So far soo good here in Costa Rica. My dad had the opportunity to visit early this month which was an absolute blast. We had the opportunity to do alot of different things together, while still having the ability to spend time at my site in the beautiful southern part of Costa Rica. It was really amazing to have someone from home, especially my dad, come visit me out here in the Jungle.
After my Dads visit I made my way over to San Jose for the bi annual VAC Dinner were we celebrated the new ¨Tico¨groups arrival and the oldest group departure. Tico 16 represented again strong, with everyone showing up to the event. As well we ran the party as evident of the after dinner ¨fiesta¨in my hotel room which had a large attendance to say the least. Then the next to a large amount of us went to the illustrious Terramall to watch movies. Andrew, Bill and I managed to watch the terrible movie entitled ¨Edison¨starring LL Cool J and Justin Timberlake. At least we were sitting in an air conditioned room with comfortable chairs, that is really all that matters.
Monday late afternoon I made it back to my site in one piece. I have continued working with the children in my town at the school regarding English classes. They are going well and I am incorporating more fun learning games into my curriculum which makes it fun for me and them. This Thursday I held a meeting at the town church regarding adult english classes. I had a very large attendance at the meeting of alittle over 35 people. I was very excited that people showed alot of enthusiasm regarding these future classes. I have now setup to new adult classes on tuesdays and wednesdays during the late afternoon and night. This coming week will be the first round of classes for the adults and I am eager to start working with them. The classes will serve as a great opportunity for learning within the community as well serve as a social opportunity for members of the community to get to know each other better.
This week I am looking to wrap up all my individuals interviews in my town . I have already written the first draft of my CAT (Community Analysis Tool) but in order for everything to be up to date and accurate I need to finish all my interviews. For the most part the interviews house to house have been a great experience. It is great to step foot into every house in my village and really talk face to face with the individuals about their happinesses, concerns, and lives overall.
I am looking to continue working with the newly formed committee de deportes (sports commitee) regarding fixing the soccer field and getting new uniforms for the sports teams. As well I look forward to my continued work with the development association regarding the water situation in my town.
Overall things are good in Costa Rica. Life is very good. I feel fully comfortable in my site and generally getting to and being anywhere in Costa Rica. I am excited to work with a couple new volunteers who have recently arrived in the southern part of Costa Rica, and as well continue work with my community members. What I love most about my life is the freedom which I have. The freedom to wake up everyday and say : Hey, What do I want to do today? I feel like never again in my life will I have the freedoms which I have now to simply do whatever I want, while still having the ultimate goal of helping people help themselves at the same time. Before coming here I told my self that this opportunity will allow me to do some soul searching and really discover what I want to do with my life. Well I have done a little bit of both, I still look forward to the future time I have here.
Anyways that is the latest from me. I look forward to seeing you all down here ASAP. Special thanks to Tamar and my family for sending me packages out here in the Jungle.
One Love. Respect.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Friday, September 07, 2007
Life in My Site
So the adjustment from being over a week in the city, enjoying the luxurious of the modern world, took some time to adjust to once I got back to my site. But overall things are very good right now and I am back in the swing of the things, talking spanish and eating rice and beans.
Lately there have been alot of meetings going on in my site. The company ICE (Instituto Costaricense de Electricidad) has been holding alot of meetings regarding the Hydro electric power plant they are going to be building near my site. The meetings are relatively interesting, but they are helping the community in organizing themselves to solicite bigger projects for the town which is very helpful. At the last meeting we watched a 40 year old movie about some town that got completely relocated as a result of the building of the hydroeclectic dam. They wont be relocating the people at my site, but it was nonetheless interesting to watch the black and white movie.
One new cool thing is the rebirth of my towns Comite de Deportes. Everyone wants to start work on repairing our towns soccer field, which is right now just a piece of semi level land with alot of dirt and no grass. At our meeting last week we setup the 8 person comite, assigning the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, etc. Then a couple days later we had our first meeting and EVERYONE showed up. Many other volunteers complain that people don't show up to meetings but that really hasnt been a problem in my town. For the most part all the meeting I have been to have been well attended. People in my town really have a desire to better their community and selves. Right now we are looking into who owns the land the soccer field is on as well as coming up with organizations we can solicite many from. We also want to get some new uniforms for the soccer team. Overall, I am really proud of the formation of this new group and I look forward to working with them on future projects.
