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
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Pictures!
Ok, since I'm really excited about this whole new world of being able to post pictures on my blog, here are some more!
On a hike with Heath and Heath's host dad
the view from the mountains right above my little town
that's the central valley and San José
the view of San José from the mountains at night
the famous arbol hueco!
me inside the arbol hueco
vast majority of awesome RCDers who came to hike and see the tree
first time at the beach during my PC service with Megan-- by the way, that's Nicaragua in the backround, we were really close to the border!
on our way back from visiting current PCV's we took a little pit stop at mcdonald's (kind of breaks with the nature theme, oops!)
Now that I know how to do this, I promise next time they won't be in such random order!
On a hike with Heath and Heath's host dad
the view from the mountains right above my little town
that's the central valley and San José
the view of San José from the mountains at night
the famous arbol hueco!
me inside the arbol hueco
vast majority of awesome RCDers who came to hike and see the tree
first time at the beach during my PC service with Megan-- by the way, that's Nicaragua in the backround, we were really close to the border!
on our way back from visiting current PCV's we took a little pit stop at mcdonald's (kind of breaks with the nature theme, oops!)
Now that I know how to do this, I promise next time they won't be in such random order!
Last Week of Training
I truly cannot believe that training is winding down. It’s one of those things where you think it’s never going to end… except that this Friday is our swearing-in ceremony at the US ambassador’s house, when we become full-fledged volunteers. As a whole, I think us RCDers are getting nostalgic (or at least I am!). I’ve really come to feel at home in my training town with my friends Sarah, Jenny, and Heath living around the corner, ready to play soccer on the cancha or just sit in the park and hang out. We’re quite a team and I’m going to miss them a lot. Though I am really sad to leave, another part of me is so excited. I did not come to Costa Rica for training, I came here to work in rural community development for 2 years! I can only hope that after 3 months in my site, I feel as comfortable and at home as I do right now. Having the 3 months here has definitely given me a lot of confidence to go into the extremely daunting situation of being the sole gringa in my town. We’ll see how it goes!
This past weekend we had our family party, which was quite a success. Each community was in charge of preparing a certain part and my group put together the games. Little did we know how much the Ticos would get into it—and the adults more than the kids! Actually, the kids did go crazy during pin the tail on the donkey. They were screaming at the top of their lungs as the poor blind-folded person tried to put it in the right place (do we do that in the states?!). Relay races were also crazy. However the icing on the cake were the water balloons we had bought with the intention of having an innocent balloon toss. Little did we know that throwing water balloon would soon lead to people taking down the balloons we used for decoration to fill with more water. When that finished, everyone moved on to throwing cups of water on everyone, which then quickly led to dumping buckets of water over people’s heads. Needless to say, we ended up completely DRENCHED! Note to self: never again bring water balloons to a Tico party. Actually it was really fun, minus having to clean up the entire party while soaking wet. It’s funny though, yesterday we had lunch at Jenny’s house and her Mom was asking if that kind of thing would happen in the states and all of us said we’d never had that happen. She said that if you have water balloons at a Tico party, a water fight is an inevitability… that would’ve been good to know beforehand!
I just finished my 10 page paper entitled “The Life and Contributions of Jose Figueres”—a truly scintillating work. Ok, not really, but it’s done! Tomorrow my Spanish class is going to the National Theater in downtown San Jose for a tour which should be really cool. The theater is one of the most beautiful buildings in Costa Rica so I can’t wait to see what it looks like inside. Then Thursday I have the day free (por fin!) and Friday is the swearing-in in the morning and a big dinner with the volunteers who are just finishing their 2 years and leaving to go back to the states. Talk about being at different points in our lives! But it’ll be cool to hear their stories and hopefully they can give us some advice for just starting out. Then it’s one last weekend here before heading off to my site on Monday morning and beginning the next 2 years of my life… who knows the adventure and excitement those 2 years will bring!
Pura Vida,
Tes
Ah, I just figured out how to add pictures, this is a major breakthrough!! Enjoy... more to come!
