Hiking, cooking, etc.

It's been a busy couple of days here in Monteverde. On Saturday, I went hiking with Emma, Tricia, Erica, Heather, Katy and Pele. (Picture included here). On Sunday night, I had Heather and Jonathon over for dinner in what was my first ever attempt to entertain in my living space. Really. I am not a hostess, ordinarily. I rarely invited folks over for anything at all in my old apartment in Philly, as it was extremely messy and filled with cat hair. Here thing are a bit cleaner and there is a significant decrease in the amount of cat hair. And so, I cooked a whole meal for Heather and Jonathon all by myself! I made pasta sauce from scratch and also make green beans. I made cheese quesadillas as an appetizer. It was all very lovely, and no one died of food poisoning from my cooking. So, a success!
Last Friday I had my first army ant invasion here in the house! The back wall of the extra bedroom was covered, floor to ceiling, in ants. They marched around for a while, then marched out to the kitchen, and then out of the house. It was fascinating. They are very organized, those ants. Not a single one was left behind when they exited the house via the back door.
Also saw my second snake yesterday! I was out running with my friend Gina and a snake appeared beneath our feet. It was small and green and skidding along the dirt. We both screamed and leapt into the air, although it was not a venomous snake. But even if they are not dangerous, seeing an unexpected snake can be quite startling. Then again, when is a snake ever an "expected" snake? I suppose if I was visiting the Serpentarium in Santa Elena, where they display snakes in aquariums, then I would expect to see some snakes.

Adventures in the house

So I've had a number of adventures in our house worth noting. First, on Tuesday night, there was a strange gushing sound coming from the basement. At first I thought it was coming from the stove (I had just turned on a pot of water to boil when I heard the sound). I stood there, uncertain, staring down at the pot of water listening to what sounded like a geyser shooting off. After establishing that the sound was definatly not coming from anything in the kitchen, I walked around the living room a bit, listening. The sound was, in fact, coming from the basement (as sounds often do in houses). The geyser-like sound was indeed a geyser erupting from the hot water contraption in the basement. I say "contraption" rather than "heater" because it isn't really a water heater like you might have in your homes in the states. It is a small box that heats up water that enters the house from a pipe. It doesnt' actually hold any hot water in, the water heats up as it goes by. Anyway... there was water shooting out of the top of the box and down the wall.
And then, just as mysteriously as it began, it stopped.
I called Benito, our neighbor and person who rents the house we live in, and he came to check it out. Apparently the shooting water is a safety feature of the little box. There was air in the water line and the build up of pressure caused the safety valve to blow, causing water to stream out. Without the safety valve feature, the box would just blow up. Thank goodness for the safety valve!
Later that same night, I walked up to the bedroom, turned on the light, and was surrounded by about 15 HUGE wasps. HUGE. At least an inch long. They were flying all over the place. I ran down the stairs, they proceeded to follow me down into the living room. I called Benito and also my friend Gina for advice. Gina suggested "smoking them out" with a burning log. I was too afraid I would drop the log and set the house on fire, so I passed on that one. Instead I barracaded myself into the spare bedroom with a large wooden spare bed upended to block the door. I huddled in there with a flashlight and somehow fell asleep.
Last night I killed most of the wasps. It was not the most eco-friendly way to do it...I used RAID given to me by Lucky, my neighbor. But at least they seem to be gone now. All that remains is the horried stench of insecticide!

View of Playa Bluff (out of order, sorry...)

Another view of Puerto Viejo

Hmmm....

I think a lot of folks from the U.S come to Puerto Viejo...just a hunch I get when looking at these signs..

Puerto Viejo

Back to Costa Rica

I am not entirely sure what was being said when this picture was taken, but I believe the facial expressions of everyone here clearly state: "We are really hot and sick of riding on buses." At this point, we had crossed successfully back over the border and were waiting for the third vehicle of the day to come by to take us back to Puerto Viejo.
Once in Puerto Viejo, we found a lovely place to stay that actually had a shower that worked...but, for some reason, had only warm water. In the heat of the Carribean coast, you really want a cold shower. Anyway, at least it was water!
Puerto Viejo is a nice little town, if a bit touristy. There are lots of restaurants, though, which we enjoyed after two days of cooking for ourselves on Playa Bluff. There was even a place to get bagels in cream cheese, if you can believe it. It was strange feeling being in this tiny town in Costa Rica, eating bagels.
We also had dinner at a sushi restaurant...another odd out-of-place experience. But so yummy.
On our second day in Puerto Viejo we rented bikes and biked to a beach to swim nearby. It is called Playa Uva and it was very peaceful and empty. I do not have any pictures of Playa Uva, sorry. But you can trust me...it was lovely.

