One down, another to go

So, it’s been a while since my last blog.  I actually started to write a new one about my adventures from when my mom, brother and friends came to visit back at the end of March, but I got distracted with other things and it got pushed aside.  Now many other things have happened and it all seems like a lot of disconnected stuff to put into one blog. 

Before I move on, I just want to say that the vacation was amazing.  It was great to have my people come and get a glimpse of what my life is like here (I’m pretty sure my site wasn’t quite what they expected), because as with anything, while I’m sure my stories can paint a wonderful picture, nothing compares to seeing it in real life.  It was also super nice to live in luxury for a little bit.  I know that at the time, it hadn’t been that long since I had been home for Christmas, and yet their visit was a welcome break and was exactly what I needed at the time.  It was nice to be able to “be me” again without worrying about people watching and judging.  I get to have that experience when I’m with other volunteers as well, but there’s just something comforting and easy about being with people who have known you for ages.  So, between hiking through the rain forests, beaches, hot springs, lots of animals, and some zip lining, I had fun.  I’m pretty sure they all had fun as well.  I’ll try to post some pictures.

This month marked a pretty big milestone in our service as we had our Mid-Service Training (MST) a couple of weeks ago.  This means that we have officially been in site for a year and have a year of service left.  Aside from a few dry and super long sessions, MST was great.  It took place on that same compound that we were at when we first came to country.  I personally really like it there, but I must admit that there was some apprehension about all of us being stuck for together at a single place for that many days.  Historically, all the trainings that we’ve had in the past have had some sort of drama.  One could only guess what kind of troubles we would run into at MST.  It turns out, not much.  Since we couldn’t leave, there really wasn’t much trouble to find.  In fact, when we weren’t training, we all relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company.  We kept busy with a lot of volleyball, a lot of random little games, a lot of food, and a lot of talk.  We even had a talent show.  Unfortunately, I am not aware of any talents that I possess, so I did not perform anything, but I did help MC it, and that was fun.  Considering the short notice, everyone did a great job with it. 

Along with all the fun games, MST consisted of a lot of reflection.  We looked back on our past year and celebrated our accomplishments.  It just seems so crazy that a year ago, I was just starting out at site without a clue as to what to do.  There was a lot of anxiety and a lot of time spent just thinking.  Now I am here, with a few projects under my belt, and I still find myself anxious and thinking.  I guess some things don’t change.  Some things do.  I now know my community a lot better.  I know the people and the attitudes.  I have some kind of grasp about the culture, although it still throws me off my balance on occasion.  All in all, I think it was a good year.  It was an incredibly challenging year, but I learned a lot and I feel like I had a bit of an impact here, so that’s something. 

I’m at that point in service where I think, “Whoa, I’m a year done.  How did that happen?” and then I think, “Whoa, I’ve still got a year left.  What am I going to do?”  As we started off MST reflecting on the past, we ended it looking to the future.  As always the future seems so big and mysterious, and yet exciting and full of potential.  I’m not sure where I’ll be in a year.  Well, I think that I’ll be home in a year, but I’m not sure what I will have accomplished.  I’ve got some projects in mind and I’m really hopeful for them, but as I’ve learned in the past, not to get too invested – just in case they don’t work out.  However, if these things work out, then I will be more than satisfied.  A year is a long way off, but I’ve got a lot to do in the mean time.  I’ve decided that I want to work on taking my sports league with the kids from the school to the next level – creating a league amongst other PCVs so that we can travel and compete against other kids.  I want to try to build a basketball court.  That project is kind of hefty since it requires a bit more community participation amongst the adults.  I also want to start applying to grad school.  I need to set up something for my life after Peace Corps.

Time here is a funny thing.  It seems so long and so short at the same time.  The future seems so far, but the past has indicated that it will come sooner than I know.  It kind of reminds me of side view mirrors on cars.  “Objects in mirror are closer than they seem.”  The only difference is that with the mirrors, we look back and with the future, we look ahead.  But I guess in the grand scheme of things and perspective taken into account, everything is closer than it seems.

