Rain, Classes, and Chickens with their Heads Cut Off

Life in Costa Rica, is pretty good these days. Taking things day by day while trying to keep myself busy and not completely boring myself out of my mind. I have been reading alot, Im reading the book Atlas Shrugged right now, and watching alot of movies on my External Hard drive, while at the same time doing lots of ¨Rural Community Development¨.

The Rain has been getting pretty fierce around here. It seems that everyday there is more and more rain and it is getting stronger and stronger. Everyday that passes gets deeper and deeper into the rainy season. My house is under severe construction right now so when it rains really hard it tends to rain inside the house as well since our rough isnt exactly ¨waterproof¨. But the constructions on my host families house is coming along really well, slowly but surely.

My classes are continuing as usual. The Kindergarden class is doing well. We are still covering the basics of ¨Hello, My name is Rosaura¨and classic phrases like ¨I like dogs¨and ¨I have 6 sisters and 3 brothers¨. But they are doing well, this past week we worked on the letters I and J. I for Ice Cream and J for Jeans. While they are coloring the pictures I spice it up a little and play some music on my ipod. I entertain them with classic tunes from Jimmy Hendrix, The Beatles, Bob Marley, and Pink Floyd to the greats like James Brown and Aretha Franklin. The kids enjoy the music as well as the coloring.

In my other class which consists of grades 1-6 I have been teaching them objects in the classroom, animals, and more advanced phrases. Like ¨I want 6 Giraffes¨ and ¨I don´t like Hot Chocolate¨. The class hit is when we play Bingo. Bingo is the answer to everything. They really enjoy it, it takes up a lot of classtime, and it is truly a learning experience. I havent experimented much with music with this class yet but their time will come.

Alot of the time after classes I hitch a ride with the Kindergarten teacher to the center of Buenos Aires so I dont have to walk 90 minutes to get there. One day when I was waiting for her to finish up I heard a mother in a nearby house tell her child to get the chicken. So a comical and lengthy chase pursued with the 10 year old boy racing around to catch the chicken. I thought nothing of it. Then 5 minutes later I saw a large group of children and I heard a squaking sound. The boy tied up the chickens legs with rope, tied it to a small tree and let the bird dangle from the tree. He then reached for his 2.5 foot machete, held the head of the bird, and slashed down on the chickens neck. The head went flying in one direction while the winds were flapping around for another 10 seconds after the beheading. I saw all of this from a distance of 25 feet. At first I was extremely shocked by the act which the 10 year old boy did but in reality that is just what happens to millions of chickens a day and nobody thinks twice about it. Maybe not the beheading but the murder part. Then I went to the back of the house and saw as they poured boiling water over the body and defeathered the chicken entirely. At the end it looks just like a normal chicken one would by at the supermarket. After that experience I told myself I would hold back from eating chicken for a while. For lunch today I had a chicken sandwhich.

At my site they have been also fixing up the roads which is great. Initially we had pretty poor and rocky roads but since the electrical company of Costa Rica is building a hydroelectric damn near my site they need better roads to move their big equipment around. So it is great that they are working on that.

As well the status of the water in my town is coming along slowly. Everyone in my site uses wells for their drinking water. Through my interviews people have said that water is the most important thing to them. I am working to get an aquaduct of potable water setup in my site. In some of my interviews people are drinking water out of streams. As well various health problems have arisen due to the fact that there is not clean water to drink. It is insane to think that in this day and age that it is not a human right to have access to clean and safe drinking water. Water is neccessary for life. Plain and simple and if Water is difficult to get and not safe to drink that makes life a whole lot more difficult. The situation at my site isnt neccesarily dire, like in some parts of the world that have severe droughts and terrible terrible water to drink, but nonetheless it is a situation that is important to everyone in my town.

Anyways that is all for now. I am hoping to meet up with some of my volunteer friends soon in early August and then toward the end of August I have In Service Training which last for a week in San Jose. That should be fun, and since it is held in a hotel you know what that means. Toilets, Comfortable beds, and Clean Hot Water ! YAYYY! Haha you gotta love the campo life.

Anyways that is all for now. I want to personally thank Ross Seiden for sending me three packs of Sour Starbursts, I am forever endebted to him. For the rest of you I can´t wait to recieve your letters and packages. Also if you dont want to send me a letter email me you address and I will send you one. We all know I have alot of time to burn down here. Haha.

I love you all. Tuanis. (Which is a more informal greeting then the very formal Pura Vida! Haha)

Rudy

Me and the Kindergarten kids chillin by the well at the school.

Porquito y yo.

Campo Life in Costa Rica

Hey all. Glad to be back online and in the real world after a full week of campo life. This past week wasn´t too good for me as I was sick the whole time. I had a terrible cough and sneeze, accompanied with a fever, cold shakes, night sweats, and a never ending headache. Getting sick in the campo is like getting sick in real life, except in the campo you don´t have access to all the homely comforts one is use to when back at home in the US, like proper medicine, proper food, and peace and quiete. But anyways I survived and I am doing a lot better now.

School is back in session. The kids in my town had a 2 week break for mid year vacations. This week I am going to continue my work in the schools. I look forward to getting back into the schedule of teaching English classes as it gives me something to do.  Apparentley the kids in the kindergarten class have been asking for me, and I look forward to teaching them new things and new words like : Giraffe and Hat.

Life at home has been relatively normal except for my sickness. We recently got this new little pig at my house. It runs all over the place, like in the living room, through the kitchen, and generally all over the 
house constantly looking for food scraps. It looks exactly like the little pig named Babe, in the movie Babe. I have nicknamed him ¨porquito¨. He is really cute, but I know we are going to kill him one day and eat him. It´s a pretty sad story.

Talking about killing animals.. I saw the movie Fast Food Nation the other day off of my external Hard Drive which my brother Lucas loaded with movies and TV shows.  It is an excellent movie and I encourage everyone to go out and rent it or buy it. It talks about the meat packing industry as well as the fast food industry. It is awesome, I would give it 4.6 stars out of 5 stars.

