Costa Rica

University of National Champions

2009-04-07T13:32:00.001-07:00

Whether one is in Chapel Hill or one is in Costa Rica, A TARHEEL IS ALWAYS A TARHEEL! #1. So I made my family and other friends watch the game with me via internet streaming! While my brother liked to cheer for "GREEN" just be annoying, I had a great time screaming at the computer for the "celestes!" And now everyone knows that Carolina del Norte is the best basketball team en toda la nacion.

And my family was great and I told them we had to build a fire to jump over it afterwards, so this is the only time I have condoned TRASH BURNING. Go Tarheels!

It's no Franklin Street, but hey! I'm spreading the Tarheel love all the way down here in Costa Rica! I can't wait to show them the Franklin Street videos.

Dancing Baby

2009-04-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

I know that I write a lot about my nephew Axel. And I know that everyone thinks their baby is the greatest. But seriously, I hope my baby is like this baby because this baby is HILARIOUS.

Hiking Volcanoe Poas

2009-04-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

So my friend Moriah says to me, "Do you want to go on a caminata with me and some other girls?" A Caminata is like what we would consider one of those "Walk for the Cure" type walks. Moriah told me that it was only 12 km and it would be a fun easy walk and we would all have a great time walking. I had walked the Romeria which was a 20km walk to a beautiful Catholic Cathedral, so I joyfully agreed to go!

I and four other Peace Corps Volunteers traveled to Moriah's sight and we happily ate fried chicken and joked around on Saturday night. We awoke early on Sunday morning ready for a fun a walk!

As we arrived at the sign-in we noticed that most of these Costa Ricans looked pretty serious about this walk. Costa Ricans in athletic gear is REALLY uncommon, but these people looked pretty seasoned. We began to ask around and comes to find out that these were SERIOUS Costa Rican athletes. Some of them do "Caminatas" EVERY WEEK-END and a fair number were doing this caminata to train for HIKING Chirripo the highest mountain in COSTA RICA!

We knew we were in for a rough walk when we were asking when is the first rest stop and they answered "in about an hour!" WHAT?!?!?!? Even the easy part was pretty steep and we were sweating and tired. We got to the first rest stop and they told us something like one and a half hours more to the half way point.... WHAT?!?!?!?!?

We eventually entered the mountain and were hiking up a less than marked trail and there came a point when I just had to convince myself to think "Step. Step. Step. Step." It was ridiculous. The only thing that made it a little bit better is that EVERYONE thought it was hard. Even those in-shape Costa Ricans who knew what they were signed up for were taking it pretty slow with many breaks.

There are NO pictures of the HARD parts because at those parts, we didn't have enough energy to THINK about taking pictures!

There came a point when the muscles in your legs that apparently help you take upwards steps hurt with every step, but there wasn't must we could do, but keep walking. We were in the mountains...there was no way out, but up. At one point, one of our friends started crying. We all wondered why we thought this would be a good idea. And I'm not sure any of us thought it was worth it.

One Costa Rican woman kept telling me, "But look! Isn't it beautiful?" I was pretty honest. I told her "It's not THAT beautiful."

Finally, when we thought we were dead, we came to what was called the REPENTANCE HILL. At this point, it literally got so steep that it was like walking up a never ending staircase....for 3 kms. WHAT THE HECK. Seriously, we thought it would never end and we were all in a lot of pain. At this point, we also realized, that this hike was WAY LONGER than 12 km, it was definitly closer to 15-16kms!!

Finally, we reached this grassy area and there was a Red Cross Worker chilling out. We asked how much longer REPENTANCE HILL was and he told us there was still an hour left. And we were like, there is NO WAY I am going to walk another hour up this hill. SO...HE GAVE US AN AMBULANCE RIDE. Hahahahaha. Funny thing is that he was lying to us and he literally drove us around the corner. But whatever. We got to ride in an ambulance and it was just the pick-me-up we all needed.

It became a running joke, that although this was NOT fun and we were miserable, ATLEAST we got a FREE t-shirt! Hahahahahah....

Becuase, even though we had finally reached the road, there was still like 4 kms left. And we thought we would NEVER EVER EVER EVER get there. But we did. And then we laid down in the grass. And didn't walk again ever. Hahahahahaha.

Word to the wise: Don't hike volcanoes.

International Friends

2009-04-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

Being in the Peace Corps is hard work. So sometimes, we have to take vacation...and that's what I did! One of my favorite "freshmen" who is now out in the work world took off a week of "real work" to come to sunny Costa Rica! Obviously, we headed to the beach.

Emily Bucci got off the plane (she hates planes!) a little outside San Jose, Costa Rica and after a little soft serve ice cream from the airport Subway, we got straight on a Costa Rican bus and headed for San Jose Center!

Then we walked to the Nicoya Bus Station in the part of Costa Rica called the Coca-Cola, which is a kind of dangerous part of the city (Luckily, Emily didn't know that until later.) It was here that Emily had her first enconter with Costa Rican bus station bathrooms...and we'll just leave it at that.

We got to our first hotel in Nicoya with no problems, we slept soundly and woke up early (but not too early if you know me!) to head to PLAYA SAMARA! Playa Samara happens to be one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica and we went there. Using my trusty Lonely Planet Guidebook, we sat on the beach and began to call hotels to see if there were any vacancies. Unfortuneatly, everything was full! We thought we were going to have to sleep on the beach...just kidding. :) After a short walk around we found a place that fufilled most of our requirements: comfortable beds, air-conditioning, close to the beach, and hot water. :)

However, after we got settled there and went to explore the beach, we found a MUCH better hotel RIGHT on the beach with ALL of our requirements PLUS cable tv, PLUS it was actually ON the beach and a little farther from the center of Samara so a little more tranquilo. We headed there the next night.

We spent our days catching up (there's a lot to catch up on when you haven't seen someone for a year!), tanning, swimming, reading, laying in the hammocks and every night we checked out the night life. It was definitly my MOST relaxing vacation since coming to Costa Rica and I obviously did NOT want to leave the beach when the time came!

But thanks to Emily Bucci's plane tickets, we eventually had to leave. We spent one night in San Jose. We had to walk through the center of San Jose with Emily's rolling suitcase (which she loved! sorry emily!), but then she really did love the cute hotel. We freshened up and Emily was a great friend and humored my vacation self-interest because I REALLY wanted to go to the movies! So we went and she even saw a movie twice because I REALLY wanted to see it! And then we ate a far too expensive authentic Costa Rican restaurant!

The next morning we ate McDonald's pancakes (because nothing else was opened, but we didn't mind becase I never eat McDonald's EVER and Emily loves McDonald's pancakes even if she is Costa Rica!) and we toured San Jose center. Emily was a great tourist and bought a few Costa Rican souvenirs.

Finally...we had to head to the airport, but it was my most relaxing vacation EVER just what I needed. When Peace Corps gets hard, go to the beach!

Recycling Collection Center

2009-03-31T09:41:00.001-07:00

One of my big projects was to build a Recycling Collection Center at the school. They already had a recycling project going on, but they had no where to store the material until it could be collected. But now they do....

We are collecting paper, plastic, aluminum and cardboard. We do not collect glass because that is dangerous for the school and the majority of glass bottles are returned to the stores anyways.

Now that we have it built and organized it, we have to make sure that the school can handle it on it's own. The school was thinking I was going to be in charge of it...HA! We had to organize the kids, the janitors, the guards, and the teachers to all work together in keeping the Recycling Center organized and running well.

The community is suppose to bring their recycling to the center on Thursdays! We had a community meeting to inform everyone about the Recycling Center, but as is normal, very few people attended the meeting. For that reason, we plan to have the High School Students complete their required Service Hours for Graduation doing a Recycling Compaign.

Here are pictures of getting the recycling center ready, painting the recycling bins and having the comunity meeting!

Swim Camp

2009-03-31T09:05:00.001-07:00

I hardly leave my site and when I do, I usually have a great reason...

One of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers had a swim camp and being the amazing swimmer that I am..I went to help. It was so much fun to help another volunteer and for once not be in charge or organizing, facilitating, leading. motivating, etc. It was great just to HELP out.

Aerobics

2009-03-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

So one of our Peace Corps Goals is HEALTHY LIVING and that consists in being all athletic, which is not exactly my strength, but I have always loved Aerobics. Aerobics is MUCH more like dancing than like being athletic and so I have always had amazing Aerobics DVDs . I obviously brought them to Costa Rica for RAINY season when its too wet to go for walks and play outside. Then my oldest sister started doing Aerobics DVDs with me to joke around. Then we had a fabulous idea to start Aerobics classes! Now we have women from all over the community to go to aerobics classes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and it's been going strong for about six months now!

Good-bye Chicas Poderosas. Hello Guias y Scouts.

2009-03-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

I have completed my working with the girls club mainly because I want to make it MORE sustainable. The girls LOVE it so much, but without a dedicated Costa Rican who can commit time to them every week, it will not continue without a Peace Corps Volunteer.

So…instead I have dedicated my time to working with the closest Boy & Girl Scout Troop to our community! We are going to prepare leaders in our community to receive the Boy & Girl Scout Leadership training so that Costa Ricans can lead their own community kids & adolescents in a VERY sustainable Boys & Girls Club.

I won’t lie to you. I never did Girl Scouts and I always thought it was dorky. BUT, seeing it in Costa Rica, I love and admire it! It teaches the kids SO much responsibility, self-discipline, community service, and provides them with learning opportunities not otherwise available. They have a chance to work for rewards, learn team work and structure (every meeting has some of the same rituals), and they will also be lead by adults who can serve as role models.
So I have given up on my girls club of Chicas Poderosas to promote and encourage Boy & Girl Scouts of Caribe. If you have connections with Boy Scouts of Girl Scouts in the U.S. and have any suggestions or would like to support us any way…let me know!

English Class

2009-03-31T07:59:00.000-07:00

I have a group of 20 students who have now completed 4 levels of English with me! When the complete this final level, they will receive a diploma from one of the top English Teaching Institutes in Costa Rica! They are capable of basic English and what I really wish is that I could bring them to the United States so they could really practice.

We started the course for 4 hours once a week, but have recently changed to about 2.5 hours twice a week which has helped considerably. I have no teaching background and learned so much from teaching them! I almost feel sorry for them because my teaching strategies have all been hit or miss. I’ve learned that they have to play lots of competitive games of they get bored. I’ve learned that I have to give them graded quizzes every class period so they will study each week. I’ve learned that they have to turn in the homework to be graded or they will NOT do it. I’ve learned that we have to dedicate one entire class to ONLY SPEAKING for them to really be able to practice well.

I have seen so much improvement in their reading, writing and speaking skills and I am super proud of them all. Here are some pictures of the class:

To Explain My Work

2009-03-31T06:37:00.000-07:00

I finally thought about how I have done a really bad job about describing my work on my blog. I thought for a long while about why I did such a bad job of recording my work successes on my blog. Here’s what I came up with…

The process of having a project idea, project planning, finding resources and then completing the project (only to see that the work is REALLY just beginning), MIGHT be the MOST frustrating thing in the world. After thinking about and working on a project for so long: 1.The last thing I want to do is then WRITE about it and 2. It is so much a part of me that I forget it should be news to some people.

I want to take one minute to describe some of the steps to completing a Peace Corps Project. They sound simple enough, but to a type A, do it now, instant gratification North American, the experience can be trying.

Steps to Painting Recycling Bins:
1. Wait for 40 minutes on the bus into town.
2. Twenty minute bus ride to town.
3. Walk to first paint shop.
4. Wait in paint store a good 20 minutes to be helped.
5. Figure out appropriate paint for recycling bins.
6. Price paint.
7. Realize that the specific paint needed is ridiculously expensive.
8. Walk to second paint shop.
9. Wait in second paint store for a good 20 minutes to be helped.
10. Realize paint is just as expensive there.
11. Decide paint cannot be afforded and must be donated.
12. Wait for bus.
13. 20 minute bus ride home.
14. Write donation letter Spanish.
15. Have Spanish donation letter proof read (by native Spanish speaker).
16. Wait for bus.
17. Twenty minute bus ride to town.
18. Enter internet café.
19. Print letter.
20. Leave internet café.
21. Enter copy center.
22. Make copies.
23. Wait for bus.
24. Twenty minute bus ride home.
25. Hunt down President of the PTA to sign donation letter.
26. Spend time socializing with President of PTA before can ask for signature.
27. Receive signature.
28. Wait for bus.
29. Twenty minute bus ride to town.
30. Go to first paint store.
31. Wait an hour more or less to be attended by the person in charge of donations.
32. Explain project. Turn in letter. Told to come back in a week for the answer.
33. Go to second paint store.
34. Repeat steps 31 &32.
35. Wait a week.

You get the idea that it has taken me two weeks to do something that with the correct resources in the US could take three phone calls (or at least not so much bus riding). While the process in the US of pricing, donation letters and waiting on an answer might be the same, it would be significantly easier with a car, a telephone, a computer, a printer, and a copy machine...

Keep in mind also that this is one VERY small and comparably EASY step to the whole project that probably took three and half weeks to complete. And it held up all the other steps to the project.

Furthermore while this step was long and just annoying, at least no one was FIGHTING against me in this step. In some of the other steps, the people of the same school do their best (unintentionally) to make the project more difficult. For example, in a school of 400 students there is ONE printer (bought and owned by the school), but only the director has access to it. With good reason he takes good care of the printer and not just anyone can use it; however, when I needed to print the 60 color labels for the recycling bins I had to wait until HE was available to oversee the printing. Could I have gone to an internet cafe? Yes, and I could have also paid $12 out of my own pocket for the printing! (That's like half my peace corps salary!) So instead, I was at the mercy and the schedule of the school director who (honestly) has more important and urgent things to do than oversee the printing of recycling lables.

I know its my job, but even the simplest parts of projects require a lot more waiting and time than I am use to. And finally, when the project is "complete," really, its just begun. The recycling center is built and had its grand opening! The school is using it and the community knows about it. However, the project is nowhere near being finished because now we have to teach the 5,000 inhabitants of this community how to use it! So begins PHASE 2: Education and Promotion of the Recycling Collection Center.

As soon as one step to the long process is completed, another step is revealed – usually bigger and more complicated than the previous step. For those reasons and more, I never write about my work, starting right now, I'm gonna give it a shot!

Lauren Quartz DiBianca

2009-02-11T10:22:00.000-08:00

As I previously mentioned, my best friend came to Costa Rica in January! We had a great time traveling around and vacationing with my siblings, BUT even more exciting for me was the time she got to spend with me in my site! She had the opportunity to share in my “normal” life and experience a piece of Costa Rican sweetness.

My family LOVED Lauren and she loved them. And I obviously absolutely loved having Lauren see my site, meet my family and friends, and learn about all that I love so dearly!! Also, spending time with her here helped me see my site through the eyes of a North American again. Little pieces of life that Americans assume to be true about typical life sometimes just don´t fit here. It was almost scary how Costa Rican customs are so normal to me and American customs feel strange and out of place. I was thankful for a chance to compare Costa Rican typical with North American typical personified in me versus my best friend.

For example, Lauren always walked WAY too fast. Hahahaha. My brother and I took her to visit our friend Davis one day and as we were walking to his house, my brother and I felt like we were running. Finally, I asked “Why are we walking so fast?” Obviously Lauren responded, “This is how I always walk.” When I think back to when I first arrived in Costa Rica, I remember thinking “Why do these people always dawdle?” Americans walk with a purpose. We always have somewhere to be and something to do! Costa Ricans…..just walk. They enjoy the walk knowing that the destination will always be there, whether they arrive sooner or later. And if the destination is not there… well, that doesn´t really bother them either.

