A new friend and co-teacher

Today was an exciting day as I got to really get to know the new Geovisions volunteer Gabriel arrived last night, literally minutes after posting my last blog about him not making it here yet. I've been anxious to meet him since I learned he would be coming to work on this same project, and am glad to finally put a face to the name and make a new friend here. Gabe seems really nice and will be fun to work with. We were able to talk a bit last night when he made it in, and this morning I went with him to buy a cell phone here in Costa Rica and showed him around the huge (insert sarcasm) La Fortuna downtown that I have become so found of and almost proud of. Gabe is from Long Beach, CA and comes from a Mexican background so he and I have a lot cool cultural differences to talk about ourselves. And, he knows Spanish very well as he was raised around it, and speaks Spanish very well, despite some emails in which he told me his Spanish was not very strong. I think his strong Spanish capabilities and the fact that he studied to be a history teacher will really help out with some of our lessons as well. This morning I also got visit with my friend Sanne while she was at work at her tour guide as I booked a shuttle to and from Liberia in an office in the same building for when my family comes to visit in just over a week. When I got to the station for lunch, I found that we had some tourists also eating as there who were in the process of reporting a robbery. I feel so so sorry for these two women on vacation from Boston. They arrived just last night, and today while at their first big activity to zip line, their trunk was broken into and all of the money, credit cards, cameras, phones, and belongings in the car were stolen. Fortunately at least one of the women still had her passport. Nonetheless, I could just feel the stress pouring off of them and couldn't help but feel awful for them. Gabe, I had found, had already been a huge help to them in translating for them with the officers and helping them figure out exactly what paperwork they needed to fill out, who they needed to call, and what other steps they would need to take, including visiting another investigation police office for yet more paperwork. He and I ended up going with them to this office to help out more- and when I say "we" helped out, it was 90% Gabe doing the translating as his Spanish is much stronger. It was so nice to see that we could help these fellow patriots in need. We both agreed, we took our volunteer positions here to a new level today, and it felt good. After staying a while with them, I decided to leave to get in a run. I took a risk as this morning it was very sunny, but the afternoon was a bit more cloudy and right at that point where the weather can't make up its mind if its going to rain or not. Fortunately, I lucked out and was able to run my favorite road in the nice cool breeze, and didn't get rained on until right before I made it back to my apartment. I also had a lot of luck as I lost my footing and wiped out on my run, but fell just right so that I only got a bit of dirt on my hands and one leg. Guess you get pretty good at falling when you've been a klutz all your life.When I got home, I realized my parents spoiled me yet again by doing my laundry and getting it off the line before it rained. This evening is Gabe and I's first class together and I have a feeling it is going to be a great one!