Life here in Costa Rica is very much like riding on an emotional rollercoaster. Some days I am feeling great and other days not so much. Like when I was sick this past week I wasn´t doing so well, and sometimes I get really lonely and bored and get depressed. But than other days I wake up and just look around and realize that I am being payed to live in Beautiful Costa Rica, while living in a small rural community helping people, and learning Spanish, with basically zero stress in my life. Everything is Irie, like they would say in Jamaica. But I am glad to say I am definately happy more so than I am sad. If it wasnt the case then I wouldnt be here.

Anwyays that is all for now. I hope everyone is doing well back at home. I checked my mailbox today and I saw nothing, so I will just assume that all those letters are in transit coming to me. Haha.
 
Tuanis !

Rudy

Fourth of July

This past fourth of July, I spent with 6 other volunteers in PuertoViejo de Talamanca on the Carribean cost of Costa Rica. Overall it was a really fun and great to get to the beach and relax. It took approximately 10 hours to get there but it was definately worth it. The vacation was filled with good food, good music, and great times on the beach. We stayed at a hotel 100 meters from the beach. Bill and I shared a room with Full sized bunkbeds which were awesome and really comfortable. The town of Puerto Viejo is a cool hip town with a strong Afro Carribean feel to it. It is kind of like the ¨Jamaica¨ of Costa Rica in a way. We went to alot of different restaurants including one with a live calypso band. As well we went out at night to a couple of clubs and broke it down on the dance floor. Overall it was a great time.

Right now I am back at my site, just living life. It is still the Mid-year 2 week break for the school right now so I still have one more week free before I start up my English classes again. My interviews in the community are coming along slowly but surely. I am definately more and more becoming comfortable in my site. Nothing too crazy to report regarding my site, just the usual million animals all over the place and the constant feeling of living in a jungle.

Thats pretty much it for now. If you ever feel bored write me an email or send me a letter. I have plenty of time on my hands here in rural Costa Rica.

Keep it real. Tuanis.

Rudy

Chilling in my Pueblo, Meetings, Dead Goat, Beach

Greetings all. Rudy Becker here reporting the latest from Costa Rica. This week I spent most of my time hanging out in my town. I taught 4 more English classes this week, which turned out to be pretty succesfull. In my older group class we played Bingo. Turned out to be a fun game but definately took way longer than I expected it to take, in terms of making the bingo board and teaching them all the words and how to play. The kindergarten class continued along with their work. I have been teaching them the ABCs and they have aswell been working on their ABC book´s. This week we did the letters E for Egg and F for Fish. Pretty exciting overall.

This week was filled with meetings. I began this week with my house to house interviews. One thing I really like about my community is the fact that it really is a community. Very few places in the world can a neighbor (me)  from 5 houses down the road come over to another person house (any member of my community) unannounced and just chat about your communities goals and neccesities. I have been learning alot
more about the community as a result of these interviews and as well I am making more one on one personal connections with members of my community.

My second big meeting was a meeting on monday with the development association of my town. We are right now working on getting an aquaduct system set up 
in my town as of right now everyone is drinking and using water out of their personal wells on their property. With an aquaduct system in place we would pretty much get relatively unlimited access to potable (clean, filtered,free of bacteria) water whenever we wanted. As well we are working to setup a new bank account for a development association to recieve money 
from the governemnt for future projects.

My third big meeting was at the school. News around town is that we recieved money to build another kindergarten classroom as well as another classroom for the school. It was only a priliminary meeting but with my spanish skills I believe that is what was fully discussed in the school. I look forward to collaborating with members of my community
in working to get these buildings built for the benefit of not only the students in the school but of the community. Hopefully with these new class rooms I can hold my english classes in them as well in the future potentially setup a mini computer lab of sorts to teach computation classes which has been requested around my town.

My fourth big meeting, not really a meeting but, on Thursday I went to the church with my family. On the last thursday of every month a pastor comes to our church to have services. I was curious
as to how the services where so I went to the church. It was an overall really great experience. I cant really pinpoint exactly what I liked most about it, but I just felt really touched about the whole experience. The pastor was interesting and it just seemed that everyone was really at peace being in the church. The church was extremely primitive, no music only singing, had holes in the cieling, ragged benches, and several smashed windows. But nonetheless everyone was happy and 
everyone was able to channel themselves and appreciate God or whoever they were personally praying to. It just made me reinforce the fact that you dont´t really need alot to be happy in this life. As long as you have your family by your side, as well as good friends, and a positive appreciative attitude you can really live life to the fullest.

Yesterday I was hanging out in my house and my host sisters boyfriend asked me If I wanted to go for a walk. I was like sure why not. He said to wear pants and boots. We ended up initially walking along this trail in the property of my host mom. We walked past the cows and all of the land which my host brother cleared with his giant machete. My host brother literally cut the grass and bushes of probably 4 acres of land with one single machete in the span of an afternoon. He is a machine. Yesterday he said he killed 2 6 foot snakes while cutting the grass. Crazy. Anyways we started walking down deeper into the hillside and started to head literally into the jungle. He whipped out his machete and we were walking through the jungle with him clear cutting a path for us with his machete. We were scaling walls, sliding down mudslides, climbing 75 degee angle waterfalls it was nuts. Then we got to the river and walked down the river for like 2 kms. On the way back we  walked in a different direction along the river and I smelled something fowl. It was the decomposing carcass of a goat which was probably there for over a month. It was disgusting you could see the whole bone structure as well as some rubbery pieces of skin trailing from the bones. It was crazy. So basically as we were walking back upstream the water we were wading in was at some point streaming past this decomposing carcass. Reminder : Never drink the water in a river, you NEVER know what is upstream. haha. I didnt drink it though although I think earlier my host sisters boyfriend did, but I think he refused to admit it. haha anyways that was just a crazy little midday adventure I had.

Right now I am in my usual internet spot above the supermarket in my nearest big town. It is raining and there is a festival of sorts in the town with rides and vendors all over the place. I will probably meet my family in the center square soon. 

Regarding the future I am going to be spending the fourth of july on the beach for 4 days on the Caribbean coast. It should be a blast and I am really excited to spend a prolonged amount of time on the beach. It is gonna be wild. Ill be sure to snap some pics and let you know how it turns out. 

