I just came back from playing about 3 hours of soccer at the cancha which luckily is just right up the way from my house (200 meters to be exact, which is the official address of my house and how the postman knows where to deliver my letters, “200 meters northeast of the soccer field.” As I mentioned in a previous post, they don’t use road names or number houses here, so addresses are based on the distance from any given landmark, oy vey, Costa Rica!). Anyway! I had a total, “I am so glad to be doing Peace Corps here, in my town” moment today. A few years ago there was a women’s soccer team in my town but due to some of the women having kids, getting older and probably a bit of pereza (laziness), they disbanded. The last few months I’ve been talking to my neighbor/running partner who really wanted to get it started again, so a few weeks ago I made a nice little poster to hang in all the pulperías to get people together. The first Sunday about 10 people came which isn’t too bad, but today we had our second practice with our coach (a.k.a. neighborhood friend on the guy’s team who I coaxed into training us) and it went really well. I didn’t think a lot of people would come since it’s during the week, but there were 12 of us and we ended up playing against a group of neighborhood kids who showed up and at a certain point during the game, I just had this surge of happiness that this is providing women, younger girls (of which there are many on the team!), and kids a way to get out of the house and exercising. In these rural towns, kids spend entirely too much time in front of the TV watching telenovelas (which, may I add, are complete garbage in my personal opinion) as opposed to reading or being outside (which is almost hard for me to believe because it is so beautiful out here, I want to be outside all the time!). Anyway, it was just a really great afternoon and definitely a reminder of how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be here.

So what else is going on? Well, a few weeks ago we had a Peace Corps “we’ve been here for 3 months so let’s get some more information on what we are doing here” training for a week in San Jose. It was really nice to spend time with my PC buds, not to mention staying in a nice hotel with wireless internet (milagro!). At the end of the week, we received a training by one of the most well-known English programs, Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano, so that we can teach English classes in our town, using their methodology and books-- people can even receive a certificate upon completion of the course. When I got back to my town, I had a meeting the first weekend to see the interest level. I was expecting that everyone would show up and then I would “scare them off” with 6 hours a week of classes (plus homework!) and not missing more than 2 classes, but in the end only about 15 people came to the meeting. I told people I was going to have the matriculation 2 weeks later (this past Thursday) and during those 2 weeks, I don’t think I went anywhere without at least 5 people asking me about the class. Needless to say, I was all nervous that ALL these people were going to come, but in the end it turned out to be “pura paja” as they say here (literal translation: pure hay; actual translation: full of you know what) and I have the official count of 18 matriculated students. I’m actually really happy about it because I think that’ll be a good number, not too big or too small, and hopefully my new students will get really into it! People here are extremely motivated to learn English because in Costa Rica, it really is a gateway to tons of job opportunities, not only in tourism but also in the business world. I have mixed feelings about the fact that you practically “have” to learn English to get ahead in Costa Rica, but that is a whole conversation that is best had in person and not on my blog.

Which brings me to some exciting news. A few weeks ago I bought my plane ticket to come home for my cousin Nora’s Bat Mitzvah in November. I am beyond excited because by then I will have accumulated a fair amount of vacation days and will be stateside for about a week and a half! Although it’s 2 months away, I know the time will fly and I’m not sure how to mentally prepare myself. I’ve been away for 7 months now, the longest period of time I’ve spent outside of the US in my life, but I’ve kind of gotten to the point where this is my life and I’m used to it and I can barely imagine being home and doing things like, hm, speak English on a regular basis! Above all I am just really excited to see my family and friends and especially to be with my family for the bat mitzvah.

On a related note of family events, this past weekend was my cousin Jared's wedding. It really is one of the toughest aspects of doing Peace Corps that I cannot be home for such a momentous occasion, but I know that comes with the territory of making the 2 year committment to do the Peace Corps. Still, I was especially missing my family on Sunday, thinking of everyone being together to celebrate Jared and Lisa and I really wish I could have been there. I truly wish Jared and Lisa all the best and cannot wait to celebrate with them in person in November-- it will be quite a celebratory time! So mark your calendars for mid-November: Tes is making her return to the US of A. If I can’t see you in person, at least it will be substantially easier to talk on the phone!

Pura Vida!
Tesa