Also, Lauren was never hungry when we were hungry! Costa Ricans eat HUGE lunches and about two hours later drink coffee with a pastry. Like a solider Lauren ate the greasy, fatty, meaty foods and she even drank coffee with us two hours later! But I can just see her face now, when my whole family was like “Sorry, we have to leave the beach because our bodies are CRAVING coffee and we cannot live one minute longer without COFFEE!” And she was thinking “But we just ate the biggest lunch EVER!” Hahahahaha. I remember thinking the SAME thing, but now my body craves coffee too! Instinctively, I know when its coffee time. And trust me, you don’t want to deprive a Costa Rican (or Kim) of their coffee.

Finally, Lauren was far too responsible! She was always very interested in what we were going to do and when we were going to do it. Like a responsible person, Lauren mentally and unconsciously plans her time and her day. I know. I do it too. But I use to do it more. For this very reason, many Peace Corps Volunteers have a very hard adjustment. I can plan my day all I want to, but if the bus doesn´t come... I can say that I am going to research at the internet for an hour, print my work, and turn it in, but when the electricity goes out, the internet doesn´t work, the printer is out of ink, and the offices are close....What can you do? Costa Ricans have even less control over their lives than North Americans do. If all those things go wrong in the U.S. what do we do? WE FIX IT NOW. If all those things go wrong in Costa Rica, what can you do? Nothing. You can wait. Until the road gets fixed, the bridge gets rebuilt, the bus is repaired, the electricity comes back on, etc. How do Costa Ricans respond? They stay chill. They are not going to plan things because inevitably it will not work how they plan it, and the chiller they stay, the easier everything seems to fall into place.

It´s hard to explain Costa Rican culture in a blog. All I know is that in 21 months, I have mysteriously become a part of it.

Costa Rican Summer Vacation (plus one hot american tourists!)

2009-02-11T09:42:00.000-08:00

So the typical time to travel in Costa Rica – summertime – is JANUARY. It seems so backwards to us, but my siblings were just itching to get to the beach! Unfortunately we are all WAY to poor to actually go to the beach…$20 for a hotel, $20 (or more) a day on food…NO WAY! So we went camping!

Maybe you remember my last Costa Rican camping trip, but Costa Ricans camp in style. We are talking mattresses and stoves here. Yes, we slept in tents, but each tent also had mattresses inside…no sleeping on the cold hard ground here. And as for food – we COOKED every meal on our very own gas stove which we took with us!

We had a great time! First we swung by the airport to pick up this hot american tourist named Lauren DiBianca! From there, we headed northwest to Playa Hermosa in Guanacaste – which was way too crowded.

So we packed up and went to Playa Juanquinikil which just happened to be a biological reserve. There were no buildings in sight, but there were tons of animals, white sand beaches, and starry nights!

From there, we headed Volcán Miravalles where we saw the bubbling mud lagoons – which we then proceeded to bathe in! Oh yeh, and after that we took advantage of the natural hot springs to wash off which also included a WATER SLIDE!

It was definitly a vacation to remember!

Happy New Years 2009!

2009-02-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

A quick description of my new years. It all began a few days before December 31st, when all the women started buying new clothes, dying their hair, and searching for the PERFECT pair of high heels. While I usually do not succumb to such girly materialism... my sisters CONVINCED me to

get blonde highlights! (I had never used more than SUN-IN!) I was scandalized by the "stripes" in my hair, but my sisters said it looked great and everyone else in town....NEVER EVEN NOTICED! hahahahaha.....

When the big night rolled around, we put on our tighest jeans, cutest blouses, and tallest high heels (except me, I´m too tall for high heels in Costa Rica). We straighted our hair and put on extra make-up. (Please note blue eye shadow. Art work of my oldest sister.)

And we WALKED about half a kilometer to our Grandma´s house! We entered into the calf barn (still housing one calf) which had been converted into the PARTY SALON with huge palm leaves and red flowers and christmas lights! We ate grilled pig (which had obviously been killed that same day) and Chicken Rice. We played silly party games until mid-night when we set off homemade fireworks! Then the whole family stood in a cirlce and talked about what they were thankful for - then we prayed as one whole family.

And obviously, to end the night, we drank COFFEE and ate HOMEMADE bread at 1 AM.

Happy New Years 2009!

Gringo Christmas

2008-12-31T09:51:00.000-08:00

Well, I think the United States is special in its Christmas traditions….and other countries have take bits and pieces of the Christmas glamour, but….at least in Costa Rica, never really got the whole Christmas thing.

I had people telling me that Christmas was December 24th (WHAT!) and being confused about the whole when to give presents thing. In Costa Rica, it is a law that all employees must receive an EXTRA paycheck in December. Therefore, the grand majority of Costa Ricans have A LOT of extra cash in December! They obviously spend in buying clothes, shoes, and Christmas presents, but they didn’t do a very good job of then HIDING all those presents, wrapping them, and putting them under the tree -- which is clearly the ONLY right thing to do with ANY presents bought after November 25th, right?

Anyways, I was determined to have a REAL Christmas this year. Luckily, my oldest sister really gets in the spirit and we decorated the whole house with lights and and trees and all sorts of Christmas things on November 15th! Hahahaha. Then I asked my mom to send Christmas stockings, which I faithfully painted with glitter glue the names of my family (and Derlis and Davis, because they practically live in our house anyways) and we hung them on the main wall. We then exchanged names for big gifts (with a price limit of $12) and decided to fill the stockings with little, inexpensive gifts. We ALL obviously purchased gifts for the kids…

We even made a Christmas chain so that Sharon (niece) could count down the days until Santa Clause. She loved it and everyday woke up asking to tear off a day of the chain...

We had a huge Christmas dinner with the whole church on Christmas Eve

and then we had a pajama party beside the tree to wait for Santa Clause.

It was so fun putting all the gifts under the tree and filling up the stockings.

I’ve never been up that late to watch the tree be filled with gifts.

And at 6:00 on the dot the kids woke up and came running to see all the presents! We let them open everything…..there were Barbie’s, Barbie dream castles, Princess dress-up kits, Barbie make-up, stickers, coloring books, clothes, cars, trains, drums, trumpets….seriously, it was so happy. The kids just didn’t know what to do with themselves!

Then we, the adults, exchanged gifts and opened our stockings…and we ate coffee cake….and played with the kids….and then we wanted to go back to sleep……but basically we just a calm day watching movies and hanging out. It really was a Merry Christmas!
Even though, I had to insist many times that gifts had to be wrapped, had to be under the tree, and that we HAD to wait until Christmas morning…..I think everyone really enjoyed gringo Christmas!

I hope you all really enjoyed your gringo Christmases as well and Happy New Year!!

P.S. Costa Ricans do have one Christmas tradition that I love! They love to have fireworks during Christmas...and we might be talking homemade fireworks.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-31T09:44:00.000-08:00

In case you were worried about what I ate on Thanksgiving, Laura and I decided to participate in a Peace Corps activity where families that work for the American Embassy invite Peace Corps Volunteers to enjoy Thanksgiving with them! So we went! A wonderful family welcomed us into their home, let us use their computer and telephone, let us watch tv and just rest. We enjoyed good American conversation. For appetizers, we had chips & salsa, chez mix, celery and carrots and ranch dressing. For the main dish we had turkey, stuffing, gravey, rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, carrots, pistachio salad, corn pudding….and probably more…I can’t remember. For dessert we had apple pie, pumpkin pie, lemon meringue pie, chocolate chip cookies, and three kids of homemade ice cream! So no worries, we enjoyed an American Thanksgiving!

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays....

2008-12-31T08:44:00.000-08:00

Then came November… November was the month of birthday parties. I think that everyone I love in Costa Rica had a birthday in the month of November:

Gaudy (my sister and closest friend) – October 30
Derlis (my cousin and close friend) — October 30
Kim (me) -- November 1
Sharon (my niece) -- November 4
Ivannia (friend) -- November 5
Cristian (my brother) -- November 10
Davis (my first friend and basically part of the family) – November 10
Loreina (friend) -- November 15

Please read about all of the following birthday parties:

MY JOINT BIRTHDAY PARTY!
SO, we began the festivities with a three way joint birthday party for my sister Gaudy, my cousin Derlis and me!

When: On November 1st, we invited all of our family and all of our friends to have a huge party.

Where: My cousin cleaned out his “rancho” – it was basically just a shelter in his backyard – and we made benches and hung Christmas lights and balloons and set up tables and chairs and…..

Food: Grandma made Chicken Rice – because it is the cheapest food you can make for a large group of people and therefore the STAPLE of every birthday party. Derlis’ mom made Picadillo de Papaya – there is no name to describe it, but you chop up papaya and other vegetables and then mix them all together with ground beef and then eat it on tortillas. I made the BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE with CARAMEL ICING ever! We also had fruit salad, ice cream, jello, chips, salad, marshmellows, coca-cola…basically a TON of food.

Games: Our amazing friend Davis lead PARTY games, because here the people LOVE party games. It’s a great way to get the people to interact. Whereas in the United States, we’re more free for all, let the people mingle….here the people just kind of SIT. Probably because we all live so close and see each other every day, mingling isn’t really necessary….so Davis planned a whole evening of ice breakers that really got the party people laughing, playing and interacting. It seriously made the night to fun!

We really didn’t want the night to end, BUT because we did invite the whole family, the parents and grandparents were ready to go early so……we obviously had to end the party with a PIŇATA!!!!

Our oldest sister made us a homemade piñata which said “Friens.” (without the "d") And you know how in the US all the adults are too mature to dive on the ground to try to steal candy? Well in Costa Rica, NOT THE CASE. As soon as that piñata splits open, people of all ages dive to the ground. Babies Beware! It was hilarious and the BEST way to start my 25th year of life!

I also need to give a HUGE shout-out to my amazing friends and parents who remembered my birthday SO MUCH in advance that I had packages to open that included new clothes, silver earrings for my silver birthday, perfume, make-up, country cd’s, dvd’s, homemade decorations, and so much more….

Oh! And to Virginia who remembered to not only send a birthday gift for me, but for all of my family and friends who had birthdays in the same period…she even remembered to send stickers (pegatinas) for my niece!

Sharon’s Birthday
Just a few days later….my niece turned 5! It was a princess/Barbie birthday party to remember! I was in charge of the cakes, so PLEASE take note of how AMAZING they are! Obviously, there was Grandma’s Chicken Rice amongst other goodies, pin the nose on the man, and a Piñata! She was a pretty pretty princess and I think she was pretty amazingly happy after her birthday party!

Davis, Cristian, Ivannia and Loreina
We also had a joint birthday party for Davis, Cristian, Ivannia and Loreina at one of our normal reunions. Obviously, I yet again made the birthday cake and we had a great time!

Later, we had another birthday party for Cristian because he is the pastor of the church…so there was a huge party at the house and his grandfather came and brought a whole band with him. Yet again, there was a lot of really good food and party games.

About one week later, we had the last and final of birthday parties to celebrate Loreina. At this party, we were all looking pretty good in party hats.

And all the birthday parties finished JUST IN TIME…..for Christmas!!!!!!!

Laura and All Volunteer Conference

2008-12-31T08:36:00.001-08:00

In October, I am sure many more things happened, but the most interesting for me is that I made a new Peace Corps friend. Peace Corps Bolivia got officially evacuated in September and asked that other Peace Corps countries make room for some of the experienced volunteers to finish out their service. In Costa Rica, we got three volunteers. One couple who now live a little closer to me than most other volunteers….and Laura! She has an interesting story and interesting connection to Costa Rica and now she will be a Peace Corps Volunteer here until October 2009. She is an honorary member of our Peace Corps group.

I had the GREAT pleasure of hosting her and “teaching” her all about how to be a volunteer in Costa Rica and mainly it was just really fun having another American here to see my life and laugh at the ridiculousness of life, and to be SUPER hot & sweaty, and see why I love my Costa Rican family SO MUCH!

Also, about one week later, we went to the All Volunteer Conference which, for me, was SIGNIFICANTLY better than last year. It was in the mountains and beautiful. The camp grounds had wireless internet and a computer lab, as well as nice places to eat, hang out, and most importantly sleep. J So here are two pictures of me and Laura at All Volunteer Conference, Peace Corps Costa Rica 2008.

September 15th

2008-12-31T08:30:00.000-08:00

The truth is that although I haven’t written on my blog for quite a while now, I have really wanted to….and I have been saving pictures to put on this blog – SO we will now backtrack to September 15th.

September 15th is Costa Rica’s Independence Day. On the night before September 15th, everyone in the town makes their own homemade sort of “lamp on a stick.” I am sure it has an official name, but the really creative people use cardboard boxes which they transform into the shapes of cars, Barbies, flags, dragons, or whatever their heart desires. They obviously cut off the TOP of the box and with hot glue stick a candle in the middle of the box. On the other side, they connect a broom stick….and there you have it….Lamp on a stick. Then the whole town meets at the school, lights the candles and they march around the neighborhood with their lamps. It’s pretty hilarious. I had a great time.

Then the next morning, the whole country has mini-PARADES! Everywhere that there is a SCHOOL, the school kids create a band of ONLY percussion instruments. I would say every kid who has ever been in any sort of band in Costa Rica learn the same three songs. Then they add in some baton twirlers and Latin dancers, a little bit of traditional dress and traditional dancing AND POOF! the VERY SAME parade in every single neighborhood that has a school. It’s pretty amazing how they do the EXACT same parade all over the country! And the kids and the neighborhoods LOVE it.

Happy Costa Rican Independence Day! (a little late)

Happy Birthday Virginia!

2008-10-05T15:09:00.001-07:00

I told you that Virginia really made an impression when she came to visit.

When it rains...it POURS.

2008-10-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

So one day I was ironing and all of the sudden, it felt likeI was in a shower. Apparently one of the gutters overflowed....and all I can say is thank goodness we do not live in the US. All we had to do was sweep the water out of the house. No harm. No foul.

Cost Rican Camp

2008-10-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

So my Costa Rican friends LOVE camp. They took me on a week-end retreat and it was a great experience. It was cool to meet Costa Ricans from all different parts of Costa Rica and have them be really welcoming and encouraging. From the moment we arrived (late, typical tico style), I was split up from my friends, and welcomed into the GREEN TEAM...where we immediately had to make up a cheer, a team name and a team flag. Everyone assured me that they spoke english incase I didn't understand spanish...and one guy even got confused when I spoke Spanish and he said to me "You speak Spanish! But you look media-gringa (half-american)." We all just busted out laughing. Give me another year and I'll look fully Costa Rican!

It was fun getting to be a kid and play lots of games and jump around and be silly. I felt stupid playing soccer, but they totally thought I was a basketball rockstar (if they only knew how i sat the bench in 8th grade!). One of my main goals was to beat the blue team...mainly because my brother, Cristian, was the bluye team captain and apparently he has this luck that his team ALWAYS wins. I was so determined to beat him. And I'll have you know that my team only lost by 100 points to his team and thats ONLY because we lost 200 points because some chick was flirting with boys when we were suppose to be in a meeting (and it wasn't me, yo). Anyways, I still hold that I beat him by 100 points because I was NOT the one talking. I even asked infront of the whole camp if I could still be the winner.....they laughed at the media-gringa.

I Brought Duct Tape To Costa Rica.

