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.

We are Going to Party in San Cristóbal Norte

Last week my English classes finished their first level of the English course after taking final written and verbal exams. I am relieved to be through with the classes for awhile. Each verbal exam took about 15 minutes per students, which is not that bad…except if you have 37 students like I do.

My mind was numb after 3 straight days of half-conversing with these beginning English students. That experience was enough to make me push for a 3 week break as opposed to the two weeks off I had initially planned.

The good news is everyone passed. Or that is, everyone that didn’t voluntarily drop out. Out of the 45 students that started the class at the end of October, I still have 37 after almost 4 months. I am pretty pleased with that.

But things are going to get harder. We will see how many continue to stick with it. My goal is to finish at least 4 levels of the course…which should roughly take me into December of this year.

As I mentioned in the last blog, the school has a big need to raise funds for the new computer lab they should be getting. Where we left off last, I believe the community was going to organize some event to raise funds to outfit the computer lab with air conditioning, an alarm system, and furniture.

Since then we’ve had a couple more meetings of the Unión Cívica among community leaders, which have resulted in a very positive, although suprisingly different outlook.

It now looks like, with the support and leadership of the town padre, that we will be organizing a 9 day cultural celebration to take place from April 18 – April 26.(!!!) As it probably sounds…this is a big deal. From what I understand the town hasn’t thrown a big summer party for 7-8 years.

From what I can tell, several things brought this about.

First, the local district representative to the county, who has some political friends higher up in the county and national levels, was able to get the right people in the county gov behind the idea of a summer fiesta in San Cristóbal Norte. With the support of the county comes all kinds of logistics support – they coordinate extra transportation, publicity for the event, program a parade with school bands, invite important groups, bring out a stage, and coordinate security.

Second, the padre got on board with the project. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of San Cristóbal Norte as the parroquia, or founding of the church as the religious center of the surrounding towns. The padre wanted to do something to honor this milestone, so he then pitched the idea to the Unión Cívica participants. Also, it seems he had started to pick up on signs from some people in town that the time was right to organize an event of this scale.

Either way…it seems the opportune time has finally arrived for our little group of community leaders in the Unión Cívica. They have decided to use this group of 8 community organizations as the base for dividing the work and the proceeds of the event. Also, we recently reviewed a draft charter written by the leader of the development association, and it was met with approval by the group.

So after another draft or two, the group may actually sign a basic charter agreement to establish the group as a standing organization in the town. Against all of my expectations…it appears it may actually be a sustainable project after all.

And naturally…the future of the group will be tested over the next couple of months and probably determined based on the success of this party. But hey…what’s better than a trial by fire?! :)

It is a very exciting time. I am very excited at least. This excitement is shared by the other community leaders in the group, although they are a bit more reserved. No vamos a disfrutar, vamos a trabajar…they say. Or basically put…we are going to be too busy working to enjoy the party! Despite this bit of realism, I know they are all pleased.

So now its time for us to roll up our sleeves and begin working on the planning! We’ve basically got 2 months to do all the work that is normally done in about 4 months for a fiesta communal of this size. There is a lot to be done – determining the events schedule, organizing kitchen teams, scheduling soccer matches, planning the parade, obtaining gifts for the bingo, coordinating with the cerveceria to get the outdoor cantina, or bar, in place…and much, much more.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. All readers of this blog are hereby invited…provided you coordinate your own transportation.

So what happened with the school computer lab project…you might be wondering? Admittedly, they have been pushed off to the side a bit with the prospect of this new fiesta…but not forgotten. The members of the Education Board put their heads together and came up with a few fundraising ideas they plan to use in the next couple of coups…such as a beauty pageant – also called a reinado, in which each grade level has a nominated queen, and the class to raise the most money wins at the end.

The Education Board also coordinated with the micro-finance bank, my counterpart, and has taken out a line of credit to be used should they need the money to outfit the computer lab immediately in the near future.

And the Education Board will also be able to benefit from some fundraising done at the fiesta in April. They appear to be in good shape. The president, a friend of mine, is such a great guy. He has been a participant in the Unión Cívica group since the beginning. He said to me, “I didn’t really care what we project we worked…I just wanted us to work together.”

Temporary Boy Scout Leader

The Girls and Boy Scouts project is still moving along well. We are now ready to start working with the 40 or so kids we have signed up. The only problem is we have the same weakness that most groups do when they are starting out – that is, a lack of adult scout leaders. We have 3 committed scout leaders, but need 1 more to direct the 10 or so kids of the Tropa group (ages 11-14). We desperately need to get started working with these kids and get them in uniforms. The theory is that just about every kid in town wants to be a boy or girl scout, but until the town sees a couple of groups working around town in those bright blue uniforms…we won’t see a whole lot more support from the parents.

So like the Unión Cívica project, we have staked the success of the project on how we fair during the fiesta communal in April. We have determined this should be our “coming out” party, complete with community activities, participation in the parade, community works such as trash pick-up, and other things we haven’t thought of yet. We hope to drum up all kinds of support that week and find some more adult scout leaders so we can enlist more kids.

In the last meeting of the junta, the subject came up, “what do we do with the 10 or so kids of Tropa?” The scout leaders were adament that if we didn’t have enough scout leaders, then someone from the junta would have to direct the kids – and unfortunately they were right. All eyes turned to me.

…So I bit the bullet and committed to being temporary scout leader for the next 3 months of the Tropa boys.(!) This is not what I had planned. But before agreeing I extracted a couple of promises from the junta: 1) they had to do a better job of require the scout leaders attended training sessions at the regional level, and 2) they had to actively recruit new scout leaders. We did not discuss specifics, but hopefully those ideas will stick.

