As another year comes to a close, I am reminded of lyrics from my favorite Broadway play, Rent: “How do you measure a year?” In the case of the past year of my life, it is quite a question. I remember writing a blog post at the beginning of the year, slightly scared of the prospect of being in Costa Rica for the entire duration of 2009 and here it is, December already. Time really does fly by. So how can I measure 2009, spent living in a small agricultural town in Costa Rica working to promote community development? Here are a few…

In all of the things I have learned:
* milk a cow
* make tortillas and other yummy Tico food, as well as embracing cooking in general and learning to make all kinds things from apple sauce to pie crusts (things easily found in a US supermarket, but not here)
* various arts and crafts including cloth painting (decorating pillowcases, dish towels, etc.) embroidery, and making cards out of dried flowers
* create and maintain a garden
* identify banana trees, coffee bushes, pineapple plants, and countless other things that before I had only seen in supermarkets. I now know the rigorous process that enables so many things (corn, beans, rice, fruits, and vegetables) to arrive on my plate. And may I say that the pleasure taken in eating those things is considerably increased with that knowledge, as well as of the hard work that goes into getting it there.
* the joy of company: staying the afternoon at someone’s house enjoying the sheer state of being with others, drinking cafecito, telling stories, and being in no rush to do anything else
* conversely, yet equally important, the joy of solitude: going back to the states seeing everyone ever-connected with their iphones is jarring in comparison to the rural lifestyle and I have relished the opportunity to live alone with few distractions and the company of good books

In countless meetings, classes, and workshops on a wide variety of topics including:
* community assessment and prioritization of necessities
* project design and development, particularly letter and grant writing skills
* English with children and adults
* environmental education
* women’s personal development
* girls’ self-esteem/group dynamics
* arts & crafts and sports
* business computer skills
* theater productions

In the amount of English my students have learned:
When my last visitor, Jess, came to my town, I was pleasantly surprised with how much they were able to interact with her and understand what she was saying. We’ve come a long way and have all learned a lot (I certainly know more about English grammar than I ever did before teaching!).

In how I have grown as an individual:
* Learning the value of patience and utilizing it when it comes to things that may take a little longer than I would hope
* Acceptance in understanding that even the highest amount of patience may not bring certain things to fruition. And the fact that that’s o.k .
* Understanding the importance, as well as difficulty, of being a self-starter. I came to my town with the very loose and open job of “rural community developer” and have created a role for myself based on the needs of the community. I imagine that the lessons and skills I have learned in going through this quite challenging process will serve me well in the future.
* Having a considerably increased global understanding of the world, allowing me to see things (books, the news) from a different perspective.

In the love and support of friends and family from home:
From moving around so much growing up, I have always known that upon moving, you always make the effort to stay in touch with those who you want to stay in touch with. Living in a place with limited internet and expensive phone access has made keeping in touch a bit more difficult than say, when I went off to college. However it would be impossible to fully express my appreciation of family and friends alike who have continually made the effort to keep in touch during this time. Whether it be by writing an email, ending a card, or coming down here to visit, it means more to me than you know.

In the case of Rent, the answer to the question “how do you measure a year?” is a simple one: in love. So I thank you for sharing your support, enthusiasm, and love with me during these two years.

Happy Holidays and may 2010 bring health, happiness and a hearty dose of adventure to you all.

Love,
Tes

PS Very special wishes to my Mom on her birthday today. I look forward to celebrating with her, along with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and brother, who are coming down to CR this Wednesday!

As usual, time is flying by and I don’t know where to begin. I think I’ll spice things up and divide it into sections:

Costa Rica’s Up and Coming Neighbor

When I last wrote, I was about to venture off to the neighboring Nicaragua with some fellow Peace Corps volunteers. After one week in Nicaragua, I officially consider myself this under-visited country’s biggest fan. Everyone always talks about Costa Rica as the hot tropical destination spot, but I would highly recommend adding Nicaragua to the itinerary, which has a “road less traveled” authentic feel (though I imagine that, as with Costa Rica, this will change rapidly). Highlights included sand-boarding down the side of an active volcano, kayaking in a crystal clear lagoon formed by a (currently non-active) volcano, and exploring the charming colonial city of Leon. In addition, the people were incredibly warm and friendly, the food was delicious, and the countryside was stunning with volcano after volcano (part of the “Ring of Fire”) whose views could be appreciated on the drives from city to city, as well as atop the volcano where we went sand-boarding and the cathedral in Leon.

