A Crazy Weekend In Montezuma

So, after a whole week with my parents, walking all around Costa Rica and entertaining them, I guess I didn’t have enough adventure.  This past weekend, after the folks and Peter left for the States, I, along with 6 other friends, went to Montezuma, a beach town on the Nicoya Peninsula, for the weekend (wow comma overload).  To catch the bus there, we had to wake up at 4:15am in order to buy tickets for the 6:00am bus ride.  They don’t let you buy tickets in advance for this trip.  Well, after being at the bus station for about 15 minutes waiting for the bus to arrive, I realized that I didn’t know where my keys were.  

I knew I locked the door to my house before I got in the cab but I couldn’t find them in any bag I had with me or anywhere around the bus station.  I called my host family at 5:00am in the morning to tell them I couldn’t find my keys.  Laura, thank the Lord for her, helped me get the right message to my host family (she’s pretty darn good at Spanish).  Others in the group with me did a good job of helping me not freak out because if a student loses his house keys, the host family has to replace all the locks on the house which costs roughly $100. 

I wasn’t worried about losing the keys or paying to get the locks replaced, I just didn’t want my host family to worry or be inconvenienced.  Anyways, after my host dad looked outside and down the street, and at the market, and at ISA, and told me via cellphone he couldn’t find them, we (meaning Laura) called the cab company and tracked down our cab driver from that morning.  As a side note, I’m not sure why my host dad looked in all those places because I only stepped outside the front door and into a taxi.  I guess Juan Carlos’s (my host dad) motto should be, “Go big or go home.”  Anyways, the taxi driver had them!  And he took them back to my host family’s house.  It was a productive and busy morning.  I had successfully lost and found my keys before 6:00am.      

The boat ride over the Montezuma.

            We took a 2 hour bus ride to the Pacific coast, then a 1.5 hour boat ride to the peninsula (the boat ride cuts off almost 3 hours of driving) and then another 1-1.5 hour bus ride to Montezuma.  It was a long trip but we got there around 12:30pm.  The hostel we stayed at was rough but the people where friendly.  The bathroom for our hostel was literally a stall outside right next to the shower stall.  The beds where nice and the pillows were extra fluffy.  I guess, overall, I don’t mind rough (in fact, I prefer it) but $15 a night was a little too expensive for the quality.  But, then again, it was only $15.  Of course, I was starving when I got to the hostel so I made oatmeal with bananas for lunch in the hostel kitchen.  Then, we hit the beach for the rest of the day.  

The view of the cabin we stayed in.

The room we slept in.

Last but not least, our bathroom (left) and shower (right).

            Two of our friends met up with us in Montezuma later that day, Mason and Caroline.  Around 4:00pm or so, Caroline started having terrible, constant stomach pains.  We weren’t sure what was causing them but after 30 minutes of her being in steady pain, Heather and Kristina took her to the nearest town with a doctor to see what was wrong.  The doctor didn’t have the technology needed to run any tests so he put the 3 of them in an ambulance and they drove/boated the 5 hours to San Jose.  Turns out, she has a bacterial infection.   She just needs to stay in the hospital for a few days so they can give her the right medication.  But she’s fine.  No need to worry too much.  But I’m sure she wouldn’t mind your prayers.   

Some local with he longest dreads ever!  I had to snip this photo of him from a distance.  He was a eely one to shoot.

            After all that fun with Caroline’s stomach, the remaining group stayed on the beach until sunset then trekked back to the hostel.  Laura and I made food (Rice, chicken, veggies, and pineapple) and ate for basically no money at all.  Then a few of us went back into town and hung out at various places.  I slept in my boxers that night because I didn’t bring anything else to wear.  Packing light is the way to go.  

The waterfall.

            The next day we went to a nearby waterfall.  The hike was literally up a creek and through the woods.  But it was beautiful and free and beautiful.  After the waterfall we headed back to the hostel, ate the free breakfast (which was consisted of a pretty lame gallo pinto, toast, and a banana), checked out of the hostel, and then went to the beach until 2:30pm which was when the bus came to pick us up.  

Eating breakfast at the hostel with our new hostel buddies.

After we got off the bus at the port and were waiting around for the boat, I had some leftover cooked hamburger patties that my parents gave me before they left for the States.  I knew I wasn’t going to eat them so I gave two to Josh and Mason.  I was going to throw the other 2 away but then saw a hungry stray dog and decided that I wanted to make a new dog friend.  Dog friend successfully made. 

