The Meeting

Successful. The Development Association and I had a COMMUNITY MEETING on Saturday – and it was AMAZING! It might have been one of my prouder moments. It felt like when I finally finished my Honors Thesis and my friends and family came to support my presentation…

The Association Development and I have been working hard to create projects for the community, but for any of the projects to be successful, the community has to support the projects! So we had to have an informational meeting. Unfortuneatly, the custom in Costa Rica is to NOT attend Community Meetings (and I mean…I am one of those in the United States who would be reluctant to attend a community meeting…so I understand). However, I went around and invited people that I knew to be community leaders and I also made a BIG SIGN to hang in the main grocery store!

We had a turnout of 50 community members (including my brother, my sister, and my mother who came to support me!). Then including myself, the two other speakers, and the Association Members we had a good 60 people at the meeting. And for 30 minutes, I spoke in front of them all in SPANISH! I was nervous when I started, but after about 5 minutes, I calmed down, stopped sweating (which is a miracle here) and spoke normally.

First, I gave an overview of who I am, why I am here (not to teach English or give psychological advice), and what is the Peace Corps (I brought Peace Corps brochures and when I asked them to SHARE the brochures, I accidently told them to BEHAVE. It was pretty funny.)Then I informed them of the current projects: Girls Club, World Map Mural, Library, Families in Action, Art, Pen Pals, School Scholarships, among others.

Then we talked about the community projects in which they have to help out like FREE COMMUNITY INTERNET, Community Sports Program, Adult English, and a Committee to protect and serve the kids of our community. There was a lot of interest in everything and a lot of questions were asked…and I am super excited to keep working on everything.

There is one problem though…because I work with and for so many different organizations and without set office hours (much of my work includes running errands, making phone calls, finding people to give money or donations, typing up letters or plans on the computer, cutting up crafts for the Girls Club, etc.), many people thing I do not work! My sister sent me a text message to remind me that I should be working. And I said “Excuse me? As opposed to the past two months when I’ve been doing….nothing?” She said “Yes you’ve been on vacation for two months.” I then calmly informed her that my WHOLE LIFE IS WORK simply because I have to do everything in Spanish! Ha! She laughed at me.