Thanksgiving by Candlelight

What a difference a year makes. This time last year I had recently come back from my first visit to the US since joining PC and was struggling with settling back in and finding my place in my community. Now that my town truly feels like home, who better to celebrate Thanksgiving than with my host family? I invited them to come over for a little Thanksgiving dinner. Little did I know what an adventure it would turn out to be. This year the Costa Rican rainy season has reversed March’s slogan of “in like a lion, out like a lamb;” while it has been unseasonably dry this year, there have been quite a few torrential downpours in the past month and that afternoon was a prime example. Around 3PM the electricity popped off and I naively thought it would pop right back on. As it gets dark here around 5.30, I ended up making my uniquely American dinner (olive oil with rosemary and bread as an appetizer, followed by salad, mashed potatoes, green beans, and (homemade!) fish sticks, with s’mores for dessert) all by candlelight, which was truly no easy feat. Though I was a bit frantic, it went very well and I think my host family enjoyed the meal as well as celebrating a tradition that they know is very special to me. While it is comforting knowing that this time next year I will be spending Thanksgiving with my family, as I had done every year for the first 23 years of my life, I know this was a Thanksgiving I will not soon forget and I am tremendously thankful for my host family who has truly been my surrogate family in my town.

Chicas Poderosas, Teen Version

PC volunteers are constantly creating manuals for various projects. In this respect, we truly are our greatest resources. These manuals are great guides for activities (examples include Chicas Poderosas and Arte por la Paz). Recently a group of volunteers came out with a new manual called “Voces Volerosas” (Valuable Voices), with the goal of developing adolescent girls’ abilities to analyze and reflect upon their experiences, express themselves through writing and art, while at the same time expanding consciousness on a variety of subjects as they relate to girls and women (ex: leadership, body image, human rights). I was hesitant to start this in my high school as working there has many challenges, but I talked to the English teacher about co-facilitating the workshops with me and with her on board, I decided to give it a try. We had our first workshop this past Wednesday and it was a real success! We had the girls lie on the floor and listen to music while envisioning themselves in 5 years; where they will be, what they will be doing, how will they get there. Then they traced each other’s bodies onto newsprint and filled them in with pictures and words outlining their future selves.. Very PC-y and very out of the box, as far as education here goes and I was delighted to see that the girls took it seriously and seemed to really enjoy it. It is powerful knowing that they don’t ordinarily have a forum to contemplate or express their future and the first step towards a bright future is identifying a goal and then taking the steps to achieve it and I believe that today was a positive step forward in defining those goals and critically thinking of how to reach them. Hopefully the next workshops will be as successful!

Ok, that’s all for now! I hope everyone had a very wonderful Thanksgiving with plenty of turkey and pumpkin pie =)

As I’ve said before, the Peace Corps experience is best explained when metaphorically compared to a roller-coaster ride. The strange thing is that, perhaps a result of being a very much “live in the moment/ take each day as it comes” lifestyle, many times those high and low periods are distinguished in hindsight, upon reflection. And so it is that, delightfully, I recently made the realization that I believe I am currently at one of the highest points of my service. Everything just feels right. Perhaps for the first time, I feel like I am really embodying Jane Goodall’s quote, “a certain peace comes from doing what you feel you should be doing.” I know I have been working on a variety of projects over the past 1.5+ year in my town, but it has taken up to this point to make me feel comfortable with, and proud of, what I have done.

Upon beginning Peace Corps, there is the stereotypical “I’m going to save the world” mentality that is slowly dampened when reality sets in of the difficulties one faces in trying to “save the world.¨ I don’t mean this in a negative way, it is much more of a reflection of the learning curve that comes with the territory of development work. I strongly believe that having a first-hand understanding of the reality of the developing world is extremely valuable and will serve me well if I choose to continue with development work in the future. What I mean to say is that there comes a time when one chooses (though I don’t think it’s as conscious as choosing, as much as it is inevitable) to embrace what one is able to do, while also accepting the limitations, a concept that surely extends far beyond the PC realm.

The main idea here is that, just as I had heard from countless PCV’s, it is not until your second year in PC that you feel confident in what you are doing. And let me tell you, it feels nice! It seems like everything has come together, both work-wise and personally. Living on my own has been wonderful in terms of creating my own schedule, and having people over both for pleasure and for work purposes (the chicas poderosas came over the other day when they didn’t have school and I’ve been working away with a friend on a grant application for a play ground). I feel very lucky to have maintained my close relationship with my host family. They welcome me once or twice a week for lunch or cafecito (and I had them over the other day for crepes!). I have also been spending more time in the town next door which has been quite open to collaborate on various projects, currently including teaching English in the elementary school and teaching business-focused computer skills to a small business in the town.

My latest news is that I’m off to Nicaragua with a group of PCV’s next week. I am really excited to explore one of Costa Rica’s neighboring countries. We`re going to two colonial cities, Granada and Leon, as well as an island in the middle of the Lake of Nicaragua called Ometepe which sounds really cool--- I will report back after!

Ciao,Tes

More pictures!

I am on a picture-posting roll! Here are some from the past few months:

CR Independence Day assembly

A few chicas poderosas in traditional Costa Rican campesino clothingChicas making healthy cookies (recipe from my neighbor, Terry Walters`, cook book!)

