First Three Weeks

The past three weeks in Costa Rica has been a whirlwind of activities, meetings, classes, and a lot of Spanish. Hopefully I will be able to update this blog more often after I get this first “in country” entry posted online. Another disclaimer is that I will not be able to give details of my exact location, as per peace corps regulations if you would like to ask me more personal questions about my travels we can talk “off the record” through emails and such.

So I will start from the beginning. I landed at 1:40 PM at San Jose International, Airport, Costa Rica from Miami Airport, Florida after a three hour flight delay in Miami because the pilot in Miami got sick at the last moment. Landing in Costa Rica was pretty surreal, first in the sense that this country is extremely beautiful, and secondly that this country will be my home for the next 27 months. After landing in the airport we met up with Terry G the Peace Corps country director. All 16 of us loaded into a van to make our way to the Retreat Center in the mountains were we would stay for 5 days. (Our Van broke down halfway to the retreat, so we needed to wait 30 minutes for another one to come.)

As I think I described before the 16 peace corps trainees* ( Not officially “volunteers” because we have not finished the 2.5 months of training) is a unique group of people. 5 guys (ages 22-27) and 11 women (ages 22-25) almost all of us are either straight out of college or 1-3 years removed from just finishing college. In the past three weeks we have become a surprisingly cohesive group and I have made great friends with all of them. It is weird to think that we were all stranger 3 weeks ago, but now I consider many of them very good friends.

Anyways more about the retreat: INTENSE would be the word to describe the retreat and actually the past three weeks. During the “retreat” we had many welcome to Peace Corps meetings, reviewing rules and regulations, signing hundreds of papers, and many getting to know each other activities. After the first night of sleeping in bunk beds on the retreat grounds, in the morning, I had the pleasure of taking my first ice cold shower and sitting down to a plate of “Gallo Pinto” which is basically ”Breakfast Rice and Beans” with onions and serving of scrambled eggs and plantains. To some this may seem like a welcoming ethnic breakfast to enjoy on the occasion but for me this dish has become my morning routine. I have learned to eat Rice and Beans combined together for breakfast, Rice with a side of beans for lunch, and beans with a side of rice for dinner.

The days at the retreat served as great experience to get to know the Peace Corps staff and as well the fellow trainees. We also had a chance to meet other Peace Corp volunteers who were several months or years into their service already. On one of the last nights of the retreat all of the trainees went to the nearby town to have dinner on 2000 colones or 4 US Dollars our daily trainee stipend (appx. 515 colones = 1 US Dollar). After dinner we went to a bar to enjoy our first experience with the beer of Costa Rica. Imperial is the name of the beer, and it is really good. I don’t really know how to describe it, but it has a kind of crisp refreshing taste with a clean finish. I guess that doesn’t really describe it very well, but I personally like it better then the other popular Costa Rican beer called Pilsen. There is another extremely popular Costa Rican drink called Rock ICE, it’s an alcoholic lemon drink that tastes absolutely disgusting. It literally tastes like lemony “skunked” beer with a terrible salty after taste. Oh yeah, and they drink their beer in a glass with Ice hear. I though it was weird but its actually pretty good. Anyways after the bar we took the party back to the retreat grounds and had a dance party in the guys dorm room. All 16 of us danced pretty hard and I broke out some of my patented dance moves. Overall I had a lot of fun that night.

The next day was full of meetings from 8-5 and that evening we received our host family assignments, as to where we would be eating and sleeping for the next 2.5 months of training. On Sunday morning we all packed up and left the retreat area to head off to our host family houses. My host family consists of two parents with 2 sons and 2 daughters. Although 1 son and 1 daughter are older and do not live in the house. The children I live with are the 16 year old brother and 21 year old daughter. They are extremely welcoming, caring, generous, and laid back people. My host mother is a house wife and my host father is a coffee farmer. My host brother who I live with attends High School and my host sister is a student at a University. My house is situated on top of a hill, which is surrounded, by coffee plants, plantain trees, banana trees, and other exotic plants. The house, which I am living in, was entirely built by my host father. My room is on the main floor it has a twin sized bed, dresser and window. It is a simple room , but very clean and perfect for my needs. We also have a really small cute black Labrador puppy as a house pet. Her name is Muleca and I play with her all the time. In order to get to my house I need to hike up this steep hill through coffee fields while passing another fellow trainees host family’s house, which is just 100 meters away from my house. Her host mother is my host mothers sister. Usually when I get back from classes in the afternoon I always stop by her house for coffee and snacks.

The community which I live in is in the mountains near the capital city of San Jose. All of the trainees are split up into 4 different training communities. In my training community there is 2 girls and 3 guys including me. Everyday I have my Spanish class in a large vacant room next to the town church. My Spanish class consists of one Peace Corps language trainer and 3 other classmates. Sometimes in the afternoon we have large group meetings with all of the other Peace Corps trainees in the nearby high school, about 3 kilometers away. The peace corps is using a Community Based Training module for our training. In the past trainees needed to head into San Jose to attend all of their classes. This year they have incorporated a new approach and we have our classes in and around the communities in which we live in. On the days we have “All-Trainee” large group meetings we meet in a classroom at the local High School. Meetings usually last all day from 8:30 to 5:30. As I have said before training is extremely intense. I am always attending meetings, having classes, speaking Spanish, and eating Rice and Beans.

