Oh Drama

Hello again! First off, I must apologize for my last blog entry and all of the grammatical errors and such because I know that I wrote it late at night and did not have enough brain power to write well. Also if you didn’t notice, it was a very long entry.

Ok, with that said, I guess I should let you know what’s been going on. Firstly, Claire and I moved to our new family. It turns out that the excitement never stops. The more life I experience, the more I believe that I should have my own reality TV show. I should start off with what happened during Semana Santa.

Semana Santa is a very important week for Ticos. A lot of them take the entire week off because it is the biggest holiday of the year. However, Peace Corps still had training from Monday-Wednesday. I went to class Wednesday morning looking forward to the weekend because Andres and my host-mom wanted to take me on a trip for a few days which meant 3 days less with my host-sister. So, I come home and the house is very quiet. I walk to my room and am startled because Adriana, the host-sister, is sitting on one of the couches with her back facing me, and she tells me as I am unlocking my door that she has something to tell me.

At this point, I’m freaked out. Why? Well, it was creepy that she was sitting in silence alone in the living room waiting for me to come home. Also, I wasn’t sure what she wanted to talk about since it was common knowledge that I was to move out on Sunday and I wasn’t sure what she felt she needed to tell me. It turns out it wasn’t about me at all. Nope, it was worse than a confrontation of any kind. She tells me that her mom is in the hospital because she fell and broke her leg. The way everyone describes it is that it was so bad her knee rotated to the back of her leg.

This was a horrible turn of events. Firstly, Nora, my former-host-mom, had to have surgery and is now completely dependent on her not-so-reliable daughter. I’m very worried for her well-being. Secondly, this meant that the trip was canceled and not only would I have to spend those days in the house with Adriana, she was in charge.

Well, I guess it wasn’t as horrible as it could have been because I survived until Friday. Since I hadn’t left my house, Claire and her family invited me to go to a procession with them. It was definitely interesting. What happened was that we walked up this hill to find the start of the procession only to realize that we would follow a huge statue of Jesus back down the hill as we observed the Stations of the Cross. I’m not sure why I didn’t put the pieces together sooner, but I must say that I’m pretty proud of myself. I remembered the Stations pretty well, but I guess I should after 13 years of Catholic education. Claire and I cut out at station 6 because we got bored and it was incredibly hot.

On the way back home, we ran into Allen and Jason who were looking for the hill behind our houses. We had to explain how they couldn’t get to that hill because it used to be a garbage dump that they covered over and that it was gated off so they couldn’t access it. Even if they could get to it, it would be a bad idea because there are pipes in the ground to let out the toxic fumes of the garbage dump beneath the hill and I’m fairly certain that would not be a pleasant experience. So, we took them to the hill behind my house that I hiked with Andres a while back so that they could see it also. It was a nice little break from the drama at home.

Later that night, I went over to Andres’ house to hang out and give him and his family some presents that my mom had sent me from the States. While I was there, I got an urgent call from Claire asking me to come over because she realized that her family had been stealing some things from her also. Some of the things taken from her over her time there are a shirt, a bunch of makeup, and a movie. She found these items in the room of her host-mom and host-sister. I didn’t realize it at the time, but our boss wanted me to go over there in case something happened during a confrontation. Oh, well something did happen during a crazy confrontation. Basically, her family denied taking anything and called her a liar. She then decided to take her things and move out. We went back to my house to re-group when Andres saw us and decided that she should just stay with him until we moved to our new house on Sunday.

As we were explaining what had happened, he decided that he needed to get out of town and asked me if I wanted to go for a day trip the next day. I was so excited. Claire couldn’t go because she already had plans with one of the other PCT’s families. So, that Saturday, Andres, Jenny and Valery took me to Alejuela to see the volcano Poas. We also drove to this area where a major earthquake happened a couple years back. There was a bunch of beautiful waterfalls, but it was interesting because just down the road, you can see where all the houses were torn apart by the earthquake. It was crazy because the people who did survive had to re-locate, but it took the government 2 years before they finished building them new houses. After that, we stopped by a river on the way back to San Jose, but it started to rain so I decided not to get in. By the time we got back, it was time for dinner and we got some Chinese fried rice and it was amazing. It was a perfect last day with my family.

Finally, Sunday arrived. Peace Corps staff picked up Claire and me. It was an interesting experience. Nora cried. Adriana didn’t seem to care much. Andres and Jenny seemed really sad about it. Andres even asked our staff if anything had happened in our house. I’m pretty sure he suspects that his sister did something because he knows here well enough and he doesn’t even get along with her. It was explained to my family that the only reason I was moving was because Claire had to move and they couldn’t leave me in the community alone since there was originally only two of us there.

When we got to our new place, we found out that the living room was our new room. This isn’t the most horrible thing in the world, but the family wakes up obscenely early (before 5), and that’s kind of a killer on our sleep. If you know me at all, you know how important sleep is to me. Also, it’s tough dealing with a lack of privacy. There’s always somebody in our face and we’re constantly being pulled in a million directions. There has been a bunch of other clashing and really awkward moments, including the time our Spanish teacher came over for lunch to help set house rules, but if I take a step back, it’s pretty hilarious. I know things could be worse. Our situation is far from ideal, but I’ve dealt with much worse situations for longer periods of time. We don’t even have that much time at this new house before moving to our sites.

Speaking of our sites, on Monday we had a day of recreation at a local country club and found out where were going. I’m going to a little community near the Pacific Ocean that is in the middle of farms. I’ve been forewarned about how many fruit farms there are. If you would like more specifics, e-mail me or ask my family about it.

So, today I’m leaving for a week first to meet with my counterparts from my future community. We are going back to the place where we had our orientation so that everyone can do a workshop with his or her counterpart(s). After that, we go to our sites for a few days. I’m not really sure what I will be doing there, but I’m super excited. I’ll be back in a week. All I know is that I lucked out because one of my counterparts is going to drive me to my site so I’m bring as much luggage as I can since when I move for real I will have to go by myself by bus. With all the crap I brought, that would be tough stuff.

Ok, that’s all for now! Hasta luego!