Valentine, Emma, and Katy in the hammock

Leaving Playa Bluff

Another view, Playa Bluff

We spent a wonderful two days at Playa Bluff, in our own private hotel with our own private beach...And it was great fun, even though there was limited running water and almost no electricity (one light bulb was plugged in at night, and that was it). The water situation was quite humerous. There was no public water system this far out on the island, so all the water was rain water, caught in a huge blue tub. The rain water, however, would only run for a few minutes at a time and then you needed to wait half an hour for it to start to work again. I have no idea why this was the case. I suppose it would stop running to help to preserve water. In any case, this resulted in many unpleasant shower moments in which one might put shampoo in one's hair, only to have the water die at that very moment. At many times during the time, you could hear a shout or curse coming from the bathroom as yet another person was stranded with no water. Also the lack of water made cooking things somewhat difficult. We had to use some of our drinking water to make pasta and rice. We also discovered there was no can opener so Tim had to bang open the cans of tuna and beans with the edge of a wrench.
Much of our food also had to be thrown away after the first day when we opened them up to find many, many tiny little ants crawling all through the bag or box. Poor Katy took a bite of a cookie without noticing that it was, indeed, covered in ants. She spit it out promptly.
The bag of sugar was also ant filled, as was the cereal box.
Luckily, the pristine beauty of the place made you care so little about these inconviences.
We also had a lovely host, a Columbian man named Eddie who runs the place. He was entertaining and a bit crazy and loads of fun. He has had many careers in his life: helicopter pilot for the Columbian military, masseuse, exotic dancer, chef, and now...hotel caretaker. He was quite a funny guy.
On our second day there, he made us the best food I think I've ever eaten in my life. I thought my head my explode from the shear pleasure of it.
I also went snorkeling with Eddie, Tim, and Katy on the second day. Not as impressive as the first snorkeling trip, but we did see a shark. It was huge. I was really scared and screamed and swam away. Eddie thought this was hilarious. He told everyone, over and over again, how I squeeled and swam away. Ha-ha! He thought it was just the funniest thing he had ever seen.
He also, unfortunatly, used a spear gun when we were snorkeling and killed a fish. Although I do eat fish, I wasn't crazy about watching him kill one while we were swimming along and enjoying nature.
But he was certainly a fun guide to have. He told us all sorts of stories, many of which we couldn't really understand...but were entertaining nonetheless.
At night you could see so many stars in Playa Bluff. We all lay together on the metal roof and watched the sky...counting shooting stars and being amazed at the beauty of it all.

Erica, Tim, and Emma on the porch

Our hotel room, Playa Bluff

View of the sea, Playa Bluff

Me, on our private beach at Playa Bluff

The REAL paradise.

Okay. We thought Bastimentos was pretty great. And then we went to Playa Bluff. And the defination of "great" just changed.
It is most certainly one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. It is not, however, one of the most easily accesible. We had to bring all our own food and water for two days because it is so isolated. In order to get there, we needed to head back to Bocos Town and then take an hour long taxi ride over the WORST road I have ever seen. Much worse, even, then the road to Monteverde. And the road to Monteverde is pretty bad. This road was downright ridiculous. The car had to dip up and down over large pits and holes and had to drive through car-door-high puddles. At some points, the car had to drive directly on the beach itself. Someone in the taxi said, "You know, this place had better be worth it."
And let me tell you, it was. It was heaven.
We arrived at the hotel with many bags of food and jugs of water and ran around in utter joy. We were staying in the main building of the hotel as the only guests, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. There was a private beach and places to go snorkeling just steps away and a view that was to DIE for. I have included here a picture of one view from the room I shared with Erica in the hotel.

