And the beat goes on...

Just a heads-up, this will probably be a longer entry because there was a lot happening this week. This was also written on March 29, 2011, just to give you a proper time-frame. Since my last blog, in Spanish training, I started my first service-learning project at the local elementary school. To be fair, it’s more of a mini-service learning project because I only have three sessions with the kids, and I’m working with a partner so that makes it easier. Also, I don’t think this project will be very sustainable, but it’s a learning experience and it is still pretty fun and interesting. Basically, our goal is to teach these kids how to do a service for their school in which they can also learn from by doing this service.

Anyway, we talked to a class of 6^th graders and found out what they thought were major issues at their school that the would like to work on and after a huge process of gathering information and a semi-complicated voting process, they decided that they thought that bullying was the biggest problem at their school. I find this interesting because I know that right now, bulling is a huge issue back at home. It’s also interesting that they chose this to be the project that they want to work on. Anyway, after gathering more information and doing another round of voting, they decided that they wanted to do a charla, or a talk, to another class about bulling. We did this all in Spanish by the way, which ended up being far more successful than I thought it would. Tomorrow, we will meet with the class again so that we can work on their charla that they will present next week. By the time this goes online, I will have met with the class already.

Also this week in training, we had a diversity panel come and had a whole session based on diversity in Peace Corps Costa Rica. It was definitely very interesting to hear about how different people deal with being different and how they work with the people and manage stereotypes. Believe it or not, but there are some really funky stereotypes about Americans, such as they are dirty, smell bad, don’t take daily showers, and other things that I can’t remember right now.

We also talked about how to deal with racism between the Ticos and the Nicaraguans. Basically, there is a huge stigma against the Nicaraguans here because they can’t seem to get along. I’m thinking the conflict about the border is not helping issues. Anyway, Ticos seem to blame everything on the Nicaraguans and vice-versa, which can be a problem because there are a lot of Nicaraguans who live here and face racism everyday, especially closer to the border.

I also learned that there is a lot of hostility towards the Chinos, the Chinese, who live here because they come here to open up restaurants and supermarkets. This is ridiculous as well because most of those people that own those restaurants and supermarkets are actually Taiwanese. Also, China just gave Costa Rica its first sports stadium, so I really don’t think that there should be any hostility towards them at all. I bring this up because everyone here thinks I’m china. This is really irritating since I’m not Chinese. No offense to China or its people, but it’s kind of hard to have Chinese pride when I have no Chinese heritage at all. This assumption is more irritating since people seem to have issues with them, however because I managed my expectations before coming here and thought that my ethnicity would come into play at some point, it hasn’t gotten me down. I knew coming in that I would have to explain where my parents are from, which is fine. It’s just kind of frustrating to have to always defend my American-ness because people don’t completely buy it at first. It’s just weird to think that people can make such broad generalizations. Especially in a place like Latin America where people here would be super offended if you called them Nicaraguan or Mexican or any other heritage they are not. This reminds me of “Clueless.” “I AM NOT A MEXICAN!” Hahahahaha. Maybe I should just yell that. “YO NO SOY CHINA!” Maybe not.

This weekend, I traveled down to the region of Puntarenas to visit my mentor, Morgan. All of us trainees went and visited various volunteers in different parts of the country. Anyway, it was pretty awesome. Puntarenas was incredibly hot, but to be fair, the entire country had a freak heat wave, so I’m not sure how hot it is normally. Morgan says that it’s pretty hot generally. All I know is that I got a crazy tan after one day of walking around in the sun.

Did I mention that this weekend was awesome? Well, it was. I found out that my mentor is probably the hardest working person in the country of Costa Rica. I mean, everyone told me that she is a superstar volunteer, but now I realize that they aren’t kidding. I got to see her work on 4 different projects over the span of about 3 days. It was so crazy, but also kind of amazing and inspiring. I mean, she works with the two elementary schools, the high school, she does workout classes, and works with this shantytown nearby. Frankly, the shantytown was the project that struck me most during my time there.