Let's Talk About Sex

Yes, let’s talk about one of the most interesting topics for human beings to talk about: sex. Why is it so damn fascinating? Well, probably because basically everyone has some kind of sexuality. Whether you identify as male, female, transgender, gay, heterosexual, or confused, you have sexuality. Whether you are a virgin, a nun, a lady of the night, chances are that you’ve either participated in some kind of sexual act or have given it some thought. It’s fairly natural for our species. In fact, it’s pretty natural for most species. Sorry amoebas, you’re not included.

Ok, so yeah…sex is everywhere, why am I talking about it? Well, here in Costa Rica, like many countries, including our own, youth can make stupid decisions about sex that result in some undesirable consequences. In my town, it is a huge problem. I have seen more pregnant teenagers in the last year than I have seen in all my years living back home. Granted, I do come from a sheltered world with strict Filipino parents, Catholic schools, and living in the suburbs. Still, I know that there’s a problem when I survey my community about the most common age people believe girls first get pregnant and the answer averages to 14/15 years. It’s also apparent when a teenage girl sitting next to me on the bus pulls out her breast to feed her offspring. It makes me wonder about how many teens are walking around with STI’s since that’s not as obvious.

What’s happening here? How does this happen? If you guessed, “lack of education,” you’re a winner! Sex education here is severely lacking in accessibility and accuracy. Most kids learn about sex from their friends or from experience. This results in a lot of bad information. Myths about sex and pregnancy run rampant. If you have sex for the first time, you will not get pregnant. If the guy pulls out, you will not get pregnant. If you have sex on your period, you will not get pregnant. Kids believe these things, have sex, and nine months later, bring home a brand new human being. At this point, I almost want to channel Coach Carr from Mean Girls and yell, “Don’t have sex or you will get pregnant and die! Don’t have sex in the missionary position, don’t have sex standing up, just don’t do it. OK, promise?” Of course, that wouldn’t be effective in terms of prevention, but if they actually did believe that myth, it would serve them a whole lot better than those other ones. So, instead of that, I participated in a Peace Corps workshop about sexuality.

This workshop was different from my other trainings in that I brought two youths from my community. (Well, one is actually an Italian exchange student and the story of how I ended up with him instead of a local who will actually stick around a while is a long convoluted story. Either way, he ended up being a great counterpart and actually wants to implement talks in the high school. The irony that we’re two foreigners trying to help the community of people who refuse to participate in my activities, is not lost on me.) It was three days of activities relating to sexuality in some way. I would say that our time was equally divided between discussions and skits.

There were a lot of skits. Let me tell you, skits about sexuality can sometimes be awkward and embarrassing. For instance, there was one skit in which I was put into a group and we had to create a skit demonstrating sexuality for different types of sexual orientations. My idea was to have people hold hands – that was quickly vetoed. Somehow, people decided that we demonstrate by pretend kissing each other. Heterosexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality would be demonstrated in a few seconds. Because my one friend was about to die of embarrassment (I really actually thought she might faint at some point), I had to take one for the team and participate in the skit. Then I thought I was going to faint. Basically the girl that was supposed to approach me, attacked, put me in a head lock and wouldn’t let go. So aggressive. So traumatizing. I feel traumatized having to relive it right now. I know it was all fake and such, but still…it freaked me out. Firstly, I’m not a huge fan of PDAs, even fake ones, let alone with someone I don’t know. Add to that a super aggressive female whom I definitely am not attracted to. Then you add the factor that I’m at work and this is all happening in front of all my peers and my bosses. So awkward. It also didn’t help that I didn’t understand what was going to happen and that made everything that much more shocking. This is why I don’t do improve or plays. So, so awkward.

Moving on, the taller ended up being pretty successful. Even when we weren’t working, people seemed to be enjoying themselves. Half of us tried out the pool, which was freezing, but entertaining. Volunteers found time to ourselves to compare stories and rant about the problems we face in our communities. When we weren’t doing that, we were spending time with out counterparts. That was actually pretty cool. I don’t think that my Tico counterpart gets out of my community much. Because of this, he was never exposed to things that most of us have lived with our entire lives. For example, we went to Subway for dinner and he didn’t know how to use the soda machine. He never had fast food before. Coming home from the workshop, he excitedly confessed that he took a bottle of shampoo and a bar of soap from the hotel room. I had to tell him that they were his to take and that he could’ve taken them all if he really wanted. It was really interesting watching him experience and enjoy modern life in the city. His adventure alone made the trip worth it. I know he learned a lot from the taller, but I also hope that maybe experiencing how life can be in the city will motivate him to work towards a professional career so that he can live an easier life in the future.