Hope everyone else is well. My tickets are booked for November 19th to the 26th to come home for a week for Thanksgiving. Hopefully I can see many of you all then.

Much love,

Rudy

Campo 4 Life

Back for another installment of my blog eh? Life is so far so good down here in Costa Rica. Just living it up here in the Campo with my 20 cows, 30 chickens, 5 dogs, 1000 species of insects, 1 Turkey, 1,235 Cockroaches, and 4 horses. As I am settling in more and more, and getting into somewhat of a schedule my days are becoming more and more similar. It seems like a long time for the actual day to pass but the weeks are flying off the calendar.

This past week I continued my English classes at the school. The Kindergartners are learning alot and everytime I come into the school they immediately great me by ¨Rodolfo¨. I go by ¨Rodolfo¨in my town. As well my class with the 1st through 6th graders is going very well at a suprisingly fast pace. They are very eager to learn and are getting use to my weekly classes . I have recently learned how to add photos to my blog so here is a pic of me and the kindergarten class .


This past weekend I went to San Jose with my Tico 16 group. It was a pretty wild time we ended up staying in a new hostel and then hit the city for dinner at a restaurant and then dancing at a discotec. It was great to see some of my friend who I hadnt seen for a month. We are now in the midst of planning another trip over the 4th of July weekend, probably at the beach.

Since nothing really to crazy had happened in the past couple weeks I will try and enlighten you with some pictures of my life here in Costa Rica.

My Crib

Me doing Poi at night

Me on the beach in Dominical

Me and some of the kids I live with.

Me and Bill classing it up after Swearing in.

Cake in the face on my Birthday.

Tico 16

Well that is pretty much it for pictures. If you have any special requests like me with a snake around my neck or me sipping a pina colada in a hot tub overlooking the ocean. I can probably accomodate your requests. Thats all for now.

Pura Vida,

Rudy

Beach, Beer, and Books

Life in Costa Rica lately has been pretty great. I am more and more slowly getting adjusted to my life here in my site. Slowly building some routines and definately taking in all the amazing weather. Right now we are in the rainy season here, but for a majority of the day usually in the morning and early afternoon it is bright and really sunny. I have gotten the routine down pretty well of waking up having breakfast and sitting on my hammock every morning and getting a good hour or 2 of reading in, under the bright Costa Rican sun.

Although it hasnt all been rest and relaxation, I have continued my English classes in the local school these past weeks. I have recently started class with the Kindergarten class of 9 students. They are really young, and cannot read or write as expected but are loving the classes and embracing my efforts to teach them new words and songs. I am teaching them new words half the time and then the other half we are focusing on learning a new letter each session and coloring a sheet of paper with the letter, a picture of an example of on object starting with the letter, and the word spelled out (i.e C, picture of cat, CAT). Anwyays after they are done with the whole alphabet I am going to make a book with them with all the pictures they drew. Nice little project to start off. My first through sixth grade class is doing well and they are overcoming the initial nervousness of having a new teacher, and all are participating more and very excited to learn. When I get home I hear my host sisters speaking the new words we learned in english class, so it looks like it is sticking. But overall a great experience that I am having in the community.

Books. I am definately reading alot now. I finished Shantaram a while ago which I strongly recommend and has become my favorite book. Read 2 more books and now I am on Michael Crichton´s Lost World. It is interesting because it references alot of places in Costa Rica and it talks about dinosaurs. I think my next book will be Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. So yeah I have been clocking some good time in my hammock getting things done.

My Community Analysis Tool aka The ¨CAT¨ has been working out well. Like I said before I had that large community meeting in my time which brought out alot of information about the community and potential projects they would like to start work on. As well I have begun the individual one on one interviews with members of the community. I will ramp up this effort more beginning this week which should bring some great new information to me, and also allow me to get to know more people in the community in a more personal setting.

This past weekend we had our regional VAC meeting (aka the student council of Peace Corps Costa Rica) where we got together and spoke about issues relating to our job as well as issues in the field. This meeting was conveniently located on a beautiful beach 3.5 hours away from my site in the small pueblo of Dominical. I had a great time and met up with four other fellow Tico 16ers. It was awesome we swam in the water, ate great food, drank some Imperial, and partied it up in this Disco nearby till 2 in the morning. Absolute insanity. Being in the campo for extended periods of time you tend to build up this pent up energy to party and just hangout with other English speakers. I dont know about everyone but that is just me. Overall amazing time at the beach.

This coming week I will continue work as usual at my site. This Friday I am meeting up with some other Tico 16ers in San Jose, which should be a blast. I recently opened up a mailbox in a city close to me here is the address :

Rudolph Becker
Apartado Postal 61-8100
Buenos Aires, Zona Sur
Costa Rica

PLEASE send me something anything if you can. I have recieved some packages already from some people and I am extremely grateful. Being down here alone and isolated from my family, friends,and US products is difficult and any message or packages from the states or abroad would be awesome. Haha anyways that is my little and last plea for people to send me stuff.

Anyways that is the news from here. I would love to hear more from all of you in the States and abroad and thanks already for all the support I have recieved. I hope life is treating everyone well. Pura Vida.

Rudy

Pizza Hut, Community Meeting and Campo Life

Right now I am reporting from the Peace Corps Office in San Jose. I am currently in the capital to get some things checked out medically with me. I am fine, just getting some routine checks done. It is nice to escape a little bit from my site and enjoy the luxuries of a mattress, hot shower, and flush toilet. Today I went to Pizza Hut for lunch. Here in Costa Rica, Pizza Hut is considered the place to go for a businessman and busineswoman to conduct casual meetings over lunch. Everyone is dressed in business casual clothes, its quite different from the fast food/family atmosphere pizza hut has in the states. As I was eating my personal pan pizza, I saw this women constructing her salad at the salad bar. This salad was a piece of art. She had potato salad and hard boiled eggs acting as retaining walls for her plate and piled her salad 6 inches high onto this miniscule plate. In Costa Rica you get to only go to the salad bar once and you have to fully take advantage of that one trip. Anyways it was a nice lunch and good to have a familiar taste after two weeks in the "campo".

