Smile. Don't kill Anyone.

Well, I realize that it’s been a while since my last actual post. The thing is that I haven’t had much access to the internet the past couple of weeks, thus this is a double post. Since the most recent post is usually at the top of the page, scroll down to the previous post and that’s where my first entry is, which I wrote about a week and a half ago.Anyway, this always seems to be the case, but a lot has happened in the last week. I have a feeling that this is going to be a long blog entry, but I figure that’s OK since it’s been so long. The best way to describe my time would be chronological so here it goes.

Remember how I was supposed to go out of town to visit another volunteer for our tech week? Well, the day before we were supposed to leave, I was packing my backpack with all the things that I would need for the week. As I’m trucking along, I’m looking for one of my black bras. I realize that it is gone. I know this because I had just washed it a few days prior and every time I open my wardrobe, I can see it. I then suspect my host-sister, Adriana, of taking it since she had previously pointed out how much she liked it when I was washing my clothes. However, because it would be a little bit illogical and rude to jump to conclusions I decide to search my entire room for this black bra. I go through all my clothes (I even re-folded them), my luggage and my backpacks. Nothing.

At this point, I’m thinking if I stand a chance of finding this bra, I would have to ask my host-mom. I was slightly hesitant to ask since she had a friend over and everyone was having coffee on the back porch. I was also needed to finish packing, and in the end that won. So I went out there where everyone is chatting, including my sister and asked about my “brassier negra.” My host-mom didn’t know where it was, and she reminded me that I’m the one that washes my own underwear and asked me if I looked everywhere. I told her I did, and she said that it was strange and didn’t know where it could be other than in my room.

So, I go back to my room to pack a bit before going out to the porch to have coffee with my host-mom and her friend. As I’m sipping on my cafecito, Adriana comes out wearing a fairly revealing top, and I see that she’s actually wearing the bra that I had just been looking for. I know this because the bra in question has 3 little beads on the front of the straps, thus I identify it as my own. Yes, she took my bra. Now, I’m sitting there shocked as she gives me a hug goodbye on her way out to some party. I’m going to pause here because I know a lot of you are thinking, “Why didn’t you say anything?” Well, let me tell you how paralyzing shock is. Seriously, try looking for something you really want or need, asking around for it, and then have it taken and rubbed in your face at the same time. It’s so unbelievable, in the moment you have to question the reality of the situation. So what happens next? Well, I leave the next day for tech week, but don’t worry, the tale of the missing bra continues when I get back.

For tech week our entire CYF group (Children, Youth and Families) were divided in half to go to two different communities close to each other. This meant that we would travel together on the same bus, and my group would have to get off a little bit sooner than the other group. The other group ended up going to visit my mentor and the community that I was in a couple of weeks prior. When we get to the community, we were then dropped off at our temporary host families and have lunch before some of us had to would go to a concert. This family was super amazing. They were made up of a mom, Milady, and her 14-year-old son, Byron. Yes, I found their super British names amusing. The Dad is still in the picture, but he’s working in the Dominican Republic at the moment. They were really cool and I’m definitely planning on going back to visit them at some point.

After lunch, we meet up to take a tour of the community. It was actually a really small community designed in a big circle with four little circles inside. It also had a really cool river that went through it. Once we got a basic idea of what the community looked like and what everything was, 5 of us and our volunteer, Chamisa, met up with 3 of the others from the other group to go to a nearby city to meet up with other current volunteers for pizza and go to this concert headlined by a local band called Malpais.

The pizza was amazing. We basically wolfed it down. I wouldn’t say that it was the best pizza I ever had, but it is the best pizza I’ve had in Costa Rica. Anyway, so we go and buy some beer for the concert. Frankly, everyone got a little ambitious and bought three cans of beer each. Nobody could finish the beer. I could only get through one and a half. I’m thinking it’s because we ate so much pizza and were so full. Hahaha, how things have changed. Anyway, when we finally get inside the venue, we realize that the opener is playing. Unfortunately, they aren’t very good. More unfortunately, they played for a very long time. By the time Malpais came on, we only got to see two songs before we had to leave so that we could catch the bus back to our communities.