I know that my counterpart isn’t exceptional in my community. I’m sure most kids don’t spend much time in San Jose, eating fast food, and staying in hotels. I also know that they can all probably learn a thing or two or a hundred things about sex and sexuality, but for a lack of a good sex education, may never learn. This is a situation in which ignorance is not bliss. It leads to sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted babies. Those unwanted babies then grow up in a community full of parents who had a bunch of unwanted babies, and because of that never got an education and are stuck living the lives their parents did. So, all that I can hope for is that we can bring our new information back to my community and help break the cycle.

Until next time.

P.S. I’m super grateful that even though I had 12 years of a Catholic education, those schools decided to move against the grain and be mindful enough to give us a good sex ed program with a very real world, straight forward, no myths approach. The more you know! *star shoots across the screen*

Nicaragua

Well, it has been quite a while since my last blog. To catch everyone up, I’m happy to report that my trip home in for Christmas was amazing. It couldn’t have been better, except perhaps if had been longer. It was just what I needed. Going home, I was worried that I wouldn’t want to go back, but it wasn’t as heartbreaking as I thought it would be. I came back, had a great New Year’s on the beach with friends and finally had to return to my life at site. Readjusting to life in my community was a bit more difficult than expected. Since school was out, there was basically nothing to do. Even my exercise class died. I can’t say that I wasn’t warned, but it still sucked. Good thing I had a bunch of Peace Corps meetings and activities (helping out at a sports camp, Peer Support Network meeting, and a rock climbing adventure) to keep me occupied and out of town, otherwise I may have gone crazy. School finally started up again, and I jumped on the opportunity to start new projects and get back to work. Right now, I am starting an intramural sports league for the school and an English night class. Both are still in the preparation stages. I am really excited to get them going and have high hopes for their success. Now that you’re all caught up, I figure that I’d write about my adventure in my latest vacation to Nicaragua…

Back in December, my friends and I decided that we would go to Nicaragua around March as it marks a year since coming to country and also everyone just wanted to go to Nicaragua. So, we made a plan, packed our bags and went. Before our trip, I really didn’t know what to expect since everyone in Costa Rica gave me mixed messages about Nicaragua. Some told me that they had been there and it was amazing. Others questioned my decision to go since it is a poor country full of danger at every corner. I went in expecting it to land somewhere in the middle of those two perspectives. Well, I’m going to have to say after being there myself, I would have to side with the former camp. Nicaragua is beautiful.

Costa Rica is beautiful for its nature. Nicaragua is beautiful for its conservation of history and culture. It was an interesting mix of old and new. In Managua, we went to some malls and restaurants where things were incredibly modern. We walked into a mall and we could have been in America. There are malls in Costa Rica also, but they feel different. They feel cluttered and disorganized. Walking into a mall in Nicaragua caused a bit of reverse culture shock, which was a bit confusing since we weren’t anywhere near home. It was obvious that these places were targeted at the wealthier people of Nicaragua.

On the flip side, Nicaragua also has some areas that seem like a step back in time. It was wonderful to go to places where there were still cobble-stoned streets and buildings that maintained the Old Spanish style architecture. The old churches and horse drawn carts only added to the charm. It is the scene you imagine when you picture yourself in Latin America.

So, how did we spend our time? Mostly, we wandered around soaking it all in. We divided our time between having lunches by the lake, bouncing around from restaurants/bars, celebrating a birthday, and karaoke-ing. We also made our way to the beach where we stumbled upon a bunch of Nicaraguan PCVs. What started out as a day trip to the beach ended up being an overnighter to party with a whole new group of volunteers. That was incredibly fun and interesting.

