All is well here in San Cristóbal Norte. A lot has happened in the past two months. I’m not even going to try to recount all of it, but will try to hit the highlights.When I left off last blog, I believe most of my days were spent walking around in a stupor being amazed at my new surroundings. As it turns out, after the first couple of weeks I was able to move onto something a little more structured, in the form of a survey of the townspeople. Over the last two months, I’ve been able to complete the survey, as well as a number of interviews with the local leaders. All of this information is then funneled into my gigantic community diagnostic that all volunteers have to turn in after 6 months in-site.
The hill continues to be a daily trial, but I’m happy to report it has not bested me yet. In fact, I seem to be getting better at the climb.
Also on the work front, feeling the pressure from some of the local folk, I started up some informal English classes. I now have 2 classes every Saturday morning with 30 students. They are mostly high school age with some adults sprinkled in. We play games, review grammar rules, and mostly just have fun. Overall, it has been a great experience, and I have discovered I actually enjoy teaching.
Between the English classes, research for my report, and a handful of smaller side-projects…I have been staying very busy.
What else can I talk about?...recreational activities. I have only taken a couple of short pleasure trips.
The first was a 1 night trip into San José for an all-volunteer dinner about a month ago. It was the first time seeing other volunteers after about 6 weeks in our communities. We did a lot of catching up. Dinner was followed by dancing late night, and then a handful of us crashed with a friend who works at the embassy (DC connection). It was interesting to go from our small town life to staying at the plush two-story condo of a U.S. diplomat…quite a change. It was a great night, although it passed too quickly.
The second trip was the next weekend when a group of us met up on the Atlantic side in the small beach town of Cahuita. There were about 10 of us from our training group that met up in a small hotel across from the beach. For the next two days we mostly sat on the beach and told stories over beers. This trip also passed too quickly, and I soon found myself chugging back up the hill numerous times each day.
Also on the work front, feeling the pressure from some of the local folk, I started up some informal English classes. I now have 2 classes every Saturday morning with 30 students. They are mostly high school age with some adults sprinkled in. We play games, review grammar rules, and mostly just have fun. Overall, it has been a great experience, and I have discovered I actually enjoy teaching.
Between the English classes, research for my report, and a handful of smaller side-projects…I have been staying very busy.
What else can I talk about?...recreational activities. I have only taken a couple of short pleasure trips.
The first was a 1 night trip into San José for an all-volunteer dinner about a month ago. It was the first time seeing other volunteers after about 6 weeks in our communities. We did a lot of catching up. Dinner was followed by dancing late night, and then a handful of us crashed with a friend who works at the embassy (DC connection). It was interesting to go from our small town life to staying at the plush two-story condo of a U.S. diplomat…quite a change. It was a great night, although it passed too quickly.
The second trip was the next weekend when a group of us met up on the Atlantic side in the small beach town of Cahuita. There were about 10 of us from our training group that met up in a small hotel across from the beach. For the next two days we mostly sat on the beach and told stories over beers. This trip also passed too quickly, and I soon found myself chugging back up the hill numerous times each day.
Cahuita pic...with a straggler from Wisconsin (middle) we picked up for the day.If these brief breaks are any preview of what future trips will be like with fellow volunteers, I can already tell we are in for some good times.
Other updates...we lost another volunteer from our program due to a family medical issue. The guy was part of one of our two married couples. He and his wife had to leave due to an ailment of her mom. It sucked to see them leave under those circumstances…and with them being such good friends. That brings our total number of volunteers in my program to 15, minus 3 from the 18 we started with.
What is life where I am at like in terms of comfort? Fortunately for me it is fine here. Because we are higher up here in the mountains, it is not very hot and I do not have to worry about all the bugs which bring illnesses like malaria and dengue fever to other parts of the country. Also, because the terrain is so broken, we don’t have to worry about flooding…just landslides.
From the bits of news I pick up, it seems like the food crisis is really taking its toll on some of the poorer countries in the world. The food crisis does not put Costa Ricans at any health risk, but it does take its toll on farmers and other low income families who feel the price increase. The increases in the costs of fertilizers are also taking a toll on the farmers. It really cuts into the farmers profit margins here, and the high prices of fertilizers is a common complaint.
Things are definitely not as bad as in other places. Peace Corps has its own small internal publication called The Peace Corps Times. They put out a special issue recently focused on the food crisis. It talked about how some volunteers, such as in Africa and other hard hit places, might soon feel the pressure to start skipping meals out of the desire to help others in the village. Also, one article from a volunteer talked about how his small African village has turned into a ghost town because the farming work normally done in the village is not viable now due to the high transportation costs.
It is terrible to think there are still millions of people out there trying to get by from one day to the next. I will get off my soapbox now…but just couldn’t help to comment in case any of you were wondering about how the higher prices affected life in my town.
Other happenings…I had my 25th birthday a couple of weeks ago! Thanks to all who dropped me a line. To the rest of you…you are rotten friends! Ha ha…jus’ kiddin.
Doña Albertina and the rest of the family threw me a party. They cooked a bunch of food and made a cake. After eating…everyone sat around telling jokes for hours…most of which I did not get. Truly, I think understanding jokes is of the last things to come to someone learning a language. Either way, it was a great night.There are a couple of upcoming events on my end that should be pretty interesting. On Friday this week is la romería, or pilgrimage, to Cartago. This is a national religious tradition. People from all across the country walk for days in the heat and rain to reach the cathedral for el dia de la Patrona. I am walking with the family here. The trip from San Cristobal Norte is only about 5 or 6 hours on foot, and we will be taking off Friday at
1pm. I will do my best to come back with a recap.Also, the daughter of my old host family in Tarbaca is having her quinceañera, or fifteenth birthday, on Aug 10th. Fifteenth birthdays are a big deal here in Costa Rica. The daughter, Paola, doesn’t have a boyfriend or too many guy friends…so yours truly has been picked as her date! I’m happy to oblige. Seems like a great excuse to learn a couple more dances. Will try to report back on this as well.
This blog entry goes out to my friends on the DC dawgs for pulling off an awesome softball season. I wish you guys the best of luck with flag football coming. I definitely miss hanging out…keep representing the dawgs well!
