Birthdays, Maps and Gardens
San José, Costa Rica Dear friends and family, Keila "at school" in June, right before their 3-week vacation. June 2020 This past Friday, July 10 th , Keila and Annika finished their second week of the mid-year, three-week school vacation. Not summer vacation; first because the school year here in Costa Rica goes from February through November and second because we are in the middle of a very wet and cold rainy season. But Friday was a special day anyway because it was Annika's 9th birthday. She got to choose breakfast (pancakes) and dinner (pizza) and her cake (lemon). Jenny and I worked together to arrange two Zoom meetings, one with family and another with classmates from the school Annika and Keila attend virtually, because of COVID. It was hard to get Annika’s 2 nd -grade classmates’ attention. Finally, Jenny said, in English, “On the count of three we’re going to sing Happy Birthday.” She counted, we sang and, unexpectedly, the kids joined in. La