We learned a lot about the differences between the Peace Corps Costa Rica and Peace Corps Nicaragua. Firstly, they have five different programs whereas we have four. They have 2 sectors of health, business, agriculture and English. We have rural community development, community economics development, English, and my program, youth development. (Oh, did I mention earlier that my program is going through changes? Yeah, we are no longer Children, Youth and Families, but are now Youth Development. I like it better.) I think the differences in the programs offered in these countries speak loudly about the differences between the two. Also, we found out that we get paid double what the volunteers in Nicaragua get paid. On the one hand, this makes us feel better. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that doesn’t make much of a difference since everything in Costa Rica costs double what it would cost in Nicaragua. As for living situations, Nicaragua just changed their policy about letting volunteers live on their own. They are now required to live with host families for their entire service. It seems that their volunteers seem to have a lot more restrictions due to safety and security. I’m sure if we spent more time with them, we would have learned a whole lot more about each other, but we only had about 24 hours and believe it or not, we did not spend our entire time discussing Peace Corps. Funny enough, we were able to identify them as Peace Corps by overhearing them gossip about Peace Corps. There are some things that are just universal.

Other random things that I learned while over the border: I realized that I am grateful that where I live, water is pretty reliable. It’s a rare occurrence for it to go out. In Nicaragua, the water went out on us approximately 4 out of the 7 days we were there. Ironically, two days after getting back into site, my water and electricity went out for an entire morning and afternoon. While in Nicaragua, and bathing with a bucket and limited amounts of water, I did learn that all I need to get myself clean and fresh is one gallon of water. Isn’t that crazy? It makes me wonder about how much water we waste by showering. How much water could we save if we all bathed with one bucket of water? I don’t know, and you probably don’t want to find out. I’m not going to lie; I am back to showers and appreciate every moment of it. I learned that the mosquitoes in my site aren’t as bad as I thought. At least here I can see and hear them and hide in my mosquito net if I need to. In Nicaragua, they were like ninjas. My legs will never be the same and I never saw it coming. I also re-learned that I love the adventure of traveling and never knowing what’s coming next. It was a great trip and I can’t wait for my next adventure.

Well, that’s all for now. Sorry about taking so long. I’ll try to be better next time.

A random church in León.

A bum hanging out in the doorway of the church.

A random book store down a random street in León.

Sitting down to a nice dinner just after getting to León.

Allen browsing through some crafts in a park.

Rosie, Maitreya and Melissa chilling in the hammock. There were lots of hammocks.

Tom and Rosie making serious decisions at the grocery store. I'm pretty sure the thought process was this, "How do we get the most from the small amount of money we have collectively?"

This was basically what a good chunk of our trip looked like. A big blur of fun times and me not really knowing what's going, but just throwing my hands up and going with it.

View of Managua, the capital.

The lake that we ate lunch by in Managua.

Other things that happened in January:

All the PCVs and our shadows celebrating our accomplishment at Stephanie and Chris Starr's sports camp. This was one of the best nights I've had as a volunteer. It was also one of the prettiest fields I've ever been in.

Austin and Stephanie Starr setting up the basketball hoop for the sports camp.

Mason (in the hat) teaching Ultimate Frisbee at The Starr's sports camp.

Sunset at the beach on New Year's Eve.

Rude Awakening

I’ve been so positive lately with my blogs, I decided to give myself some space and time to rant about something that bothers me and I am having trouble getting over. I’m only human.

Today I woke up at the glorious hour of 5:30 for no reason other than our neighbors decided to start renovating their house at that ungodly hour. As I lay there, eyes open, cursing my life, I pondered why people here have no issues with obnoxious noises at obnoxious hours. Seriously, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will be woken every morning to the noises of my host-family. I really have no choice about that. We live in small quarters and they get up ridiculously early…I’ll get back to that in a bit. However, what is the deal with my neighbors? When I’m not being woken up before 6 by construction on one side, there are those crazies on the other side blasting their Christian music for the entire world to hear which is even more annoying because that’s not even necessary. Today I thought, “Man, if I was crazy I would get our of bed, pick up the hatchet, make dinner out of our rooster, go nuts on the ‘construction’ on the right, then pick up their chain saw, walk over to the neighbors on the left and go nuts on their sound system.” Hm, is it crazy just to have such thoughts? Perhaps.

