No Longer Homeless!

This has been a very exciting month, thus far. I now have a home in Costa Rica! I moved in Monday and have been busy cleaning and organizing my new place. I live in a little village called Barria Bonito, close to the main town of Puerto Jimenez in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. I live beside the wonderful Valerin-Jimenez family. Jenny (Mom), Javier (her husband), and Jenny´s two daughters Tatiana (8 years old) and Elizabeth (7 years old). They have been very good to me, providing me with all the things I need and some that I don´t, like last night they dropped off some delicious fish soup!

My little cabin has a cute porch, a big kitchen, a little room + bed, a bathroom (with hot watter! a rarity) and a gorgeous yard surrounded by the jungle. Below you will find a picture of me with my little puppy Osita. I say mine because I am slowly manipulating her to come live with me! Her name means little bear in Spanish. Osita´s Mom was hit by a car a week ago and her brothers and sisters have been given away to other families nearby. She lives in a box in the garage and is very timid. People here don´t tend to keep house pets so it would be selfish of me to house-train her since I am leaving in three months. Either way we are quickly becoming good friends and enjoy reading and taking siestas together on my porch during the lazy afternoons.

I live in the jungle of Costa Rica, how cool is that! Nothing posh, but to me it´s paradise. I have also started teaching English twice a week to an 19 year old girl here who is best friend´s with my neighbour. As far as payment goes we are trading language for language. She is just starting off with the basics in English and I need a lot of practise with conversational Spanish, a great deal for both of us. Her name is Rosaria and she has a really cute, fat 3 month old baby named Natalie.

I need to make some money since my funds have become very thin. I am trying to get an art project started here. I want to make touristy cards, using my photographs, to sell to tourists. Once I get my project up and running I will write more and tell you of my progress.

If you have a week vacation coming up and would like to explore Costa Rica I would love to show you around. It is such a beautiful country, with wonderful people, relatively cheap and easy to fly to from North America. I live a 40 minute flight from San Jose, the capital, and it only costs about $50. In case any of you feel inspired to send me some snail mail or, even better to come and visit me, here is my Costa Rican address: Michelle Laporte, c/o: Jennifer Valerin-Jimenez, Puerto Jimenez, Golfito #35, Costa Rica