We love you and miss you! Thanks for checking the blog!

Nina and Paul