People here just have no consideration for others when it comes to noise. Sometimes I want to yell, “The world doesn’t revolve around you!! Keep it down!” Well, I can’t do anything about it. There are no civil laws against it and even if there were, authorities (ha, that’s a joke in itself) wouldn’t enforce them. I tried to explain to my host-family why we value quiet in the early mornings and the late nights, but they looked at me like I was speaking of some mythical world in a sci-fi Disney film directed by Tim Burton. They thought it was funny that I am so bothered by others making such noise. Probably because they also wake up at the crack of dawn and talk at the top of their lungs. And why is that? For people who are so “pura vida” they all love to wake up really early. Maybe it’s all that caffeine consumption. Maybe it’s the roosters. Maybe it’s the culture. I don’t know, but it’s just plain nutty to me. Which only makes going back home for Christmas even more exciting. In fact there are a whole plethora of reasons why I’m looking forward to going home including, but not exclusive to:

Family and Friends
Food, glorious food!
Civil laws and their enforcement
TV
movies
Ceilings (oh for so many reasons)
A mattress
Hot water showers
Reliable cell phone service
Reliable internet
Washing machines AND dryers
Dishwashers
Carpet
Real supermarkets
Silence
English
My car
Pets that I won’t end up eating
Blankets/covers
Coffee shops (ironic, I know)
Books and people who read them
A haircut
Manners

Well, that’s all I can think of for the moment. I guess it’s a good thing I’m going on vacation. Thank you for paying attention to my little spat. Perhaps next time I won’t be so cranky.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This has been a difficult, wild, crazy, unusual, surprising, and amazing year. This year has wrought more difficulties and strife than most, and yet this Thanksgiving I seem to be more grateful than I have ever been.

To be completely honest, I didn’t make it through this Thanksgiving completely content. Like many other volunteers, I have been afflicted with a certain seasonal virus, Homesickness. Symptoms include irritability, slight depression, and frustration. One of the hardest things about being a volunteer is getting through the holidays in a foreign country where people don’t celebrate or understand the importance of your special days. On the one hand, it forces you to make the extra effort to make the day special for your own sake. On the other hand, everyone else’s indifference taints the day with a tone of being ordinary.

For me, what makes Thanksgiving so special is that it is the one day of the year when everyone pauses to reflect about what they are thankful and a spirit of generosity fills the air for a few weeks. It is what makes it my favorite day of the year. Why of all the holidays, birthdays and celebrations do I love it so much? There is just something amazing and comforting about seeing that kind of attitude fill an entire day on all levels from individuals, families, communities, and even the country as a whole. It is a rare time when everyone takes part in the same cause. Even though personal, national, and world issues continue happening at the time, it’s a day when those aren’t important. You could argue that the same thing happens at Christmas. Well, sometimes Christmas feels that it’s more about religious beliefs or receiving presents. Thanksgiving happens just for the sake of being grateful. It’s a day when religion, race, political affiliation, and social class don’t matter. There is a sense of unity and peace. Without that, Thanksgiving was just not the same this year. That special something was missing. It has made me realize that I am grateful that we even have Thanksgiving when most countries do not.

In honor of my favorite holiday, and because I couldn’t be home to celebrate it with my family back home, I decided to bring Thanksgiving here. For one thing, I couldn’t bear the idea that Thanksgiving would pass me by without any sort of celebration, and for another, I really wanted to share something important to me with my host-family. I feel that was important so they could understand not only our culture a bit better, but also to understand me a little more. This year, Thanksgiving happened to be on my host-dad’s birthday so I think they were super excited to have such a big celebration, especially since I was making them dinner. I think part of the excitement was due to the fact that I would be cooking and that also I would be making traditional American food. Outside of hamburgers and sandwiches, most Costa Ricans have never tried American cuisine. It really generated a lot of curiosity.

In theory, cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for my family seems pretty simple. In practice, it’s a lot more complicated. Firstly, we don’t have an oven. Well, considering that an oven is necessary for most Thanksgiving dishes, it becomes a challenge. Once I figured out what I can make without an oven, there was the challenge of finding the ingredients. You’d be surprised how many things we use that they don’t even supply in my site. After scrounging around every single grocery store my site had, I found most things I needed, other specialty items were imported to me (thanks Megan!), and the rest I had to improvise. Improvise? What does that mean? Well, since I needed cream of mushroom soup for my green bean casserole and the stores didn’t carry any (if you don’t count the cans of soup that expired last year), I settled on making it from scratch. Well those were the major hurtles. So as I was prepping, I remembered that we don’t have a stove either. We cook by logs outside. Uh, what does that mean for controlling heat? Well, it meant take a guess and play around with cooking times. Well at the end of the night, it turns out that I’m pretty good at cooking by fire. I successfully made green bean casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, some stuffing (from a box), and a pudding. We settled for fried chicken instead of turkey because let’s face it - I’m broke.