2008-10-05T14:40:00.001-07:00

And check out all the amazing uses we have found for it..... :)

Painting the World

2008-09-23T16:47:00.000-07:00

So we finished the World Map Mural a looooooong time ago...and I apologize for not putting up the completed pictures. Just two quick notes about that:

1. It takes a lot more time and effort to do this project than it looks like. My friends and I worked from dusk to dawn (ok, if you really know me, you know enough not to believe that we started at dawn, but we did work 8 -10 hour days) for a good amount of time. We are still missing the country names, but I am afraid to write on my beautiful map....

2. I have to give a HUGE shout out to Davis Villarreal Martinez who worked all day everyday with me and took on this project as his own. By the end of the project, I was exhausted and Davis was encouraging me to finish! Also - a huge thank you to my family - Gaudy, Cristian, and Ivannia -- who also put in a good deal of hours. And to my neighbors Xindia, Sherry, Wendolyn, Francini, Golla, Angie, and others who helped paint as well.

VRR and KRR take over Costa Rica

2008-09-23T16:19:00.001-07:00

I know that I am currently doing a HORRIBLE job of keeping up with the blog, but I hope that makes you all feel reassured that I am very busy…too busy to play on the internet. Luckily, I did find a little time to play in Costa Rica when one of my really good forever friends, Virginia, came to take over Costa Rica.

One of the best parts is just having Virginia, from my “old life” see, experience, and understand my “new life.” Both “lives” are unexplainable to the other… People from the United States can hear 1 million descriptions of my family, friends and work, but even the most attentive listening doesn’t satisfy my desire that they TRULY experience (even for just a day or two) my life. At the same time, Costa Ricans only know the Spanish speaking, Spanish humor, outside her comfort zone Kim. With a little bit of home by my side, it can be a totally different picture.

Virginia and I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed…and its fair to say that my Costa Rican friends never really understood WHY we were laughing, but Virginia and I totally did. It was so wonderful to see Costa Rica through the eyes of someone else – someone who is close to my heart and appreciates the same things I do.

We did lots of adventurous activities (note pictures above), but we were also perfect travel buddies because we both enjoy the RELAXATION part of vacation. We both had a lot of firsts and…I am just so glad to have shared Costa Rica, my friends, my current home, my life, my frustrations, and some good RELAXING with Virginia.

P.S. My Costa Rican friends LOVED Virginia. LOVED Virginia.

Alexis and Susie

2008-07-16T13:46:00.001-07:00

We are currently on summer vacations for all the public schools in Costa Rica. Their summer vacations are two weeks. I was lucky enough to have two visitors from the United States during this time. One is a friend from high-school and college, Alexis and the other was her mom, Susie! They had planned a trip to travel around Costa Rica and let me know that they would like to get to know REAL Costa Ricans (which I highly recommend). I found a family for them to stay with in my town and they fit right in.

In the mornings, we did a 2 hour Enlgish Art Camp for the girls and in the afternoons we began drawing a map of the world (which is way more complicated that you would ever think!). Alexis and Susie had tons of energy and wanted to do everything possible in the three days they were here and I forgot what the American work ethic is like. I was absolutely exhausted every night and I am not sure how they had so much energy after traveling around Costa Rica for the 10 days prior.

In addition to the mini-camp and the mural painting, we went on a bike ride to the see the Banana and Pineapple plantations, we visiting my cousins house to see all the flor and fauna, they made Limon Merenge Pie and crepe paper flowers with their family, and more! They bonded with the kids and with their family and I know the trip was a success because before they left, they cried.

I Got Sick

2008-07-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

It’s not that interesting and I definitely do not have pictures of it, BUT I just want to vent for a little while. I clearly got a virus. From where, from who, who knows? But on Saturday, July 5th, I woke up with a fever of 102 (which is PRETTY miserable!). I don’t ever remember having a fever of 102. I had a steady fever or 102 for two days straight. I took lots of Tylenol and I was constantly “bathing” myself in ice water. I didn’t feel like doing anything (except crying), not even watching tv. My whole body ACHED, my head ached, my stomach ached, the thought of food or drink made me feel sick to my stomach….I pretty much just sat. On the third day, the worst of the stomach part kicked in. By the fourth day, I FELT better, but let’s just say the stomach issues didn’t clear up for a FEW more days.

Ok, I don’t think you need to know the details of my every sickness, but the point is that when one is sick, one needs people to say “Are you ok? Can I get you anything?” One needs empathy and quietness. Now, I HATE being sick and I work really hard not to whine and I don’t need that much sympathy….

But my WONDERFUL family (they really are wonderful, I love them.), while I was still with fever and headaches began to diagnose all my problems. “It’s because you always drink cold water after you exercise.” “It’s because you ate lots of beans.” “It’s because you’re ‘impachado’.” (Impachado is their word for really bad stomach ache.) “It’s because…”
If I had had more energy, I would have screamed. But instead, I just laid there and let them tell me how it was allmy fault that I was so sick and how I do all these bad things like drink cold water and eat beans. Clearly BOTH would cause a 3-day fever of 102 degrees. Clearly.
Unfortunately, my poor little baby that lives in the house…..got my VIRUS yesterday. He had a fever of 102 and was very lethargic. They took him to the emergency room and they told the mom that it was just a virus. And now the poor child has started to have the stomach problems. And while I feel VERY bad to have given my virus to the baby because I love him with all my heart, I COULD NOT HELP BUT SAY “Funny how eating too many beans and drinking cold water is CONTAGIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!” As the mom continues to tell me about all the baby’s symptoms, I always respond with “I COMPLETELY understand.” I feel bad, but vengeance is mine.

DISCLAIMER: My family is awesome. Everything that I am writing about them on this blog, they know. I read it to them translated in Spanish. And I also could not survive in my community without them. They support and love me and although they gave me a hard time when I was sick, they also prepared the ice water, and soup and bought me gingerale and crackers and they would have taken me to the hospital if I would have let them. They are the best Costa Rican family ever!

The Fourth Of July

2008-07-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

It’s my second 4th of July outside of the United States of America and I definitely miss the pool parties and the Forsyth Country Club fireworks…and the North Carolina summers. I love that it’s light outside until 9:00 at night….

But anyways, I still tried to bring a little United States to Costa Rica. I had a disc of patriotic music, red, white and blue headbands; and my brother Cristian bought us some “fireworks.” So no worries, we celebrated INDEPENCE DAY!

Axel

2008-07-16T13:26:00.001-07:00

This is the 1 and a half year old who lives in my house. Everyone says he’s tremendous! I think he is just normal, but he’s definitely not allowed in my room! Here are a few pictures of him!

The Queen of Chicas Poderosas

2008-07-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

My beautiful girls in my girls club are working hard to raise money to take a trip to the amusement park in Costa Rica. With all of my heart, I want to take these girls to the amusement part! I think, just like the majority of these girls have never been in a library, out to eat at a restaurant, stayed in a hotel, etc; the majority have never been to an amusement park, much less on ANY field trip with friends.

We did the amazing fundraiser of selling doughnuts, but it was a lot of work for Kim, the leader of the Chicas Poderosas. I asked around for fundraising ideas and my sister, Gaudy, suggested a “CORONATION.” The idea is that all the girls who want to be the QUEEN of the Chicas Poderosas have to compete by asking people in the community to support them with “votes.” And by votes, I mean MONEY. They had to make cans with their pictures and signs saying “HELP me be the QUEEN of the Chicas Poderosas.” Then we would have a huge presentation crowning the winner the QUEEN.

I was hoping that the girls would work really hard to raise money, asking the community, the businesses and anyone who might be willing to donate. I went into town with the girls one day to teach them how to ask the businesses if they could put a can in the business and how to ask the people in the streets for money (Who can say no to a 10 year old girl asking you to help her be princess? Seriously.) The rest was up to the girls…..and well….let’s just say, we didn’t raise all that much money, but we did have a lot of fun at the Coronation. The girls prepared dances and presentations. They decorated. I prepared an amazing snack of chocolate chip cookies and prepared the stage and the show. The girls were hilarious.

We raised almost no money, but the girls had a good time and now we have a QUEEN of the Chicas Poderosas.

The Fair

2008-07-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

The fair came to my town and we went to the rodeo, we rode some rides, bought some cotton candy, honestly, the most interesting thing to say about it, is that Christians in Costa Rica don’t dance. They are not allowed to dance. It is probably from the devil. Well, I may LOVE to dance. And I may have broken all rules and said “I AM CHRISTIAN AND I DANCE.”
Just as I side note, I break lots of Christian rules here. For example, I play cards and read Harry Potter. (du, du, du) Luckily, I’m not one to worry about breaking rules. I got over the “What will the neighbors think mentality?” in the United States, and although they talk about the neighbors much more in my Costa Rican town, you just gotta let them talk. I can’t live my life based on the opinions of other people.

It sounds funny, but I always remember the fable of the Father, the son, and the donkey.

The Father, his son and the donkey are on trip to town to sell goods. The donkey is carrying the goods on his back, and the Father and the son are walking alongside the donkey talking. As they pass through the first town, the people begin to talk and gossip, “What a horrible Father making that poor boy walk all the way into town. He is so small. He’s got to be exhausted.” So the Father puts his son the donkey and they continue on their way. As they pass through the second town, the people begin to talk and gossip, “What a lazy, ungrateful son riding on the donkey and making his poor father walk all the way to town. The son is so much younger and the Father’s got to be exhausted.” So the Father gets on the donkey with the son and they continue on their way. As they pass through the third town, the people begin to talk and gossip, “That poor donkey carrying those goods, the son and his father. That is horrible. That donkey must be exhausted.” So the Father and the son get off the donkey and the Father and son carry the goods and they continue on their way. As the Father, the son and they arrive in the final town of their destination, the people begin to talk and gossip, “How stupid that Father and son carrying those goods when they have a perfectly good donkey to carry them.”

I HONESTLY see this in action daily. I am constantly defending the victim. I ALWAYS play “devils advocate” just so that whoever is talking MIGHT think about another point of view instead of always thinking the worst of their victim. The good thing is that I have totally accepted that everyone in my town has an opinion about everything I do (which they are totally entitled to) and that I will not live by their opinions. I know WHO I am and I know RIGHT from WRONG. And I AM A CHRISTIAN AND I DANCE.

DiBianca Wedding Land

2008-07-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

Seeing as there has been a huge demand for the blog and I had no idea where to start, I’ll start with my trip to the United States. Although, I had sufficiently brought ally my projects to a temporary close and was ready to travel, going to the United States for 11 days was pretty much a headache. There were about 100 things I wanted to do, see, eat, buy as well as 100 people that I would have loved to have hugged, called, and spent quality time with. Unfourtuneatly in 11 days it was impossible. So I spent a good deal of my time feeling guilty and stressed out. I found myself longing to come back to Costa Rica, not because I was tired of the U.S., but because I couldn’t handle ALL the responsibilities and demands put on me in such a short time. It would be a good personal Peace Corps rule to NOT return to the US in your two years and let the people that REALLY love you, just come to you. (Or if you do go home, don’t tell people, just hang out with your family!)

There was a shinning star, though. The reason I went home was to attend the DiBianca-Ferrin Wedding. And seeing as the (previously) Miss. Amy DiBianca is a pretty important person my life, I may or may not have been committed to various wedding activities. When they begun, I was still pretty stressed out thinking about all the other “responsibilities” I had in the U.S. (with only FOUR more days to complete them all!)…so I made a decision to commit myself to the wedding process. For me that meant, I didn’t answer or make any phone calls that didn’t directly relate to the DiBianca-Ferrin wedding (the only exceptions were my mom & dad). And you know? It totally worked. I super enjoyed my trip to the United States of America, mainly the joining of Mr. & Mrs. Michael Ferrin.

I would like to say that I learned my lesson and will not be returning to the United States until September 2009, BUT some people just can’t wait to get married. For the first time, published on the worldwide web, the DiBianca-Frye Wedding will be attended by this Peace Corps Volunteer, but I’m not telling you when……

My English Class

2008-04-29T11:16:00.008-07:00

I have a HUGE ENLGISH CLASS....and I have never taught English before in my life. And I always appreciated the hard work that teachers do, but now I appreciate it a thousand times over. I almost cried last night because....some people just don't get it. I can repeat the same thing 100 times and some students are still confused. And I am not talking about repeating English words, I am talking about repeating directions. I will say in spanish "The first 5 questions are listening questions. Please read over the questions to make sure you understand. Then I will begin reading a paragraph and you have to mark the correct answers to the questions according to what I read." (And yes, I can say all that in Spanish.) OK, so I will repeat that 2 or 3 times. After each time I will ask if their are questions. THEN I WILL READ THE PARAGRAPH...and no one will answer anything. Then I will look at the group and say "Why didn't you mark any answers?" And they will look back at me and say "OH! We were suppose to answer the questions according to what you read?!?!"

THIS IS NOT AN EXAGERATION.

Anyways, I am pretty sure that God did not give me the paitience to EVER be a teacher. But I do hope to continue teaching this english class. The final exam is, Sunday, May 4th and those that pass the course will have the option of continuing on to the next level! Here is a picture of my sisters, Gaudy and Ivania, my cousin Derlis, and our basically brother too, Davis studying for the midterm.

Overcoming Machismo

2008-04-29T11:16:00.007-07:00

My cousin Derlis.

The Pijama Party

2008-04-29T11:16:00.006-07:00

I have been soooooooooooooo busy lately. And one of the reasons is that we planned a HUGE pajama party for the Chicas Podersosas! And what a success. Once again, I could never have done it without my sister, Gaudy! I also had help from a neighbor who was an amazing help as well, Xindia. That night we learned about CHARACTER. It was really funny, because we played a game the entire night where you had to put other people first! So the girls could NOT serve themselve food, take craft supplies or even lay down to go to sleep until they had helped their friends do the same! It was hilarious! And you should have seen them trying to feed the leaders food to gaim brownie points! They had the BEST time....and needless to say...we BARELY SLEPT!

REAL Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-04-29T11:16:00.005-07:00

I went to the Costa Rican version of wal-mart and I bought REAL chocolate chips and REAL brown sugar and with the REAL backing soda that my mom sent....I made REAL chocolate chip cookies. Please note the outcome!

Happy Birthday Una!

2008-04-29T11:16:00.004-07:00

In my previous life, I was a babysitter. I loved being a babysitter and in many ways, I think it really helped prepare me for certain aspects of the Peace Corps! Not to mention that the families I babysat for have been amazingly supportive of me and my work in Costa Rica! So first let me THANK a million times over Eric, Sandi and Una; Dave, Stefanie, and Owen; Adam, Jennifer, Lily, Jake, and Sam; and Wendy, Austin, and Zoe. Thank you so much for continuing to support me! I really appreciate it!

Una, Sandi and Eric chose to support us by using Una's birthday party to donate arts and craft supplies to the girls club, Chicas Poderosas! It such a pleasant surprise for me and the girls to receive a huge box full of crayons, markers, colored pencils, beeds, string, stickers, scissors, glue, felt, pipe cleaners, sewing needles, stain glass windows, foam stickers...and really more arts and crafts supplies that I could have ever bought or obtained on my own!

And so, to celebrate their wonderful generosity, the Chicas Podersosas had a birthday party for Una as well, complete with balloons, games, presents, and even CAKE! The girls went wild when they opened the arts and crafts supplies and already began creating projects that we can do with all the new supplies! It was such a wonderful party! Wonderful to see the girls faces light up and wonderful to take the pressure off me. And now the girls have a wonderful new friend named Una who lives in the United States!

Thanks again Eric, Sandy and Una! And to all the families that I babysat for who have supported me in a million ways since I have been here! I really do appreciate your encouragement!

