The Week of Christmas

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!

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...

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

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

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*

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

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…