Snorkeling at Playa Paul

A word, for a moment, about the food on the Carribean side of both Costa Rica and Panama. It is magnificent. It is full of flavor and spice and is absolutly glorious. Almost every meal we ate we found ourselves mmmming and wowing and saying, "Taste this. You have GOT to taste this. It's incredible." The rice and beans on this coast are made with coconut milk and the plantains are fried and salty (unlike the sweet gooey plantains of the Central Valley). The fruit drinks are perfection and the fish is unbelievable. Our evening meal in Bastimentos was personally prepared for us by the daughter of the owner of the hotel...wonderful fish and fruit drinks and yummy good food. We also had an excellent lunch at a restuarant called "Roots" where they prepared a vegetarian entree of grilled veggies in the most incredible sauce.
Anyway. Enough about food.
Later that day at Bastimentos we took another boat ride with Javier to go snorkeling. He took us to Playa Paul, the best place for snorkeling in the area. It was a gorgeous beach. Perfect in every way. Unfortunatly I forgot my camera that day, so I have no pictures. I plan to get some from some of the other people on the trip, so I will add those to the blog when I can. Anyway...there is a small coral reef there and many beautiful fish to look at. Colorful and interesting. The water was great too...a nice temperature, on the warm side, but comfortable. We were able to walk in off the beach and snorkel right there. We saw some blue sparkly fish that looked like they were covered in sequins and many yellow and green fish. There was life teeming everywhere; you wanted to look at everything everywhere at once. The coral formed some neat caves that, if you could manage it, you could dive down a bit to see some sea life below. Katy taught us how to dive deeper by blowing out through our nose and then swallowing as you go down.
Tim bumped his foot on some coral and that hurt quite a lot.
Later Javier took us to his "secret" snorkeling spot, and we jumped right off the boat to see another coral cluster. There were a larger collection of sea anemoies and sponges here. One large sponge shaped like a giant flower vase was really interesting. We also saw some clear squid here and some lobsters.

Another view of Bastimentos

Hotel in Bastimentos

On to paradise at last!!!

And so, the next day brought us finally to someplace beautiful--in fact, a place one might be tempted to call "paradise." We left early in the morning after a cheap but surprisingly tasty breakfast at a Panamanian fast-food type place. We found a boat driver who took us to the glorious island of Bastimentos, part of the Bocos del Toro archepeligo. As soon as the boat came near the island, we instantly knew we would like this place. It is much less toursity and much more a town of local people. The homes are built on the water on wooden stilts and there are no cars and no roads, only walking paths. There are a few small hotels, each with only a few rooms. Our wonderful boat driver, Javier, also showed us around the town when we arrived and walked us from one hotel to another.
One note about Bocos del Toro...most folks here are actually tri-lingual, as they also are in Puerto Viejo. Everyone on Bastimentos spoke a "patois" as their first language...similar to the language spoken in Jamaica. One man working at a restaurant there explained to us that the language is English spoken with the grammatical structure of West African languages. The people in Bastimentos also speak Spanish and English as well. It was amazing to see how people there would easily converse in all three, often within the same conversation. Also, being used to speaking Spanish, we would often speak Spanish to people in Bocos, and they would respond in English.
So, anyway, Javier showed us around and helped us find a hotel. We ended up in a hotel that was bit more expensive (15$ a night) ...but SO lovely we just couldn't pass it up. I will post a picture of it in the next entry. The picture here is of Bastimentos.

Bocos Town

At last we arrived in the main town of Bocos del Toro which we refered to us "Bocos Town" but I'm not sure if that's the official name. Anyway, it was quite a large town and really not all that pleasant. Very crowded and touristy. And many aggressive salesmen who seem to appear at all times to attempt to convince you to take their taxi, boat, stay at their hotel, etc...
We, were, however, extremely happy to have made it after the long journey. We left Puerto Viejo at 8:30 in the morning and arrived at Bocos Town at 4:00 or so. That is a long day.
Bocos Town is very pretty when seen from the water, as in the picture below. There are many buildings built out over the water, similiar to Ambergris Cay in Belize, actually. Once you get off the boat, the first building you encounter is the local jail. Really. It is a huge yellow structure with barred windows. There are eyes looking out at you and men waving and catcalling from inside. It was a very sad and a little strange to be a group of tourists walking by these prisoners who stared at us so forlornly from behind their bars. Many men were reaching their hands out; some were reaching almost their entire arm out to try to get our attention. One cannot help but wonder why the main boat dock was built directly next to the prison.
Anyway... after walking past the prison we had a nice lunch at a very overpriced place (many places are overpriced in Bocos) and then attempted to find a hotel. Many of the hotels were already booked and out of room...despite this being the low tourist season. We ended up having to split our group up. I stayed in a hostel with Emma, Erica, Tim and Tricia. It was a fine hostel and quite a bargain at 5 dollars a night. The downside, however, was that there was no running water. There was in theory supposed to be water, but for some reason the city had shut it off. Many places in Bocos, apparently, do not use city water but instead use rain water catchments. This hostel had no rain water catchment so there was no water. So...no showers, no flush toilets, no sink to use.
All good news to folks who have been sitting in sweaty buses all day. So we collectively continued to stink.
And yet we were all having a great time. It's funny...even when things seem to be rough, when you're with a group of friends, you laugh about the craziness of it all. So we stank together and laughed together.
After setting up in the hostel, we went to a nearby beach, since Bocos Town itself does not have one. I don't remember the name of the beach but it was really dirty. Eww. Some of our group decide to take a swim, and then promptly ran SCREAMING out of the water when they saw a stingray. I personally was kind of amazed that there was anything living in the water, considering the dirtiness of the beach.
But don't worry...everything got a lot better the next day. Read the next entry for more! The picture here is another view of Bocos from the boat.

