Sunday, June 7, 2009

Ruminations after 1 Year in Site

At the moment I’m listening to the familiar sounds of a Denny’s diner, sitting in a booth at the restaurant outside of San José. This is the first time my laptop has been connected to the internet in over a year, and surprisingly it has not exploded as I expected it to.

Due the remnants of last nights obligatory partying that goes along with the usual San José run, please excuse me in advance for what is sure to be a pretty lousy reader experience as I’m not feeling like much of a writer at the moment. But its been too long since I last update, and a lot has gone on, so I’ll do my best to hack out this update.

Things continue to go well. We had our big community party at the end of April and overall it was a pretty big success. Six of the eight community committees participated and all told the groups made about $5,000 from sales of food and beverages. But more importantly than money, everyone walked away from the experience without wanting to kill each other.

The Boys and Girl Scouts group had a big bonfire during the fiesta and the regional folks came out and swore us all in officially as scouts. It was a pretty sweet moment, considering a group of 10 parents or so has battled for more than 6 months getting the group up and running. Even better is that I’m starting to notice changes in the way the adult members of the group carry themselves.

The presidenta is a seamstress and has six kids. When she took on the role as president she didn’t have much confidence in herself. After overcoming some difficult circumstances with the losses of some supporters and all the additional trials of the project, lately I can visibly see her confidence has grown as she works with the other members of the junta, communicates with parents, and works with local community leaders.

At our first assembly a few weeks ago my good friend Olman joined us for a little while to show support for the new group. Olman works in a number of community organizations and is a leader of the town. As the presidenta stood up to address the assembly (although admittedly we were less than 25 people), Olman said he was so moved his knees shook.

He had known the woman all his life, and although always had respect for her as a person, but never thought of her as a leader. That happens a lot in small towns I think. Everyone knows everything about everyone, that after awhile they stop giving people a chance to step outside of how they have them categorized.

I have seen other noticeable changes in the scout leaders. They recently attended a 4 day training course over two weekends at a camp outside San José. Since then they have taken the lead in every session with the kids. They do a great job! …by any standards.

The project is taking on a life of its own. I spend very little time working on the project now except for filling in as a scout leader sometimes.

It has been a great experience as a Peace Corps volunteer to provide challenges to individuals who are looking for something different, engaging them in the responsibilities of the town, and seeing the changes in how the town views them and, not to mention, how they view themselves.

The picture below was taken following the first annual assembly a few weeks ago. The presidenta is sitting on the bottom steps, second from the left.

And to close out a theme from the last blog, the group made about $300 dollars during the fiesta, which we used to immediately pay back the loan after buying our uniforms. So fortunately I was not responsible for bankrupting the group with the loan idea.

We also completed another project that had been in the works for awhile – a Project Design and Management Workshop. I say “we” because Olman and I co-facilitated the workshop. It took place over 2 days, 5 hours each day. We had 11 participants that attended both days to complete the training.

The workshop was an extension of a workshop Olman participated in about 6 months ago in San José offered by Peace Corps. As part of the deal to participate in the workshop, we had to commit to provide an extension of the workshop in our town.

The workshop in San José was really well done, however I think ours in San Cristóbal Norte was better J. Thanks to Veterans Affairs (my last job) I have a pretty solid background in basic project management skills.

We threw in some things they never touched on in San José: the definition of a “project”, work breakdown structures, and risk identification. Plus we scrapped a few things from the San José workshop such as differentiating between goals, sub-activities, and performance indicators, which frankly was just tedious. And we had them doing the WBSs using newsprint and sticky notes. The result was a much more interactive experience for the participants.

We also bought little folders for the attendants that they received upon signing in that included a printed agenda and a page with the objectives for the workshop. They used the folders to hold onto the loose pages of information we gave them with each section of the workshop. (Below, top to bottom: Olman directing an activity, participants working on a project, a group presenting)
Okay enough details...anyway it went great! Of the 11 participants, 7 were women, which was really great to see. Also, of the group, four were members of the Boys and Girls Scouts junta. They ended up working in groups of 3 or 4 people, and elaborated 3 different projects – a project in hydroponic lettuce, clothing manufacture, and a candle making business.

