En la escuela

Monica and Kaleb asked me what the schools are like here in Costa Rica.  Let's take a look at some similarities and differences:

The School Year
How is it the same?  Students are in classes about the same amount of time.  This means that they get about 2.5 months of vacation, as well as a big two-week break halfway through.

How is it different?  The school year starts in February and ends in December.  This means that Christmas Vacation (as it's known to us) actually falls in July!

The School Day
How is it the same?  Kids come to school and have classes under one teacher (except music, PE, and religion classes).  There are recesses, and there's also a small cafeteria.

How is it different?    The school is not big enough to handle all the neighborhood kids at once (no one rides a bus, because they're all close enough to walk).  So half the kids arrive at seven in the morning and leave at 12:10.  The other half arrive at 1:20 in the afternoon and leave at 5 p.m.  Similarly, students visit the comedor (cafeteria) in shifts, because it's only large enough to handle one or two classes at a time.  School lunch is free, but there's only one thing on the menu; so if you don't like it, salado.  Recesses are 10 minutes long.  There are two of them, so kids can't go far.  Really, there's no reason to go far, because right now there is now playground in the neighborhood.  Most kids just walk (or run) around the hallways, talking and playing with friends.  Some come to the office or library to play the games that are available.  I really like playing checkers and dominoes with kids on their breaks.  They also love Barrel 'o Monkeys, which I brought back from the states.

All students have to wear uniforms.  Kindergarteners wear a light blue one.  Grade schoolers wear dark blue pants or skirts and white shirts.  The colegio students have a pink shirt and dark pants.

The Building
How is it similar?  All grades have assigned classrooms.  There's a designated area for eating (called a comedor).  We have a principal's office and an office for the guidance counselors.  There's a spot outside where the kids have gym class.

My sister Becky and me in a classroom.  There's an 'open' window behind us.

How is it different?  Well, it's quite a small place if you consider the number of students that attend it.  There are about 14 classrooms for over 1,000 kids.  Luckily, it's not like Guinea, where they'd stuff 60-100 kids in a single classroom (wow!).  As I mentioned before, they instead bring in half the kids in the morning and half in the afternoon.  We don't have a colegio (middle and high school) here in Limon 2000, so the high schoolers actually receive classes right next to the grade schoolers.  It might seem weird to run into 15- and 16-year-olds while running to the cafeteria, but everyone seems to get along just fine here.

Like many houses, the classrooms don't have closing windows.  Just a grid of metal bars covering the space and curtains.  This is because it's so hot and humid all the time that no one would even imagine closing a window.  Only the principal's office has air conditioning, so that's not even an option.  Some other reasons for this:  it never gets too cold to need to shut a window, and windows are much more expensive.

Gym classes are held outside in the 'play', as in playground, because there used to be a playground there.  Now it's just a broken down basketball court without hoops.  The recreational areas in Limon 2000 actually in pretty bad shape.  You should feel very lucky if your school has a playground, or a gym.  Here, the kids and gym teachers make do with what they have.  Usually, that's just some cones and soccer balls.

Education
How is it the same? Kids take math, science, English, Spanish, Social Studies, P.E., and music classes.  There's a week of vacation at Easter, and a mid-year break of two weeks.  Kids get lunch breaks and recess.  They take tests and have school projects.  There's a science fair, but only two kids from a few choice classes participate.

How is it different? Religion is a required class in grade school.

Most kids don't have books.  Instead, they have to copy information word-for-word from the board into their cuadernos (notebooks).  It takes a lot of time to do this, so that means less time spent on exercises and other learning activities.  Another thing that I don't really like is that students get let out of class early a lot.  This might sound exciting for you guys, but what you learn--even in 4th grade--is very important for your future education. If a teacher gets sick, no sub comes to take her place.  The kids just miss class.  A lot of teachers' meetings happen when kids should be in class, so the students just get let go for the rest of the day.

There's a lot less money to go around for public schools here in Limon, so a lot of the things we take for granted in the U.S. are not generally available here.  For example, there's only one TV and one projector for the entire school.  There's no computer lab.  If a teacher wants to make copies for you she has to use her own money, usually at a copy store in Limon, which is a half hour away!  It's very rare that kids get to go on field trips or do any extracurricular activities.  Still, kids do learn a lot of interesting things.  Last year the school focused on educational awareness, and kids learned all about recycling, making compost, and planting fruits & vegetables!

Planting in the school garden

So, what do you think?  Would you trade places with a Costa Rican boy or girl and go to school here?

Películas

Are there movie theaters in Costa Rica?  