The story of the shantytown is a long and sad one so I’ll try to give you a condensed version of it here. Basically, the town was supposed to build a bunch of government houses for these poor people to live in near the town. Somehow, after building 6 houses, something happened and they stopped building houses. These houses have water and everything. However, after stopping the project, the city left 2 water pipes in the street. The people started to build their own houses by the land with whatever materials they had, and this shantytown came to be. The problem is that, only 6 houses have water. The rest of the town has to gather water from the pipes and bring it back home. Now they are trying to get water to these houses, but the guy who is in charge of the aqueducts in that area is kind of an asshole and is finding any reason not to give them water. They have been trying to get some running water for 5 years now. The mayor is trying to help them, and still they can’t get things done, so Morgan and the Peace Corps is helping bring this issue to the national level, hoping that will eventually bring the people running water.

This little town was one of the most eye-opening things I have seen since I’ve been here. These people are so poor, they could be those kids in those infomercials asking people to donate money and save the children. Their houses are basically made of planks of wood or sheets of tin and their floors are just dirt. I saw one kid who clearly needed diapers and clearly his family could not afford them, and he just peed his pants. Nobody really did anything about it. It is kind of heartbreaking seeing people live in such squalor who are trying so hard to get their basic needs met, and are constantly being kicked down by red tape and cold-hearted people. The craziest thing is that these people are willing to pay for the water that comes to their houses, so the aqueduct guy would actually be making more money if he actually let them have water. It’s amazing to see how mean people can be, and just as amazing to see how much fortitude other people can have when faced with such people.

This weekend, we also took a walk though this huge farm of pineapples, down some trails, to the nearby river. The pineapple fields are awesome because it just looks like you’re walking through a sea of red dirt filled with little green plants sticking out. It kind of reminded me of Super Mario Brothers 2 or 3, I forget which one it is where you pull out the turnips from the ground and chuck them at the bad guys. At first, we thought about hiking through the nearby mountain, but Morgan’s cousins, whom we were hiking with, wanted to go to the river. At the end, it ended up working for the best because the sun was HOT. I’m not exactly sure how hot it was, but all I know is that I could not stop sweating and I did not mind the cold shower at the end of the day (actually, I’m getting accustomed to the cold showers). It was so hot, that when we went to bed, all we needed to sleep with was a sheet, and even that sometimes was too much. Anyway, by the time we got to the river, we had been walking for over an hour and it was refreshing to get into the water. The water was cold, and it definitely hit me hard when I got in, but it was definitely nice. It still wasn’t as harsh as getting into the ocean back home. Along the way, we saw some awesome trees and ran into a few animals including but not exclusive to cows, horses, pigs and piglets, lizards, birds and butterflies.

The next day we took a bus to meet up with some other volunteers and trainees. I was really tempted to name this entry “I hate buses” and you will see why. The ride on the way to Morgan’s was pretty uneventful, but pretty uncomfortable. When you sit on a bus for 5 hours, it’s never comfy. Somehow, the 1 ½ bus ride to meet up with the other volunteers was much more excruciating. Basically, we started off the ride sitting next to each other, but about ten minutes in, this older lady gets on the bus and decides that she would rather stand up at the front rather than walk to an open seat at the back. So, Morgan decides to be a nice person and offer up her seat. We figured this lady would not be on the bus that long and would probably get off at a nearby town. Oh man, we were wrong. Let me paint you a picture.

So, I’m sitting next to this lady, she’s in the aisle seat and I’m trapped next to the window. I have the window open because it’s crazy hot, but this bus also has curtains that are blowing in the wind. This is only a problem because when they blow, the closest thing to those curtains is my face, which is getting slapped by these flowing curtains. I now have the choice of closing the window or continuing to be abused by the curtains. Ventilation wins. About ten minutes after this lady has sat down, I look over at her and she is using a bobby-pin to vigorously clean out her left ear. She then takes it out of her ear and flicks off the crusty ear gunk and then puts in her other ear. At this point, I’m thinking three different things. 1) “Lady, it’s probably not the most hygienic thing to be cleaning out your ears with a bobby-pin.” 2) “It’s probably not the wisest idea to be putting sharp objects in your ears while our bus driver is performing his rendition of “Speed.”” 3) “Please don’t flick your ear gunk on me because I’m already car sick and slightly disgusted by your actions and there is a strong possibility that I could vomit all over your face.” She eventually puts the bobby-pin away, back into a pack of colored bobby-pin - I’m really hoping that wasn’t a gift for some little girl somewhere – and starts sticking her fingers in her ears.