All that was left was for everyone to try it. Those were some hold-your-breath moments. I felt like a contestant on Top Chef. I had to stand there like a fool watching people slowly take bites out of each thing, think a bit, and then let me know what they thought. It was especially stressful when Manuela, our school cook, while tasting everything asked what I put in it and how things were cooked. “Well, it’s different...” Wow, those three dots never seemed to consume so much time. “…I like it!” Well who won Top Chef Orotina Thanksgiving Edition? I did! Yay, the sweet taste of victory!

Even through all the glory and the fun of bringing something traditionally American to my community, I still wish that I could have spent the day with my family back home. For one thing, what’s Thanksgiving without your family? Also, I just miss them. Like I said earlier, it’s been a tough year. I wish that I could have been there to be grateful and celebrate for having survived it and making it through the other side. We might have come out a little battered and bruised, but we did it. We’re still around and maybe we’re in a better place than when the year started out. And through it all, still have each other. I just wish that I could have looked into their faces and smile because we know that we do have so much to be thankful. Nothing makes you feel as isolated as that ache deep down reminding you that you’re missing out. Even with skype, the poor connection and the brief check in, while is exciting and better than nothing, is also a sad reminder about how far away we are.

All that sadness, the homesickness, the urge to be home remind me that I am grateful for all that I have waiting for me when I go home. I have people and things to miss, traditions and get-togethers that I love, and while I may be taking a break from all of those things right now, they’ll still be there when I get back. In the meantime, I’m grateful for experiencing a rare opportunity to immerse myself in a different culture, to work with a different kind of people, to self-improve. This year, I have more than my fair share of things to be thankful. What are you thankful for?

Our Thanksgiving/Birthday spread.

Me with my host-family...Beatriz, Doña Ada Luz, Don Antonio, and Anita.

My family and our neighbors singing "Happy Birthday," to my host-dad.

Peaceful Easy Feeling

The world is a funny place sometimes, especially when you work in the Peace Corps. Life goes by moment-to-moment, each capable of being radically different from the next. It spins you around like a top and once you think you’ve got your bearings, you’re not a top, but a yo-yo going up and down, then later a boomerang and after that a paddleball. The role as a PCV seems to be ever changing and while the issues at large remain a constant, circumstances change and with those so do our plans. Yet with amongst all the uncertainty, I have come to realize that even through the turbulence, I have also found my peace. There are times when I am stressed, frustrated and cannot understand why simple ideas refuse to work, and yet I think about where I am in life and what I am doing and feel completely content and satisfied. I’m not sure if this due to living the “simple life” or because I have reached a point where I’ve learned that I can only change that which I can control. Maybe it’s that I know everything that happens here is temporary, everything has an expiration date, but for the moment I have found my peace of mind. The work I do may not be grand, but it is good and that is all I can do. In short, I feel good.

The past few days have had some ups and downs. What else is new, I ask. Well in relation to my exercise class, it turns out the participants aren’t the only ones learning new things. I came to the school one morning and was informed that some of the ladies in my class want to make it exclusively a women’s class. I was told that many of them have husbands who are extremely jealous and if men joined in the class, they would stop participating. This caught me completely off guard and I didn’t have time to filter my reaction. “How’s that my problem?! That sounds like the husbands’ problem!” Oops. Not so graceful. After some funny looks, I catch myself and follow up with, “Well, if the majority of the women feel this way, we can change it. I’m here to serve the community and if it’s important to the community, I can do that. Plus, only one man has ever showed up to our class.” So, I sit there and think for a minute and realize that there may be other reasons to the madness. “Hey, is that really the reason or is it that the women feel uncomfortable in front of the men?” Winner! Response, “Well, yes many don’t feel so self-confident, especially with exercises that they’ve never done before. They would feel better if it was just women. But, there are still jealous husbands.”