Great question, Ali!  Movie theaters aren’t too different from movie theaters in the U.S.  They’re big, they have cheesy carpeting, and they sell a lot of popcorn.  Those types of theaters are found mostly around San José in the center of the country.   Away from San José big modern theaters are much harder to come by.  In Limón we don’t have a regular theater.  There’s one rickety old building, not very big, that has changing posters every once in a while, but I’ve never seen it open.  Apparently you can knock on the door and the guy will let you in and show a film.  I’d like to try it sometime. 

A lot of people buy illegally-made DVDs on the street.  It’s fun to watch the vendors in San José on the paseo (which is like a fancy street that no cars are allowed on).  The people who sell movies don’t have a license to sell, so what they do is place all their movies (dozens, sometimes hundreds) on top of a blanket and shout, “Movies for sale!  Action!  Romance!  Cartoons!  Moooooovieeeees for saaaaaaaale!!”  As soon as they see a police officer walking down the street toward them, they quickly grab the four corners of the blanket as if it were a bag for the movies and start walking the other direction.  Either that or they just whistle and talk with their buddy, pretending it was any old thing to be standing under the burning sun with a blanket in their hand.  When the cop passes, they unfold the blanket and start laying out their hundreds of movies again.  Sometimes another police officer will be turning the corner before they even finish putting everything back in order.  It’s goofy, but that’s how some people make a living. 

Paseo de Colon - photo courtesy of flickr user Luis Alonso Murillo

In Guinea it was very different.  Most people didn't even own a TV, let alone a DVD player.  In the town where I lived for training there was one movie theater that would be open on Fridays and Saturdays.  It was an event to go to the movies.  The "theater" was one big room, about the size of an old church.  It had a bunch of rickety wooden benches that were packed with people.  The lack of a backrest and stale, stuffy air did not make for the movie experience you and I are used to.  I went one time with my host brothers Alex and John.  It turned into a 'double-feature' night when 3/4 of the way through the first movie, the DVD stopped working, and they had to put on another one on to prevent the audience from getting angry.  Three-and-a-half hours--and two cheesy Bollywood movies--later we were on our way home with achy eyes and backs. 


One of my favorite moments from my four months in Africa happened on the first day that I arrived in my training community.  Three of my host siblings and I were sitting under the stars outside.  They took turns asking me questions about my life in the United States.  My thirteen-year-old sister Jaqueline (pron. jhach-eh-LEEN) began an exciting story about the one time--the only time--in her life that she got to see a movie.  The movie was Titanic.  She loved it.  "Is Titanic the oldest movie ever made?" she asked innocently. 

Jaqueline outside my bedroom window

Mascotas

In Spanish the word for pet is mascotas.  Pretty funny how close some Spanish words are to other words in English.  It happens a lot.  Sometimes they mean the exact same thing, like restaurante, or nación, which I'm sure you guys can guess.  You have to be careful, though, because there are plenty of false cognates.  False cognates are words that look or sound like a word in English but actually mean something different.  Some examples:

• Rolling around on the carpeta might be difficult.  It doesn't mean carpet, but rather 'folder'.
• Once actually is the word for number 11.  It's pronounced 'OHN-say'.
• Éxito actually means success, not exit.
• Don't go asking for sopa if you're looking to wash your hands.  They'll look at you funny for wanting to clean up with soup!

Anyway, back to pets.   Dogs, cats, and birds are quite popular as pets.  I have my own place now and don't currently have any pets, but when I was living with my host family here it felt like we were in a zoo!  She had two dogs (Rambo and Nina), two cats (Ruffina and Patty), goldfish, four parakeets, and two turtles on the back patio.  And right before I left they bought a parrot!  I don't have a photo of the parrot (her name's Lucita) at the moment, but she's a lora.  Here in Costa Rica there are two types, lapas (scarlet macaws) and loras (green parrots).  Some people keep loras as pets.  Lucita is very smart.  Very quickly she learned to say Lucita bonita! which means, "pretty Lucita," and "Upe!", which is what you shout when you're outside someone's house and want to ask if someone's there.

Pirula

Is it hot, pleeeeeeease??

Alli and Reese asked me a question I'm surprised more of you hadn't:  is it hot?  I'll bet a lot of you were possibly dreaming of warm beaches at that time. Your letters are dated January 21, and many of you told me how cold it was at that time.

The short answer?  YES!  It is hot.  Costa Rica is a tropical country.  What does that mean?  What other countries are in the tropics?

From a living standpoint, it means that the weather doesn't change quite as drastically as they do in countries further away from the equator, like the U.S.   Just like in Guinea, there are only two seasons:  dry season and rainy season.  We're in dry season right now, but that still means it can rain.  During rainy season it can rain almost every day of the month!  In Guinea the difference between the seasons was even more drastic.  Conakry, the capital of Guinea, is the rainiest world capital, and it receives all of its 10 feet of water in about three months.  During the other months it's so dry that all the grass dies completely and the earth is taken over  by the colors red and brown.  As soon as the first week of rains return there's an explosion of green as all the trees and plants wake up.  Here, the rain is much more constant, but we still notice a difference between the two seasons.

