Once in San Jose, two of the Costa Rican friars, Tonio and Jorge, along with Yami, the administrative assistant of St. Francis College, picked us up in a minibus. Driving northeast of San Jose on streets with no lines and through traffic signals that here are seen as mere suggestions, we arrived to our new home in Moravia!
Our beautiful white house with green trim is located across the street from St. Francis College, a private bilingual prekindergarten to high school run by the four Franciscan friars who live at the friary connected to the school. All of the houses in our neighborhood have big fences and bars surrounding them and ours is no exception. We have a tall, green, steel fence complete with barbed wire at the top. The combination of the fence, the large lock on the gate, and the lock on the house door makes us feel more than secure here. Plus, every tico (Costa Rican) that I have met so far has been extremely welcoming :)
Our house is quite comfortable, cheery, and colorful. We were greeted with two bouquets of gorgeous flowers on our tables when we arrived! Thank you friars! The house has three bedrooms. I share a room and attached bathroom with Margie. In the back of the house we even have a hammock and three banana trees, so no doubt we will be eating lots of fresh bananas this year...yum.
After dropping our luggage off at our house, we went straight over to the friary for a tour and a filling lunch of arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), black beans, potato chips, tomatoes with cheese and basil. That night I fell asleep with a cooling breeze sweeping in from the large window and sweeping over my bed.
At 5 AM I awoke to the loud chirping of birds followed by the sun filling my room. I managed to lay in bed until about 7:30 AM, before giving in to the birds' continual wake-up calls. In the morning, the FC directors gave us a grand walking tour through Moravia. Moravia is a small suburb of San Jose, and we were able to see the church, the main streets, and grocery stores nearby. I'll have to get used to the humidity here; it felt verrrry hot walking around. We were all sweating. And this is the rainy season too! On our way back home, we stopped at one of the larger groceries to stalk our fridge and shelves. In the early afternoon, I ran around the neighborhood, which was a great way to get my bearings in Moravia. I found myself in awe of the beautiful and thriving plant life which covers every inch of available ground. I also was admiring the style of homes and buildings I passed, which tend to have their own tico flare and are always painted in more than two bright hues. Love it! The thunder starting rollin around 2 PM and was accompanied by brilliant lightning flashes. Soon the rain starting pounding our rooftop in buckets...the sound of the rainfall here is absolutely incredible. It sooths me in the same way the sound of the ocean does. The rain always comes in the afternoon, cooling the air, and it has super high intensity. You step outside and you are literally taking a shower. Don't be fooled though; it never lasts long. Sometimes it even gets sunny again after the rain stops.
On Tuesday, we walked about half an hour to a neighboring suburb called Guadalupe. Here we toured Centeno Guell, the national public school for blind, deaf, and mentally handicapped children. The school serves approximately 250 students. I believe we were introduced to every classroom of students in the school! (It was a looooong tour, but really informative.) The children left a lasting impact on me. Despite their disabilities, these children were generally full of energy, laughter, smiles, and bright eyes. I wanted to stay at the school in one of the classrooms in particular. This room had about six deaf five-year-olds. A few of them came up to shake my hand, and I just wanted to stay and play. One of our volunteers, Carolyn, will be working at Centeno Guell this year. While in Guadalupe, we also stopped at the Lady of Guadalupe church, which is artistically decorated with tons of brightly colored stained glass windows. After a lunch of handmade burritos filled with carne al pastor (que ricos!), we walked back to the house for some downtime. I fell asleep on the couch to the sound of rain...quite peaceful.
Today, we toured St. Francis College across the street from our house. All of the teachers were so happy to meet us and introduce us to their students. The school has a primary section for the little ones and a secondary section for junior high and high school. Since it is a private school, the students are expected to pay a high tuition except for those on scholarship. St. Francis is a prestigious bilingual school--the former president of Costa Rica actually attended St. Francis College. Nicole, my FC housemate, will be working in the Social Work office, facilitating service activities for each grade level throughout the year.
As I write this blog, I am sitting in my living room listening to the rain, the sound of St. Francis students playing soccer across the street, cars driving by, and others typing away on thier laptops next to me. I feel like I have completely settled into the house, and I am excited for all that this year will bring as I begin work next Monday, meet more and more ticos, continue to learn about this lovely culture and my community, and grow along the way.
Volunteers in front of our house on our first full day in Costa Rica.
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