OK. Well, I’m not sure what the true reasons are. It’s easier to understand the latter only because self-consciousness seems to be a worldwide issue with women, including in the States. I mean, why else do we have a gym targeted solely to women, aka: Curves? However, I have a hard time grasping the amount of control men have over women here. It may be a cultural difference, but at the same time I don’t think that it’s necessarily correct. Why is it OK that the men all cheat on their women, but when women want to come to better themselves and their health with a bit of exercise, it is a gateway to infidelity and other nonsense? It’s even more astounding that women put up with it. Events like this really make me appreciate how far women have come in the States. Anyway, I decided to work within my cultural boundaries and agree to make it a women’s only class and was pleasantly surprised when 27 women came to my next class. Wow. It was basically double the number of my last class. It just goes to show that you have to listen to the community in order to have a successful project. It is important to take into account what they feel is needed or wanted. If I had decided to get stubborn and stick to my principles, I may not have reached as many people as I did. The fact is that health and nutrition is a major problem here, especially for the women, so the more people I can reach the better. You can’t change a culture, but you can work within it. Lesson learned.

I followed up my week with a weekend in San Jose to meet my friend, Rosie’s, mom who is out here visiting from New York. It was pretty fun. Firstly, it’s always fun to meet people’s families and see where they come from. It’s like finding another piece of the puzzle of what makes a person who he/she is. Secondly, Rosie’s mom hooked us up. Not only did she buy us a round of drinks, she put us up in her little suite, which was nice! Living large in the city is always a great break from the PCV life. The cool thing about hanging out with Rosie’s mom was seeing how proud she was of her. It wasn’t an obnoxious showing or anything like that, but you could tell it was there. Plus, it’s always nice to hear encouraging things from home, especially when things don’t seem so encouraging in site.

So, after our drinks, the PCVs went out for a night of drunken debauchery. Just kidding. There was no debauchery. We found ourselves at another bar, sharing a few drinks and telling stories. This led to a couple orders of French fries that got demolished really fast. We followed this act by following Tom into some kind bar/club place where “hot mess” doesn’t even begin to describe the scene. It was like the Jersey Shore except that people even more ridiculous if that’s even possible. As soon as we sat down at our table, I see a girl with the biggest boobs I have ever seen. They were weird too. They were basically up to her chin. It was like reverse sagging. It was like discovering a new species of people and I could not stop looking. They also had go-go dancers, one male and one female. Whoa there, Seabiscuit! Now that was a hot mess of a show. The male especially was good people watching. His outfit on it’s own is something to comment on. He was wearing a tan suede vest, the tightest white pants I’ve ever seen, knee-high sneakers, and a bandanna underneath some type of hat. Now top that off with the least sexy moves that were sometimes a series of movements choreographed with the girl and you might have some idea of what was going on. The good thing was that it was a very mellow crowd.

We hung out there for the rest of the night, sometimes just sitting and talking, sometimes dancing. We all took turns out on the dance floor. It was during this time, that I sat there thinking how amazing that moment was. It felt like a “St. Elmo’s Fire” kind of moment. Between myself, Tom, Rosie, Melissa, Maitreya and Allen, we are all so different; we come from different places and are doing different things. Yet we are also the same. Nothing feels better than to hang out, forget our problems, stop worrying about the future, and enjoy each other’s company. We can be our goofy foolish selves and nobody minds, in fact it’s probably those crazy quirks that draws us together most. Knowing that we are there supporting each other and encouraging personal growth maybe one of the few things that gets me through my tough days. So I sat there soaking up the moment because I know that these are some of the best days of our lives, and it won’t last forever. We will eventually go home to our normal lives and move on to other great moments, but for now this is what we have and all I can do is appreciate it while it is here.

The next morning, everyone slowly trickled away to go back to site. Maitreya and I stuck around long enough to eat breakfast with Rosie and her mom at Denny’s. I must say, if this is any indication of how things will look like when we go home for Christmas, we will have to brace ourselves. Who knew Denny’s could be the most overwhelmingly delicious restaurant? I had the breakfast burrito and it was superb. I don’t know if it’s because the Denny’s here uses better quality ingredients, or if it’s just that we are no longer accustomed to such meals, but it was amazing. We couldn’t stop eating and noting how amazing it was. I’m pretty sure this was a bit amusing to Rosie’s mom. Who wouldn’t be entertained? Seriously, it’s not very often that you see a kid from New York and two kids from California (2 states with some great culinary options) going to town at a Denny’s like it’s the best food they’ve ever tasted in life.

