Hola! So things in rural Costa Rica are going well. It’s funny because the other day I called a fellow volunteer (not in my same rural community development program-- he is living in a big city doing work specifically with children and adolescents) to ask about something. It was 8pm and things in my house were winding down for the night (I tell people to never call past 8pm here because inevitably we are getting ready to go to bed/in bed). I could hear lots of noise in the background and he told me he was at a 24/7 internet café. I literally couldn’t believe it— the concept of having internet access period is now a foreign concept and internet 24 hours a day—jamàs (never)! The thing is, it’s not that I even really miss it that much (besides the urge to “google” something, but even that has been happening less and less as time goes on), I just couldn’t believe that other volunteers are having an experience that is so completely different from mine. I guess it goes to show that I’m really getting into the life here, right?! I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before, but my community here consists of the following:
-Catholic church
-elementary school
-community center which also serves as the high school, which means the 5 grades all have their respective class simultaneously in a single large room that is the community center (talk about having trouble concentrating!)
-cemetery
-soccer field (which has been getting a lot of use as of late from yours truly, along with the neighborhood kids)
-3 pulperias (little convenience stores, 1 of which I would describe as a pulperia-light!)
Needless to say, a 24/7 internet café will probably not be coming here anytime soon. I know I’ve said it before, but to reiterate, I really have been enjoying the much more “natural” pace of life here.
Speaking of which, yesterday I spent the morning at the high school where I have been conducting informal interviews with the students to get their opinions about the school and the town in general. I was going to go to the house of the president of the development association because he has information on statistics of the members of my town, but in the end he had to go to San Jose to do something. So as I’m heading down the hill to my house, one of my neighbors, an older woman and her youngest daughter who’s about 30, say hello and invite me to “pasear” (go pay a visit) to a family that lives way abajo (down below). I have been trying to find out more about what my town was like in the past and had heard about the couple that they were going to visit as some of the oldest people in the town and decided, why not?! Little did I know that when they said “abajo,” it was literally to the furthest house in my community. Since I go running all over the place, I thought I had been to the “end” of my community, but little did I know that the point where the road (road being a term used loosely) ends, there is a little path that continues through little streams for about 20 minutes, until you arrive at the 2 most solitary houses in my town.
When we reached our destination, I literally felt like I had gone back in time. The best way I can describe it is that it felt very ¨Little House on the Prairie¨-esque —the mother and daughter were in long skirts and aprons and had their hair tightly braided, they live in a modest house made of wood, when we arrived the daughter was outside washing clothes by hand. It really seemed like a lifestyle from a different era, which in many ways it is. It’s hard to get an idea of when people began living in my town, but from what I’ve gathered, it goes back about 3 generations, so probably around the beginning of the 20th century. The lifestyle of the family we visited is literally the epitome of self-reliance—they grow rice, beans, and vegetables, have numerous farm animals including cows that provide milk and cheese, and also have tons of fruit trees. This whole idea of self-reliance is one of the things I most admire about the majority of the families in my town--- they grow and care for the vast majority of the food they consume. I think it’s something they are very proud of, as well (and rightfully so!). So needless to say, I was really happy to have had the opportunity to see the furthest-reaching area of my community and am looking forward to returning in a few months (if not before!) to see the full-grown rice plant so I can see how the whole process works. The daughter showed me what they had planted about a month ago, but it takes a few months for it to grow enough to be picked, processed, and ready to eat—I can’t wait to see it!
On a semi-related note, in one of the PC guidebooks there is a quote on the “psychology of sitting” that I would like to share with you all:
“People in Western civilization no longer have time for each other, they have no time together, they do not share the experience of time. This explains why westerners are incapable of understanding the psychology of sitting. In villages all over the world, sitting is an important social activity. Sitting is not a ‘waste of time’ nor is it a manifestation of laziness. Sitting is having time together, time to cultivate social relations.”
I really think this epitomizes the difference between US culture, where everyone is always on the go and doing something. Here, sitting on a porch and spending time chatting with family and friends is something. It’s funny, because I feel like I never know how long is too long to just stay and hang out when I am visiting someone at their house, so after a while I usually make up some reason or another as to why I should get going. I imagine in time I will become more in tune with what the norms are for “paseando” and how to make a more graceful exit.
