Colorful life and a dress to match
Door: Rebecca
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Rebecca
07 Augustus 2011 | Costa Rica, Liberia
Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out.. I told myself while descending, holding the rope that connected the boat to the anker with one hand. While clearing my ears I kept thinking...'Do not breath in and out to rapidly, you don't want to finish all the air in the tank before reaching the bottom of the ocean." It had been quite some time ago (almost 8 years) since my last dive and eventhough I refreshed my skills the previous day in the pool, it was quite another story to descent in the 'real' open water. But after a few minutes under water it felt surprisingly comfortable, relaxing and natural to be diving again. Surrounded by fellow divers and all the beautifull creatures under water, life felt like what they call here "Pura Vida"...pure life. We swam around, passed by an sunken fisherboat which over the years became a great hiding and feeding place for lots of fish and then kind of swam into two quiet white tip reef sharks on the bottom of the ocean. White tip reef sharks aren't all that big and story goes that they are not the agressive kind...still it's quite a sight to see them.
We also saw lots of colorful and less colorful fish whose names I do not know or remember and some big moray eels, who look kind of scary..with their mouth open en showing their sharp teeth, but are in fact not that dangerous for us people. The second divesite showed us a scorpionfish who blended in perfectly with his surrounding , more fish, more sharks and a few beautiful, beautiful Spotted Eagle rays....they moved so graceful through the water...amazing..like they were flying. What a colorful underwater world we have. A great weekend it was!
After this weekend it was time to start working....or at least make an attempt to do so. This week I only saw 2 of the intended 10 children, but okay...two is more than none and if I take the two children that came in sponteanously to draw into account I might even say I saw 4 children this week. I printed the time-shedule again and gave copies to both teachers and children...maybe next week they will remember to show up.
Nevertheless I have been busy enough this week: helping the team of the school with preparations for the regional art festival held at the school. Everything had to be decorated and was made by hand...we cut and painted card board figures, made masks, cut out letters for a garland and even made Greek columns from cardboard to make the art feeling complete. Till late Thursday evening everybody was busy, decorating the school, painting doors and windowsills, sweeping floors and maintaining the garden...all in an effort to present the school La Victoria at it's best. The following morning young children and youngsters from several different (from both primary and secondary)schools literaly came by busloads to the school , taking with them costums, puppets and all other things that were needed to give away a show. The morning started with tales, ryhmes and puppetshows on Why learning was important, What good behavior could bring you and How to take care of the nature around you....too many words for me to understand, but nevertheless fun to watch. After lunch when the sun became stronger and the attention weakend the dancers came. This was a good thing, cause it's hard to loose attention when dancers in colorful costumes twirl around on loud music, either folkloric or modern. People who were seated in the back and dozed off, suddenly woke up and the neat rows of chairs were moved around in order to see more of the dances. Especially the girls from a secondary school with the name La Cruz got a fair amount of attention...was this because they danced so well or did the short skirts and fishnet stockings do the trick? What ever it was, these students won the modern dancing part and will be dancing again in San Jose this coming Tuesday. Folkloric dans was won by 'our'dancers, making it the perfect ending of a perfect colorful day. Felicidades! A little after 4pm. the happening came to an end...all the guest left, leaving behind a lot of plastic cups, plates and bags and drinking straws on the playground. With shared effort ( woman sweeping, getting things down, folding meters of curtains and a few hired strong young men lifting 25 or more chairs at once into a truck)we managed to tidy up the place in no time, just in time for the big rain.
This weekend I decided to stay home to safe a bit of money for next weekends trip to Monteverde and to spent some time in and around the house. The weekend was quiet relaxing as well: read a book, drank very healthy sugar-free freshly squeezed orange/banana shake at cafe Liberia , helped my hostmam in the garden and cleaned the kitchen for her. And wrote a blog-update. Next time I hope I will be able to write about a very busy week with lots of therapy work...if not..it will probably be about a nice outing again.About hiking in Monteverde or perhaps about National Parc El Rincon de Vieja where I went two weeks ago and will go to again one day. Whatever I will be doing or wherevere I go...I will keep you guys informed. Well, take care and keep in touch. Besos desde Costa Rica!
We also saw lots of colorful and less colorful fish whose names I do not know or remember and some big moray eels, who look kind of scary..with their mouth open en showing their sharp teeth, but are in fact not that dangerous for us people. The second divesite showed us a scorpionfish who blended in perfectly with his surrounding , more fish, more sharks and a few beautiful, beautiful Spotted Eagle rays....they moved so graceful through the water...amazing..like they were flying. What a colorful underwater world we have. A great weekend it was!
After this weekend it was time to start working....or at least make an attempt to do so. This week I only saw 2 of the intended 10 children, but okay...two is more than none and if I take the two children that came in sponteanously to draw into account I might even say I saw 4 children this week. I printed the time-shedule again and gave copies to both teachers and children...maybe next week they will remember to show up.
