San Jose, Costa Rica -- afternoon

Well, I haven't written back here as soon as I had expected. I'm back in San Antonio de Desamparados, San Jose, after nearly a week in Pital de San Carlos, Alajuela.

Just a few minutes ago, I got back from the grave of my maternal grandmother and of my cousin, Johanna, daughter of Tia Zahyra and sister of Yorlen. Tia Zahyra and I went there to scrape the loose paint and dirt off the grave in preparation for re-painting it tomorrow morning. While holding the scraper in my right hand and scraping vigorously, I eventually looked down to realize that blood was dripping down from my thumb. Due to my grip on the scraper, I had actually been scraping my own skin more than loose flakes of paint. I switched hands and oddly enough committed the same mistake with the left hand. So, in the end, I was left with two bloody, throbbing thumbs. As best as I could, I continued with the work, careful not to let any blood drip on to the tomb.

As I finished the scraping several minutes later, with the blood beginning to dry on my thumbs, and standing there next to the tomb, I looked up to see the two ends of a rainbow low on the horizon with the mountains serving as a backdrop. It was a sight and a scene exceptionally beautiful.

Earlier today I sent an email to Stephanie, my supervisor at Philadelphia Legal Assistance, recommending that they begin searching for someone to fill my position. I left it open that I may still return as expected, but that, at this point, I still had not reached a decision. The truth, however, is that more and more I am decided on staying in Latin America for an extended period of time. I believe I will soon make an excursion to Nicaragua; on the way back I will stop in Liberia, the capital of the province of Guanacaste, as well as visit the beaches of Guanacaste. My current, short-term plan is to leave tomorrow for Guapiles to pass some time with Abuelo; also, this Saturday there will be a party for the fiftieth birthday of Tia Sula.

Now, to give a quick update on my progress in a few different areas. First, my Spanish is slowly, but steadily improving. My improvements come largely in the area of vocabulary. However, I feel that I need greater improvements yet in the area of verbs, namely the conjugation of them. Although I'm not quite fluent by any stretch of the imagination in informal conversation of the street, I am confident in my conversational skills of the more conventional Spanish. For the most part, I can express all my basic thoughts and ideas, as well as some more complex. As much as I would love to be fluent tomorrow, I must be realistically content with my current progress.

In the area of my dancing skills, I have the basic movements of both salsa and meringue pretty much down. I need to learn how to lead the woman through spins and turns. And just as important, I've got to relax with it all so that every movement appears fluid and natural. As with the language, dance will come with extended, repeated practice. I'm thinking my time in Guapiles should present sufficient opportunities.

Lastly, in the area of reading, I now have less than 300 pages left in the book, Atlas Shrugged. As I approach the end of the book, I am more and more eager to finish it. Likewise, I am more and more looking forward to receiving my next book by personal delivery from the United States. The next book should provide me solid theory to one day put into practice.