We're Official

Peace Corps Country Director, Tarah, US Ambassador to Costa Rica, Program Manager 

Peace Corps Country Director, Chris, US Ambassador to Costa Rica, Program Manager

Jumping for joy

We're Going Bananas!

So, we've visited our site and are incredibly excited about the
adventures that are to come in the next two years of our lives. That's
right, we've whittled down that 27 months to just two more. Next
Friday we become official Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and on
Saturday we'll catch a bus to our new home in the hot and humid region
of Sarapiqie!

We had a busy couple of days during our site visit - we met all of the
staff members from the escuela (elementary school) and the director,
assistant director and English teacher from the colegio (high school)
along with many other community members. We attended a meeting of the
local development association and a service at the Catholic church.
We wandered aimlessly through the community and got a basic
understanding of what home will be for us. And, we ate, and ate, and
ate. Our future "mom" is the cook at the colegio and our future "dad"
used to work in the restaurant world and our house has a "gourmet
kitchen" (meaning it has ample counter space, a double sink, a gas
stove, electric stove, and wood stove, and chicken wire covering two
of the walls, because what is the the point in putting in glass
windows if you're just going to open them all of the time because it's
so hot?).

So anyway, about that food. We learned how to make a delicious red
sauce and fried plantains, and I'm sure we'll learn much more in the
future. When we told our "mom" Maria that we would like to learn how
to make Tico food she seemed excited to share. What makes this
expedition to learn the secrets of Tico cooking more exciting is that
our "dad" Rafa is very involved in the kitchen, which is pretty odd
based on experiences we have had thus far pertaining to gender roles.
Needless to say, we're quite excited about what is to come.

In addition to delicious food, the people that we met were very nice
and everyone offered to help us as needed (in typical Tico fashion).
We have been blessed with amazing counterparts. Our community
counterpart, Orlando, is the guidance counselor at the escuela and is
very involved in the community. He and his wife, Alejandra, live
around the corner from us and I think they will become good friendx in
the coming years (besides, rice and beans de Alejandra are amazing -
add a little coconut milk and chili and you're good to go!). Our PANI
(think Social Services) counterpart is equally amazing. Flor is the
social worker in our local office and has somehow learned how to make
a little time in her incredibly busy life to oversee 3 PCVs. She is
very sweet and hosted a breakfast for us and Rebecca, (the other PCV
in our region,) to introduce us to the rest of the office staff. I
think we're off to a good start and we'll get even more settled in
during our first three months while we complete our community
diagnostic.

What else to share at this point? The community is beautiful (maybe
not Martha Stewart beautiful, but the kind of rustic beautiful you
find in the middle of rural banana fields). The banana fields go on
for kilometers and every once in a while you encounter the river, a
horse ranch or a cattle farm. Everyone rides around town on their
bikes and says "buenas" when you pass them by. We wake up to the
sounds of the roosters Maria raises. And, I think we shock people
when we actually speak in Spanish.

This is our life - we love it! You're welcome to visit any time
starting in September!

Check back at some point to see the pictures we have yet to take,
they'll be beautiful!

Sent from our adventure companion!

Our Site

Follow the Yellow Brick Road...

So, there may not be a yellow brick road in Costa Rica, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was. This country is so colorful, and yet I am still surprised on occasion when I see things like a bright purple house with pink trim and a pink gate. It is wonderful! For instance our house, as well as our neighbor's house, is pink. And, we have a green fence. In the US it would look so out of place, however here it is the norm and you really can't keep from smiling when your surroundings are so cheerful looking! In addition to our nicely colored house we have a yellow bedroom with a green door, pink curtains and an orange comforter. I hope things are as colorful in our assigned community!

The coloration of the country extends to plants as well. Things are so green here and there always seems to be something in bloom. There are trees that have bright orange blossoms, bushes with pink or purple flowers, other flowers blooming at will, I can only imagine what we will see as our time in Costa Rica becomes more extensive.

