Dengue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.