Reflecting on Peace Corps

When you think about a twenty seven month commitment it can seem like a long time. It can also seem like a pretty short period of time when you look at other time periods in your life. I mean think about it, a traditional education from kindergarten to twelfth grade is roughly one hundred thirty months. Even so, when we stepped off of the plane in hot and humid San Jose on March 2, 2010 twenty seven months seemed like it would last an eternity.

Training didn't make that time frame seem any shorter. In fact at the end of those eleven weeks it felt like we had been sucked into a strange time warp in which seconds last months or even years. We had some good times and made some good friends, but it left us questioning our decision to serve with Peace Corps. But, not having experienced the service aspect yet, we decided to stick it out.

The two years that followed were full of ups and downs. If you've been following our blog all along, this isn't news to you. We had moments of joy and sadness as well as moments of success and defeat. There were many moments when we questioned our service.

Those moments of questioning often came when we were feeling sad or defeated. It's hard to leave behind your family and friends, your home, a job where you feel you are making a difference, and your language. Thankfully we had each other. When everything else in life was throwing us for a loop we could rely on the love and support that has provided such a strong base for our relationship and marriage. We often talked about how amazing it is that so many people serve as volunteers by themselves (props to you guys!).

It was those challenging moments that made it worth it in the end. The endless frustrations of trying to improve the colé and wrap up the CRUSA grant, the drawn out process of starting up an academic support group, the low attendance rates at exercise class, and the slowness of the postal service when trying to do a cultural exchange. When the last of the CRUSA money was spent and the colé was a little more accommodating for students, it was worth it. When the students in the academic support group moved on to the next grade level (and asked if they could continue with the group the following year), it was worth it. When fifteen women showed up to aerobics and stayed after to thank me for offering classes, it was worth it. When students received letters from their pen pals in the states and excitedly wrote back, it was worth it.

This was just one aspect of our service though. On top of our many work frustrations and successes, there were also language and cultural successes. When we arrived in Costa Rica it had been nearly ten years since either of us had used our Spanish. We entered the country barely being able to communicate and left being able to hold meaningful conversations with our friends, host family, and work partners. We were even asked to serve as translators when a mission group came into town.

Culturally we experienced some challenges that most do and some that many do not. One of the biggest challenges that we faced was the fact that we are married. Being in a country that is very family oriented meant that we did not receive the numerous invites to spend afternoons with community members that most single volunteers do. We were not invited to join in with other families for celebrations. We are after all our own family. While frustrating, it also gave us the privacy that some volunteers long for. In the end though we broke through that barrier. We were invited to spend weekends away with friends. We were invited out to the family farm. We were brought copious amounts of food by community members so that we wouldn't starve during our final days in site after we gave away our rice cooker. We were embraced as members of the community.

Those challenging things to give up - family, friends, home, job, and language? You just learn to embrace the new ones laid out in front of you. You become part of a new family and make new friends. You create a new home for yourself. You make a difference through your new job. You learn and use a new language. They become a part of who you are.

So, that twenty seven month commitment? It flew by. Yes there were slow times, but in the end it was hard to believe that the end had arrived. As we piled ourselves and our luggage into our friends Orlando and Alejandra's car and drove to the airport at two in the morning we realized just how much can happen in two years. You forget how uncomfortable it was to leave the life you knew behind. You forget how long and drawn out training seemed. You're able to ignore the frustrations and focus on the celebrations. Twenty seven months is after all just that, twenty seven months. So why not do something extraordinary with them? It may not be anything like you imagined; it may be more, it may be less. But in the grand scheme of things it's life. The challenges and successes make it that much more interesting.

May [departures and arrivals]

Wow. May is done and over with. That is kind of hard to believe. It is hard to believe that another chapter in our lives has come to a close and that a new one has started full force. There have been a lot of changes during the past 31 days, and while we have been sad to say goodbye to one part of our lives, we have embraced the start of our newest adventure full force. We have said goodbye to jungle living and hello to desert living. We have left one country and arrived in another. We have left one family only to return to our family in the states. If you want to more, stay tuned. Here she comes, May...

May 1

Orlando called us at 8 to see if we had anything planned for the day. An hour later we were meeting up to head out to the San Juan River for a day of adventure!

May 2

We did parachute games and jump rope during the first recreo and played elbow tag during the second one.

May 3

Chris woke me up this morning and sent me packing to get some medicine. The medical office called in three prescriptions, hopefully I'll stop being sick soon.

May 4

We had fun in story hour, but the kids were a little distracted since a mama bird kept flying in to feed her baby birds - their nest is in the classroom wall.

May 5

We spent the morning walking around with Chamisa and showing her the banana fields and talking about the area. This afternoon we went to Orlando and Alejandra's for a pizza dinner and to upcycle!

May 6

We started packing bags. Scary.

May 7

Busy, busy. Bingo prep, hand washing charla prep, aerobics and more packing.

