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 =)