Right now I am in Guanacaste, a region in Costa Rica, at an internet cafe writing this blog. I dont have much time but wanted to get a quick blog in before I meet the volunteer I am going to be staying with for the next 4 days. I am right now visiting,by myself, another volunteer at his site to live with him and ask him all these different questions about being a volunteer. I took a rediculous long bus ride to get here and it is scorching hot outside and I am grateful to be indoors where it is only slightly a few degrees cooler. Anyways this should be a great trip and I hear he has a rediculous river near his site where he hangs out alot, so it should be alot of fun. He also went to the University of Michigan so we have alot in common, that being extremely smart, incredibly handsome, and just being generally amazing. Haha.
When I write these blogs it is just soo hard to remember what I have done in the past days. As I have written before my days are really long and everyday I am doing something different, new, and exciting all the time it is hard to remember things. Either that or I am losing my memory at an extremely fast rate. Anyways a couple of days ago we went to a ¨Trapiche¨ for 5 hour long class activity. A ¨Trapiche¨is a mill of sorts which extracts the sugar ¨juice¨from the raw sugar cane. They then take that juice and boil it for like 5 hours and then pour it into molds and then let it dry and then eat it. It is a pretty interesting process to see but It was difficult to be there for so long becuase one can pretty much get the jist of how it works after being there for only 15 minutes. During one of our breaks we all went to the river and just hung out for like an hour as the sugar juice was bubbling away. So basically that day we all just hung out and did nothing, which was pretty cool.
The next day I went with my language class to the colegio (high school) and we spoke to the english teachers which we will be working with in teaching an english class. On the monday after next I will be teaching 2 (40) minute enlglish classes with my other volunteer friend Jenn. We will be teaching sports and past times. It should be pretty interesting. Then later that day my friends Bre and Marcela were going to come over to my house and watch a movie that afternoon but once one of them arrived I realized I had no power in my house all afternoon. Basically there was a country wide blackout that entire afternoon. So we didnt end up watching the movie we just hung out on my awesome deck on top of the mountain overooking this valley and talked and listened to music. Then Bill and Byron came over and played their guitars. Then 5 more volunteers came to my house and before I knew it I had like 9 volunteers at my house. My host parents came back to see me and all of my friends hanging out on the deck and they were happy to see them all again, almost all of them went to my birthday bash a couple weeks back. Anyways my parents needed to leave to go to San Jose to visit my host nephew at the hospital. So that meant I had the whole house to myself with all of my friends. So as one can expect we had to thrown a party. My host parents invited everyone to stay while they were leaving so It was totally fine in having everyone there. My host parents left and then I went with my host brother to get beer,chips, and 7 boxes of macaroni and cheese. All in all we had a really fun night at my house on top of the mountain listening to music, drinking beers, eating macaroni and cheese and of course having an insane dance party. Then later that night the party came to a halt at around 9 oclock the power went out again. At that point it was pitch black dark and there was no power in all of Costa Rica. It was really cool looking from my deck into the valley and only seeing the glow of lightening bugs in distance flickering on and off. It was a pretty cool experience. So then we all just listened to music, hung out on my deck, and watched the lightening bug light show in the valley. Awesome night.
Last night I went to the ¨Hippy¨bar near my training community with 7 other volunteers. It was the same bar I went to before for the live classsic rock show. It was a really good time with plenty of Imperial and Bamboo to be had by all. Also they have AMAZING pizza and we made sure to order 3 Large Everything pizzas throughout the night. It was an awesome time. It is especially beautiful because the bar is on this hill which has a large porche and an amazing view of San Jose. Great times.
Now here I am in Guanacaste starting my trip to visit Ben, the peace corps volunteer from michigan, and checking out his site. It is crazy because a) by this time next week I will find out my actual site, and b) by this time this week I will be chilling with all of the other volunteers at a private beach house which we will have rented for the night. I am super excited.
Anyways I hope all is well at home and abroad, and for those of you sending me emails and facebook messages keep the coming it is great to hear from you.
Much love and Respect,
Rudy
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Spanish, Hippies, Beach, and Bamboo
Greetings everyone. Still living my life here in Costa Rica. Things have been really good and as usual really fun. It is amazing how much better my Spanish is getting day by day. I usually have Spanish class at least 3 times a week, but every second of everyday I am using Spanish. I have gotten to the point where I can definitely speak and be spoken to with relative ease. I am working more on getting my conjugation of verbs perfected but for the most part things have been really good and I am glad to be speaking the native language.