May 8

We had a lot of fun working with the kinder kids from Malinche today. We ran around, played a little and taught them how to properly wash their hands. Good stuff.

May 9

Chris met up with some cole guys to play basketball. I stopped by Ariela's to chat for a little bit. I'm not sure how this whole goodbye process will go.

May 10

Emptied our bank accounts this morning . Walked out the CTP to see Carlos and say goodbye. Prepped for our final story hour.

May 11

Yoga this morning followed by a million little kid hugs. Not a bad way to start the day. It was a mostly happy hasta luego, perhaps because we'll still be around for a couple of days.

Maria came to the door holding a dead fish in her hand. She asked if we ate fish and a couple of hours later she showed up with delicious pescado entero for our lunch.

May 12

We were blessed with more food treats today. Maria brought us pinto for breakfast. She brought us spaghetti for lunch and jello for dessert. On top of that Axel stopped by and we got some delicious bread!

May 13

Por Fin! The bingo event that Chris dreamed up during out Close of Service conference has happened. In a matter of 12 hours we organized, transported prizes, set up and hosted our final extravaganza in La Colonia.

May 14

We walked around and said some goodbyes today. It was hard to avoid tears with little kids giving us hugs and telling us that they loved us and would miss us. We handed out some thank you cards and gave a couple of gifts to some of the kids that were at every event that we hosted. 

May 15

El dia de despedidas. 

May 16

We said our goodbyes to the PANI (equivalent of DSS) office this morning and then went back to the house to do a final cleanup. We rode out of town on our bikes, a great way to really see the banana fields one last time. 

May 17

Final day at the office. Full of business and goodbyes. We got back to Orlando and Alejandra's around 5:30 in time for a delicious dinner.

May 18

We ate an early lunch with Rebecca and then went out the hotel. We spent the afternoon watching the wildlife and then met up with fellow runners at Selva Verde for the pre-race meeting and some dinner.

May 19

Hot day for a run, but it was a nice one. We all enjoyed dips in the river when we finished (Chris a 50 miler, myself and some others a 15k).

May 20

Last day in Costa Rica. We ate pinto for breakfast and then swam for a bit. We had lunch in Puerto and then went back to Orlando and Alejandra's. We got in right before the storm and so I sat with Suzy for the afternoon since she was afraid and kept wanting to come inside. We had a delicious dinner and wonderful last night with Orlando and Alejandra.

May 21

Mission accomplished. We have officially completed our 27 months of service. It's nice to be with family again, feeling the love!

May 22

Project readjustment. Biggest complaint so far, American accents. I miss Spanish!

May 23

Called some landlords, emailed some principals. We're trying to get this next step in our lives figured out.

May 24

We had a wonderful afternoon in Lewellen. We ate delicious food at An Unexpected Place and then did some wine tasting at 17 Ranch. We spent the evening playing ladder golf, eating good food and playing Scrabble.

May 25

Another fun day with family.

May 26

Sarah left this morning and the rest of us went out garage sale-ing. Chris and I ended up with 19 new books, picked out about 16 from a box Linda bought, and a new bookshelf (we may need it!).

May 27

Last day in Ogallala. JD and Heather left after lunch. We had a nice evening with Bruce and Linda chatting and eating delicious pie.

May 28

New Mexico! New state, new home.

May 29

We looked at a lot of houses and some apartments today. Chris finally convinced me that it would be best to go small and inexpensive for now and save up for a down payment. So we put a security deposit on a two bed, one bath apartment and are waiting to hear back on a background check (their system was down today, so we'll hopefully know tomorrow).

May 30

We went to Red Rock Park this morning and hiked for a couple of hours. It is so beautiful here!

This afternoon we walked around downtown. Everyone is so nice. We watched some Indian dancing in the town square and grabbed some fry bread for dinner. Delicious! We walked back to Emily's and then went to watch a softball game that a bunch of other RPCVs/Fellows were playing in.

May 31

Another day, another hike. We also spent more time downtown and met more wonderful people. We heard back on the apartment, it's ours! Unfortunately we need to wait until Tuesday to move in. We were so hopeful that we could have it tomorrow, oh well. Another softball game this evening and then out with the team for a bit.

*****

As you can see it's been quite the month. We haven't quite processed the whole moving back to the states thing yet, it's sure to happen once we actually get all of our stuff moved to New Mexico and we take a moment to sit back and breathe (before heading off on more adventures!). So much to do, so little time. We're excited about what is to come and can't wait to settle down in New Mexico!

Despedidas

The final weeks of our service went by a lot faster than we ever imagined they would. We had planned our close of service pretty thoroughly and had a calendar set up indicating what we would be doing each and every day during our last ten weeks in Costa Rica. True to our experiences during our time with Peace Corps, events were added, removed, and/or changed (several times). In the end we worked as long as we could and then we celebrated our time in La Colonia with bingo, actos civicos, karaoke, good food, hugs, and unavoidable tears.

