1st Post from Costa Rica!

Hola desde Costa Rica!!!!! I cannot get over the fact that I'm actually here! We're currently on a 4 day retreat in the mountains outside of San Jose to prepare for the next 3 months of service. But to backtrack, the adventure started on Monday when I arrived in DC for "staging." It was so crazy meeting everyone and realizing that I will be spending the next 2 years with these people. As my Mom has said, PC is so self-selecting and the kind of person that signs up for it is the kind of person I would like-- and I have definitely found that to be true. Everyone is very friendly and it's been great getting to know people. There are 54 of us, so it's a little overwhelming, but I feel like even now after a few days, I at least know most people's names, which is a start! Staging was a lot of listening about rules and regs and wasn't really Costa Rica-specific, so we were all excited to get down here after a few days and get started.

The day of travel started at 2:45 am, when I woke up (the last time I looked at the clock before falling asleep was around 1:15, so I had a solid 1.5 hrs of sleep) because we had to leave ridiculously early for our 8:40 am flight to make sure everything got off sin problemas. We landed in Miami and had a little delay in our flight to San Jose, but that was good because I had time for one last american snack of granola and yogurt. A few hours later, we landed in San Jose and were greeted by the country director who is super friendly. Then we took a 1.5 bus ride to our retreat center. It's a bit more rustic than our nice hotel in DC, but as one of the PC staff reminded us, we are in the peace corps, after all!

So far the retreat has been incredibly informative. We feel like we've been getting at least a few answers to all the questions we've had (and been asked by family/friends prior to coming here). Our training group is from 3 different PC sectors-- community economic development; children and families; and rural community development (mine!). Today we met with the Program Manager for the RCD-ers (there are SOO many PC acronyms, it's super confusing now, but hopefully we'll get the hang of it soon!) and learned a LOT about what we have in store for the next 2 years once we get to our posts. A few answers to many of the questions I'd been asked in the last few weeks:
1. yes, I will be the only PC Volunteer in my rural community of between 500-1000 people (so if there are 5 people per family, that could mean I'll live in a community of 100 houses)
2. yes, I will have electricity in my home, but there may be other houses in the community that do not
3. I will almost definitely not have hot water to shower (the program manager actually laughed out loud when we asked her this)
4. the nearest "city" will be an average of 2 hours away. city meaning they would have a supermarket and hopefully internet. let's just say we are definitely learning the meaning of rural costa rica!
5. the odds are in my favor that I may get to ride a horse at my house on a regular basis (we were all pretty excited about this one, especially because we don't have to wear helmets to wear them. they have brought up the fact that we have to ALWAYS wear helmets with our bicycles, so we were happy to find the loophole and riding horses is so much cooler than riding a bike anyway!)

As we were furiously asking questions about what life will be like in our towns, one of the volunteers raised his hand and commented that in spite of what we won't have in the next 2 years, he's really excited about the prospect of having such a different lifestyle than what he is used to and this totally resonated with me and put things into perspective. I am so ready to have this experience that will absolutely be unlike anything that I have ever done. I think it will push me to the limits in ways that I cannot even imagine right now, but I know I can do it!

That's all for now!
Mil besos a todos,
Tes

2 Weeks!

Two weeks from today I will be in DC completing "staging," which is when all the volunteers going to Costa Rica (there are around 50 of us-- a lot more than I expected!) get together for the first time to prepare for our departure. I'll be getting ready for the flight to Costa Rica (muy temprano on Tuesday) and my Peace Corps experience to truly begin. I cannot express how simultaneously beyond exciting and completely overwhelming it feels. I have been spending the last few weeks saying goodbye to people, but it feels a bit surreal saying, "see you in 2010!" and I don't think the reality of not seeing some of my family and friends will really hit until I have been there for a while.

I am in the midst of getting in touch with RPCV's (returned PC volunteers) who were in Costa Rica doing Rural Community Development, so they should be able to provide some insight-- as well as what to pack because the packing list they gave us is huge. The good news is that everyone I have heard from so far seems to have had amazing experiences in Costa Rica. Everyone raves about how amazingly friendly and warm the ticos are, so here's hoping the people I live with for 3 and 12 months (training and then the first year at my post) fit that mold. I really just can't wait to get down there and start! But for now I'm trying to make the most of the time I have here until it's time to say adios to the states and hola to Costa Rica!