Service Learning Project

This week we met some students from the local high school. In order to graduate, they have to complete a service learning project. So we are going to help them with these projects. Edwin and I are working with a group of 4 kids to help them forumate project ideas and start the project. Today we went to the school and had our group draw a community map. It was really interesting because when we first arrived, we did this same activity. It was interesting to see the perspective of a visitor (we did the map our first week in town) vs kids that live here. Having them draw the map was a great way to get talking about their community, likes and dislikes, resources, dangerous places, etc. The kids are awesome and I had a great time hanging out with them this afternoon. Side note, we ate with them in the cafeteria and when we were being served our food Eric asked the cook if it was chicken or fish.. she smiled and said, its a banana. We´re still amateurs.

I´ve also pseudo-adopted a little puppy. My brother found a 1 month old puppy in the street and brought it home. I´ve been feeding it and cuddling it every day since. Nancy and I decided on the name Lily. It is the most precious puppy. My host mom always calls her a chiñada because every time I hold her she falls asleep in my arms. My family asked me if I wanted to bring her with me to my community.. duh I do. So I will have to find out about this. Go figure I´d be trying to adopt dogs 3 weeks in.

I´m looking forward to a relaxing weekend. It has been a very long and tiring week. There is an arts festival in San Jose. I am planning on going to that with my sister tomorrow. On Sunday I believe we are going to check out a local waterfall/river and maybe do some swimming.

Also, I went around town and took some pictures today. I will be posting those soon.

Another thought, one thing I love about being here (and Ive briefly mentioned this before) is being in the mountains, so close to the clouds. Sometimes a fog will roll in from a cloud passing over the mountain. It is the coolest sensation.

Love you guys.

Cold showers and other good stuff

First off, I take an ice cold shower every morning. And I really like it. Before coming here, I thought that the word rico only referred to food. For example, I would use the word rico to say that something tasted good. It turns out, that rico can be used for a lot of different situations. A cool breeze on a humid day. A beautiful view of a valley below. And cold showers during hot mornings. Que rico.

The past 4 days I went to visit a current volunteer. Her community is absolutely beautiful (I feel like I´m going to be sayin that every time I visit a new place). It is up in the mountains, overlooking a valley. She lives about 3 hours from me on bus, and has been working in her community for the past 1 year. Everyone in Tico 20 went to visit current volunteers to get a better idea of how volunteer life is and other things of that nature. It was great getting to talk to someone that is doing more or less what I will be doing in 2 months. We hung out around town and I meet some of the community, I went with her to a couple of meetings with the community development association, a local women´s group, the grade school director. I also went with her to an English class that she teachers. Overall it was a great weekend and I learned a lot.

I came home today and my family has a new puppy. It is about 1 month old. Felipe found it in the street. It is the sweetest little puppy. It took a nape with me this afternoon. I might accidentally end up adopting plus 10 street dogs while I´m here. I can´t help it.

That should do it for now. Miss and love everyone back home.

Weekend Activities

Nothing too eventful happened this weekend. So good thing Im writing in my blog about it.. Friday evening I went out to a local place with 2 other volunteers in my community. Had good conversation, talked to some other people in the town, I really enjoyed it. Saturday it rained on and off through out the day. I ended up saying in and reading some of the materials Peace Corps gave me as well as doing working on some Spanish grammar exercises. I also watched some movies with my family. It was a nice, relaxing day. On Sunday we drove to a mall to see a movie. We saw Shutter Island. I really liked it, but was the only one that did, so I dont know if my opinion means anything. PS a movie ticket, popcorn and soda at the cinema is about $5. Good stuff. I also got a call from my mentor (shes in the Tico 19) group and found out that I will be visiting her site this weekend for 4 days. It will be great to get to talk to a current volunteer in CR and have a better understanding of an average day for a CED volunteer.

Today was classes and homework. We have been going around the town talking to various people in order to practice for what we will be doing in our future communities. Some of the activities have been meeting someone and finding out about their family, having a child and an adult draw a map of the community and analyzing different perspectives, interviewing a microentrepreneur to find out opportunities and challenges they have faced as a microentrepreneur, etc. Its really interesting talking to different people in the town. Everyone is extremely nice. After talking to one particular woman she invited me over to her house for coffee and to meet her family, which was a very nice gesture. I am excited to get to know more people in the community.

Hope all is well in the states. Miss and love everyone.

My Community

Saturday we moved to our training communities. Since there are 3 programs in my group, they put us in clusters based on our program, and then on our language proficiency. There are 4 other people in my town, we are all in the Community Economic Development program and at an intermediate Spanish level. 3 days a week we have Spanish classes in our town, 1 day a week we travel to a nearby town for program training with everyone in our program, and 1 day a week we travel to San Jose for training with the entire group. I really like the training setup. I especially love my Spanish classes. For part of the day we have class in the classroom and for the other part of the day we go around town or to nearby towns to do activities related to what we learned in the morning.

For training I am living in a town in the county of Aserri. I think the population is around 4000. Its only 24 km from San Jose, but about an hour and a half bus ride to get there. My homestay mom and dad are Rosiris and Saul. There are also 4 kids at the house; Nancy, Arnold, Raquel, and Felipe. The family is great and I really enjoy spending time with them. I have a double bed in my bedroom and Nancy, Raquel, and Felipe like to come sit on my bed and hang out when Im in my room, its nice. Another sweet thing was when I first arrived, Nancy, Arnold, and Raquel picked me up because their mom and dad were working. I had a really heavy duffel bag which Nancy and Raquel insisted on carrying by each holding a handle and walking on either side of it. The family is extremely nice. A lot of their extended family live in the community, we live next to an uncle, grandparents, an aunt, some cousins, and more. I am gone every day from 7 or 8 am depending on the day to around 5 or 6 at night. Usually after classes I hang out for a bit in the centro with some people, do some homework, then eat dinner and play cards, watch tv, or talk with my family.

Another thing, my community is absolutely beautiful. We are surrounded by mountains and the scenery is wonderful from every direction. I feel lucky to be in such a wonderful town.

There is lots more to say, but Ill have to stop here for now.

As always, miss and love everyone back home!

I made it!

Day 3 in Costa Rica. Blog Spot must know because all of my settings have been changed to Spanish. So in regards to my last post, the State Dept came through and processed my application and gave me a passport on Monday. I flew out of D.C. Monday morning!

The first week we are having a retreat outside of the city of Costa Rica, in a city called Tres Rios. We are up in the mountains and the view is beautiful! We overlook San Jose and have an amazing view of the surrounding mountains. Yesterday, I noticed that a nearby mountain had clouds surrounding the peak and wondered what it was like to be standing in the clouds. Today everything in our area was very foggy and misty.. so now I know how that feels. It was pretty cool.

There are about 55 of us in my group, which is called Tico 20. Currently there are about 100 other Peace Corps volunteers in country, which have completed training and are working in their respective communities. The retreat consists of different sessions throughout the day pertaining to safety, security, health, language, and our specific programs. It is a lot of information, and very informative. 

Another thing I am learning is that I will be eating a lot of "gallo pinto" in the next 27  months. It is the main Costa Rican dish, which consists of rice and beans. It is delicious, especially with cilantro! I am excited to be introduced to all of the Costa Rican dishes and learn how to cook them.

Now I am off to get some dinner. Hope everyone in the states are doing well!