Monday January 24, 2005

Views in and around the CPI Flamingo Beach Campus (click to view)

This morning I was feeling a bit better. I guess the medicine was kicking in. The kids had peanut butter on bread for breakfast and then we caught the 7:35 AM bus for the school. The villa was located in the village of Playa Portrero and CPI is in Flamingo; so a bus will pick us up each morning. It is possible to walk along the beach to school but it takes about 45 minutes. It would not be good to walk along the road because the roads aren’t paved and it is extremely dusty and dangerous. Some of the people walked on the beach this morning but I was still feeling weak from being sick so we did not.

When we arrived at school we were met by Cory, the student activities director, and she directed the kids and me to our classes. I told her that the teacher in Heredia had not worked the kids that hard and she promised to speak to their teacher so that she would work them harder.

In class I was with Claudio again and two other guys, Richard (mid-50’s) from Ottawa, Canada; and Freddie (19) from Scotland. Our

teacher is named Deidy. Our class went well and then afterwards there was a short orientation regarding the area. The campus is beautiful with rooms going down both sides and a garden in the middle with a pool and hammocks in the back near the “rancho” cafeteria.

Deidy (Jonna's teacher), Claudio, Jonna, Richard, and Freddie in the CPI Flamingo Campus classroom

After orientation, we walked into the town to go to the supermarket and got some bread, water, cornflakes, and watermelon. Then we stopped at the sub shop next door and Darby got her favorite -- “a ham and cheese sandwich”.  We headed back to CPI and caught the 2 PM bus for Potrero. The buses go back to the cabana daily at 2 PM and 5 PM.

Once back at the cabana, we got into our swimsuits and the kids swam while I studied my Spanish verbs. Mark called at 4pm -- that will be our last call until we see him on Wednesday!

For dinner, since I still am not really eating, I took the kids to the café at the villa. It is an open air café with tables. They split a cheeseburger and fries and then each had an ice cream. They did their homework and we went to bed.

One weird thing happened today – this morning we found a HUGE black spider with yellow stripes on his back in the kitchen sink. We put a glass over him thinking that housekeeping would dispose of him. What were we thinking? He was still there and ALIVE when we got back! We decide to scoop him up and free him far from our villa – that would prove later to be a miscalculated decision!

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