Cerro Chirripo

Last weekend myself and a few friends hiked to the top of the tallest peak in Costa Rica - Cerro Chirripo. The mountain tops out at around 3,800 meters (less than 12,000 feet), which is fairly humble altitude, but proved to be a tough hike. Let's just say we were happy to reach the top!

We began the hike on Sunday from a small town, San Gerardo, at the base of the mountains at around 1400 meters. We hiked up 15 kilometers the first day, to an installation operated by the park service. Then on Monday, we woke up at 2:30AM, stepped out into the cold and darkness, and hiked up the remaining 5 kilometers to reach the top by 5:15AM, in time for the sunrise.


Looking east, as the sun begins to come up.


The ridgeline with more light out.

The sky was mainly clear, although there were some clouds out of the east that disrupted our view of the sunrise, it was still beautiful. We were able to see Volcano Turrialba, which recently became active again after 140 years, smoking in the distance. In the West, we could see a small bit of the Pacific ocean. The clouds obstructed our view of the Carribean. Cerro Chirripo is one of the few vantage points in the Americas where you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.


Turrialba smoking in the background.


Team Chirripo. Marcus, Kayla, Dom, Josh, Fraser, and myself.

After watching the sun come up and taking in the views for awhile, we began our hike down. In the afternoon we arrived back to the town of San Gerardo, where we stayed the night. Overall, we hiked 39 kilometers in about 36 hours. It was a great trip! Hope the photos give you an idea of the views.

Getting down to the end...

It’s been four eventful months since the last posting to this blog. When I began this page I was hoping to update it every couple of weeks or so, but I’ve found that’s easier said than done.

Since the last posting I went home for a week during Christmas, my Peace Corps group had it’s Close of Service (COS) conference in late January, and my parents just left the country after a two week visit.

As for work, we’ve pressed forward with English classes. After almost a year and a half I now have 21 students (down from the 45 we started with). They have improved tremendously and I’m very proud of them. I continue to work with two small business on their business practices, and was able to impart another project management workshop to a group of local artesans that want to organize themselves into a cooperative.

We also were able to complete a Peace Corps Partnership grant, and with donations from friends and family, received a donation of $3,500 for a local library. Implementing this project will be my primary project work over the next few months. Thank you so much to all who made a donation! Expect more news in your inbox as the project progresses.

Our rural tourism group has received two more groups of International Student Volunteers (ISV). This time the students came from Australia and New Zealand. They worked with the Sports Committee and Catholic Church on projects. My hat is off to the ISV volunteers! Every group has made a great effort. They are an extremely positive force in the development of San Cristóbal Norte and we are so lucky to have them. I hope some of the volunteers have a chance to read this blog and understand how much we appreciate their work.

In the school they are putting the finishing touches on a brand new computer lab. The classroom is ready with air conditioning, a new electrical system, freshly painted walls, new furniture, and a security system. The computers will be installed within the next couple of weeks and the school is expected to receive a teacher to give computer classes to the kids. It is very satisfying to see this project nearly finished.

Incredibly, my Peace Corps experience is coming to a close. The COS conference we just completed marks our last official conference with fellow volunteers and the Peace Corps office. (see picture above of group at COS) From now on we will still be busy closing out projects, but we will not be getting together as a group. This still has not completely sunk in. It’s amazing how fast two years can go by!

As I look ahead to the next few months, it looks like I will be pretty busy. I have to finish up project work with the library and English classes, prepare for the next volunteer, take care of a mountain of paperwork that PC requires for me to be able to leave the country, and start planning for the future.

On the other hand…who am I kidding! I live in a wonderful country, in a small town surrounded my people who care about me and look after me, and work over the next few months should be pretty manageable. I hope to take more time than usual between now and May to enjoy friendships down here, with Ticos and fellow volunteers.

Also, I hope to make a few more blog posts over the next months with more details of the completion of my service in San Cristóbal Norte.

Yesterday at the school, one of the teachers said to me “you’ve really done a lot for the town during your time here…it’s been a very productive two years!” That comment was very kind of her. I think it’s true, when I think about all we’ve accomplished here…it makes me very proud.

So there’s my ramble! I hope to make some more posts between now and May. Post Peace Corps my plan is to do some traveling through South America, which I also plan to record here on the blog.

So stay tuned!...the adventure is not over yet :)

Nicaragua

The long awaited trip to Nicaragua finally came and went. It was my first time leaving Costa Rica to visit another country in Central America, so the change of scenery (and culture) was pretty exciting.

For a while it looked like the trip might not even happen, as people couldn’t quite work out the timing for work and other commitments. Once the dust finally settled from planning, it was my good PC friends Josh, Marcus, and I left standing. So it was to be a guy’s trip.