After rushing through town to make it to the bus terminal, we barely make it there on time. We then realize that the bus had actually come 30 minutes early and had already left. This was a bit inconvenient considering it was the last bus of the night. Chamisa then somehow convinces one of the taxi drivers from her community to come pick us up in a buseta (a van taxi thing) for a super low price. To understand how lucky this was, you must realize that this community was about an hour away from where we were. Anyway, we decided to wait at the city center and eat some chicken while we waited for the driver to come. Well, the driver finally came and we all made it back to our community a little after 12 am. The three from the other group had to crash in our town because their community was even further away than ours was and it was already late.

The next day, Chamisa took us on a tour of this dairy factory where they made organic free-range yogurt, frozen-yogurt, and cheese. It was pretty cool. The place was pretty tiny, but it produced a lot of stuff. We got to have a free sample of their frozen yogurt and it was the best I’ve ever had. It tasted so fresh and was made with real fruit. The owner has aspirations to franchise his products, but at the moment he doesn’t have the means to do so. I hope that one day his products will reach the US because they are such good quality.

After that, we basically spent the rest of the day in the river. It was a pretty good river to swim in. It had some parts that were deep enough that I couldn’t feel the bottom, but it was very swim-able. The locals had also jammed a piece of wood between a couple of rocks to make a diving board. I’m not sure how safe it was to be diving in such shallow waters, but the kids seemed to do OK.

That night, I went with my friends Maitreya, Rosie, and Allen to go roller-skating at the local salon comunidad. You would think that this would entail people skating around in a large circle at a mellow pace while cheesy music plays in the background. Well, people were skating around in a circle and there was definitely some cheesy music, but there was no such thing as a mellow pace. Honestly, the way these people skated, ice-skating should be the national sport. These kids were skating incredibly fast, going backwards and doing crazy tricks. It was fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Rosie and Maitreya got their skates on first and I waited to see how Rosie’s skates fit because we have the same shoe size and we weren’t sure how to convert shoe sizes. Well, it turned out that I didn’t need to know my shoe size. Their first round out, Maitreya gets taken out from behind, then Rosie rolls up on the pile up and basically flips before crashing out also. It was a disaster. I was so freaked out, I decided that I was not going to skate. Since I know what it’s like to break a bone, I wasn’t so keen in doing it again. Anyway, the girls kept going and eventually they convinced Allen to get skates. He basically made it around 5 times in one hour, but he looked frightened the entire time. Maitreya came up and asked me if I was going to skate and I replied, “Are you kidding?! I’m scared just standing here!!” I was scared and with good reason. I almost got taken out myself when this guy crashed into me. Besides flinching all night and looking like a fool it was actually a pretty fun night.

The next day, we all participated in an exercise class that Chamisa. While a lot of fun, it was just the beginning of a day full of physical activity. The class consisted of a full body workout, which was felt really nice since I hadn’t had much time to workout in San Jose. After that, we then had a recreational activity with the younger kids of the community. We played “Capture the Flag” for a couple of hours. That was exciting because that was my Non-Formal Education (NFE) project in Spanish class, and it was cool to lead that activity. Eventually, with the help of the others and Chamisa we tweaked the rules and the teams to facilitate the game. It was so hot and incredibly exhausting, but so much fun. The kids were so into it. We quickly realized that we had to play boys against girls because we trainees couldn’t figure out who was on whose team since we don’t know the kids of the community. I’m not going to lie, the boys definitely cheated a bit, but in the end that didn’t matter because everyone was having fun.

After playing with the little kids, we then played Ultimate Frisbee with the teenagers and young adults. This was also incredibly fun, but we were so tired. At that point in the day, the only time we weren’t doing something physically active was when we were eating. We started comparing ourselves to the contestants on “The Biggest Loser.” That became our inside joke for the rest of the trip. It was hilarious because we don’t have any obese people in our group, but we were struggling to keep up with all the games all day. Although we were tired, we were having so much fun it didn’t matter.