Anyway I start working with the boys and whipping them into shape on March 7th…I will try to get you all some pictures…as I’m sure it will be entertaining for all.

Not the only Gringo in Town

It turns out I am not the only gringo in town now…which came as a complete surprise to me. Last week I was sitting outside in the morning practicing guitar – which is coming along nicely by the way – and a Nissan Pathfinder drove up and a man who was obviously American greeted me with a shout, “Hey! Are you Blake Henderson?” (Response: Yes) “Oh I found you on the internet!”

The man had recently bought a small plot of land just outside of town and found this blog while google-ing San Cristóbal Norte. So after recovering from my surprise, I invited him inside and Doña Albertina treated him to a cup of coffee. He is a pastor in San José of a non-denominational English language church (part time) and then has other projects on the side. He was looking to get the know the town a little better and get a little bit involved in the community, so I told him I would keep him informed the best I could. I enjoyed the conversation and enjoyed talking about different aspects of the town from my experience.

So…it is with great reluctance that I inform you that I no longer hold the dubious honor of “the only gringo in San Cristóbal Norte.”

1 Year Mark in Country

Amazingly tomorrow (2/25) marks 1 year of being here in country…but hey who’s counting?! Kidding…but I am amazed at how fast time is moving. I’ve been here in town for about a month straight and so it seems like a good time to get out and do some hiking to celebrate hitting the 1 year mark.

This weekend I’m headed north to do some hiking in a small mountain range of extinct volcanos (and one active one!) in the interior of Guanacaste. There is a volunteer there in the area, so we plan to hike from his town to volcanos Miravalles and Tenorio there in the area. We have a good group of about 5 guys. I am really looking forward to the short break.

I can say one thing about Peace Corps Costa Rica…the time off the job is as interesting as the time on the job.

Headed Back in July…Si Dios Quiere (translation: If God wants. Common Tico-ism)

If god wants I will be back in the States for the 4th of July and couple weeks after…with a short swing up to DC planned for sometime during the trip. I sure hope God is in favor of this trip…because I am sure looking forward to seeing you guys back home. Will keek you posted on the details.

This blog goes out to the people who send random emails and ping me for G-chats from time to time checking in – Candy, Mema, Bernstein, Shelley, KristIn, Jim, Paul, Matt, Kelly – and others…you know who you are. As always…thanks for thinking of me.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Where do I start? So much has happened in the last two months. My family visited, Matt (that’s my brother) stayed here in my site for a week, then Christmas, New Year’s, and back to work. I guess I’ll work in that order.

Mom, Dad, and Matt flew into San José on Nov 24th for their two week stay, or make that 3 weeks for Matt. They then came back to my site for two days for some intense cultural exchange. They got to know Doña Albertina and the whole family. They helped me teach an English class, in which one of the highlights was my brother explaining in Spanish that he is a fisícatera-puta...instead of a fisícaterapeuta. Small difference, I know, but it can mean a lot. (For all those folks that aren’t that familiar with Spanish, you’ll have to look up that ending for yourselves)

Other highlights were my Mom trading knitting tips with the ladies of the family. She also brought down some yarns and wooden needles as gifts. She was a big hit. Dad got to learn a little bit about raising cows with one of my host brothers. And Mom cooked them one of her breakfast dishes our last morning here. Also, they were able to come to a meeting of the junta directiva of the bank to learn a little bit about how micro-finance works. We also took a walking tour around the town. It was an action packed two days. Follow the link to see some pictures of our time in San Cristóbal Norte: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=hrxv88s.92xblhww&x=0&h=1&y=-1z9qjo&localeid=en_US

From San Cristóbal Norte, we headed to the beach. After picking up a fellow Peace Corp-er on the highway south, we made our way to the Central Pacific coastline. A bunch of volunteers had rented a big house by the beach in a little town called Matapalo to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The original plan was to have about 20 people or so, but due to a flood on the Atlantic side that ruined some of the more veteran groups’ plans, they tagged along with us and the result was about 35 volunteers in one house! The house was dubiously named the “Jungle House”. My parents graciously dropped Matt, Tamara (other volunteer friend), and me off at the beach house and they proceeded on to a little Bed and Breakfast an hour north in Manuel Antonio.

Over the next two days there was considerable debauchery. Don’t get me wrong, this was Peace Corps debauchery, which means it is not some type of evil wickedry were engaged in, but a silly, drunken, half-naked, laugh-until-you-fall-down debauchery. And of course…there were the obligatory late-night swimming expeditions. Let’s just say our presence was felt in the town, and I don’t think they’ll be a group like us there for quite some time.

Another highlight of the Matapalo house was my brother waking up in a daze on the first morning. We were situated in a 3rd floor loft up in the trees. The first thing Matt saw as he opened his eyes was a large Howler monkey staring right back at him – from inside the room!

The monkey had climbed in threw the open window. As Matt woke up, the monkey made its way back outside onto the 2nd floor roof, which was level with our room, and proceeded to jump up and down and side to side for about 15 minutes, successfully waking up most of the 2nd floor.

And so it was in that way we experienced the true “monkey hour”.

It was a great Thanksgiving. Complete unlike any Thanksgiving I’ve ever had, but great all the same. And we actually managed to have turkey. One very noble volunteer bit the bullet and fronted the money to buy two massive turkeys. They had to buy the turkeys in San José, so I’m still not sure how they got them to the house, but it must have been by backpack. Either way, it makes to laugh to picture two Peace Corps volunteers on a public bus with a pack bulging with a large, raw turkeys. It was tasty turkey.

