Off to my home stay!

Hello! We haven't had a field trip in a while so I haven't posted but I wanted to write something before I head off to my home stay with a Tico (Costa Rican) family tomorrow morning.

Things that have been going on that I haven't had the chance to write about:

-We've met with a group of Costa Rican students our age who are learning English through an intensive (and free) government program twice now. The first time they came to the center and the second time (today) we went to their school. We've been playing games and attempting to communicate but of course, it's rough at times.

-There are a few projects that we're working on here at the center at the moment. The soil here doesn't hold water very well so our lettuce is suffering. To solve the problem, we've been constructing 'organoponic' beds. Basically, they're raised beds filled with dirt in which we can plant veges. Lots of hole digging and hammering together for this one. We're also working on intercropping some of the orange trees here on the farm with bananas. Again, lots of hole-digging for the new trees. In other news, the mangoes on the property are getting to be ripe and soon we'll be able to have fresh mangoes everyday. We already have fresh orange juice from our trees every morning at breakfast. I see mango-orange juice in my future. Also, while we were digging holes for the new banana trees, Don Macho Ernesto (don't ask me why he has so many names) brought us some sugar cane he'd just cut from the cane plants in the garden. I've never gnawed on fresh cane before- it was so delicious. Kind of pulpy and porous and once all of the sugary sweetness is gone you just toss the rest.

-I'm off to my home stay tomorrow. It should be interesting. Here's what I know so far: i'm staying with a widowed photographer, her three daughters (22, 20, and 17), and their perrito. We're going to someone's fiftieth wedding anniversary on Saturday night and apparently to the mountains on Sunday.

-I'm also planning next weekend. We have our first "free" weekend which means we get Saturday and Sunday (but can't leave on Friday night....?). Myself and a few friends are planning to go to the coast and to a 200 m (!) waterfall to swim. We also might go to Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio where I'm told you're pretty guaranteed to see sloths.

-Final thought: a keel-billed toucan was flitting around in the mango trees at the center the other day. That makes my toucan count three: a pair of chestnut mandible toucans (one feeding the other in Poas) and one keel-billed. Not bad.

As always, comments are welcomed and encouraged!