We took off from San José by bus, headed north for about 7 hours, and after working our way through the rather inefficient border crossing, hopped off the bus in the small town of Rivas in Southern Nicaragua.

Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere (behind Haiti). It’s government and political structure is dominated by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN, in Spanish symbols), of which Daniel Ortega is now the leader and president.

It’s not exactly clear what the “Liberación” in the FSLN means at this point as there’s been no war for roughly 20 years now in Nicaragua. Liberation from poverty?...international humanitarian aid? Either way they still have the country on lock down and it has made only marginal economic advances since peace was struck in Central America roughly two decades ago.

Apart from some very marginalized parts of the country, Nicaragua has a reputation among adventurous travelers as a damn fine place to travel. It’s cheap, has a rich (if violent) history, the oldest colonial architecture in region, big freshwater lakes, smoking volcanoes, and friendly people.

Before coming to Costa Rica to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer I probably would have never considered traveling to Nicaragua. During our travels we ran across plenty of European tourists but very few Americans. It’s probably safe to say most Americans don’t even have it on their radar as a place for tourists. My only guess as to why would be that the country conjures up certain images when people hear Nicaragua and think Iran-Contra scandal, or our country’s not-so-friendly standing with the Daniel Ortega and Co.

Either way, it is a shame that the country is not taken advantage of by more American tourists.

After getting off in Rivas, grabbing some Nicaraguan cash and a decent lunch, we pushed on to our destination – Ometepe Island. Ometepe is the biggest freshwater lake island in the world. It just also happens to be the home of two volcanoes – one active and one inactive.


Ometepe from the ferry.

We stayed on the island for three nights, took a day-long hike up the extinct volcano and into it’s crater down to a little lagoon, and then recovered from our hike the next day with swims in Lake Nicaragua and plenty of local Victoria beer. (yes, this is the extremely abbreviated version of our trip…internet time is limited)

Lake Nicaragua.

From Ometepe we went to the small city of Granada next, located on the shores of the lake farther to the north. Granada is the oldest city in Central American, founded around 1540, and retaining a lot of fantastic Spanish colonial architecture. We really enjoyed Granada, but unfortunately don’t have any pictures to share. Excited to reach a “real” city, we spent the first night at a crowded bar with live music and cheap Flor de Caña rum sold by the bottle. The cheap rum combined with running into some hilariously crazy Aussies we knew from Ometepe, made the night a complete despiche (fill in here with the English word you believe is appropriate and it probably will be).

As a result we spent the following day and a half alternating between eating cold fruity drinks, lounging on park benches, and seeking out any shady spot that would allow us to forget for a moment that we had no air conditioning in our $8 a night hostel. In other words, picture taking fell by the wayside.

The next stop was the university town of León in Northern Nicaragua. After a quick stop in Managua to pick up bus tickets for the return trip to Costa Rica, with the obligatory overcharging by a Managua cab driver who’s best attempt at a selling point was “other cab drivers will drive you somewhere and rob you”. Naturally we felt honored to be in the company of a cabbie of such integrity.

We finally arrived in León after a two hour bus ride from Managua and found a decent place to stay this time with air-conditioning and cable…our gift to ourselves for being on vacation. After getting settled we started exploring the city.

León would actually turn out to be our favorite city in Nicaragua (which means it was better than any Costa Rican city, as we had already deemed Nicaraguan towns to be far superior to those in CR). León is home to six universities, the biggest Catholic cathedral in Central America, the best art museum in Central America, lots of decent restaurants, and a lot of young people.

We ran into very few tourists, but still never felt that out of place. Most people just went about their business and we weren’t badgered by street vendors to by things like we were in Granada. León is also know as the home of the Sandista movement, so we caught up on some history of the leftist movement in the country.

We also took a short tour “volcano boarding”, which basically involves hiking up a semi-active volcano with a snowboard-like board and launching yourself down one of the rock and sand sides of the volcano. It was quite awesome. Although you couldn’t exactly “carve” down the volcano face like snowboarding, I was surprised to have quite a bit of control on the way down.

The volcano boarders.


After the descent.

Following León we stayed one uneventful night in Managua, then headed back to San José, Costa Rica. All told we spent about 9 days in Nicaragua. It was a fantastic trip and I would recommend traveling to Nicaragua to anyone.

Within a week of getting back to Costa Rica I had to leave my town again to participate in the annual All Volunteer Conference (AVC), which is the last one for me and the rest of the volunteers in my cycle. It was still a good time seeing all my friends and meeting the new volunteers that arrived about 8 months ago.

Now I’m getting back to work! I hope to put up another blog post in a few weeks to tell you about a project to establish a library here in my town that you may be able to help us fund!

I’ll end this blog with a friendly admonishment: Don’t be a bogan! Which only Josh and Marcus are likely to understand.

Hint: bogan = redneck in aussie

Will be in touch.