Sharing the cold hamburger love with my friends...notice our new dog friend.

Getting his hamburger on.

We finally made it back to San Jose around 10pm.  I ate something real light when I got home because I wasn’t too hungry, just really tired.  I hadn’t eaten since noon that day but I still wasn’t hungry.  I showered, admired my new tan, and then slept.  Fun weekend but I’m pooped.

Topped the boat ride back off with a beautiful sunset.

Oh, the bus came with us on the ferry too.

A Busy-Fun Week With My Family

Boy oh boy do I have a lot to share with you this week.  Be prepared to read.  My parents arrived in San Jose last Saturday night to spend 6 days in Costa Rica.  Since their plane didn’t land until 10:30pm Saturday night, I was a little hesitant in taking the bus to the airport so late at night.  Furthermore, I didn’t know where the bus station was.  Well, that all worked out somehow.  Let me explain.  Earlier that Saturday I went over to my professor’s host family’s house to talk with their daughter about the differences between college in Costa Rica and college in the US.  While there are really not too many differences, I was able to practice my Spanish with his host mother and talk with a tica (in English) about Costa Rican life.  As I was about to leave, I asked the girl, Liz, if she knew where the bus stop was for the airport.  She couldn’t remember at first, plus I kept asking questions about it which I’m sure didn’t help.  Anyways, she ended up asking me if I wanted her to come with me.  Of course I said yes and later on that night her mother drove us to the bus stop and we took the bus, her and me, to the airport.

The two of us ended up sitting, waiting around for my parents to land and get through customs, etc.  She was my tour guide.  We tried to steal a taxi instead of paying for one while we were waiting but neither of us knows how to drive stick (most cars in CR are stick).  We also plotted on how to steal this one girl’s zebra print luggage since Liz loves zebra print.  But I was a terrible friend and didn’t follow through on the robbery.  Mom, pops, and Peter arrived safe and sound and we all took a $30 cab ride back to San Jose because it was very late and the bus wasn’t going to arrive for another 45 minutes.  Can you see now why I wanted to take the $1 bus ride to the airport?  We got to the hotel around 12:30am, said our goodbyes to Liz, and went in to sleep.  Make a tica friend?  Check.  Plus it was nice to have a native speaker there to help us get around.  

            I spent the night with the family that Saturday because we had to get up early the next morning in order to go to Tortuga Island all day.  We ended up falling asleep around 1am and had to wake up at 5am.  Ugh!  Anywho, we got up, tried to find an ATM that was open because the folks didn’t have any money and I only had a few dollars left from that $30 taxi.  We couldn’t find any international ATMs so I just used a few bucks I still had to get us a taxi that would take us to the bus pick-up zone for our day trip.

The boat we sailed on to get to the island.

            After doing some asking around, we got on the right bus and it took us to breakfast, which was included in the trip.  The breakfast was a typical Costa Rican breakfast which was, I’m sure, a little different for the folks.  The bus then took us to the Pacific Coast where we boarded a boat to take to the island.  The boat was bumping (for you older folks, it was ‘lively’).  We each got 3 free drink tickets to use on whatever we wanted.  They served us snacks on the boat, music was playing, and there was a small wading pool onboard; it was pretty awesome.  However, the boat moved really slowly.  So, after about another 2 hours, we made it to the island.  We were served lunch when we got there, chicken, fish, salad, arroz con leche, wine, etc.  It was good food.  (Check my Facebook page for more photos of the things written about in this blog).

A view from the boat we took of the Pacific Ocean.

            The rest of the 4 hours on the island we spent lying on the beach, playing in the ocean, exploring, playing soccer and digging tunnels in the sand.  4 hours on any beach is never a bad thing.  On the way back, on the boat, mom, Peter, and Jimbo all crashed because they were running on little sleep, tired from a day’s worth of activities, and jetlagged.  Plus, due to night construction, the bus ride back to San Jose took 4 hours instead of 2.  It was a long day for them and for me too but, personally, I felt it was worth it.  We also got to see dolphins on the boat ride back which made the trip for me.  Oh, at the end of the night, I ended up with roughly $0.80 left over from that few dollars I had.  We barely had enough for a cab back to the hotel but the Lord was keeping an eye on us.  They were able to pull money out the next day and I went home to replenish my coffers.

The hotel my parents and brother stayed at while in Costa Rica.  It was about a 10 minute walk from my house.

