Pura Vida

Pura vida is a phrase you hear a lot in Costa Rica. My best translation of it is a mix between "live good" and "chill." If you are walking around town and pass someone you know (or don't know), you can say, "pura vida." You can refer to a person as being, "pura vida." You can refer to an event as being, "pura vida." The other day someone in my town refered to another person as pura vida and I decided that is the ultimate compliment in Costa Rica, and I hope that one day someone refers to me as pura vida. That being said, one day Edwin (a volunteer in my town) was sitting outside when I dog came up and peed on him. This can be referred to as "dura vida."

Focus. The point of this post is my site visit. Yay! There's a million things I could say, so I'll try to hit the main points.

Comte: This place is the Campo.. capital C. The town has about 600 residents. It's about 8 hours of traveling from San Jose, and the closer you get, the hotter is gets, and the more rural is gets. It's pretty much 1 main dirt road. Maybe 20 min walking from 1 end to the other. On the main road there's a grade school, high school, soccer field, 2 pulpereias (small mom and pop store), 2 bars... that might be about it. There is sort of a pseudo-square of houses, where the majority of people live.

Host family: The house I will be living at isn't located in the main cluster of houses. It's on the other side of the main road, surrounded by trees, so it's a nice and peaceful location. There are 9 members in the intermediate family, mom, dad, 2 daughters, 5 sons. The daughters and sons are all in their 20's. 2 sons live elsewhere, and the wife of 1 son lives in the house. I spent the first night there sitting in rocking chairs on the porch, chatting with the 3 girls, I felt very content. I'm looking forward to living in the house.

Gente: The people that live in Comte are amazing. Everyone I met was so warm and welcoming. It's a little intimidating because it's obvious that everyone loves the current volunteer, but I felt the same warmth and love when I met everyone. I am really excited to be a member of this town.

I'll leave this post at a final comment. During my site visit, the current volunteer and I went to the high school, and when we arrived, the entire school was sitting outside waiting for us. They did a goodbye bit for Kathrine, and a hello bit for me. Then the director called me over to introduce myself in front of everyone. It was a really gratifying moment because I stood in front of over 600 people (the high school has 600 because kids from other towns attend it) and talked for a bit in spanish. It was great. Yay Spanish.