Girls Club

2008-04-29T11:16:00.003-07:00

To raise money for girls club, we MADE doughnuts. My wonderful amazing cousin, Derlis and my wonderful amazing sister, Gaudy, spent their Sunday afternoon to help me make OVER 100 doughnuts. First we had to make the dough...and you have to kneed it for about...30 minutes. Then you have make the shape of the doughnuts and wait about an hour for them to rise. Then we fried the doughnuts (oh so healthy), slathered them in cream cheese icing made from scratch, and used the ever popular sprinkles. We sold each doughnut for 300 colones (about 75 cents)...and made about 50 dollars profit! The girls worked hard to bring the ingredients and sell 92 doughnuts! And I would have DIED if my cousin and sister hadn't helped me for four hours. I was really honored to have such wonderful help...all to raise money for the CHICAS PODEROSAS. Please refer to the amazing pictures!

Thanks Mom!

2008-04-29T11:16:00.002-07:00

For sending books for the babies! They love the books and read them regularly...I mean, they look at the pictures regularly! Sometimes when the baby crys, we pout him in the crib and give him the books....

I Caught a Chicken in the Rain...

2008-04-29T11:16:00.001-07:00

....and then we ate it for dinner. Yum, yum!

Peace Corps Trainee Visits!

2008-04-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

I had the amazing luck to have a Peace Corps trainee visit me and experience that same things I experience. It sounds funny, but very FEW people...if any, will actually understand my Peace Corps experience. Even the other volunteers, right here in Costa Rica, live COMPLETELY different lives. For example, sometimes I talk to other volunteers about how its been raining for three months straight, but in their site, it is beautiful.

Anyways, the point is, it was WONDERFUL to have someone from the United States (and from the south even!) to meet my friends and listen to project ideas and to help out with my English class and to ask questions. I had a wonderful time with Rachel.

Above are the pictures of her trip...the first night my family had a barbecue for Rachel, and Rachel and I taught my friends how to SHAG dance (hahahahahaha), we played cards, and tried to balance our weights on a see-saw, which was totally more fun than you would think! My family did a wonderful job of welcoming her....and it was just a great week-end!

Go Heels!

2008-04-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

Hark the sound of Tar Heel voices

Ringing loud and true.

Singing Carolina's praises shouting N-C-U. N-C-U!

Hail to the brightest star of all

Clear its radiance shine

Carolina priceless gem.

Receive all praises thine.

I'm a Tar Heel born

I'm a Tar Heel bred

And when I die

I'm a Tar Heel dead.

So its Rah, Rah, Car'lina-lina

Rah, Rah Car'lina-lina

(you know this part)

Tar Heels always number 1. Even in Costa Rica.

Day of the Woman, March 8, 2008

2008-03-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me really well would tell you that I am definitely on the conservative side in my thoughts of the roles of men and women; which is pretty funny considering that in my current location, I am an extreme feminist.

Call me crazy, but I definitely object to making a man (be it your husband, uncle or brother) a separate meal because he does not like the FULL meal you made for the rest of the family. Call me crazy, but I totally hate it when we are all sitting down eating lunch and a man enters the room and demands (or even politely suggests) that either my mom or sister get up to serve his plate as if he did not have hands. I’m all for serving people, but geez…

Point being, I gladly used the Day of the Woman to encourage my girls’ club (Chicas Poderosas) to pursue their dreams. During our regular Wednesday night meeting, we brainstormed different professions and talked about what we want to accomplish in the next ten years. I assured them it was ok to change their minds, (They’re in 4th-6th grades.) but we talked about how it was important to know what we do and not want. For example, some girls want to go be professionals which means they will have to go to University, which means they will have to pass high school and find a way to get money for attending the University. We talked about obstacles that might stop us from reaching these dreams including: 1. our personal choices (using drugs, being lazy, and bring promiscuous) and, 2: Things beyond our control (unsupportive parents). That day the girls created a picture of themselves in THAT moment and then themselves in TEN YEARS.

On Saturday, March 8th, we used watercolors and created portraits of ourselves in ten years and then displayed them in the school for all the children, teachers, and parents to see. I considered it a wonderful success.

I really do love these girls and it would hurt me a lot to see them surrender their lives for less than they are worth. I really do NOT want to make men seem like monsters, but from my research for the Community Analysis Tool that all Costa Rica Peace Corps Volunteers are required to write (in Spanish, I might add), the majority of families here are single parent moms. And the top three reasons for this include: the husbands moved to the United States to make money, the husbands left their original family for a younger woman (and by younger woman, we’re talking 40-60 yr old men starting NEW families with 15 yr old girls), or the women kicked the husband out because of his frequent drunkenness. I would hate to see these beautiful, intelligent girls grow-up to be treated like trash. For this I gladly celebrated the Day of the Woman, and for this, I guess I’ll be a feminist as well.

“Investing in the education of young girls is considered by many international economists to be the single best investement a developing country can make to improve its social well-being and its economic prospects.” State of the Worlds Mothers, Save the Children. (2005) pg. 14

“Many studies have shown that a mother’s level of education is the best indicator of education for the next generation (even more so than socio-economic status of the family)."

“Societies that have a preference for not investing in girls can pay a price for it in terms of clower growth and reduced income.” D. and R. Gatti. Gender Inequality, Income and Growth: Are good times good for women? World Bank Policy Research Paper Series number 1 (1999)

The Beach: Punta Uva

2008-03-22T11:15:00.001-07:00

You all know I love the beach and I would live there if I could. But I hadn’t been to the beach in over SEVEN months. So finally, we went camping at the beach. I don’t really have that much to report except that we brought tents and mattresses (yes, I said mattresses) and literally slept ON THE BEACH with a view of the water. My sister and I faced our tent toward the sunrise so we could see the beautiful sunrise without actually having to wake up. Every 20 minutes or so I would wake up and think “That is so beautiful.” and then I would close my eyes again.

Also, when Costa Ricans camp…they camp right. I suggested we bring sliced bread and peanut butter. We were only going for ONE NIGHT. BUT NO! The first day for lunch we had chicken and rice with potato chips. Then around 3:30, we had coffee and bread with cream cheese in the middle. For dinner we had marinated beef cooked over a fire, salad, and potatoes. For breakfast, we had omelets, tortillas, and bread with butter and jelly. For lunch we had spaghetti and salad. Of course we have coffee and bread AGAIN, and then finally for our last dinner we had sausage and eggs, tortillas, rice and potato chips. We also had watermelon, chocolates, and roasted marshmallows (although, they still think I am crazy when I try to describe s’mores). But other than the s’mores thing, they seriously do camping right. Please enjoy the pictures!

Phone Numbers

2008-03-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

For those WONDERFUL friends and family who call me...starting Thursday, March 20 you have to dial an "8" before my cell phone number. Everything is the same...you dial the 011, then the country code 506, then 8, then my cell phone number.

Fun Fun Fun...till Uncle Cristian takes the rolling chair away.

2008-03-06T08:59:00.000-08:00

Before Grey’s Anatomy, my house was full of people…and we were NOT bored. I am not sure how it all happened, but when the rugrats (Sharon, 4 yr old niece and Axel, 1 yr old nephew) were playing with the rolling chair, all the aunts and uncles and cousins decided we wanted to play as well. Please enjoy the results of our fun above.

The Monster Under The Bed

2008-03-06T08:52:00.000-08:00

You think crabs live at the beach. But sometimes crabs live in my house! One Sunday night, the whole family was just sitting around watching television. My eldest sister went to get ready for bed and came RUNNING and SCREAMING out of her room about “A MONSTER UNDER HER BED.”

Clearly, we all just laughed like, “Yeh right. A Monster under your bed.” But somehow she convinced us all to come back to her room….and she was right about there being something BIG that moved under her bed! So what did we do? We got a MOP and then we all got on top of the bed.

The monster ran all around the room….until finally, we could see that the monster was actually a CRAB! My fearless siblings used the mop to lure the crab out of the room, into the hall and outside to the street. I INSISTED that we cook it and make crap dip, but no one else liked the idea.

My Room

2008-03-06T08:30:00.000-08:00

If you continue down the hall in picture 4 (of the blog below), and open the second door on the right, you will look into my room.

1. My room. Behind that curtain really is a window to the back patio. You might notice that might room is a tad bit smaller now, but I can assure you it is FULL, overflowing with LOVE.

2. Side Wall – I have since lost that nalgene bottle.

3. The pictures are covering the back of my door…you can’t really tell that it’s the door, but it is.

4. Other Side Wall.

Welcome to my house and room! Let me know when you’re coming to visit in person. They are ready to meet you all!

My New House

2008-03-03T11:04:00.000-08:00

Mainly my mom has been asking to see pictures, so for those interested, we are about to go on a tour of my new house:

1. The front of the house. Actually this is the side of the house because the “front of the house” is the Family Store, but this is the main door that one would use to directly enter my house. When you enter this front door on a Tuesday night, you will find my brother, two sisters, a cousin, neighborhood friends AND KIM watching Grey’s Anatomy (Season 2) dubbed in Spanish. In the left of picture is the garage and to the right is the family store. The family store faces the main road in Caribe. I like that I live connected to a store…it makes grocery shopping quick, easy, and cheap! They even bought me diet coke!

2. When you enter the front door and look to the right, you look into the Family Store. You can see that it is connected to the house, but enough a part to not feel like everyone in the store is actually in the house. If you walk into the Family Store and turn left, there is my oldest sister's beauty salon. If you keep going straight, you walk out onto the main road in my town.

3. If you walk out of the Family Store, back into the house, this is what you see. On the other side of that couch is the family room (where we watch tv..Grey´s Anatomy, Lost, Ungly Betty...) We spend lots of time together as a family there just hanging out...I love it. The Family Room gets changed around a lot. They clean A LOT in Costa Rica and so about every two weeks, they rearrange all the furniture just to get EVERYTHING completely clean. It´s actually a very good habbit to have where all the houses are SO open!

(My oldest sister asked if we clean as much in the US, and I said NO WAY! I leave for school in the morning and they are cleaning the floor...and when I get back from school at lunch time, they are still cleaning the floor. First they sweep, then they mop, then they use shiny stuff, then they use good smelling stuff, then they dry it....)

4. And to the left of the family room is the kitchen table, but we always just sit at the breakfast bar that separates this part of the room from the kitchen.

First Day of School and Everyday Life

2008-02-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of my neice on the first day of school. And then a picture of my neice and her my mom (my sister) in front of the school symbol. So I thought I didn´t really agree with the idea of uniforms, but look how cute my little niece is in her uniform!

Also, the school gave me an OFFICE! I will take pictures of it and put them up once I get it decorated! For now, I just cleaned and organized it and I use it to store my many many files, papers, project descriptions and plans! This week I have gotten a lot done at my office and I really LOVE having an office. Did I mention that I have an office?

OK...and the next picture is included because we have Grey´s Anatomy watching parties on Tuesday nights and it has become an important part of my life. So this is me, our neighbor Davis, and my sister Gaudy on the couch. In front of us is the TV, and two each side of the couch is another big chair...one with my brother Cristian (thats how his name is spelled) and the other with my cousin Derlis. My older sister and mom usually join us as well. I will include more pictures of my house later....

Also, I made the famous DiBianca Sand Tarts for Valentines Day and even made the icing red. All of my family is OBSESSED with the cookies. I think I am going to have to start doubling the recipe. The cookies disappear!

One more piece of exciting news...the one year old is going to take to take his first step ANY DAY NOW...and it is really exciting to live with a baby!

The Meeting

2008-02-12T13:37:00.000-08:00

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.

I Moved.

2008-01-30T13:21:00.000-08:00

So, there has been a HUGE change in my life...I moved!

I might have forgotten to tell you, but I HAVE FRIENDS! YOU LAUGH, but it is hard to make friends in another country...it´s hard to have real conversations and its hard to have the same sense of humor 1. because you don´t know HOW to say it and 2. because they don´t think the same things are funny. Also, it is hard to have friends my own age here because I technically should be married with kids. You wouldn´t believe how many times I have heard "You don´t have kids? NOT EVEN ONE??"

So some of my friends happen to be siblings ages 24, 25, and 27. I´ll tell you about them:

Marielos: 40ish mother: owns and runs a grocery store

Christian: 24 year old brother: pastor

Gaudy: 25 year old sister: University Student - Social Work

Ivania: 27 year old: owns a beauty salon

Sharon: 4 years old: will enter pre-kindergarden in February!

Axel: 11 months old: body of a baby, face of man.

I spent a lot of time at their house, hanging out with other friends, helping out with projects, eating, watching television, drinking coffee...and so they invited me to move in with them. And I gladly accepted. I spent my first night their last night...and I am VERY HAPPY.

Costa Rican Camp Counselor, Say WHAT?!?

2008-01-30T13:07:00.000-08:00

In Costa Rica, the schools are technically still on “vacation” until February 11, but…I have been so busy it has not felt much like vacation. I spent a week being a Costa Rican summer day camp counselor and it was exhausting. In the morning, we had ages 3-12 and I was assigned to help with ages 10-12. The most difficult part was that I was expected to take attendance! YOU TRY SPELLING THESE NAMES IN SPANISH! Yaxciry pronounced Jacksiree, Geisel pronounced Hasel, Xotshinl pronounced…I never figured that out I just called her Toti. (seriously, I did.) In the afternoon, I was a TEAM LEADER for 12-18 year olds and I might have been MORE than a little competitive. Unfortunately my team lost, but I hope I taught them how to be good leaders. I made them shake hands with the other team and say “Good game Good game” – in English. It was GREAT!

I actually think the day camp was one of the most beneficial things I have done since I have been in Costa Rica. When I came to Costa Rica, I had a lot of culturally UNITED STATES games, songs, dances, and ice breakers…but sometimes those techniques don’t work in Costa Rica. Sometimes you have to know how to play “ENSALADA DE FRUTAS” (Fruit Salad) to get the kids attention. Sometimes you just need a well known kids song to get the kids singing “Habia un sapo, sapo, sapo, Quien nadaba en el rio, rio, rio…” (There was a frog, frog, frog, who swam in the river, river, river…)

I also learned a lot about working with other Costa Ricans and the Costa Rican style of camp. It’s hard to explain, but the cultural differences in carrying out a project so similar to a day camp are IMMENSE! When and how things get done are different. The order of completing tasks is different as well…It’s hard to explain and I can’t currently think of a specific example. The only way I know to describe it is that Costa Ricans PRIORITIZE differently due to a different value system. (For example, they value relationships more than they value work and so in an office environment – FIRST we have a coffee, chit-chat, solidify the friendship, and then we have the business meeting.) In this sense, the tasks that WE might complete FIRST a Costa Rican might leave until second or third. I learned to much!

Finally, my Costa Rican camp counselor experience was INVALUABLE because I built new, stronger, and funnier relationships with the kids, the adolescents, other “counselors” my age!, and other adults and families in the community. It was a great week and I hope you enjoy the pictures of me DANCING and with my kids!

2008-01-02T12:03:00.000-08:00

Christmas: I would say that Costa Rica is a lot less traditional than United States. My brother and sister received their gifts on the 22nd and when I insisted that they be wrapped and put under the tree – they just looked at me like I was crazy. However, it did feel like Christmas since all we did for three days straight was play with their new toys…we stayed up way to late and slept way to long in the morning…but it was a beautiful thing. Actual Christmas was celebrated by staying up until midnight, and at midnight everyone said “Merry Christmas” and kissed all the others. Then we set off fireworks and ate. And on Christmas morning, NO ONE IN THE WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD woke up until 11:00 because everyone had stayed up late the night before partying.

