Peace Corps = Tower of Terror

Hello people. Firstly, I want to thank all of you who are reading my blog. Over the past week, I’ve been told of so many people who are following my journey and I have to admit I was surprised. I didn’t realize so many people took that much of an interest in me and what I’m doing, besides my family and a handful of friends. So, thank you. It sounds completely cheesy, but knowing that I have people reading and supporting what I am doing; knowing people are invested in me is truly inspiring. Right now, I definitely need all the motivation I can get.

So, the past week has had its ups and downs as forewarned by the Peace Corps. I’m sure the following weeks and months will continue in the same fashion. During training, they described the first 3 months in site as a rollercoaster. Actually, they described the entire service as a rollercoaster. I’m going to compare my experience thus far to the ride The Tower of Terror at Disneyland/Disneyworld. You start out contemplating jumping onto this crazy ride that they call the Tower of Terror (Peace Corps). You’ve heard plenty of good things about it: it’s thrilling, exciting, one of the best rides of people’s lives, etc. You hear a few disclaimers: it’s terrifying, it’s crazy, the line is long, etc. After weighing the possibilities, you decide to give it a whirl. What do you have to lose? So you jump in the crazy long line (or in my case started the ridiculously arduous application). Finally, you make it to the front of the line. You realize, “Oh shit, this is it.” This is your last chance. You can turn around, walk away and pretend it never happened or you can jump into the cage. You decide, “Yes, I’m going to do this.” You jump into the cage, and the friendly attendant trains you on safety measures, things you should know (Although it is quite vague; they can only tell you so much), and wish you the best of luck as you set off. Suddenly, you realize that you’re stuck. You’ve made your choice and now you have to live it. You sit in the dark wondering what’s going to happen, feeling the fact that you’re moving when all of a sudden you see something amazing. The special effects are awesome! You think, “Wow! This ride is crazy!” And before you know it, you drop. You’re plummeting in the dark not knowing what just happened and think, “Wow! This ride is crazy!” So you continue rising and falling, alternating between darkness and some amazing sites/views, until finally the ride is over and the attend welcomes you back to the real world.

Ok, so I’m only at the beginning of the ride. I’ve only said goodbye to my attendant. However, the ups and downs have begun. The past week has been full of culture shock and adjustment. Yes, you might think that training was the adjustment, but I should explain that training and being at site are two totally different games. It’s almost like moving up to the majors after playing in the minor league for a bit. All of a sudden the stakes are bigger and what you do affects not only your team but every fan who has become invested in your performance. Yes, I’m a rookie, so I have to give myself time to figure out how things are done here, but at the same time I feel like I have no idea what’s going on half the time.

In training, I was part of a group of people. We saw each other everyday and experienced the same things together. Now, I’m alone trying to figure out my life and my place here. Thus, I experience culture shock. I’m not sure I’m quite over it because I’m thinking it probably takes more than a week to adjust to being dropped in a foreign environment, but I have to say now that I’ve gotten my bearings a bit, it is definitely much easier that the first few days. The first days were kind of strange. I knew I was supposed to be integrating and establishing myself in my community. That sounds like a simple enough task, but then I get here and think, “Oh crap. How do you start integrating? What would be the first step to integrating?” Well let me tell you what I’ve done in the past week and let’s just call that the beginning of integration.

So, last week after I last wrote, I went back to the school the next day to work. I decided to start working on the diagnostic that I have to write up for my community. This is supposed to take up the bulk of our first 3 months at site. With this diagnostic, I have to interview the people and organizations of the community in order gather information about it in order to create a plan of action as to what projects I should be working on for the next two years. I figure the only place to begin would be writing a questionnaire for the interviews. I now have a draft in English and in Spanish and hope to wrap that up today so that I can start conducting interviews. I’m supposed to try and interview 10% of my community to get accurate data, which equals to about 250 people. We will see if that works out.

Oh, also on Wednesday I met the daughter of one of the cooks at the school. This was really exciting because she is the first person I have met here in her 20’s who doesn’t have kids or a husband. She is currently at university, but I’m definitely excited to have someone relatively close in age that I can call to do something with who doesn’t belong to my host family or bogged down with the responsibilities of a family.

