1 year update (wait, what?! 1 year??)

Summer vacations are officially over and its back to it. Summer vacation for the schools in Costa Rica go from mid-December to the start of February. It was initially weird for me to refer to these months as summer vacations because, even though it is hot and sunny here, it is cold and snowing in Ohio. But after living in Costa Rica for almost 1 year, January and February are starting to look a lot more like summer.

I was able to go home for a few weeks in December, which was a wonderful break. I don't know how I truly thought that I wouldn't miss home, because in the weeks leading up to my trip back to the states, I was missing it more than ever. It was wonderful being home with my friends and family that I love. But its always an interesting experience going between 2 very different places in a short period of time. Comte is small, rural and simple. I've grown to appreciate living a certain kind of lifestyle here. It was a weird (and indescribable, so sorry, I'm not even going to try to explain it) feeling being back in big cities surrounded by commercialization. But I have to say, it was nice being able to get to a location that is 10 miles away in less than 15 minutes, not over 1 hour.

I came back to my town after New Years Eve, right around the time that the community was in preparation for its annual festival. The annual festival is run by either the grade school and the high school and involves 2 weekends of food, soccer, bull riding, and dancing. The volunteer before me rode a bull so a popular question during the festivals was whether or not I would be making the same attempt. I had to disappoint with a definite "no." Not now. Not ever. But the festivals were fun and it was nice having an event that the majority of the community participated in.

So back to work. The recycling project received a donation from Kids to Kids in January and is currently writing letters to some local organizations for donations of the rest of the materials. We are hopping to construct a center to hold the materials in the next couple of months. I have also started working with the school director to solicit funds to build a classroom for English classes in the grade school. Currently, the students unfortunately receive English in either the kindergarten room or the church across the street. If all goes well, the project will be a great benefit to the school. Smaller, individual projects will remain the same; computer classes, english classes, etc. Things have a way of coming up, so I guess I will wait and see what 2011 has in store for me.

Other than that, if the Ohioans could send me a little of their cool weather, that would be wonderful. Comte is getting into the hot and dry season, which is pretty brutal. On a more positive note, I will be receiving my 1st visitor in April (Mama Kight), which I am very much looking forward to. Take care everyone. Pura vida.