Later, some of the girls in our group had to do their NFE project with some of the local teenage girls while a couple of us watched them for peer evaluation. My friend, Coy, and I went with Chamisa to one of the local puplerias to read books to some of the kids. It was kind of interesting to read stories from my childhood in Spanish, but I think the kids liked it. At this point, I noticed that most of the kids were not wearing any shoes. I thought that it might have been because it was raining pretty hard earlier that day and the streets became muddy. I later learned that they didn’t wear shoes because they are so poor that they only have one pair of shoes for school and they don’t wear shoes the rest of the time. It was another one of those eye-opening moments for me. It still shocks me that people can live in that kind poverty.

The next day, after Coy and I watched Maitreya and Allen’s NFE in a 2nd grade class, we did our own NFE. We worked with a 4th grade class and it was pretty amazing. We did a little session on hand washing and the importance and execution of it. At first we worried that the topic would be too simple for the age group, but it turned out to be perfect. The kids were into it and we had a hand washing relay race that they were into. I hope that they went home learning something from the lesson and wash their hands regularly. However, I hope that they were washing their hands before our lesson. I’ll never know, but I know that were engaged in our lesson because at the end when we asked what they learned, they answered using all the information we gave them.

Later that day, Chamisa took us to a greenhouse that she built with a group of women in the community. This was one of her projects in which she helped the women gain another source of food that was cheap and healthy. Everything grown in the greenhouse is used in their kitchen. They then sell the extras that they can’t eat. This then becomes an extra source of income for them and their families. These women are amazing. The greenhouse is hard work and they built and take care of it themselves.

So we got divided up to work in different parts of the greenhouse doing different things. There were people sawing into bamboo in order to make planters, some people watered all the plants, some tended to the plants. Coy, Allen and I decided to help build a trench around the greenhouse so that it doesn’t get flooded when it rains. While we were shoveling dirt, it started to rain pretty hard. They gave us the option of doing a different job, but the lady who was working with us wasn’t quitting, so we didn’t either. We dug a ditch around an entire side of the greenhouse. By the time we were done, we were soaked through and completely muddy. It was awesome. Helping the community with a project so tangible was incredibly satisfying. It also made me appreciate hard labor. It was also inspiring to know that these ladies constantly work hard on their greenhouse to improve it without help. It was amazing to see how much got done when they had the help of 7 extra pairs of hands.

After working, a couple of the kids chopped down a bunch of coconuts from a nearby tree and used a couple of machetes to open it up so that we could drink the water inside. That was site that I don’t think that I will soon forget. They were so tiny and they handled those machetes so well. They couldn’t have been older than 10, but they definitely knew what they were doing. I was slightly afraid they were going to chop off a foot or slice open their heads, but nothing happened. Their mom’s didn’t even flinch. Once we had some coconut water, it was time to leave, but all the women and the kids wanted to take pictures with us. It was kind of sweet. It was almost like we were celebrities, especially the boys. Seriously, you would have thought Brad Pitt and George Clooney just happened to be in this little town. It was hilarious. At one point a teenage girl wanted a picture with them, but was too embarrassed so she had her mom ask for her. She did, but only after she herself got a picture with them. Hahaha. The boys looked slightly uncomfortable which made it even more hilarious. Anyway, the whole greenhouse experience may have been my favorite part of the trip.

That night we all went to the local bar and had a couple of beers. It started to pour when we got there. It was the craziest rain I have ever seen. It looked like fake movie rain. It reminded me of Jurassic Park with the dirt roads and the exotic foliage in the background. I half expected a T-rex to come crashing through the bar. Since one didn’t come, it ended up being a relaxing evening. My sister even called me to top it all off. Couldn’t ask for a better night…well no, I lie. It would have been nice to not have to walk home through muddy roads, but it didn’t come close to ruining the night.