The final product-- yum!

My Mom doing the ¨human knot¨ activity when she came to visit

Creativity Day Plays (in English!)

Isn´t her mask adorable?!

The kids love doing bunny ears

Little Red Riding Hood cast

¨What a big mouth you have¨
¨To eat you!!!¨

Little red, the grandmother, and the wood cutter enjoying the food that little red brought in her basket

The 3 bears, goldilocks, and ¨friend¨

Goldilocks and ¨friend¨ (because goldilocks would have had way to many lines to memorize if it was just her and the 3 bears)

Mi Casa!

Pictures of my home for the next 8 months:



view from the front door. this is the 'sala' aka main living room area, which is also the perfect spot for my English class

the kitchen. that red sink and bucket is my laundry area

kitchen table with cool log chairs, as well as space to hang clothes to dry during the rainy season

where the magic that is my cooking takes place. this is the first time I made tortillas all by myself... the final product-- yum!my bed with lots of pictures of family and friends surrounding it

all of the clothing I have in CR is in this picturemy adorable 13 year old neighbor
playing uno in the sala--- a typical Sunday afternoon with my neighbors

Noticias!

A time in my PC service that I was not certain was going to come has officially arrived. PC requires a certain amount of time spent with a host family when one first gets to site for integration reasons. When I first got here, PC/CR had a somewhat extensive 1-year minimum, which has recently been shortened to 6 months. Especially in rural CR, it does not take long to assimilate and adapt--- and perhaps more importantly, for town members to adapt to you--- so this modification makes sense. However in my town of 300 people, empty houses are not common. When I arrived last year, there was a little cluster about 500 meters down the hill that continues down to my host family’s house with 3 empty houses, but they had since been occupied up until a few weeks ago, when I found out that 2 were vacant. I contacted my PC boss who came to approve it and moved in a few weeks ago. The house is fantastic--- 2 bedrooms, nice living room/dining room area, and a large kitchen—the kitchen is typical campo style where it’s not entirely enclosed, but rather enclosed with a fence material, making it more airy and spacious.

As I have mentioned in my blog, I have been incredibly lucky to have a host family who took me in and made me truly feel like another member of their family. I am beyond indebted to them for their kindness, opening their home to me and treating me like a daughter/sister. While I believe this is the right move for me at this point in my PC service, it is comforting to know that they live right down the road. They have already had me over multiple time sand I look forward to having them to my house (though my cooking cannot compare to my host mom’s!).

I believe that overall this change will be very positive, however all new experiences present their challenges and so here I have outlined the advantages and disadvantages of living solita in the campo of Costa Rica:

PROS
-having the opportunity to try my hand at cooking my own food
-getting to know my new people in the town; my new neighbors include a bunch of really sweet kids who constantly keep me busy, asking to do origami and practice yoga, among other activities
-making my own schedule
-embracing my inner Miss Fix-It
-being able to invite people over and play hostess, as opposed to always being the guest during the past year

CONS
- washing laundry by hand (and then worrying about clothes getting wet while they are hanging out to dry)
-no fridge (yet!), so no cheese, milk, or refrigerating leftovers (of which there are lots when only cooking for one person)
-dealing with scary tropical bugs (and what I believe was a bat in my bedroom my 2nd night here) by myself— my broom comes in quite handy for this so I can keep a considerable distance from them

This is the first time that I have ever lived alone, so it is quite an experience growing accustomed to all that living alone entails while being in a foreign country. I believe this will change my dynamic in town for the remaining months. Living with a host family kept me busy as there is always something to be done on the farm. Living on my own, I have the flexibility to make my own schedule and involve myself in more activities in the elementary and high schools. Another pro is the fact that my “commute” to the elementary school is now only 5 minutes, cutting out 15 minutes of steep hills. In that vein, I went this morning to the town next door, where I have done some work with the women’s group and approached the teacher about teaching English once a week. The school consists of 5 kids in all different grades and just one teacher, who does not speak English. Two of the kids are the ones who had approached me about teaching English over the winter vacation and I know they are really dedicated and excited. I also talked to the women’s group president about helping with some business computer classes (we’ll see how that goes—I need to brush up on my Excel!). At the elementary school in my town, my director skills, honed with arte por la paz a few months back, are again being put to the test--- and this time in English! In September there is a creativity day in the school and the principal asked me to do a play in English. In collaboration with the English teacher, we are going to put on “Goldilocks and the 3 Bears.” It should be quite the challenge, but I think it will be great!

So as my Mom says, “it’s all good!” And even better knowing I’ll be back in the US for a trip to visit family and friends September 10-21—can’t wait to see everyone!

