Faces and Places of La Palma #3 – Playa Blanca

Playa Blanca is the white coral beach that is 3 Kilometers from where I live. I go there almost every day, on bike it's about 10 min away. The beach is beautiful and there are ofter dolphins and whales visible (so I'm told, they always seem to be hiding from me). The beach is surrounded by a manglar forest as well as palm trees and almond trees. There is a lot of bio diversity and each day one can see many Scarlet Macaws, Ibis', hawks, etc. There is place to camp right on the beach, if anyone is interested in doing some camping on the beach it's both beautiful and affordable, just let me know and I'll hook you up.

Commenting on blog posts

Hmmm, I wonder at times if there is anyone out there in the blog world reading my posts... I wouldn't know because there are very few people that rarely leave a comment. So, that being said, please don't be shy to leave comments on the blogs, even if it's just something like wow, Laura, you're sooooo cool or you really know what you're doing (Just joking). But really, I love it when you leave comments, so please feel free to do so.

Here is just a little scoop for now, I have now adopted a little kitten that I've named Tigre and the dog that I had was returned to his owners. The zoo continues. The rabbit and cat are friends and cat especially like my host families dog. We're just one big happy family.

My parents will be here in a week and I'm super excited to see them. We'll be traveling around for the next week seeing many sites in CR and spending a lot of time on the peninsula so they can really get to know where and how I live. I'll get a faces/places up on Wed. when I'll be in SJ for a night.

Giving rabbits baths

Okay, so the computer lab that was going to built in January was then going to be built in March, now, I'm thinking June, if we're lucky. That's the way of the world here, one just has to deal with it. Guias y Scouts is moving right along. We had our first training the other day and are having a meeting in the next week to vote on our troupe number and the colors of our bandannas, it's kind of the first step to making it all a little less of an idea and more reality. I'm excited for the meeting. My parents are coming very soon and I'm really excited to get to show them my life here and show them how we do things Tico style.

I have some happy/sad news. My dog's owners came back for him so I no longer have a dog. I still however have Cadbury the rabbit. Here he is. Today I was forced to give him a bath. From experience I can now tell you, I don't think rabbits were intended to be bathed. He just looked so sad all wet and I actually thought for a second that I was killing him. So, if you have a rabbit that gets dirty, maybe just try and use a damp cloth to rub off some of the dirt. I'm still not entirely sure he's okay, it was seriously traumatic.

Here is a not so good pic of Deivin my boyfriend. I'll get a better one soon, but this is what I have for now.



English classes are starting soon. I'm sooooo sick of talking about them and having everyone and their mom talk to me all day about English classes. I just want to start so I can say, oh, sorry, we've already begun. Now before you start thinking "that doesn't seem very nice" well, just know that you are not understanding the situation fully. Maybe I'll write a blog on it...

Quick update:

* Tomorrow I have a Guias y Scouts training for the board of directors or "la junta". The training process can take up to 6 months, but it's totally worth it, we want to build a really strong foundation.
* I'm not entirely confident that we will be breaking ground with the computer lab this month (I was told March). Hopefully April...
* I'm thinking about trying to build a library, it's a possibility.
* English classes should start in the next couple of weeks, hopefully we will find a place to do it.
* As I was walking out the door to leave for San Jose on Monday another bat decided to move in with me, he was flying all around my head. I'll be forced to have my host dad kill him...
* A new group of 55 volunteers arrived last night. We're excited to no longer be the newbies and meet some new people, they make our super tiny worlds just a little bigger.
* I've recently read: Breaking Dawn, Redeeming Love and Captivating, all really good books.
* Rabbit is still alive and growing and my new dog friend likes to go on runs with me and follow me everywhere I go. Good stuff.

Faces and Places of La Palma # 2 – Meet Louisa, my host mom

Louisa is a very incredible woman. Pretty much all on her own she runs the cabinas, has a sewing business and a little cafe for the the guests of the cabinas. She manages all of this while assisting with the other family businesses (the buses and the micro bus taxi). I've really learned a lot from Louisa, she is so generous, strict and knows how to have a good laugh. On more than one occasion I've heard her say “What's the hurry, there's more time than life”, how true is that? Whenever I need anything or am thinking about buying anything in town or out of town for that matter, I go to Louisa first to see what she has to say, she know everyone and just about everything in La Palma. I would rarely leave the house if it weren't for Louisa and Bereno. If I see them doing something, I'll at least try it, if I see that they aren't doing something, I make sure why before I try anything. They know their stuff. Next Blog, I'd like to show you how we make Coffee Costa Rica style, it's so easy, economical and environmental and to top it all off, I think the coffee tastes better this way... Coming soon.

