Ok, I should be a bit more informative in my posts. So.

There are about 20, 21 volunteers. I think about 11 are local Costa Ricans. And 10 of us are Americans. Most of us are college students but not all of us.

We have a pretty strict schedule. We have breakfast around 8 or 8:30. We eat, and we have a system where we have 3 people to cook each meal and 3 to clean up afterwards. Today I helped make lunch with a local volunteer named B; because we´re running out of food right now and didn´t have time to go shopping we only had sandwiches. So basically I... opened the cans of tuna and the beans and B, who actually can cook, chopped up the onions and tried really hard to teach me the proper way to squeeze a lemon. He had to explain like 5 times. But finally T wandered in and helped translate.

(Also, he was the one who came up with all the ideas for bettering the tuna. I was all for just opening the cans and dumping them in one bowl. But B was all like, What about some chopped onions? Squirt some lemons to improve the taste? And then add some salt? Ideas that I would have NEVER ever thought of. And I´m like... goforit.)

So an hour for breakfast and cleaning up, and then from 9 to 12 we were in a meeting. We have announcements for the benefit of the group, as well as a thanking/gracias period where we mention everyone who cooked or cleaned or did something or the other to applaud them as a group. Then we discuss things about education or teaching, to better prepare us for the schools and the kids; the other day we split up into groups to try example ways of teaching with kinesthetic movements, with opens questions, etc. I´m dreading the idea of teaching in Spanish. The only saving grace is that I would be paired up with a local, but even still.

The locals here talk really fast. It´s hard to understand. The only people I find mildly easy to understand are those in group who are Mexican Americans. Why am I not in Mexico?!

After that, we had an hour of "individual work/trabajo individual" where we assign different tasks to people (such as cooking, making posters, going shopping, going to the bank, etc...) and have an hour or two to do it. Then lunch and cleaning up. Then we had another meeting, that is also about 3 hours.

AND WONDER OF WONDERS.... today we had TWO AND A HALF HOURS OF PERSONAL TIME. This is insane! Totally unheard of! They never give us this much! Usually we have to all but run to the internet, hurriedly write an email or two, and then scramble back for dinner! (Yeah... we call it going to the Internet. Where are you going? I´m going to the Internet.) But today they-the coordinators- gave us 2 and a half hours. This is why I´m sitting here in this small air-conditioned room, happily typing away. With about 5 other volunteers. We had more with us but they left to cook dinner, I think.

After this, we have dinner at 7. Then another meeting at... 8, I assume? It´ll probably be fairly short. Our "Quiet Hours/Horas Tranquilas" are at 10. By then we all have to be in our rooms.

So, I´ll talk more about everything later. Some other volunteers, our cleaning schedules, some things we do, our preparation for the schools. Everything! But I´m going to stop here for now.