"Expect the Unexpected"

I decided to go ahead and write now because the next 2 weeks are going to be pretty busy w/ projects and study.  Also, we'll be finding out in 2 weeks (Sept. 5) where our 2 yr. placement site will be, and that event takes place in San Jose, where we'll celebrate with the current PC volunteers (PCVs)!  It's something there's much excitement and speculation about.  We have our 2nd interview by our project coordinators this Monday, to help them make final decisions about our placements.  They determine which site to place us at based on our preferences for climate as well as the kind of youth development work we might feel the most comfortable doing, and how those interests mesh with the Project Partner's interests and what the community has requested.  The Project Partner is the Costa Rican who we might be working with or use as a resource, at least initially.

My motto from my time in Guatemala: "Expect the Unexpected" continues to work for me!  Every day something different happens, no matter how small, and it's all part of the fun.  The other day we were walking down the main street of our town and saw these 2 horses tied up outside the bar!  This isn't exactly the wild west, but there is a lot of "campo" (country) around here, where people enjoy their caballos!

We take our language classes in a community building called the Salon Comunal, where the "seniors",  referred to as "tercera edad"  (the 3rd age/stage) also meet on Wednesdays.  They have frequently invited us for refreshments and conversation; its part of how we integrate into the community and practice our language at the same time.  Now we know a few more people in the community, and it's wonderful to hear their stories of happiness as well as sorrow.  Rocky cried as he told us about the death of his wife 1 1/2 yrs. ago; he's still figuring out how to go on without her.  Our life stories are the same everywhere.  One woman in the group who we enjoy talking to is very proud of her English.  After offering her a drink, she told me "muchas thankyou"!

Our host family's dog had her pups 3 wks. ago, and it's been fun watching them grow.  The momma, Juli, would really prefer to be her adolescent self and go romping around the yard instead of staying in the space to feed her pups.  We have to force her back into the room with her pups; sounds like she is developmentally appropriate!  Luckily the pups are growing very well.  Francis and I take Juli for a walk every day; it's a good excuse for all of us to get out for some exercise.

week one; the papa is a min pin

week 3 1/2

We arrived in the small town of a current PCV, outside of San Jose, for "Tech Week" this past Monday, where we spent 5 days in training and recreation.  What I mean by "training" is, each of us had a turn to teach a class in one of the nearby schools; this was all pre-arranged by Laura, the PCV.  Lauren(she's the one in the picture above with the colorful bag) and I taught a class on communication to a group of 4th graders.  It came off pretty well, as they enjoyed the activities we used and we were able to pull off our Spanish along w/ a little mime!  

This was Francis' group of 4th graders, doing a Teamwork activity: pass the T-shirt from 1 person to the other w/ hands locked!  

Francis and I stayed with a woman (tercera edad) during our time in this community, who has 2 mango trees in her yard and she left us w/ a bagfull of mangoes to bring back.  That was after we had already eaten 5 mangoes for breakfast and lunch that day; can't decide if I like pineapples or mangoes better; but they are both maravilloso!  One common dish here is pollo con arroz with fried tortilla pieces on top.  I've learned to just mix my salad in with the rice like the Ticos; we call this Tico Chop Suey!

The mangoes on this tree are so big they have to hold up the branches w/ a stick!

Besides the training we did with the kids, a big part of our time was spent relaxing and enjoying nature in this area.  We hiked through a virgin rain forest one day, in an area called Los Alpes Reserva.  The land is owned by a German who is restoring 50 acres of deforested land.  But this forest was lush and beautiful!

We visited a coffee farm and the farmer explained the process of growing the coffee plants and how the coop that he belongs to works for the local farmers.  They have a processing plant for separating the husks, drying, etc., down in town.  Their coop sells Fair Trade on the market and there's no middle man, which benefits the farmers. He's trialing a new variety of coffee right now, and we helped him bring the plants up to his farm from the hothouse and unloaded the truck of his 500 plants.  I'd love to go back there during coffee picking season at least for one day (Nov-Feb) to be a part of and see out the whole process.  It also really helps to get a feel for what the families' lives are like here.  I'm thinking that's why the school year ends in Dec. and begins again mid Feb., though many kids, I hear, stop going to school to help their families w/ picking in early November.  Even though tourism is currently the biggest industry in Costa Rica, coffee and bananas continue to be a very important product for export.  And let me tell you, Costa Rican coffee is REALLY GOOD! If you can find Cafe de Altura on the shelves, it's from this area.  I also recommend Cafe Britt!

We also spent one whole morning touring and learning about the technical highschool(collegio) in the area, where kids learn firsthand how to manage animals, plants, learn industrial cooking(for hotel work, etc) and some business management. There are 800 students that attend this school; it draws on a very large area because it is so comprehensive. They learn everything about raising the plants and animals (as well as tilapia), including killing the chickens, cleaning them and selling them in the town. The food that is raised at the school is used first in the cafeteria here, as students get breakfast and lunch; classes time is 7 a-4p.  This picture is the egg farm and yes,unfortunately, cages is where these chickens spend their lives. But this school really prepares these kids well for either life on a farm, or preparation for university, whichever they choose.  That's part of our job as PCVs in the smaller communities, is to help the kids who are at risk for dropping out, stay in school, so we'll be working w/ groups of kids or 1:1.  We might also be running sexual education classes and teaching the directors how to run these classes.  We'll be doing Girl Empowerment workshops, Mother-Daughter Workshops (for communication), Career Fairs and Parenting Classes.  This will all depend on what the needs of the community are and which we'll find out about during our first few months there.