Oh, in other news, I think I just may have myself a dog now. I found him the other day and after running around all day trying to find his owner, he decided he was mine. I'll post a pic if he sticks around, I'm turning into Dr. Doolittle here with my many animal friends.

Bunnies, boyfriend and bats

Here is the skinny on the past week or so. I've been super busy but I wanted to share a few things. First of all, just the other day I was confronted with a tarantula in my kitchen sink. It was huge I'm talking the body was the size of 2 quarters. I was not happy about said tarantula, but I was way too freaked out to take care of it myself so I yelled for my host sister to come and help me. She is crazy, let me just say that. She comes in and says, "what, what happened, oh, it's nothing" She then proceeds to try and pick it up with the bare hands, she got it into the air and then dropped it and it went behind/under my sink. I now live with a tarantula somewhere in my kitchen. As long as he stays there and leaves me alone, I'm okay with it. Okay, so the same day as my spider friend paid me a visit another wild friend decided to move in. I was laying in bed already traumatized when I here the bat squeaks and hear a bat flying around my room. Great. Don't get me wrong, I love bats, I just don't want to live in the same house with them. Bats outside, Laura inside, all is good and in order. So, I didn't know what to do, it was too late to call my host sister to come and help and I thought maybe mister bat would see that I was a bad roommate and leave. Days pass and I don't see any signs of the bat...until i lift up my bag off the floor and what do I see, mister bat has been with me all along. So, I call my host nephews, Alfred who's 13 and Joel who's 8 to come and help me with the bat problem. It was really funny, here I am jumping around and yelling a Spanish/English mix and the boys are trying help find a bag and I'm trying to sweep the bat into the bag with a broom all the while all three of us are periodically screaming and jumping. So, finally we sweep the bat out the door. I'm thinking he's not going to want to come back after that, I was wrong. Apparently once they think a place is their home, they go back to it. So, the next day I'm sitting with my boyfriend Deivin when mister bat returns. I get all jumpy and am yelling for Deivin to kill it and he grabs is and hit's it once and let's him go out the back door. I ask him, why didn't you kill it? and he says "es que, me da mucha lastima" or, it's just so sad. So, what happens a few days later? You guessed it, the bat is back, this time just like the friendly tarantula he's in my kitchen sink where it appears he spent the night. I decide it's time to call in the big guns and go and find Bereno. Bereno takes one look at my little and friend and killed him. I was sad to see him go, but the relationship just working out. He couldn't be house trained and I didn't want to be bitten. One of us had to go. Okay, onto the bunny.
So, for valentines day Deivin comes over to my house after he get's off work and tells me that he has a surprise for me. I'm thinking, oh, how nice, a surprise. He says it's something to keep me company when he can't be with me. I'm thinking, okay.... Then he hands me a gift bag. I look in the bag and suddenly a little white rabbit pops it's head out of the bag and scares the crap out of me! I almost threw the bag across the room, it's a good thing Deivin still had a hold on the bag, otherwise the bunny would have had a wild ride. So, I collect myself and meet my new rabbit friend. I've never had a rabbit before and I don't think I had every planned on having one, but we're working out. I got him a nice little cage and named him cadbury. I let him run free in the house in the mornings and he's actually pretty cool, he's used to humans and runs around. What did I get Deivin you ask? I'll tell you, I made him some brownies... Okay, that's a quick update. I'm sure you are sitting here wondering Boyfriend, when, how? Well, I don't have enough time for that. Another day. God bless.

Another quick report.

Since I've been back a lot has been going on. I'm super happy to report that after totally giving up on the idea, I actually think the computer lab is going to happen. Construction on the new building with start in March and then I can start the process of getting the computers. Life will be soooo much easier when we have faster internet and computers in town. I'm gearing up to get started with Guias y Scouts. At this point the Junta or board of directors need to be trained which can take around 6 months and once they are all ready to go it will be time to find some kids. Finding the kids will be the easy part for sure, already whenever I walk down the street kids are asking me when it's going to start so they can join. I'm trying my best to get motivated and started on my english class again. I'm only going to continue on with one and they are a great class, it's just a process of me contacting all of them, collecting money for the books and then placing an order for the books. So far, I can't seem to motivate to do it, tomorrow... Otherwise things are going better than I ever could have imagined. Everything is falling into place.