The Past Eight Months

The past eight months in Costa Rica have been filled with fun, adventure, hard work, and new experiences. I have been continuing working hard in my community on a lot of the same projects and as well making some headway on a couple new projects. My time here in Costa Rica has been an amazing experience, with new challenges and new friends both being made in my community and amongst the community of volunteers near me. I am very thankful for my time here and the opportunity to work together with the community members of Paraiso de Buenos Aires.

My biggest project by far has been my work on my English Classes within the community both for the adults and children of the school. Currently I am teaching around 40 adults in the community as well as over 40 children in the one room primary school. Throughout my time here I have been questioning the validity of my work here teaching English. Is it necessary that rural community members learn English? How will they really utilize English in their futures? But week after week my students return to my English classes with a strong interest in learning not only English but coming together as community members and working together to learn something new. Recently the Costa Rican Learning Institute has introduced new classes within the community, and thus some of my students have switched over and exclusively attend those classes, as those are slightly more relevant to rural life, i.e. starting a micro-enterprise, nutrition and agriculture classes. But nonetheless I am proud of my work as an English teacher. I feel that through attending my classes I have helped them earn confidence to learn new things and as well hopefully in the future the confidence to seek new opportunities within and outside of the community. As well the classes are not only a class strictly relating to learning English but an opportunity for cultural exchange as I tell stories about my life in the states and share my views and opinions and in return I can learn more about them. This has been extended into my classes within the primary school where I have been working together with the students both inside and outside of the school.

I have been able to work outside of the school with the children to organize recreational activities and games to play with them. Teaching 30 or more children to play a new game can be challenging but more or less they understand the idea. For example, teaching 30 first through sixth grade students to play American Football was an endeavor but entertaining. As well I have worked after school hours to form a Children’s Group. As of right now we are working on a fundraiser to organize a movie night at the school, as well we are working on selling Choco-Bananos (Chocolate Bananas) at the next Soccer Tournament in town. Working with the Children in the community has been a very rewarding experience, but I have especially cherished the relationship and support I have received from my 4 host sisters and nieces who have attended the majority of my children’s events and meetings.

Besides my English classes and work with the children in the community, I have had the opportunity to really enjoy the slow pace of rural life and integrate within the community. With a community of slightly over 200 people I have really had the opportunity to work with many of the community members and get to know many of them. I am particularly good friends with two of the guys who work at the wood mill in town owned by a “gringo” aka foreigner. German, Javier and I have gotten to know each other well as both attend my English classes, and as well every other weekend make the trek into Buenos Aires to grab a cold Imperial or two and listen to the latest Latin music hits. I have also formed a great bond with my two host brothers, one who works at PINDECO (Del Monte Pineapple Factory) and the other currently attending an Electrician course in Buenos Aires. Although my community is very rural, I have the advantage of being only 8 kilometers away (or an hour and a half walk) from the center of Buenos Aires, a city which has internet, supermarkets, and cold beer.

Being in-country for 19 months has been quite an experience so far. I am very grateful that I have had this opportunity in my life to live in Costa Rica and have had the experiences I have had. For anyone remotely thinking about doing Peace Corps, I HIGHLY recommend it. I am particularly happy with my decision to participate in Peace Corps directly after college. If one is not 100% sure with what they want to do with their lives Peace Corps offers you the ability to experience something completely unique and once in a lifetime. In a way it is the most difficult job you could possibly have after college, and yet the most rewarding. Being completely immersed in a culture and society entirely different from the United States and thriving and working with the people of the country to complete something together is quite amazing. My commute is a five minute walk down a muddy dirt road to the school (no traffic), my coworkers are the people I live, eat, and work with, and my boss is myself. Peace Corps definitely has not been easy and the struggles of loneliness, living in the “campo”, and simply being your own boss and designing your own work schedule has been hard but overall I am very happy with how everything has been going so far.

As of right now I am proud to present the newest and biggest project which I will be working on during the rest of my Peace Corps service. That project is entitled: Increased Academic Opportunities for the Community of Paraiso de Buenos Aires. The core of this project involves building a brand new classroom to accommodate the academic needs and increased academic interests in educational opportunities in Paraiso. Please review the project profile which I have submitted to the Peace Corps Partnership Program to raise funds for this worthy project.