adventures in costa rica: feliz dia de amor/san valentin

...and another week has flown by! this week has been hectic, as the kids started back to school wednesday. most of them come right to the soup kitchen from school so they are still dressed in their white polos and navy pants---they're all so cute in their little uniforms! but they also come filled with energy from sitting in a classroom all morning! lucky us! :) we've tried to make it a fun week, doing some valentine activities with them each day. one day we made a big "happy valentine's day" banner, another day we made valentine cards, and today we had a little "fiesta" for them, where we decorated cookies and did some coloring. the attendance has been really inconsistent in the afternoons, especially now since school has star

ted, but the kids that come

seem to enjoy themselves. it seems like school takes a lot out of them because after lunch, many of them just want to go home and rest and don't want to even hang around outside and play with us. it's hard for me to see them leave so quickly, but i can completely understand where they're coming from! of cou

rse today was a different story---when they heard we were having a party, no joke there was approximately 40 kids that stayed to decorate cookies! somehow it was a success and every kid went home happy with a frosted cookie and a valentine lollipop! i feel its the little things like this th

at make the difference and that stand out in their minds so it made ME happy to see so many kids walking out of the soup kitchen with big smiles across their faces today :)

yesterday, we also got the chance to go "down the hill" and into the "neighborhood" with a few of the kids. there were only a few playing outside so they got this idea to show us where they live and see where some of the other kids were. i wasn't sure it was a great idea but i'm definately glad we went. it was a little uncomfortable, with the looks we were getting from some of the adults and people that had no idea who we were. of course, it helped that the kids were all holding our hands and constantly saying "profe! profe! mira!" (teacher! teacher! look!) to show us around. there is a concrete pathway that goes down the center and then the houses line both sides, all made of a tin-type of material and all connected along both sides. surprisingly, they have electricity that runs down to the houses and we noticed a lot of the houses had tv's and stereos playing. but from what we could see, many of the houses looked like they were just one big open room that the entire family lives in. (mind you, most of these families have 3 or 4 kids plus the parents...all in one room!) definately an eye-opening sight to see....