On Thursday, I finally replaced my phone. I went into town with my host family and bought the same exact crappy little Nokia for about $50. However, this time I got a 1-year warranty. Why did I decide to buy the same exact crappy model if the first one has proven to be that lame? Well, because phones are expensive here and I’m living on a Peace Corps budget. Also, if this phone breaks, with the warranty, I can just buy another one. Also, my Auntie Dinna is coming in July and hopefully my sister will send her old blackberry with her so that I can upgrade for free in a couple of months.

That night was very strange. There was a power outage in our community for a good part of the night. Which was fine with me. I have a flashlight, a flashlight on my cell phone, and a kindle that has a light. I was set. I could have read in the dark until bed. It was just me, my host-mom and her boyfriend at the house that night. My little host-brother was spending the night at his dad’s place. All of a sudden, while I was sitting in the dark relaxing and enjoying the quiet, my host-mom tells me that we’re leaving. I attempt to go to my room to change into some clothing since I was just in my PJ’s or at least put on a bra, but my host-mom is adamant that we leave right away and I don’t need to change clothes. I try to protest a bit, but she doesn’t budge, so I just jump into her boyfriend’s car slightly bewildered. I’m not really sure what happened, but we end up picking up my host-brother, Dennis, but there is no exchange of words. The entire way home was full of awkwardness and silent tension. Add the fact that my host-mom’s boyfriend is blasting happy upbeat music on the radio, such as La Bamba (I do not lie). So we get home and I sit for a few minutes wondering what just happened as my host-brother starts to sob in the dark before I decide that I will probably never know and go to bed. It is true, I still don’t know what happened that night.

Friday was a downer because I was amped to go back to the school and work, but my host mom came home after dropping off my host-brother to school and told me that the school had been broken into the night before. So, I get my stuff ready to work at the school all day since it is Friday and it is my day to be there and try to check out what happened. I get there and the principal, Don Carlos, had left to go to the police station. I then walk to my classroom and am turned away by a teacher telling me that the classroom is occupied for the day. I am again bewildered. So then I walk home and decide that I would go run in the soccer field since I had nothing else to do that morning. After I change into workout clothes, my host-mom informs me that she saw Don Carlos heading back to the school. So, I decide to trek back to the school on the way to the field just to find out what happened. I talk to Don Carlos and he explained what had happened. The classroom that I use as my office was broken into, but nothing was stolen. Also, the kitchen was broken into and all the food was taken, but none of the appliances were touched. No other room was broken into, so his computer and all the other valuables were safe. He also explained that I couldn’t use the classroom because they were holding student elections in that room for the day. So I continue on with my day and go out for a run. I am no slightly paranoid that the thieves might have been after some of my stuff since my classroom was the only one that was touched and I now lock up my valuables whenever I leave my room at home. Although I’m pretty sure they weren’t after anything of mine since the principal’s computer was safe and sound in his office, one can never be too safe. Also, there is speculation that people stole the food because there are a lot of people in my community who don’t have food. This makes me sad. It’s sad to know that there are people who live with so little. That day, the kids had to go without lunch. This is especially sad because a lot of the kids only eat one meal a day, and that one meal is at school because it is free. I feel horrible for these families. It’s not like there’s a ton of opportunities for work around here, but my host-mom disagrees with me. She doesn’t sympathize at all. She believes that people are lazy and they could travel and find work if they really wanted to. That may be true, but I would like to believe that things are far more complicated than that.

Saturday was a more leisurely day. My host sister, Laura, and her in-laws took me to one the beaches close-by. This was a welcome relief. It was really nice to get out of my town for a bit and away from my host-mom who likes to hover. So, I get into the in-laws’ car, which is a very nice car by Costa Rican standards, and I become aware of a strange yet familiar sensation. I can’t figure out what it is. All of a sudden it hits me. The windows are closed yet I can feel a cool yet somehow artificial breeze. It’s the air conditioning. I don’t know when the last time I felt air conditioning. Oh yeah, probably on March 1st when I got here on an airplane.