So after about 7 minutes, yes that’s right, I could not stop staring at my watch, she stops poking at her ears. Perhaps you are breathing a sigh of relief for my past self. Well, it doesn’t stop there folks. She then proceeds to chew on her fingers for the next 12 minutes. Oh, you may think I mean chewing her fingernails or perhaps her cuticles. Well if so, you’re wrong. She was full on chewing her fingers one at a time. Seriously, fingers were halfway in her mouth and she was full on chewing them. This may just seem unusual, but what really made my stomach turn was that I could still see the ear gunk on her fingers as she is putting them in her mouth. I really think that I’m turning green at this point, and after about 15 or so more minutes, she gets off the bus.

At this point, I’m thinking, “Phew, I’m that was crazy!” Some girl takes this woman’s seat and as I look over at her, I realize that there is a hand dangling right next to my face. Where does this hand come from? Well, it belongs to the guy who is sitting behind me and decided to just rest his arm on my seat and hangs his hand over the headrest. So basically now I’m stuck staring straight ahead because if I lean towards my right, the vicious curtains pummel my face. If I lean left, this strange guy would be caressing my face. After a while, he finally gets off the bus, and a little bit after that, we finally get to where we wanted to be.

We get there and have pizza with a couple of other volunteers and a fellow trainee. It was amazingly delicious. It’s amazing how quickly I have started to miss food from the states. To have cheesy delicious pizza is an amazing treat. Mmmm….just thinking of that sets off a while chain of different foods I would love to have right now. Anyway, after having a few slices, we go to a couple of other PCV’s house and watch Hereafter with Matt Damon. It was awesome to hang out with new people and watch a movie, which I haven’t done since leaving California. It was just fun to do something that reminded me so much of something I would do back home, a great reprieve from all the training.

So, the next day I follow Morgan to one of her kindergarten classes before leaving to come back to my host family. That was pretty fun, but uneventful. The bus ride back was also fairly uneventful. I basically slept the entire way. After getting to my house, well that was different.

After the long bus ride back home, I was super excited to take a shower and relax in my room before going to bed early. I was stoked to see my house as I walked up my street. I unlocked the first gate and realized nobody was home. I walked to the back of the house, because I only have keys to the back of the house, and look at the second gate. I realize that there is a different lock on the door. I’m thinking, “Hm, well maybe they switched the locks on the doors,” and proceed to try the key that I would normally use for the 3^rd door. Yes, I need to get through 3 different doors to enter my house. That key works. So, I make it into the little patio area. I walk up to the 3^rd and final door that leads into the house, and I realize that this door has been locked from the inside. This is a problem because they use padlocks here, and since there is no way to get through the door to open the padlock, I am locked out. My family has locked me out of the house. After waiting for an hour, nobody had yet come home, so I decided to walk down to the payphone and call Claire to see if I could wait at her house. Luckily, she had already gotten home from her visit with her mentor and I stayed at her house until a few hours had passed and we tried to call my house, but nobody answered. We then decided to try to just go to my house and see if anyone was home. Yup, my host sister had been home for about half an hour.

Why she didn’t answer the phone, I don’t know. All I know is sometimes they don’t answer their phone. If you ever try to call and nobody picks up, try again, because there is a good chance that people are home, they just didn’t feel like answering the phone. If you call twice in a row, I will just answer it for them because I feel like if someone calls twice in a row, they probably really want to talk to somebody at the house. I don’t usually answer the phone for them because I don’t really feel like I should be answering someone else’s phone, but at a certain point, I feel like somebody should answer the phone, even if it is me.

Anyway, I think that’s all that happened this week. I hope it wasn’t too long and boring of a story. ¡Pura vida!

This is me with Morgan's cousins on the way to the river.