Matt and I had enough after two days at the Jungle House. Mom and Dad came down for the afternoon to hang out on the beach and meet some of the other volunteers, and then we got in the car to head back to the Bed and Breakfast in Manuel Antonio with them.

The next week and a half was a blur of excellently prepared meals, fine wines, luxury accomodations, good books, American TV, and nature tours of the likes which have not been seen since…well…our last family vacation.

Mom and Dad know how to relax and live the high life, I’ll give them that. (No, the beer High Life, was nowhere to be found in this scene.)

Naturally Matt, being a minimalistic climber, and me being the humble Peace Corps volunteer looked on this atmosphere of decadence with complete disdain accompanied by reluctant acceptance.

¡Mentiras! Lies.

It was awesome!

We spent a couple of relaxing days by the beach in Manuel Antonio, then launched our assault on the interior of the country. We passed a couple of nights at a little inn situated alongside a cloud forest in the mountains around San Ramon. Then we made our way to La Fortuna to spend a few days alongside the active Arenal Volcano.

I’m serious! We were only about 4 or 5 kilometers from the lava-oozing crater of an active volcano. We’re talking about a FIRE BREATHING mountain here, folks!!!

We never even saw the damn volcano. A cold front moved in from Nicaragua the day before we arrived bringing clouds and rain that canvassed the area for 4 straight days. We stayed there for four nights and got one tiny, miraculous glimpse of the glowing top of the volcano the night before we left…which was actually pretty cool.

Another fun activity that we did around La Fortuna was the SkyTrek zip line tour. There are a lot of zip line tours in the La Fortuna, but this company was supposedly the best, and I believe it. They take you up the side of a mountain in an enclosed ski lift type device, then to get back down you have to do about 7 or 8 zip lines back and forth across a valley. The highest single zip line was about 600 meters off the rocky ground below, and the longest was over a half mile stretch.

We were flying through the forest! We were probably going about 30 miles an hour through the misty trees and valley. The only drawback was that all that friction from the zip line device means the metal cable has to be well-greased. Combine that with the downpour that was falling as we did the tour, and we all looked like a coal miners after about two stretches of zip line. We were covered in oil! We looked pretty funny. The following link has some pictures of us during the tour: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=hrxv88s.4nffear4&x=0&h=1&y=ctpj6i&localeid=en_US

Honorable mention goes to Mom for her adventurous spirit and cool headedness throughout the tour. She was dubbed “Extreme Mom” by our fellow tour goers.

From La Fortuna we went to a small inn (Mom likes inns) not too far from the airport and San Jose to recharge after the extremely strenuous La Fortuna adventures (not). Okay, we didn’t really need to do that much more relaxing, but it was enjoyable. After a tough goodbye, Mom and Dad left on December 8th. Matt and I were left to make our way back to San Cristóbal Norte.

First, however, Matt and I had to make one stop before heading back to my site. We stopped at a guitar store in San José and he helped me pick out a decent starter guitar and some other necessary odds and ends. I had been wanting to pick up a new hobby…something other than reading, which I love, but was looking for something different. I was very excited we were able to find a decent guitar, since there weren’t many options, and was also pleasantly surprised when Matt whipped out his credit card to pay for everything. ¡Qué hermano más pura vida!

Back in San Cristóbal Norte I resumed my English classes and dove back into other projects. Matt practiced his Spanish with my family, read books, and went to classes and meetings with me. A couple of mornings we went out and picked coffee on the micro-finance bank’s president. He is a real humble guy, and he doesn’t have any fieldhands, so we thought we could help him out. Fortunately, the weather was great. We both really enjoyed zoning out picking some coffee in the lush green hills with the warm sun above us.

Matt showed me a few basic cords and then a few songs. I’m still picking away at them, and really enjoying practicing. Hopefully it will stick.

Matt has really committed himself to improve his Spanish, and as I was helping him out with Spanish and he was helping me with the guitar, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between our goals.

I was watching Matt play in front of the family on the porch – they were all pretty captivated – and it struck me that he has been playing guitar for about 10 years now. During that time, he has become a really talented guitarist, but it was also humbling to think how many hours and days he had spent practicing and honing his talent.

On the other hand, my Spanish has come a long way since I first started seriously studying Spanish my freshman year in college. That is…about 7 years ago! And after countless hours of study in college, 4 months in Spain, and almost a year in Costa Rica, I still wouldn’t say I’ve come anywhere near mastering the language.

I really enjoyed the week with Matt in my site, trading tips on Spanish for some guitar lessons. Matt has really learned a lot of Spanish in a short time, and I hope he sticks with it. Same goes for me with the guitar. Knowing us, I’d give us decent chances of continuing on…which is pretty good considering we both dream big.

Matt flew out on December 14th. It was tough to see him go, both for the company in my site, and for the fact that his leaving meant vacation was over and I really had to go back to work.

But first of course, there was Christmas and New Year’s. I stuck around San Cristóbal Norte and hung out with the family. I was tired of traveling. Also, I wanted to take advantage of the time to experience the holidays from a Tico point of view, as I’m not sure if I’ll be here for the holidays next year.