The joys of Costa Rica do not end with the sense of sight; they also embrace sound, taste, and smell. For instance:

- We are able to hear live music on a weekly basis – without leaving out house (or bedroom for that matter). There are a couple of bars close by, and one of them has performances every weekend. Sometimes it shocks me that we don't live closer, it sounds like we are in the same room on occasion. However, it is also nice to listen to music that combines both Latin flare and good old classics from the 80's and 90's. There is another bonus to this phenomena. On days where there is a major soccer match we can always tell when the favored team does something well. The fans roar and we (when feeling motivated) go out to the living room and see a replay of what just happened. Mostly though, we just listen. This was helpful when we were not able to watch Barcelona play Madrid last weekend. We knew when something really cool was happening even if we could not see it. It turns out that Barcelona won (just in case you were interested!)

- We have amazing homemade beverages on an almost daily basis. You know it is bound to be good when you hear the blender going in the morning or before lunch. Our host mom will throw some fruits and water into the blender, give things a whirl, strain the seeds out, and we drink wonderfully refreshing juice. Fresh strawberry or blackberry juices are simply delicious.

- Continuing on the beverage theme – we thoroughly enjoy Oatmeal Juice. I'm not really sure what else I could call it because it is simply oatmeal, water, and I believe a little sugar and cinnamon thrown in the blender. Add some ice and it is an amazing treat after a soccer game or going for a run! There is another interesting one that I can’t remember the name of, but it is a bunch of seeds thrown into water with some sugar. The seeds grow a funny, squishy membrane and the juice tastes slightly citric. I know this is not an appealing description, however it is the best I can do – if you come visit we’ll have you try it!

- I haven't fully been able to experience this other taste, but the fruits here are amazing. Chris says that pineapple is like a different fruit all together and the melons are all so fresh and juicy. I have had a couple of pieces of orange and those have been tasty, along with the bananas and plantains. It's exciting when a new load of fruit shows up because it means more delicious beverages and generally bananas are offered with lunch or breakfast! Avacados also taste like candy here!

- The food here also smells amazing. Sometimes it may not agree with my stomach because it has a little more oil than we are used to cooking with, but vegetable picadillos smell (and taste) amazing. We’ve had delicious treats with green plantains, yucca, acote (I’m not sure how to spell this), and other vegetables that are new to us. The smell of finely chopped vegetables simmering over the stove with some other seasonings makes me smile. I also enjoy the smell of homemade tortillas and other random foods that we try every day.

- The neighbors have old license plates hanging under the carport, and one of them is from Nebraska! We should really take a photo sometime because it really is a sight to see with the pink house in the background. The sight makes us smile.

- Our “brother-in-law’s” Futbol 5 team wears chartreuse Barcelona jerseys. This was a shock because when Chris was invited to play it sounded like a very informal event, however everyone was very serious. What makes these jerseys even better is that the Spanish translation for chartreuse is “verde-amarillo intenso.”

Everything that we experience seems to be new. When we start getting used to something, a new adventure is thrown in there – whether it be interviewing random people on the street or running through San Jose to complete a scavenger hunt. Thankfully everyone that we encounter is incredibly patient with our Spanish. They are willing to correct the mistakes that we make and encourage us to keep trying. It also helps that we are starting to feel a little more comfortable and I (Tarah) at least no longer care about the fact that I make huge grammatical errors every time I open my mouth. I am corrected and I will learn from those mistakes.

This weekend we leave for a six-day technical visit. I will be heading to a community in the Sarapique region and Chris will be right on the Nicaraguan border. We will both gain experience in these communities with leading education projects and doing other various work projects that have been set up for us. It should be a nice break from sitting in classrooms every day. We’re also very excited about actually implementing some of the things that we have learned in training. We’ll let you know how it goes when we encounter internet access once more.

Be well!