            Monday was a new day.  The parents had time to rest and relax, sleep in a bit, and recharge their batteries.  We started the day by heading over to the local grocer to buy some food supplies for them for the week.  Mom was freaking out because she couldn’t read any of the labels and couldn’t figure out the prices because they were in colones.  Furthermore, she was attracted to the American brands because they were in English and recognizable.  However, the American brands are much much more expensive.  She ended up not dying and I helped her pick the equivalent Costa Rican brands but I thought we were going to lose her for a moment there.  From there, we went back to the hotel, Apartotel Los Yoses, dropped off the goods, collected Peter, and headed downtown.

The artisans' market we frequented often that week.

The first place we ended up going to was the local artisans’ market downtown.  My roommate Josh came along too.  The market has all the souvenir things a tourist could dream of at low prices.  Plus, you can haggle with the venders a bit too and get a better deal.  I won’t ruin the surprise of what my family bought but they really enjoyed the market and went back to it multiple times during the week.  I bought a pretty rad shoulder bag for myself.  From there, we went to avenida central, the main shopping street downtown San Jose that’s for pedestrians only.  They looked around some, we ate a McDonalds, and then we walked back towards the hotel and went to Pequeno Mundo.  Pequeno Mundo is like a warehouse with dirt cheap prices.  Peter ended up buying 3 or 4 jerseys and almost 5 pairs of soccer shorts for only $30 or so.  Needless to say, he went back there again before the week was over.  Monday night the parents went to bed early and I went home to eat with my host family.

Peter made friends with the pigeons by feeding them...

And I joined in too.

The next day, Tuesday, we had planned on visiting Poas, one of the active volcanoes here in Costa Rica.  However, when I woke up to meet my family at 7am, it was pouring rain.  We still decided to give it a go and met up anyways.  However, after I told them that we probably wouldn’t be able to see any of the volcano because of how cloudy it was, we decided to reschedule it for the next day.  So, to get out of the rain and waste a little time since it was so early, we went to McDonalds again to get dad some coffee and Peter a few Egg McMuffins.  After sitting around there a bit, I took them to a local park to walk around, show them some cool statues, and then we decided to go to the zoo.  The zoo was a long walk and we got lost quite a bit but we eventually found it.  The zoo was small and dirty but very cool.  We saw lots of cool birds and animals and were able to get really close to them.  I could almost reach out and touch the lion if I wanted to. 

  

A jaguar.

One of the many different butterflies here in Costa Rica.

After the zoo we went back to avenida central to see the pigeons.  During the day, there are hundreds of pigeons in the central plaza because people sell corn to feed them and others bring food to feed them.  Lots of tico parents bring their kids there because the children have fun chasing the pigeons around.  Peter and I ended up making lots of pigeon friends and had then perched on our arms and shoulders for a bit.  We also witnessed a man catch one and then proceed to highlight it blue.  Haha, what a world.

Definitely the king of the jungle.

That same night, my host family invited my family to come eat dinner with them.  Since my Spanish is limited and my family doesn’t speak any at all, I was a little nervous about translating for both sides.  However, it went perfectly.  We ate together, we sang together, played music together, laughed together, and teased each other.  It was a great end to a great day.  My host family is so loving and giving and my real family is just the same.  It was a gift from God that we were able to share that night together as one big family in Christ.

Peter and I taking shots of coffee liquor at 10:00 in the morning at the coffee plantation.

            As you might have been able to see, my paragraphs are getting shorter which means I’m getting tired of typing.  But I must press on.  Wednesday the 4 of us went on a 3-location tour.  We had an early morning again, being picked up at 6am from our hotel.  After picking up everyone else that was going on the tour too, we headed to Doka, a local coffee plantation where Starbucks buys some of their coffee from.  We ate a typical Costa Rican breakfast there and then took a tour of the plantation.  Peter and I tried coffee liquor at 9am in the morning.  We’re not alcoholics, just adventurous boys.  From there, the bus took us all to Poas to see the volcano.  It was a perfectly clear day and we were able to see the entire crater!  Our tour guide said that the volcano is only that clear 10% of the time and that we were lucky to see it in such a state.  

A shot of the bean drying fields at Doka

The Poas crater with lots of acidic water and sulfur smell.