Our despedidias (goodbyes) began on a Friday, during our final story hour with the materno and kinder kids. When we finished story hour we presented each classroom with a book, Huevos Verdes con Jamon to materno and De la Cabeza a los Pies to kinder. They in turn presented us with books of their own drawings and stories. We somehow managed to make it through the presentation, hugs, kisses and photos without tears. It was close though. The teachers had explained that we would be flying back to the United States and so the students bombarded us with questions about what it was like to fly, if we would be scared and how long it would take. Their curiosities curbed the pain of saying goodbye.

One of the drawings from our kinder kids (notice Chris' beard!)

A couple of days later we hosted a Sunday afternoon Adios Gringo Bingo for the community. We had acquired quite a bit during our service and we didn't want to bring it all back to the states with us. So, we sorted through everything - balls, toys, clothes, storage containers, school supplies, kitchen supplies and some electronics and prepared to give it all away. We didn't want to favor any given community member or family and so hosting the bingo seemed like a fun way to say some goodbyes and to thank everyone from La Colonia for their support over the last two years. With the support of our friends Orlando and Alejandra we secured all of the necessary bingo equipment and were able to spend several hours with roughly 150 community members that braved the rain storms to come out and play. Everything that we had prepared as prizes disappeared and found new homes with wonderful people.

Orlando helping to call numbers during our bingo

On Tuesday the tears started flowing. The escuela hosted two actos civicos (assemblies) so that all of the students would have a chance to say goodbye. There were many kind words, each class presented us with going away gifts and we received lots of hugs. We teared up and cried as we said our goodbyes, realizing that after two years we really were leaving the people that welcomed us into their community and their hearts.

Our morning kids

Our afternoon kids

The goodbyes continued that evening as the teachers from the escuela and cole and the school PTA hosted a dinner for us at a local restaurant complete with dancing and karaoke. We had good food and a lot of laughs. Orlando, Maikol, and Alejandra tried teaching us how to dance, we actually sang karaoke, and once again we were presented with little going away gifts. 

Goodbye dinner with teachers and PTA

The following day we packed up our remaining belongings (we had already taken some stuff to Orlando and Alejandra's), said some final goodbyes and then rode out of town. Literally, on bikes. People asked us when we were leaving and we would respond, "now," and they looked at us like we were crazy, shrugged it off, and wished us well. 

We kept saying goodbye over the next several days. We had a final trip to the Peace Corps office during which we had some final meetings, signed off on some paperwork and met up with some friends. We had a last lunch at a favorite restaurant with our friend and nearest fellow volunteer, Rebecca. We met up with a whole slew of volunteers at the Q50 race in Sarapiqui (I'm sure a blog is coming soon-ish from Chris about his latest ultra-marathon). And then, our final and hardest goodbye to Orlando and Alejandra as they dropped us off at the airport at 4:15am (what amazing friends to take us to the airport at 2:30am!).

Chris cooling off in Rio Sarapiqui after completing his 50 mile race

We were surprised to see our friends Nick and Monique at the airport. They were our fellow language group volunteers during training. We came in together, we left together (where were you Ari!). What a journey.

The End is Near [April]

April flew. It was a month filled with work, friends and the tedious things that are required in order to leave Peace Corps. We once again have found ourselves questioning where the time went. Then I looked through our journal and saw that we were just using every last minute to its fullest (well, almost every last minute...).

If you're curious what we were up to last month, stick around. Here is comes.

April 1

We left Orlando and Alejandra's shortly thereafter and headed to Recreo Verde. While we didn't do the zip line we did enjoy plenty of time in the aguas termales (hot springs).

April 2

Chris went into town to get some basics. He ran into Billy and Rebecca. He also met a tico that wanted to make sure he knew where he was going (most gringos don't come to La Colonia).

April 3

Exercise class was quiet. Only Ania showed up. That's Semana Santa for you.

April 4

I got gifts packed and mailed. Billy was at the post office and Rebecca was at the bank so we ended up hanging out for a while. Then Tressa came into town so the four of us decided to lunch together. How wonderful to see friends!

April 5

We moved deeper into the pasture, ultimately running to the next pair of guava trees when we heard the aguacero (downpour) rapidly approaching. 

April 6

As I settled in to read Maria called over asking for some food containers. She filled them with fresh rice and crema de mariscos (seafood soup). Nothing like a delicious lunch from next door!

April 7

While we were in our room reading Chris looked up and saw Grevin (our 2 year old neighbor) wandering though the house. His mom called for him and he explained that he was looking at the gringo's house.

April 8  

We both worked on teaching applications for a bit and contacted potential references.

April 9

Classes got out early today as a result of only three profes showing up. That meant no charlas for us. We'll see if anyone shows up tomorrow.

April 10

Only three profes showed up again. Chris went out to the cole anyway. No charlas, but he did break up a fight. What a day.

April 11

Chris left home shortly after five this morning in hopes of getting a long run in.