So tomorrow I am off to San Jose for a training on a program that I am hoping to employ with some students in the high school—it is a whole process for developing business skills in youth to prepare them for entrepreneurial opportunities. I’m really excited because I’m going to be reunited with Jenny, Heath, and Sarah and we’re all going back to our training community to spend the night with our old host families (and each other!). We haven’t seen each other since mid-May and I can’t wait to see them and catch up on everything—it’s so different now that we’re all so far away-- oh the stories we will tell!
Hope everyone has a good weekend!
Love,
Tes
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Getting Into the Swing of Things
Ok, so now I really and truly don’t know where to begin… I have been here for a little under a month and it’s hard to say whether it has gone by really fast or really slow because my answer would vary depending on the hour of the day that you asked me. Things are going well overall and I’m happy with the progress that I’ve been making in the last few weeks. I’ve gotten to meet and spend time with different people and every day I meet someone new, whether it’s a child in the elementary school, a community leader at a meeting, or just by striking up a conversation with someone while walking up the crazy hill. As there aren’t that many people in my town (hard to know how many exactly, but I think somewhere around 400), I imagine that before long I will know the vast majority of people. I’m really excited because this weekend there is a big fiesta for the patron saint of the church. As pretty much everyone here is Catholic and any kind of big activity is a big deal for a little rural town, tons of people should be there, so I’m looking forward to meeting lots more people this Saturday!
Funny sidenote: I am without a doubt the first Jewish person my host family has ever met and when I first told them, they were pretty baffled by it, but also very accepting and interested to learn more about Judaism. When I first told them, I stressed the fact that we believe in all the same things in the Old Testament, we just don’t believe in the New Testament, to which my host mother quite bluntly asked, “So you don’t believe in Jesus?” and to which I had to awkwardly reply, “Um, no.” So now when it comes up in conversation with a community member, my host mom gracefully explains that I don’t believe in Jesus. Hopefully this will not present any difficulties on Saturday. Although I really want to expand people’s horizons and teach them about Judaism, I don’t think Saturday is the day to make a big deal about the fact that I am not Catholic or Christian, so I plan to keep quiet and we’ll see what happens.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. About a week ago, I was at the high school for the day and met a girl named Adriana, 12, who lives a few houses down from me (mind you, the houses are all pretty spread apart, but we’re in the same general vicinity). On our walk down the hill after school got out, Adriana bombarded me with questions of all kinds pertaining to what things are like in the states: what we eat, what we wear (I think she was surprised that the clothes I was wearing at the time, jeans and a tank top, the same as she, were from the states), what the weather’s like, etc. She´s really sweet though and has become my impromptu dance teacher. I stop by her house and we blast cumbiya, merengue, salsa, etc. and dance outside in the corridor of her house (most tico houses here have this, which I love because a lot of time people just hang out right outside there hosue and you can go up and say hi, as opposed to in the states where we have our porches behind the house and thus is much less inviting). Anyway, the point being that through Adriana I´m getting to meet a lot of the kids who live in my ¨neck of the woods¨ which is really great!
As for other people that I meet, I can pretty much predict what they’re going to ask (and in the following order): Where are you from? What are you doing here? Don’t you miss your family? Quickly followed by, Don’t they miss you? Do you have a boyfriend? To which I answer that it would be fairly difficult to maintain a long-distance relationship for 2 years. To which they respond that they need to find me a tico boyfriend so that I’ll stay here when my 2 years are done. We’ll see about that, haha… Although it’s repetitive having the same conversation over and over, it’s all part of the initial process of integrating myself into the town and I enjoy meeting new people and trying to place them in the web of families that is my town (there are a lot of big families with 10 or so kids that all have families of their own, etc etc.—basically I really need to get some kids together and map out some family trees to put the pieces together!).
