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Name: Lucy
Country: Costa Rica


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Member Since: 12/19/2000
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Friday, July 10, 2009

elias learns to levitate

 
it was hard work, but finally elias perfected the fine art of levitation;
























 







river jesus maria - upstream!

we have been swimming most of these days. today we actually went down the mountain to our usual dry season swim spot - needed to arrive early and keep an eye on the cloud cover uphill, ready to make a break for at the first sign of rain upstream, as wet season can bring dangerous flash floods.

took the two dogs. VERY happy swimmers!

 there was an ENORMOUS rock fallen in the middle of the road, we had to dig into the embankment to get past it - very exciting 4 wheel drive adventure of the type all love - but poor stressed out Lily. we sent her off with Bela to walk down the road so she didn't have to watch the scary angle Wil had the car on in navigating his way past THE ROCK

anyway, as usual i am behind with the photos, so i tell you about today's trip, but the photos are from the new swim spot we found that i talked about in my last post - actually the same river, but up the mountain from here, not down it - much more mountainous and closer to the source. equally beautiful but in a different way.

 


wilson and the land rover



downstream the river runs through cattle farming country. our stream, up here, it's coffee plantations, and more and more the land is being let go back to jungle.




just ridiculously perfectly beautiful, crytalline fresh clean water, perfect sandy floors, nothing scary to stand on - not even very cold!




















more later!











Monday, July 06, 2009

on holidays!

I finally have a week off.

I have been busier than ever in the last 6 months since our department decided to save money - trying to be declared the most super team of all time it seems - by having us 'mentor teachers' - we are three in our department, responsible for all the far-flung alliances around the country  - teach extra classes - our job description cites a maximum of one class a week;I've been teaching three. When you consider they are four hour classes, which need a lot of preparation, it's a BIG chunk of time from the other supervision, training and administrative stuff that is supposed to be our real purpose - and which , of course, we still have to do, and as well as if we were not teaching a whole bunch of the time too. (Plus teaching emergency classes! - on saturday I taught 2 back-to-back four hour classes, driving first and hour and a half to get to the place and then home again. left home at 6:30 a.m., got home after 7 p.m. . . .took all sunday just to recover.)

so hopefully this week I'll have a chance for some downtime and rediscover being home and unstressed for a bit - the six-day week has been a strain also - to make matters worse i had a run of NO WEEKEND at all, for some bizarre reason they had the graduation not just on SUNDAY but FATHER'S DAY. 

anyway. it's kind of weird to be home again.

and hopefully I'll have a chance to catch up on posting photos too.

we discovered a new river to swim in - actually it's the same river as our favorite Jesus Maria, but about 30 km upstream. gorgeous jungle river, many waterfalls and perfect little rockpools, the advantage being up in the mountains and close to the springs, so not so dangerous for wet season swimming as our usual dry season hangout. many photos to post but I'll start with some more of these old ones.


poor children grow wild with such an oft-time absent mother



elias grows more manly by the day. with cousin Anita




traditional costa rican peasant wear and traditional costa rican coffee field pose


bela is in the rebellious phase








Wednesday, June 24, 2009


our little jungle Lily
turned 10
last saturday

 





Tuesday, June 23, 2009

i must off to work, again

i wonder how worth it it is
is it?

so much working working working

how many lives am I touching and changing

how much am i a cog caught in a machine

the cog goes in bravely and boldly claiming its place 
thinking to forge out a better space, a grander fate

but instead is smashed into subservience
by the perpetual shunting interchange 
of teeth and teeth and teeth and teeth



is this what i signed up for?
is it?
(the whole machine, each seperate part
asks this secretly of itself
and dreams of doing more . . .)

*



(it is exam week, both for our students and even my teachers who have had to undergo assessment of their English level.
ever a time for existential crisis for an educator, when the suffering souls we have been attempting to nourish and nurture are summed up and branded with some uncaring number. and that's it. til next set of exams.)



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