Noel and Luis were in search of some help. They have a mission group coming in tomorrow to help build a new church, but no translators. This should be an interesting project for the next couple of days.

April 12

The whole translating thing was interesting. We both felt comfortable switching back and forth between English and Spanish, so that went well. 

We met people who seemed shocked to learn that we have lived here for two years; to us this is just home.

We had our final site visit this afternoon. It was nice to see Carolina and Kyle. We chatted for a long time and probably would have just kept on talking if I hadn't remembered that I had stored some meat for the mission team in our fridge and had told them I would get it to them in time to make dinner.

April 13

We had story hour today and more time translating. We've been trying to share some bits of the culture here as well though conversation. Chris took a couple of guys out to the cole to see the different style of construction out there. 

April 14

Up bright and early and COLD! It was really chilly this morning.

We met Alejandra in Puerto shortly before seven and got on the bus to San Jose. Orlando picked us up in the city and we went out to Cartago for Erik's soccer practice. After practice we dropped Erik off at one of his aunts and then we went to Atenas.

We had some birthday cake and then wandered through the coffee fields. It was a beautiful walk. We found some delicious baby cherry tomatoes. Back at the house Alejandra's mom taught me how to make chorreadas. So much good food in such a short time!

April 15

We got up around six this morning and stuffed ourselves with chorreadas, tortillas de queso and platano. Then we hiked to Vulture Rock. After a mango break we hiked back to the house for showers and lunch.

April 16

Up early and headed back to San Jose. We spent the day in and out of medical appointments so that we can get our clearance to leave Costa Rica. We also managed to spend about $70 on Costa Rican literature (sales only work if you don't use them as an excuse to keep buying more).

April 17

Medical appointments were wrapped up this morning. We also turned in a bunch of Peace Corps property and had our final LPIs (Language Proficiency Interviews). We think we did pretty well on our LPIs, time will tell.

We finished up at the office early and as a result were able to squeeze in another lunchtime performance at Teatro Nacional. It was another excellent dance performance.

April 18

Today was Lend A Hand's last day in town. Our big project was translating the thank you/good-bye ceremony. The church put on a slideshow of photos from the week and presented each member of the mission team with a t-shirt. They even gave us t-shirts for our help.

It has been such a wonderful experience to work alongside a new group of people in our community. I wish we had gotten to know some of the people sooner in our service.

April 19

Chris took final photos of the cole for CRUSA. He turned in receipts on Tuesday. It's officially done.

We've both wrapped up our teaching applications. Now we just need to get up the courage to hit send. 

April 20

Story hour, laundry, work outs. Tomorrow we'll finalize materials to take to Limon for our Dia del Libro activities.

April 21

Happy 30th to me! I started the decade in England and have ended it in Costa Rica. The years in between took me to some pretty cool places as well. 

Chris made me a carrot cake/flan type treat. We also had tres leches after dinner. Then Maria brought over some gelatina con helado. So many sweet treats, so little time.

In other news, we'll be home one month from today. CRAZY!

April 22

This is such a beautiful place. It seems super quiet and tranquilo. I'm so glad that we were able to come.

April 23

The walk was beautiful, included stream crossings and got us out and about.

We had an amazing fish dinner. Some of the best fish to date!

April 24

Today was an intense one. We taught all day long. Chris and I both had the same thought - what are we going to do next year when it is only one of us with a whole classroom and a full day of teaching a variety of topics. We'll make it work, we always do.

April 25

We ate pork stew (mine was minus the pork) out of banana leaf boats. We ate with our hands and were a bit of a spectacle for the Cabecar people.

[Read more about April 22 - 25 here.]

April 26

I'm glad I stuck around because Guicho was in town! He came into Juice House with a big smile on his face and gave me a big hug. It's been so long! It made my day. Of course when I tried telling Rebecca who he was I started tearing up. Leaving is going to be much harder than I ever imagined.

April 27

I mumbled a sleepy 'Happy Birthday" to Chris before he left to catch the 4:30 bus out of town. Maria brought him some birthday pinto, but since he had already left I enjoyed it instead. Twice, since Emma and I ate some for dinner as well.

April 28

Emma and I walked through town, saying hi to a couple of people that I hadn't talked to in a while. She played with the kiddos while I talked to some moms. It was a good morning.

Kennedys came over to see her one more time before she leaves town in the morning. He brought his whole family! We sat around talking for a while and then finished watching a moving when they left for the night.

April 29

Chris and Henley's trip went well. They ran up Chirripo and then some.

April 30

Another one bites the dust. April has come to a close and with it most projects. It's happened naturally with exams starting next week and a holiday tomorrow. I was worried about how things would come to a close, but it seems that I didn't need to.

I played with Liseth for a while this morning. We played the mini marimba, danced and did gymnastics. Sucking up as much time together as we can at this point.

We submitted our teaching applications today. A couple of days away allowed us to review them somewhat objectively. Another step in the process complete.