One of our random colorful images...We were told its name is "Papa con Pimientos," meaning Potato with Peppers because nobody really knows what this plant is and it is apparently quite rare to come across. I guess we were lucky!

Be well!

Parque Nacional Volcan Poas

We spent Maundy Thursday of Semana Santa at one of Costa Rica’s 25 National Parks, Poas Volcano National Park. We were treated to the trip by our Tico padres, which was very generous, because it is about 5x as expensive for non-residents to enter the park and since we are only lowly Peace Corps Trainees we don’t have P.C. I.D.s that would qualify us as residents. The trip was a bit of a whirlwind, even by last summer’s standards, just when we were about to head into the gift shop after a quick spin through the visitor’s center and art gallery our padre intercepted us, handed us a postcard and we were on our way to the crater.
The sights and smells brought us right back to Yellowstone. Poas is an active volcano that spews sulfuric clouds on a regular basis and is thought to be due for a full-blown eruption in the very near future. When we first got to the edge of the crater (there’s a fence) we couldn’t see anything because we were engulfed by a cloud, but the wind quickly shifted and we were able to see the bright blue pool in the center of the crater and the bright orange markings from iron residues. After some photos we headed to Laguna Botos, a lagoon named for an indigenous tribe that used to live near the lagoon.
On the way back from the lagoon, on a paved trail, we encountered a group of people in awe of an animal. I’m sure you’re thinking what we thinking, a lemur, perhaps a sloth, a monkey, at the very least some beautiful bird.
No, it was a squirrel, just a squirrel. A squirrel that was very used to humans. Our host madre quickly dug in her purse for treat for said squirrel. The first thing she found was spearmint gum. Initially the squirrel took the piece of gum out of her hand, but he quickly realized he didn’t like gum. While our madre looked deeper in her purse, another family with two young girls and crackers showed up. The squirrel ended up enjoying some of the crackers, however he did not like the packet of sugar that our madre dumped on the trail. As wild as Costa Rica may seem, a critter that is all to common back home is enough to back up a trail and entertain a bunch of Ticos.
After we were finished with the circus, we made our way to a picnic site for a delicious lunch of rice and beans, after which, we were able to steal a few moments in the gift shop.
All in all, it was nice to get back to nature and I was inspired to find (or create) “Leave No Trace” materials in Spanish for our future site. Hopefully this was just the beginning of our National Parks in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica Makes Me Smile Because...

This past month has definitely presented us with some challenges. Primarily it would be a singular challenge: SPANISH; but there have been the every day challenges that simply come with adapting to a new culture – a new schedule, new food and new customs. Some days everything is perfect, but there are also those times when we are tired and it really just hurts to try and think in Spanish. We are being assured that those days are normal – it is a part of culture shock – and are also told that they will become few and far between because we have the skills to appropriately cope with what is going on around us, as well as an amazing network of individuals who have gone through the process or are going through the process with us. Peace Corps really is an interesting experience.

These challenges are completely worth it because of all of the amazing things that we are also experiencing. Today I was sitting on the patio and studying Spanish when my mind started to wander. It started with this: Wow, our neighbor uses barbed wire for clothes line. I thought that this was very interesting because it makes perfect sense, there is no need for clothes pins because the clothes won't move anywhere when there are pieces of wire keeping them in place. Granted, I enjoy having clothes pins because that means I should end up with fewer random holes in clothes, but I thought it was a great idea – even if I never plan on using the method. This mental process was quickly followed by thoughts of other things that have just made me smile over the past several weeks, including:

- Our one-eyed parrot. He was attacked by a cat. He survived, but is now without his right eye. This makes him very entertaining to watch – he can tell when there is a bug nearby, but can never quite figure out where it is when it is on his right. His head starts bobbing and he starts dancing around – I have yet to see him actually catch a bug he was “chasing.” I also enjoy that the family calls him Pariquito Rico.