Gifts: I told you before how the church I attend is very involved with the community and serving them…well, the Pastor of the church worked really hard to find Christmas presents to donate to a nearby, VERY POOR, community. Then the church worked VERY HARD to provide a special Christmas party with games, candy, puppets, songs, food, and finally, ONE BEAUTIFUL Christmas present for each child. To me, it was wonderful in many ways:
1. The church wasn’t helping just people at their church. In fact, it benefited NO ONE at their church – it was a definite outreach and act of love. They raised money to provide a Christmas for people who have nothing. I have never seen 10 year old boys SO happy to receive a soccer ball.
2. There was also a second party, but this party was for a community of children who all have either physical or mental disabilities. Whoah…it was also a really special Christmas party. To see the faces of these kids receiving a new shirt, a remote control car, a Barbie…I was really honored to be a part of it.

New Years: I spent the day cleaning and resting, but around 6:00 I took a shower and got dressed up. My family had a little church service on the porch and then we ate refried beans and rice with hot dogs and potato chips. It might sound weird, but it was actually really good. Then we all stood around and talked for awhile. At 9:30, I went to another party with friends. We celebrated with their family by eating (again), watching the kids go CRAZY for a piñata, and setting off fireworks. Then there was no countdown, all the sudden someone said “Oh it’s here!” Hahahaha…so we all got up and said “Happy New Year” and kissed all the others. Then we had a little church service. Everyone said what they were thankful for from the year and had a little reflection for the coming year. Costa Rica is definitely a more religious country than the US – at midnight the radio stations played a song that was something a long the lines of “How Wonderful is God.” I attended two impromptu church services without even meaning too.

All in all, the holidays were much better that I anticipated, possibly because I had no expectations and I spent them both with people that I genuinely love.

Deep Thoughts By Kim

2007-12-18T12:10:00.000-08:00

I was thinking the other day that COSTA RICA needs the exact same thing that Chapel Hill needs. A 24 hour, Hot & NOW, Krispie Kreme. Just a thought. I know that as a Peace Corps Volunteer a. I should be inherently against big US businesses stealing money from local businesses and b. that on a Peace Corps salary I could totally NOT afford Krispie Kreme doughnuts. But still….Krispie Kreme, can you hear me? Come to Costa Rica.

The School Year Wraps Up

2007-12-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

Today was party day at the school. Today is the last day of school before graduation on Thursday – and so all of the classes had a party. There was music, dancing, clowns, balloon animals, piñatas, presents, rice and chicken, fried chicken, pizza, cake, ice cream, soda…whew. I am exhausted. And the teachers have to do it again this afternoon with the other half of the kids.

Thank goodness I have work to do and cannot participate. Ha ha ha…

Also...the picture above of the kids with sparklers was a kids party we had on Friday. In Costa Rica, it is common to celebrate Christmas with fireworks and the sort! So every night there is some sort of small firework display on the street! We got a lot of kids together and bought sparklers and went to the soccer field. It was a good time for all!

I will be headed to stay with my training family over the holidays! I am so excited to be in the cool, not humid temperature. I am excited to eat good food and hang out with my siblings and all their friends. I don’t exactly know what we will do to celebrate Christmas, but I know I will love it because there I feel at home. First Christmas not in North Carolina here I come…

The first week in January, I was invited to go to the beach with a family in my current community. I am really excited because they are a really fun family – with three kids ages 27, 25, and 24! So it sure to be a lot of fun!

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Happy New Year!

Talk About Busy

2007-12-18T11:52:00.000-08:00

Needless to say I love my community more and more with each passing day. Projects are falling into place rapidly. The girls club has taken off. The girls absolutely LOVE it. They come with so much energy (sometimes too much energy!) and they really enjoy playing games and doing crafts. I am working on ways to have them settle down for the “teaching part” of the club.

This Wednesday we will be having a Holiday party and making Holiday crafts for our parents! And we will also be celebrating our SUNDAY success! On Sunday, CHICAS PODEROSAS sold cookies at a soccer tournament and we made 13,000 colones ($26). I thought that was pretty impressive off of cookies…and more importantly, I LEARNED SO MUCH!

1. You cannot buy bags of ice. But you can make your own if you know far enough in advance…oops.
2. I know who to borrow tables, chairs, and coolers from…
3. Selling coca-cola is a GOOD idea. (We did that! YAY!)
4. Invite people that you know will support you…for example: Not THAT many people who were at the soccer tournament were interested in cookies (also know your audience…should’ve sold beer…hahahaha…j/k), but I had invited a lot of kids and their parents from the community – and they came just to support us!
5. Give the kids MORE responsibility and EXPECT the best from them.
6. Ask for MORE adult help. Many women offered to make different kinds of food for our next fundraiser! I was honored by so many women wanting and offering their help for future projects!

People are the same all over the world. There is a large percentage of irresponsible people who will be late, unprepared, or never show up. HOWEVER, there is also a LARGE percentage of people who will do everything in their power to support community projects and the kids of the community. One of my most important lessons is learning WHO is WHO. And from that…I am attempting to teach the kids to be the RELIABLE type of people. There were a fair amount of girls who showed up on time and brought what they had signed up to bring. There were also a fair amount of girls who DID NOT SHOW UP and let their fellow club members down. They will be learning at this club meeting that there are CONSEQUENCES for our actions….

Girls Club!

2007-12-12T12:09:00.000-08:00

We also had our first girls club! Sometimes, when I think about it, I think it sounds silly. I came to Costa Rica to start a girls club…BUT I AM SO EXCITED about how it really will change these girls’ lives. Just think about how they go to school for 4 hours a day and then they…..sit in their house and watch bad tv. There is no basketball team, dance classes, swim team, Odyssey of the Mind, Girls Scouts, art classes, music lessons, karate…there isn’t even a library for goodness sakes! So just think about what the kids do…they have nowhere to go and play organized games or even to have free fun in a safe setting.

So far we are just starting so we have done just the basic things like “What is the purpose of this club? What will we do? When will we meet? Who is invited?” We talked about what a strong girl is, we read a little reflection about why a club like this is important, we played Guesstures with the theme of “Stong girls are…”, and then we did a “service project” and art project in one by making and coloring Christmas cards for all the teachers and putting chocolate in the cards!

This Wednesday, we are going to vote on who is the president, vice president, secretary, etc. and we are going to make some club rules. Then we are going to prepare for SUNDAY because we are going to sell food at a soccer tournament to raise money for the local Sports Committee.
OK! But I haven’t told you the best part yet…the best part is that I made friends! I have been friends with a 15 year old and when she saw me walking around handing out invitations and asking permission from parents of the younger girls to be in the club, she said she wanted to START a club with her friends too! So this we are beginning the adolescent version of the girls club! And they are going to help me with my OTHER project which is to paint a mural of the world on the school! It gets better – so I am also friends with the 15 year olds OLDER sister who is 22. (Pretty close to my age, right?) And she came out of her house during the passing of invites and said “I WANT TO HELP.” OMG! What a blessing from God. So basically, she is in charge of the Girl’s Club.

I speak Spanish, but seriously, I am never going to be a native speaker. I plan out everything, I explain it to her…and she takes charge. It’s awesome! And the 15 year old comes. So I have TWO women in the community who have already taken this project as their own….and that’s the WHOLE point. I can leave and there are two women who love it and love the girls. Whew!

The Week of Christmas

2007-12-12T12:03:00.000-08:00

I brought a little American Christmas to the kindergarteners in Costa Rica! It might have been one of the most wonderful weeks here in Costa Rica thus far, but I also know that I do NOT want to be a Kindergarten teacher….especially in Costa Rica. Why?

1. The school system is set up so that each teacher has to teach TWICE a day. Imagine that teachers. If you didn’t have to do your job ONCE a day, but TWICE. So we gave the class to 26 kindergarteners in the morning from 7-10 and then to 26 kindergarteners in the afternoon from 12-3. (WHICH DOES NOT INCLUDE the preparation and clean-up)
2. Discipline here is….non-existent. So imagine 26 kindergarteners who are allowed to speak and move at will. They didn’t have to share and they didn’t respond well when I said “No.”
That sounded negative, but I loved it. We made Christmas cards, three dimensional stars, reindeer puppets, a giant paper Christmas tree which we decorated with ornaments that we colored…and we ended the whole week with a HUGE Christmas party for the kids and their families!

OH! And the most important part! I taught the kids to sing “Feliz Navidad” – the Veggie Tales version. This version is in both English and Spanish and there is an interlude where the kids played homemade maracas! It was so cute and wonderful!

I was and am very proud. It was a very successful week and I felt like a designed, organized and carried out a project that ended by blessing the kids with a fun cultural experience and time to share it with their families. It might sound silly, but we take for granted that kids in the United States get to participate in many activities that they get to be proud of…and us lucky ones have parents who support us and our proud of us as well. The sad part was that out of 104 parents who should have been there to admire the art work, the song, and share in a time of eating and supporting their kids…maybe 25 parents showed up. The parents who did show up…some came so late with their kids that they and their child missed the PERFORMANCE! (We’re talking like an hour late.)

The week was successful not because I did anything SUPER HELPFUL, but because I learned so much about how to carry out a project like this in Costa Rica and what to expect from the participants. It’s A LOT of work and only a select few are going to be HALF as excited about the outcome, but that’s ok. From this experience, I would like to propose a project to some businesses here for funding to do more family activities. This type of project could include anything that would encourage the parents to take pride in who their child is and what their child is accomplishing in school.

*some of you may be thinking about how we´re not allowed to celebrate holidays anymore in the US, but here the school system is very different and we did this as CULTURAL experience...how do some people celebrate Christmas in the US?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

I know that you are all waiting on a HAPPY blog entry, so I will tell you that I had a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING. I am lucky in that some of the other Peace Corps Volunteers were DETERMINED to have a true thanksgiving meal this year – and they accomplished their goal and I reaped the benefits.

One very determined Volunteer found a HUGE house on the Pacific Coast called JUNGLEHOUSE (www.vrbo.com/55648) which I highly recommend. It only cost $10 a night and the owner graciously picked us up in his van at the bus stop. It was clean and with more appliances than I have seen since I left the United States! We’re talking satellite tv, a toaster and a toaster oven, air conditioners….and it was perfect for us. There were multiple ovens to cook our turkey and pumpkin/apple pies. We made stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and yams. We also had green beans, carrots, corn, salad, and rolls. We ate until our hearts were content…and you should have seen the leftovers!

In addition to the wonderful meal, I had two days in the sunshine and warm ocean water! And now I am like a new person. I am back in my site and determined not to leave until Christmas break. I have started creating a booklet with all my project proposals to show to my school. (It takes longer than you would think in Spanish!) I hope to have my cousin proof-read it tonight and my post-thanksgiving goal is: NO COMPLAINING because I’m the Peace Corps Damn it! (Sorry mom.)

Hope you all really enjoyed your Thanksgivings as well and thanks again for keeping in touch so well!

Four Things that May or May Not Be Driving Me Crazy...

2007-11-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

1. So remember how at one time I was possibly complaining about the heat. Well…NEWSFLASH – it has been raining for almost 11 days straight. Lots of rain means that NOTHING dries ever and therefore, shoes, purses, hats, closets, and clothes grow mold. (Please refer to pictures above of mold. There are no pictures of the mold on clothes or in my closet BUT one day I had to wear a shirt that smelled like mildew all day. It was pretty gross.) If you have any tricks for keeping things mold free, feel free to send them to me. I would be grateful for anything.

2. The roads. Roads here are more like not roads. There are so many holes in the roads that it almost hurts to ride the bus, or the car, or a bike. Some communities are working hard to collect money to pave the roads, but still I am thankful for the roads in North Carolina. (EVEN I-40 in Greensboro and between Chapel Hill and Raleigh.)

3. In all honesty, it is very hard to return my site in Costa Rica after being away. After All Volunteer Conference and spending time with my first family, I had to return to my official site and faced a few days of being very unhappy. It was helpful to talk to other volunteers, who felt the same way, but Costa Rican culture leaves no room for privacy and so now my WHOLE Costa Rican family thinks I am depressed. And every morning when I wake up they ask me “How do you feel?”, and when I return for lunch they ask me “How do you feel?”, and when I return from work they ask me “How do you feel?”…and well, it makes me want to scream.

4. Lastly, someone started a rumor that I was going to give all the kids Christmas presents. (Just to give you an idea there are 400 kids between Kindergarten and 6th grade in my community.) So all the children AND all the parents come up to ask me if I can give them Christmas presents. It is not fun.

It´s Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2007-11-14T13:14:00.000-08:00

Don’t even roll your eyes. Costa Ricans do not celebrate Halloween and they do not celebrate Thanksgiving…so the stores decorate for Christmas in September! Home lights and Christmas trees go up FIRST week in November (or before). My first family put off decorating their house until I could be there to help – the second week in November! So we put up and decorated the tree, we hung icicle lights outside and so did all the neighbors! It’s a beautiful sight in my old neighborhood!

So I came home and thought about how happy I was to decorate for Christmas…and so I went out and bought a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree, silver and pink balls (clearly), white lights, and a silver star and we put it up in my room on Monday night. It’s a pretty beautiful sight. And I started listening to Christmas music before Halloween. I can’t fight the holiday spirit. I love the Christmas season.

All Volunteer Conference

2007-11-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

Peace Corps Costa Rica is lucky in that we have one three day conference where every single volunteer in the country gets to be together. So 98 of us headed up to a Boy Scout Camp in the mountains near San Jose. It was our poor luck that there was also a cold and rainy front passing through Costa Rica at the time. We didn’t see the sun for three days and I was wearing 3 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of pants, and 4 sweaters at the same time….and I was still cold. And I felt like I was REALLY in the Peace Corps because for the three days, I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, and I didn’t bathe (the water was like ICE). Ok – clearly that’s an exaggeration but it felt like I didn’t eat, sleep or bathe. Above are some pictures to demonstrate the coldness that was Costa Rica for three days.

During the three days, we had some Safety & Security refresher courses, a Medical refresher, received two shots (one of which was the flu shot – and two people, at least, did end up getting the flu!), talked about some existing projects, received small workshops from Fellow Volunteers, and learned more about specific smaller groups within Peace Corps Costa Rica (For example: There is a smaller group working to promote HIV/AIDS awareness within Costa Rica and encouraging the other volunteers to do smaller projects as well.) At night we had hot chocolate, a talent show, a dance party, a slide show, and good time to get to know the lives of some of the other volunteers. All of our lives are so different!

Kim´s Year of Peace*

2007-11-05T08:08:00.000-08:00

And so now I am 24.

Not gonna lie, it would rank up there as one of the NOT BEST birthdays of my life. However, I do realize that I have had more than my fair share of AMAZING birthday celebrations so we’re just going to take this birthday with a grain of salt.

Anticipating the not so good conditions for a birthday here, my PC friend (who also celebrated a could have been better birthday) and I met in the CITY to EAT. We first went to an AMAZING restaurant where I ate grilled SALMON in coconut sauce. It was the best meal I have had since June. After that, we went to a movie. I’m not even going to tell you which movie we saw because all that mattered is that for 2.5 hours we could ESCAPE. So we ate caramel popcorn and forgot. Lastly, we found a café and ate APPLE PIE, ICE CREAM, and café mocha. That was the birthday present we gave ourselves. And it was worth the $50 American dollars it cost.