Alas, it was time to go back to site. I would end right here, but I feel I must remind everyone how much I hate buses. I now have a higher tolerance for riding them and the people on board, but it doesn’t mean that I enjoy them any more than I ever did. So, on the bus ride back, I was sitting in the aisle seat, minding my own business, aka: sleeping, when all of a sudden I feel something pushing up against my knees. I realize that it’s a girl standing next to me trying to squeeze her legs in between my knees and the seat in front of me. Uh, what? Come on! I’m not sure what this was doing for her, but it sure was making me uncomfortable. Wow, how I miss personal space. So, for the next half our or so, I put up with this girl trying to jam her knees into my leg, for reasons unknown to me. I then get on the next bus to make it to my site. This bus is also crowded. Again, I am sitting in the aisle. Again a girl is standing next to me. Again, I am minding my own business. All of a sudden her mother is yelling at her about her ice cream while rubbing my hair. Oh, no she didn’t! She did. She was dripping ice cream into my hair and her mother literally and politely rubbed it in. Haha. I eventually made it back to site a little bruised and battered, but whole and exhausted. Now, I am gearing up for another week. Who knows what will happen next. Come back and find out.

Happy Birthday Melinda!

It is hard to beat a weekend spent doing nothing but enjoying yourself with friends in a beautiful location, which is exactly how I spent the past weekend. On Friday, I made my way across the country to my friends’, Melinda and Stephen, site in the Puerto Viejo area of Limón to celebrate Melinda’s birthday and also their new place after moving out on their own. Other volunteers also made the journey and at one point there were nine of us staying in one place. Sure it was a bit crowded, but the crowd was made of pretty cool people so it didn’t feel like it.

For the most part, we all just hung out at their new house relaxing and getting to know each other a bit better. However, we also managed to get out to Puerto Viejo and make our way to a couple of bars. That ended up being pretty fun for everyone. The second bar that we went to had tables and chairs out on the beach. So, those of us who didn’t want to dance basically got to chill out on the beach and chill. Sometimes it’s just fun to hear about other people’s lives, experiences or even have intellectually stimulating conversation. Ah Peace Corps, a self-selecting group of goofy, nerdy, fun people who want to change the world.

At some point during the night these fire dancers came out and did a little performance on the beach. It kind of reminded me of fire dancers in the Pacific Islands. They were pretty talented and had some wild tricks. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it through the whole performance because I had to go to the bathroom. If I had known that we were going to go home after, I probably would have waited because the bathroom was disgusting. It’s up there in my top 5 worst bathroom experiences of all time. They were basically stalls behind a screen in the back of the bar, which isn’t the worst in theory, but it was just filthy and nasty. Also, getting through the crowd of hot sweaty bodies was not that fun.

At different points throughout the weekend, we managed to eat a lot. We got to have traditional food of Limón, eat gelato (yes, they actually have Italian gelato), eat delicious pizza, and even make a healthy vegetable stir-fry. Life was pretty good. On the more active side of the trip, we worked out one morning in Melinda and Stephen’s amazing yard/garden/jungle and we took a hike by the beach in Cahuita. The hike was incredible and we were lucky and saw all sorts of animals. Actually, not to do another “Lost” reference, but it did kind of feel like we were cast in a much less glamorous version. The path was small, there were lots of animals, we were sweating profusely and being eaten alive by mosquitoes. All in all, I would say that it was a pretty successful venture. When you mix good people, good food, the beach and some exotic animals and smash them all together in a couple of days, it’s anything but terrible.

On the downside, I had to go back to my current version of the “real world” and was met with terrible news. It turns out that the Ministry of Education is making our English teacher leave due to another English teacher wanting to teach here. This is allowed because the other teacher has property closer to the school. I think that this is ridiculous rule. Anyway, everyone is pretty sad about it. The kids are devastated and I’m not only bummed about losing a good friend at the school but also a bit worried about her replacement. Ugh, life in the Peace Corps, life in Costa Rica. Nothing is predictable. So while I take the time to absorb that information I will just keep on doing what I do and truck on slowly. Hopefully I can find more projects to occupy my time, but until then, I’ve got my exercise class.

Start of trail.


I forget what they call this animal, but it was hanging out on the trail.

One of the many monkeys we saw on the trail.

Donna and Melissa bending over to touch the water coming out of a spring that was an exploratory well for petrol once upon a time.

With Melinda, Donna and Melissa.