My English classes have been going very well lately. I have had to date over 20 english classes with my 1st through 6th grade class and around 17 english classes with my Kindergarten class. I am very proud of their willingness to learn as well as their skills in retaining the knowledge which I am teaching them. I remember I started to only learn spanish in 6th grade, right now I am teaching a foreign language to children from kindergarten to 6th grade. After my training in San Jose I learned some new games and skills to teach my classes. I have begun playing some classic games like "Papa Caliente (Hot Potato)", "Simon Dice (Simon Says)", and some other learning games. The children seem to be enjoying themselves as well as learning alot.
Yesterday I was attending a Junta de Educaccion/Patronato Escolar Meeting (sort of like PTA meetings) and we were talking about the donations we recieved to rebuild the kindergarten class, as well as construct a new general purpose class room. Right now we are in the planning phases of that and getting price quotes from different builders for the constructions. We also recieved a $1,000 USD donation to fix up our "cafeteria" aka room with a table and cooking supplies. Next Monday is "Dia de los Ninos" which is basically "Kids Day". They hadnt planned anything yet and realized that there was no money in the account to do anything. So my host mom said she would donate money for a cake, I matched her donation, and everyone in the room said they would also. It was interesting because before in the meeting we were thinking about fundraising ideas, and then 5 minutes later everyone in the room just flat out donated money. Then my host mom/counterpart went to collect food and money from the people in the town, that night she returned and said she recieved alot of money as well as donations from everyone she asked . Something I have always been proud of in my site is the sense of community which exhists in my site. It is a community of around 200 people but everyone knows everyone and everyone supports everyone. I know that if I walked down my street in my hometown of New York and said I was collecting money/food for a school party it would be a different story. A) People would think I was probably weird B) I wouldnt really know the person that lived 5 houses down from me and C) I bet maybe 1 in 3 would actually give me something.
What also really impresses me is the level of commitment everyone has in my town. People are commited to helping one another as well as their community as a whole. If someone doesnt have enough food, then we give them a live chicken to slaughter. If a neighbor down the road needs a ride we help them out with our car. As well the participation of the community members in meetings and comittees that help their community is amazing. People here seem to have a greater physical, mental, and emotional vested interest in improving their community as a whole than many communities I know of back in the US. Everyone plays a part in developing the community.
Anyways last night when I was teaching my 9 year old host sister to play chess, I was in the middle of my move when all of a sudden I heard my host mom screaming and running out of the house calling my other host brother. It took me a couple of seconds to complete my chess move until I decided to see what she was yelling about. I got up from my seat and went outside to see a HUGE ball of flames erupting from the side of my house. The plastic covering from our fuse box somehow caught on fire and was melting and dripping plastic fire as well as blasting sparks left and right. I immediately went to the sink and filled up a pot 3/4 filled with water and ran back to douse the ball of flames. The flames went out with that one bucket of water and the emergency subsided. For the rest of the night we didnt have electricity. Overall it was pretty wild, and our house could have easily burnt down if we werent there at that time. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
Anyways that is the latest here in Costa Rica. My dad is coming soon and I am very excited to see him after not seeing anyone from home for over 6 months.
Also I have changed my blog name from the exciting Rudolph Becker's Blog to the even more exciting: The Tuanis Times.
Adios Everyone. Respect and Tuanis.
Fotos for your pleasure :
Lately there have been alot of meetings going on in my site. The company ICE (Instituto Costaricense de Electricidad) has been holding alot of meetings regarding the Hydro electric power plant they are going to be building near my site. The meetings are relatively interesting, but they are helping the community in organizing themselves to solicite bigger projects for the town which is very helpful. At the last meeting we watched a 40 year old movie about some town that got completely relocated as a result of the building of the hydroeclectic dam. They wont be relocating the people at my site, but it was nonetheless interesting to watch the black and white movie.
