The end

Sarah: Well we did it. We left Costa Rica and "moved" back to the States. Since we left we have spent a week on SNU's campus helping Michael recruit, and also to tie up loose ends. David continued on the recruiting journey to a few other universities with Michael before he officially finished as well. We are all now in Iowa, getting caught up on some much-needed rest and playing with my family. Adele is adjusting well and has even started walking! Our lives will never be the same...

In order to finish up this blog, let me recap our last week in Costa Rica. First let me say that I'm not planning on continuing this blog after this post. We intended it to be a way to keep friends and family updated on our adventures in Costa Rica, and that adventure has come to an end. I'm considering starting another blog that would include stories of reverse culture shock and reports of Adele's progress...but I haven't decided if it would be interesting enough to do yet. :)

Here is us in front of QERC for the very last time

So, this is our final blog post of Costa Rica.

During our last week, Independence Day happened in Costa Rica. It was such a fun way for us to get together with almost the entire community for some fun celebration. And fun it was! The morning of September 14th (Independence Day is the 15th but we celebrated the day before), many of the community members took off on horseback to the top of the hill. We decided to drive this year as there was a shortage of horses and we wanted to save time getting up and down the hill - cars are faster than horses. :) Also to save the inevitable pain our butts would have felt later on. At the top, we witnessed the passing of the torch, as it came down the PanAmerican highway. We listened as our neighbors sang the national anthem, ate some great breakfast that people pulled out of their cars, and headed back down the hill. We got stuck behind another tradition on our way down - the school kids run from the top of the hill down to the school, carrying the torch, with a parade of cars behind them honking and cheering them on. I was impressed - it was about 7-8 kilometers they ran!

Independence Day continued later at the school, with a few hours of fun at the school. The kids danced the traditional dances to the traditional music wearing the traditional dresses, we saw the parade of lights by the kids, heard some readings about the importance of the day, and ate some good traditional food. During the celebration, the hostess had David and me stand up and gave a little talk about how important we were to the community and thanked us for the four years we had spent with them. It was a neat recognition. The evening also included a couple of skits by some of our neighbors that put on a "wedding" and poked fun at the lifestyle of a typical campesino in the olden days. We didn't understand everything that was going on, but everyone was laughing so hard that they were crying, and we couldn't help but join in the laughter. A highlight was at the end of the night when the hostess called 5 volunteer couples up to the center and played music and simply said "dance!" The music kept switching and the dancing kept switching, and at the end of the dancing, we had to choose the winners. It was fun to see such great dancing, and so funny that this was included in part of the Independence Day celebrations!

One last time up at Laura's bakery with friends

During the end of the week, we took the opportunity to deliver our final newsletter to our neighbors, and took advantage of the time with them to sit and say some really good and meaningful goodbyes. We had a lot of coffee and hot chocolate over the course of a few days! We felt like it was a good time to have some closure with our time with the people we had been living and working with for so long. Our final evening in the valley was spent with some of our closest friends, who had also put together a really sweet book for us. They had gone around to the community, taken pictures, and had them write notes for us to compile in a book. We will miss our home and community dearly, but are so thankful for the time we were able to spend there.

On our way out, saying goodbye to Efrain and Caridad,
the founders of the valley

All throughout the last week, we spend most of our days finishing up projects and attempting to leave the building in a good condition for Michael to return in October to take over managing. We slowly started to pool all of our things in one location in attempts to be organized, and the packing really took place on Saturday. We actually weren't up too late our last night packing, which was somewhat surprising for us, and headed into San Jose on Sunday. After saying a few more goodbyes to people who are important to us in the city, we spent our final evening with Trevor and Laura. It was great to feel like we had a final "normal" evening with them, and hope that we'll continue to stay good friends in the future.

Our last night in Costa Rica, with Trevor and Laura

To truly finish up this blog, David and I have come up with a list of things that we'll miss most in Costa Rica. Hopefully this is a good reflection of our lives for the past 4 years!

-Bioland products (environmentally-friendly food and personal hygiene products made in CR)
-The Spanish language - speaking it and hearing it on a daily basis
-The tropical biodiversity
-Living in a cloud forest
-Not hearing any traffic on a daily basis
-The river that flowed in our backyard
-Thick green environments all around us
-Being able to drive only 2 hours and get to the beach
-Water all around us
-Earthquakes
-Delicious and cheap tropical fruits: mangoes, bananas, pineapples
-Fresh fruit drinks as an option in restaurants
-The ability to travel all over the country and see mountains, oceans, volcanoes, rainforests, dry forests
-Wildlife: monkeys, sloths, beautiful birds, diverse lizards
-Knowing how to run a good study abroad program
-Good coffee
-Laura's bakery up the road that provides delicious pastries and good company on the weekends
-Drinking water that comes directly from the mountain springs
-Our good friends Trevor and Laura
-The field work and excuses to work in the forest
-Our small community of neighbors and friends
-How Costa Ricans give preferential treatment to parents with babies
-The attention Adele received out in public
-Cheap public transportation
-Not being a tourist and enjoying nights of eating out and renting movies
-A good hearty Costa Rican meal at a cheap price-
-A close network of conservationists, environmentalists, biologists, researchers
-Being outside of distractions of consumerism and technology
-All of the many friends and relationships we've formed over the years

This is by no means a comprehensive list...but some examples of things that have been important to us over the last 4 years. And on that note, thus endeth the blog.