Site Assignment

Well it’s official, I know where I will be living for the next TWO YEARS…well I can't say exactly where it is online for security reasons, but it is in GUANACASTE! So, why am I super pumped with my site assignment?  What I know thus far…

It is a very small community of about 1,000 people.  Located in the outskirts of Santa Cruz, it offers multiple opportunities to work in development.  There are only 2 roads, a gravel one and a paved one.  The gravel road takes you straight to the only school in the community.  It is fairly small of only about 100 students.  There are not many resources and I should not expect to find books or materials.  It is a poor community with small humble households.  Most people commute to Santa Cruz to work and return in the evenings.  There are 2 part time English teachers who also work in neighboring school and therefore there is potential to also collaborate with other schools in neighboring towns.  It is a good place for hiking, long walks, bike riding, and horseback riding.

During a Mother’s Day skype date I was trying to calm my mother’s nerves about my new host family so I read off some of the housing checklist factors that were checked off for my new digs such as: the house is not located next to bars, a known prostitution area or a drug distribution center, check. The house has a distance of more than 50 meters away from a river bank, potential landslide area, or high-risk flood plane, check.  The roof does not show visible sings or rot and/or missing pieces, check.  The PCV’s bedroom has a bed, check.  The space between the outside walls and the roof in the PCV’s bedroom should not be wide enough for a person to enter or see in from outside, check.  I mean, sounds good to me…I think it actually just freaked mom out more that some of these things were factors…

So that’s what they’ve told us thus far.  I believe I will be the first PCV in this site so that shall certainly add an interesting dynamic/challenge to my service.  We go for a site visit next week and I am certainly eager to check it out (though not eager to need to bust out a heck of a lot spanish by myself...).  I am in a cluster of volunteers thankfully so Richard, Tara, Lauren H and I are certainly going to be keeping each other sane. There is another cluster of 4 more volunteers about an hour or 2 away so, 9 in total are headed to Guanacaste! I’m very thankful to have other volunteers just a bus ride away and yes, I am quite close to beaches so get ready to start buying those plane tickets to come visit!

The Guanacaste Crew!

Tara, Lauren W, Me, Alicia, Abby, Taylor (VAC Rep), Lauren H, Richard...and the 2 Toms

As always, I'm missing everyone back home so much and I can't say thank you enough to all of you who text / email / facebook.  I love knowing what you all are up to and the constant communication is certainly keeping me sane when my head literally starts to hurt from all the Spanish!  But in response to my mother's constant question, are you still happy?  Yes, I am still happy down here surrounded by fantastic new friends and excited about the next step in this adventure!

Tech Week and President Obama in CR

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 3^rd 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 1^st and 2^nd 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 10^th time seeing him (it was only the 5^th), 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!

Intermediate Low!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

          Considering I’m about to embark on another PCV visit tomorrow, this time for a week, I figured it was a good time for an update.  Before today, I honestly haven’t had a single day of nothing so I definitely embraced sleeping until 9 (I know, Mom…9, not noon…its like I’m a new person) and not needing to rush anywhere.  I also hope to actually have time to run to a friend’s house this afternoon to use their wi-fi so these posts will actually get updated. (<--Clearly that didn't happen..their wifi wasn't working) About a week or so after I arrived here the house magically lost internet, which was extremely upsetting, BUT through my limited Spanish I think I hear the word router thrown around every once and a while, so I THINK we’re waiting for an upgrade to wifi.  I could be completely wrong, but I’m going to stick to that story in hopes it comes true.  I still have my pathetic internet on my phone which I am beyond grateful for, but being able to skype / make phone calls / write longer emails would be faaaaaantastic.

          So what’s been going on?  We returned from PCV visit weekend to a great week of only 3 training days (since we returned late Tuesday).  We did receive bad news that our training manager was in a car accident on the highway…with a horse… so we were certainly missing her and hoping she'll be back soon!  Saturday morning all of Tico 25 was up bright and early to head off for a beach weekend!  We get 2 nights “off” during training and that Saturday night was going to be our first one.  We headed to Jaco (I honestly couldn’t point it out on a map, I let others who speak Spanish handle the logistics…I just blindly hopped on the bus) but it was about 2 hours away and pretty touristy which I’m not going to lie….I greatly enjoyed.  We went to the beach, ate Subway, went out at night, and overall just had a great weekend together.  This whole experience would be so different without my Tico 25 family and I’m so lucky it is such a fantastic group.

          We headed back from Jaco on Sunday afternoon but got stuck in tons of traffic so when I returned home around 8:30pm my family began freaking out that I had my language interview the next day, which, I was freaking out about too.  They served me a giant plate of kraft mac & cheese…I know they do it because they think it’s super American and they give it to me when they think I had a bad day which is adorable and I just don’t have the heart to tell them it is reallllllly not my favorite food.  But alas I ate some mac & cheese as virtually my whole family stood over me asking what I needed help with.  I had them ask me questions, but they weren’t super helpful.  ie-  What is your room like in the US?  Me: Uh? Rojo?  But they hung with me until 10:30 when I sent them to bed and was so grateful they were so concerned.