We killed a pig, made tamales, exchanged gifts, ate entirely too much, drank cheap whiskey, and told jokes...in that order. Basically, it was just like Christmas back home… except for the butchered pig and the tamales. Although I’ve begun to think we should make killing a pig a holiday tradition back in the U.S. Mom..Dad…what do you think?...any neighborhood covenants against the very public butchering of a pig?

There was one gringo-meets-Ticos cultural exchange worth telling here. I’ve imported the “Dirty Christmas” game to my Tico family. It’s a holiday tradition in my family so I thought Doña Albertina’s family might get a kick out of it here. You know the game – where everyone draws numbers and everyone has a choice to either pick a wrapped gift or “steal” an already wrapped gift from someone who already had their turn.

We had 24 people bring a gift on Christmas Day to play the so-called “Navidad Sucia”, as the spanish version has been dubbed. The game took roughly an hour and a half (a Dirty Christmas record, in my experience), and there was rampant stealing. The most contested gifts were 2 cans of Imperial Beer, some lottery tickets, a box of chocolates, and a pillow.
the tamale assemby line

They loved it! Luckily, even after so much robbing of gifts and some people literally physically resisting their gift being stolen, no feelings were hurt and everyone had a great time. They immediately insisted that we must play the same game for their New Year’s Party. I informed them this was highly unorthodox and I didn’t know if the “Dirty Christmas” gods would allow such a sacrilege…but I would not be heard. Thus, Año Nuevo Sucio was born.

The last I heard one of the town soccer teams had played Navidad Sucia for their yearly holiday party, spreading the game even further into the community. And to think…they used to just draw names out a bag and give a gift to that person as a Christmas gift exchange. Ha! Welcome to Christmas gift exchange gringo-style.

One of the main goals of Peace Corps at a worldwide level is to promote cultural exchange. Check.

Now, following Christmas and New Year’s, things are becoming a little more routine. I’ve started back English classes, work with the Boy Scouts, and some of the micro-entrepreneurs here in town.

The latest excitement is that a Foundation here in-country that promotes IT in communities has approved for us to be provided a fully equipped computer lab. The equipment will be located in the school, but available for the use of the whole community. In addition, the Foundation can provide maintenance, as well as training of those in the town who would wish to teach computer classes to others here in the community. It is an incredible opportunity!

The only challenge is that the town must furnish the proper electrical wiring, air conditioning, alarm system, and furniture to the room before the equipment can be installed. If the room is not ready by the time they wish to install the equipment, probably within 3-4 months, then Foundation will move on to another school.

Our Education Board president informed us of this opportunity last week in the meeting of the Unión Cívica, and since then we are starting to get organized for a fundraising drive. Everyone agrees that this is too good to pass up. We have now tentatively planned an activity for the end of February. This could be a great opportunity for the town to come together for a common cause. I’ll will include an update on this project in future blogs.

In other news, we now have a cat…or a kitten, I should say. Here is a pic of it nawing on my shoelaces. It’s very cute…for now.

I hope those reading this enjoyed the holidays. Thanks for the random emails and gmail chats. It is great to keep up, and I appreciate all the encouragement. The tentantive plan right now is to come back and visit the U.S. in July for a couple of weeks…so mark your calendars.

Will stay in touch. ¡Pura vida!

This blog is dedicated to my buddy Kelly Rejent who just graduated with a degree in Accounting from Ole Miss. Kelly, or Stigs, as we call him sometimes, has been plugging away at this degree for a while, and finally got it done. For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you man. Congratulations!

p.s. A couple hours before posting this we actually had a small earthquake in Costa Rica. It registered about a 6.2 and registered in the Northern Zone around Volcano Poas, or so I´m told. It was the first one I had felt. (We´ve had two others in the last couple of months, but happened at night, and I slept through them like a baby)

It was weird. I was in my room and watched my dresser slowly bump across my room. Anyway, all is well! Hopefully these tremors aren´t a foreshadowing of something stronger to come.

Winter Ramblings+2008 Presidential Election+All Volunteer Conference+...

We are now in the thick of the Costa Rican winter, or invierno, which basically means the days are filling with rain, strong North winds, the constant threat of berrancos…or mudslides. At least that is the Tico side of the story.

I can tell you from my experience that is not really completely accurate. Take the last 4 days for example. We haven’t had a drop of rain and almost no wind. Great weather. Everyone once in a while we have spells like this during the so called “winter months” and you will hear people saying things like puro verano hoy, or its summer today.

I’m very confused with the seasons at this point. We have had some cold spells, but it hasn’t been nearly as noticeable as I was told to expect by the Ticos. I guess it is all relative. December is almost here, supposedly bringing the fiercest North winds. They keep saying things like “you haven’t seen anything yet…wait for December.” Well we shall see soon enough.

My rant on the weather is almost finished. To be fair, the additional rain does soften up the ground quite a bit, leaving pieces of terrain that seemed to be firm one day, sliding down the hillside the next. Just a few weeks ago we had a perfectly good piece of highway wash away in a matter of days. First it showed a few cracks, then dropped about 5 inches a couple days later, and then after a week se fue!...it went. The picture should be above at the start of the blog if the file uploaded correctly.

So what is new?

Mom, Dad, and Matt will be here in 1 week!!! That is the biggest thing going on right about now. They are flying in on Monday, November 24. They will stay here with me in my town for 2 nights, then we will head to Playa Manuel Antonio for about 4 days to celebrate Thanksgiving. About 20 volunteers, mostly from my program, are meeting up there and renting a huge house to enjoy a few days of R&R. I can’t wait! It should be a complete despiche…use your imagination to translate that.