Then a couple days later on my actual birthday…well, let’s just say I’ve never actually appreciated “Happy Birthdays” via Facebook until my 24th birthday in Costa Rica. And from that, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about my birthday. If FACEBOOK cheered me up…

My PCbff called a couple times throughout the day to check on me and THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH for the phone calls, packages and cards! All of these things made me feel so loved and also cheered me up.

And at the end of the day, Karli and Lauren called and it was wonderful to talk to amazing friends who have preceded me in entering their 24th year with NOT SO WONDERFUL birthdays. So don’t worry, I don’t blame Costa Rica or the Peace Corps for a bad birthday….I blame 24.

And in spite of a bad birthday, I know that this year is going to be a wonderful one. This will be my full year of life that I live OUTSIDE of the United States and it was named *Kim’s Year of Peace by Lauren Quartz DiBianca.

The Graduation Dance

2007-10-31T15:08:00.000-07:00

My first family invited me to come to my brother’s graduation dance. It is the Costa Rica version of Prom, except the parents and families are invited. And because the classes are a lot smaller and it is only for those who will graduate, the party is a lot more intimate. I had a great time being with my family and dancing with my brother’s friends. These are few pictures….the best part. (1. My sister & my mom dressed to the nines. 2.After Marco saw this picture, he said about himself in all seriousness “I look hot.” Hahahaha…. 3. This is to show you what a Costa Rican prom might look like.)

It was a great week-end just being with my family, my puppies, my friends, and relaxing. I feel like I am in college and when there are breaks, I go home. And this is my home where my friends and family are happy, but not surprised to see me. And life is normal here with or without me. Eventually, the vacation ends and I have to leave home and go back to work.

P.S. ALSO! My family took me to the Costa Rican version of WAL-MART. It’s actually owned by WAL-MART and I didn’t know it existed. And I know that I am not suppose to like Wal-Mart, but I was SO happy to see John Frieda shampoo & conditioner, Dove body wash, Betty Crocker cake mix, Pillsbury icing, books, dvds with American tv shows, etc . that I started talking really excitedly in ENGLISH!! And my family cracked up…

The Days are Flying

2007-10-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

The days are flying by. I cannot believe that I have been in my new site for almost a month now. My schedule is also currently PACKED through Christmas. I am so excited about all the projects that are taking shape here in my site.

I am receiving training on how to create a “School for Parents” to teach them alternatives to hitting their children as punishment, how to set limits, apply correct discipline, and maintain authority. I am excited because the training is solid and when I think it is perfect for my community.

I have a group of girls who are ready to start “Chicas Poderosas” (Strong Girls). In this club, we will clearly do fun things like make t-shirts, have bake sales, paint our nails and play games; BUT we will also learn about character, values, respect, as well as anti-drug, stay in school, and don’t talk to boys :).

The Development Association is working towards having a Community Center, paving the roads (desperately needed!), and instituting trash pick-up and recycling programs. I would really like to help with these desires as well as help with finishing the half-built basketball court.

I am also working with the church that is practically in my front yard. They really have a heart for the community and already have a project going to provide food for those who can’t afford to eat. They also have a great group of children, young adults, and adults who really care about and want to be active in the community.

I actually love the Costa Rican pace. I do not feel pressure to MAKE these projects take form IN A MONTH or have RESULTS tomorrow. I am following the lead of the community in hopes that the projects will form naturally as a result of the needs of the community and therefore be long lasting. I am spending a lot of time getting acquainted, meeting people, and gaining acceptance from the community. And I am loving it.

I am learning to say “No.” I am learning to set boundaries and limits. I am learning to be comfortable with being WEIRD. I am learning to be comfortable with being LAUGHED AT and TALKED ABOUT. I am developing a tough skin about personal appearance because if I have acne (which I do here A LOT), EVERY SINGLE person asks “WHATS THAT?” I am learning more than I could write here…and I suppose I will only continue to learn more and more.

(Side Note: Peace Corps Medical Officers visited me yesterday and it was so exciting to have people from the United States in my house and people who wanted to know all about my experience! And the most exciting part was that they brought my BIKE! I rode it in to town today. And it’s so exciting!)

Three Reasons Why This Has Been A Great Week

2007-10-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

1. The Holiday: Monday was a holiday and my brother was in town. So, he took me to a river. And just to be doing something in nature, with someone my own age was like a gift from God. And furthermore, he is really patient with my Spanish and use to foreigners…so life is less frustrating with him.

2. The Soccer Game: My kids at the school were in a play-off game to go to the National Tournament and I got to go and cheer them on! They are really good players and I really enjoy watching them play! Afterwards, we got to take the kids to the pool to celebrate! (I LOVE THE POOL!)

3. The Birthday Party: One of my other kids turned 11 on Thursday. It’s a tradition here to throw eggs at the birthday girl/boy. So…at 4:30, we ALL met in the plaza and threw 25 eggs at the birthday girl. Throwing eggs is a BEAUTIFUL tradition and I plan to bring it back to the United States. Watch out Birthday Girls/Boys.

A Little More Insight Into My Life

2007-10-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

After some thought, the reasons why life is harder here:

1. Here, I am an adult. There, I was a child. Here, I work. There, I spent my days studying, learning, and hanging out with other volunteers and my high school siblings & their friends.
2. Here, it is HOT and humid. There, it was warm, but fresh. Let’s be honest when you are uncomfortably hot and sweating, smaller problems seem bigger.
3. Here, I am like a movie star with NO privacy and nowhere to hide from the masses of people who want to talk to me. There, I was one of many volunteers and so masses of people didn’t hunt me down to ask for English help. (That happens here.)
4. Here, there is no tension breaker. There, I had tons of tension breakers.
For example: At the moment when I could not handle Spanish ANYMORE, my pcbff would come over and we would laugh. OR when I was feeling lonely, my brother and ALL his friends would suddenly be there dancing around the house. AND every day I looked forward to sharing coffee and a cookie with my family and neighbors, because that was their tradition. Here the family is not as much a part of the community and I miss adolescent siblings and other peace corps volunteers…so there are no tension breakers. (makes a huge difference!)

Also, it’s the little things every day that effect life:

1. To have privacy, I can’t just go home. I have to lock myself in my room, shut the curtains, and turn up the music very loudly.

a. If I leave the door open -- People come in and make themselves comfortable. OR better yet, people gather in the doorway to STARE at me.
b. If I leave the curtains open -- People sit outside my window and stare at me. (NOT KIDDING or EXAGERATING) Also, people from the community know I am home because they can see into my window and so they all stop to talk to me.
c. If I do not turn on music -- People will try to talk to me through my window or over the walls.

2. My brother happens to be in town! Just the fact that there is someone in the house my age that kind of understands what it is like to be this age and living here makes life better.

3. I come home to eat lunch. 25 people interrupt me to ask me to give their children English classes. When I am not available (because already I am very busy during the weeks), they want me to give lessons at 9pm at night or on Saturday and Sunday. While it is in my job description to work on the week-ends as this is appropriate for working with kids, it is NOT in my JOB description to work from 7am-10pm Sunday-Saturday. Then when I have to say NO, I FEEL SO GUILTY.

4. My cousin, the medical doctor, is 26 and lives here during the week! She is GREAT! And she understands how this hard for me. And she lets me vent to her! She is always happy to see me and I am always happy to see her and she is my FRIEND! So I always look forward to when she comes home from work. (Unfortunately, she spends the week-ends in the capital city.)

(the picture is of my cousin, me, my sister & my brother-in-law...one night before we went into "the city" to eat fried chicken....oh my life!)

My New House

2007-10-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

OK – so for those of you who are really interested…I’ll take you on a tour of my house. First, refer below to DENGUE to see the front of my house. That is the OUTER gate that protects us from thieves. You walk over the concrete bridge and enter the front yard. When standing in the front yard, if you look straight ahead, you see the main house and the main front porch. The main front porch is the first photo.

Also from the front yard if you turn right, you see the side porch which is the second photo. My room has a window out to that side porch. The next photo is the hall that leads to my room, my cousin’s room (where currently the extra family is living), the grandparents’ room, our shared bathroom, and finally, the backyard. All the rooms are on the right side of the hall and the left side of the hall is the main house with the den, the kitchen, and where everyone else lives.

So as you walk down that hall, if you turn into your first room, you will see the NEXT picture. This is my bedroom looking in from the hall. Please note how the walls do not go up to the ceiling. The walls just sort of end at about 7 ft. This is my bedroom when sitting on my bed and looking out toward the hall. OK 1st – do not be fooled by the television. It doesn’t work. (And for those of you who know me, this is like the worst possible thing to have in my bedroom. Junk is my biggest enemy and having this big space taker upper to stare at me everyday…. I just want to throw it away so bad. :) Second, please note the wires and cords that adorn my room and you can also see how the wall just stops before it hits the ceiling. :) This is my window and my wall decoration that consists of pictures of you guys. (Note that the window looks out onto the hammock. Also however, do not be fooled by the hammock. It’s broken. I’m strongly considering buying a new hammock…maybe I could order one of those Pottery Barn Hammocks. Hahahaha…and corrupt Costa Rica. :) This picture is to show you my mosquito net. That dark green thing that is tucked behind my headboard gets unraveled and tied to the other wall to make a giant cube around my bed. And unlike in the United States, my mosquito net is not for decoration…without it at night, I wake up looking like I have chicken pox. Every night I tie it up and every morning I take it down. I love my mosquito net.

So that’s a tour of my house for now. I know I am lucky. I know that I have more than so many Peace Corps volunteers. And my heart goes out to them, because it’s hard. And it’s hot. And I appreciate the little things.

Dengue

2007-10-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

I would say it’s highly possible that you have never heard of this mosquito transmitted virus called Dengue. BUT in my region of the world, Dengue is highly feared. The one good thing about Dengue is that it’s NOT Malaria. It only lasts 7-10 days and is marked by high fever, vomiting, and feeling horrible! Luckily, I have not gotten dengue, but many a Peace Corps Volunteer has.

To prevent the spread of Dengue, the commonly have their towns fumigated. Men in dark jumpsuits carrying big leaf blowers enter all houses, schools, and businesses to spray this white powder and smoke all over everything. Then when you reenter the home or business, there are dead mosquitoes everywhere. It is quite the experience. It looks like the whole TOWN is on fire. The first time I was in the main city and I saw the “smoke” everywhere I wondered why everyone looked so calm.

The pictures above show my house being fumigated. This is one of those things about the culture that is really confusing to me. The family covered the dishes and spoons with dishtowels to protect them from the fumigation, but I asked about the curtains, our clothes, and our beds, but apparently it is perfectly SAFE to sleep in fumigated sheets and wear fumigated clothing. I am trying to accept it.

My Life is So Weird

2007-10-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted on the blog since I have moved to my new home and I think the reason is because I have no idea even where to begin. I talk to Jenna (pcbff) on the phone at least every other day and during our brief but packed conversations we repeatedly say, “My life is so weird.”

My House: I’ll spare you of all the REALLY WEIRD details for now…and just start out with the fact that, currently, there is an entire EXTRA family living in my house. OK. By whole extra family I mean – mom & dad, two kids (2 yrs & 6 yrs), three aunts (16 yrs, 18 yrs, & 20 yrs), a grandma, and one of the aunt’s children (8 yrs). So that’s NINE, count ‘em NINE, extra people who are living in my house. You may be wondering, where exactly do these NINE people sleep? Well, I’ll tell you. THEY ALL SLEEP IN THE ROOM RIGHT NEXT TO MINE. These nine people are in addition to the SEVEN people who ALREADY live in the house. So SIXTEEN PEOPLE TOTAL who eat, sleep, and bathe in my house. But let’s not stop there, let’s also mention my sister and her husband who at the house during all daylight hours, my 33 year old brother who is also at the house whenever he’s not working, my mom’s ex-husband who eats all meals with us, and finally my 22 yr old brother who lives at the house one week out of every month. Grand total: 21. I live in a circus. And I didn’t EVEN mention the animals. :)

My Work: I love my work. I am partnered with a wonderful school that has active teachers who truly desire the best for the children of the community. I have quickly introduced myself to the kids of the school and THEY ALL KNOW ME. This may sound like a plus, but let’s imagine living WITH 450 kids who all WANT to know you. Let’s imagine that from 8 am to 8 pm there are kids pacing in front of your house waiting for you to come outside so they can ask you to play soccer, or visit their house, or come to church or….anything. It’s awesome. And what I wanted. Let me just say: Be careful what you wish for. Don’t get me wrong. I love my kids. More than anything I want to give them good things, but there is only ONE of me. You might say I am VERY overwhelmed.

My Family: They are good people. They have good hearts and they want good things for me. But it’s a hard relationship. I feel that they respect my work and that they respect me as an adult, but maybe because I can’t speak Spanish well it also means that: I don’t know how to peel fruit correctly, or operate a cell phone, or walk to town, or take the bus, or ride a bike, or take a shower, or purchase my own food. The word NO is not really respected. And it is very hard to explain why I do and do NOT do certain things. It’s like I speak and the words come out and they don’t listen. And I know it’s not my Spanish because other Spanish speakers understand.

Needless to say…I have finally become frustrated. :) I retreated to old family for two days and a night. It was beautiful. I hugged my four year old boyfriend. I watched my brother play in a soccer game. My brother’s friends had a pajama party for me. My mom made me tres leches. Some of my cousins even visited. It was like old times. And I might have cried when I had leave again.

But here I am. In this wonderful, beautiful, crazy life I’ve chosen. My life is so weird.

The Chicken Story

2007-10-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

One morning when I woke up, my mom here smiled at me and said, "We´re going to make chicken soup for lunch.¨" I smiled back and said, "Oh how wonderful!"

The next thing I knew, my grandma was in the backyard chasing chickens. When she caught the right one, she killed it. Yes, my 86 year old grandma killed a chicken. Then my mom de-feathered the chicken and cleaned.

My grandma then cooked it outside over a fire. And, true to their word, we had chicken soup for lunch.

This is my life. Please refer to pictures.

We All Cried

2007-09-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

I cried. They cried. We all cried.

The night before I left, my family had a going away party for me and all my brother’s friends came. Basically, I borrowed all of his friends the whole time I was in his home. At the party, we had food of course there was dancing, then we all sat in a big circle and had a discussion (i.e. everyone said something nice about their experience with me!). And it took everything in me not to cry. It was so sweet of them.

The next day, my family decided to drive me to my new home, which was so generous and made my life 1,000 times easier. But my brother Marco wouldn’t come…he said it’s because he had to study, but we all know it’s because he didn’t want to CRY.

And thus the good-byes began: I went to say bye to the neighbors, who were like another family to me, and as soon as I walked in the door to say good-bye I started crying.

Then I had to say bye to Marco. So I cried again.

Marco sent in his place my OTHER brothers: Tony, Kenneth and Coco. And we traveled about 3 hours to my house. When we arrived, they all came into my room and tried to fix it up because clearly they are all SUPER worried about me. So the boys climbed around and fixed my mosquito net and my mom fixed my bed. And they told me to BE REALLY CAREFUL.

Then they had to go. And my sister and I bawled. And then my parents cried. And then the boys looked at me with lots of sympathy and said “Don’t worry. We’re going to talk soon. And we’re going to visit you.” And then they drove away.

Then I went to church. There is a church practically in our front yard so I thought it would be better to go to church than to cry all night long.

And here I am. I am here in my new home, and I am starting all over, and I hope that in three months, I love this place half as much as I love my first Costa Rican home. And to end on a happy note, I AM SURE I WILL LOVE THIS PLACE!