Pura Vida,Tes

Some Stories and Quotes

In my journal, I often find myself documenting vignettes--- seemingly small but personally significant experiences. I decided to share a couple of them here, with the hope that they may illuminate a bit more what life is like here:

In the pulperia by the soccer field, the main town hang out, one of the ways to pass the time (besides the usual chatting among neighbors) is by playing one of the coin slot machines where you put in 15 cents or so and then play some mindless game. I in no way endorse this activity, which I believe is tantamount to throwing one’s money away. As I explain to anyone that will listen: I would rather spend my money on something concrete, like food, than gamble it away on the off chance of winning. Regardless, one day one of the kids whose family owns the pulperia (I’ve talked about this family before—they have 8 kids who are all really great-- one of my favorite families in town) was playing and won the equivalent of a couple dollars. Needless to say, he was ecstatic (that much money can go a long way in a pulperia with tons of 5¢ and 10¢ candies). Immediately after the change spouted out of the machine, he proceeded to ask everyone in the store, which was a few of his brothers and sisters as well as myself, what we wanted from the pulperia, because he was going to treat us. I was overwhelmed by the fact that his immediate reaction was not to get something big for himself, but instead literally “share the wealth.” At first I felt uncomfortable asking for something, but I quickly realized it was a matter of pride on his part; he was really happy to be able to do this. I can honestly say I will never forget the innate generosity that was revealed on that day.

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned the fact that Ticos are really into their gardens. Con razón, as the tropical flowers that bloom all over the place are absolutely beautiful, but it always cracks me up that if there is ever a lull in conversation when I am visiting someone, bringing up flowers is a fool-proof conversation starter. However one day I had the realization that this whole flower business has much more significance than meets the eye. I was visiting the daughter of my old friend, Flora, when the subject of flowers came up. This is a woman who grew up with 15 siblings, who has worked hard her entire life raising 3 kids, picking coffee year after year to try to get a bit ahead. She explained to me that tending to her garden is something that, despite the trials and tribulations of life, makes her truly happy. She can see a concrete cause and effect in the care and patience that goes into tending the flowers and the beauty that results from this hard work. It is a point of pride and the epitome of a “labor of love” caring for flowers. Many women in my town have to put up with a lot of “stuff” (i.e. lack of respect and appreciation on the part of husbands and children for tireless efforts cooking, cleaning, and general up- keep of the household, issues such as alcoholism and abuse, all of which comes under the umbrella of the machista culture that dominates Latin America. I want to be clear that while these issues are not seen in every family, they are some examples of the issues facing women in rural Costa Rica and, I venture to say, world-wide). None the less, I had never thought about it before that for them, caring for their flowers is a joyful time-out from life that provides an aesthetically pleasing outcome, (which, in turn, provides fodder for conversation when people come to visit!).

I have also kept meaningful quotes from books, magazines, and newspaper articles that I have read during the past year and a 1/2. Here are some I’d like to share with you all:

“It might have been tempting to remember Guineau as an experience, the last hoorah of my youth, but it never has been and never will be. It’s a place, like any other, with people who cannot be captured in a single photo. Time can’t be stopped. We are, all of us, constantly moving forward, along roads full of potholes and curves and red dust so thick we can’t always see exactly where we’re headed.”
-Annie Mascorro, PCV Guineau ‘00-‘02

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life-- they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyance is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”
-Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“Maybe this is what we get in life, a few great loves: loves that return us to ourselves when we need it most. And maybe some of those loves aren’t people, but places—real and adopted homes—that fill us up with light and energy and hope at moments when we feel especially tired or lost. That is the beauty of love in all its forms. We don’t know when or how it is going to save us.”
-Laura Dave, Modern Love 1.20.08

“When it comes to life, we spin our own yarn, and where we end up is really, in fact, where we always intended to be.”
-Julia Glass, Three June

“You can’t solve all the problems of the world, but each day you can do something. A certain peace comes from doing what you feel you should be doing.”
-Jane Goodall

I believe I am long overdue for a blog update, so here I am, updating! So, what’s new? Vamos a ver…

I am happy to report that, due to letters and meetings that were written and attended by development association members and myself, the Municipality sent machinery to my town to fix the roads for the first in longer than anyone can remember. As I have mentioned before, improving the quality of the roads here is the number one priority identified by town members. This past weekend, they used various equipment to level out the road and then brought in multiple truckloads of rocks and earth in order to leave the roads, as they would said here, “bien chineados” (very pretty). Needless to say, it is a huge improvement from before and I am hoping it will make a big difference in terms of being more easily transitable as the worst part of the rainy season rapidly approaches. This collaboration between the development association and the Municipality is a bigger deal than it might sound. For any project with the Municipality to come to fruition, a tireless set of requisites must be completed. It has certainly been a learning process, but what we have learned will be useful in years to come. Before this year, the development association was not aware of the procedure for being part of the municipality’s budget to fix the road. Now we are well aware and have already written a letter to the appropriate people to be included for next year, too. In other road-improving news, we have also submitted a proposal to make some cement drainage ditches (wow, I do not know what to call these things in English) in some of the steepest parts of the road so the water doesn’t run through the road. I will keep you posted, but as for now, every time I go running, any person I past will comment something to the effect of, “Isn’t it so nice to go running on this nice road, now?” And I happily answer, “Yes, it is!”

