Guardería and a Trenza

Monday was a regular day of classes.  One of the girls in my class had looked into visiting and orphanage/guardaria (daycare for single mothers). Most of our class, Me, Kim, Valentina, Nicky, Mike, and Liz (the last two not in our class) decided to go when we got out at 12. The guardaria was about a 15 min drive from Veritas. We got there and didn’t really know what to do; they didn’t exactly have a need for us so we decided to just play with the kids. The babies were napping, but the older kids had just gotten back from school and were ready to play! We got to practice our Spanish as we taught them our games and learned theirs. It was at this point I realized my Spanish kid vocab was sorely lacking… We played hide-and-go-seek, elbow tag (my idea, and a big hit I must say), freeze tag, soccer, and we learned some new hand games! In all it was a fun time, if somewhat random. Victor (the shuttle driver) came to pick us up at 3:30 and dropped us off near our houses. I got back and talked to Angel and Sophie about their day, it was their first day back from a 2 week break. Angel had had a day like mine and so we decided to go get trenzas/hair wraps for our hair. We walked to San Pedro mall (about 15 min walk) which is near Angel’s school. There we met up with the lady who makes woven bracelets; she uses the same techniques for your hair! She had about 20 colors to pick from and beads to put on the ends. Angel gets these about once a year, and they can last as long for a couple months! Unlike their little cousins I got when I was little at Myrtle Beach, you do not have to cut your hair to get this type of hair wrap out; you simply clip the bottom and unravel! Also unlike the beach hair wraps these are made with waxed synthetic string that the braider melts together to form a seal that keeps the hair wrap intact. Lots of girls here have them (all coming from the back of their head under their hair) but I was the trend setter for the international students at Veritas.  The only problem is that I asked for mine to be longer than my hair (so you could see it when my hair is down) but it’s actually kind of heavy when it’s not supported by your hair. I’m going to have to go back and get it shortened on Wednesday...

                I was really excited to show my new trenza off to my evening class, but I was actually a little bit late, since we walked around in San Pedro Mall afterwards…  But it wasn’t too bad since we were doing a survey for the school during the first 20 min anyways. During class this week we learned more about our field trip this weekend to Ostional! We are going to see the turtles lay their eggs and visit the only sustainable turtle egg harvesting business. We are going to interview the local people about the conflict between their sustainable turtle egg harvesting and the establishment of the national park (which post-dated their activities). I basically get a test run combining anthropology and sustainable development, hello rest of my life!! I am so excited for this weekend, because we are also going to be at one of the best non-touristy beaches in the country (according to my professor).  It’s my dream excursion! Its jam packed with activities that I love.