This past Friday I held a community meeting in my community where about 30 people attended. I facilitated a discussion as well as an activity based on learning about different aspects of the community and its needs. Overall I feel the meeting was a success and I learned alot about the community. This past Monday, there was another meeting for the community held in the school lunch room regarding the prospective building of an aquaduct in my community. One of the top concerns of the people in my community is the secure and constant line of fresh potable water to their houses. As of right now people retrieve the water from wells or get their tanks filled up every once in a while which is a difficult and costly process. An aquaduct project is a large one, which would take alot of time but definately would improve the quality of life for everyone in the community.

Everything else in my community is working out well. My family is great, the 5 dogs, 25 chickens, 5 roosters, 5 pigs, 25 cattle, 4 horses, and 1 turkey are doing great as well. There is alot of construction going on at my house as they are expanding the number of rooms. I will also be getting a new room which should be nice. On my way to the school one day to talk to the teachers, I was walking in the middle of the road and looked down and saw a 6 foot long snake. As I was close to my house I told my host brother of the huge snake in the middle of the road. He told everyone else in the house and everyone came running, including one guy working on the house with a huge 2 foot long machete and sprinted to the snake and immediately executed it with one strong swift blow to the head seperating the snakes head from the body. Campo life something new everyday.

Anyways that is all for now. I hope everyone is doing well.

Peace out.

Rudy

Getting Settled

So far I have been in my site for almost 2 weeks right now, and things have been going well for the most part. I have been settling into my room, organizing my clothes, reading alot, reading some more, eating rice and beans, using the latrine, and then read for a little bit more.

New developments this week include the beginning of my english classes at the primary school. This week I taught english from 9-10 AM on Tuesday and Wedsnesday. I will continue this schedule for who knows how long, maybe two years if time allows. Since there is only one classroom with grades 1-5 in it I am teaching them all at once. It is slightly difficult to plan for a class with such varying grade levels but it really is the only way to get it down. The students are very responsive and are learning things relatively quickly. This week we went over introductions, greetings, basic questions, and salutations. Some students are willing to participate more than others but that is just natural. They seem to be enjoying the class, and when I come home I hear my host sisters speaking the new phrases I taught them in class earlier that day. So it seems like it is is sticking. Also next week I begin to teach english to the Kindergarten class of 9 students. This will be interesting to teach 9 4-5 years olds a brand new language, but I am up for the challenge. Recently I have been getting rides into the nearby town with the Kindergarten teacher who ends at 11, so I dont have to do the 90 minute walk to town. I asked her what the school needs improved the most and one of many things she said is a new classroom for the kindergarten because they recently and in the past have had problems with poisonous snakes, scorpions, and huge spiders making homes in the classroom. Hopefully I will be able to help them with this problem.

This Friday I have arranged for another community meeeting in my town. With this meeting I would like to make it a little more interactive and find more about the town, existing commitees, problems, areas of growth, and wishes for the community. Then next week I will start my door to door interviews with members of the community to see what kind of projects they want to start working on. I feel that very soon I will also need to begin an english class for the adults, because that is something as well I have heard from community members which they strongly want.

I look forward to mid June where I will be able to see some other volunteers at the beach for our VAC meeting. VAC is sort of like Peace Corps student council where we get together and talk about issues relating to our job and such. It should be a fun time and then a week later I will be meeting up with my Tico group, Tico 16 to most likely party it up in San Jose.

Overall things have been going well here. The loneliness is still an issue here as well as the boredom, but as projects start picking up it should fill up my time better.

I miss everyone so much and I think about you all (my friends and family) all the time.

Much love and respect,

Rudy

First Couple Days In Site

Last Friday night as a blast with all of Tico 16. After the swearing in ceremony we wento our usual hotel in San Jose, to relax and get ready for the night ahead. Bill and I got a room togther on the third floor which actually turned out not to be the best idea since it was so close to the street, but it didnt really matter to much. Anwyays that night we went out in the San Pedro area to this really good Italian Restaurant called Il Pomodoro. I got an amazing dish of Fettucine Carbonara and split a pizza with a couple people. Bill and I took the classy road and split a bottle of Chilean White Wine. I know what you might be thinking, hey I thought Rudy was in the Peace Corps, eating rice and beans all day in the middle of nowhere, but hey when I get the chance to live it up I do. Anyways after dinner and a coiple rounds of drinks we obviously brought the party back to the hotel and lived it up there till late at night. Overall great times with everyone, it was an excellent night to celebrate all of our beginning the next 2 years.

The next morning Bill and I took the 1:00 bus to our sites from San Jose. We were lucky in taking the 1:00 bus as other people had much earlier buses to catch. It was an uneventful 5 hour ride to my bus stop in the South but when I made it there my host brother picked me up in his 1970 Toyota Landcruiser and drove me to the house. As of right now the house is under major constructions, although when it will be finished it will actually be really nice. As of right now there are 11 people living in 3 room in the house. One of the rooms is for me, alone.

The first couple days I have been using just go get myself settled in my room. Wash the walls, clean the floor, put up the mosquito net, install an electrical outlet and light in my room, organize my clothes. I havent really been changing the world yet.

Yesterday I went to this meeting for all the parents at the town school (1 classroom for 40 students) and I introduced myself again to all the parents that attended. During the meeting they discusses the possibillity of me teaching english classes once or twice a week at the school and I willing and excitingly excepted the offer. I just need to do some research as the best way to begin these classes for young children who have never had any formal english education whatsoever. As well some of the adults asked me as well to begin some classes for them as well, which I definately want to do.

I have not given any english classes yet, except for the one during training which was for us to get a taste of what it is like, but all of the other volunteers from prior years say that it is one of the best ways to integrate into the community. I feel that I will get to meet alot of people through these classes and as well gain respect in the community to work on other projects with them. In my meeting with Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica, he expressed great interest in our teaching english and felt it to be one of the most important things we can do for the people of Costa Rica.

