a few things about Costa Rica

Three things I recently discovered I cannot live without (at least for this year):

1.dustless chalk- Seriously Crayola, way to go. I had no idea how much this could improve my quality of life. I no longer have to chose between coffee stains on my light clothes or chalk dust on my dark clothes.

2.Ginger hard candies – a.k.a. Gin Gins a.k.a. the best cure for motion sickness on long and winding bus rides through the mountains. When everything is a blur of green on either side and you're certain the next turn will send you careening to your death suck on a ginger hard candy and your stomach might slide down out of your throat long enough for you to get home.

3.ear plugs – Again, I had no idea how much this would improve my quality of life. I thought for sure nothing could block out the soundtrack of my life including, but not limited to the following:
-wind “rattling” the tin roof, sounding like the rapture
-TV turned on at all hours of the day, whether or not someone is watching, cranked up to about 50
-various shouting that constitutes a conversation over the volume of the TV
-roosters, dogs, assorted birds
-radio (see TV for comments)
-national anthem playing on a regular basis
-misc cars, truck, motos etc. struggling to get up the hill
-second TV competing will all the other noise

Three things that are the norm:

1.Rice and beans – Rest assured not a day goes by that I don't eat rice and/or beans. Usually both but sometimes they spice it up and give me rice and spaghetti. Honestly though I feel pretty lucky because the food has been great. A little too good... I might be a bit bigger than you remember when I get back! I get fresh fruit every morning for breakfast, usually a second breakfast at school and a serving or 2 of vegetables at dinner. Fresh bread is a regular occurrence too which is awesome! That said it was nice to go to San Jose last weekend and have some whole grains and a green smoothie.

2.Cold showers – Unfortunately most of the time its not very tropical or hot in the mountains, especially at 6 in the morning. Which is good thing when you're walking to school or trying to sleep but as a result the cold water is really cold. In turn the shower with said cold water is rather painful. People don't have boilers/water heaters here. Instead there are electric heating elements in the shower that heat the water as it passes through. Very effective. If you have one that works. On more than one occasion I have caught myself waiting outside the shower for it to “warm up.” Maybe I'm thinking global warming will kick in some morning? But I have to laugh about it. It's become a bit of a game to see if I can take a shower without really getting wet and it definitely wakes me!

3.Six year olds with gel in their hair – I'm not kidding. All the boys where their hair with gel in it. It's pretty cute. Ticos really pride themselves on their appearance and shower regularly (though not a night... that's how you get sick). Unlike some countries where taking public transportation in midday heat might require a clothes pin to the nose, everyone here smells good. But as a result, they call you a dirty gringa if you don't at least wet your hair everyday. So cold!

Three things that made me look twice:
1.pick up truck full of eggs – Waiting for the bus and a pick up truck pulls up to the stop sign, slows down and proceeds to take a right. The entire back of the truck was full of eggs. Not individual prepackaged dozens, not cartons or boxes full of eggs but layer upon layer of eggs separated only by cardboard up to the edge. All I could think was “Wow, he must have a lot of chickens!”

2.classroom wall blowing in the wind – Maybe because the climate is a bit different down here building don't seem to have the same sort of “solidity” they do at home. A tin roof is one thing but when I can see through to the outside between the wall and floor in my room I start to wonder. Also when I'm standing in my classroom and the wind starts to blow and the wall visibly moves 6 or 7 inches back and forth I start thinking maybe I need to move my desk to the other side of the room.

3.kids playing soccer with a ball of tape – Every Friday we have P.E. which consists of everyone going down to the plaza (the field) and playing soccer. Where this soccer ball is the rest of the week is beyond me but that doesn't slow the kids down. During their recess they make due with whatever they can find whether it be a ball of paper wrapped in tape or an empty plastic jug.