This past week I have been going to the elementary school to get to know the kids and the basic routine there. The way the schedule works is the kids come on a rotating schedule where one week 1st.2nd.and 3rd graders come from 7-10:30 and 4th,5th, and 6th come from 11:30-3 and the next week they switch. Each day is a different subject (Spanish, English, Math, and Science) with English interspersed throughout the week. A funny thing that they do at the elementary schools is call the female teachers, “nina” which means “little girl” in Spanish. I’ve asked numerous people where this comes from, but it’s totally ingrained in the culture, so to the Ticos this doesn’t seem as weird as it does to an outside. So when I’m helping in the class the teacher will say, “nina, can you do such and such a thing.” I think it’ll take a little while for me to get used to a teacher and a class full of students 10+ years younger than me referring to me as “little girl.” But it´s been great getting to know the kids so that now when they see me around, I´m not ¨that random gringa.¨ Next week, I´m planning on spending time at the high school in order to do the same with the high-schoolers.
Ok, my time on internet is running out, so I´ll leave it at that. One month in, so far so good!
Pura Vida (the famous tico phrase that they do indeed say ALL THE TIME in response to ¨how are you¨or how something´s going, it´s definitely ingrained in the Tico lexicon).
-Tesandra
Funny sidenote: I am without a doubt the first Jewish person my host family has ever met and when I first told them, they were pretty baffled by it, but also very accepting and interested to learn more about Judaism. When I first told them, I stressed the fact that we believe in all the same things in the Old Testament, we just don’t believe in the New Testament, to which my host mother quite bluntly asked, “So you don’t believe in Jesus?” and to which I had to awkwardly reply, “Um, no.” So now when it comes up in conversation with a community member, my host mom gracefully explains that I don’t believe in Jesus. Hopefully this will not present any difficulties on Saturday. Although I really want to expand people’s horizons and teach them about Judaism, I don’t think Saturday is the day to make a big deal about the fact that I am not Catholic or Christian, so I plan to keep quiet and we’ll see what happens.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. About a week ago, I was at the high school for the day and met a girl named Adriana, 12, who lives a few houses down from me (mind you, the houses are all pretty spread apart, but we’re in the same general vicinity). On our walk down the hill after school got out, Adriana bombarded me with questions of all kinds pertaining to what things are like in the states: what we eat, what we wear (I think she was surprised that the clothes I was wearing at the time, jeans and a tank top, the same as she, were from the states), what the weather’s like, etc. She´s really sweet though and has become my impromptu dance teacher. I stop by her house and we blast cumbiya, merengue, salsa, etc. and dance outside in the corridor of her house (most tico houses here have this, which I love because a lot of time people just hang out right outside there hosue and you can go up and say hi, as opposed to in the states where we have our porches behind the house and thus is much less inviting). Anyway, the point being that through Adriana I´m getting to meet a lot of the kids who live in my ¨neck of the woods¨ which is really great!
As for other people that I meet, I can pretty much predict what they’re going to ask (and in the following order): Where are you from? What are you doing here? Don’t you miss your family? Quickly followed by, Don’t they miss you? Do you have a boyfriend? To which I answer that it would be fairly difficult to maintain a long-distance relationship for 2 years. To which they respond that they need to find me a tico boyfriend so that I’ll stay here when my 2 years are done. We’ll see about that, haha… Although it’s repetitive having the same conversation over and over, it’s all part of the initial process of integrating myself into the town and I enjoy meeting new people and trying to place them in the web of families that is my town (there are a lot of big families with 10 or so kids that all have families of their own, etc etc.—basically I really need to get some kids together and map out some family trees to put the pieces together!).
This past week I have been going to the elementary school to get to know the kids and the basic routine there. The way the schedule works is the kids come on a rotating schedule where one week 1st.2nd.and 3rd graders come from 7-10:30 and 4th,5th, and 6th come from 11:30-3 and the next week they switch. Each day is a different subject (Spanish, English, Math, and Science) with English interspersed throughout the week. A funny thing that they do at the elementary schools is call the female teachers, “nina” which means “little girl” in Spanish. I’ve asked numerous people where this comes from, but it’s totally ingrained in the culture, so to the Ticos this doesn’t seem as weird as it does to an outside. So when I’m helping in the class the teacher will say, “nina, can you do such and such a thing.” I think it’ll take a little while for me to get used to a teacher and a class full of students 10+ years younger than me referring to me as “little girl.” But it´s been great getting to know the kids so that now when they see me around, I´m not ¨that random gringa.¨ Next week, I´m planning on spending time at the high school in order to do the same with the high-schoolers.
