Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A weekend in Boruca...

This past weekend I went to visit a current volunteer in a small indigenous village called Boruca. This is one of the few indigenous villages that remain in Costa Rica. I had such a great time there, you can't imagine how different life in Boruca is not just from the states, but from where I am in Acosta. The majority of the population still cooks over fire (even if they have a stove, they say it's just how they would rather do it). I was lucky enough to stay will a lovely band of women that some how reminded me of the women in the book/movie The Secret Life of Bees. The family consists of the mother, her daughter who lives a stones throw away, her two daughters, the woman who helps them with their store but also lives most of the time with them in their house, her daughter and then the PC volunteer Mariana. They were so much fun to watch and hangout with. I was immediately welcomed and felt like a part of the family. I loved watching how much they cared for each other and how powerful each one was in her own way.

I met so many great people in the span of 3 days. One man named Noel was nice enough to invite Mariana (they are friends) and myself to his farm so that he could show us his fruit trees and we could eat fruit off the tree. It was incredible. I ate coco seeds, coconuts from the tree and a fruit called granadilla and I think a water apple, not sure what it was, but it was good! I saw so much, it's hard for me to give a good break down of my time there. Just know that I wish I could go back and have that be my site, the whole town was so incredible!

That's all I have for now, I have a lot more stories to share, but I'll have to save that for another time!

Miss you all,
Laura


Check out some photos at this link. Let me know if it doesn't work.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36935590@N03/show/

Friday, March 20, 2009

Usted tiene telefono?

Two things:

1. I hate barking dogs. Why do people just let dogs bark, it's annoying.

2. I hate not having a phone. I think I'm going through cell phone withdrawal issues at the moment. I have tried for the past 4 days to call and talk to John without success. You maybe thinking, what's the big deal, just call back. It's not so easy. I can't just pick up my phone and call because, lets think, I don't have one and neither does my house. To talk on the phone I have to grab my computer, walk for like 5 min up a hill; ask my friend/fellow volunteer Mick to open the door for me; sit and chat with his host family for 30 min. then get in the room; hookup my computer, start it and hope that the internet is working. This is a process people! I'm talking a process. The days of just deciding to make a call are gone. I only have 2,000 colones per day to spend and when a phone card is 500, that's a lot of my pay! Anyway, I really have no cause for complaint since I'm on of the few who have such easy access to internet and for free, we're the only town.

I found an women's soccer team to play on and play with them for the first time on Thursday night. They call it fut 5, which is similar to indoor. It was awesome, I had so much fun everyone there was so nice to me and they have invited me onto the team. I'm so happy I found them! I was in San Jose today for classes and will be back tomorrow.

Have fun!

Monday, March 16, 2009

PST

We have left our compound and have headed to our homes for the next 3 months. I´m living with a roommate named Gabriela and her daughter Ada. You may notice that I`m writing in very simple sentences and that`s because the Spanish has begun full on and now and to match my Spanish language level it seems my English abilities are also on their way down. I´m excited to not be able to write or speak either language well. My Spanish is coming back to me quickly, but I still have a long way to go.

My town is a beautiful pueblo in the mountains called Acosta and I really like it. All of the people have been soooo welcoming and my host sister has really made me feel right at home. So far we are just learning and getting settled in. I have 3 other volunteers with me in the town and I don´t doubt that by the end of our time we will be great friends.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

I made it!!!

I wanted to post a quick update. I made it! After a really really really long day that began last night at 1:30am east coast time and did not end until around 1:00pm mountain time I am at a retreat with 52 other volunteers. We are training for the next few days and the schedule is pretty packed. Here is the summary:

Day 1 -

First earth quake or "tremor" not sure of the difference, but I know the room shook. (This is my first ever and it was weird)

The people are great, everyone is really nice and I'm excited to get to know them.

I miss John a lot.