4.DVD in a cab – During a recent trip to San Jose I got in a cab to go back to my hostel and the driver had a portable DVD player installed where the rearview mirror should be. I figured he'd probably turn it off once we got going but no, he left it on. Better yet it was playing a DVD of various 80s rock bands live in concert. That's right, we listened to/watched KISS on our way through San Jose.

I could keep going with all these funny little things that have been happening but I need to get back to planning my lessons. Things have been going well at school and I'm getting to know more people. My family thinks it's crazy that I stick around on the weekends because last year's volunteer traveled all over. I do plan on doing some traveling but frankly that's not really why I'm here. I'm here to live and work in this community, to get to know them and maybe find a way to help develop some aspect of the community. Right now I'm thinking about starting an after school art club. And I've yet to paint my blackboard but the reasons behind that are another blog post all together.

First Day of School

Went really well! Not nearly as bad as I thought it might be ... obviously there is room for improvement. The first day is bound to be a bit rough around the edges especially when you've never been inside the school or your classroom, you haven't met or talked to your director, you don't know how many kids you have or when/if you're teaching each grade. School starts at 7:00 but I was the first one there at 6:45. Parents and students started to roll in. Literally coming down out of the mountain from every direction. We all sort of stood around for about a half an hour and then we had an "assembly" of sorts. The school consists of a long narrow building with each classroom opening to the front yard. On one end the building becomes L-shaped and that's the bathrooms. There isn't really a hallway, just a wide cement walkway covered by an overhang, sort of an extension of the roof. In front of that there is a small grass area and everything is surrounded by a chainlink fence. The students lined up by grades under the overhang and the parents made a sort of semi-circle around them in the back. The flag was presented, we sang the national anthem, pledged allegiance to the flag and then the director said a few words followed by the kinder teacher and then the 1-3rd grade teacher. Then the director put me on the spot to introduce myself... in Spanish... to the entire school. Yikes! But I managed to squeak out a sentence or two and everyone has been really nice, saying hi and everywhere I go it seems there is at least one person willing to chat with me. After this the students dispersed to their respective classrooms.

Can I just say how freaking excited I am to have my very own classroom!!?!?! It's filthy and needs lots of love and its not huge by any means but it's comfortable and I'm looking forward to sprucing it up. I met with the 6th graders and the 5th graders today. Like I said, considering I had no idea what was going to happen I think I did pretty good. With the 6th grades the bell rang but I wasn't sure if that meant the class was over because it felt like we'd just started and no one was getting up to leave. Then two separate messengers came trying to explain to me that the director wanted me to come to the cafeteria for cafecito. I kinda just left my class with the students there because I didn't know what else to do and then when I got there I couldn't explain that I needed to go back to my class to dismiss them so I just sat there hoping they would figure it out. So odd.

Looking forward to cafecito though. Got to sit with the director and other teachers and the cook (she is so sweet!) and have bread and fruit. I turned down coffee though explaining that I was nervous enough without more coffee. I didn't understand much of what they said but it was still nice. I tried this really strange new fruit. Not sure what it's called. Its greenish-yellow on the outside and the size of an apple with skin the texture of a pomegranate. You kinda cut it in half and scoop out and eat the insides. First off, let me say that its delicious but if you have any texture issues when it comes to food this fruit is not for you. The insides essentially look and feel like fish eyes. The seeds are contained in these slimy goo-pods (that's the official term) and the seeds are pleasantly crunch much like a pomegranate or kiwi. They taste kind of tangy and sweet like a mango or kiwi. Something new everyday!

With the 5th grade class things went well but I was waiting for the bell and running out of things to do. Finally I asked them what time class was over and they told me 10:00. It was 10:10. Oh well. Better luck next time. I think the director is going to give me a schedule at some point. Not sure when. We only had a half day today and the same tomorrow. Thank goodness. Good way to start the year in my opinion.

Looking forward to giving my classroom a seriously scrubbing tomorrow and making some more fun visuals to put up in the classroom. Also have my first project! I'm going to repaint the blackboard. It sorely needs it. I'm going tomorrow afternoon with my host dad to the town up the "hill" to find some paint.