After Manuel Antonio, we will spend about a week exploring a couple of different cloud forest reserves, as well as the Arenal Volcano in the interior of the country. It should be relaxing and a lot of fun.

My parents will leave to go back to the States on Monday, December 8. Fortunately my brother will then be sticking around for another week or so with me in my town. Matt has been studying Spanish, so I think he is interested in the language practice and also experiencing daily Tico life. He takes off on December 15th.

Since the fam is coming down for Thanksgiving, I will not be returning to the U.S. for Christmas. I don’t have any plans to come back at the moment, but am thinking maybe July 2009 will be the right time for me to come back and visit. Will keep you posted.

As for work…business is good.

I am the proud new teacher of 45 English language students in my community! Actually, about 20% of them are coming from surrounding towns to take advantage of the classes. Since my last blog update, I’ve had class sign-ups, acquired the books and teaching materials, and started classes. I’ve been teaching now for about 3 weeks. Managing 45 students probably sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but fortunately Peace Corps has an agreement with a respected English speaking program so that we can use their materials and bring high-quality English teaching to rural communities. Having the program saves me a lot of time and I probably only spend about 15 hours a week on English classes, which includes the 8 hours of in-class time each week.

A picture of one of my English classes. We use the town elementary school.

The San Cristóbal Norte Boys and Girl Scouts Troop (here the Guías y Scouts de Costa Rica) is well on its way to formation! We went through some rocky times at first trying to drum up support for this program, but seemed to have turned a corner. We now have a Committee of 6 parents in place, 4 scout leaders on-board , and more than 30 kids signed up. At the end of October the Committee members, scout leaders, and myself attended the Introductory Training, which helped solidify and motive our team. I ended up as Vocal, a minor role which I was happy to take on. It has been an unexpectedly fun project!

The Boys and Scouts committee before we started the introductory training course.

In other projects I am almost finished with my Community Analysis Tool report, or CAT. I hope to be done with that this week and push it out the door. I continue to work with community leaders on an organization to bring more union to the town, which has a history of groups working independently. The result as been the formation of the Civic Union San Cristóbal Norte or Unión Cívica. We have been meeting monthly for several months now. The group still has a lot of internal strengthening left to be a sustainable project, but we seem to be on the right track.

I’m almost finished with the Junior Achievement class mentioned in the last blog. With the completion of the Junior Achievement class and my CAT I hope to have a lighter schedule for a little while once I get back from vacation with the family…that is the plan anyway.

Other important events.

The 2008 Presidential Election!

Obama won. How crazy is that?! I was able to watch the election night coverage with a large group of Peace Corps volunteers at a bar in San Jose before we started our All-Volunteer Conference (AVC).

I am no Obama nut, but it was an exciting night. As you can imagine, the Peace Corps crowd is about as far left on the American political spectrum as the U.S. military is to the right. That only made things more interesting. Even still, I found McCain’s speech, as well as Obama’s speech that followed to be very moving. With the bar dead quiet in rapt attention, it was a special moment.

All-Volunteer Conference.

We had our All-Volunteer Conference, a once a year event, from November 5-8. It was great to finally see all the 95 or so volunteers together. For some reason to me it felt like the last step in truly becoming a Peace Corps volunteer.

Sometimes the money is not in the budget for an annual AVC, and that was nearly the case this year, but our inventive Volunteer Advisory Committee was able to put together something on the cheap. By cheap, I mean to say we camped out for 3 days in the mountains north of San José. To be fair, it was a nice pre-prepared camp with tents, a chow house, meeting room, wi-fi internet, and pre-constructed tents on platforms. (Okay, so we didn’t exactly rough it.)

The meeting was basically 3 days of teambuilding, best practices exchange, program meetings, and social events. There was a Halloween party and costume contest…in which myself and two other fellow volunteers, Matthew McMillan and Clinton Glase, cleaned house! At the last minute, Matthew came up with the idea of going as Bernie from Weekend at Bernie’s. We slapped sun glasses on Matt, then Clinton and I spent the rest of the night dragging Matt’s limp body around the costume/dance party. Due to Matt’s dedication as a corpse, not moving for nearly 3 hours that night, we won Most Creative and Best Group costume…2 out of the 3 events. Sadly, I have no pictures for you.

AVC also featured a talent show the final night of the meeting. Having no "talent-show” worthy skills that I could think of, I decided to just sit back and watch. A number of volunteers performed on the guitar, sang, did stand-up comedy, played the drums, acted out comedy skits, or demonstrated other abilities. Suffice it to say that I have never been in the company of such a gifted group of people. It was also a very memorable night and made me proud to be a PCV.

That is about all the major updates I have for you right now…or want to continue typing, that is. It is 2pm at the time of this writing. Time for a cafecito! If you read this and I have a few minutes, drop me a line and let me know what is going on back home…I always love to hear updates. I will come back with a full report on the family visit. Best-

I want to dedicate this blog entry to my friend Brian Gandy who recently got engaged. He is living in Augusta, GA managing an organic produce farm. Gandy (the old hippy…as he describes himself) seems to be in a good place right now and I am very happy for him. Best of luck to him and his fiancé.

I just thought you all might get a kick out of this. There is a certain skill to milking a cow, and I haven´t figured it out yet.

A day in the life

Monday, September 22

5:30AM Wake up. Hit the snooze on my alarm (now my Ironman running watch).

6:00 Wake up again. Think about the hill. Reflect on the soreness in my legs. Decide running this morning is not such a good idea. Go back to sleep…without setting the alarm again.