One new cool thing is the rebirth of my towns Comite de Deportes. Everyone wants to start work on repairing our towns soccer field, which is right now just a piece of semi level land with alot of dirt and no grass. At our meeting last week we setup the 8 person comite, assigning the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, etc. Then a couple days later we had our first meeting and EVERYONE showed up. Many other volunteers complain that people don't show up to meetings but that really hasnt been a problem in my town. For the most part all the meeting I have been to have been well attended. People in my town really have a desire to better their community and selves. Right now we are looking into who owns the land the soccer field is on as well as coming up with organizations we can solicite many from. We also want to get some new uniforms for the soccer team. Overall, I am really proud of the formation of this new group and I look forward to working with them on future projects.
My English classes have been going very well lately. I have had to date over 20 english classes with my 1st through 6th grade class and around 17 english classes with my Kindergarten class. I am very proud of their willingness to learn as well as their skills in retaining the knowledge which I am teaching them. I remember I started to only learn spanish in 6th grade, right now I am teaching a foreign language to children from kindergarten to 6th grade. After my training in San Jose I learned some new games and skills to teach my classes. I have begun playing some classic games like "Papa Caliente (Hot Potato)", "Simon Dice (Simon Says)", and some other learning games. The children seem to be enjoying themselves as well as learning alot.
Yesterday I was attending a Junta de Educaccion/Patronato Escolar Meeting (sort of like PTA meetings) and we were talking about the donations we recieved to rebuild the kindergarten class, as well as construct a new general purpose class room. Right now we are in the planning phases of that and getting price quotes from different builders for the constructions. We also recieved a $1,000 USD donation to fix up our "cafeteria" aka room with a table and cooking supplies. Next Monday is "Dia de los Ninos" which is basically "Kids Day". They hadnt planned anything yet and realized that there was no money in the account to do anything. So my host mom said she would donate money for a cake, I matched her donation, and everyone in the room said they would also. It was interesting because before in the meeting we were thinking about fundraising ideas, and then 5 minutes later everyone in the room just flat out donated money. Then my host mom/counterpart went to collect food and money from the people in the town, that night she returned and said she recieved alot of money as well as donations from everyone she asked . Something I have always been proud of in my site is the sense of community which exhists in my site. It is a community of around 200 people but everyone knows everyone and everyone supports everyone. I know that if I walked down my street in my hometown of New York and said I was collecting money/food for a school party it would be a different story. A) People would think I was probably weird B) I wouldnt really know the person that lived 5 houses down from me and C) I bet maybe 1 in 3 would actually give me something.
What also really impresses me is the level of commitment everyone has in my town. People are commited to helping one another as well as their community as a whole. If someone doesnt have enough food, then we give them a live chicken to slaughter. If a neighbor down the road needs a ride we help them out with our car. As well the participation of the community members in meetings and comittees that help their community is amazing. People here seem to have a greater physical, mental, and emotional vested interest in improving their community as a whole than many communities I know of back in the US. Everyone plays a part in developing the community.
Anyways last night when I was teaching my 9 year old host sister to play chess, I was in the middle of my move when all of a sudden I heard my host mom screaming and running out of the house calling my other host brother. It took me a couple of seconds to complete my chess move until I decided to see what she was yelling about. I got up from my seat and went outside to see a HUGE ball of flames erupting from the side of my house. The plastic covering from our fuse box somehow caught on fire and was melting and dripping plastic fire as well as blasting sparks left and right. I immediately went to the sink and filled up a pot 3/4 filled with water and ran back to douse the ball of flames. The flames went out with that one bucket of water and the emergency subsided. For the rest of the night we didnt have electricity. Overall it was pretty wild, and our house could have easily burnt down if we werent there at that time. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
Anyways that is the latest here in Costa Rica. My dad is coming soon and I am very excited to see him after not seeing anyone from home for over 6 months.
Also I have changed my blog name from the exciting Rudolph Becker's Blog to the even more exciting: The Tuanis Times.
Adios Everyone. Respect and Tuanis.
Fotos for your pleasure :
Bre and I posing with fish we caught with out bare hands.
Me flying in Montezuma.
More Flying.
Group shot in Montezuma.
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