After I returned from the meeting I walked back in the rain with a couple of my host brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews (when I am in my town we are always in a large group, because i live with such a big family) and arrived to my house and entered my room to find this huge brand new beautiful faux-oak dresser that fits all of my clothes and other random things perfectly. It was a great suprise and a beautiful gesture as this piece of furniture is ,by far in my opinion, the most beautiful and most expensive piece of furniture in the whole house. I was really touched and really grateful for it. Now my room is organized really well and I feel more settled in.

Today I woke up at around 10 oclock, ate breakfast and then setoff on a 90 minute hike in the rain to get to my nearest town and use the internet. I ended up using the internet for 3 hours an was able to speak to all of my friends (Shoutouts to : Tamar, Jon, Russ, Dave, and Cownie) through Gmail chat.

Anwyays life here in Costa Rica is good for the most part. Just tackling things one day at a time. I hope things are great back at home and abroad. My brother just left to Germany 3 days ago, he should be having a rediculous time there. My adventures still continue here.

Pura Vida,

Rudy

The Beginning

The past 11 days or so after my initial site visit have been very hectic and very busy in preparation for what just happened today, swearing in. This morning all of us went to the Embassador of the United States to Costa Rica´s house in the more luxurious part of San Jose. After passing tight security we entered his huge mansion, with pool, tennis courts, and amazing art work all throughout the house. During the ceremony there were speeches from Our Peace Corps Country Director, Peace Corps Training Director, PC Rural Community Development Director, Director of DINADECO (Costa Rican National Development Agency), and our very own Marcela of Tico 16 who gave a great speech in behalf of all of us. After the ceremony the embassador each presented us certificates showing completion of training. As of right now I am offically a Peace Corps Volunteer ! For the past three months everyone has been calling us trainees, but now I am a PCV !!! It was overall a really nice ceremony and several news stations and radio stations came to interview us and report on our swearing in. So if you are in Costa Rica tune into Noticias Repretel and you should be able to see us.

This past Wednesday we had are meeting with Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica. We all met up with him in the afternoon and he invited us to he equivalent of the US Oval office of Costa Rica with a huge U shaped table and all of these leather seats surrounding the table. It was a very professional meeting and we had the opportunity to ask questions at the end. I asked him : What are you most proud of about Costa Rica? and What do you like to do in your freetime? Regarding his pride to Costa Rica he said he was very proud of the people and the sustained peace Costa Rica has had throughout the past years. Also in terms of his freetime he likes to listen to music and read poetry. (*Unofficial Quotes) Overall it was a very good meeting and this was the first time he has ever met with Peace Corps volunteers so I felt especially priveleged.

Back at home in my training community, I have been wrapping things up and saying goodbye to everyone. My host dad has gone to New Jersey to visit a relative he hasnt seen in a long time. The past couple days we have been able to squeeze in some ¨Scrabble¨ nights as well as a couple trips to the local bar. The past couple days have been really fun as these are the last days we will be together as a group for a long time, since we are all leaving to our sites tommorow.

The whole training experience has been quite a wild ride. Most of the days are filled with training activities and spanish classes with little time for rest. But those days and times we do get off we definately have a great time together and live it up to the fullest. I have learned more in the past three months then I probably have had in my entire life. In terms of spanish, Peace Corps, and Costa Rican culture. I definately have become fully immersed into Costa Rica and it has become almost normal to me just living here in Costa Rica hanging out. Alot of the time when I am partying with my friends on the beach or just walking down the street with gorgeous mountains in the background I say: ¨Hey, we are in Costa Rica ! How crazy is that ?¨ Its a pretty wild adventure that as of right now seems like it is ending, as a result of the end of training, but in reality the next two years is going to be a wild wild adventure. I am grateful for all the friends I have made and I feel bad having to leave them, but I am glad that I feel this way as opposed to not, because I have an excellent support network of friends here in country to help me get through the next two years. I am confident in my ability to succesfully complete my experience here, but it certainly will not be easy. I have a community waiting for me that I am very excited to help, and hopefully will be willing to work with me to complete their goals.

Tomorrow I head off to the ¨Zona Sur¨5 hours away from San Jose to begin my two year adventure. As I will be in an extremely remote location it may take more time to update my blog but be patient and hopefully I will have some fun stories to tell as well as stories of success´ in my site.

Thank you all who have sent me letters, I am extremely grateful and it brings a HUGE smile to my face to actually recieve a handwritten letter from someone. Those who have written to me should expect something in the mail soon.

Anyways that is all for now and if anyone has any questions or comments please feel free to email me and I would love to respond. As this blog is a public forum I can necessarily express 100% of my concerns, feelings, and actions but would love to talk more in the privacy of email or letters.

I am excited for the future. I am excited to party tonight with Tico 16. And I am excited for the future of my community.

Much love everyone,

Rudy

Respect.

My Site

Last Thursday I headed back the mountain retreat location, where I first went after I got off the plane when I arrived in Costa Rica, for Counterpart Day. Counterapart Day is when we get the opportunity to meet our community counterparts for the first time. In this case it was the first time I got to meet someone from my community which was great. My counterpart is a middle aged woman with 9 children. She is the president of the development association at my site, and as well is the president of several different commitees in my site. She is a very kind and caring woman and seemed to be excited to meet for the first time. With my level of spanish I was generally able to understand and replying back to her regarding everything she was saying. During Counterpart Day we participated in several ice breakers and get to know each other activities. That night there was barbecue in the garden area and Byron and Jordan played and sing on the guitar as well as Bill for a couple of songs. Then we moved the excitement over to the game room where their were foosball tables, ping pong tables, and my ipod and bill´s ipod with his speakers playing music. That night I ended up staying awake till 2 am talking to a couple other volunteers.