On to Bocos

After crossing the lovely bridge into Panama, we found ourselves surrounded by men trying to convince us to take their taxis. It was a bit overwhelming. We stood crowded together on the other side of the bridge which was covered in dust that was repeatedly kicked in our faces by the many trucks rolling by (Yes. Trucks really DO drive over that incredibly wobbly bridge. Amazing.). There we were, six women standing on tiny very dirty ledge of a bridge breathing in exhaust and clouds of dust as one man (Tim) attempted to bargain for the best taxi price. Tim discussed and discussed and we breathed dust and began to slowly melt as the sweltering heat of the Carribean cost made our backpacks stick to our bodies and our faces gleam with sweat. We were collectively very sticky and smelly and dirty. As we would remain for the duration of our journey.
After finally negotiating a satisfactory price (3 dollars a person...the U.S. dollar is in fact the currency of Panama as well. It was quite strange to suddenly be using dollars again) we bored another hot van and headed to catch a boat. We arrived at the boat launch on to discover that, unfortunatly, all of the seats had already been reserved on all the boats going to Bocos until 5:30 (it was around 1:00 when we arrived).
We stood around for a moment, stunned.
Luckily a very nice man arrived at that point...I've forgotten his name but he works for the Red Cross in Panama and he was very helpful. Thank you, Red Cross Guy, wherever you are.
Red Cross guy told us that if we took a bus back into the main town we could take another bus to a different boat dock to get to Bocos. So, we found a bus to take us to a large town where we bored ANOTHER incredibly hot and crowded bus. This is vehicle number 4 at this point in the day, mind you. That bus ride was apparently supposed to be 20 minutes. It was instead about an hour and a half. We were all packed in like sardines and again, sweating like pigs. After about 30 minutes on that bus, we all stopped conversing and took only to glancing at each other periodically with sweat-glistened miserable faces.
Red Cross Guy traveled with us all the way to the next boat area. He guided us from the bus stop through what appeared to be a landfill of garbage (again, I was regretting my flip-flop shoe choice) to some boat launches where AGAIN..we were informed there was no more space.
Luckily after checking a few more boat places, we found one boat to take five of us. Two stayed behind and caught the next boat out.
We were extremely happy to get on that boat. Positively leaping with joy.
The picture I have included here is a view of the large island of Bocos Del Toro, approaching by boat.

The story of the trip...