*****

And now we're into May. We have so little time left here and so much that we're still trying to squeeze in. We'll do what we can and that's the best we can do at this point. It's hard to believe how far we've come in these past two years. It may be harder to believe how far we still have to go in this adventure that we call life. We're looking forward to it all.

Unrooted Forests

This past weekend, Henley, another Peace Corps Volunteer, and I headed over to Cerro Chirripó the highest peak in Costa Rica for a little fun run. Like most good adventures this one had plenty of early rising. I got up nice and early on Friday morning to catch the 4:30 bus out of town and then the 5:30 to San José and was able to secure one of the remaining two seats on the 7:30 to San Isidro de General.

Once I got to San Isidro, I walked to the center plaza to hangout and get in touch with Henley. That is where the only negative part of the trip happened. As I was digging the phone out of my bag, I set our camera on the park bench, found the phone, and dealt with the sunscreen that had exploded in my bag. Unfortunately, in dealing with the sunscreen, I forgot about the camera and left it on the park bench and didn't realize it was gone until hours later. (for those of you keeping score at home, that is the second camera lost to adventuring in Costa Rica) I got a hold of Henley and we hungout at a coffee shop where Jake, another volunteer, was wrapping up an interview over Skype. We eventually headed over to the Peruvian resturant for lunch. After good food and great conversation we grabbed some foodstuffs for the hostel, said goodbye to Jake, and hopped on the bus to San Gerardo and the base of Cerro Chirripó.

In the hostel, we chatted about a plethora of things and Henley taught me how to play dominoes. Eventually the hostel filled up with two families from France and a few hikers. We made our dinners, camotes (a type of sweet potato) and garbanzo beans for me and bean burritos for Henley, and got things laid out for our run the next morning.

After a wonderful night's sleep in the cool mountain air, we got up a little after four and prepped for the big adventure. Just after five, I hit start on my watch and began the epic climb from 1520 meters (4986 ft.). At almost a mile above sea level, I was sucking wind pretty hard from the get go. The altitude, steep climbs, windy trails, and muddy conditions made the first couple of kilometers pretty difficult, but eventually we found our grooves (Henley more so than me). We hit the shelter at about fourteen and a half kilometers and 3400 m (11,154 ft.) in just over three hours. Since we weren't planning on staying in the park overnight, we hadn't bothered to register to enter the park, but it so happened that the ranger was out crushing cans, when we ran by, and he stopped us and asked for our tickets. We explained that we didn't have tickets, but would pay the entrance fee. He told us that it was $15 for extranjeros, we told him we were Peace Corps Volunteers and had paid the fee for nationals last time we were in the park, he asked for Costa Rican identification cards, we said that all we had were our Peace Corps IDs and 5mil ($10), thankfully he gave us the rate for nationals and after signing-in and getting a couple of photos taken we were back on the trail.

From the shelter it was another 5.1k (~3 miles) with about 500 meters of climbing. All but the last push, was pretty runable and we caught a couple of parties before getting to the final ascent and passed a couple more before getting to the summit. Henley was a bit ahead of me and I heard him being called Forest and posing for photos as I caught up to him a couple hundred meters from the top. We paused together for more photos with complete strangers and then pushed to the top together. We reached the top of Costa Rica in a little over four hours. We took some photos, chatted with hikers, signed the summit register, and ate some granola bars.

On the way down, we were intercepted by some more Ticos and asked where we were from, but before we could respond, the man who asked the question answered that we were extraterrestres, then he asked if we were training for the Olympics. We told him we were from the U.S. and were just out for a fun day of running. When we got to the next junction in the trail, despite feeling pretty beat and battling pounding heads from the altitude, we decided to climb Cerro Terbi which laid another 265  meters (869 ft.) above the trail head. As we were struggling up the trail, I commented to Henley that I was sure that we were suffering from altitude sickness because our decision to go higher with nasty headaches was definitely irrational. At the top we enjoyed the views, signed the summit register, and then cruised over to the Crestones, the symbol of the park. We stashed our bottles and did a little scrambling. Our aching heads were clear enough for us to not attempt the final high class 4/low class 5 slab to the very top with shaky legs and ungrippy shoes. After soaking up the views and chatting with a Polish woman and a few more Ticos, we made the descent to the shelter.

We paused at the shelter to refill bottles and then started the final fourteen and a half kilometers of our outing. The first section after leaving the shelter is actually a climb, so our descent had to wait a bit longer. We cruised along pretty well for about seven or eight kilometers, then the pounding from descending caught up with us and we slowed to a crawl. Eventually, Henley got his legs back and started moving pretty well. With about five kilometers left I started chanting "the-shu-ffle" over and over again and made myself start shuffling down the trail, I eventually overtook Henley for a bit and then we finished the last three or so kilometers together.

We ran/hiked/walked for eight hours and forty-eight minutes (we spent another hour chilling on summits and taking care of business in the shelter) and covered around 40k (~25 miles) with more than 10,000 ft of climbing (and descending).