The next morning I went with my counterpart to our bus station in San Jose and began the 5 hour bus ride to the south where my site is located. After a pretty uneventful bus ride we made it to our stop in the pouring rain. At the stop I was greeted by my host mother´s son ( my host mom is actually is also my counterpart) in his light blue 1970 toyota landcruiser which is actually a very popular car here in costa rica. We then rode to my site passing huge field of pineapples along a very rocky road. Most of the people in my area are employed by PINEDECO which is a pineapple company, which also goes by the brand name Del Monte. So chances are if you buy a Del Monte pineapple from costa rica it was probably grown within several square miles of my site. Anyways, when I entered my site that night it was very dark and I couldnt see much. There was a fork in the road leading to the church, soccer field, small store, and school and then the other road leading to my house. I arrived in the house to find my large host family awaiting my arrival. There are 3 young girls, 1 young boy, 1 teenage girl, 2 teenage boys, another older daughter, her ¨boyfriend¨and my host mom all living in an extremely small house which is undergoing massive renovations. In the future I will put up pictures but because of the internet connection it is hard to load them all up. Anyways I was immediately served dinner and then after watching some ¨La Escrava Isaura¨, extremely popular soap opera in costa rica, went to sleep.

The next morning I slept extremely late till 8 AM. Read for 3 hours ( Im reading ¨Shantaram¨ right now it is awesome) then walked over to the school and waited for the teachers to dismiss the students, so that I could introduce myself to them. The school consists of one class room and one lunch room. There are 2 teachers for 40 children all in one room, for grade 1 to 5. They just recently built a small hut for the kindergarten which use to be run out of a small cafeteria storage room. Both of the teachers were extremely kind, and are both very intelligent and capable teachers. Before hand I looked at one of my host sisters math books and the work they are doing there is very impressive. Anyways it was great to meet the two teachers and they are excited to work with me, just as I am excited to start work with them. After meeting with the teachers I returned back to my house with the entourage of children who live at my house who just got finished with school. At 4 oclock that afternoon my counterpart/host mom/president of the association told me that there was going to be a community meeting for me to speak to the association members. I walked with my counterpart and 2 daughters ,one who had another son , to the church were the meeting was held. I was expecting to see maybe 5 to 6 people at the meeting of the association but low and behold I walked into the church and 40 community members were waiting to meet me. It was slightly overwelming but extremely flattering and comforting that people are first of all interested in meeting me, and seemingly willing to work together with me on projects and goals for their community. My counterpart did a small introduction which then segwayed me unexpectantly talking for 30 minutes entirely in spanish, about myself, peace corps, what i am doing here, my background, my favorite food, my favorite sport, everything. Overall it was a very succesfull meeting and it gave me an excellent opportunity to meet alot of community members all at once. One teenager went up to me and asked me when we can start english classes, then four to five other people chimed in in agreement. As well I recieved several invites for cafecito in the future. The community members where all extremely interested in me and I look forward to working with them to better their already beautiful community.

The next day I went with my host sisters ¨boyfriend¨, i say ¨boyfriend¨because i dont really know their relation and i believe they have had two children together but when i asked him he said they just ¨live together¨, out to my local city and as well to a private farm. Where I may or may not have seen roosters engaging in combat for 5 hours. After a few imperials and possibly witnesssing the death of a couple roosters we left to head back to my site. At my house I played hide and seek and cops and robbers with the young kids in the house. Then attempted to teach (4) six to eight year old children how to play chess in spanish. Which didnt turn out succesfull. That night I went to sleep with the sound of rain against the roof and the feeling of 100 tiny little ants biting my legs for 3 hours.

The next morning I slept late until 7:30. I say I slept late because at 5:30 everyday everyone in my house wakes up and blasts the radio and as well the sun light and heat is beating through my windowless window with wooden shutter at around 6:00. Anyways I commenced and read for 2 hours then went on this insanely long hike all around my site for 5 hours with my host mom and her daughter. We walked for what seemed like 7 miles up and down mountains and rocky roads, stopping to see the view and meeting random people of the town. I ate 4 mangos and drank water at 3 different houses. Most of the housed in my town are very seperated and it took 45 minutes to reach the farthest house out from my house. We also walked all the way to the river near my site where the electric company of costa rica, ICE, is thinking about buiilding a hydro electric dam. During our walk back it started downpouring, which was very much welcomed after walking in much of the mid day heat. When we got back to the house I had lunch and then later that night attempted to teach the kids to play chess again. Which again proved to be unsuccesfull, although one of them is catching on. The hardes piece to explain was the ¨Knight¨ which makes an ¨L¨shaped maneuver on the board. Haha. Anways.

The next morning, or today I woke up and caught the 9:30 bus to San Jose and made it in just about 5 hours which is great. Right now I am in an Internet Cafe typing this blog and will soon go to another restaurant with some other volunteers to exchange stories about our site visits.

Overall I am very satisfied with my site visit. My hose family and the whole community was very excited to have me and I look forward to doing work with them. Being at my site heightened the reality that I will be living there for 2 years in conditions very different from my prior life in New York. Being away from friends, family, and all the other important relationships I have in my life is hard. I realize I am going to be living with a very large family and technically won´t be alone, but in terms of having another person to speak English to and someone who can relate to me will be impossible to find. Several volunteers are near me as well as a couple of good friends of mine are in the Zona Sur so it shouldnt be too bad. The loneliness factor was really the only thing which was difficult to deal with during that 5 day trip but I know things will get better.

I have 11 more days here in the San Jose are before I move back to my site officially for the 2 years. Within these 11 days we will have a party for our host families here in our training communities, have more spanish and peace corps class, and also we will be meeting the President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias. I am really looking forward to that meeting. We are going to his house which should be crazyyyy.

Anwyays that is all for now. I am excited to be back in San Jose with all the other volunteers and aswell my host family in my training community.

Thank you all for reading my blog. I love and miss you all.

Respect.

