The Lay of the Land

Hola!

We are constantly looking to find the lay of the land. Success has been ours with me finding Allure the hair salon and Jess has found 2 places to get hardware EPA and a Construction place for professional construction builders. The thing is every time we have to get something or find a place we scramble. The whole language barrier makes it difficult but we use a translator app. For example, Myah needed goggles, swim cap, and crocs or velcro shoes for swim class at school. Our first thought was where do we get this stuff?  The mall is a last resort because it is way too expensive. There is a store called Universal that I like because it has a lot of things for kids. It's toy department is outrageous! Out front of the store are the sculptures made out legos. There is a Woody from Toy Story, a Giraffe, a Lion and a man sitting on bench. They also have these bins and boards where the kids can play with Legos. Right next to this place is Walmart.  I've never been a Walmart fan because I joined my alliance with Target years ago. I was a very happy person when Target came to Harlem. Now, even though I am not crazy about Walmart, my thought was to try there first. Our hesitation is that fact that the Walmart in Costa Rica is not as nice or stocked as well as the ones in the states. Actually it feels like a musty warehouse. That being said we entered with hopes of finding Myah's things for school. The shoes were the first thing we found. I was glad the crocs (fake crocs) were all too big. I don't like crocs at all but if she had to get them I wanted the originals. Instead we got her a cute pair of polka dotted Mary Janes with velcro. After looking all over for the swim cap and goggles I gave up. Then Jess walked by sports department and found them! I was but happy but felt like I was losing my shopping mojo until I found Myah an Elsa & Anna towel to take to class. Today we are scrambling for a traditional Costa Rican dress for Myah because the 15th of this month is their Independence day. UGH!!!!!  Her class is putting on a performance.

The other part, and I guess it will come, is making friends. We live in a gated community
like most people here. It is filled with kids and that is one of the reasons why we moved to this place. I think what comes up for me is making friends with the parents. Everyone has been so helpful but they are either really young, speak Spanish or I just don't feel a connection. This where I feel like I'm back in High School. Though High School isn't a good comparison. Maybe it's same feeling when I moved to NYC. I was very alone then and it took time to meet people but I was younger. At 53 it's harder for some reason. Last night I was talking to two of the mothers and the one from the states of course was stand offish and she wouldn't look me in the eyes. Normally this would have bothered me more but I said to myself I have friends in my life who really love me and support me that it really doesn't matter if I become friends with this person.  The fact that all of my friends live in NYC and other places in the states doesn't really matter but it does.  I would love to have women friends here. I just realized even with the Mothers and fathers of Myah's classmates in NYC, I was friendly but I have this guard up all the time because of my illness. I don't want to ruin anything for Myah. So, I have stayed at a distance. That is probably not good. In NYC, the parents of Myah's classmates were very educated and it was smaller community. This isn't rocket science and I will figure it out. I have to trust God will put the right people in my life and trust he will protect Myah too. One can now see how mental illness effects parts of ones life that one didn't even think would matter. For your information I am in Whats Up chat group with the girls in the neighborhood and doing a Yoga class with them on Thursday. Not bad!!!

Adios,
Gina