During the first week in our training communities we went to the local high school for a large assembly one afternoon to introduce ourselves to the students of the high school. When we entered the gym there were 17 seats on the gymnasium floor and 550 students sitting on the risers. All 16 of the volunteers sat down on the chair along with our Training Director. That afternoon in the gym there were many different speeches, presentations, and performance dances. It was definitely an experience I will not forget sitting in front of all the other students while watching the different performances. Towards the end we all introduced our selves and told what part of the US we were from. After the presentation we were formally invited to lunch consisting of Rice and Beans.

Despite the intensity of all the classes and extremely busy days I have really been enjoying myself. My host mother’s brother owns a local bar which has a really pretty view of the mountains and valley. At this bar, Karaoke is really popular so I had to break out my singing skills and sing the only two songs they had in English in front of the whole bar, “Eye of the Tiger” and “We are the Champions”. 2 weeks ago there was a dance at the high school which I attended and this coming Friday I am going to my host siblings friend’s 20th birthday party and then Saturday night there is another dance at a local bar near the high school. While the work had been really difficult I still definitely have a lot of fun. I am fortunate enough to have these social opportunities now for in 2 months or so I will be at my rural work site which most likely wont have as many social opportunities like dances and spending time in local bars.

When we have classes at the local high school we have had several guest speakers, received several series of medical shots, gone over Costa Rican History, discussed safety and security, practiced Non formal education methods, learned about rural community development, and have reviewed various assignments. All of these topics are works in progress and are only the beginning of 2 more months of training classes at the high school run by Peace Corps staff. My daily Spanish classes that take place in the large room next to the church are also really fun. We learn practical conversational Spanish through fun, innovative, and interactive learning processes. We play tons of games, make skits, and learn Costa Rican culture. I have been really lucky with my class because the 2 other guys that are in my class are really chill and laid back and like to have fun with the class like I do. As well the other girl, who lives right below, me is really nice and I have gotten to know pretty well. I thoroughly enjoy attending my Spanish class everyday, all though sometimes it can get overwhelming when we are going over particularly difficult material. I have definitely progresses extremely well with my Spanish skills and can now communicate very easily with people in entirely in Spanish. I am not yet fluent, but I can generally understand what people are saying and also respond back with a semi detailed response. Sometimes when we don’t have afternoon sessions at the high school we have individual one on one sessions with the language instructor.

During the breaks between the morning and afternoon sessions we head home for lunch. One day we had lunch at my fellow trainee, Andrew’s house. He has a pretty posh setup, as both his host parents own the only two stores in town. My whole Spanish class went along with my language instructor. She is a really good instructor. One day she told us that it was her dream to go to an Iron Maiden Concert. She is awesome.

Yesterday I got back from a 5 day field visit to two Peace Corps volunteers work sites. It was a big eye opening experience and it was awesome to spend so much time with two actual volunteers and ask them tons of questions. Both of the sites we went to were in the Northern parts of Costa Rica. A Peace Corps Volunteer named Mara worked at the first site we visited. She lived in a rural area of about 500 people. She was working on helping her community improve access to water as well as continuously working on other projects. As part of our requirement during the field visit we participated in a community service project of picking up trash around her town. After working for 4 hours in extremely windy and rainy conditions we managed to pick up 15 garbage bags full of litter and then sent them to the recycling center to be sorted. We received a lot of help from the kids in the community. One interesting thing about her site were these huge energy windmills scattered all over the mountains. Since the area was known to be particularly windy, companies setup shop around there and constructed around 30 windmills. The next site we went to was 3 hours away by bus. There we met up with Heidi another volunteer and helped her out in her community. We sorted donations for the school and assisted in her weekly English class. I ran one learning skit entitled “The Top 10 things most frequently left in New York City Taxi Cabs.” During our visit to her site we actually met up with a previous Peace Corps Volunteer who worked at Heidi’s site 10 years ago. The school she actually helped to build 10 years ago is still fully functioning today. It was really interesting to see how her impact still plays on today. Overall visiting all of the Peace Corps Volunteer works sites was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed meeting the other volunteers and asking them thousands of questions about their lives and their sites.

Now I am back at home in my training community after an 8-hour series of bus rides yesterday in order to get back. As I say again, my life here in Costa Rica has been really intense ever since I got off the plane. Everyday is a new day filled with adventure and new learning experiences. I have only been here for 3 weeks but it has truly felt like 3 months. I have made some really good friends here which I now I will get to know even better throughout the next 2 years. It is great to have other people by your side going through the exact same thing you are going through.

Well that is all for now. I hope this entry gives you a better idea of what I have been up to for the past three weeks. I already miss all of my family and friends back at home, but I know that I a have already and will continue to do great work here in order to benefit others. I know that the experiences which I will have throughout the next two years we impact my life profoundly. If you have any questions about anything, please email me, as I would love to hear from you. Adios y Pura Vida.