Have you ever noticed that the days are getting longer right now?  Up until June 21 that will keep happening. (Why so?)  Well, it's true here too, but again it's not nearly as dramatic.  The sun is going down a little later at night, but we barely notice.  All year round you can count on the sun coming up around six in the morning and going down at six. 

A beautiful Pacific sunset, just before 6 p.m.

With all that we know so far about the climate, what can you conclude about the temperatures in Costa Rica?  Take a look at this chart with Mrs. Stonecipher.  It shows the average temperature every month in Puerto Limon, the closest city to where I live.  Does the temperature change much from month to month?

Que Rico!

Small restaurants in Costa Rica are called sodas, which I find interesting because they don’t even call soda (as in soda pop) soda; they call it gaseosa or refresco.  If you walk into a soda and ask for a typical plate of food, they’ll serve you a casado (which literally means ‘married’).  Casados consist of rice, beans, a little bit of salad, a piece of meat, platano maduro (which is almost exactly like a banana but it has to be fried up), picadillo (diced up potatoes), and a fruit drink.  Meat of all kinds is used, but you will be served chicken, beef, or pork.  The fruit drinks are delicious.  Sometimes you get pineapple juice, or watermelon juice.  There are also some fruits that aren’t very common in the U.S. like guava, papaya, tamarind, and soursop.  They sure sound funny, but the juice tastes delicious!  

A Costa Rican Casado with beef

The soda in our school

In fact, the fruit is my favorite part of the food here in Costa Rica.  When I go on hikes with the Scouts, the neighbors will sometimes give us bananas that they’ve picked in their backyards as a snack.  Have you ever heard of guayaba?  It’s a type of passion fruit that’s often made into jelly for toast, but you can also pick the fruit right from the tree and suck out the pulp on the inside.  Pipas, or young coconuts, are my absolute favorite.  If you’re lucky enough to have one, you chop off the top with a machete (or just bust it on a rock if no).  Then you can drink the juice from it as if it were a cup!   

Guayaba Fruit with bars of guayaba candy

Pipas still on the tree

Rice and beans are very common here.  The typical breakfast dish is called pinto gallo, which literally means ‘speckled hen’.  The leftover rice and beans from last night are fried up in a pan and served on a plate with scrambled eggs.  I live by myself now in my own house, so I cook for myself, but when I lived with my host family I was sometimes served rice and beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!  Ketchup is usually available, but most people spring for the chile panameño, which is a jar of pickled hot peppers.  You take a spoon and scoop out the juice (or one of the peppers if you’re brave) to spice up your meal a little.

There’s a lot of food that we eat in the U.S. that is common here too, only it’s eaten differently.  For example, have you ever eaten a plate of spaghetti piled atop a mound of rice?  I doubt it.  Pancakes?  How about we serve them with sour cream instead of syrup? Does any of you like the taste of sour milk?  My host mom, Doña Ivonne, saves the crusty stuff on top of the milk as her favorite part!  I’ve never gotten used to the taste, nor have I gotten used to the taste of salt sprinkled on top of my fruit.  The pineapple here is absolutely delicious.  Just hold the salt, please.

I live in a part of the country that’s quite different from the rest of Costa Rica, named Limón.  Here the food is also quite distinct.  Rice and beans are still very popular, but it’s cooked with coconut milk and spices to make the dish a lot richer.    On the side are served patacones, or fried plantains.  They taste a lot like french fries.  

Patacones, photo courtesy of Flickr user Beth M

And I’m sure you want to know about candy!  Well, the fruit here is so sweet that kids are usually happy buying a bag of cut-up mangos or pineapple to munch on.  A lot of neighbors in Limón 2000 make homemade ice cream.  It’s a little more liquidy than regular ice cream and is typically sold in little plastic bags.  To eat, you just bite off a corner of the bag and push the ice cream out.  Kids like chocolate, but it’s expensive here so they don’t buy it very often.  There’s one similar treat that kids just love, if they can get their hands on it:  cocoa fruit.  Chocolate is made from cocoa seeds, which come from the fruit of the cocoa tree.  The seeds grow in pods about the size of a football.  You can crack these pods open and you’ll find inside the seeds mixed together with the fruit—kind of like a pumpkin, but with bigger seeds.  You pick out the seeds and suck the fruit off of them, and then spit them out.  They taste nothing like chocolate but are still very delicious.  

Cocoa fruit, photo courtesy of Flickr user Slipkjohn2