Living Poor

No, I´m not talking about myself. Amazingly, my meager Peace Corps living allowance covers the majority of my expenses and I haven´t had to plunder the savings (yet).

By this title, I´m talking about the people in my site. Sometimes living here in the Costa Rican countryside everyone is so pura vida, so friendly, and so laid back that you forget about an important fact: They don´t really have much money.

Sure, everyone has a house and food on the table, and if they hit a rough patch they have family members nearby that can come to the rescue...but that too can be stressful. Most people anywhere want independence and some success that allows them to do what they want to do in life - enlarge the house, buy a little car or work truck for the farm, or take a trip shopping in the closest big town.

But life in a small farming town can be tough. A few recent events made me take note of it.

One of my host brothers, Ananias, is 50 years old and has been working as a farmer in some capacity for all of his life. He is a hardworking and respectful person.

Ananias earns most of his money working on a coffee farm that his sister-in-law owns (her husband is deceased). Also, for quite a while he has been supplementing his income by making cheese. He owns a few cows that produce the milk for the cheese business.

Starting a couple of years ago, Ananias began to take out loans with the micro-finance bank (my counterpart) in town. He took out the loans and starting buying cows. In the time I have been here he went from two cows to five in a period of about 1 year. Things were going very well. The cows he bought produced large volumes of milk, and he was able to up his production from roughly 20 kilos a day to about 40 kilos. He went scouting for people to buy up his new production capacity, and with some minor setbacks, he was able to sell all the cheese he produced.

Ananias´s plan is going good. He tells me his plan is to continue buying cows, up the cheese production even more, stop working on his sister-in-law´s farm, and take up milk production full-time. Later on will come the purchase of milking equipment (he does it by hand now...you should see this guy´s forearms!) which will make his job even easier.

This is the Tico equivalent of a retirement plan. Ananias is old enough to start thinking about the future, and he wants something that can give him some financial security as he gets older. Makes sense to me...more power to him.

About 3 weeks ago one of Ananias´s recently bought cows got sick and died within about a three day period. No big explanation. It just got sick, and then keeled over and died. This happens plenty on farms, from what they tell me. Unfortunately, he is still paying off the loan with the bank, and so he will have to pay off this dead cow for the next year or so...taking away important income.

Then two nights ago, one of his cows was about to give birth, but wouldn´t drop the calf. It turns out the calf had already died and was stuck in the birth canal. Ananias called a veterinarian out the next morning. They operated on the cow to remove the calf, but something didn´t go right, and now he´s had a second cow die on him.

Ananias´s response: ¡Que va! ¡Hay que seguir! Oh well! Gotta keep going!

Despite the positive face Ananias has put on the whole situation, I know it has been a setback for him and has a hurt. This morning I watched him making cheese, and he just wasn´t moving with the same gusto that he normally has when he is making it. He had invested a lot of time in those cows, searching for grasses, giving them shots, steering them to pastures, and they just died on him.

I´m not trying to tell you a sad story or depress you, but it seems like out of respect for this Peace Corps experience, which overall has been extremely positive, you have to include the sad situations you see that bring you down to earth.

Now bringing this back to Peace Corps work. When I arrived in Costa Rica and was told I would be basically a small business development volunteer, I have to admit I was a little skeptical. What are we going to be able to teach a farmer or small business owner about running their farm or business more efficiently? Since then my skepticism has subsided and has been replaced with a lot of enthusiasm.

I began working with two families on a farming project about 10 months ago. They came to me after hearing that I had been working with some other local farmers, and asked if I could join them to talk about their project.

We sat down together and I explained to them a little bit about what I could offer them and what my role would be. I would be a facilitator. My job was not to make the decisions, but to help them with activities that would allow them to get all the facts out, and hopefully allow them to analyze and make their business decisions in a more orderly way. What do you think?, I asked. Sounds good to them.

We began meeting weekly for awhile after that. The husbands and wives both participated in the meetings, so there were five us.

We began with a basic SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. In my experience, this is a great activity to get to know a project and start the conversation. For their project they wanted to grow lettuce hidroponically, which is not organic, but very clean (few chemicals) and in high demand here in Costa Rica.

The SWOT analysis left them with a very positive feeling about the project overall. We decided to move forward with some other steps to investigate the project.

I helped them put together a viable budget for the greenhouse and other materials they would need to start-up the project. They didn´t have the money, so they would have to take out money with the local bank (again, my counterpart). The budget was an important point, in my opinion, so I pressed them to be sure to include all start-up costs were present, including the costs for the first 4 months of the operation until the could get producing. We did not want to have to go back to the well twice.

They got the budget ironed out, analyzed some other risks, and then they decided to move forward. They took the plunge and went to the bank to take out the loan. With only a minor change to add another co-signer to the loan agreement, it was approved and they got the money. They were committed.

