Here's the most recent photo of the mural Cecilia, the English teacher, is painting in the library!! Beautiful! The kids love it.



While I was gone, we received 12 boxes of brand new student encyclopedias as a donation from a local association! Just goes to show what happens as soon as something is in place. I recently found out that the school has been in the "process" of creating a library for 8 years. Hmmm... Stamping and labeling! Fortunately with the help of a university student who has to do 24 hours of community service to keep his scholarship.




Here's the new bed I dug out for my garden this weekend. The other one has flooded so many times I finally decided to give up on it and re-locate. I spread my compost out yesterday and am anxious to plant!! I already have tomatoes and zucchini growing in containers and cilantro that's hung on in the other bed. Transplanting time!

Life rolls on in San Vito...

We had an All Volunteer Conference the last week in Sept where I presented my school library project to other interested volunteers. It went well and lots of vols from the new group are interested in spreading books and literacy as well in their own interested communities. That's exciting! ALL children and students deserve the opportunity to read and access books (in my humble opinion).

Then, Dan came for a second visit! We had a fantastic time up in the Monteverde Cloud Forest and hiking around La Fortuna and taking in Volcano Arenal. I needed that break to re-charge, see a different part of the country, and hang out with Dan. We had really unseasonable weather ironically too. October is the rainiest month of the year in Costa Rica. What we experienced would be classified as "extreme heat and humidity." This unforeseen break was very welcomed after a 4.5 hours bus trip to Monteverde turned into 11 hours after a trailer tipped over and a landslide blocked the road. This all in a torrential downpour (just outside of the capital) with no dinner and no clue what was going on. 5.5 hours at a standstill. Not a great start to the trip...




Next week I'll be going to a training put on by the Costa Rican Red Cross with two members of my community on HIV/AIDS prevention. The idea is to utilize the information we receive to replicate the same workshops back in our own communities. It's at the same hotel we stayed at for our Mid-Service Training (nice!!) so I'm looking forward to it. There is also a need to squash many myths about the virus as well with both teens and adults.

I'm excited to start on a new project tract. Already work plans are beginning to form for next year!!