Tech Week

I´d like to retract the title of a post from a couple of months ago ¨Getting down to the End¨. Apparently that was premature, because since then I´ve been hella busy.

About six weeks ago one of my bosses came to me in the office and asked if I would agree to receive a group of Peace Corps trainees (PCTs) in my site for what is called ¨Tech Week.¨ Being a team player, I agreed.

Although hosting PCTs for Tech Week has always been known as a dubious honor, and it was a lot of work, we had a lot of fun and I think the trainees had a good experience. The picture above is of the group.

During their five day stay the PCTs each taught an English class, gave a computer lesson, facilitated a group activity with the Guias y Scouts, and participated in a mini-project by assisting with the library project.

The new trainees were a great group of people, and it definitely took me back to how I felt when I was training. They have been here in country for about 2 months and will soon be finding out which community they will be sent to…so that was pretty much all they talked about towards the end of the week. I remember that.

I wanted to provide you with a few updates.

Community Library

We are busy executing the project budget. Bookcases have been contracted with a local carpenter, over two hundred books have been bought from a non-profit foundation Give-A-Book, and we are buying tables, chairs, and other odds and ends.

The trainees met with our library committee and helped us catalogue all the books. The project is advancing quickly, although I´d imagine their will be plenty of work for the next volunteer, who will arrive in the community at the end of May.

For those of you that donated to the project: thank you again and expect an update from me soon via email.

Computer Lab

The computer lab is finished! The equipment was installed on Tuesday! This is a huge accomplishment. It has been a community project for the entire time I´ve been here, and it is the first public computer lab in the town. See pic.

Saying Goodbye and Post PC

So now that Tech Week has come and gone, I suddenly look at my calendar and realize that there are only 3 weeks left before I leave this country. It is going to be pretty sad to leave, but I am definitely ready to move on. Following a discussion with the Boy Scouts committee, during the trainees stay, I began talking to the junta leaders about how much they meant to me…and I must say I got pretty choked up.

And it probably won´t be the last time. It´s just so crazy to think of all the things we´ve been through together over the last two years.

So what´s next?

I´m not quite ready to go back home yet. On May 16th I depart Costa Rica, not for the United States, but for Panama. There I will begin my journey…call it a quest, through South America.

Make no mistake. I am in no financial position to make this trip. But there are some things that just need to be done.

The general itinerary is to visit Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, with roughly two weeks of travel time in each country. Some legs of the trip will be done with friends, others I will do solo. Arrival back to the states will probably be around August 1st.

So stay tuned! Not being loaded down with so much work, I plan to keep the blog pretty active. I hope you´ll follow along in my adventures.

Into the Jungle

I´m writing this from an internet café in the sweltering town of Puerto Jiménez, located in the far south of Costa Rica, beside the Corcovado National Park. My friends and fellow volunteers – Josh, Derek, and Fraser – will be doing a 3 day hike through the jungle.

I´ll plan on posting some pictures after the hike. To those still following along – thanks so much for your support! I can´t wait to hang out again back in the US.