Next step was to help them bring more order to their meetings. They had funds - they needed a treasurer! One of the wives was elected treasurer. We dedicated two meetings on how to keep a basic ledger to keep track of the coming and going of money. No high finance...but very basic accounting. The one woman was treasurer, but all learned how to keep the books.

There was no record of the weekly meetings - it was time to appoint a secretary! The other wife was appointed secretary. I gave them some basic tips on what should be present in most meeting minutes, and we got started with the next meeting.

We did a session on how to develop goals effectively, or that is, SMART goals. Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Realistic. Time-Constrained. We practiced. They understand and the outcomes of the meetings began to show up in the meeting minutes with greater accuracy.

Together we created a meeting agenda they could follow every week that would encompass all the business they needed to do. They began to read the agenda aloud each week at the start of each meeting.

They elected to put a point at the beginning of the meeting for ´motivation´ where they basically bring in a short story or anecdote that imparts a positive lesson each week. What a great idea!, I thought. They haven´t missed a week yet with the motivational point, and I have no idea where they get their material.

They meet on their own more frequently, and sometimes when I am with them, I scarcely say a word. They have the hang of things.

I get to know the families better. They tell me about how they can´t keep living in the same way, as they describe it, ´working today to pay for what we ate yesterday´. I see the dedication in their eyes. It becomes apparent that except for their homes and some other odds and ends they don´t have much in the way of money. This project is a big deal for them. They are giving it their all. To myself, I commit to giving them all the help I can in the next months.

Time goes by. Advancement of the project is slow. Slowly the base of the greenhouse is build, then they walls, and finally the roof. Xinia, the wife, continues to be a great treasurer, meticulously holding keep track of receipts and noting every amount down the fraction of a colon.

They begin the feel the pressure of the project. They were only about to gain a six-month grace period from the bank before they have to start paying the principal along with the interest, which amounts to a big bump up in the monthly payment.

The wives put on the pressure. They men get moving. We do a 3 month work plan in one of the meetings, or basically a Gantt Chart, detailing what they need to accomplish in the next critical few months.

They begin working two-days a week on the project instead of the 1 day they had been putting in (in addition to their regular job). They plant things on the side, broccoli and chives, which will get them some extra funds.

A month goes by. They greenhouse is almost ready. They have begun planting sample crops with the help of a Ministry of Agriculture engineer. The samples are coming along well.

The begin to harvest the extra crops they planted, giving them a good buffer to make the monthly payments even when they start paying the capital.

This week, in the regular meeting, they review finances. More funds have come in from the extra crops. They elect to take another look at the 3 month work plan to review their progress. What do you think, Blake?!, they ask me. I can see the pride in their eyes. You are doing it!, I say. I can tell they believe that as well.

Even if they have problems growing in the greenhouse (which is doubtful), they believe they will be able to pay off the loan through the monthly payments to the bank.

So in short, I believe myself, and other Peace Corps volunteers, can make a difference here with small business and farmers. At least...that is my experience. Unfortunately, I still don´t have the end to this story to tell you yet. But I will keep you informed. Until then - pura vida.

Gotta go catch a bus.

Coming to America (and back again)

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.

It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.

When the sun comes up, you better start running.”

- African proverb
______________________________________________________

So I finally went back to the U.S. after about a year and 3 months of Costa Rica. It was everything I’d hoped it would be – two weeks of seeing friends, eating great American food, drinking beer, wine, and other fine spirits in vast quantities, playing in the sun, and oh yeah, seeing family. (just kidding, Mom)

I had planned on posting this blog about a week after my July 7th return from Costa Rica, but work got in the way and I’ve been extremely busy for the last month or so. And for that work I am grateful, because it knocked me out of my post-US funk I was in for a few days following the trip.

It doesn’t seem to make sense to describe my trip in detail, so I’ll just catch you up on the broad strokes.

I flew into D.C. on June 22nd and hopped into the car with my ex-roommate, Michael, who was waiting for me outside the airport at Reagan International. (note: this is not the broad strokes part, which will really begin following the next two paragraphs) It all felt pretty surreal frankly…I was finally back in the U.S.! The surreal feeling lingered on as we headed back over to my friend’s apartment, or that is, my exact same old apartment from my DC days. We walked in and it quickly became apparent very little had changed in the decor, save maybe someone else’s things occupying the space in my old room. Other than that, it was the same apartment I had left on an overcast day more than a year ago, hauling a big roller suitcase and overflowing backpack heading off to staging to begin my Costa Rica Peace Corps adventure.