This past week of classes has been relatively uneventful. I had my Spanish classes in the morning with invididual attention in the afternoon. As well I have continued having classes at the local high school. Those classes this week mainly focuses on learning about the Costa Rican Education system, Safety and Security matters in Costa Rica as well as Medical Information dealing with Sexualy Transmitted Infections. Another big event was on Friday we had a community meeting with the development association of our training town. Lindsay, Andrew, Bre, Bill and I ran the community meeting of about 20 people. We had been preparing for the meeting all week and it ran really well. Our Technical trainer as well as a language facilitator was there to evaluate as and they both said we ran the meeting successfully. We spoke about the strength, resources, community groups, and future of the community. It lasted for about 1 and half hours and of course was entirely in Spanish.
The next day we had class on Saturday for the first time. At the high school we had a project fair where we got to learn about 6 different projects Peace Corps volunteers are/have been working on. There were presentations on Sexual education talks in the community, setting up kids camps, the creation of a micro enterprise ice cream store sprouting from a women´s group, organizing band instruments for an elementary school, setting up an art festival centered around peace, and organizing the construction of a fence to a surround a school which is near a crocodile reserve. All of these projects are really interesting and a clearly only a small taste of what over 100 peace volunteers in Costa Rica are doing right now. I can´t wait to start up my work in my community and see how I can help them best. I will of course share my latest progressions in whatever projects I am working on in this blog. The project fair helped me reflect upon my dedication to being a peace corps volunteer and the work that will be ahead of me. Training so far has been very demanding and always on a tight time schedule that we haven’t really been able to do much of what we want to do necessarily.
Although I still have been able to squeeze in time to hang out with the other volunteers on the weekend and nights.
For example this past Saturday night we went to this ULTRA chill bar located on top of this mountain overlooking San Jose. The bar had a live classic rock cover band playing everything from Janis Joplin, to Steppenwolf, to the Doors. It was absolutely amazing. It was also a pizza place which sold really good pizza. The people there were also mega chill. There were some people decked out in full tye dye attire, with peace sign necklaces, and long long 80´s haircuts. It was like travelling in a time machine and chilling, listening to incredible music with tons of hippies. I shared some Imperials with the other volunteers as well as my new favourite drink called ¨Bamboo¨. Which is basically rum and coke in a can with a 7.5 % alcohol content. One can imagine that with a few of those things can get pretty crazy pretty fast. Haha. Anyways a lot of the time I feel that I am writing a lot about the partying aspect of being here in Costa Rica but it is not like I am partying all the time. I just enjoyable to write about, as most of the time I am either in class, eating rice and beans, or sleeping. So the few times we get to go out are an absolute blast.
After the crazy night at the hippie bar we took the last bus back to our training communities and promptly went to sleep to wake up at 3 AM to go with Lindsay, Bre, and Andrews family to the beach. My family couldn’t go because they had other engagement, but I was lucky enough to squeeze into Andrew´s family car which consisted of him, his host mom, and his two host nieces. We finally left our training community at 4:30 AM to drive 4.5 hours to the beach. We drove through the most Rocky terrain, up and down mountains, literally through 2.5 foot deep rivers, while narrowly avoiding millions of other animals and cows that are just hanging out in the middle of the jungle ¨road¨. Bottom line it was a crazy and very long uncomfortable ride. But we finally made it to Playa Manuel Antonio and It was really really beautiful. Many people think that I am in Costa Rica just chilling by the beach all the time but after almost 7 weeks this is the first time I even saw the coast! So Bre, Andrew, Lindsay and I had an amazing time at the beach with the families. We spent maybe 6 hours at the beach and then started the ride back which was another 4.5 hours. On the way back the car broke down temporarily because the connection to the car battery was loose after travelling through all the rocky terrain. Another event happened where Andrew needed to cross a one lane bridge to stop traffic going through the bridge so that cars from the other side of the bridge could finally move across after a 30 car back up. As well on the way we stopped at Bre´s host dads brothers house where I forged a really wide fast running river with some of Bre´s host dad´s friends to ¨borrow¨ some Papayas from their friends huge 1,000 papaya tree plus papaya plantation. We finally made it home around 10:00 o´clock, tired, hungry, and incredibly sun burnt. But overall we had a lot of fun and I am really glad to have finally made it to the beach.
Right now I am in Desamparados with 8 other volunteers and I am writing this email from the JUMBO supermarket again. We just ate at pizza hut and tomorrow we have classes again. We found a sweet villa near the beach where we might spend our next out of sight night and In 2 weeks I will find out my actual site where I will be working for the next 2 years. Things are really great here and I miss everyone a lot. Everyday is a new day for me, Everyday is a new learning experience. It has gotten to the point where I don’t even remember what I did three days ago because everyday is filled with new things and new adventures. I am really grateful to be here and this is definitely an adventure of a lifetime. I look forward to the future and as well having any one of you come over to Costa Rica to come over and live life with me. Anyways life is good, I miss you all, and I hope to hear from you all soon !