In the school, the basketball and volleyball nets were just put in this week, thanks to the grant from Kids to Kids. Now, when the kids get back from vacation (they have a 2 week winter break, kind of like our Christmas break, as the seasons are reversed here), they will learn how to play as part of the gym class they receive. Actually, that return to school, which should have been today, will not be for a little while. In Costa Rica, there is apparently a swine flu outbreak and so last week, the Ministry of Education declared that, in accordance to a decree by the Ministry of Health, elementary and high school will have an additional week (and possibly more) of vacation because 30% of kids are asthmatic and asthmatic people have a higher risk of catching the swine flu. What I fail to understand is why this is suddenly becoming a problem and why these same people have not been at risk from the beginning of this whole swine flu epidemic, but it’s hard to tell…

Ok, enough of my rant on Costa Rican institutions. So during this vacation, I have been reverting to my role of camp counselor, organizing arts and crafts activities, as well as games and yoga in the soccer field. When I’m brainstorming activities to do with the kids, I go back to my elementary school days and reminisce about what I liked to do. Therefore I have been making lanyard keychains, doing origami, and playing freeze tag and red light green light (remember?!). Any favorite childhood games that come to mind, feel free to pass them along, because I am always looking for something new to do!

In the last month, I received some very special visitors: my Mom, followed by Genie and Rus. My Mom’s visit was a perfect combination of relaxing at the beach and a beautiful hot springs that we had actually been to a few years ago on our visit to Costa Rica, as well as a few days in my town. It was an eye-opening realization how much things have changed since her last visit, which was in August of 2008. Last year, everything was new and exciting and now, at least for me, everything is more status quo. This is just my life and it’s not quite so new and exciting anymore. I think that has a lot to do with where I am at this point in my PC service--- over a year in site. Regardless, my students were really happy to practice English with her during the English class and my Mom also got to meet my chicas. And it was wonderful to spend time just with my Mom catching up on, well everything! Then the next week I went to the beach for a day with Genie and Rus and then we ventured out to my town in a rental car on a very little-transited road that is in less than ideal driving condition, especially now due to the rainy season. But they made it and enjoyed a typical cafecito at my house and also attended an English class. I know I’ve said this before, but it bares repeating: it means so much to me when people come visit my town because it really is impossible to get an idea of what it is like without seeing it firsthand. On the note of visiting, I have some exciting news: I officially have tickets to come to the US on September 10th. I will be spending a weekend in Baltimore and then the week in CT. Even if I can’t see everyone, it will be nice to at least have easier communication access for a little while! I am counting down the days to see everyone, especially to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with my family--- I can’t wait!

And on that note, I’m off to bed!
Pura Vida,
Tes

Pictures!

Ok, let`s see here. Here are some pictures from the past few months...

my lovely home-made birthday cake from the surprise English class party
my whole English class at the party
party-goers eating cake. please notice the Mambo #5 video in the background.

the girls and I
the guys and I

the arte por la paz kids in all their t-shirt, nametag, and peace tattoo glory

peace!

my kids up on stage--- the boy with the P and cape is "peace man"

this is my new little puppy Coco who is definitely tico-- he loves mango!
Coco otra vez, isn't he adorable?!

Arte por la Paz

The word proud doesn’t even come close to how I felt today at the “arte por la paz” event in San Jose today. As I wrote in my last post, today was the culmination of a month’s preparation with a group of 5^th and 6^th graders in the elementary school. Kids and volunteers from around Costa Rica came to San Jose to show off their plays, dances, poetry, and art work. It was an all-around wonderful day, but by far the best part was watching my kids do the play we had worked so hard on throughout these past weeks. I think I was probably as nervous as they were, especially because in our rehearsals we really had yet to get it 100% right, but I was totally blown away by their performance and when they were finished was practically bursting with pride. They even won the silver medal in the play category which was like the icing on the cake. All in all a truly wonderful day: as I was telling my Mom, certainly one of my top 5 days in PC.

Speaking of counting days, May 16^th marked my one-year as a volunteer. It’s strange to think: is this where I thought I’d be after being in my town for a year? I guess the answer to that question is that I really had no preconceived notion of where I would be after a year, especially as it wasn’t like I was coming in with a specific goal of improving “health education” or “agricultural practices” or something more specialized and specific like that; community development is quite broad which certainly has it’s advantages and disadvantages: I can involve myself in any project that I want in my town and that can be considered developing the community, however then it comes down to, is what I’m choosing to do in the community the most worthwhile? Is it sustainable? What kind of an influence am I having?