And so I have returned from a week long vacation, with many stories and pictures to share.
We left last Friday, midday, from Monteverde via our private van. There were eight of us in the van...Tricia, Emma, Erica, Katy, Valentine, Tim, Carlos, and myself. It was a long, long, LONG, trip to the Carribean cost of Costa Rica. We were in the van for around nine hours, with a brief stop for dinner. It was quite a pleasant ride, nonetheless. The views were interesting for much of the way and we listened to music and chatted to pass the time.
We arrived in Puerto Viejo around 11:00 in the evening, and luckily found a place to stay for the evening- Hotel Puerto Viejo-- nice clean rooms, but very noisy. We slept in bunkbeds all together in one big room. The next morning we woke early to the glorious sight of sunshine...and saw the Puetro Viejo is a lovely little town. The Carribean side of Costa Rica has a reputation for being "dangerous" and less desirable than the Pacific side, however, we found the Carribean really beautiful and unique.
A bit later that morning we boarded a crowded and extremely hot bus bound for the border of Panama- to a town called "Sixaola."
We assumed the ride to the border would be short, as it appears to be a short distance on a map. Ha! Ha-ha! Some very important lessons we learned on this trip are that you should a) never trust a map for distances in Costa Rica and b) never trust a guidebook about anything.
So, the bus ride was quite long and very warm but we finally arrived at the border. I have included here a picture of the foot bridge you must cross to get to Panama. It is not the most well made bridge I've ever seen. In fact, it is quite rickety to the point of terrifying. As you walk across, the wooden boards wobble and occasionally move around in such a way that you are sure that you are soon to end up in the river in floating somewhere in between Costa Rica and Panama. There are giant cracks in the bridge everywhere...including some huge gaps large enough for several plump people to easily fall through. You have to step very, very carefully. Some of us (meaning: me) very stupidly chose to where flip-flops on this particular day...and I learned there is nothing scarier than crossing a rickety bridge with a huge backpack on your back in your flip-flops. Also, for some reason, you thought it was a good idea to put your passport in your pocket so that if you were to trip and fall...it would fall out and float gently down into the river. This is what I was imagining while stepping gingerly across the wooden slats that hardly qualify as "bridge." I imagined myself tripping in my flip-flops, falling flat on my face, and then watching my passport fly away from me as I cried in misery.
Luckily this did not happen. We made it to the other side. Unfortunatly, we did not all make it into Panama. Carlos, a native of Costa Rica, was turned away because his passport had expired. He had to turn around and walk back across the rickety bridge. We were all very sad about this. Now the group was down to seven.
Oddly enough, we ran into a parent from our school at the Customs office in Panama (a tiny concrete room). Small world down here in Central America. More on the crossing in the next entry...

Going to Panama! And other assorted things

Yesterday, our power was shut off because I apparently paid the wrong electric bill. Really. I paid someone else´s electric bill. You might be wondering how on earth that would happen. But here...anything´s possible. Apparently I paid the electricity for a different house owned by the person who owns my house. And here, in Costa Rica, they do not mail you a bill. In order to pay, you must use the bank internet site or do to the supermarket and pay these guys who sit at computers. When you go to the guys at the supermarket, you tell them where you live and they tell you how much you owe. Unfortuantly, if you´re house is also listed with another house, you may inadvertantly pay the bill of your neighbor. In which case your bill remains unpaid, and then they turn off your electricity. Without warning. And then everyone laughs uproariously! Ha, ha!
Anyhow, I think it is resolved now. Until the next bill paying time, that is.
This morning a hummingbird flew into the house. Michael caught it and let it out again. It was bright blue with a long, curving beak. It was very confused, flying around in a chaotic manner in the laundry room.
Tomorrow I am leaving for a long trip with some co-workers of mine. We are going to the beach, Puerto Viejo, on the Caribean side of Costa Rica, and then on to Bocos Del Toro, a group of islands in Panama! I will send pictures when I get back!
Adios!

Fog

The fog here really is like nothing else I've ever seen.
To call it "pea soup" is an understatement.
When the fog rolls in, you cannot see a thing, including folks standing directly in front of you. Everything simply disappears in a white cloud. And it rolls in quickly so you could be standing talking to someone one moment, and then poof! they dissappear in a cloud. Yesterday I was riding home from Santa Elena with groceries in a taxi. He was driving along just fine, and then poof! the road vanished. I don't know how he was managing to keep driving, as it appeared as if he was driving directly into nothing. The ends of the earth. He could see only about a foot in front of the car, the rest was a wall of fog so dense that everything is enveleped into it: the houses, the mountains, the trees. I asked him, laughing, "Donde es el camino?" (Where is the road?) He answered, also laughing, "No se! Donde?" (I don't know, where?) He then indicated that he was driving by looking at the mud puddles in front of him. I suppose the idea was, if the mud puddle disappears, then he must have driven off of the road.
That's one the things I love about this place. Everyone laughs about what, in another context, might be mildy unsettling or frightening. Even the most frustrating things, folks laugh about. It's great. It really rubs off on you too. The other day the electricity was out for about six hours and we all had a good laugh about that one. People also laugh a lot about the roads. I met a man walking to school yesterday who works at the other school here in Monteverde. We chatted (in Spanish!) about how I liked it here. He asked, laughing, "And what about the roads!??" I laughed and said that the roads were just fine. A few weeks ago, Melody called to tell us the water would be shut off on the farm for a while and we should fill buckets of water to use to bath, cook, etc. We laughed a lot about that one too. Particularly when we filled about ten containers with water and they were sitting all over the house. On Saturday night, we were riding on the back of Wolf's truck with about eight other people and Benito kept laughing and laughing when we would get close to trees and folks had to duck to not hit their heads. He also laughed and told us a couple of stories about times when he was a kid and his brothers would drive truck really fast and he would fall out of the back. Ha! Ha! Funny stuff.
When we told the story of being locked out of our house, we had Benito, Lucky and Wolf in histerics. They kept laughing and laughing. Ha! Ha! You were stuck in the pouring rain and the key didn't work! Ha! And we always laugh too, because that's just what you do in Costa Rica. Pura Vida!