          I had the interview the next morning with the language coordinator anddddddddd…I placed into intermediate low!!!!!  I came in at novice low and need to get to intermediate mid to swear-in…so making such a big jump in only one month is apparently not too common and got me a congratulatory e-mail from our training director, a high-five from the country director when we saw him last week, and many, many hugs from Tico 25. It was certainly a great feeling and while I don’t exactly feel like I can communicate much better with my fam, I’m at least not concerned about being sent home!

          Nothing too exciting happened the rest of the week…more Spanish, more tech and core classes.  I’m definitely used to my bread and coffee every morning for breakfast…except yesterday they put some kind of bologna on it…hope that isn’t a new thing.  I’m also getting used to eating the same thing for both lunch and dinner, who needs variety?  But it is adorable how my host mom already knows almost all of my food preferences…. They know not to put tomatoes in my salads, that I would much rather have chicken than red meat, and I have no desire to introduce rice into every single meal. They have started buying more bananas and apples since they’re deduced those are my favorites and they even bought me a jar of hot sauce.  It’s not buffalo sauce, but I’ll take what I can get.

          All in all, things are really good down here in Costa Rica.  Some days are tougher than others and I certainly have moments while I’m sitting through a 4 hour medical session on the symptoms of dengue and how to identify common rashes we’ll probably get, where I would give anything to be back with Team Lance.  Some nights where I have nothing to do but watch Spanish movies, I would give anything to grab a beer at Hill Country or Sun Tavern with all of you that I am missing so much.  But the texts and e-mails help, and I couldn’t be more grateful for everyone who is keeping in such great touch.  At the end of the day, I really am content and happy spending my Friday nights teaching English to members of my community and feel extremely lucky to be doing exactly what I hoped I would be doing at this point in my life.

Sending many hugs to all of you in the US!

PCV Visit

Now that I have wifi I can actually post some updates I wrote awhile ago...

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

          IM BACK…I certainly haven’t had a moment to be bored lately, which I’ll take as a good thing (most of the time).  Last week was certainly stressful…3 full days of Spanish (ugh) and we had to give our first lesson, so that took quite some preparation.  We also interviewed a local teacher (in Spanish…poor her) and had to figure out all the logistics of holding a community English class that we’re going to teach for the next 6 weeks.  Busy.  Needless to say, the weekend was much needed, though it supplied zero rest.  It was PCV visit this past weekend, which meant we 20 PCTs were shipped all across the country to go visit actual PCVs for 4 days to basically see their lives and get a sense of the different types of sites. 

          So early Saturday morning Naty and I met up with 2 other PCTs in San Jose who were headed to the same region of the country, Guanacaste.  After an almost 5 hour bus ride dying in the heat…we all arrived in Guanacaste and were taken to the most culturally diverse place you could imagine…McDonalds.  There we met up with our respective PCVs we were staying with.  We had some gelato and walked around Liberia, which is an extremely large town where my PCV lives.  I believe it’s the second largest city in Costa Rica after San Jose.  One other PCT and her PCV stayed with us, so the four of us had some drinks at a very nice restaurant before heading to her barrio (neighborhood).  Liberia is certainly not what any of you are picturing as a PCV site…we looked up movie times at the McDonalds with their free wifi.  Her barrio is certainly smaller with dirt roads, but it is still not the type of site I hope to end up with.  She certainly makes it work, however, and seemed very integrated in her community.  She lives alone and is certainly lacking furniture but she DID have an air mattress and a fan, so all was great.

          We met up with the 2 other PCTs and their PCVs at a GORGEOUS waterfall on Sunday.  It was a pretty long walk down a barren dirt road for quite some time, so I was extremely skeptical that a waterfall was actually at the end of this journey (I mean, I’m so confused ALL the time, it wouldn’t have surprised me to not understand what was happening even though they were all speaking English)…BUT there was a waterfall and we all had a fantastic time swimming, jumping through said waterfall, and just relaxing.  Afterwards we headed to the other PCVs site so we could see that.  She lives about an hour north of Liberia, about 7km south of the Nicaraguan boarder.  It was by far smaller than Liberia where I was staying, but still had a small downtown.  The next day we headed to the beach about 20 minutes away.  Again, it looked like a barren desert when we got off the bus, but lo and behold, there was actually a beach about 100 meters away.  Now whatever gorgeous Costa Rican beach you’re probably picturing right now… yup, it looked just like that.  Not a soul around with mountains on either side…yea, not such a tough weekend.

            I headed back to Liberia with my PCV that afternoon to get ready for her community class that night.  Despite the ungodly heat, I put on my standard “formal-ish” uniform of pants and a polo and headed to the school.  We sat there for about 45 minutes before conceding that no one was coming.  I hope she has better luck next week!  We did run into a bunch of her students on the way home who asked for help studying for their English test the following day, so we sat outside the PCVs house and helped her host sister study.  The girl would say the days of the week or months of the year in English…and I’d say them in Spanish; it was a win-win.  One French toast dinner later and an hour of completing the homework we were given for the visit, it was time for bed.  It wasn’t hard to wake up before my alarm due to the heat and we set off to meet up with everyone again to observe their conversation club at a local school.  Teachers from all over the region come for a series of 5 day-long sessions and ultimately receive credit and a raise for completing their course.  It was interesting to see and was certainly helpful to get an idea of the projects we may be doing in out sites.  We hopped in a cab…took a 5 hour bus…ate McDonalds in San Jose…took another bus…and was finally back “home” and I couldn’t have been happier to embrace the cold.