As I have mentioned before in my blog, doing Peace Corps truly epitomizes the “live life one day at a time” motto that of course is adaptable to life in general, but particularly so here. Something I’ve talked about with fellow Peace Corps friends is the intrinsic need to have some kind of quantifiable achievement: “I built a community center” or “I started a women’s group.” The first problem with that is that it is never just the PCV who is doing a specific project (or at least shouldn’t be, as that defeats the whole purpose of a sustainable community-driven endeavor). Second, so much of what we do as PCV’s is plant seeds for ideas that may not take place until the future (ie recycling), but the work is cut out for us in terms of at least beginning the process of changes in mentality or conscientiousness about issues.

For example, in terms of working with youth, while it may not be easily quantified, seeing those kids up on stage performing for the first time in their lives and doing an excellent job, I was confident of the positive influence this experience has had on them. I know that the self-esteem of each of them was soaring today, especially when our town was called for the silver medal. On the way home, they were already asking about next year and kvelling over how cool their medals, t-shirts, and even the name tags were. It was so sweet that something so seemingly insignificant as a laminated name tag meant so much to one of the boys. But long after the medals are lost and the t-shirts don’t fit anymore, I hope that they will look back on this day as a time when they did something completely out of the box that they didn’t think they had the confidence to do, but did anyway and did it well, learning that hard work and dedication does pay off in the end when you put your heart and mind to do something. And so, certainly for today, I feel really good about what I am doing here.

Here’s to having even more days like this in the coming year!

Finally, an update!

It’s funny now looking back on what I thought would be my projects for the two years when I first arrived to my town.  As they say here, “nada que ver”: they have nothing to do with what I am involved in right now.  As I said in a previous post, one’s projects are really ever-evolving and my host Dad once joked that I at least had my foot in with just about everything going on in the town, which I suppose is the idea, although I hope in the coming months that several of these projects really take off (which is what I have heard happens in a volunteer’s second year).  In terms of what I’m doing right now, it would be the following:

 Lots with the elementary school which I have found to be really rewarding. 

• Last week I started back up the Chicas Poderosas from last year who are now 3^rd and 4^th graders.  They are absolutely adorable and I missed working with them.  This week we are going to talk about nutrition and the importance of a balanced diet and then make  whole wheat pancakes—yum!  I am thinking of continuing with them until the school vacation in July and then starting up a new group with the 1^st and 2^nd graders until the end of the school year in order to spread the Chicas Poderosas love around a bit.  
• These past few weeks I’ve been busy with “Arte por la Paz” which is a nation-wide PC initiative to promote peace and touch on issues such as war and domestic violence using the medium of art.  In different regions of the country, volunteers work with groups of kids to develop a skit, dance routine, poetry, or paintings related to the above-mentioned themes to bring to a conference consisting of other groups in the region where they can show off their talent.  I am working with a group of 5^th and 6^th graders on a play about a superhero named “Peace Man” who interrupts precarious situations (two friends fight about a soccer game bet, a father gets fired and takes his anger out on his family, and a girl whose parents are getting divorced and wants to try drugs to feel better) to offer a more peaceful alternative.  The group of 6 kids is really awesome and it’s always interesting to get involved in new activities that reveal different facets of their personalities.  Speaking of which, uncovering my “director” facet has been quite the experience– who knew all the roles I would be playing when I signed up to do Peace Corps!
• There is a really fantastic organization called “Kids to Kids” through which kids in the states do fundraising for projects for kids in developing countries.  Kids to Kids works (I believe exclusively) through Peace Corps volunteers and their local counterparts in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Belize on educational, athletic, and artistic projects (http://kidstokids.org/).  With my elementary school’s principal, I sent in an application for a grant to expand the recreational opportunities in the school. Last year they built a multi-use concrete field whose only multi-use is by everyone in the town, not just the kids for whom it was intended.  However, that is about to change!  Our grant was approved and we are going to put up basketball and volleyball nets and purchase a ping pong table for the less athletically-inclined (or perhaps Forrest Gump hopefuls).  It’s perfect because this year the school has a gym teacher who comes once a week, so he will be able to teach the kids to play these new sports.  The scope of recreational opportunities is slowly but surely expanding in my town from soccer, soccer, and more soccer to something NEW!