Burning Ring of Fire

Tonight was our first "coffee house" at school. The coffee house is, in essence, an open mic night with food. Students and teachers perform, as do some local Monteverdian folks. It was well attended and enthusiastically enjoyed by all. The highlight, certainly, was a fire dancer who performed with flaming torches in the central grassy area of the school. It was awe-inspiring, to say the least...and also surreal, her racing flames spinning and looping against the backdrop of black, black night. Here the night is not just dark, it is beyond black. There are no streetlights and no glow from urban lights reflecting against the sky. Here the night is pitch.
So there she was, tossing her flames and dancing, with a group of student drummers banging along as background song. A ring of flame around a very calm, expressionless dancer.
Later, Tricia sang "Cambio, todos cambio..." a beautiful folk song that I think is of Costa Rica. It is such a lovely song. Too bad I cannot sing through the blog...if I could, it would go like "Cambio, todos cambio...CAAAMMMBBBIOOO todos cambio." See. It really isn't quite the same via the internet. But I promise you I am singing while I type.
After the show, we got a ride home from Lucky and Wolf, our neighbors. We climbed into flatbed of the truck with Benito and David and bounced along the road home. I had a thought while sitting there. Watching Michael bouncing along one side of the flatbed, myself on the other, the dark evening sky silhouetting his outline, the trees hanging down and over us as we pass...Benito to my left, hanging on to the back of the cabin of the truck, standing up and ducking the coming trees...David to my right resting with his eyes closed...and I thought to myself...How strange is life. Here I am riding in the back of a truck. Just two months ago I would spent Friday night out somewhere in Philly, a restaurant, the movies, a bar...and here I ride on the back of trucks. And listen to singing. And watch the fire lady dance.
How strange is life.
Buenos Noches.

Very Large Beetle

Little Green Bridge I cross every morning

Pasture I cross to go to work every morning

Sunset from our window

Something I´ve been thinking about...

I´ve always been something of a luddite when it comes to technology in the classroom. I´ve certainly been circumspect about anything that folks claim will ¨revolutionize¨the way teachers teach...anything that claims to be a quick fix, super problem solving miracle for the classroom. The way I see it, no matter how many expensive laptops, SmartBoards, or digital cameras you may have in the room...education still comes down to good planning, active learning, and material that engages students. Yet even though I am no believer in the power of the flashy gadget, I certainly became accustomed to a certain level of technology available. Even though using a piece of technology might not be my first thought, I was used to being able to reach out for a computer,DVD player, camera, when needed. I was used to having laminators and calculators and plenty of microscopes.
And that is why this place, my new home, my new job...is so very amazing. I never fail to be impressed and awed by how educators here do so MUCH with so LITTLE. We have no laminators, no DVD player, one VCR (that doesn´t work), a handful of working computers that often do not work, almost no calculators or microscopes, and just three scales for the use of the whole school (none of which work very well). There are no digital cameras, no color printers, and one photocopier that overheats when you use it for too long. There are limited supplies for science classes overall.
And yet. And yet! The students here are receiving a superb education. They are taught by teachers who are willing to find or build what they need, who are able to be creative and inventive and go the extra mile to make something work. Teachers here are able to pull together science units using whatever they can find, able to teach touch-typing even using just a handful of computers, able to teach biology using a few working microscopes, able to pull together lessons that are engaging and fun and interesting using just what is available in the woods behind the school. You learn to problem solve as a teacher- to adapt lessons, to pinch hit, to build what needs to be built.
The other day I called all of my students parents asking if anyone had any wax paper I could use for science. Luckily, one family actually had a roll they had brought back from the States!! I was thrilled and so grateful. That was a very special roll of wax paper!
So, to the folks working at my school...thanks. You guys are awesome. You inspire me every day.
And to the folks I worked with for six years... the memory of your hard work, your dedication, your friendship, your dedication to progressive education, continue to inspire me every day. You guys taught me how to teach. That is a gift that I will carry with me forever.