This past week of classes has been relatively uneventful. I had my Spanish classes in the morning with invididual attention in the afternoon. As well I have continued having classes at the local high school. Those classes this week mainly focuses on learning about the Costa Rican Education system, Safety and Security matters in Costa Rica as well as Medical Information dealing with Sexualy Transmitted Infections. Another big event was on Friday we had a community meeting with the development association of our training town. Lindsay, Andrew, Bre, Bill and I ran the community meeting of about 20 people. We had been preparing for the meeting all week and it ran really well. Our Technical trainer as well as a language facilitator was there to evaluate as and they both said we ran the meeting successfully. We spoke about the strength, resources, community groups, and future of the community. It lasted for about 1 and half hours and of course was entirely in Spanish.
The next day we had class on Saturday for the first time. At the high school we had a project fair where we got to learn about 6 different projects Peace Corps volunteers are/have been working on. There were presentations on Sexual education talks in the community, setting up kids camps, the creation of a micro enterprise ice cream store sprouting from a women´s group, organizing band instruments for an elementary school, setting up an art festival centered around peace, and organizing the construction of a fence to a surround a school which is near a crocodile reserve. All of these projects are really interesting and a clearly only a small taste of what over 100 peace volunteers in Costa Rica are doing right now. I can´t wait to start up my work in my community and see how I can help them best. I will of course share my latest progressions in whatever projects I am working on in this blog. The project fair helped me reflect upon my dedication to being a peace corps volunteer and the work that will be ahead of me. Training so far has been very demanding and always on a tight time schedule that we haven’t really been able to do much of what we want to do necessarily.
Although I still have been able to squeeze in time to hang out with the other volunteers on the weekend and nights.
For example this past Saturday night we went to this ULTRA chill bar located on top of this mountain overlooking San Jose. The bar had a live classic rock cover band playing everything from Janis Joplin, to Steppenwolf, to the Doors. It was absolutely amazing. It was also a pizza place which sold really good pizza. The people there were also mega chill. There were some people decked out in full tye dye attire, with peace sign necklaces, and long long 80´s haircuts. It was like travelling in a time machine and chilling, listening to incredible music with tons of hippies. I shared some Imperials with the other volunteers as well as my new favourite drink called ¨Bamboo¨. Which is basically rum and coke in a can with a 7.5 % alcohol content. One can imagine that with a few of those things can get pretty crazy pretty fast. Haha. Anyways a lot of the time I feel that I am writing a lot about the partying aspect of being here in Costa Rica but it is not like I am partying all the time. I just enjoyable to write about, as most of the time I am either in class, eating rice and beans, or sleeping. So the few times we get to go out are an absolute blast.
After the crazy night at the hippie bar we took the last bus back to our training communities and promptly went to sleep to wake up at 3 AM to go with Lindsay, Bre, and Andrews family to the beach. My family couldn’t go because they had other engagement, but I was lucky enough to squeeze into Andrew´s family car which consisted of him, his host mom, and his two host nieces. We finally left our training community at 4:30 AM to drive 4.5 hours to the beach. We drove through the most Rocky terrain, up and down mountains, literally through 2.5 foot deep rivers, while narrowly avoiding millions of other animals and cows that are just hanging out in the middle of the jungle ¨road¨. Bottom line it was a crazy and very long uncomfortable ride. But we finally made it to Playa Manuel Antonio and It was really really beautiful. Many people think that I am in Costa Rica just chilling by the beach all the time but after almost 7 weeks this is the first time I even saw the coast! So Bre, Andrew, Lindsay and I had an amazing time at the beach with the families. We spent maybe 6 hours at the beach and then started the ride back which was another 4.5 hours. On the way back the car broke down temporarily because the connection to the car battery was loose after travelling through all the rocky terrain. Another event happened where Andrew needed to cross a one lane bridge to stop traffic going through the bridge so that cars from the other side of the bridge could finally move across after a 30 car back up. As well on the way we stopped at Bre´s host dads brothers house where I forged a really wide fast running river with some of Bre´s host dad´s friends to ¨borrow¨ some Papayas from their friends huge 1,000 papaya tree plus papaya plantation. We finally made it home around 10:00 o´clock, tired, hungry, and incredibly sun burnt. But overall we had a lot of fun and I am really glad to have finally made it to the beach.