After dropping my stuff off, we headed over to a favorite local neighborhood hangout, Whitlow’s on Wilson, for dinner and a few...well...many beers. This would pretty much set the routine for the rest of my 4 day stay in DC. Michael would head into work in the morning, I would wake up later and run some errands in the day, and then Michael would come back and we would go back out to hit the town. Monday – Whitlow’s on Wilson, Tuesday – 51st State Bar, Wednesday – Ray’s the Steaks and Whitlow’s on Wilson (yet again), Thursday – Cookout at the apartment followed by barhopping in Dupont and Capitol Hill.

Wednesday I was able to meet up with some co-workers from my job at Veterans Affairs for dinner at Ray’s the Steaks in Arlington. This was a meal I had been dreaming of for several months – a nice, thick New York Strip from Ray’s the Steaks! It didn’t disappoint.

Based on the size of our group, I’d say a number of other people from the office were anticipating this evening as well. We had a great group of about 12 folks come out, all very good friends. It was fantastic to catch up with them. Ray’s makes a pretty stellar steak…but I’ll just assume they came out to see me!

Thursday, my last full day in DC, I was able to make it into the Veterans Affairs to catch up with some more folks I hadn’t seen the night before. That night Michael organized a cookout in the apartment courtyard and a number of other good friends came out to catch up and have a few beers. For everyone that came out – Annie, Dan, Chad, Nhi, Austen, Charles, Phi and others – it was great seeing you! Thanks for all your support during my time in Peace Corps!

Late night Thursday , a good buddy, Kevin, decided that maybe it wasn’t so important he report to work the next day and so he dedicated the rest of the night to barhopping with me around DC. We didn’t stay out late enough to see the sun come up…but just about. It was a great ending to a fun week.

On Friday morning I groggily boarded another plane at Reagan to head down to Atlanta for the second leg of my trip. It was time to hit the lake.

The next 8 or 9 days were spent in the lower foothills of the Blue Ride mountains at my parents’ house on Lake Keowee in South Carolina. Their home on the lake, which is as beautiful and peaceful as it sounds, is my personal Mecca. When I am there, all is right in the world.

Under normal circumstances, I would make a pilgrimage there every six months or so, but Peace Corps had kept me away for about a year and a half.

We took full advantage of the time. A group of good friends came up the first weekend. We enjoyed the water, great weather, the large porch, and cooking on the grill. Everyone got caught up in the slow pace of the lake, and most friends ended up staying an extra night.

During the week following my friends’ visit, I played a lot of golf with my dad. The was another Henderson family tradition that had not been able to take place for awhile due to my stay in Costa Rica. I continued playing golf and by the end of stay we had played six rounds of golf in one week!
Photo: The lake weekend with friends. Nuff said.

The following weekend was sort of a family reunion. My aunt and uncle, grandparents, and cousins all showed up to have a big lake weekend! It was a lot of fun, and even though we hadn’t all spent time together for a long time, we got right back into the swing of things. We spent a few days on the lake enjoying the lake house. Also, we saw two great fireworks shows on the lake on July 4th.

After a quick night in Atlanta on July 6th visiting some friends, my U.S. vacation was over and it was time to head back to Costa Rica on July 7th.

So you would think a trip back home after more than a year in another country would leave someone with a few impressions, right? Although nothing drastic came to me during my vacation, here are a few ideas I took away from the trip:

• I’m so fortunate to be a Peace Corps volunteer!!! Granted not everyone’s PC experience works out well, but I have had an incredible time. The trip home left me really motivated about being a volunteer. It has been such a great experience. I have learned many new skills – the Spanish language, teaching, facilitating, micro-finance, how to work with kids, working in groups, and playing the guitar. Also, I have made so many great friends – both among fellow volunteers and in my town.


• It’s great to have a job. While I don’t see myself extending my service at this point, I’m very pleased to be working at something I love and is very satisfying. Also, when I was hanging out with my buddies at the lake house, we realized that a lot of my good friends (all very capable) are out of work, or in-between jobs, or only working part-time. I feel very lucky to be working for Peace Corps right now.
  
• Savor Every Moment. In the big scheme of things, a two year commitment to Peace Corps isn’t that long. I’ve only got about 9 months of service left, and I plan on taking advantage of it to the maximum – be it with work projects, social life in my town, or adventures with my many great fellow volunteer friends. The entire experience has been a great journey that I will probably look back and reflect on later in life with nostalgia. I’m gonna live every minute of it.


• Where’s the next challenge!? Let me at it. Although I’ve still got a lot of time left, it will probably fly by, and it doesn’t hurt to think about the future. PC has been an extremely challenging experience – getting accustomed to small town Costa Rican life while trying to learn a new job, language, and culture. It has also been extremely rewarding and has brought out the best in me. PC has reminded me that I must continue to challenge myself in my life after Peace Corps, whatever that may be. The only limits we have in life are of our own making.