After Poas, we headed to La Paz waterfalls.  There, we walked through the mini zoo they had on site and ate a buffet lunch.  The hotel where La Paz waterfalls is located is amazing.  It’s $250 a night amazing.  Anyways, after looking at all the animals and eating, we walked down some 400 steps to see the 3 different waterfalls.  Then we got back on the bus and started our trek back to San Jose.  After riding in the bus for about 5 minutes, it started to rain.  The Lord was keeping us dry until we were completely done with our tours.  He gave us a perfect day.

The family at the Poas lagoon.

Peter made a friend at the La Paz waterfalls zoo.

One of the 3 waterfalls we saw.

            That night was low key.  I went back home to eat with my host family and my real family hung out in their hotel.  Thursday, we got up fairly early again and headed to Cartago, a city about 30 minutes east of San Jose.  My friend Laura came with us too.  We walked around the city a bit, looking in various stores and such.  We visited the huge Catholic Church, La Basilica, and looked at some old church ruins.  Then we went to the huge fresh fruit, veggies, and food market.  I, of course, bought fruit.  We just walked around there for a bit looking at all the different things and then headed back to San Jose around noon.  Peter and I were going to play soccer with some ticos and other Americans but no one really showed up so we just ended up kicking around a bit and then leaving.

Inside the Basilica.  Notice the people on their knees walking up the main aisle.

The old church ruins in Cartago

            The parents and Peter went back to the artisans market to spend more money after we finished kicking around the soccer ball, but I had a test at 3pm that day which I hadn’t studied for so I didn’t go with them (remember, I’m a student down here; it’s not just vacation for me all week long…well, actually, it kind of is).  I got about an hour’s worth of studying in and then took the test.  I really didn’t care about the test.  I’m sure I did alright.  I had already missed 3 classes that week in order to spend more time with my family but the professors said it was okay.  Later that night, I took Peter to a bar since he can legally drink in Costa Rica.  A few of my friends came too.  Peter got a Long Island Ice Tea and thoroughly enjoyed it.  He and I accidentally broke a glass while thumb wrestling.  Needlessly to say, Peter was feeling pretty good last night.

Peter's drink is the large one.  Mine is the small fruity looking one.

Today, Friday, all of the family fun came to an end.  Juan Carlos and I drove my family to the airport at around noon.  Their plane is supposed to take off around 3pm.  I hope they stay safe and I hoped they enjoyed their time in Costa Rica even though it’s much different than the United States.  I hope they have a little different view of the world and a little different view of themselves.  It was a blessing to spend time with them and show them all the things I’ve experienced and live with daily.  Now, I’m sitting here in my host family’s house blogging about my time with my family, all alone.  I certainly had a blast with them and realize that I missed them more than I thought I did.  I’ll see you guys in a few months!  I love you guys.

P.S.  We couldn’t get the car to start at the airport so we (Gleys, Juan Carlos, and I) ended up having to call a flatbed tow truck to come get the car.  Then we had to take a taxi home.  I said it was your fault, mom and dad.  Don’t worry though; Gleys and Juan Carlos were fine with it, mostly thankful that it didn’t happen somewhere far away.  Plus it was good bonding time for the 3 of us.  Pura vida, right?

A Friday To Remember!

            So yesterday was a good day.  As usual, I woke up before 7am and ate breakfast.  Then, about an hour later, I went for a run to the park like I do most mornings.  Sometimes, I’ll split up my run and take a break half way through in order to do some exercises in the park (i.e. sit-ups, push-ups, dips, etc).  Today was one of those days where I took a break.  I chose a picnic bench in the shade on which to do my exercises.  About 3 minutes into doing crunches, about 20 people showed up to the part of the park I was in looking ready to run.  There was a man with them who was timing them as they ran around the park.  Another man who was with the group came and sat down by me and asked what the time was.  I answered in Spanish and continued on with my exercises. 

However, a few minutes later he began talking to me more in Spanish about the people running.  I understood but then informed him that my Spanish wasn’t very good.  He and I talked for awhile.  It turns out that the people running were being tested physically for the police force.  They had to run a certain amount of laps in under a certain amount of time.  The point of the story is that I was able to carry on a small conversation with a tico and not die.  It was a very cool experience even though it was brief (10 minutes or so).  I’m learning little by little.