Right now I am in Desamparados with 8 other volunteers and I am writing this email from the JUMBO supermarket again. We just ate at pizza hut and tomorrow we have classes again. We found a sweet villa near the beach where we might spend our next out of sight night and In 2 weeks I will find out my actual site where I will be working for the next 2 years. Things are really great here and I miss everyone a lot. Everyday is a new day for me, Everyday is a new learning experience. It has gotten to the point where I don’t even remember what I did three days ago because everyday is filled with new things and new adventures. I am really grateful to be here and this is definitely an adventure of a lifetime. I look forward to the future and as well having any one of you come over to Costa Rica to come over and live life with me. Anyways life is good, I miss you all, and I hope to hear from you all soon !
Monday, April 09, 2007
VAC Dinner, Birthday, Crazy Fun Life In Costa Rica
Usually I pre write my blogs at home so I can take some time to think about what I have done the past week. But right now I am writing from JUMBO supermarker in Desamparados, Costa Rica. I just bought some Macaroni and Cheese, Pesto Sauce, and Ritz crackers. It is pretty awesome. I am with my friends Lindsay, Bill, and Andrew. We just finished a long day of spanish classes in the morning and then we had individual one on one sessions with our teacher in the afternoon.
Anyways..... VAC dinner. One word... Crazy. Tico 16 held it down strong. The room which me, Bill, and Andrew had ¨Room 514¨the corner room had all the action going down. We all arrived at the hotel around 1 oclock. I went the internet to post my past blog. Then went back to the room to find all of Tico 16 in our room starting to drink. We started off the VAC dinner festivities with our friends Jim Beam, Johnnie Walker, and Mr. Bacardi. We of course had the music flowing and some pre dinner dancing festivities going on. We finally left our room at around 3 went to the actual dinner we immediately upon arrival ordered 4 of the most rediculous shots they had. They were in a large wine glass and they were ¨en fuego¨. We dined on some OK tasting pasta then moved back to the hotel to continue the party. We threw back on the tunes and danced for another 2 or 3 hours in Room 514 then attempted to go to a club in San Jose. We werent very succefull as alot of us didnt bring any ID and couldnt really get in. Seperated and Discouraged we all went back to the hotel to continue the party. We continued our festivities well into the night. Me and the other guys were officially the last peace corps people up in the hotel when we decided to call it a night around 5:30 in the morning. I have to say that Tico 16 came in strong and we were definately the life of the party. We definately set the bar high for our future VAC dinners. The whole event was a lot a lot of fun.
I am really proud to be part of Tico 16. All of us get along really well and we are all really good friends. We all definately know how to party and definately make the best out of any situation. I am glad to be part of such a good group of people for the next 2 years. All I can say is Tico 17 watch out now. You got a lot of good people waiting for you here in Tico 16.
The next important thing was my birthday party. I am very greatful for my host family here to have helped me thrown such a good party. We began on Saturday at around 2 oclock. I invited all of my other volunteer friends and pretty much all but 3 or 4 showed up. We definately had a lot of fun and of course had a dance party. Towards the end we broke out the Karaoke and I sang my new favorite Karaoke song ¨Puerto Limon¨. After the Karaoke we broke out the Birthday cake which when I went to blow out the candles, Bill cordially smashed my face into the cake. It was really funny for everyone else, but I distinctly remember having so much frosting in my mouth and nose that I almost couldnt breath. All in all it was good fun. After the cake we moved over the the local bar which is owned by my host moms brother. Basically in my training community everyone knows everyone and in some way or another your host family is related tosomeone in the community. Its pretty cool. After 4 hours at the bar, half of the timei singing Karoke, and as well drinking some Imperial in between we took the last bus to the town center to watch the rest of the midnight mass. As this weekend was ¨Semana Santa¨the holiest week of the year there were late night ceremonies were some of our friends were playing in the church band. Finally I got home around 1 oclock on my birthday night. It was definately a crazy time, alot of things happened that night which could obviously only happen in Costa Rica. I am really grateful for all of the friends I have made here and that they took the time to spend time with me on my birthday. Also I am thankful for my host family in hosting my awesome birthday party.
During ¨Semana Santa¨ we all had time off from classes, so that allowed us some extra time to explore. I first went with a couple of other volunteer girls to the local waterfall/swimming hole. The waterfall wasnt really to dramatic, it was more like a lot of ¨falling water¨then an actual waterfall. But nonetheless it was really fun and really beautiful and we all got a chance just to hang out. Yesterday I went again to the waterfall with a couple more people and we enjoyed some wine at the waterfall and then went to the bar afterwords.