7:00 Wake up once more…groggier than usual. I did not sleep as well as usual.

7:15 Take a shower. (cold)

7:30 Walk into the kitchen. Doña Albertina greets me with se lo pegó la covija! or in English “so the covers stuck to you this morning”. With a grunt I acknowledge this is the case.

7:45 Eat gallo pinto with an egg, tortillas, and coffee. It is a hearty meal. I wash the dishes afterwards as a good will gesture to Doña Albertina. Plus it feels good to be doing something around the house…just like the old days (i.e. pre-Peace Corps). She basically spoils me and does just about everything for me – wash my clothes, dusts my room, cooks all the food.

8:30 After brushing my teeth and cleaning up a bit, I realize the school is expecting me at 11:40AM to teach a Junior Achievement (JA) class to the 6th graders. It will be the first class and I need to review the lesson plan.

8:45 Begin reviewing the lesson plan. Decide to write my own secondary plan so I will know the material better. I review the JA suggested class plan and opt to make a few changes and additions.

10:45 Complete the lesson plan and feel about 80% comfortable with it. After gaining modest experience with teaching I have come to realize this is about as good as it gets.

11:00 Announce to Doña Albertina that I will now begin my walk to the town. She bids me good luck with a Que Dios lo acompañe. I begin the trek, 1.2 kilometers of steep hill. The sun is bearing down on me. I begin to sweat about a quarter of the way up, so begin to adjust my backpack to different sides so I don’t sweat too much, but it doesn’t work. I hate sweating when I am perfectly clean and going to work! I shout Pura vida! or Adios! to the mechanics, storekeepers, and other people living along the route that I’ve come to know over the last few months.

11:30 Arrive at the school, talk to the 6th grade teacher, and then enter the class to get organized a bit before the students get there. I am still soaked in sweat at this time.

11:45 Class begins. The kids are a little rowdy. I point out to them this is the first time I have been in there class, and that I don’t know what the rules of the class are…so would they please point them out, I ask. The kids are able to think of a couple of things, like don’t get out of your seat…and other things. The teacher, Marco, points out that the class does have rules, but the kids don’t pay any attention to them. This is not a good sign.
I inform them that I would like to institute a new rule. I have a squishy ball in my hand that I show to them. The rule is that whoever has the ball can talk and has the full attention of the class. If someone has a question, they have to raise their hand and I will then pass them the ball so we can all give the person our attention as they talk. We practice. This proves to work moderately well throughout the class.
The course is called Economía para el Éxito, or Economy for Success…or something along those lines. During the course, which consists of 6 classes of 1 hour each, the students play games and do activities to recognize what their interests our, learn the jobs / earning potentials of people with different levels of education, and practice managing a personal budget. It seems to be a good course for the students because they will soon be heading to the colegio, or high school.
The first class went pretty well and the students seem to enjoy. Marco and I make an arrangement so that I will come back each Monday for the next 5 weeks. I leave my umbrella in the classroom by accident.

1:15PM I make my way back down the hill (minus the umbrella).

1:35 Arrive back at the house. Doña Albertina heats up my lunch – rice, beans, chayote (similar to potato), plantains, and a little meat patty. I add hot sauce. We chat with the brother of Doña Albertina’s deceased husband, Naun (pronounced na-oohn), who just arrived from San Isidro farther to the south. He brings a bunch of ears of corn. This is a good sign, since it means fresh tortillas for the next couple of weeks (Corn is the third most common crop here, but won’t be harvested until the next month).

2:15 It begins to rain. I sit on the porch and watch the rain for awhile. I realize I have forgotten my umbrella at the school and curse inwardly at myself. The cover of the porch is tin. There is no sweeter sound then a light rain falling on a tin roof, and I have to fight to keep from falling asleep. I read a bit.

3:15 Olman, one of Doña Albertina’s sons, comes over to the house and we begin the walk up the hill again. Olman is a member of the junta directiva of the bank, and we are headed to the weekly meeting.

4:00 The meeting starts, or is supposed to start, but we are missing a couple of members of the group.

4:20 The meeting really starts.

6:20 After listening for a couple hours to the business of the bank – correspondence, applications for credit, other agenda items – I begin to doubt my usefulness at these meetings. But at the same time I realize the local micro-finance bank has been a good counterpart and it is good to stay in close contact with them. I inform them I will be having an informational meeting for more English classes next week, and also that I need to use the bank office for a meeting of the junta of the Boy Scouts group we are setting up. The are supportive and give me all the help I need.

7:30 After having hot tea and homemade bread, we end the meeting. I begin to head down the hill with Olman. It begins to rain. I curse myself again and get wet.

8:00 Arrive at the house, change clothes, and eat dinner. Doña Albertina is already in bed so I heat the food up.

8:30 I got to my room and start to read. This is my nightly ritual. Right now I am reading, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, sent by my Mom’s friend as a gift. He is a Columbian writer and won the Nobel Prize for literature back in 1982. At first I wished I had a copy in Spanish, but then I began reading and realized I didn’t know some of the words in English…so better to just stick to my native language. The book is about a mythical town that seems to be set somewhere in the countryside of Columbia. The story rambles and twists and turns every which way though 100 years of the towns life…it is a little convoluted and confusing, but overall pretty good.