            After running, I met up with Laura at around 10am or so.  Laura and I sometimes get coffee together in the mornings, since neither of us have morning classes, and talk about life or she’ll help me practice my Spanish.  Instead of going to a café and buying coffee this time, we went to the store and actually bought coffee grounds and then went to ISA (our program’s office) and made coffee ourselves.  The coffee was alright…  Anyways, she and I just hung out at ISA for most of the morning working on the daily newspaper’s Spanish crossword together, messing around on Facebook, or talking.  While looking through the paper trying to find out what’s happening in San Jose this weekend, we came across one of the new movies that had just recently come out in Costa Rica: Amigos Con Derechos.  It was a chick flick starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman but well worth the $4 movie ticket.  Plus, it was a fun way to pass the afternoon.  Laura and I shared some good laughs during the movie.  Actually, Laura shared a lot of laughs by herself, literally.  I mean, no one else in the movie theater was laughing except Laura.  Que verguenza!

            Anyways, if an entire day with Laura wasn’t enough fun, my host family told us a few days ago that they were going to have an “adoracion” at their house Friday night with some family and friends.  The word adoracion, I later found out, means worship.  However, I was under the impression that Juan Carlos said “oracion” which means prayer…just a little off, but that’s beside the point.  Juan Carlos said I could invite some of my friends if I wanted to so I asked Laura and Emily to come.  Josh, who I didn’t see all day yesterday until around 6:30pm, invited 3 more of our friends. 

While the group of us “Americans” were all just hanging out and talking in my host family’s house before started worship, Gleys played the music for How Great Thou Art and asked Josh if he knew the words for it in English.  He didn’t but I knew the chorus and a little bit of one verse.  Juan Carlos asked me to look the lyrics up online so he could print them out so our group could sing a duet with Gleys in English while she sang in Spanish.  Of course we couldn’t just say no so we ended up singing with them.  Then, after we were done singing, they asked us if we would sing for everyone again during the worship.  We said yes, or course, again.

Worship was very interesting.  It was definitely a bit of Costa Rican culture.  It was basically a Catholic mass where they said the rosary and a bunch of other things to do with mother Mary.  Gleys and Juan Carlos led worship and it was very well done.  They both sang…and boy can they sing.  Mother, I know you’re probably on your way to the airport now to come visit me, but I think you’d enjoy singing with Gleys while you’re down here.  Anywho, Gleys gave a great prayer about how she’s been sick and how it’s been hard on the family but how God has blessed her with wonderful friends and family, a loving husband, and a great son.  The prayer was very moving and the worship was refreshing.

            After the worship everyone (there was roughly (15-20 of us in total) ate.  We had lots of great food like chicken lasagna, veggies, pork, and fresh fruit juices.  It was a great time and a great Friday.  After we ate, we just all sat around and talked for awhile.  It was nice to interact with everyone, both in Spanish and in English.  Juan Carlos and Gleys really liked our friends and said they could come back anytime they wanted.  They said that their house is now our friends’ house too.  Costa Rica has been good to me so far.

            Enough about me, let’s talk about my parents.  THEY’RE COMING TODAY!!!  Yessir, you heard me right.  As we speak (I know we’re not really speaking but just go with me on this one), Jim, Claire, and Peter are on their way to the airport to fly down to San Jose.  I’m meeting them at the airport here around 10:30pm tonight and then taking them to their hotel.  Then, tomorrow, the 4 of us are going to Tortuga Island for the day to play in the ocean, snorkel, explore, and have a good relaxing family fun time.  They’re staying for 6 days.  I’ll be sure to blog about it and tell you how it goes.  Adios!

The Caribbean!

4 ½ hours on a bus wasn’t too bad.  Especially when at the end of that bus ride you end up along the Caribbean Coast.  That’s right, a group of us went to Puerto Viejo along the Caribbean side of Costa Rica this weekend.  Since it was a long bus ride we ended up in Puerto Viejo when the sun had already set and had to walk to our hostel in the dark.  It wasn’t that bad of a walk since it was a full moon.  Plus, like most beach towns, there were lots of people out walking around or riding bikes.  It was plenty safe.  And, of course, it smelled like weed as soon as we entered the town.  This is the province of Limon where they talk Spanish in Jamaican accents, listen to reggae music, adore Bob Marley, and smoke lots of Mary Jane.

The Caribbean Coast

 The hostel, Cabinas el Tesoro, was about a mile outside of town which was probably best in the end since the town really didn’t sleep.  We had 3 rooms with 4 beds each for our group to use.  Since there were only 9 of us, I ended up sleeping in the 3^rd room all by myself.  I was the only guy who went so it seemed fitting.  The hostel was pretty cool.  It was back in the jungle so it felt very nature-like but the beach was still just across the street.  It was rougher than some of the other hostels we have stayed at (i.e. the kitchen was not as nice or “helpful”) but I enjoyed 100% of it.  Even using the kitchen was a blast.  We went out for dinner the first night we were there and most everyone ordered some sort of pasta because we were starved not having eaten since we left San Jose in the afternoon.  Well. It took about 2 hours for our food to get to us.  So, at around 10pm, we had dinner.  But food is food and we were hungry.