Families and volunteers from my training town
Sarah, Jenny, Heath, Sarah and I in front of our lovely signs for all the games
my CT buddy, Victoria and I
This past weekend we had our family party, which was quite a success. Each community was in charge of preparing a certain part and my group put together the games. Little did we know how much the Ticos would get into it—and the adults more than the kids! Actually, the kids did go crazy during pin the tail on the donkey. They were screaming at the top of their lungs as the poor blind-folded person tried to put it in the right place (do we do that in the states?!). Relay races were also crazy. However the icing on the cake were the water balloons we had bought with the intention of having an innocent balloon toss. Little did we know that throwing water balloon would soon lead to people taking down the balloons we used for decoration to fill with more water. When that finished, everyone moved on to throwing cups of water on everyone, which then quickly led to dumping buckets of water over people’s heads. Needless to say, we ended up completely DRENCHED! Note to self: never again bring water balloons to a Tico party. Actually it was really fun, minus having to clean up the entire party while soaking wet. It’s funny though, yesterday we had lunch at Jenny’s house and her Mom was asking if that kind of thing would happen in the states and all of us said we’d never had that happen. She said that if you have water balloons at a Tico party, a water fight is an inevitability… that would’ve been good to know beforehand!
I just finished my 10 page paper entitled “The Life and Contributions of Jose Figueres”—a truly scintillating work. Ok, not really, but it’s done! Tomorrow my Spanish class is going to the National Theater in downtown San Jose for a tour which should be really cool. The theater is one of the most beautiful buildings in Costa Rica so I can’t wait to see what it looks like inside. Then Thursday I have the day free (por fin!) and Friday is the swearing-in in the morning and a big dinner with the volunteers who are just finishing their 2 years and leaving to go back to the states. Talk about being at different points in our lives! But it’ll be cool to hear their stories and hopefully they can give us some advice for just starting out. Then it’s one last weekend here before heading off to my site on Monday morning and beginning the next 2 years of my life… who knows the adventure and excitement those 2 years will bring!
Pura Vida,
Tes
Ah, I just figured out how to add pictures, this is a major breakthrough!! Enjoy... more to come!
Families and volunteers from my training town
Sarah, Jenny, Heath, Sarah and I in front of our lovely signs for all the games
my CT buddy, Victoria and I
Thursday, May 8, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Site Assignment and More!
Hola! Wow, so much is going on now, where to start… today has been a crazy day. This morning I had Spanish class in the little city 30 minutes away from my town. Then I rushed back with Jenny, the other volunteer in my class, so we could give English classes at the local elementary school. I taught a 5th grade class and as they were learning about internal organs (obviously a really important thing for 5th graders to know about in English, right?!) I had them make little books entitled “My Body” and they drew pictures and wrote, “This is my brain, in my head,” etc etc. It was really cute. Then Jenny and I did our “Community Field Activity” together with the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders of the school which was all about Earth Day or “Dia de La Tierra.” We gave a little talk about the importance of caring about the environment, then they made little posters about what taking care of the environment means to them, and then we picked up trash around the school. The kids got really into it and it went a lot better than I was expecting-- I can’t wait to do something like this in my town.
Speaking of which!!!!! This past Friday we had our site assignment day. I cannot describe the feeling of receiving information about the place that is going to be my home for the next 2 years—it really was indescribable, but definitely a day full of emotion. They had the whole group of 53 of us and pointed out our site on the map in front of everyone and then we got a packet of information all about our pueblos. According to PC rules, I’m not supposed to say the actual name of my town for security reasons (if you want more details, send me an email), I can say that it’s a little town of 300 people about 2.5 hours away from San Jose (I have the RCD site that is closest to San Jose which is nice since I’m really centrally located in the country and can get north or south pretty easily—and I’m not too far from the beaches on the Pacific Ocean side!). The town’s economic activities are coffee and sugar cane, as well as “animal husbandry.” I can’t wait to learn about the process of growing coffee! The little packet of information they give us says that possible projects are working with a women’s group that is just forming, helping teach people use computers (they have a computer lab, but haven’t learned how to use them), working towards building a high school (they currently give classes to the 90 high school students in the local community center), working with the sports committee, and lots more! Needless to say, it seems like there is a lot that I will (hopefully!) be able to get involved in throughout the next 2 years. This Friday we have our site visits where we will go for 5 days to our site to stay with our future host families and basically get acquainted with the place where we will be spending our next 2 years. It’s really exciting and scary, but definitely more exciting than scary. I can’t wait to meet people and just see what my town is like!