So in keeping with the third point on that list above, I recently sat down and came up with a slate of projects for the remainder of my time working in San Cristóbal Norte. Here is the line-up:

Ø Support of Emerging Rural Tourism Group – We recently received our first group of international student volunteers here in San Cristóbal Norte. They came to us through a fellow PCV connection in a neighboring town. The experience went extremely well for us, and we are expecting to receive a second group in late August. The first group stayed for two weeks and completed a project roofing the local nutrition center. They stay with families, and in addition to the valuable labor they provide, also give a modest financial donation for the project.

To bring this group to the community (literally called International Student Volunteers - http://www.isv.org/) we set up an ad hoc committee of several of my acquaintances in the town. The committee has really come together as a team, and if all goes well with these first two ISV groups, they may opt to form a permanent rural tourism group in the town. If this happens (as I think it will), then I would really look forward to helping them through their early planning stages. (Potential project dates: August 2009 – End of Service)

The volunteers. They were a fun group and worked very hard. Let´s be clear, in no way have I obtained permission to post their images on the world wide web.

Ø Establishment of a Community Library in the School – This will be a project you will be able to get involved in! Peace Corps offers something called the Peace Corps Partnership Program which allows volunteers, only once in their two years of service, to formulate a project and solicit funding from donors online via their website.

I would like to use my PCPP project to establish a small starter library in the local school, which doesn’t have a library at the moment. While Costa Ricans in the campo are not know to be big readers, the kids in my host family have all shown a lot of interest in the books I read and even mimicked my behavior. When I began reading the Harry Potter series in Spanish, two of my host nephews asked to borrow the books after me. They are now reading book six while I’m slowly plodding through the fifth book of the series.

Also, a fellow Peace Corps friends, Josh, has also established a small library in his local school and the kids have been actively checking out books and shown great enthusiasm for reading.

I am convinced a library would be a fantastic resource here in the community for the kids education! So to my co-worker, Mark, from Veterans Affairs, to whom I’d promised to post on this blog a wish list of books for him to send me – you will just have to wait, buddy! I may be putting out a big wish list of kids books soon (albeit books in Spanish).

Also, I’d like to thank my roommate, Michael, for giving me a great book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. Written by an ex-Microsoft executive, the author tells the story of leaving his job to begin the Room to Read Foundation (http://www.roomtoread.org/), an organization that has built thousands of libraries and schools in the developing world.

This is a project that really excites me! I’m also really happy to be giving you all a chance to get involved since you’ve given me so much support over the last 18 months. I will keep you posted via this blog and email on the development of the project. (Project Dates: September 2009 – March 2010)

Ø 2nd Project Management Workshop and Best Practices Guide – As I wrote in the previous blog, in May a member of my counterpart and I gave a two day workshop in basic project management skills to about 12 participants here in town. The workshop was an extension of a workshop given by Peace Corps that Olman and I had participated in several months before in San José

The workshop was an overwhelming success! We organized the workshop in a very professional manner and were given rave reviews by the participants. They absolutely loved it.

I really enjoyed this project, and had always intended to offer the workshop a second time in the community, but this time I would like to raise the bar a bit for sustainability’s sake. This second edition of the workshop will be giving entirely by three members of the bank’s managing board that have already been trained in the skills. I will be working on the workshop in a support capacity, but will not be doing any of the teaching. Also, I plan to formulate a best practices guide in Spanish to share with the bank and other Peace Corps volunteers.

If we can pull this off, and I believe that we will, then this workshop may make a big difference for the bank and other PCVs long into the future. I recently shared my ideas for the project with the bank’s managing board, including those that would be teaching, and they expressed enthusiasm for the idea. (Project Dates: September 2009 – November 2009)

Ø English Classes – For the last 9 months I have been teaching English to two different classes here in the town. The English course is given through Centro Cultural books and curriculum, a very respected English teaching non-profit organization here in the country. We began in October 2008 with 45 students divided into two classes. I now have 24 students, or roughly half the original number.

Teaching English has been a great learning experiencing for me, and although I’ve found it very challenging, it has also been very satisfying. The remaining students are highly motivated to continue learning. I plan to continue offering English classes through this program until the end of my service.

Through this program as offered by Peace Corps volunteers, the students pay only $20 or so for about 9 months of class, whereas in the city they half to pay roughly twenty times that amount. Our work allows rural Costa Rican students to study English under a highly recognized program at a price they could otherwise not afford.

Many of my English students I would also consider great friends. For my birthday, they surprised me with a birthday cake, sang happy birthday to me, and gave me several gifts. A few of the students had remembered my birthday from an activity we did learning dates nearly 6 months ago! I was thrilled they thought of me and felt really honored they would remember my birthday. (Potential Project Date: Present to End of Service)

Ø Micro-Entrepreneur Support – I am currently supporting three farmers here in town with their emerging businesses in a one-on-one capacity. We have made great strides in applying basic business planning skills, including SWOT analysis project management techniques, marketing, and accounting. I also consider these farmers and their families good friends, and I plan to continue to provide this support until the end of my service.

