Tie- Dye

hen Kayla came down to Costa Rica, she didn't just bring me a computer.  But two whole suitcases from my parents, which were loaded with tons of activities to do with the local kids, including tie- dye.

Kayla with Naduyi and Colita

We decided to make tie -dying the reward for a beach clean. So this morning at 8:30AM, I was awoken by the sounds of children outside my window. I raced out of bed to greet them give them trash bags. We started the pick up in front of the PRETOMA house and slip into 2 groups, one going north and one going south. I was excited to see other members of the community, like Tim and Wendy, join in as well and all the enthusiasm the kids had in helping.  After just one short hour, we had filled 5 jumbo trash bags and were all ready from a break from the heat.  So I told the kids to go home and cool off and come back after they were finished with lunch. This gave me enough time to get the dye ready and put the kids names on their shirts.

Kiara and Maria Fernanda with a bucket of trash

They promptly returned, excited to learn what tie- dye was. Ingrid, Kayla and I had the kids spread out and then I gave them a quick demonstration on how to make a swirl design or the basic crumple into a ball design.

Once all the kids had wrapped their shirts in rubber bands, we headed outside to start dying. My mom and I decided yellow and blue would be perfect because it would make green when it mixed and it would look like the ocean.  Two at a time the children dyed their shirts. Once they were all finished, I explained that they would have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to see their finished products. They seem excited and a little impatient, but I think it will be well worth the wait.

Tree frog hanging out on my window.

Colita with his sand turtle.

On anther note, Ingrid returned to the office, so Kayla and I are back to being just the two of us. We are still having a lot of hatching babies, which keeps us up a lot of the night and are busy exhuming the nests during the day. It is this time of the season I like the best, when we get to see babies and there are still new turtles nesting.