Dear Family,
I am getting ready to leave San Juan tomorrow morning. I will find a colectivo taxi (30 codobars) and head to San Jorge and take the ferry (35 codobars) to Ometepe and then the bus(???) to Altragracia where Jim and his nephew Patrick have been for a week .

It has been a difficult week here alone(without Jim though lots of kids from around
the world surfing) and trying to learn Spanish. I stayed with a family close to the school(which was on the beach) with a variety of other students from a variety of language schools. In the house is the mother(her brother was hit by a car two weeks ago in the streets here) who is prone to crying fits and furious bible readings and the father who says( i think) he is going to work but is always in the hammock when I come home at noon and there until the end of the day and a daughter who watches tv all day or at least when I am around. Then there are 2 or 3 others who come and go. When I first came last week, there were 3 others from Hawaii who are Christians doing god’s work. It could be that I told them when I met them that it was all god’s work that they haven’t taken to me. I don´t know. I am comfortable with them but they seem nervous around me. So, it was with great pleasure that a couple in their early 30s came who think god’s work is surfing as they have been doing that for 4 months everywhere. She is studying to be a dentist but is taking time off to surf and they both are in their first week of language training and from Canada. To round it off, 2- 16 year old boys from Florida whose parents sent them here alone to study Spanish. I asked them if their parents liked them and they told me that the parents mentioned to them that they needed some space. At language school, it just so happens that I have the best Spanish this week, so I have been used as translator while the teachers try to figure out what is going on with these kids who insist on speaking English to them which they do not understand. Although the kids are 16 they act a lot younger and after 10 minutes of talking with them I kind of understand why their parents sent them!!! There is no lack of money as the kids bought a surf board today and new sandals(the school took a field trip to the store as a lesson so they could buy the shoes. If they survive( and they just may as they already hang out at Ricardo’s and Big Wave Dave’s which are two places where no Spanish is spoken, filled with gringos) it should be a great experience for them.

The school itself is a colectivo of women . Another school, the Latin-American language school are the men who broke off from them 4 years ago. I would love to know that story, but alas, my Spanish can not handle it. I walk on the beach and swim every day and that as you can imagine is wonderful but my room is tiny and hot and yesterday we chased a huge crab out from under the bed. The bugs have been miserable this summer and sunscreen and repellent are my cologne of choice these days.

Wish me luck on getting myself to Ometepe by MYSELF( what am I thinking!!!!) I look forward to the comforts of my wonderful home July 17th. I expect that it will be more difficult if not impossible to find internet as easily as here so with love I say Hasta Luego.
Love you,
Ro/Mom