Back in the shelter, we ate pan-bon, drank hot beverages, and washed off the grime. After a bit, the French families returned from their adventures and we talked to one of the couples for quite a while. The two men were actually mountain ultra runners and had participated in UTMB and another ultra in the Pyrenees. We eventually went in search of a box of wine to go with our bean burritos, but we came up empty handed. After super delicious burritos (hunger is the best seasoning), we called it an early night since we had another early morning on the horizon.

We got up a little after four and hiked down in the dark to the center of town to catch the 5:15 bus to San Isidro. When we got to San Isidro, we bought bus tickets to San José then headed to Henley's favorite soda where we chowed down on pinto and (platanos) maduros. We then took the 7:30 bus to San José, and I caught the 11:30 to Puerto Viejo.

As great as the running was, it was the moments that we were stopped, chatting with Ticos that I'll always remember. I loved the looks on people's faces when they saw two crazy Gringos (bothers/twins/extraterrestrials?) with beards longer than their shorts running towards them.

I am looking forward to our 50 miler in a couple of weeks and hopefully lots of running/climbing/camping trips in the Southwest.

I'll post photos as soon as Henley sends some my way.

Photos from when Tarah and I visited Chirripó last year. 

Día del Libro - Día del Aborigen

¡Ma'skiná! Assuming I understood correctly this past week, this is the general Cabécar way of saying hello, how are you. The Cabécar people are an indigenous group of Costa Rica. We were fortunate enough to participate in a regional event organized by a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer for World Book Day (Día del Libro) in the Cabécar community of Cerere.

Last Sunday we left home nice and early so that we could meet up with six other Peace Corps Volunteers en route to Cerere. We were joined by Ken in Limon; Matt, Rose, Rebecca, Stephen and Melinda joined us on the bus about 45 minutes later. We rode into the middle of banana fields that were foreign to Chris and I and disembarked at a T in the road where nothing seemed to exist. We lathered on sunscreen and changed into appropriate footwear for a hike and off we went.

Crossing the River (by Ken)

After roughly an hour and a half we took a break from the hot sun and bought some cold drinks from a local pulperia (convenience store). We made sure we were fully fueled for the remaining fifteen minutes of our walk. What lay ahead of us was a river crossing, several stream crossings and finally, the elementary school in the town of Cerere. We took off our shoes and slowly made our way across the river. For those of us who haven't yet acquired tico feet it was quite painful. Most of us chose to wear shoes though the remaining stream crossings and deal with wet shoes for the rest of the week.

When we got to the school we met Will, the principal. He kindly gave up his office to us and declared that it would be our home for the next couple of days. Then he took us back across the river to collect foam pads to use as mattresses. En route we stopped and met a couple of the community kids who were more than excited to talk to us and show off their newly born puppies. With darkness upon us though, we couldn't linger and so grabbed our pads and made our third river crossing of the day.

Tired and sweaty we gladly took advantage of the shower in the teachers' house. Fidelina and Viviana were very welcoming and kindly gave up their bathroom over the course of the next hour and a half. Once we could stand the smell of ourselves again we ventured off to dinner at one of the neighbor's homes. In a community that as a general rule does not have electricity we enjoyed a candle lit dinner of delicious food slow cooked over an open flame. Then, with the day catching up to us we retreated back to the principal's office and climbed into our sleeping bags and/or sheets and fell asleep as Ken read us bedtime poetry. 

Playing with the kiddos

The next morning we were up nice and early in an attempt to have our belongings stowed away before kids started showing up for school. They showed up, drenched as a result of long walks on a rainy morning, and were excited to see their friend Mateo and see that he brought friends with him. We were split into groups and had two, one-hour sessions of dinamicas (ice breakers/ activities) with different student groups. The dinamicas ranged from 'get to know you games' to duck-duck-goose and Bear-Salmon-Mosquito. We ran around, made fools of ourselves and had a really good time. 

Group Shot

After our final student group of the day we took a hike to an overlook up the mountain. We had a beautiful view of Valle de la Estrella and enjoyed one another's company. It was a great opportunity to decompress after our day of activities, to think about what the next day's activities might look like, and to catch up after not having seen one another in a while. We returned in time to clean up and to enjoy another wonderful slow cooked meal that included fresh caught fish (some of the best any of us had eaten in Costa Rica!). With the nice cool mountain air that comes with a day of rain and Ken's reading of some classic poetry we all had a good night's sleep.

Tuesday morning brought us to the meat of our event. Día del Libro. We had all been emailing one another with lesson plan ideas over the previous week and we were a little anxious about pulling it off. Rebecca, Stephen and I had been assigned to second and sixth grade students. Chris, Rose and Ken were to work with first and fourth grade. Matt and Melinda had fifth and third grade. That meant we all had to create two three hour lesson plans. It was a little stressful as we weren't really sure what we were going to encounter when we strayed away from fun games, but it all went really well. 