PCV visit, Site Assignment, Chillin in Costa Rica

The last time I put up a blog I was beginning my PCV site visit near Canas. I ended up having an amazing time visiting Ben. I met up with Ben in Canas and we ended up having a great dinner of burritos, hamburgers, and Imperials at a local restaurant. After dinner we partied it up a little bit in Canas at this second story bar with a projector playing non stop 80’s,90’s, and every other music video Eminem has ever made. Later that night we headed to his site to get some much needed rest after all my travels and our partying. The next morning we went to his Development Association meeting, and later that afternoon I went around with him to various different kids houses where he was helping them all learn how to read. The kids had various levels of reading abilities but clearly they were benefiting greatly from the half hour sessions he was giving them. One student was on the verge of failing first grade and through his help, the student made it into second grade. The next morning we went into the local cities municipality building to fill out forms with the president of the development association, in order to assist them to receive funds for a new aqueduct project for the town. That afternoon we met up with his counterpart in DINEDECO, the development committee for all of Costa Rica. Later that evening we headed to the River near his site and jumped off of 30 foot cliffs into the water and swam down some rapids. It was really fun and really relaxing, considering it was over 95 degrees Fahrenheit almost the whole time while I was there. Overall the PCV visit was really eye opening, and I had the opportunity to ask many different questions to someone who has gone through all of this already.

Last Friday was Site Assignment day. That day we headed to this country club type place with pools, hot tubs, saunas, basketball courts, soccer fields, and pool tables. It was a pretty cool place, but most off us spent time in the pools and hot tub. That morning the Director of our program, Rural Community Development, present us with the sites where we will be working in for the next two years. The site where I will be working in is located in the southern part of Costa Rica. For safety reasons, and as per peace corps regulations, I cannot give my exact sit e location, but I am very excited about my placement. My location is considered to be very Rural and surrounded by pineapple fields. There are approximately 200 people in my site and it is located approximately 4 km away from the inter American highway running through costa rica. There is no public phone and my town just recently received electricity in September 2006. There is a school with one classroom to 42 students. Most student do not go to high school due to the fact that it is so far away from the town, it is very difficult and expensive to get to. There are many different project opportunities in the town and I am very excited to get started with my work. The house which I will probably be living in has 10 other people, and outdoor latrine (no indoor bathroom), 3 dogs, chickens, cows, and pigs. All of this information which I am reporting was given to me in my site assignment packet and could very well have changed once I get to my site or I may not end up living with this particular family. Also I will be able to give more details once I actually visit the site this weekend.

Socially the past two nights in my training community house have been really fun. Two nights ago I held a Scrabble/Margarita/Macaroni and Cheese night at my house. We partied pretty hard and managed to finish a large bottle of tequila and 2 bottles of margarita mix. And then yesterday we ate pesto pasta, strawberry milkshakes, and brownies. Pretty crazy combo, I definitely wont be eating any of this once I get to my site, so I might as well indulge now with my friends.

Also the last out of site night we had, all 16 of us rented a sick house on this private beach near the city of Jaco. It had 5 bedrooms, a deck overlooking the ocean, and a cool pool right on the beach. We partied really hard and had an amazing and relaxing time. Only in Peace Corps Costa Rica can you rent a house by the beach and party with 16 of your friends on a regular weekend night. We definately live the motto, work hard play hard.

Tomorrow I am going to be meeting my counterpart, person who I will work with closely in my future community, for the first time at this mountain top retreat place where we first stayed when we arrived in Costa Rica. Then on Friday I will leave with my counterpart to visit my future site where I will be working for the next 2 years. I will stay there for 5 days and then return back next Thursday for more training activities.

I am really excited to have finally found out the site where I will be working in. It has been a long time coming considering I started the whole application process in December 2005 and now finally in May 2007 I know where I will be working and what my peace corps experience will be all about. I am happy to get this all started but after having become such good friends with everyone in my Tico 16 group for the past 3 months it is definitely going to be difficult leaving them and going out and doing everything in my community alone. But this is what I came here to do, and once I become comfortable in my community I definitely won’t be feeling as lonely. I am very grateful for the opportunity to come here to Costa Rica and work with the people of the country. I have had such an amazing experience so far and I have met so many cool people, other volunteers and ticos. I am having a ridiculous time here, as I have said before, every day is different and everyday is a new adventure. I look forward to the future and the crazy things it will bring.

Thank you all for you emails and messages. I miss you all and whenever anyone wants to come visit give me a holla. I gotta run.

Respect.

Blackouts, Trapiche, and a Site visit.

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

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 !

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.

First Month

One Month. It has been one month since I first arrived in Costa Rica. The time has definitely gone by pretty slowly but things are beginning to pick up now, as I am getting more used to my surroundings. In the past month I have been continuously spending my time mainly in the mountainous regions near San Jose, living in my training community. I continue to attend my daily language classes and Peace Corps training sessions. The pace is intense, as in always having activities and meetings to attend, but I am having a lot of fun. Sometimes I get caught up in my meetings and classes that I actually forget that I am in Costa Rica. My typical day really isn’t that bad, it is actually rather enjoyable. I wake up at 8 eat breakfast, walk up a gigantic hill to get to class, attend Spanish class ( which is incredibly fun thanks to Bill, Lindsay, and Andrew), go home for lunch or eat lunch at a friends house, return back to afternoon Spanish sessions or go to the local High School for additional peace corps sessions, play soccer after class, chill with other volunteers, go home for dinner, watch a movie, go to sleep, and do it all over again the next day. All of this while in the beautiful mountainous surroundings of Costa Rica where the only things I need to worry about are eating food, completing small fun assignments, and wondering where I am going to go drink my next Imperial. So far my first month has been awesome.

Last week, I attended the usual Friday routine of Happy Hour after classes with a couple volunteers and then I went home to immediately leave to another party. It turns out there was a 20th Birthday party for my host sisters friend and my host sister and brother were going. The party was up in the mountains were they have specific cabins for people to go an party at. So we leave the house at 7 pm in our 1980 Red Toyota Land Cruiser and picked up several people along the way, including my other volunteer friend Jon (who went to the University of Vermont). Jon and I usually party a lot together because our host siblings are good friends. Anyways we pick him up and several other people and progressively more and more people are following us by motorcycle. So we finally get to the cabin with us in the lead car and basically 10 motorcycles behind us with 2 people each on one. The main mode of transportation out here is definitely motorcycles, which is terrifying because 1) the roads are very rocky, 2) there are thousands of blind curves, and 3) the roads are very narrow with steep cliffs to the side since we live in the mountains. Anyways we get to cabin and immediately everyone starts drinking and blasting the reggaeton. Later in the night, Jon and I decide to introduce the popular drinking method of “Shotgunning” (which involves drinking a can of beer through a whole on the bottom of the can). Everyone was amazed at our “party trick”, and immediately after words all the guys at the party wanted to learn how, and to make a long story short for about an hour after words people where “Shotgunning” beers left and right. Overall it was a really fun time and everyone had a good time. The cabin where the party was at was pretty cool, it had a nice garage type area were we could all drink and dance. It was a little windy and cold but it didn’t damper the fun.