Anyway, the next day, we went to visit the other group where my mentor, Morgan, was planning a rally at the local high school. This rally was crazy. It was basically a competition to get your team through 15 activity stations as fast as you can. Remember how the other day seemed like “The Biggest Loser?” Well, this day was like that except mix in a bit of “Survivor” also. These stations were intense. In one of the courses we had to hang upside down on a rope and get from one side of the room to the other. In another we had to army crawl under a ropes course through mud. We had to move through an obstacle course carrying one of our team members standing on board that was about 4-5 inches wide. It was a pretty crazy day. It was also crazy fun. It was also completely exhausting. My team couldn’t even finish all the courses because we had to take a bus back to our town. We were so dirty, the bus driver almost didn’t let us on. He did, but we weren’t allowed to sit down. Hahaha. I can’t blame him. We were so filthy.

When we got back, a bunch of us went back to the river to clean off before returning to our host families. It turned out to be a good idea because there was so much mud encrusted in our clothes and shoes, it would have been impossible to get it all off at our houses. We were basically bathing in the river while trying to clean our clothes at the same time. When I got home, my host-mom tried to clean them out again because they still were dirty. It was a lot of work to get my clothes back into decent shape, but it was totally worth it. It was an amazing way to end the trip.

That night, all the girls came over to my house to get pedicures because Milady is a stylist and did it for what amounted to $2 American. It was really nice to just relax and hang out with friends. I actually got mine done the night before so I just hung out with everyone else. By the time she finished, it was pretty late and the others wanted to go out to a bar, but Milady and Byron wanted to watch a movie with me so I stayed in since it was my last chance to spend time with them. We watched Twilight with Spanish subtitles. It was hilarious because Milady kept saying how handsome Robert Pattinson was except for the fact that he was super white.

The next day we met up with the other group so that we could take the bus back home together. Did I mention how much I hate buses? Well, I am going to have to reiterate that feeling. The first bus ride that we took was definitely interesting. I sat next to Maitreya which was pretty fun, but I definitely wished that I had the window seat. Our bus was pretty full, so some people had to stand. Well, the lady who decided to stand next to me was definitely packing a few extra pounds. And when I say a few, I mean that I lost my entire shoulder is in her belly. I’m not really sure what happened there. One moment I’m talking to my friend, the next I look over and there is a big belly next to my face. All I could think of was “Get into my belly!” from Austin Powers. The worst part was when someone wanted to get off the bus, she would lean closer to me. Basically we were cheek to belly for those moments. Losing my arm in a ball of tummy was the strangest sensation that I never want to experience again.

Well, a bit into the trip, we had to switch buses. This time I sat next to Allen and had the window seat. Oh, but I can never win. On this bus, the seats seemed to be on top of each other. It also seemed to be trying to double as a sauna. We also happened to be sitting in the row where 2 windows meet so we didn’t have any control over the ventilation in our area. Well, we started off with all the windows open. Then the lady sitting in front of me decided to slowly torture me for the next 3 hours. Firstly, she decided to recline her chair as far back as it could go. Now, I’m not that tall, thus my legs are not that long. However, she managed to get my knees smashed against the back of her chair. Frankly, she was basically in my lap. Then 2 minutes into the trip she decided to close her window. At this point, I’m very uncomfortable. Luckily, we made a pit stop at a restaurant halfway through that bus trip so that everyone could stretch their legs and get a snack. Unluckily, when we got on the bus, she tried to recline her chair further but when it wouldn’t budge because my knees wouldn’t allow it, she looked back and glared at me as if all of her problems were due to my legs existence. I just glared back as if all my problems were due to her trying to cut off circulation to my lower extremities.

I have to go on a tangent here. At the rest stop I grabbed a little box of chocolate milk. It was delicious. I was sitting on the bus when I finished and decided to read what was on the box for a lack of better things to do. All of a sudden I see a disclaimer that reads, “Breast milk is the best food for nursing.” At this point I almost vomited all over myself. Here, I’m thinking, “Oh shit. I just drank someone’s chocolate flavored breast milk.” I then realized that the disclaimer to prevent mothers from giving their newborns chocolate milk. I’m not going to lie. I freaked out for a few moments there. Who wouldn’t?