Stephen as Max, leading the monsters in a party

Donde Viven los Monstruos was a big hit in several classes. I think that first, second, and fourth graders all had the opportunity to hear the story, make monster masks and then act it out. Picture pages were used to inspire creative writing. Prompts were given to push students to create their own conclusions to a predicament that characters encountered. Older students were trained to read to younger students. Stories were illustrated and origami was made. There were a few running games thrown is as well when students needed time to burn off some extra energy. At the end of it all we were happy and tired but ready for more.

In an effort to get the community involved in the spirit of reading and/or storytelling Matt had worked with the school to prepare an evening of Cuentacuentos or storytelling. We worked with the teachers to prepare drinks and sandwiches for those that came to the event. Firewood was collected to build the fogata (bonfire).People slowly started showing up, we were a little concerned that we were going to be left high and dry, but before we knew it all of the seats were filled and we had to move more chairs out from the classrooms.

Roasting Marshmallows (by Stephen)

We served food and Matt started the evening with a magnificent story that cracked everyone in attendance up. He would be asked over and over again throughout the next day to tell it again. His story was followed by a couple from some of the teachers at the school. Then we got the kids involved. Chris read De la Cabeza a los Pies ("From Head to Toe" by Eric Carle) and Stephen led the kids in doing all of the animal actions. I followed him with a retelling of Donde Viven los Monstruos and Stephen led the kids that had brought their monster masks in acting it out. To top things off, Rose introduced the idea of roasting marshmallows to the community. It was a hit. Several kids had three or four before we ran out. Once everyone was on a sugar high we called the evening to a close and worked with community members to get desks and chairs back into classrooms. Once everything was back where it belonged, us volunteers settled back around the fire and continued sharing the stories of our lives.

The following morning Chris and Ken had to leave bright and early as a result of other commitments. They crossed the river around 4:30 so that they could get on the 5am bus out of town, avoiding the hour and a half walk that we had taken on Sunday. The rest of us slept in for a couple of more hours and then made some PB&J sandwiches for breakfast.

Cabécar drama

We were fortunate enough to have been invited to the area celebration of Día del Aborigen. We waited around for about two hours for the tractor and trailer that would take us further into the indigenous communities. It was a bumpy ride that started off with some tractor trouble, but we eventually made it to the school where all of the neighboring communities came together to celebrate. We heard speeches, stories and poems read in Cabécar. Student groups performed plays and dances. We felt lucky to be a part of it, even if we stuck out like a sore thumb. I guess we're all kind of used to that though.

The gem of the day was being able to eat a traditional Cabécar meal. The women worked origami magic with banana leaves and presented us with nice little boats that would serve as our bowls for lunch. We enjoyed a stew made with platano, yuca and cerdo. I asked for mine to be served without the meat, but it sure looked good. Everything was delicious. We ate with out hands and managed to drink the broth out of our banana leaves without making a mess.

Eating out of our banana boats

After lunch we watched a little bit of a soccer game and then climber back on our trailer and headed home. Once back at the school a couple of us crossed the river to go to the pulperia and we came back with Adriana and Gabriella, the girls that we had met our first day in town. They wanted to make sure they could say goodbye to everyone. And the wanted to play. We did riddles for a while and then Matt read some Curious George, but they ultimately got their way and we played a couple of rounds of Bear, Salmon, Mosquito. Then we cleaned up and enjoyed one last candle lit dinner at the neighbors.

We didn't have Ken to read us to sleep, but we heard many hilarious stories from Stephen. We eventually called it a night as people (me) started falling asleep as we had to be up nice and early the next day.

Our final dinner in Cerere (by Matt)

We left the school at 4:30 in the morning, surviving the river crossing in the dark and loaded onto the bus a little after 5AM. Rose was the first to go, needing to catch a bus to San Jose en route. The rest of us continued on to the community of Penshurt where we filled up on pinto con huevo. Eventually we had to say our goodbyes though and go our separate ways. Stephen and Melinda headed south, Matt back inland and Rebecca and I traveled back to Puerto Viejo.

It was an incredible week. An excellent way to start closing out our service. We feel blessed to have had the opportunity to work with such amazing people and to spend time with friends that we hadn't seen in a while. It was also an incredible experience to stay in one of the indigenous communities for a couple of days.

*****

For those of you who read Spanish, below is a story that Rebecca, Stephen and I wrote while doing a creative writing session with sixth graders. We had to include robots, monkeys, a desert and a volcano. Enjoy!

Había una vez, hubo una manda de robots que querian conquistar el mundo. Marcharon en el desierto del saturno buscando una reserva de petroleo. Si no encontraron una reserva de petroleo, se oxidaráron y se perdieron todo su reino de su parte de la galaxia. De repente, se encontraron una cuesta de arena lo que alcanzaba hasta el cielo. Estaban seguros que estuviera llena de petroleo, gritaban de alegria, ya se salvaron. 

