Afterward we went to lunch at a typical Costa Rican restaurant. I ordered Arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) a typical Costa Rican dish that was very good and Fanta Uva (Grape Fanta pop). Everyone enjoyed the food there!
It was also very fun to hear everyone's stories about their experiences with their families in the home stay. I have to say that I'm incredibly impressed on all the students' attitudes and how they are handling themselves with the families. They are up for anything! They're trying and enjoying the new food, playing games with the kids, communicating in Spanish and learning about this new culture in a VERY real way! They have a lot of fun and funny stories to share!
After lunch we returned to our host families. Señora Bolluyt and I took a tour of Marzella's organic pepper farm. She has 7 hectáreas of land or about 17 acres! She has banana and plantain trees. She has 3 different kinds of bananas. We saw them growing on the tree. There is a flower below the bunch of bananas that helps it grow. If it is cut off the bananas stop growing. She showed us the peppers plants that she grows. She plants trees, and then the pepper vine climbs up the tree. She had some that were just 6 months old. She will have to wait another her until she can harvest them. Others were three years old and she now harvests them EVERY week! She then sells the peppers. These are not bell peppers, but pepper used to make the spice. We walked to the end of her land that is next to the Sarapiqui river that we rafted on. She has a picturesque view of the river down below her land.
The village of El Roble has a Learning Center with a library and many classes for people of all ages. Marzarella took a class on how to make traditional handicrafts to sell. So, she taught us how to make some. I won't say what they are here because I made them for Caden and Clara and I want it to be a surprise. :)
After that, we sat down to do some blog writing offline. But, when Marzarella saw us on our laptops she asked if we needed her wifi code! What? We totally did not expect her to have wifi! So, that's why I'm able to post during the homestay.
I realized that in my last post I didn't describe Marzarella's house. It is made of cement and wood walls and cement floors. She has four bedrooms and 2 bathrooms all on one floor. Part of her kitchen is indoors. The indoor part has the refrigerator, microwave, a small gas cooktop and cupboards. Just out the door, she has counter space with a sink and a woodburning cookstove. This area has a corrugated tin roof above it so the rain doesn't affect it. She also has a table in the kitchen area that we eat at. On the patio there is a very long table that could seat maybe 20 people. She has four dogs that run all over, 3 cats, four newborn kittens, some chickens (including a rooster that crows very early in the morning) and nine dairy cows, She works very hard!
We had a spaghetti supper tonight with homemade sauce with meat and vegetables, salad and garlic bread along with a fresh fruit fresco. ¡Delicioso! We ate early (6:00 instead of 7:00) because we were meeting as a group for the Tirimbina bat tour at 7:00 pm. Tirimbina is a a place where they research bats to learn about the kinds that are present and how many. They catch the bats using polyester nets. Our teacher, Carolina, shared with us about all the different kids of bats. I was surprised to learn that there are over 1,000 different kinds of bats in the world! We also had a chance to see three different bats and touch them!
When we returned to our house, it was time to blog and get some rest. So, that's what I'll do now. ¡Buenas noches!
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