Settling In

This week has been quite an adventure, both good and bad. Luckily for me, I've had a lovely week, though the base has been in chaos with two volunteers going to the hospital. All is well, but one man almost died of a heart attack, which shook all of us up quite a bit. He's up and walking around already, which is amazing given his condition, and we are all extremely grateful.

Other more interesting adventures include attempting to learn to dance latino style. I fail. What are hips and how do you move them?

My first real football match! They whistle instead of booing, which is hilarious. Also, I didn't get a good picture, but there was a section of the stands that spent the entire game jumping around and chanting. That's an hour and a half of dedicated cheering. Ohmygoodness, so much noise. The local team, Saprissa, won and watching the crowd celebrate a goal was definitely the highlight of the night. The mascot is a purple monster and I have no idea why.

The stadium in San Jose

And the goats have finally decided they like my friend and I milking them, mostly because we have gotten much more efficient. Goats and chickens are highly amusing to me, but finicky enough that I am content not to be dependent on them for my livelihood. My respect for farmers and ranchers is growing by the minute.

Milking Vanilla - definitely my favourite goat. It's actually pretty fun.

Practical Learning

In the past five days I have:

- Learned to milk a goat

- Made friends with three lovely cats, one of whom just likes me because I help milk the goats

- Investigated the murder of three pullets, apparently a daring crime by a weasely-type creature

- Fed the adult chickens as well as the slight creepy ducks, who have been charged with the brutal drowning of a turkey

- Learned how to make good soil out of composted goat poo and rice hulls - it's all about the poo, fyi. Great for growing things. Though the compost will pack down too far, so you need rice hulls or straw for aeration.

- Learned that some cultures are actually accepting of Christian tracts. I didn't believe, but some others of my school handed them out and I saw people reading them. It was so odd.

- Watched Solly the dog bully the horses

It's great good fun! My Spanish is improving daily and I'm enjoying talking to so many people with different backgrounds. 

There are also lots of birds, though I haven't gotten a chance to go birding yet. So far the highlights have been a summer tanager, rufous tailed hummer, and blue gray tanager.