I'll preface that I wrote the first half of this a few days ago but got distracted by a random family outing and just finished today...
Well I have returned from tech week on Sunday and am finally
up and out of bed… hmm, perhaps I should start from the beginning…
Last Sunday 8 of us PCTs made our way to San Jose at 6am to
catch our bus to the Osa peninsula. This
was easier said than done of course once I slept through my 5am alarm and was
instead woken up by a fellow PCT texting me to let us know they were on their
way to get Naty and I. Their drive would
be about 10 minutes I needed to get to Naty’s house which is
about a 20 minute walk. I wasn’t liking my odds. As I BOLTED around my house throwing on
clothes and throwing last minute things into my bag, my host Mom was frantatic
as well realizing I overslept. As I was
running out the door trying to say quickly in Spanish that it was fine and I
would run she basically said no way, went upstairs and woke up my host father
who came down the stairs clearly half asleep, hoped in the car, and together we
sped away to Naty’s house. And I mean
sped. But I did beat the cab there and
after giving my host dad a huge hug…I was certainly filled with adrenaline to
start off tech week.
So what is tech week?
Tech week is when us 20 PCTs are once again shipped off all across the
country, this time in pairs, to actually put into practice our “technical
training” aka all of our classes on how to teach English, lesson planning,
classroom management, etc. Brian and I
were sent to Barton’s site, which is about roughly in the middle of the Osa
peninsula in the southern part of the country near Panama. It was about an 8 hour bus ride from San Jose
and while we were happy to get off the hot bus, the hot, humid air in Osa
offered no relief. We trekked down a
dirt road and about 2 minutes later arrived at Barton’s house. He decided to live with a host family during
his whole 2 years of service and I was staying in that house with them and
Brian was staying 2 houses down with I believe the host mother’s sister, but
honestly I’m not sure who she was. They
were related somehow.
This host family was certainly not prepared for my lack of
Spanish fluency and the host dad sat down to clearly have a conversation with
me and after I stumbled over my pathetic responses to his questions he quickly
gave up and asked Barton to translate.
He just wanted to tell me to make myself at home and ask for anything I
needed. After saying muchas gracias many
times to Don Juan (yup, Don Juan, and yes, he looks just like what I would
picture a Don Juan to look like…thick black hair with a thick mustache and
super tan skin), Brian, Barton, and I headed to the beach. It was probably one of the worst beach
experiences I’ve ever had. It was about
a 40 minute walk and upon arrival realized it was low tide but we walked out
and hoped in anyway for about 10 minutes before the sand fleas started
biting. I’ve never heard of sand fleas
but I trust Barton that they exist. So
we picked up our stuff to head back. By
now it’s dark and I just know that I’m going to twist my ankle on this rock
covered gravel road we’re walking on so I bust out my first-world solution, my
iphone, to use as a flashlight. So we
now have light, but also the bugs that come along with that. Barton swears there aren’t normally so many
bugs but I was skeptical. We made it
back, showered, ate dinner, and was ready for a night of lesson planning ahead
of us.
The Beach
Then came Monday.
Monday was quite the day. We got
a ride to the escuela from Brian’s host dad and were ready to begin observing
when classes started at 7am. We observed
for 4 hours…ate lunch….and then jumped into teaching for 6 hours the rest of
the day. Our first class was a well
behaved 3rd grade class and our lesson went over quite well. Jose (part of our project team) was there to
observe us and gave us a rave review so we were confident to tackle the 1st
and 2nd graders we had on deck.
Little did we know what we were in for…
our lesson plan bombed since we had no idea first graders don’t write. So instead of them
being able to copy the family tree I had written on the board I all of a sudden
had to draw a grandmother, mom, son, etc. My
drawing skills certainly left something to be desired and it was an AWFULLY
long 80 minutes. We felt pretty defeated
but stuck it out and taught the next class which went equally as terribly in my
mind as they were almost impossible to control and keep on task. My lack of being able to answer their
questions in Spanish also proved a fun extra challenge and I felt bad needing
to rely on Brian’s Spanish for most of the class. Both classes also collectively inquired as to
my gender, which I have certainly never been asked since I was 5 when my mother
cut all my hair off then as well. I
pretended I didn’t understand their question in Spanish, let Brian handle it,
and then buzzed my hair that night to spite them. Not every girl needs to have long hair and I
guess that shall have to be added to my list of things to teach the little
rugrats.
Buzz Time
The rest of the week included more observations of classes,
more teaching, and a few trips to the nearby beaches. We headed to Barton’s other school one day,
which was about a 20 minute bus ride away to only find out that they had half a
day and due to the schedule changes there would only be one class in which they
had to give a test. So we watched the
kids take a test and then sat around for about 3 hours waiting for the next bus
to come. We played some soccer, chatted,
and literally fell asleep on top of the tables as we waited. It was certainly a good experience after we’ve
been told of those situations happening often and a reminder that we will just
need to remain flexible and always carry a book throughout our service.
Nap Time
Beach Time w/ 2 other PCTs who were nearby: Nicole, Brian, Me, America
On Friday we packed up our things and headed further south
down the Osa peninsula to another PCV’s site, CJ, where we met up with 4 other
PCTs who were with him for tech week. We
toured his HS, fed some crocs, and headed to the beach. Upon our arrival it started to pour but we
simply stripped down to our bathing suits, frantically tried to cover up our
phones, and then just walked to the water and embraced it. We made it back to CJs and hopped in his pool
in the rain as well, played some pool games like we were a bunch of 10 year
olds, and proved that Yessina and I are a perfect chicken team. We ate delicious pizza for dinner and were passed
out by 10. An 8 hour bus ride awaited us
the next morning, but it was a fantastic day filled with great friends and a
lot of English.
Upon my arrival back in Heredia, I couldn’t have been
happier to see my host family, eat my mom’s delicious cooking, take a hot
shower, and sleep in my room without sweating to death and needing a mosquito
net. I will surely embrace this
lifestyle for the next month! I got
pretty ill while I was away and my family wasted no time nursing me back to
health. I had to be better by Friday to
see the President!
Speaking of…we saw President Obama on Friday! Granted I was ragged on plenty for this being
my 10th time seeing him (it was only the 5th), but it was
by far the closest I’ve ever been and it was certainly a different experience
to have him come greet us and the US embassy staff as his first stop in the
country. Definitely a thrilling
experience and hey, it got us out of half a day of Spanish class.
Obama Applauding After the Ambassador Introduced Us PCVs
The President
Missing everyone back home, so so much! The countdown is now T-minus FIVE days until
we find out our sites for the next 2 years…aka where you’re all coming to visit me!
My Amazing Tico 25 Family!
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