Next time I write we'll be able to share the exciting news about our site!  Love to all and write when you can!

Familia y otra cosas

"The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect the views of the US Government and Peace Corps or the Costa Rican government."

How's that for a start to my blog?  It's a "must do" in order to write a blog while in the Peace Corps.

There's been so much that has happened in the past few weeks I don't know where to start! Everyday is different, new and wonderful! In general, we have 3 days a week of formal language training and 2 days including technical, health, safety and security information.  The Peace Corps does an amazing job of preparing you for being out there on your own, and we got a taste this past weekend of what it's actually like "at site", so that was very exciting for us.

 I'll start with pics of our family, since I haven't shown those yet:

Guiselle in the kitchen at our house.  She is very careful to feed us really healthily, and without cheese or oil.  We eat rice and beans with almost every meal (Marvin eats rice with his spaghetti too), though usually we have oatmeal and fruit for breakfast.  We get vegetables every day and sometimes baked platanos for dessert!

Guiselle works as a dental assistant every afternoon.





Marvin is a supervisor at a can fabrication plant.  He loves to exercise when he's not working and he's the representative from this small town to the district's local government.  The family is all very industrious and into national politics as well.

We started digging a garden a couple of weeks ago, and are going to plant some lettuce, cilantro and carrots this weekend.

Other members of the family:

Juli, their pregnant dog, who is apparently due in a few days!  I took her for a walk this morning , which I think was her first walk in her life (she's 1 1/2).  Most people have several dogs in their yards, that stay chained up most of the day, though there are dogs that roam the streets as well.   They have a talking parrot "Paki", whose picture I can't seem to find right now; but she's a hoot, because she spends the day outside in the tree and says "Lora", (Spanish word for parrot) and laughs like a kid.  She gets really wound up when there's a bunch of kids around and you don't know who's laughing, the kids or the parrot!

Last week in spanish class we had a lesson on the fruits and vegetables here as well as a cooking lesson.  

These are some of the fruits we eat here, though more of the exotic ones.  The big white one with the black seeds is the BEST!  It's guanabana: tastes like custard!  Usually we eat bananas, pineapple, some strawberries and apples.  

This is our language group, with our teacher, Lucy, sitting next to Francis.  We prepared the food in Sadie's home (at the head of the table).

Francis, getting a lesson on making homemade corn tortillas.  They were sooo good!

Cat (from Boulder), is in our language training group.

Kirsten, from Seattle, also in our language training group. She lives with Sadie and Felix and their 3 yr. old daughter, Amanda.

Sadie, in their beautiful home, which she graciously offered for our cooking class today.

I'm getting a tortilla making lesson from  Sadie's mother, who lives next door.

Picadillo de papas (small chopped potatoes with ground beef , onions, cilantro.

This is the finished product: the picadillo served on a fresh tortilla.  On the side are slices of the platano madura (the very large bananas cooked in water, with a little sugar).  The green platanos, they squish and deep fry (Francis and I didn't eat any of those, but most people like them).

Our language classes are all designed to prepare us for our sites, working with a variety of different organizations, like schools and where ever kids might be.  Therefore, in both our language and technical classes, we have been learning how to develop lesson plans, lots of games(the day of games with the scout leaders was really fun!  Tico 28 is a very competitive group, so when things get tense, I try and stay in the background, because I don't want to be the one in the bottom of the pile going after the ball; I know my limits!  That's what happens when the majority of the group are in their 20's!)  We've been learning about the politics and educational system of the country, how to get around (so far, we've been to San Jose twice, not counting when we arrived, and to another PCV's site in country, so we had to put our direction finding skills to use to get to the right bus stations, etc).  PC training has been very organized in that fashion; they build on everything, both in technical and language training.  Yesterday we had to present a 15 minute lesson, (in Spanish of course)  to our Spanish group ( just the 4 of us).  That was to prepare us for our (first of 3), 80 minute lesson next week that we'll hold, with a 6th grade class at the local school.  Cat and I are working together and Francis and Kirsten will teach a 5th grade class.  (yes, in Spanish).  We'll be getting to know the kids in the class, find out from them about what they like and are positive attributes about their school, homes, community and Costa Rica in general.  (of course we'll hear about their fantastic soccer team!)  Then we'll do some kind of team building activity.  (We have to plan it yet).

Francis with Dan and Ellen

Last weekend, we visited another married PCV couple who work in the area of Tarcoles, on the west coast, north of Jaco'.  We walked around the small town, saw the school and various other places where they work and heard about the projects they're involved in.

  Their host family is a young Costa Rican couple who are a teacher and an engineer in the area and their living conditions are far better than I ever expected to see, though they still have large creepy crawly things around the house.  But how can you not when you live along the coast where it's very hot and humid?  

Danny and Karla and the house they rent where Dan and Ellen live.  

Nearby beach.

The bright red things in this almendra (almond) tree, are macaw's.  There were about 15 of them making lots of sounds in an almond tree grove).

The beach at Jaco, where Danny works.  We went there for a little while and watched the surfers; oh, the water was so nice, but I didn't have my swim suit with me at the time; big bummer!

Last night we walked in a procession for about an hour and half, with people from this community, who today celebrate the Virgin of Los Angeles, who is the patron saint of Costa Rica.  People walk long distances from their town to the church in Cartago, which is named after her.  It was a great cultural experience, though the short distance we walked was good enough for me!

Rainbow in town that lasted 20 minutes the other day!

I look forward to what each day brings, so far it's been quite an adventure.  

Please keep us informed about what's going on in your lives as well; we'd love to hear from you!