When I found out that we would be spending an entire day with our host families I was skeptical about how the day would unfold. Knowing little Spanish and not being especially close with my host parents made me nervous to see what they had in store for the day. Isabel, Emily, Rodina, and I woke up to the sounds of a full house and of course the usual noises of clucking chickens outside of our windows. Since it was Father’s Day, Elizabeth and Leo’s children came home to celebrate. Their son Mauricio, 27, brought along his friend Rodger, and their daughter Marlena, 31, brought her boyfriend and his two children with her. After breakfast the 12 of us made the 15 minute trek to the nearby river to swim and relax. There we met up with Bernardine & Ayesha’s family and Cheyenne & Gabi’s family and all of their extended family members as well. The river was fun because we got to meet each other’s family and interact with more of the local people and practice our Spanish even further.
After getting a chance to swim, jump off of cliffs, and relax everyone at the river went to the nearby soccer field to play a short game. The soccer game was one of the highlights of the day because people of all ages were brought together. The game also gave me more insight to Costa Rican culture because I got to see how family-oriented everyone is and witness the true sense of community instilled in El Paraiso. This also made me feel as if I was a part of the community and helped me to bond with my host parents and their children. I really appreciated and enjoyed this day off from working at the school because I got to experience a typical day in the life of a Costa Rican and get a genuine sense of their culture.
-Dara Gill
Today we spent the whole day with our homestay family. After a busy week, a day of rest was nice. Grace Ann, Julie, and I slept in until 8 o’clock, which was late compared to our 7:14 “chicas!” wakeup call by our host mother, Isabel, every other morning. After breakfast, we got a chance to do our laundry and spent the remainder if the morning playing card games with our host brothers. Card games are an easy way to bond with our host family because most are universal. We teach them card games and they teach us card games and it has been an easy way to have fun and overcome the language barrier. We ate soup for lunch with the whole family, in accordance with their belief that eating hot food in hot weather cools you down.
After lunch the three of us took a siesta and spent time journaling. It was refreshing to have some time to ourselves to recuperate after an exhausting week of struggling to communicate with our host family. Communicating with people who speak a different language is fun because it requires us to be inventive in the way we communicate and bond in a special way, but it is also extremely tiring. In the evening we played our family’s favorite card game, Uno, outside with our host mother. We watched the soccer game going on in the backyard soccer field. After our host brothers and host father were finished playing, they joined us playing Uno until dinner.
When we were called inside for dinner, Julie was surprised with a birthday cake with candles in the shape of a 17. Our host family planned to celebrate her birthday after we mentioned her birthday once in passing. It was so sweet that they remembered and wanted to celebrate with us even though her birthday is after we leave their home. The celebration was followed by more cards and our host mother gave us all going-away gifts. We each got one of our host father’s handmade wooden souvenirs made of trees fallen from the forest in their backyard. Sunday was well-spent resting and bonding with our host family. Even though we have only spent a short time living with them, we have learned so much and become so close with our Costa Rican family it will be hard to say goodbye.
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