In the high school, the principal and I have been working with a group of kids to start up a recycling project in the town.  This is not as easy as it sounds, as there is a total lack of consciousness when it comes to littering, let alone recycling.  I am trying to help us not get too ahead of ourselves and focus on improving the trash situation at the school and then move on to spreading the word on a town-level.  A difficulty that tends to happen a lot is that people get really excited about a project, make all these lofty plans, and then don’t follow through on any of it.  I am trying to be realistic and know that the concept of recycling will never be an over-night phenomena that will have instant success in rural CR.  If one has lived his whole life throwing trash out the windows of buses and in the road of his very own town, it will be difficult to explain the benefit of collecting and separating one’s trash and then bringing some of that trash to the large city so that it may be recycled.  However, as with everything, it’s “poco a poco.”  I have to be happy with the ever-increasing spread of consciousness in terms of littering and recycling on the part of the students, in the hope that down the road they will think twice before burning their trash and think instead of how they themselves can recycle products to be used in their homes and maybe even on a more organized level.

In non-youth work, the biggest project the development association and I are working on is improving the roads.  This is the #1 priority according to essentially everyone in my town, especially as the rainy season quickly approaches.  Slowly but surely the project is getting more focused and an engineer came last week to make a blue-print and from there he will create a budget of what we want to do, which is create concrete ditches on the sides of the road and put in some large sewers in places where water often overflows onto the road.  In the past year (yes, this May 16^th marks my one year as an official PC volunteer!), I have certainly learned that working on a large-scale project such as this one is a slooooow process with entirely too much bureaucracy, but I do believe that with hard work this project will happen-- I will keep you all posted!

Two possible future projects that are also slowly taking form (and which I barely want to write down here for fear of jinxing them!) are the expansion of the aqueduct and the creation of a playground in the soccer field.  The aqueduct project has always been intriguing to me as potable water is such a basic necessity that some people in town do not have easy access to.  There are two parts of my quite spread out town that do not use the aqueduct system put in place about 15 years ago.  These families use systems of hoses connected to nearby streams for their water.  The problem is that during the dry season (summer), which has progressively been getting dryer and dryer in the past few years, the water is drying up.  Then in the winter, the water gets all sloshed around with the mud so the water that reaches them is all dirty.  The playground idea is another possibility with a lot of interest in the community.  The youth committee I was working with last year just changed members, so we’ll see if this year’s members are into the possibility.  A playground, like the improvements to the elementary school field, would offer a new recreational opportunity, particularly for the younger kids in the town which would be a welcome addition to the current soccer field.  

Alright, I think that’s a good update for the moment!  Hopefully some of these projects will epitomize the saying “slow and steady winds the race” as I really want to accomplish these very worth-while projects, though I know I also have to accept that sometimes the best of intentions does not a project make.  The PCV's role in the development of projects is to help guide the group in the right direction but not do the actual work for them.  It’s like the quote, “give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.”  However the simplicity of that quote does not delve into the challenging reality of sustainable grass-roots development as it is quite a balancing act that involves many factors, but I am doing my best and we will see what happens!

Birthday Wekend Pictures

Ok, so I have yet to get the pictures from the English class party, but the following are from my actual birthday. Costa Rica`s national soccer team played Mexico to see who goes to the world cup, so we had a big party with neighbors in the rancho. After the game (which CR sadly lost), we blasted music and danced and sang karaoke (tìpica fiesta tica!) and enjoyed some delicious birthday cake. It was a lovely party and I could not have asked for a better birthday celebration. Also attached are pictures of the trash clean up I did with some neighborhood kids and Georgina, the super sweet PC trainee who came to visit for the weekend. We quite successfully cleaned up a huge part of the road and soccer field, and now we have to spread the word so that people do not continue to litter-- no small task, but poco a poco vamos!

Ok, here are the pictures!

my host parents
some of the lady party guests
me cutting the delicious birthday cake

after singing happy birthday, everyone was chanting for me to bite the cake. thinking that is must be some CR tradition and not wanting to offend anyone, I proceed to bite a little corner. imagine my surprise when one of the neighbors dunks my face into the cake! needless to say, I think I will be endlessly teased and reminded of my gullibility, but at least they got a kick out of it!

picking up road-side trash

garbage collected in a span of about 300 meters of the road and the soccer field (insane!)

enjoying a much needed boli-helado break at the pulperìa
after 3 tiring hours of trash pick-up, we celebrated with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (the kids´first time trying my favorite American snack!)
the cutest little puppies I have ever seen (about 3 weeks old)