The participants gave the course really high marks on the feedback sheet we provided, and they commented openly to us at the end that it was really done. Also, the bank treasurer was there and really loved it. So…we nailed it!

That left me feeling really satisfied. It was a goal I’d had for quite some time and the vision finally came to fruition. I think we will give another workshop within a few months, and the bank is even thinking about weening a couple of there members into the role of trainers, so they can offer the workshop regularly in the future.

That would be sweet if it turned out to be sustainable. I’ve really drilled some of these project management principles into a few of the micro-entrepreneurs. It brings a smile to my face to hear them tossing around terms like “vision”, “risks”, and developing “SMART objectives” – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Constrained – from time to time.

I realize I delve into talking about work in the majority of the writing for this blog, however, lately I guess most of my life is just work. Pretty much every day I’m in my town I have some kind of commitment. Every three or four weeks or so I have to get out of town an hang out with other PCVs just to unwind. The last few months have been pretty nuts though, and I hope soon things will start to calm down so I can relish just being around the town more.

On a social side of things, a good friend, Paul Marola, just came down to the country for about a month or so. He stayed most of the time with another friend in Jacó, on the central Pacific coast. I was able to escape the weekend before the project management workshop to hang out with them there in Jacó for a couple of nights.

Then he came back with me to San Cristóbal Norte for a few nights to check out my side of Costa Rica. Mostly we just hung out and talked. We had probably not caught up to each other in about two years or so, but we fell right back into joking like no time had passed at all…sure is great to have friends like Paul.

Plus Paul speaks great Spanish (we studied together in Valencia, Spain for a semester) and he was able to relate really well to Doña Albertina and the family there in my town. He took off just a couple of days ago, but fortunately we will catch up with each other back at my parents’ place in South Carolina within the next month. So more of the “Blake and Paul” show to come soon!

Having not finished the blog there at Denny’s, I’m now writing from a small training center where all the volunteers from my group are for the week. This week is our Mid-Service Training, or MST. On the work side, the purpose is to review what we’ve done in the past year, plan for our final year of service, and take care of a bunch of odd and end medical and security stuff.

On the play side, it’s a great time to catch up with all the fellow volunteers, speak English J, hang out, bullshit, and recharge batteries. The facility is an old seminary rented by Peace Corps. The accommodations are pretty simple – bunks, shower rooms, chow hall, meeting rooms – but the highlight is the soccer field and basketball court, that we try to take advantage of at every opportunity.

Tonight I’m feeling much better following a couple hard games of ultimate frisbee and basketball, and a good meal. This is going to be a great week!

This week we all have to provide stool samples three consecutive days so the medical office can check for parasites and what not. Naturally, for a Peace Corps crew this is a subject ripe for discussion. Most of our post-dinner discussion was spent discussing different strategies to “complete” the stool samples. It should be an interesting theme to watch develop as the week goes on. Too much information?! I couldn’t help it.

Overall, things are going very well in my service. As I told Paul, I feel like I’ve accomplished more than I had ever dreamed of prior to my service. That’s partly due to managing my own expectations from the start, and partly from a lot of hard work and a very collaborative town. Either way, I’m pretty happy with being a Peace Corps volunteer at this point.

On June 22nd I will be leaving to San José to visit the states for two weeks, my first time back in almost a year and a half. First stop is Washington D.C. for a few days, then down to South Carolina for about a week to hang out with family and enjoy the lake.

I’m super pumped about this trip!!! Frankly I’ve thought about it every day for the past month or so…and its finally here. If anyone is reading this that would like to hang out when I’m back…just shoot me an email. I’d love to hang out, and as Paul knows, will be “down for whatever.”

Hope to see you back in the good ‘ol US of A. Peace.

This blog entry is dedicated to my aunt Linda and uncle Kent. Linda has had a rough year, after experiencing an accident and then discovering she has cancer, both requiring operations and lots of follow-up. It has been difficult, but by all accounts, Linda has been really strong. And I’m including Kent because I know its been pretty mentally tough and he’s had to work his tail off taking of her. Kent - Every kid should be lucky enough to have a fun, wily uncle like you! See you all in a few weeks. I can’t wait.