Life in Costa Rica: I am blessed!

I was concerned the ladies here were just making the hats for their own use, not what I intended them for. I knew I needed to be very careful, you know I am not very diplomatic. Katherine offered to come and help with the translating but it turned out they were busy at the hotel and she couldn't come. I prepared by entering a couple questions in my translate program. How many ladies in Orosi need hats and what ladies are you crocheting hats for. I explained I gave Ana 3 hats today for the ladies in Orosi. They explained their group decided they would help me and that they were making the hats for me to go along with what the ladies in Paraiso are making. This is what they have done since we started.

I explained about being gone next week and 2 of the ladies took yarn for 2 hats and one of them took yarn for 5 hats. I will be ready to find another hospital very soon.

My stockpile of yarn is pretty depleted so they will be happy when I return in October with lots more yarn.

I am so happy and relieved that I was the one who was wrong. I should have known I didn't need to question their intentions.

So, my afternoon. Besides my 3 crocheters, my 2 sewers showed up. I put them to work at the sewing machines making the scarves. I had an assembly line going. Arabella did the long seam and then handed it to Efigenia to do one end, turn it right side out and do the other end. She seemed to do much better just doing short stretches instead of long. I think she gets nervous doing the long and then messes up. They are both coming back tomorrow to do more scarves and Katherine will be here to start on her next dress for Courtney. We have some ideas to change it up a bit. I don't remember if I showed you the picture of them in their dresses so I will post it again. Next time they get Dora dresses.

Lexi and Courtney. This was her first attempt at sewing so we used fabric I had. It was intended for placemats but this puts it to much better use. We may add a ruffle around the bottom of Courtney's as it is a little short. We do have some extra fabric. She would also like to make little shorts to match. Courtney's birthday is October 16 and she will be 4 and starting school in February. I was going to say she will need clothes but she may have to wear a uniform. Most of the school kids here do but I don't know how young that starts.

We had a lovely coffee with muffins and fresh tortillas from Janet and sweet bread with Mora/Strawberry jelly. I had been giving my sewers hot green tea but when they saw I had coffee, that is what they had. I don't usually make coffee because I just make instant for myself. They would never ask, but I will have to change that.

I headed out as soon as everyone left and my first stop was the hardware store. They are so nice to me there. I showed the man a little hook and said I needed one or two or three but grande. He brought back one in each hand and I took both of them. Now, there are 544 colones to the dollar right now. The total was 82 colones so definitely not a major purchase. I got to the cashier and I had 75 or 100. She took the 75. I kept digging in my purse and found a 10 so I felt better. They don't have anything smaller than 5 so you either round up or down. I headed for the fruit market but I didn't like the looks of the mangoes so I kept going to the bakery. They didn't have the bread I like so I bought eggs, yogurt and a donut. Then the other fruit market but they were very low and their mangoes looked even worse. Back to the Super and I got some chicken and hamburger buns. Their fruit and vegetable bins were pretty much empty. Early in the week is tough, or late in the day. I blackened the chicken and added guayaba jelly to the bun and am having yogurt and a chicken sandwich. The donut may have to wait until morning.

Here are some shots of my hard working ladies.