It´s Official

2007-09-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

Our swearing in ceremony was very little in excitement compared to our day to day life, BUT since it was like a graduation of sorts…I thought I would give it a paragraph. The director of Peace Corps spoke, the directors of our official counterparts spoke, two volunteers spoke, and the ambassador spoke. We each got called up to receive a certificate (which was pretty hilarious because they took a picture of each one of us with the ambassador –so we each had to stand their awkwardly in front of everyone waiting on the picture) and then we all swore to protect the country against all enemies foreign and domestic.

My Costa Rican mom and Jenna’s Costa Rican dad came and they got to enjoy a nice reception, but the volunteers were shuffled from picture to picture, to meetings, and to sign random papers, etc. Then it was over. But –I guess it was the official moment that we TRANSFERRED from trainees to volunteers so here are the pictures!

1. The whole group with the US Amabassador - The Excellent Mark Langdale.

2. My Costa Rican mom - Nina

3. Jenna & me - bc we´re hot.

4. No matter where we go Ryan and I will always represent THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL. (we´re making a unc if you can´t tell. )

Rain is My Friend

2007-09-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

My last day in Costa Rica as a trainee was better than I could have ever imagined. My brother’s friends, Tony & Kenneth, (who have been like little brothers from the beginning as well) took Jenna and me to the mountain close to our town. And by close, I mean, it took us 15 minutes to get the TOP of the mountain! Jenna and I MIGHT have been mad that they waited till the last day to show us the trail, but ALL the same – it was an AMAZING day.

ONE: I felt so integrated into the community because no one in my family was involved. One of MY friends offered to take me on a hike. And then OTHER friends wanted to come…even though I am the silly American who cannot speak or understand their language!

TWO: It was beautiful. We went up and sat on a rock and just looked at our town and the capital city. Tony took pictures! My dog, Lassie, came with us and was a GREAT dog. She was like a farm dog – no need for leashes. She could run free and she always came back to her owner. It was just a wonderful day.

THREE: As we were up on the mountain, we could HEAR the rain coming. So…Tony and Kenneth looked at me and said “Let’s RUN!” So we did. And then – as with most trails where there is a downpour – the trail turned into MUD. So...instead of running down the trail – we just sat down and slid down the mudslide. It was pretty WONDERFUL.

FOUR: When we got to the bottom, Tony & Kenneth said “Kim, do you want to play soccer?” And clearly I did. So we played soccer in the rain – soaking wet and muddy. We splashed in the puddles, we laid down in puddles, Lassie played keep away…it was a pretty amazing day. Please refer to the pictures to see how much fun Jenna, Tony, Kenneth and I had on the last day as a PC trainee.

Costa Ricans are SO Funny

2007-09-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

P.S. At the family party, the PCT’s, we wanted a picture of all of us. So we took a couple sorority girl group poses – one smiling, one silly...and we were done. However, our Costa Rican photographers were NOT done. They told us to get in ONE long line on the floor. Jenna and I looked at each other like “That’s not how you take a picture.” But reluctantly, one by one we got in a long line on the floor. They wanted us to be positioned with one knee up and our hand on that knee. At this point we were just HUMORING them to get the picture over with. THEN the next thing we knew – the guy on the end pushed us – AND WE FELL LIKE DOMINOES. It might have been one of the funniest things ever to watch 17 silly Americans fall over like dominoes. We fell right into the trap – and above shows the picture that came from it. Costa Ricans are HILARIOUS.

Tonight

2007-09-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I sat at the kitchen table and watched my brother paint for his art class. I laughed as my sister bothered him and as our mom tried to tell him how to paint. It was a typical and hilarious night just hanging out. Unfortunately, I just got more and more sad about having to leave this family.

FAMILY PARTY

It has been a week of “lasts” and it began as we threw a party for our families on Sunday afternoon. We were told it might have been the best party in the course of Peace Corps Costa Rica family party history – complete with chips & bean dip, pizza, cake, BINGO, a slideshow, certificates, door prizes and a homemade piñata!

I not only invited my family, but I also invited my brother’s neighborhood friends (who have also been like brothers to me). My family and my herd of brothers really enjoyed themselves. The highlight of the party was definitly the slideshow. Each of us turned in pictures of our families and one of our volunteers made a beautiful DVD slideshow (which I have a copy of and I hope you will want to see it one day!). The pictures of my brother and his friends were RIDICULOUS and we pretty much laughed till we cried – they loved it.

The pictures above show my family; then our table at the family party that includes my brother, my sister, their friends, me & Jenna; and then a picture of the AFTER PARTY back at my house!

I know this family will continue to be an encouragement to me for the following two years and I am excited about being able to speak Spanish better and talk to them more and more! For now though, I am sad to be leaving them. It’s hard to say another round of good-byes a short three months after saying good-bye to all of you.

BUT HERE GOES NOTHING…Costa Rica here I come. Again. J

My Dog had Puppies!

2007-09-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

Ok so in Costa Rica there are a lot of street dogs. One day a street dog decided to live in front of my house. Our Peace Corps Medical Officer told us to NEVER touch street dogs…so I didn’t. But the dog continued to sleep in front of the gate to our house. And it was a beautiful dog. In the morning it would walk me to class or to the bus station and it would always return to the house and sit outside the gate.

Eventually my little brother started feeding it, because he has a good heart. SO clearly, this dog was never going to leave and I BROKE. I started petting the dog. So then, our parents started letting the dog come in the front patio. It would sleep out there and I would always pet it and Marco (little brother) would always feed it. Finally, one Saturday we bathed it and got it some bug killing medicine.

Then the dog was allowed inside. The dog was house trained, very calm, and very smart. Seeing as I have never had a dog…I loved that dog. It would sit in my room and follow me from room to room. So the family called it my dog and they named it Lassie.

I told them from the very first day we saw it – “THAT DOG IS PREGNANT!” At first they did not believe me and Marco never believed me. But one night my dog became very restless and she would cry and cry – and she started burrowing herself under my bed and under my table.

AND THE NEXT MORNING – SHE HAD TEN PUPPIES!!!! My Costa Rican mom called me and said “You are a grandma! And you better get home and clean up this mess!” It was hilarious. So – I’m not saying I would like to be a dog owner and be responsible for 10 puppies, but it sure is fun to play with my dog Lassie and her puppies in the morning before I leave and when I get home in the afternoon!

Those are the pictures of my dog the NIGHT before she had the puppies and then her with the whole bunch.

Costa Ricans v. Americans

2007-09-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

Before going to visit our new sites, we spent two days in the mountains with our “counterparts.” Our counterparts are the Costa Ricans who will be helping us integrate and who will be supporting us as we begin our work. We did an activity where the “the gringos” (Americans) expressed their impression of “the ticos” (Costa Ricans) and “the ticos” expressed their opinion of “the gringos.” I thought it was pretty HILARIOUS so I am just going to share some of the conclusions.

What GRINGOS think of TICOS:
-women do all the housework
-women wear TIGHT clothes, lots of jewelry and lots of make-up
-women wear high heels for everything (like walking in the mud or a mile on a gravel road)
-they have lots of kids who they take care of alone
-there is ALWAYS coffee
-there is always rice & beans
-there is no concept of time
-men watch tv – mainly soccer
-men have mustaches
-men drink a lot

What TICOS think of GRINGOS:
-wear informal and sloppy clothes – torn pants
-wear dirty tennis shoes or flat ugly sandals no matter the occasion
-always tie a rain coat around waist
-always wear a backpack
-always thinking about where we are going to travel
-always have dictionaries
-we don’t smile and we don’t like jokes
-MUCH BIGGER!
-dance like a broomstick
-TIME IS IMPORTANT! Always thinking about time
-we have a lot of money
-we always have lots of POCKETS on our pants
-always have water bottles
-wear the same thing NO MATTER WHERE WE GO
-lots of suitcases with wheels
-work is #1 priority! Spanish is #2. Travel is #3.
-we always have books

*Clearly these are stereotypes on both accounts. But their view of Americans cracks me up because it is clearly based on the fact that their MAIN connection with Americans is travelers. And of course when Americans travel to Costa Rica they don’t track over the country in their high heels, jewelry and make-up! So it just makes me laugh to think of all of the US walking around in torn jeans, dirty tennis shoes, a backpack and a water bottle at ALL times. Hahahaha….

i´ll put a picture of my counterpart on here soon! i have a really cute one, but someone else took it, so i have to get it from their computer!

HOT

2007-09-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

I spent 5 days with my new family in Cariari. And I just want you all to know that when I move there on September 16, I will officially be changing from the Posh Corps to the Peace Corps.

Living Conditions: Don’t get me wrong – I have everything I need. I have my own room with a door that closes and locks. My family was so sweet to provide me with a full size bed and a little piece of furniture to store my clothes. I have electricity and an indoor bathroom. I have more than a lot of people in the world. I am still spoiled. I know.

Weather: But, it is soooooooooooooooooo HOT. Between noon and 3 o’clock, I literally could not move. I sat in a chair and I sweated. I thought to myself "I could read." or "I could write a letter." or "I have that Peace Corps work to complete." – but I could not. It was too hot to inspire myself to move, much less be productive. A fan – didn’t help. Still sweating. A cold shower - helped while I was in the cold shower, but as soon as I put on clothes – SWEAT. So, I’m about to be VERY VERY hot for the next two years.

Mosquitoes: Let’s suffice it to say it looks like I have chicken pox. Even on my face and neck. It’s awesome. I will most definitely be sleeping under a mosquito net for the next two years. J

Privacy: There is none. The house is open air. The rooms are divided by concrete walls, but the walls don’t connect to the ceiling. So during the day when there is noise and everyone is busy –its not really noticeable. But at night, when anyone’s light is on, when anyone is snoring, when anyone goes to the bathroom, or when anyone rolls over in bed – I know it.

In conclusion: I have already started experiencing, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." For instance, the first day when I practically couldn’t breathe because it was so hot – RAIN CAME and made everything fresh and clean. And my sister and brother took me on a walk through the banana fields which were beautiful. My brother climbed trees and picked me different fruits to eat. In the course of an hour, my life went from "Can I do this for 2 years?" to "I get to do this for 2 years!". The whole five days were like that – one minute I was thinking "What is going on?!?" and the next minute I was so excited and surprised and happy!
This post only brushes the surface – I can NOT wait to get started. I am excited for the challenges and for the life that is about to be mine in less than 2 short weeks.

(P.S. The picture above does not in any way capture the feel of my five days in my new site. It was a picture we took to display our MOUNTAINS of luggage before we separated! One more thing – before I left for the PC, I read a piece of advice that said "Pack all your luggage and make sure you can run around your neighborhood with it all." I laughed out loud – hahahah – what an exaggeration. Yeh, not an exaggeration at all. :) )

I Know Where I WILL BE living for the NEXT TWO YEARS!

2007-08-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

Friday, August 24th was SITE ASSIGNMENT DAY! It was a weird day because all the volunteers were a WEIRD mixture of nervous and excited at the same time. The next two years of our LIVES were about to be determined…

As for me, I will be living in CARIBE DE CARIARI. Hahaha. I am sure your reaction is the same as mine was….”Great. What does that mean?” Hahahaha. OK so Caribe is located in the Caribbean side of the country and in the province called Limon. I am about one hour (by bus) from the Caribbean Sea and the tourist area of Tortuguero and only two hours (by bus) from the capital, San Jose.

About Caribe de Cariari: Located in the lowlands region (alt: 100 meters), it is very hot and humid. The rolling hills and wide open spaces make Caribe unique amongst all the other PC sites in terms of geography (copied that directly from my packet of info J). Most of the people work in banana and pineapple plantations. Caribe has a population of 2,000 and is about 2km west of the large commercial town of Cariari which has a population of 8,000-10,000.
-Basically, I get the best of both worlds because I live in a BEAUTIFUL area where I can know everyone (I mean honestly, I can totally know 2,000 people in 2 years!) and still be only a 10 minute bike ride from everything I might need.
-However, my favorite sentence of my packet of information says: “It is said that there is internet service in Cariari, but this is unconfirmed.” Hahahaha…

About my family in Caribe: I don’t know much and as is the case with a lot of volunteers…everything could change or be completely different when I arrive in Caribe – but for now, I know that I will live with a mom, grandparents, a 30 year old disabled nephew, and a 13 year old adopted brother. I also have a 24 year old niece who is a medical doctor and a 21 year old brother who works in tourism who apparently visit the house frequently. OK – so I am sure you will hear about how much I love them soon, and the description says: “This is a busy and active household that often has guests, and grown children returning from visits.” YAY!

About my house in Caribe: My FAVORITE part of the description of my new house goes as follows: “Though the backyard is much like a zoo, the animals do not seem to get into the house area.” YES!!! I’ve never had pets! “There are plenty of fruit trees in the backyard, and some nice places to sit in the shade.” And “just outside the PCV room is a small patio with a hammock and a quiet independent sitting area.” You should all probably start being jealous.

Other good news: Caribe is only 1.5 hours from where I currently live and my family and neighbors here have already started planning trips to visit me.

The only bad news: I am VERY far away from my other PCbffs. Jenna is about 5 hours south of San Jose – so say 8 hours to get to her…if all the traveling goes smoothly. And Glenn is basically in Nicaragua. And Jenna & I have a couple good friends in the other program and they live in such rural areas that there is ONLY one bus a DAY that goes their sites! So we’ve all started prepping ourselves for TRUE immersion.

Finally, on Thursday and Friday, we have a retreat to meet the Costa Ricans with whom we will be working for two years. Then on Saturday, I will leave to go alone to my new LIFE for four days!

Soccer Saturday

2007-08-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

I told you there is a lot of soccer here...

So my brother Queso, was in a soccer tournament for his high school...and it is hard to explain how impressive that really is because Costa Rican schools are NOT big on organized competition. So basically high school kids in the area organized their own tournament, invited other schools and even organized their own trophy system... My brother´s high school did not even support him and his friends playing in the tournament, but they LOVE soccer - so they played anyways. AND THEY WERE THE CHAMPIONS! They won the whole tournament and it was really exciting! And he even let me come to the tournament game...and I was so proud. Just like a big sister! (The picture is of his team...and he is the one in the back with the curly hair...that knows how to smile!)

As soon as that championship ended, I met up with some other volunteers and we went to a professional soccer game! We saw the team called SAPRISSA played the team called HEREDIA. No one had any goals until their was 5 minutes left in the second half - and then OUR team - SAPRISSA scored TWO goals and it was awesome to watch the fans go WILD! (The picture shows me and my friends Jenna and Glenn infront of the field.)

I might be a sports fan now...

A Few Afterthoughts...

2007-08-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

*thanks for the blog comments! i LOVE them.

*thanks for the mail! my pcbff & i definitly get the most mail - and just so you know...i save it and read it at home where i can REALLY enjoy it for days to come...

*i have a NEW way to communicate - i COPY all emails onto my USB and respond from my home and then at the internet cafe, i just COPY and PASTE! So I have a lot more time here and I feel like I get to better communicate with you guys!

Also to be emotional...

Things that are Hard:
1. I definitely do NOT get the recommended number of hugs to make a happy and healthy person. And those of you that know me…I’m a hugger. I’m definitely in HUG deprivation.
2. I feel guilty for not understanding people when they talk to me. I want to participate and they want me to participate, but sometimes it’s too much to explain everything to me and to try and figure everything out…
3. Everything is going to change in about a month. So just as we get settled we are going to have to pick up and change everything – it is hard to mentally prepare for another change just as we are settling into a routine here.

