Beach Days & Thanksgiving in CR

Well, as I looked over the next few weeks in my planner to sum up what I was up to the last few weeks in November into December, I really couldn’t lie.  Most of it was spent at the beach….

In brief, I headed up to a gorgeous beach near Nicaragua for a “Festival de las Tortugas” which was meant to raise environmental awareness.  I actually worked for moooost of the following week before calling it an early weekend on Thursday after school and heading to Tamarindo to hang with a friend whose family was visiting.  Staying in a resort with AC and eating good food is NEVER something to be passed up.  I may have fit in another beach day before heading back to work the following week ;) but back to work I did go, even fitting in heading to some of my schools where kids are coming to my JumpStart camp to do pre-interviews.  But by Thursday it was again time to head out of site because it was THANKSGIVING!

Haley & I in Tamarindo with her parents, eating like kings! (or like we were in America...)

We were lucky enough to be invited to spend the holiday with families of the US Embassy.  I was staying with 3 friends and the family was nice enough to pick us up from downtown San Jose before heading out to their gorgeous apartment.  It honestly felt like walking back into America with COUCHES, wifi, hot showers, comfy beds, and amazing food.  You could smell the turkey cooking as soon as we walked in, and my mouth was literally watering in anticipation.  Over dinner, we went around the table to say what we were thankful for and it wasn’t difficult to think of my answer.  On a day I normally would have been so upset to not be in the states with friends and family, it was an amazing feeling to be taken in by basically strangers and made to feel right at home.  I will be forever grateful to them for making my first Thanksgiving away from home as amazing as it could have been.  The night continued with delicious deserts, impressive cocktails, and lots of Rock Band.  The leftovers the next day for lunch tasted even better…

Eric ready to eat like he'll never see food again. Well, he won't actually see food like this until he COSes...

The following weekend was back to Tamarindo to meet up with a friend who had a friend visiting before getting back to work for the first week of December.  I may have fit in one more beach day before the packing for HOME commenced and helping prepare for the 6^th grade graduation was in full swing.

Back to Tamarindo...

One of my coteachers with our school banner

The 6th grade class with the directora

Halloween, Puerto Viejo, & Katsi

Well, as many of you know, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  Just like when I was in Australia, my Mom went to great lengths to make sure Halloween wasn’t forgotten in my host country.  And also just like Australia, her package encountered quite a few problems.  When I went to the post office to pick up the packages she sent down here to Costa Rica, I was instead met with quite a few forms that I eventually realized said I had to go to the customs office in Puntaranus to pick up my packages.  It’s about 2 ½ hours by car and I had no idea where I was going to take a few buses, so this was going to be a lost cause.  But that weekend my host family wanted to go to the fish market down there anyway, so off we went to get this package.

But of course, this is Costa Rica, and things are not as simple as they are in America.  After waiting at the office and looking at the things in the package, it was off to the bank about 10 minutes away to pay a fee of roughly $2.  Then drive the 10 minutes back to the office, wait again, fill out some paperwork, wait a bit more, and then receive your package.  Oh and then drive the 2 ½ hours back home.  All in all, the trip was about 9 hours to receive the package so while I appreciated the brownies, Mom, no more please!  I will be very happy with pre-packaged food that will not be taken by customs…

Well, since I now had this fantastic Halloween package, there had to be a Halloween party of course!  So a bunch of us PCVs gathered at a friend’s house in Santa Cruz and the below pictures are the result…

                                                                        

            

                                              

Shadow was quite the hit!

It was a fantastic night and it was great to not just be sitting alone in site during one of my favorite holidays J

The fun continued and the next morning it was off to San Jose, switch buses, and then off to Puerto Viejo.  For reference of the amount of traveling I did in a day, here is a map…

I live outside of Santa Cruz (top left) and headed a little north of Bribri (all the way on the right).

So yes, I traveled to basically the complete opposite side of the country.  I spent a fantastic weekend in Puerto Viejo with friends before traveling to a PCV friend, Esteli’s site in Katsi to help with a JumpStart camp for a week.  Here are a few pictures of the travel (bus to Bribri, switch buses, walk a bit to the river, cross the river in canoe, then make it 7km more to Katsi).

It was a great experience to visit the indigenous region of Talamanca, get some experience with JumpStart (the camp I was planning on doing in January), and spending the week with Alicia at Esteli’s site.  Esteli whipped up some great meals without having a refrigerator and we spent plenty of afternoons relaxing at 2 of the gorgeous rivers near her house.  I’m so glad I made the trek out and before we knew it, it was back to San Jose for 2 days of JumpStart training before heading back to site.  After being gone for so long, it really did feel good to be back and jump back into doing my community class, going to school during the days, and organizing and facilitating the two remaining conversation club lessons we had in Santa Cruz.

Here are some pictures of my time in Katsi...

Random Days

Most days if you asked me what I was doing down here I would happily have a plethora of answers for you.  Usually on Mondays I hop a ride 6km down the main dirt road to another small town where I help out their substitute English teacher (who has fantastic English by the way).  Tuesdays & Thursdays are spent in my site at the escuela coplanning & tryinggggg to coteach lessons.  Tuesday & Wednesday nights I teach a community English class in my site that I love.  Sprinkle in there some regional conversation clubs and planning for JumpStart in January and wah-la, I’m usually pretty busy and loving it.

But.  Then there are days like today.  I woke up at 5:30am because the teacher said she was going to pass through my town around 6:15am.  6:10am rolls around and I get a text that we’re actually going with a different teacher at 6:50am.  Now, I already don’t do mornings well, so I was up far too early to just be sitting around.  But anyway, we finally make our way to school and since the teacher is just temporary for a few more weeks, I’m not trying to do the whole coplan / coteach thing…I basically just show up and help out anyway I can.  Well today that involved occupying the 1^st, 2^nd, & 3^rd graders while the 4^th, 5^th, & 6^th graders took their English test.  When asked what they wanted me to do, the answer was Jenga.  Yes, Jenga.  So I took them outside & we played Jenga.  Obviously after an hour we got bored of that & the workaholic in me decided to make them study for their test.  So we sat outside in some shade in the dirt and I asked them questions that I thought would be on their test and surprise surprise, they knew nothing.  But quickly it was their turn for the test as I watched over the older kids play kickball (well, they hit a ball with their hand and there are about 5 bases, but kickball is the closest thing I can think of to compare it to).  I just kept begging them to be quieter, but apparently I’m the only person who thinks a test should be taken in silence, so apparently all the screaming wasn’t a big deal.

Perhaps one of the biggest skills Peace Corps is teaching me is to let go, be patient, and go with the flow.  Sometimes, days like today infuriate me and make me question what the heck I’m doing down here.  But more often than not, I’m just trying to learn how to do what I can where I can and if that means spending my day playing Jenga, then I guess I’ll be playing Jenga.