10:00 End of the day. I turn of the light and go to sleep…hoping that I will have the will power to make it out of bed at my normal hour tomorrow. (p.s. I do)

This one goes out to Jim and Barbara Sorber, friends from the VA who are retiring. Jim and Barb - Congrats! I’m really happy for you. You will now be free to roam around the world exploring all kinds of crazy animal habitats. Come visit Costa Rica… or better yet, just join Peace Corps! :)

The 3 month mark comes...and goes

Hello my friends. I realize the blog has been quiet for the last couple weeks, however a lot has happened.

The third weekend in August about 8 of us volunteers from the Central Valley region got together and did a day trip on the Pacuare River, a river very famous for its beauty. It was a really exciting day, with a lot of class 3 and 4 rapids. Unfortunately, no pics available right now as I´m still trying to get copies.

The last weekend in August all the volunteers in my program (Community Economic Development...about 15 of us) got together for our first In-Service-Training, or IST. The training last 4 full days and after being out in the sticks for 3 months, it was a real treat!

Peace Corps put us up at a very decent little hotel just outside of downtown San José. Each of the rooms had a little kitchenette, beds with thick, soft mattresses, and last but not least...all the hot water we could ask for.

I honestly have not laughed so much in a 5 day period. It was great to get together with other volunteers to catch up and share experiences from the last few months. Thankfully, everyone seemed to be in good shape mentally and physically.

The training was also much more stimulating from a content standpoint, as we focused more on trainings needed to implement projects in our communities - for example rural tourism, Junior Achievement classes, English teaching, working with women´s groups, establishing micro-finance banks, small business coaching - instead of the more general language, culture, safety, and security training that made up about 85% of our Pre-service training.

Following the 5 nights in San José, a few of us jumped off for a couple of nights to the small seaside town of Uvita, on the Southern-Central Pacific Coast. It was great to have a little bit of free time away from the long day sessions of the IST. We were also able to contact a local volunteer who was able to plug us into a whale watching tour for very cheap. So...we went one more and luckily were able to see a few humpback whales! ...something I had never seen before.

At this point you are thinking....really Blake...whitewater rafting, hotels in San José, whale-watching...what exactly are you doing down there? :)

You all will just have to trust me that the last 3 months in my site has been an extremely productive time of community integration. One in which I have started to form great relationships with numerous community leaders, gained the trust and begun working with small business owners, completed an informal English course with 30 students, begun the formation of a local Guías y Scouts troop (the Costa Rican form of the Boy Scouts), made great strides in my Spanish-speaking abilities, and finished a draft of the longest paper I´ve ever written in my life (the Community Analysis Tool)...and all en español.

In short...I´m thrilled with the strides that have been made during the last 3 months! Thanks to all of you out there who have been following along and pitched in encouragement with comments on the blog / emails / g-chats. It means a lot.

Also, thanks to a friend of my Mom´s, Candy, for sending down a great care package. Both my fellow volunteers and my host family appreciated it. Not-so-suble-message: you too can be given a shout out...send goodies! Just kidding...kind of.

What now? Mostly it is back to work for me. And thankfully now after setting a solid base for myself in my community over the past few months...I can start to partner with people to undertake some more long-term projects. More on that to come.

I´d like to leave you all with something written by a past Costa Rica PCV. This was read to us at the close of IST as inspiration...and for me it really struck home. What a blessing it is to be an American and a PCV. Hope you enjoy.
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Words of Wisdom from the veteran volunteer.

One thing that I have come to realize after being involved in the Peace Corps Costa Rica for nearly three years now is the incredible privilege and opportunity it is to be able to simply be a Peace Corps Volunteer. I know very well that being a volunteer is not easy, an experience filled with ups and downs, hardships and challenges but at the end of the day, we as volunteers should feel fortunate to have this opportunity.

Very few countries in this world have the vision and most importantly, the luxury, of being able to financially and theoretically support a program such as Peace Corps that sends professionals oversees for two years and three months to learn a new language, learn from a new culture, obtain valuable new skills and work with communities to better the lives of those around you. How many times have I been asked by Ticos, “Is there a Peace Corps for Costa Ricans to do what you are doing here, in your country?” The unfortunate answer is no. The only way a Tico would be able to go to the states to learn English, learn from another culture and do development work with Americans is to do it all on their own; win the Visa lottery, come up with enough money to support his or herself and find an organization that would be willing to take and train someone who hardly speaks the language. O sea, not likely. We, as volunteers, don’t make any money but we don’t spend a dime either, Peace Corps foots the bill for us to live this life-changing experience, and what a luxury that is. We are fortunate enough to come from a country where we can afford to take a two-year hiatus from making money, confident that we will go back to our country and be able to find jobs and make enough money to buy a car, a house and start our families. Citizens in so many parts of the world aren’t afforded such a luxury struggling to barely make ends meet. The average citizen in the third world and developing countries isn’t thinking about leaving their country when they struggle to establish themselves in economically unstable, sometimes war-torn places.

It is important that we, as volunteers, never forget the gift that we have been given. As recently as our grandparents’ generation, Americans were fighting wars without the luxury of joining a Peacekeeping mission such is ours. Even our parents generation didn’t have it so easy, many of them being drafted into war. And there is no guarantee that our children or grandchildren will have such an opportunity. I hope it never happens but some day, American legislators – forced by budget constraints or God forbid, security issues -- might decide we no longer have the resources to spend ___ a year to send ___ Americans oversees to help others.

I would give this speech to volunteers in any country but I think it rings even more true here in Costa Rica, a country rich with human warmth, natural beauty and an intrinsic tropical energy that warms and brings a smile to the face of even the most hardened, capitalistic Gringo. It is hard to not end up feeling a little bit Tico by the time you’re done here; hard to not crave Gallo Pinto in the mornings, hard to not cheer for La Sele, get addicted to the visits to the beaches, to the cafecitos, to not feel a brotherhood with the warm and hearty Ticos. In the end – despite all the worlds problems – it all is Pura Vida!