- The woman who owns the local libreria (bookstore). She is really sweet and doesn't mind the fact that our spanish is mediocre. She actually jokes with us that she will teach us spanish for free if we teach her english in return. Unfortunately we don't have much free time at this point in our lives. After we finish training it would be a different story; however, we will no longer be living in this community after we have been inducted as actual volunteers.

- The neighbor of the libreria. The other evening we went into the libreria looking for a map of Costa Rica. She only had small ones, similar to what we already have. While we were talking to her about wanting a larger map her neighbor waited patiently to finish his conversation with her. Then, the next morning we happened to be walking past his house and he said “Buenas” and essentially, “You're the guys that were looking for a map, right?” We confirmed this and after a broken conversation and much confusion on our end, we ended up with an old map of Costa Rica, which was exactly the map we were looking for (perhaps a little outdated, but it does the job!).

- Our local panaderia. I think it is by far the best panaderia in the country (or at least out of the 5 or so that we have grabbed delicious bread from.) They have sweet breads, ones filled with sweet cheeses and fruit, others with dulce de leche, there are pizza breads and sour doughs – pretty much anything that you could really want. The woman who works there is incredibly sweet and has started to expect us on our breaks from Spanish class. The other bonus – these delicious goodies cost about 550 colones or roughly one dollar. Sometimes when I think about this I feel bad, but then I see the news reports that the dollar keeps losing value on the colon.

- Our Tico Family. Everyone is so nice and they are always checking in on us to make sure we: have had enough to eat, have slept well, are staying cool enough, are getting our studying done, need help with anything, or want to watch TV. Really the list goes on and on. They are wonderful people and they want to make sure we are adapting to the culture here. I also love that they continually assure us that at the end of three months Spanish will no longer be a challenge. I'll keep hoping they are right, but also keep studying and know that I really have two years to get the language thing down. I know it will become easier before then, but also that we will continuously learn new words, phrases, or rules.

The list goes on, but I will save the other goodness for a later date. After all, we can't have visitors until after training ends and we don't want to give you all of the good stuff in one shot. We'll keep it coming until you are able to book your ticket!

A Volunteer's Life?

This past weekend we had our first out of training community visit. We spent time near Nicoya on the Pacific side of the country and stayed with a second year volunteer and her host family. It was definitely interesting to see the difference in interacting with a host family after living with them for two years as opposed to two weeks! We had a great time talking with the family and they were fantastic about speaking slowly with us and correcting our mistakes.

We were able to see a couple of projects recently completed by the volunteer - a hydroponic garden and a green zone at the elementary school. Both projects were community initiated, but required the help of the volunteer in terms of writing grants and minor project development. Both were completed in a relatively short period of time (after grants were approved), so I can only imagine the number of smaller projects like this that Chris and I might be able to do during our two years of service (if our future community is in need of such things). On Sunday they actually did a harvest of the lettuce in the hydroponic garden and were preparing it to sell to the community.

After visiting the garden on Sunday, we headed to Samara, about an hour outside of the community we were in. The beach was amazing and Chris was able to play in the Pacific for the first time. Walking into the ocean was like walking into a bath, it was that warm! We spent most of our time hanging out under coconut trees so that we wouldn't fry under the tropical sun - it was a nice break from endless days in training. We ended the day by grabbing lunch at a little establishment on the beach and then headed home. We were fortunate to have missed the bus and find a nice taxi driver who charged us only slightly more than the bus - and we made it home in half the time.

It was an interesting glimpse at what life as a volunteer could be like - spending time with family, embracing the culture, working with the community, really learning the language, starting new projects and the occasional vacation. We keep reminding ourselves that it will be what we make it.

All in all things are going well. Our spanish is slowly improving and one of these days I'm sure it will be smooth sailing (I'm not saying how far away that day is - just that in the next two years I am sure it will happen!). Next week we have half of the week off for Holy Week and we will be one month into our training. It's crazy how time flies!