Ok, my time on internet is running out, so I´ll leave it at that. One month in, so far so good!
Pura Vida (the famous tico phrase that they do indeed say ALL THE TIME in response to ¨how are you¨or how something´s going, it´s definitely ingrained in the Tico lexicon).
-Tesandra
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
First Post in Site
So, it has been exactly 2 weeks since I arrived at my site. I don’t know even know where to begin… well first of all, this whole arriving at a place that you know is your new home for the next 2 years has definitely been a lot tougher than I thought it would be. Although I came here to visit a little over a month ago, it feels exponentially different now. The first day I literally did not know what to do with myself. However after the initial shock, things have definitely gotten better. Right off the bat I got in touch with the high school principal because at the swearing-in ceremony I met a guy from the Ministry of Agriculture who is working to start a project for the youth of the town to start an income-generating project. After graduation the vast majority of people leave for a bigger city like San Jose to find work so the goal is to provide a reason for them to stay and work here. The project is very much in the beginning stages and I think it’s an awesome possibility for something that I could get involved with.
The weekend that I arrived, there was a camping trip planned for the seniors of the high school to learn team building skills and the guy I met at the swearing-in said he’s love it if I would come along, so I talked to the principal and ended up going. As soon as I got there, I hear someone call “Tes” (almost everyone, especially in my new site, calls me Tesandra, so I didn’t know who it could be) and turn around to see another PCV, Kayla, there with students from her school! It was really nice to have her there because the kids were definitely into doing their thing and hanging out (which I certainly can’t blame them for, since I remember what it’s like to be in high school and how cool it would be to get to away for a few days). Overall it was a positive experience and I think it was a good way to get to know some of the high school-ers in a less formal environment. The principal wants me to get involved helping kids with English as well as with self-esteems and motivation charlas (talks). Another PCV did an extended course called “Learning How to Learn” on study skills and I think that could be very beneficial for the kids, too. What I really want to do in the next few weeks is observe the classes to get a feel for how things are run and then get involved myself.
After I got back from the campamento, it was time to “get down to business.” However in PC terms, getting down to business comprises getting to know as many of the people in my town as possible. So basically anytime I am interacting with other people I am “working.” But seriously, I have really been getting into the lifestyle here. Here is a sample “day in the life:”
6am: wake up
6-6:30am: breakfast/get ready
6:30-7:30: milk cows (!)
7:30-8:30: collect fruit (including mango, oranges, sweet lemons, and lots of other Costa Rican fruits that I had never heard or seen before coming here but are really yummy) and then feed some of collected fruit to the rabbits (one of whom just had 6 little baby rabbits that are the tiniest little things I have ever seen!)
8:30-9:30: clean up around the house/outside
9:30-10:30: go running
10:30-12: shower, read/help prepare lunch/hang out
12-2: lunch/watch the news/relax (love that Latina siesta!)
-the rest of the afternoon includes going to the meeting of any group that may be having a meeting (the women’s group, the development association, etc.), going to the elementary or high school, or else hanging out with my host family
6-8pm: dinner/watch news
8-9pm: sometime around here, I’m off to bed after a long day!
So that is pretty much my life during the past 2 weeks in a nutshell. I have taken the adage, “early to bed, early to rise, makes a (wo)man healthy wealthy and wise.” I have never ever been a morning person, as anyone who knows me can certainly attest to, but I have been happily surprised to find that life in the campo is not hard to get used to. In the last couple days, I have gotten up around 6am without an alarm clock! What I’m hoping to accomplish in the next few weeks is to spend more quality time getting to know people. Already some of the women I’ve met have been asking when I’m going to stop by their houses, so I really need to solidify some “cafecito” dates. Running has also been a really good way to get out in the community, in addition to giving structure to my day and being a good source of excercise. Today I ended up taking a little break to eat some guavas (one of the yummy CR fruits) with a really sweet older woman who was on her way back to her house, guavas in hand. “Running” is actually really a combination of running and walking because, as I mentioned in a previous post, my town is one big hill. If, one day, I can run up that hill without stopping, I will know that I am in incredibly good shape because it is intense! So basically I get a big warm up from walking up the hill to the road with the church/elementary school/high school/cementary that is relatively flat and therefore run-able.