¨The Best English Class Ever¨ 3/26

I just got back from my English class and, as one of the high school boys said, “that was one of the best English classes ever!” Here’s why:
As the course is 3 hours long, we have a break ½ way through where the boys play soccer and the girls chat. Today, one of the guys came in and started talking with me, telling me he wasn’t in the mood to play soccer (strange as he always plays). We were chatting when all of the sudden I realized I didn’t hear anyone outside the classroom which was also strange because they are always quite noisy during the break. Then one of the other boys came in, telling us that one of the girls in the class who lives next door to the school was inviting everyone over for a snack. Yet again strange since she had never done this in the 6 months we’ve been having class. We get to the door and everything’s quiet so I told my friend, “maybe we should go in the back” and he says, “no, no, let’s knock.” So the door opens and there inside is my entire class singing Happy Birthday (in English!) with a big cake---- I was in shock! It was so beyond sweet and unexpected that they had been planning a birthday party for me—complete with balloons. They also made cheeseburgers (an all-american meal for the gringa’s birthday, of course!), which I hadn’t eaten in years but was actually really good. It was so cute that they made it like a birthday party in the US. As I mentioned in the post on Thanksgiving, many of my students said that the class has been a wonderful way to get to know other people in town and for me it has been equally meaningful for the friendships that have developed with people I probably never would have gotten to know if it hadn’t been for the class. The birthday party was all the more sweet knowing that for the most part, people in my town don’t usually celebrate birthdays for economic reasons, so it means more than I can describe that they wanted to do this for me. I was so upset not to have my camera but someone ended up getting a camera from a neighbor, so I will post pictures ASAP because they are absolutely adorable. One of the boys made a really sweet speech saying how great the English class has been and how we’ve all gotten to know each other and that they will never forget me and hope I will never forget them. I almost started to cry, because I know I will never forget the kindness of this very special night (aka “the best English class ever”).

Also: special thanks to the TONS of birthday cards that I have received (and it’s not even my birthday yet!) in the mail. I love getting mail down here and birthday cards are especially wonderful to receive. I’m waiting for my actual birthday to open them, but want to say MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS to the family and friends (and family friends!) who took the time to write--- it means a lot! I love and miss you all more than words can express!

Pictures!

I cannot believe how fast time is flying by. It feels like we were just celebrating Christmas and New Year’s and now it’s almost April. May 16th marks one year in my site. One year down, one to go—incredible! Last week the new batch of volunteers, 52 in total, came down to Costa Rica to start their training. In a way, it is reminiscent of college and feels like the “freshman” have arrived. I must admit, it’s nice feeling (at least somewhat) old and wise, at least in Peace Corps terms. This weekend I have a trainee coming to visit to experience a few “days in the life” of a volunteer. I’m really excited for her to come, as I remember how much it meant to visit someone this time last year. Visiting a current volunteer during training is quite a big deal, making the whole process a lot more real--- the reality that in a few short weeks, one will be in a similar situation in his or her own town. Peace Corps is very good at transitioning between the various stages of one’s PC experience. We started all together spending a few days in D.C., flew down to Costa Rica together and headed to a 5 day retreat outside of SJ, then were sent off to our training communities for 3 months. Training includes three visits: a group visit to a current volunteer, a solo visit to a volunteer, then a visit to one’s future site, and then we’re off to our sites for the 2 years. I look forward to sharing my experience with the trainee and hopefully making a new PC friend in the process.

I realized that I haven’t posted pictures in a while, so the following are some pictures from the past few months. A highlight was my little brother Austin’s visit. He came down for his spring break and we had a fantastic visit. He came to my town and we ended up going to a “tope” (a horse parade which is a typical event for a town’s annual festival) in my closest city. Upon our return he had the opportunity to talk to a bunch of guys his age from my English class, which I know meant a lot to the guys and was eye-opening for Austin. Then we were off to Malpaís, a beautiful beach town on the southernmost tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, where we zip-lined, Austin surfed, and just relaxed and enjoyed the Costa Rican sun. It was a really nice visit and as we were realizing, we have seen each other for just 3 days during the entire past year, so it was nice to have time to catch up and spend time together.

The pictures are a somewhat random assortment of events since December of last year, but I have little captions to explain each one. I will be sure to write another post soon detailing my current projects.
Enjoy the pictures and happy almost spring to all!

this picture is the cover of my community diagnostic which I finally handed in a few weeks ago. any spanish speaking readers who are interested in reading a document that includes everything you could ever want to know about my town-- past present and future-- send me an email and I will gladly pass it along!

the school in my town

community center in my town, also current home to the high school

some chicas poderosas and I playing around with my camera while we were watching a soccer game

no joke, that little colt was born the day this picture was taken-- isn`t she adorable? I named her Miel which means honey in Spanish because of her coloring

Ross, a friend I worked with in Barcelona a few summers ago, came to Costa Rica and visited my town-- a really great visit!

my host brother and host niece on Christmas

some chicas poderosas at a Christmas portal (see Christmas/New Year`s post for my details on what a portal is). we are next to a Christmas nativity scene.

Christmas dinner celebrated in the rancho

horse parade

surfer dude Austin

preparing to zip!

view of Malpaìs/Santa Teresa from way in the mountains while zip-lining

a la the Fisher clan`s pictures in Dominical, me ´touching´ the sun

view of the beach at sunset


the little plane Austin and I took from Malpaìs to San Josè-- 30 minutes (in a somewhat claustraphobia-inducing plane) instead of the 6 or more hours it would have taken by bus

framed Costa Rican sunset, gracias a Victoria-- love it!