Ø Organic Garden in the School – a project was recently dropped in my lap from FINCA, a Costa Rican non-profit organization that supports micro-finance banks such as my counterpart. They are looking to set-up a system for funding communal projects in towns where micro-finance banks exists using the PCPP model. The want to use my counterpart, and our town, as a pilot project to set up an organic garden in the school using a technology called the EarthBox.

My birthday cake. It tasted glorious.

The idea is the students will take responsibility for the garden, all while doing activities online that connect them with other classrooms participating in the same project. This project still needs further development within the community, but it should be a great opportunity for the school. I will keep you posted on the progress.

Other Potential Projects on the Waiting List – Coordination of a Leadership Forum among Community Leaders, Junior Achievement classes in the School, a Best Practices Fair Among Farmers in the Town, Painting of a World Map Mural, and Development of a New Volunteer Program with the High School in the Neighboring Town.

So as you can see, there’s plenty to keep me busy in the coming months. All this talk of projects has made me realize I probably need to give an update on the town computer lab project that has been so important to us.

The school began with a projection that it would need to raise roughly $15,000 to prepare the local computer room for the computers it would receive from the foundation here in country. The Board of Education recently held a beauty contest, or reinado, as a fundraiser. With the reinado, a candidate is chosen from each grade, and they have to go to work fundraising for about six weeks. The candidate that raises the most money is the queen! (Sidenote: the candidates are usually drawn from each of the major families in town, ensuring a very strong rivalry)

The reinado was a huge success, raising roughly $7,500 through the event. To add onto that, I was able to kick in another $3,500 from a grant I applied for through the Costa Rica – United States Foundation (CRUSA). So we have almost three-fourths of the funding raised, and the improvements to the lab are on schedule. Everything appears to be in order. The only thing that may go off schedule are the computers, which seem to be running late due to the extensive contracting process.

As usual, I hope this gives you a glimpse into my life and this crazy experience called Peace Corps. I will continue to try to update the blog more regularly, but no promises, considering all my prior efforts seem to have failed up to this point.

The quote at the beginning of this blog relates in no way to the content…I just thought it was cool. Hope it blew your mind.

This blog goes out to my DC roommate and great friend, Michael, for staying out late on the town with me all week (barring Thursday, which you totally punked out on), all while having to drag himself out of bed each morning at 6AM for a full day of work. Towards the end of the week he was counting down the days to my departure so he could finally get some rest. You’re a soldier, Bernie! Thanks for showing me a great time in DC.


Michael working with about 12 ours of sleep over a 4 day period. Just putting ketchup on that burger took him 17 minutes. That´s one TASTY burger!

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.

Risky Business

My hands were sweating a little in the partially lit side room. Is it hot in here or is it just me?...I was thinking. The situation brought to mind a old southern saying – “It’s not the heat, it’s the humility” – I remembered reading recently from To Kill a Mockingbird.

We needed money, and we needed it fast. To get la plata, the cash that is, we had gone to the only option in town. This was the smartest (or the dumbest) move I had made as a Peace Corps volunteer.

¿Cuánto ocupa? ¿ A qué plazo? ¿Tiene fiadores? Translation: How much do you need? For how long? Do you have cosigners? The questions were endless. Why can’t we just get this over with! They know we’re good for it. Three casually dressed people were sitting across from the dull gray table looking mildly combative while filling in a form with our responses.

Sitting to my right was a short woman, middle-aged, short brown hair, fidgeting with here small purse in her hands. Alongside her was another woman of roughly the same description. Respectively, they are the fledgling Boy Scouts group’s Treasurer and President.

The Boy Scouts needed cash. To explain how it had come to this I’ll have to go back and recap a little bit about what’s happened here in town…