Alright, I´m currently in my closest bigger town (about an hour bus ride from my site, after I make the (aprox.) 3km trek up the hill to the bus stop) to catch up on email and do some much needed errands, so I´ll leave it at this.
Pura Vida a Todos!
Tesandra
The weekend that I arrived, there was a camping trip planned for the seniors of the high school to learn team building skills and the guy I met at the swearing-in said he’s love it if I would come along, so I talked to the principal and ended up going. As soon as I got there, I hear someone call “Tes” (almost everyone, especially in my new site, calls me Tesandra, so I didn’t know who it could be) and turn around to see another PCV, Kayla, there with students from her school! It was really nice to have her there because the kids were definitely into doing their thing and hanging out (which I certainly can’t blame them for, since I remember what it’s like to be in high school and how cool it would be to get to away for a few days). Overall it was a positive experience and I think it was a good way to get to know some of the high school-ers in a less formal environment. The principal wants me to get involved helping kids with English as well as with self-esteems and motivation charlas (talks). Another PCV did an extended course called “Learning How to Learn” on study skills and I think that could be very beneficial for the kids, too. What I really want to do in the next few weeks is observe the classes to get a feel for how things are run and then get involved myself.
After I got back from the campamento, it was time to “get down to business.” However in PC terms, getting down to business comprises getting to know as many of the people in my town as possible. So basically anytime I am interacting with other people I am “working.” But seriously, I have really been getting into the lifestyle here. Here is a sample “day in the life:”
6am: wake up
6-6:30am: breakfast/get ready
6:30-7:30: milk cows (!)
7:30-8:30: collect fruit (including mango, oranges, sweet lemons, and lots of other Costa Rican fruits that I had never heard or seen before coming here but are really yummy) and then feed some of collected fruit to the rabbits (one of whom just had 6 little baby rabbits that are the tiniest little things I have ever seen!)
8:30-9:30: clean up around the house/outside
9:30-10:30: go running
10:30-12: shower, read/help prepare lunch/hang out
12-2: lunch/watch the news/relax (love that Latina siesta!)
-the rest of the afternoon includes going to the meeting of any group that may be having a meeting (the women’s group, the development association, etc.), going to the elementary or high school, or else hanging out with my host family
6-8pm: dinner/watch news
8-9pm: sometime around here, I’m off to bed after a long day!
So that is pretty much my life during the past 2 weeks in a nutshell. I have taken the adage, “early to bed, early to rise, makes a (wo)man healthy wealthy and wise.” I have never ever been a morning person, as anyone who knows me can certainly attest to, but I have been happily surprised to find that life in the campo is not hard to get used to. In the last couple days, I have gotten up around 6am without an alarm clock! What I’m hoping to accomplish in the next few weeks is to spend more quality time getting to know people. Already some of the women I’ve met have been asking when I’m going to stop by their houses, so I really need to solidify some “cafecito” dates. Running has also been a really good way to get out in the community, in addition to giving structure to my day and being a good source of excercise. Today I ended up taking a little break to eat some guavas (one of the yummy CR fruits) with a really sweet older woman who was on her way back to her house, guavas in hand. “Running” is actually really a combination of running and walking because, as I mentioned in a previous post, my town is one big hill. If, one day, I can run up that hill without stopping, I will know that I am in incredibly good shape because it is intense! So basically I get a big warm up from walking up the hill to the road with the church/elementary school/high school/cementary that is relatively flat and therefore run-able.
Alright, I´m currently in my closest bigger town (about an hour bus ride from my site, after I make the (aprox.) 3km trek up the hill to the bus stop) to catch up on email and do some much needed errands, so I´ll leave it at this.
Pura Vida a Todos!
Tesandra
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)