Then the next night there was a dance at the local bar, which was amazingly fun as well. Almost all of the volunteers met up before hand and hung out with some Imperial and Bacardi refreshments and then moved on to tear up the dance floor at the local bar which transformed into a dance hall. The music was loud and of various different genres, as well they had a pretty impressive light setup and fog machine (which when on full blast, made you feel like you were in a “white out” and prohibited you from seeing pretty much anyone around you). Overall it was a really fun time and peoples true dancing skills were broken out that night once again. Tico 16 (Our Peace Corps Costa Rica group) definitely knows how to have a good time.

This past Monday we completed a “Shadowing” exercise which consisted of me working with another volunteers host mother and learning about her daily routines and life. I has a really good time working with “Vilma” and learning about her life. She definitely works very hard and keeps a clean house. She also likes to get her hands dirty in the field and helps pick coffee during the coffee season. Our main activity consisted of baking pan casado and empanadas (filled with some sort of melon/honey conglomerate). Overall they both turned out really well and I had a great time getting to know her.

This coming weekend is going to be a lot of fun. On Saturday we have our first “Out of Site” night where we can “legally” leave our training communities for one night. After the first month of training we are allowed only one “Out of Site” night, but when we are a sworn in volunteer , we are allowed 3 per month. Anyways all of the Volunteers in my group will be going to the “ Bi annual VAC dinner” which is when all of the Peace Corps volunteers from all of Costa Rica meet up in San Jose to eat dinner and party. We have heard from other volunteers that it is always a fun time and I am pretty excited to spend a night in San Jose with everyone else in the group.
Anyways that is my life right now. I am sorry that these emails are so long but it is hard for me to update more often since I live 25 minutes away from a 28.8 kbps internet connection which sometimes works and costs an exorbitant 600 colones per hour (little more than 1 USD) normally it is 300 colones an hour. As well I am sorry for not checking emails and sending emails as often. If you want my phone number to talk more I would love to give it out. You can also send me a letter/postcard or package filled with goods to :

Rudolph Becker
Cuerpo De Paz
Sabana Norte, del Banco Interfin
200 mts. Al oeste y 100 mts. Al sur.
Casa esquinera, diagonal a la residencia del Embajador de Espana,
Frente al Parque Peru.
San Jose, Costa Rica

The address is in “direction” format. That is just the way how it is here. If you write down all of that information in the address box of whatever you are sending me it will definitely get to me. Also send things via regular mail, as Fed Ex and UPS packages are difficult to receive here. I know that most people really wont send me anything but even a postcard or short letter would be awesome, as it is really great to hear from all of you back home.

Thank you very much for reading my blog and I will try and update more often when I get the chance. Adios y Pura Vida.

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.

Bon Voyage

Another day in Washington, DC... Another 7 hours of meeting in the hotel conference room. We learned a lot of additional things about the peace corps today, as well we finally found out more info about what exactly we will be doing once we arrive in Costa Rica.

Things are going great now. Just had lunch at the hotel restaurant, and enjoyed the last Reuben sandwich I will probably have for the next two years. Lately there have been alot of "lasts for the next two years" but there soon will be a lot of firsts.

We will be leaving the hotel extremely early in the morning to leave for our flight. So that is all for now. Goodbye America ! Hello Costa Rica !

Staging

First stop : Washington, DC. I arrived in DC this afternoon after a ridiculously long series of flights due to the snow storm in the north east. Once I finally arrived in DC I found out they lost my baggage and had to then wait in line for 45 minutes to fill out a claims form. With no luggage I took a taxi to the hotel. During the taxi ride I received a call half way to the hotel saying they just found my luggage, so I then needed to go back to the airport to pick up the luggage. Oh man, Oh man the joys of traveling. But anyways I made it slightly late to the first set of Peace Corps meeting in the hotel, but it wasn't really a problem.

My training group consists of approximately 5 guys and 13 girls. As well as one couple. All of the trainees seem to be 25 and under and everyone seemed really nice. We started off the meeting with introductions, general peace corps information, and other getting to know each other events. Nothing to crazy for the first day. Tommorow we start at 8:30 am and go till 6pm that should be a long day. After that we leave Wednesday morning at 3:30 to the airport to leave to Costa Rica.

Right now I am feeling pretty excited, but still feeling slightly depressed in having to leave everyone back in New York. But I know everything will work out alright and I will soon be hanging out in sunny Costa Rica as opposed to a dreary Holiday Inn in Washington, DC.

Anyways that is all for now.

Costa Rica !

Costa Rica ! That is where I will be starting February 28, 2007 for the next 27 months. It is pretty crazy that this has all finally come together. I began the whole application process December 2005 and finally January 2007 I was fully cleared and offered an assignment.

It has been a long time since I have update my blog, but there simply wasn't much else to interesting going on in my life since the last update. This past November I ran the NYC Marathon and then in December I spent two weeks in Jamaica with some of my friends, just hangin in Negril then living it up for another week in Montego Bay. On the work side of things I have been substitute teaching in NYC, which has been a great experience.

On February 26, I will leave from Westchester County Airport to Washington, DC to head to my staging event. Then two days later we will leave from there to San Jose, Costa Rica.
Right now I am pretty excited about the whole impending experience, while at the same time not looking forward to saying (temporary) goodbye to my family, friends and my overall life here in New York.

Depending on my internet access, hopefully I will be able to update this blog at least once a week with my adventures in Costa Rica. Although my job assignment as a "Rural Community Developer" may not bring me close to local coffee shops with Wi-fi Hotspots, but we'll see.

Anyways that is all for now... Less then two weeks to go.....