So this past weekend was Passover. While most volunteers went to this crazy Imperial concert with Incubus and Smashing Pumpkins, I ventured with 2 other volunteers to the orthodox synagogue in San Jose to attend a community seder. We were really nervous beforehand because we had heard from other volunteers that the Jewish community in San Jose is not very inviting and inclusive, but we found the exact opposite to be true. As soon as we got in (there is very high security, but we had sent in information like passport copies and our synagogues in the states beforehand), people could not have been nicer. It was funny because it definitely didn’t feel like we were in Costa Rica. People were speaking a mix of Spanish, Hebrew, and English and the Jewish people in Costa Rica mostly came from Russia and Poland as a result of anti-Semitism right around the time of World War II, just like lots of Jewish people in the states, so they all looked (not to stereotype) just like people who would be in my synagogue at home. They were definitely on Tico Time though, it was supposed to start at 6, but we didn’t get started until 8. The seder itself was really nice—the 2 rabbis leading it were really enthusiastic and made it interactive (for example, each table acted out one of the 10 plagues). It didn’t end until 12am (a little different than my family’s seder which usually goes for about 45 minutes until we’re ready to start eating!) and the family we were sitting with offered to take us back to our hotel, which was so sweet. So although I really missed my family in CT a lot, I’m really glad to of had such a positive experience with the Jewish community in Costa Rica and am looking forward to coming back for another Jewish holiday and also to see the museum that is part of the big synagogue’s compound.
On that note, I’m off to bed because I have to get up at 5:30am tomorrow to catch the bus to go to San Jose for a special Spanish class at one of the universities. I’ll definitely update when I get back from my site visit—we’ll see how it goes!
Buenas noches,
Tes
Speaking of which!!!!! This past Friday we had our site assignment day. I cannot describe the feeling of receiving information about the place that is going to be my home for the next 2 years—it really was indescribable, but definitely a day full of emotion. They had the whole group of 53 of us and pointed out our site on the map in front of everyone and then we got a packet of information all about our pueblos. According to PC rules, I’m not supposed to say the actual name of my town for security reasons (if you want more details, send me an email), I can say that it’s a little town of 300 people about 2.5 hours away from San Jose (I have the RCD site that is closest to San Jose which is nice since I’m really centrally located in the country and can get north or south pretty easily—and I’m not too far from the beaches on the Pacific Ocean side!). The town’s economic activities are coffee and sugar cane, as well as “animal husbandry.” I can’t wait to learn about the process of growing coffee! The little packet of information they give us says that possible projects are working with a women’s group that is just forming, helping teach people use computers (they have a computer lab, but haven’t learned how to use them), working towards building a high school (they currently give classes to the 90 high school students in the local community center), working with the sports committee, and lots more! Needless to say, it seems like there is a lot that I will (hopefully!) be able to get involved in throughout the next 2 years. This Friday we have our site visits where we will go for 5 days to our site to stay with our future host families and basically get acquainted with the place where we will be spending our next 2 years. It’s really exciting and scary, but definitely more exciting than scary. I can’t wait to meet people and just see what my town is like!
So this past weekend was Passover. While most volunteers went to this crazy Imperial concert with Incubus and Smashing Pumpkins, I ventured with 2 other volunteers to the orthodox synagogue in San Jose to attend a community seder. We were really nervous beforehand because we had heard from other volunteers that the Jewish community in San Jose is not very inviting and inclusive, but we found the exact opposite to be true. As soon as we got in (there is very high security, but we had sent in information like passport copies and our synagogues in the states beforehand), people could not have been nicer. It was funny because it definitely didn’t feel like we were in Costa Rica. People were speaking a mix of Spanish, Hebrew, and English and the Jewish people in Costa Rica mostly came from Russia and Poland as a result of anti-Semitism right around the time of World War II, just like lots of Jewish people in the states, so they all looked (not to stereotype) just like people who would be in my synagogue at home. They were definitely on Tico Time though, it was supposed to start at 6, but we didn’t get started until 8. The seder itself was really nice—the 2 rabbis leading it were really enthusiastic and made it interactive (for example, each table acted out one of the 10 plagues). It didn’t end until 12am (a little different than my family’s seder which usually goes for about 45 minutes until we’re ready to start eating!) and the family we were sitting with offered to take us back to our hotel, which was so sweet. So although I really missed my family in CT a lot, I’m really glad to of had such a positive experience with the Jewish community in Costa Rica and am looking forward to coming back for another Jewish holiday and also to see the museum that is part of the big synagogue’s compound.
On that note, I’m off to bed because I have to get up at 5:30am tomorrow to catch the bus to go to San Jose for a special Spanish class at one of the universities. I’ll definitely update when I get back from my site visit—we’ll see how it goes!
Buenas noches,
Tes
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