The beach was pretty awesome. There were covered tables to have picnics and tropical trees surrounded the place. It took a while for me to realize this, but in those trees were monkeys. We were surrounded by monkeys. These were the kind of monkeys that looked like Ross’s monkey, Marcel, on Friends. I guess you could also compare it to the disease-ridden monkey from Outbreak. I thought of both. These monkeys were awesome. They would come down and take food from your hand if you wanted to feed them. I fed one a piece of bread.

It was so nice being at the beach. For a while I had forgotten that Costa Rica has nice places to relax and enjoy nature. There’s something soothing about being near the water, even better if you’re in it. Nothing beats the sounds and smells of the ocean. Also, I got to watch some people surf and it made me happy. I didn’t get to partake in any of that myself, but it felt good just to watch. It reminded me a little bit of home and a little bit of vacations. Oh also, it was really nice to get into the water and realize that it was super warm. It was like bath water. It was definitely a good day.

The next day was the feast day of my community. I was somehow coerced into participating in the parade and going to mass with my host-aunts. I supposed this was a good thing to do just to be seen out and about in the community. It was an interesting experience. I was told that I would be picked up at 9 am. So, I got ready and was waited and waited. I started to think that maybe they forgot and I could just go about my business when my host-sister, Adriana tells me to wait at the corner of the street and that they were on their way with a car. At this point, I think that we have to take a car to the parade. Oh, why do I even make assumptions anymore? All of a sudden the start of the parade comes by and the second pickup truck comes along and there’s one of my host-aunts telling me to jump into the truck as it does a slow roll. Since it didn’t really seem like I had a choice as the rest of the parade was lined behind the truck, I jumped in. So, I’m smashed in this truck that is full of people and I feel like I’m being trafficked somewhere and fight the urge to jump out. I look behind at the rest of the parade and realize that it’s only about 8 cars long. I guess the town wasn’t that excited for their feast day. So I go to mass and it was a relief because the format was exactly the same as it would be at home, if you take away the priest processing in and out. Instead of that, he puts on his robe thing and takes it off. If you remember the first time I attended mass in this country, I was utterly confused, so it was nice to have something familiar happen. Also, my sister informed me that this particular saint is the patron saint of lost causes. I found that kind of fitting. Sometimes work of the Peace Corps does feel like a lost cause. How much can a person change in two years?

So yesterday, I had a meeting with the principal/only teacher at the other school and met her afternoon students. It was really encouraging. She was really cool and very interested in my work here. She’s also very open to helping me out in the future. The class was amazing too. They all seemed really interested in who I am and what I’m doing here also. Oh, on top of all that, she had made her own diagnostic of the community earlier and is offering to let me use some of her information in my own diagnostic of the community. Amazing!

Also, on my way to the school, I ran into a girl and got to chatting. It turns out that she is 18 years old and works some days but some days she is just at home watching her younger siblings. She seems really open to future projects and hanging out so we exchanged numbers. She also is friends with the other girl I made friends with. It sounds stupid, but it was really exciting. The fact that she also owns a dog and seems to treat it well makes me like her even more. Yes, it is a small thing to chat with one girl, but it made me so happy. For me, it’s a sign that I can go out on my own and form relationships with individuals in the community. Take that integration!

So with those two accomplishments, I went home incredibly happy. Although, it did start to rain as soon as I stepped out of the school, I didn’t mind. And when I say that it rained, I mean that it really rained. Rain is no joke here in Costa Rica. It really made me glad that I invested in an umbrella the previous week. I’ve always really hated using umbrellas, but I was definitely glad to have one at that moment. I clung to that little thing like my life depended on it. On the way back, I ran into a guy on his horse and made small talk about the rain. By the time I got home, it had stopped raining, and despite my umbrella, I was pretty wet. Still, I felt that my day was successful. I had a good meeting, made a friend, and survived the rain all on my own. Yay me!

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for reading!