All fun and games

Sarah: Well the students continue to enjoy the beginning of the semester here in San Gerardo de Dota. Four weeks of Spanish classes have already passed, and all the students really enjoyed the two teachers we brought into the valley to teach. The teachers were interactive and came up with lots of games and activities that made for fun Spanish classes – lots of speaking, and plenty of karaoke! It’s hard to believe that we’re in such full-swing now that their Spanish classes have already come to an end. We hope that it has given the students a little bit more groundwork and confidence to be able to communicate more effectively in another language, especially with their neighbors and new friends.

All of our students have been set up with a “host” family in the valley, and each of them has eaten dinner at least once with their new family. We provide that experience in order to create more opportunities to practice their Spanish and see what family life is like here in the valley. Each family is different, which provides a lot of variety when the students compare their dinner experiences. Often the initial dinner can be a bit awkward, but overall we hope the host family set-up is a something positive for both parties – for our students to feel welcome even more in the community, and for the families to feel like they are a part of what is going on at QERC.

Many community members are excited about having young North Americans in town, and almost on a daily basis there is a Costa Rican walking through our doors wanting to hang out with someone. On a regular basis our students are playing Mafia – both in English and Spanish, playing soccer, and getting outdoors at night to play Hide-and-Seek or enjoy a bonfire with the neighbors. This past week we were all invited up to the Christian campground up the road to participate in rock-climbing. The campground has an indoor facility with a number of different walls, providing an experience for any level of rock-climbers. Two Costa Ricans joined our students, Natalia Chacon (one of our neighbors, a granddaughter of Efrain), and their Spanish teacher, Paula. Everyone had a blast and it was another good way to get to know some more neighbors up the road.