Nevertheless I have been busy enough this week: helping the team of the school with preparations for the regional art festival held at the school. Everything had to be decorated and was made by hand...we cut and painted card board figures, made masks, cut out letters for a garland and even made Greek columns from cardboard to make the art feeling complete. Till late Thursday evening everybody was busy, decorating the school, painting doors and windowsills, sweeping floors and maintaining the garden...all in an effort to present the school La Victoria at it's best. The following morning young children and youngsters from several different (from both primary and secondary)schools literaly came by busloads to the school , taking with them costums, puppets and all other things that were needed to give away a show. The morning started with tales, ryhmes and puppetshows on Why learning was important, What good behavior could bring you and How to take care of the nature around you....too many words for me to understand, but nevertheless fun to watch. After lunch when the sun became stronger and the attention weakend the dancers came. This was a good thing, cause it's hard to loose attention when dancers in colorful costumes twirl around on loud music, either folkloric or modern. People who were seated in the back and dozed off, suddenly woke up and the neat rows of chairs were moved around in order to see more of the dances. Especially the girls from a secondary school with the name La Cruz got a fair amount of attention...was this because they danced so well or did the short skirts and fishnet stockings do the trick? What ever it was, these students won the modern dancing part and will be dancing again in San Jose this coming Tuesday. Folkloric dans was won by 'our'dancers, making it the perfect ending of a perfect colorful day. Felicidades! A little after 4pm. the happening came to an end...all the guest left, leaving behind a lot of plastic cups, plates and bags and drinking straws on the playground. With shared effort ( woman sweeping, getting things down, folding meters of curtains and a few hired strong young men lifting 25 or more chairs at once into a truck)we managed to tidy up the place in no time, just in time for the big rain.
This weekend I decided to stay home to safe a bit of money for next weekends trip to Monteverde and to spent some time in and around the house. The weekend was quiet relaxing as well: read a book, drank very healthy sugar-free freshly squeezed orange/banana shake at cafe Liberia , helped my hostmam in the garden and cleaned the kitchen for her. And wrote a blog-update. Next time I hope I will be able to write about a very busy week with lots of therapy work...if not..it will probably be about a nice outing again.About hiking in Monteverde or perhaps about National Parc El Rincon de Vieja where I went two weeks ago and will go to again one day. Whatever I will be doing or wherevere I go...I will keep you guys informed. Well, take care and keep in touch. Besos desde Costa Rica!
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08 Augustus 2011 - 09:21
Alma:
Hi Rebecca, love your blog :-) Glad you are doing well. Enjoy every minute of it, I'm sure you'll have your hands full with work pretty soon. Here in The Hague, we don't have summer this year :-( It's raining and it's cold. Big hug from Alma, Ivo, Nima and Matej -
08 Augustus 2011 - 10:09
Naomi:
Hi There Sweet sister,
Thanks a million for the colorful blog; the images, the sounds and the adventures!
I hope you'll have a busy week ahead of you and if not, I hope you enjoy yourself nevertheless...I'll see you around on facebook, via emails and through all other ways of communication...Love, kisses and take care, Naomi -
08 Augustus 2011 - 21:15
Henny:
Hello dearest Rebecca, I'm happy it's you and not me who went 'down under'. I believe you that this waterworld is very beautiful!
Your therapy-sessions are taking some time, a long warming up, but it's good to read the school keeps you busy too with other creative activities.
All the best, love Henny -
09 Augustus 2011 - 08:08
Ruth:
Hi dear sis,
Thanks again for the nice update. I think I will hire you to write my blogs...you write so nice!
It sound like you having a nice time with of without the therapy. Hopefully the kids will come a bit more this week. For now a big hug and see ya soon.
teamo mucho.
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09 Augustus 2011 - 11:40
Benita Kaimowitz:
Love your blog. We've been to the area around Liberia and can picture what you're doing--but not the diving. :-)Thanks for including us. -Benita and Eduardo -
10 Augustus 2011 - 19:17
Joke:
Hallo Rebecca,
Wat was het weer een heerlijk verslag om te lezen, vergezeld van feestelijke foto's. Door jouw gedetailleerde beschrijving 'zag' ik een mooie onderwaterfilm. Wat een leuk avontuur om zo te duiken. Als de tamtam zijn werk goed doet komen er ongetwijfeld zeer binnenkort steeds meer kinderen naar jou toe. Ik wens je veel succes en geduld. Veel groetjes uit Breda.
Joke -
15 Augustus 2011 - 20:31
Sarah:
Lieve Rebs!
Weer een leuk verslag wat in mij weer eens de reislust wekt :) Als je zo doorgaat kom ik je echt nog bezoeken hoor ;) (even sparen....)
Leuk dat het er zo creatief aan toe gaat bij jou.
En dat verhaal over het duiken is ook erg mooi, hoe diep ben je geweest? Gelukkig zijn de sharks dus echt lief geweest en hebben ze geen hapje uit je genomen, blij om te horen (lijkt me toch eng als ze zo om je heen zwemmen..)
Ik zal je binnenkort weer mailen...Ik wens je een fijne week en que te divertes con tus uitstapjes :)
besos
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