My room at the hostel

Some bananas just hanging up at the hostel for anyone who wanted one.  Some were better than others.

The next day we all went to the beach, of course.  Caroline and I rented a surfboard for the day.  The waves weren’t the best.  A lot of them were too big for us.  The water was kind of choppy too but we made do the best we could.  We laid out and surfed all day until about 5pm.  To conserve money, Caroline and I decided that we were going to cook dinner for ourselves Saturday night.  As a side note, most everyone in Puerto Viejo was riding bikes to get to and from town or to visit other beaches along the coast.  There were lots of places you could rent bikes for about $4 for half a day.  Well, Caroline and I were going to rent bikes to ride into town to buy food and then ride around a bit.  However, we totally failed because when we went to go rent 2 bikes for half a day we couldn’t because the rental place was going to close in 10 minutes.  Therefore, we walked to town.

Where we rented our surfboard and the man we rented it from.

Some of the waves

We ended up buying spaghetti noodles, canned peas and carrots, mushroom sauce, and a pineapple all for under $3 a person.  Making food was fun.  I did the manly stuff like light the burner and cut up the pineapple.  Caroline did the lady stuff like cook the food.  Actually, she cooked the food because I would have ruined it if I would have tried.  Someone had left rice at the hostel so we ended up cooking that, mixing it with the peas and carrots, and adding pineapple to it.  It was pretty darn good.  Then, since we were still hungry, we made spaghetti with mushroom sauce, which was also pretty darn good.  Overall, it was a successful dinner and a good night.  Also that night, Emily forced me to converse with her in Spanish.  Even though the topic was “interesting,” I still enjoyed practicing.  I also enjoyed listening to her and Laura converse in Spanish.  I need to do that more often.

The kitchen...limited but entertaining.

Me eating pineapple while Caroline cooks.

Entree #1

We didn't have a can opener for the peas and carrots so I improvised and used tweezers and a rock to open it.

             The next morning, Sunday, 4 of us woke up at 5:15am to watch the sunrise since the Caribbean has the sunrises and the Pacific has the sunsets.  It was cloudy but still pretty.  I went back to sleep right after.  When I awoke again, I made some oatmeal I had bought the other day for breakfast.  Inspired by the dinner-making of the night before, I attempted to add rice to my oatmeal to mix it up a bit.  While it tasted fine, the rice was a little hard.  Either way, I had a very nice breakfast.

The sunrise

            I slept against the window of the bus most of the ride back.  Then, once I got home, I took another 3-4 hour nap.  I think I was just hungry since I only had oatmeal and rice at 8am that morning.  We ate dinner at 8:30pm so, as one could guess, I ate a lot at dinner.  Also, I guess during my nap sometime there was a tremor from an earthquake in San Jose.  Why did I have to be asleep for that!  Oh well, I guess it happens often in Costa Rica so maybe I’ll get to feel it next time.

            This Saturday the folks and Peter are coming to visit for 6 days!  I can’t wait to show them everything.  I’m a little nervous about having to translate for them since I’m not very good at Spanish myself but I’m looking forward to it just the same.  Also, I think The Discovery Channel should send some photo people over to the Middle East because it’s basically a zoo over there.  And there’s my political two cents. 

Update On My Host Mother

            Here’s an update on Gleys, my host mother.  Since being admitted to the hospital last week and given two pints of blood and a 6 hour drip of iron, Gleys has recovered very quickly.  They let her go home the next day and told her to get lots of rest.  She’s been going to bed before 10pm every night and sleeping in until at least 10am the next day.  I asked her how she felt yesterday and she told me that she’s really sleepy in the morning but the rest of the day she’s fine.  She did, however, tell me that she had a moment of tiredness and soreness during the afternoon yesterday where she just wanted to lie down and sleep.  But she only felt that way for a few minutes.  She has been making dinner, driving, singing, etc.  In short, she’s better.  Thank you everyone for your prayers.  My host family greatly appreciated them and so did I.

I know this picture has nothing to do with the blog entry above but I'm going to place it here nevertheless.  I'm giving the monkey a flower.  He ate it.