Back on Track

The contract was approved. Apparently the Minister wanted an evaluation of our program but the Ministry had done a poor job with their record keeping so a proper evaluation was not truly possible. In the end it all got cleared up and they realized their error. I visited my site on Tuesday and Wednesday, returned to San Jose Thursday and Friday to retrieve the rest of my things and now am back in La Violeta.

It's been a whirlwind week but certainly not a bad one. As I mentioned in my email I've been a bit frustrated with my lack of Spanish and inability to fully communicate and understand what is going on. But my understanding seems to fluctuate. For example its usually pretty bad in the morning when I first wake up. Trying to be patient and remember I've only been here a month. I've also gotten pretty used to "not knowing." For example I might be going somewhere (San Jose? my host mother's mother's house? a birthday party?) with someone (my host sister? her niece and nephew?) on Saturday (not sure what time). I will find out at some point on Saturday, probably while we're on the way there or when we arrive. So as opposed to being super prepared and having a plan for everything (the usual way) I've adopted the nod, wait and see method. Give some vague acknowledgement of what is being said to me, and then wait until something happens to see what they meant. Keeps things interesting for sure!

Otherwise things are going pretty great. Not very busy. Finished book two of His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. I've also be going for walks in the morning before I shower in attempt to heat myself up and make the freezing cold shower a bit more welcome. It's not so bad but I'm definitely gaining a whole new appreciation for readily available hot water. Walks here are nothing short of breathtaking. Que tranquilla! Blue skies and mountains in every direction exhibiting every shade of green imaginable. The food has been great here too. Better than my family in Orosi. My host mother used to be the school cook which (luckily) doesn't mean quite the same thing as it does in the states. She taught me how to make tortillas! Looking forward to more cooking lessons. Getting psyched for school to start too :)

uncertainty

“Faith means living with uncertainty - feeling your way through life, letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark” Dan Millman

I was hoping to be typing up a very different blog entry but there´s been some interesting developments and I wanted to let you all know what´s going on. First things first, everything has been going awesome and I'm happy and safe and enjoying every minute in this beautiful country. Secondly I have some ambiguous news but I need to start from the beginning:

WorldTeach has a contract with MEP (Ministry of Public Education) that gives us our funding and allows us to volunteer teach in our schools. This contract is due to expire as of Feburary 5th and the current Field Director has been working on getting the next contract approved since July. The Minister has not approved the contract because apparently he was unaware that we were being funded (we get about $84000 for 24 volunteers and this pays for our room/board and part of orientation). He asked for an "investigation" into the program and the first report he received did not meet his approval. Currently the second report is making its way through the bureaucracy. As of today the contract has not been approved and its not looking good. Wednesday is the deadline WT is giving the situation at which point we have several options.

If the contract is approved on or by Wednesday then we will merely have a slight delay before we can start teaching. If it is not approved or if there is no decision made on or by Wednesday then there will be no WT Costa Rica program this year. I will have the option to transfer to another WT program in another country (I'm looking at Namibia, Marshall Islands, Columbia, American Samoa and/or Tanzania... lots of factors to consider... some of them wouldn't start again for another 5 months to a year). If I do not do this I will receive 50% of my program fee back in addition my return flight to do what I want. But don't get too excited yet... I'm not ready to come home just yet!!! I can either find another program to work with or continue on my own, paying my host family from the money I receive and volunteering my teaching services at the school I was assigned.

Right now I'm willing to wait and see how things turn out because there's not much else I can do. Honestly though I'm pretty excited at the opportunity for a new adventure and can't wait to update all of you on what I'll be doing. I'm definitely set on staying in CR for some time and my first choice would be to stay at my site as an independent volunteer. I will update you all again come Wednesday/Thursday. All your amazing words of encouragement are ringing in my ears this week and I'm taking time to seek clarity and confidence as I approach the unknown. Your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated!!!