Things overall have been very good over here. I am definately enjoying my time here but I am also continuing to miss my family and friends back at home. I am thankful to have my other peace corps volunteer friends with me by my side but I cannot forget that within the next month or so we will all be leaving to our seperate sites to begin the ¨real¨work. I am excited to find out my site which will probably happen in 2 weeks. But before that I have another one on one PCV visit where I will be able to see how they live their lives similar to the trip I went on before. As well I am looking forward to our next out of site night were all of Tico 16 is looking to rent a cabin somewhere by the beach and party it up Tico 16 style.
Anyways that is the news for now. If anyone wants to chat more ¨off the record¨ just send me an email as well I can give you my phone number If you would like to call my house. I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all.
Rudy Becker signing off.
Anyways..... VAC dinner. One word... Crazy. Tico 16 held it down strong. The room which me, Bill, and Andrew had ¨Room 514¨the corner room had all the action going down. We all arrived at the hotel around 1 oclock. I went the internet to post my past blog. Then went back to the room to find all of Tico 16 in our room starting to drink. We started off the VAC dinner festivities with our friends Jim Beam, Johnnie Walker, and Mr. Bacardi. We of course had the music flowing and some pre dinner dancing festivities going on. We finally left our room at around 3 went to the actual dinner we immediately upon arrival ordered 4 of the most rediculous shots they had. They were in a large wine glass and they were ¨en fuego¨. We dined on some OK tasting pasta then moved back to the hotel to continue the party. We threw back on the tunes and danced for another 2 or 3 hours in Room 514 then attempted to go to a club in San Jose. We werent very succefull as alot of us didnt bring any ID and couldnt really get in. Seperated and Discouraged we all went back to the hotel to continue the party. We continued our festivities well into the night. Me and the other guys were officially the last peace corps people up in the hotel when we decided to call it a night around 5:30 in the morning. I have to say that Tico 16 came in strong and we were definately the life of the party. We definately set the bar high for our future VAC dinners. The whole event was a lot a lot of fun.
I am really proud to be part of Tico 16. All of us get along really well and we are all really good friends. We all definately know how to party and definately make the best out of any situation. I am glad to be part of such a good group of people for the next 2 years. All I can say is Tico 17 watch out now. You got a lot of good people waiting for you here in Tico 16.
The next important thing was my birthday party. I am very greatful for my host family here to have helped me thrown such a good party. We began on Saturday at around 2 oclock. I invited all of my other volunteer friends and pretty much all but 3 or 4 showed up. We definately had a lot of fun and of course had a dance party. Towards the end we broke out the Karaoke and I sang my new favorite Karaoke song ¨Puerto Limon¨. After the Karaoke we broke out the Birthday cake which when I went to blow out the candles, Bill cordially smashed my face into the cake. It was really funny for everyone else, but I distinctly remember having so much frosting in my mouth and nose that I almost couldnt breath. All in all it was good fun. After the cake we moved over the the local bar which is owned by my host moms brother. Basically in my training community everyone knows everyone and in some way or another your host family is related tosomeone in the community. Its pretty cool. After 4 hours at the bar, half of the timei singing Karoke, and as well drinking some Imperial in between we took the last bus to the town center to watch the rest of the midnight mass. As this weekend was ¨Semana Santa¨the holiest week of the year there were late night ceremonies were some of our friends were playing in the church band. Finally I got home around 1 oclock on my birthday night. It was definately a crazy time, alot of things happened that night which could obviously only happen in Costa Rica. I am really grateful for all of the friends I have made here and that they took the time to spend time with me on my birthday. Also I am thankful for my host family in hosting my awesome birthday party.
During ¨Semana Santa¨ we all had time off from classes, so that allowed us some extra time to explore. I first went with a couple of other volunteer girls to the local waterfall/swimming hole. The waterfall wasnt really to dramatic, it was more like a lot of ¨falling water¨then an actual waterfall. But nonetheless it was really fun and really beautiful and we all got a chance just to hang out. Yesterday I went again to the waterfall with a couple more people and we enjoyed some wine at the waterfall and then went to the bar afterwords.
Things overall have been very good over here. I am definately enjoying my time here but I am also continuing to miss my family and friends back at home. I am thankful to have my other peace corps volunteer friends with me by my side but I cannot forget that within the next month or so we will all be leaving to our seperate sites to begin the ¨real¨work. I am excited to find out my site which will probably happen in 2 weeks. But before that I have another one on one PCV visit where I will be able to see how they live their lives similar to the trip I went on before. As well I am looking forward to our next out of site night were all of Tico 16 is looking to rent a cabin somewhere by the beach and party it up Tico 16 style.
Anyways that is the news for now. If anyone wants to chat more ¨off the record¨ just send me an email as well I can give you my phone number If you would like to call my house. I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all.
Rudy Becker signing off.
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