Things that are Wonderful:
1. Costa Ricans really do know the meaning of “chill.” There is always time to just sit together and enjoy life. I love just sitting. There is no pressure to be productive because there is no concept of “wasting time.”
2. Costa Ricans really do know the meaning of “generosity.” My family would give you the shirt off their backs if you asked for it. And when they offer you food – they really mean it. In the US, it is polite to turn down food when offered because we don’t want to put people out, HERE – NO! You say yes to the food. ALWAYS!
3. COFFEE. There is no shortage.

The Pilgrimage

2007-08-07T15:40:00.000-07:00

Costa Rica is a Catholic country and in the tradition of Catholicism, the country has many days to celebrate Catholic Saints. I am not EXACTLY sure of all the details, but every year there is a HUGE pilgrimage to a beautiful Catholic Church in Cartago. The point is that people from ALL over Costa Rica WALK to the church. So being adventurous Peace Corps Volunteers…clearly we wanted to participate in the pilgrimage! About 15 PCVs met up in a central location and we walked 12 miles over the course of 5.5 hours to Cartago – along with the rest of Costa Rica!
The only thing to compare the CROWDS of people to is Franklin Street in Chapel Hill on HALLOWEEN! The streets were claustrophobically packed with people for 12 miles (not just between McAllisters and Spankys!).

So you’re probably thinking – “Kim, what the heck did you do for 12 miles?”
1. The two different PC programs intermingled and caught up.
2. The SONG game – where one person sings a line and the next person has to come up with a song that has one of the words from the previous song.
3. The Would you rather? Game – example: Would you rather eat ONLY apples for the rest of your life or ONLY bananas? (although that was a tame example, clearly)
4. We ate – fruit, ice cream, sandwhiches, fried bananas, chilly willies…
5. I had a deep intellectual conversation about racism in the US.
6. I heard a few LIFE stories.
7. I reminisced with Ryan about when we were NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.

And then we were there! It went really QUICKLY, and as we got closer there was lots of entertainment! We arrived at the church around 11:30 just enough time to get a small dinner and sit down and watch about 30 minutes of fireworks and listen to the Hallelujah Chorus and Ave Maria!

Then a few of us actually entered the church and it was beautiful! It was an amazing experience! The pictures above are the BEFORE and AFTER pictures of our trip…we were still VERY HAPPY and going strong 12 miles later. (The pictures above are the BEFORE and AFTER pictures!)

FUN DAYS

2007-07-31T17:24:00.000-07:00

LAUREN CAME! For those of you who do NOT know, Lauren is my best friend of my life and she worked in Nicaragua for six weeks doing amazing work with farmers, BUT she has another friend in Costa Rica Peace Corps as well...so she came to Costa Rica to visit! She got to come and meet my family and we made chocolate chip cookies! My closest friend here and I are working to PERFECT the recipe as the Costa Rican ingredients are a TAD different, but it was still a wonderful piece of home to have Lauren here and to make cookies! I miss her already! :(

Playa Hermosa! My bff here and I took our first OUT OF SITE night. (Out of site time is basically mental health nights that we are allowed because technically we are not allowed to leave our sites, even on the week-ends!) My friends boyfriend came to visit and he basically treated us like princesses and paid for TWO days of sleeping in hammocks and watching surfers. I might have forgotten I was in the Peace Corps...and I might have gotten a small tan. Sounds amazing and it was, but please do NOT think this is REAL Peace Corps life! :)

Volcan Poas

2007-07-31T17:07:00.001-07:00

My family took me to see this Volcano! Clearly, the pictures do NOT do it justice. I mean...I just looked at hole into the earth with smoke coming out! How cool is that!

Things to note: very touristy. My family laughed a lot because EVERYONE was speaking Enlgish! And also - it was expensive. Ok, not expensive in US $, but on a Peace Corps salaray EXPENSIVE. They charge one TOURIST as mush as it costs SIX Costa Ricans to enter the park! Soon I will have a Costa Rican Registration card though so I will be able to visit places as someone who lives here.

Also - when Lauren came, her friend taught us how to say 'My paycheck is in colones, not in dollars.' in Spanish so that we can say it when everyone thinks we're tourists and tries to overcharge us. I tried to tell one man I was not a tourist and he definitly did NOT believe me!

A Little Overview of Life Here

2007-07-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

Thus far my blogs have been about GRAND Peace Corps events, but this one is a little bit about the daily life here.

With Peace Corps training it seems that every other week is a HARD week. During these weeks, we are lucky to have time to use the internet or do do personal things like talk on the phone or just hang out. During these busy weeks, the Peace Corps has LONG days of technical training where all 35 of us conveine in a NOISY room to learn about non-formal education, health issues, history and culture of Costa Rica and other realted things. Now...this may sound fun, but EIGHT hours of school is hard to endure after the luxury of a University Education. (and I mean that in all the different ways it may be taken...) These days are EXHAUSTING not only because we sit in class all day, but we also travel to and from the training site during peak travel hours crammed, standing with our backpacks on a bus (we know each other very intimately now) and as of yet...we haven't quite perfected the art of hanging on. It's quite an experience!

On our slower weeks, we have a lot of Spanish classes in our communities. These days are shorter... from 8 - 2:30 with a break for lunch, but are also exhausting because constantly thinking in a different language is difficult. And its also difficult to hear ourselves speak bad spanish...and to hear each other speak bad spanish. Also, once class ends, we have other "projects" to complete. This week we have to observe a classroom and interview a teacher as well as plan 5 projects to conduct within our community! It may sound easy, but I have to plan 5 classes to teach, IN SPANISH, and convince people to come and "learn" from me.

However, there are always exciting things happening as well. For instance, on Monday, I made pizza (with the DiBianca homemade pizza dough recipe!) for my family and they LOVED it! And tomorrow mybestLauren is coming to visit me and I will get to play with her and her bff Katie Finn on Friday! PLUS on Monday we have a holiday so some of us are going to the beach for Sunday and Monday! And Thursday, we have another HOLIDAY!

It's hard to describe life here becasue it is always changing and at the exact same moments that it is exciting, thrilling, adventurous, busy, and fun, it is also hard, boring, exhausting, lonely, and frustrating. Right now though, I can't wait for more! I want to know more, I want to do more, I want to speak better, and I want to be more immersed in the culture! The best is yet to come!

Thanks for the letters, the e-mails and the encouragement! Everything you guys send to me and tell me makes me laugh and my family here LOVES hearing about all of you guys!

P.S. You can comment on my blog if you want too...

2007-07-22T17:03:00.001-07:00

I mean if you are going to read it, you may as well leave me a little comment! :)

Peace Corps Sent Us Into the World

2007-07-22T16:31:00.001-07:00

Peace Corps sent us on our first "site visit" and the bottom picture was the view from our house (AMAZING, I know), but we MAY have had to climb up a mud slide to get to our house. Ha ha ha. It sounds silly, but really, I could NOT walk up the hill to our house bc i just kept sliding down the mud. Please picture me with a huge backpack sliding backwards down a mudslide. It was AWESOME. I mean, it really was awesome. We stayed in an indigenous village and learned all about how one volunteer lives.

We also had the chance to hike a HUGE moutain and see the village on one side and a rainforest on the other. It was almost surreal to hike next to coconut trees and such a tropical place. Sometimes I think to myself...is this my life? There is a picture of me and my pcbff, but it is only HALF WAY up the moutain!

Then we traveled to a more urban site to visit another volunteer...and there was a little less mud, but the most exciting thing about this house was that i had a little brother, a little sister and a rabbit!! I LOVED the rabbit. (I felt at home!) And my brother and sister reminded me of all my little kids that i baby-sit! (Which reminds me..thanks for the letter jake, lily & sam!)

At this site we learned a lot from the volunteer! We got to visit an orphanage and experience the type of work he does there, as well as visit a school and tell about our experiences in the United States and participate in a basketball practice! We had a great time! There is a picture of three of us with our packs on! This was as we were heading home...and by this time, we were so use to our backpacks, we didn't even want to take them off. And those two are two of my favorite peace corps volunteers. They help keep me sane!

My Family

2007-07-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

The top picture is my brother, QUESO, after he WON a futbol game and the bottom pciture is my dad, my mom, and my sister Karol when we went to the country and got to go to the pool!

A little bit about the best Costa Rican family ever...

My parents are very honest and direct. That sounds weird, but Costa Ricans are known for being overly polite and not being honest. My parents however tell it like it is...and like me to tell it like it is. Which as most of you know works much better for me than telling white lies. Ha ha ha. So I fit in perfectly with them. My mom cooks for me, cleans my room, and does my laundry...it might be a little like heaven. And my dad talks really slowly so that I can understand him which is wonderful. They both have a GREAT sense of humor and this past weekend, they took me to the mountains of Costa Rica! It was AMAZING.

My 15 year old sister Karol is great! She takes me everywhere and has now become my translator. She understands my broken Spanish and really does translate for me to other people! It is pretty funny actually. She is super sweet and made me a welcome sign and card! She loves arts and crafts...so we are going to get a long SUPER well. She also likes to buy me chocolate, so more or less, I LOVE HER.

Last, but not least, my HILARIOUS 18 year old brother. His name is Marco, but his nickname is QUESO (which for those of you who dont speak spanish...means CHEESE!). He is by far the best soccer player in town and I spend a good amount of free time watching him and his friends play soccer. (It takes me back to high school!) His friends are really nice to me and sometimes they even let me play soccer too...they don´t know that I´m not athletic here. I know that Karli and Joshua would be in heaven with all the soccer that is played here!

I am so happy and I am learning so much. I definitly think I got the best family and the language is coming easier than expected, but I still wish I could communicate with them better! They are wonderful and I just wish I could REALLY know what they are saying and REALLY communicate back with them! I cant wait!

Pura Vida! (Pure Life)

Two More Things...

2007-07-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

1. I knew I loved the volunteers when I told them ¨I went to UNC-Chapel Hill¨and they said ¨I hate DUKE¨and I said ¨We´re bff.¨

2. In Costa Rica people don´t call me Keeeeeeem, because Kimberly is actually a popular name here so they can pronounce Kim. Cool, eh?

I Live In Costa Rica Now

2007-07-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

This blog is going to be SUPER hard because so much has happened, but....

We arrived in Costa Rica with all of our luggage...(I wasn´t the only one who had to pay for luggage that was too heavy!) For four days all 35 of us became GREAT friends and learned so much I cannot even begin to tell you what we learned. But know that the Peace Corps Costa Rica has AMAZING staff and they take VERY good care of us! We received medical kits with every possible medication needed, malaria pills, mosquito nets and books to prepare us for our eventual volunteering! My favorite part was getting to know the other Volunteers and the staff (clearly). I brought Catchphrase and, as some of you know, Catchphrase brings people together.

Now we are all divided (sad - bc seriously all the volunteers are bffs already :)), but good because our families are AMAZING! In my opinion, my family is the BEST! I have a brother (18 yrs old) and a sister (15 yrs old) who take me everywhere and introduce me to everyone and a mom and dad who tell me things 100 times until I understand exactly what they are saying. My Spanish is good enough that I can have fairly deep conversations. Sometimes they have to talk AROUND things until I understand, but I am so lucky that they are so patient for me. My family is so giving and friendly and I cannot say enough good things about them.

Everyday we have language classes and work with WONDERFUL language trainers who teach us SO much about Costa Rica and Costa Rican Spanish. I have some really good Peace Corps friends in my community and I´m soon to have some really good Costa Rican friends as well. Just give me about two more weeks to be better at Spanish...and bam! bff. :)

Anyways, the Youth Development Volunteers are meeting in a larger town today to celebrate the 4th of July - so Happy 4th to all of you! Watch some fireworks for us! Love to you all.

Sweet Home Costa Rica

2007-06-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

The past two days of training (in Miami) have been A LOT of fun and A LOT less awkward than I expected. (You know my fear of awkward situations...) As you can imagine, the other volunteers are amazing, outgoing, independent, accomplished, from all over the US with various interests and backgrounds. However, we all have funny things in common like - lots of us have been camp counselors :) and studied abroad.

The days have been full of interactive activies that give us an overview of the excitement to come.... :) Today I was part of a group that wrote a song about integrating into the Costa Rica culture. It was to the tune of "Sweet Home Alabama" and Ryan Bailey (who also went to UNC and some of you know him) pretty much rocked out on the guitar. So we've had fun being silly and also discussing real issues.

I don't have too much news, but I wanted to go ahead and let you all know that I'm even more excited about this adventure and my fellow adventurers. Also we leave tomorrow for Costa Rica where we will have a FOUR day orientation! (It's gonna be like camp!...maybe :)) During this retreat, I will have NO ABILITY to be in touch so don't be alarmed. Next time you hear from me, I will be in Costa Rica!

Contact Information

2007-06-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

LETTERS:
Kim Shumaker, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 1266
1000 San Jose
Costa Rica

Helpful Guidelines:
-Letters to Costa Rica cost 90 cents.
-Don't mail money. (I know you were all thinking about doing that...)
-I talked to a volunteer down there and she said: DO USE THE US POSTAL SERVICE for packages. She hasn't had any trouble getting them at all!

PACKAGES!!:
If you would like to mail a package, I have heard this is an AMAZING ENCOURAGEMENT to volunteers. (just a small hint :)) And according to current volunteers the quickest and most reliable way to send & receive packages is through the US Postal Service. She said NOT to use DHL or FEDex. OK - so that was helpful. I'll keep you updated on any more changes!

just in case you need these for anything:

Peace Corps Office Phone Number: 011-506-231-4122
Peace Corps Office Fax Number: 011-506-220-3275

EMERGENCIES:
Please call the Office of Special Services at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C.: 800-424-8580 extension 1470. (or during nonbusiness hours: 202-638-2574)

General Information

2007-06-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

Peace Corps, Costa Rica.
June 25, 2007 - September 2009

When do you leave and where are you going?
On June 25th, I fly from Greensboro, NC to Maimi, FL where I will spend a day & a half filling out paper work and playing get to know you games with my 17 other Costa Rica volunteers.

On June 27th, I fly from Miami, FL to San Jose, Costa Rica.
I will live with a Costa Rican family somewhere outside of San Jose for three months of training.

After those three months, I will be sworn in officially as a Peace Corps Youth Development Volunteer (until then I am only considered a Peace Corps trainee). At which time, I will move to live in another Costa Rican community with a family (and feasibly far away from other PCVs) for two years.

What will you be doing?
As a Youth Development Volunteer, my job description states that I will work with families, children and youth in a variety of settings. (Yes, it is VERY informative.)

From what past volunteers have explained to me, once I enter the community it will take time to adjust to Costa Rican working standards, the cultural mindset and the language level necessary to actually serve the community well. During this adjusting time, I will have to work hard at figuring out the needs of the community and then at figuring out the ways I can fulfil those needs best.

Are you scared?
Um...yes. I am about to move to another country (don't really know where) to work as a youth development volunteer (not really sure what that means) and speak a language that i MAYBE have a conversation level ability. Yes - scared. However, I am calm right now the excitement still outweighs the fright.

Will you be able to come home?
Yes. We get 24 days of vacation a year which will definitly include some mental health days of exploring the Costa Rican beach. However, there is a 99.9% chance that two of my best friends are going to get married during my two year stint...so...for now, I am planning on coming back for those two weddings. Everyone else that I'm close to - try to hold off on getting married and having the babies for goodness sake. :)

Best Piece of Advice So Far:
Have NO expectations.

Main Goals:
1. Love people.
2. Be challenged and forced to grow in new and different ways.
3. Speak Spanish well!