I encourage you all to view your experience for what it is: a privilege, an opportunity, a gift. You will have lonely days, feel beaten down and maybe even wonder why you chose this program but I urge you all, instead of feeling sorry for yourself or like a martyr, to take advantage this gift you’ve been given and remember how lucky you truly are. Good luck to you all!
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The blog entry goes out to my grandfather, who very recently had surgery to replace a hip. Gran - I´m thinking about you, buddy. I know you only have one speed normally, and that is 100% all out, but try to take it easy and get healthy. Wishing you the best. -Blake

The pilgrimage and the 15th birthday party

It has been an eventful last couple of weeks.

On Friday, August 1st we set out from the house for our pilgrimage, or romeria, to Cartago. The romería is done once a year by catholics from all across the country to honor the patron saint of Costa Rica, La Virgen de Los Angeles. The trip is done on foot, and the pilgrims walk from the farthest corners of the country. The few hearty souls that begin the walk from close to the border with Panamá set out nearly a month before. Our stroll…excuse me…pilgrimage…took about 6 hours.

The group was made up of some members of my host family, Clarisa – another volunteer from a town close-by (side note: the link to her blog is on the right side of this page), and myself. We had to climb for about an hour up the hill to the Interamerican Highway, however, we finally made it and started long, slow meandering walk down the mountain to Cartago, located in la meseta central, or central plateau.

Along the way we met up with Tamara, another volunteer located in San Pablo, a town close by. Tamara was helping out at the Red Cross tents stationed along the highway. She has gotten to be good friends with the Red Cross folks after organizing some emergency planning public meetings following a violent tropical storm that passed through the region a couple of months ago and displaced people in her town.

It was good to see Tamara…who I hadn’t seen since training ended about 2 ½ months ago. Despite the fact that Clarisa and Tamara only live about 2 or 3 mountains over in the same general area, there is no public transport between our towns and so sometimes it feels like they might as well live on the other side of the country.

From the Red Cross tents we had about 12 km left. We slowly made our way into town, although admittedly stopped for a short beer break along with some of the more fiestero pilgrims.

Gracias a Dios as the Ticos would say, it did not rain on us that day, which is really a miracle considering we are well into the rainy season. Once in Cartago we hung out by the cathedral, which is the big destination for all the pilgrims. It was pretty chill around there, so we bought some food before heading back to our respective towns.

Overall the pilgrimage was a great experience, and it was great to finally catch up with Clarisa and Tamara.

The other big event that has happened since my last blog entry was the 15th birthday party of my sister from my training host family. 15th birthday parties for girls are a huge deal in Latin American…so I’ve recently learned.

This would have just been any other interesting cultural experience for me, however this time I participated as the acompañante, or date.

The weekend after the romería, I arrived back in Tarbaca the Saturday afternoon before the big party so I could help the family set up. Over the next few hours and into the night we completed a looting of desks from the local school, and managed to blow up a couple hundred pink balloons, a process that kept us up working until around midnight.

Skip to the good part!…so the next day I find myself with the birthday girl, Paola, on the other side of a big wall separating us from the rest of the party-goers. It’s finally here!...Paola’s big social debut…she is visibly nervous.We are given the sign to start our procession.

We walk out into the sunlight surrounded by about 150 guests and 15 couples especially designated to serve as accompañates to the birthday girl and her date. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Terri, or Teresita, my old host mom wipe away a tear as we move into the room. We make a lap around the big party area, all the while everyone is continuing to clap.

Finally, we make it back to the group of 15 couples. The music starts. We are the first to dance. The dance is the balz…a very slow rhythm. As we dance we have to make it around to each of the 15 couples and once we approach them Paola leans over and blows out the candle held my each of the female dates, which starts each pair dancing.

How do I play this?...was what I was thinking through the whole process. Do I smile real big as we walk around the room…or do I go with the somber, no smile look. I decided to go no-smiles…as the record (i.e. photos) will show. After all…it’s her day. Nobody came to see me strutting around smiling like an idiot. I caught some grief from my friend Marcus for the serious look…but still think it was the way to go.

After the dance….the 15 couples all gathered around the central table. A juice drink was poured in all the glasses, and we all had a toast. Then, we sat down and all stared at each other…actually… maybe that was just me doing the staring. I tried to start some conversation but nobody seemed to interested into talking to the big gringo serving as acompañante to their cousin.

The whole ceremony was pretty awkward…and funny. Hey!..that pretty much describes my whole Peace Corps experience up to the point.

The rest of the night was spent trying to procure food (unsuccesfully) from the overworked kitchen area and dancing regaton with a group of 15 year olds. Overall it was a great time…and I got to see my good friends Marcus and Kayla from training.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Next up is a regional volunteer meeting that has somehow devolved (or evolved…more appropriately) into a whitewater rafting trip. A week later we have IST, or In Service Training, a 5 day event in San Jose with 15 other volunteers from my program. After 3 months in the sticks…it is bound to be interesting. Will let you know how it goes.

This blog goes out to my grandparents – Mema, Gran, and Papa – all back in the great state of Kentucky, and whom I miss very much but haven’t been able to talk to in recent months. I miss you guys and am thinking about you a lot. Watch out!...I have a Skype account now..so expect a call soon.