Yours Truly is now a temporary dirigente, or boy scout leader. Right now the group has 3 other scout leaders, and we have roughly 40 boys and girls split between us, from ages 7 to 17. We’ve been working with the kids for about 3 weeks now. We had broken the ice and were starting to feel pretty good about being scout leaders. Plus, the kids loved the games and activities we had been organized. Sure we were still pretty rough around the edges and there was a lot more to learn...but we knew we could lead a scout group! This was a big step.
The first day of activities in the town park in front of the church only a little over half the kids showed up. They session went well though, and at the end of the day we handed out little plastic ID cards to with the kids name printed on it. This was something the central office had sent us after the group was signed up 3 months ago.
The next week about 90% of the kids that we had signed up participated. They had heard all week in school about the good time the others had, and wanted to show up to be included and receive there ID card.
Everything was going great. But there was a problem. The town had a fiesta comunal coming up and we still don’t have uniforms for the kids yet. There is only a month left until the fiesta, and we want the kids in uniforms to communicate to the town that YES, WE ARE HERE! Up until now we hadn’t really felt like others believed in us.
It was the recommendation of the Boy Scouts that we have parents pay for the uniforms so they were invested somewhat in the group. They had had bad experiences in the past with simply raising money and giving out uniforms. That made sense to us.
Okay, so what do we do?
It was at this moment that I decided to step in with my brightest (or dumbest) idea as a Peace Corps volunteer. –“Why not get a short-term loan from the town bank?!”
We chewed on the idea a bit. A short term loan would allow us to get the shirts done quickly. Plus, the parents could finance the shirt over 3 or 4 months instead of paying all at once. We estimated the shirt and bandana would roughly cost 4,000 colones…or roughly $8 a piece. This was cheap, but some of the committee members had 3 or 4 kids plus themselves to think about so this would add up.
But financing with a few payments over 3 or 4 months would make the situation much more manageable, right? Plus, we wouldn’t start to make the shirt until we’d received a signed permission from the parent along with the first payment.
The idea started to sound pretty darn good.

…so that brought us to the small side office there in the offices of my counterpart, the micro-finance bank.

The loan application was approved without any problems. A week later the Boy Scouts Regional Representative paid the group a visit (I wasn’t there) and our junta informed him of our plan to “finance” the uniforms. He strongly advised against the financing idea since it had not worked out well in other areas in his experience.

After hearing that, I was totally willing to give up on the idea, but the junta went ahead and voted to take out a portion of the money they had been approved for. They were approved for a credit line of $500 and decided to only take out $300. I wasn’t present at that meeting either due to my participation on the Comisión de Fiesta.

The idea is the money will be used to buy cloth for the uniforms that will be made by the president (a seamstress), and then to pay for food and other things we will be selling during the fiesta. They tossed out the financing idea and decided participants would have to just buy the uniforms outright. They could still finance, it would just have to be a forward-financing type arrangement.

Despite the fact that I still eventually may be responsible for planting the idea that eventually bankrupted the town Boy Scouts group…I was proud of the junta. They decided together to take a calculated risk by taking out the loan, and also tossed out the uniform financing idea after hearing from the regional representative. Plus, with the money we are almost sure to make from food sales during the fiesta, it should more than justify the loan.

As time goes on they are becoming much more confident, taking decisions on there own while my input becomes less and less important. I guess I could feel left out…but the bottom line is it is becoming a sustainable project. I will keep you all posted on the outcome of our loan.

Volunteer Trainee Visit

About a week ago one of the new volunteer trainees came to my site to stay here and shadow me for a few days. It is a normal trip as part of the training program. There are now 54 new trainees recently arrived to the country that will be spending the next 2 months learning how to be PCVs, just as we did.

I enjoyed the company. His name was Mick. He had studied Economics in undergrad, and then got a Masters in Anthropology…a curious mix. His father is actually a current Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa. Mick was researching Peace Corps in grad school, told his dad about it, and then his dad, who was retired after working in international recruiting (human resources), started doing his own investigating. Eventually, he accepted an assignment to Botswana and has been there for more than a year now.

Mick and I went on a hike with the Boy Scouts troop, visited one of the micro entrepreneurs I help out, went to a junta meeting of the bank, and I gave him a tour of the town among other things. It was nice to have somebody to throw the frisbee and BS with for a few days. Some pics from the Scouts hike below.

Visit from Joe Biden

No, he didn’t come out to my site, but he did visit the country to meet with a bunch of regional leaders. He came at the exact same time as the trainee site visit, and so all of us receiving trainees couldn’t go see him in San Jose. The PC office gathered up some volunteers and went over to the embassy where he sat down for a few minutes with the volunteers. Some of my friends who were there said it was enjoyable and he seemed very genuine considering all the people he had to meet with. Oh well…I’ll hold out for Obama!

Project Management Workshop Postponed

At the beginning of April I was planning on putting on a project management workshop here in town, but it didn’t work out because of all the fiesta planning and Semana Santa coming up. I had to push it back to May, which is a bummer, but it will eventually happen.

Fiesta! Fiesta!

The party starts this Saturday (Saturday 18th) and then runs until the following Sunday (April 26th). Its been a lot of work in planning. Most of us on the planning committee have out fingers crossed since this is kind of an experiment. I’ll let you know how things go and try to post some pictures next blog.

This blog goes out to my Mom who had a birthday last month and I don’t remember saying Happy Birthday. Looks like I blew it. She also sent me some great Easter Candy and some plastic eggs that might save the day when we have our Boy Scouts Easter Egg Hunt here soon. Love you Mom!...and errr, sorry ‘bout that.