When we finally make it back, I start to get slightly depressed about having to go back home and face my thief host-sister. When I get home, I realize that my host mom is not there. Adriana tells me that her mom when out of town and that she’s not sure when she’ll be home. I think, “Great, this isn’t going to be awkward at all.” I basically go to my room and crash early. After a couple of days, my host-mom finally comes home and has somehow figured out that all my clothes have disappeared from the cabinets. I explained the disappearance on my host-sister-in-law taking my dirty clothes to wash since she was out of town. I didn’t have time to elaborate because I had to get ready for VAC night, which is basically a night when all the PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteers) from all across the country come back to socialize and have fun for one night.

VAC was super fun. I used it as an opportunity to spend a night out of my community and hang out with all my friends and meet new people. I stayed at a hostel, which was taken over by PCV’s and PCT’s (Peace Corps Trainees). After dropping off my stuff at the hostel, I went with other PCT’s to the bar where we everyone was meeting. It was awesome. The space was exclusively for us for a few hours. It was pretty surreal. For a few hours it felt like we were back home in the States. After the bar, a bunch of people went to this Lebanese restaurant for dinner. That was tasty, yet incredibly filling. Also, it took forever for the food to come out since there like 60 volunteers there.

After dinner, a bunch of people decided to go to this salsa club. It was fun, but definitely not my scene. I can’t dance in general, and there was no way that I could dance all the Latin dances. On top of everything, there were so many people who danced super well that it was a bit intimidating to get out there. Anyway, some of us left early and went back to the hostel. After jumping on the internet really quick, I was going to go to bed when I see all these people in the outside common area playing music and hanging out. The hostel was actually really big and had all these different common areas used for different activities. Anyway, someone had brought speakers for their ipod, and we all ended up dancing and talking until past 3 in the morning. It was a cool after-party party. It was so nice to be able to go out and feel like a grown up again.

The next day, a bunch of us decided to go out to lunch in the city before having to go back to our little communities. We chose to go to this little place that serves all sorts of Asian food. They even had Filipino Adobo. I decided to go for a lemongrass chicken dish, and it was delicious. I miss my ethnic foods so much! Seriously, I’m already compiling a list of foods I want to eat when I go back home.

Anyway, when I get back home my host-mom decides to give me a key to my door. I think that they figured out what was going on because as I was going though my stuff, I found my bra stuffed in one of my backpacks. I know that it was placed there because I definitely would not have put my bra in that bag. I use it to store my workout bands. Also, I noticed that the bag that my mosquito net is in was opened and slightly disheveled. I’m thinking that Adriana was looking for a place to put bra that wouldn’t be obvious. I mean, it would have been obvious if she put it back in my empty wardrobe. The key to the door definitely made me feel a little bit better because it meant that my host-mom was aware that something weird was going on and that I didn’t feel that my things were secure. However, I also know that Adriana had taken a key to my door when I first moved in. So, while I have been locking my door, I still lock my stuff up because I just don’t know. Also, Adriana has decided to stop talking to me and has been avoiding me. That’s fine with me as I have nothing to say to her.

To be honest, it doesn’t really matter much anymore. It turns out that Peace Corps is moving me out of my house. No, not because my bra was taken, although they do know about that. What happened is that a couple of guys tried to rob Claire’s house down the street a few nights ago. The scary thing is that they were in her house while she was asleep and happened to be alone. Luckily, her host-mom came home as they were trying to take the TV and they took off. Now, the Peace Corps needs to take her out of the house and because there was only two of us in this community, they need to move me out also for my safety and security. Now we are moving to a house together because they found a family who was willing to take a PCT on the condition that they could have both of us. This family actually was hosting a different PCT who had to leave early due to a family issue back home.

The good news is that now I will have regular internet access. We move on Sunday. We would be moving earlier except that Andres and my host-mom want to take me on a trip this week, so we have to wait. It’s sweet that they are still willing to take me out even though I’m moving out. Adriana is still ignoring me. Hahaha.

Anyway, that’s my life up to now. Sorry for the incredibly long blog, but now you know. Next time I write, I will probably know where my future site will be. Stay tuned!