Livin` la vida finca

I’m currently in the final stretch of pre-service training and my the beginning of my 2 years of PC service is looming ahead in a matter of days… it’s hard to believe! We have literally been going full speed ahead in everything—on Tuesday I gave a 25 minute presentation (in Spanish!) on Jose Figueres, one of the most important political figures in Costa Rican history. I’m glad to have a better idea of Costa Rican history in terms of events from the middle of the 20th century including the Civil War in 1948, now I just have to brush up on the more current affairs, particularly NAFTA which is an extremely controversial issue here. Now I have to write a 10 page paper (also in Spanish) on Jose Figueres, and I’m pretty much as good as sworn in as an actual Peace Corps Volunteer (right now I’m technically a Trainee). This weekend we are having a family party with all the host families which should be really nice—my town is planning games and activities for the day and we’re trying to make it like a “field day” from gym class with relay races, water balloon catch, maybe tug of war, and are also throwing in bobbing for apples because we think the Ticos will get a kick out of it. A ver!

So, last week was the site visit which a 5 day visit of the town where I will be living and working for the next 2 years. It was quite an experience, to say the least… going to a place, alone, where you know nobody, yet know that you need to start making connections right away because it is your new home. Crazy. So, what is my town like? First of all, it’s really beautiful. It’s quite green and mountainous, everywhere you look are rolling hills, I kept telling people it looks as pretty as a landscape picture! The town is basically on the side of a large hill. My host family lives about 2km from where you catch the bus to go to the closest city and it’s basically straight up a super windy hill. So the good news is that I will have no choice but to stay in good shape for the next 2 years! The flattest part of the town is the fútbol field, which is super close to my house, so I can go running there and hopefully play lots of soccer with the kids. Everything is pretty spread out—only the elementary school and church are right next to each other (a little over a km. from my house and the high school which is currently located in the community center is a little under a km. from there in the opposite direction). So yes, I will be walking a lot!

My host family seems really great. It consists of a Mom, Dad, 12-year-old brother and then 2 other brothers, 22 and 24, who live in San Jose (one is married and has an adorable little 2 year old who I met on Sunday and calls me “tia” which was is so cute). The 12-year-old is really sweet and took me all over town. I have found that getting “in” with the kids is the first step towards getting integrated into a community (this has definitely been the case in my training town), so hopefully he’ll be helpful in facilitating that. He’s very patient in terms of explaining things to me in Spanish, which I really appreciate and I’ll certainly be able to reciprocate with helping him in English. The host Dad is really outgoing and he and I had all kinds of conversations from politics in the US to the importance of education. He is part of the town’s Development Association, which I will be working very closely with for the 2 years, and coordinated for the association to have their usual monthly meeting a week early so that I could attend which was really great. My host Mom is a lot quieter than the Dad, but I imagine that in time we will get a lot closer. Also, she’s used to living with her husband and 3 sons, so I imagine the idea of having a “daughter” is a little out of the box for her. One day she was telling me that when my boss came to meet with her, she was telling her that if a female volunteer came to live with them, she would be happy to have a new compañera (friend), which I thought was sweet. She’s part of the women’s group that is forming in the town, so it’s great to have really involved community members for host parents, since I want to get involved with as many groups as I can.

The coolest thing about the whole situation is that they live on a farm (finca en español, hence the title). My host family’s land is home to numerous cows, horses, chickens, rabbits, geese, pigs, sheep, a dog named Ron (Rum in Spanish) a cat named Whiskey, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something... how cool is that?! The only animal I’m not a huge fan of is the geese, because they are not very friendly—apparently they’re used as a kind of guard animal—who knew?! I’m going to learn how to milk cows, how to make cheese and yogurt (yum!), ride horses, and get adjusted to a lifestyle that is completely new. My family also has this really cool rancho which is a kind covered area without walls and covered in plants (I really need to take pictures because it’s kind of hard to explain) with a brick oven to make empanadas, bread, etc.—and I’m going to show them how to make pizza, which hopefully will turn out really well with the brick oven.

Overall I am happy with the visit. It was definitely a little awkward at times being there for such a long time with nothing specific to do, per se, but it seems like that’s indicative of our first few months of service. Our goal in those months is to integrate into the community through meeting people, so basically my “job” is to have cafecito with people. Since I prefer my schedule be a bit more structured, I’m thinking of going to the school and seeing if I could volunteer a few days a week there. Also, other volunteers have gone door to door to meet each and every member of their community, which is an awesome idea. The thing is, since my town is so spread out, it’s not like you would just “stop by” someone´s house on the way to the bus stop or something, so I’m thinking of baking cookies as kind of an “excuse” to stop by and introduce myself, while also sharing a bit of American culture with the cookies. I’m also thinking of making a little business card that gives a little explanation of what I’m doing there. If anyone has any other ideas (as well as tried-and-true chocolate chip cookie recipes) definitely let me know!

Ok, that’s all for now-- hope everyone is doing well!
Besos,
Tesandra