Los robots ya habia comenzado a subir la cuesta en busca de la aperatura de su tesoro cuando sentieron un temblor fatal. Los robots se cayeron al suelo de rodillas con tanto miedo. Cuando miraron hacia la cima, vieron una erupción muy rara. Se dieron cuenta que estaban subiendo un volcán en vez de una cuesta. Después de echar un montón de ceniza, el volcán echo un tropo de monos hasta el cielo. Los robots temblaron con miedo, estos monos eran sus enimigas desde mucho tiempo y igual querian conquistar el mundo. Empezó la lucha más luchosa de los tiempos. Los monos cayeron desde el cielo sobre las espaldas de los robots gritando y aplastando bananos en las caras de los robots. Los robots respondieron en forma de lanzar rayos de sus ojos, matando los monos en forma grosera y escandalosa. El casique de los robots se deslizó en una cascara de banano, haciendolo cayer y tomando con el la fuente de vida de todos los otros robots. Los monos brincaron, gritando con alegria que ya eran los reyes nuevos de la galaxia. Se pusieron el banano como la fruta más poderosa y estimada de la galaxia.

El fin.

Friends, Family and Food [Semana Santa]

The title says it all. Semana Santa or Holy Week is a time of friends, family and food. Lots of food actually. For us, our last Semana Santa in Costa Rica was a time in which we could really enjoy those that we have come to consider dear friends and in some cases family. 

With Orlando and Alejandra

We started the week with our friends Orlando and Alejandra at a nice little retreat called Recreo Verde and spent the first of April soaking up the heat of natural hot springs on a cool mountain day. We took occasional breaks from the water, dipping into the cold water pool long enough to realize that it was a mistake! We also joined Orlando and his son for a game of foot-volleyball. They were the clear winners of the match. Chris held his own, I failed horribly but had a great time laughing at myself and my ill-placed volleys.

After a delicious lunch by the river we rushed home so the guys could watch the Saprissa-Liga game. (For those of you not living in Costa Rica, these teams define who you are while in country. They are the most popular soccer teams in the country and nearly everyone you meet will ask, "¿Qué es su equipo?" You hope that you do not offend by responding one way or the other. I personally like to say "Las Brujas," a team that people shrug off and laugh at.) Alejandra and I chose the nap route, though we were occasionally awoken by cheers by the neighboring Liga fans. Saprissa sadly lost.

As the game wound down I started making pizza dough. While we have occasionally shared some of our favorite foods with locals, most people find it funny and kindly pass it by. At the mention of pizza though, Orlando and Alejandra were more than happy to give up their toaster oven for the evening. For us it was the first time in two years that we had actually baked a pizza (two little ones actually) in an oven and were super excited. Orlando praised the meal enough times to make me believe that he meant it.

Food became a theme throughout the week as our host mom and neighbors would knock on our door saying "buenos días," hand us a plate of food and then walk away. Nearly every day of the week we received plates of sweets or breakfast goodies and the occasional lunch. I guess that's the upside of kind of living by yourself.

Liseth and Anderson looking for guavas

At the end of the week we spent a day with our host parents, Maria and Rafa, our neighbors and some cousins out at our neighbors country house. We started the day with a truck ride over the bumpy roads that pass through our community and ended it in the same manner. In between we walked through the fields in search of the delicious treats that are known to grow on trees in Costa Rica. We worked with the family to gather up guavas (not what we know as guava in the U.S., but a seed pod filled with velvety sweetness), guayaba (what we know as guava in the U.S.) and cacaoita del monte (wild miniature cacao). In between these food seeking excursions we were filed with food made at the house, empanadas, pan dulce, and arroz con atún (empanadas, sweet breads, and rice with tuna). 

When we were all ready to roll out of our chairs and onto the ground we decided to take a walk down to the river. Several kids from town were enjoying the cool water. We failed to come prepared to swim though and just watched from the sandy beach. Rafa, our host dad, challenged some of the high school kids to swim across the river and off they went with the family laughing and yelling "Vaya Willy" (they had been calling him Free Willy earlier). They made it across and after a break to catch their breath wearily jumped back in the water to return. They climbed onto the beach exhausted. 

Discarded guayaba

We returned to the house and then made that bumpy ride home, bags of fruit piled into the back of the truck. Chris and I were also blessed with some freshly made cheese from our neighbors suegra (mother-in-law). She had shown me how she made it and kindly gave us about a half kilo! It was one of the best cheeses we have eaten in Costa Rica.

The rest of the week passed with more food deliveries and one more round of pizza. This time we made it for Maria and Rafa. We wanted to give back after all that they have done for us over the last couple of years. This time we had to make it on the stove top, dutch oven style, but it still turned out quite well. Maria even asked for the recipe.

It was a great week, even if it didn't include dying Easter eggs or hunting for candy filled baskets. This is a part of the culture that we love, the un-commercialized celebration of holidays. Perhaps we'll be able to take a little bit of that home with us.