Monday, September 28, 2009

Guias y Scouts

Since I arrieved in La Palma and heard about the boy/girl scout troup in Jimenez, I've sort of casually thought of starting a troup in La Palma. It's called Guias y Scouts and it's based off the USA version, but it's obviously adapted to the Costa Rican culture and the boys and girls are in separate troups but they all meet together, have the same uniform and it's the same program that they follow. So, this past weekend I went with the Jimenez troup to Cartagena and we hiked in the Corovado national park and stayed at a really cool eco lodge called La Leona. There is a ton that I can write about each of these things, but I don't have a ton of time so I'll stick to Guias y Scouts and fill you in on the park and the lodge later. You can not imagine how seriously they take their troups and how well they do it. In CR there is a real lack of things for people to do. There is a lot of TV watching, but it's not like in the States where you can just join a club or play on one of 100 teams. There is just nothing to do, so Guias y Scouts provides a really healthy activity for the kids where they can learn a ton of life skills and feel really proud to be a part of something. It's really beautiful. I watched as the troup leaders would blow their whistles and the kids would run from where ever they were to fall in formation and shout out their troup call. It was so cool. I did girl scouts when I was a kid, but I don't think I took it very seriously and I don't recall their being any troup calls or whistles. The program is great and I'm going to do everything I possibly can to make it happen in La Palma. The kids will love it and I think it could really help keep them safe and teach them how to have fun in a really health and way.

I'm still working on the computer problem in La Palma, This is going to take a while... Otherwise, I'm doing really well, time is flying by and as I get to know more people in the community and make friends and have more projects, I'm feeling a lot happier here. I think I may have made it through the hardest part (hopefully).

***Okay, as I read over some of my blog entries and e-mails, I'm noticing that my English no is very good (that was a joke). But, really, if you read this and think, wow, that was really bad sentence construction, just know that pretty much all day everyday is in Spanish and it makes it hard to switch over to English with out any bumps. It's kind of funny actually, I catch myself making some of the same mistakes that my English students make.***

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Soccer

This past weekend I found a women's soccer team to play on and ended up playing in a mini tournament Saturday and Sunday. It was probably the most fun and the most normal I've felt since I arrived some 7 months ago. I loved it so much. The ladies were so excited to have me on the team and after the first game were asking me how long I could play with them for and when I told them that we had a good year and a half together they were thrilled. I was great. I've found a team who work really hard and put forth a really good effort. The level of play isn't super high, but it's high enough to be fun. I think soccer is going to make time pass a lot quicker without huge weekend gaps to try and fill up with, oh, nothing to do...
Last week I was in Jimenez and was able to hang out with the volunteer there and that was really nice. I'm hoping to hangout with her today for a bit and also some on the weekend, It's good to have a friend and someone to talk to.
Life here is pretty up and down. Days go by where I like it and I'm excited to be here and then a day like yesterday will hit and it's all I can do to try and make the time pass. I'm not really sure what it is that make some days harder than others, but I'm sure once I'm a little busier it won't be so up and down all the time.
God is good.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Books

Something I do a lot of is read, so I thought I'd talk a little about some of the books I've been reading. First, I love love love The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I'm eight books into the series and I am so in love with the characters. Since I lack friends and in general, deep human interaction, the characters of this series have become a real comfort to me. I try not to read the books one after the other and instead try and wait until I “need” them. It's sad, I know, but it's true. So anyway, check them out, Mma Ramotswe is a great source of wisdom and has a great outlook on life.
Right now I'm on book two of the Twilight series, New Moon and of course it's great. I must admit sometimes I'm a little frustrated will Belle the protagonist and her “poor me, I'm so clumsy and plain” attitude, but once I got past that, I fell in love with the book. I try not to read too much, but certain days (the last week) it's hard not to.
I also just finished the Glass Castle, I'm going to say it's good, but not great. It's one of those really sad life memoirs, which are good, but it seems like I've read a lot of those.
I totally recommend the book the Tale of the Town of Widows. This book was great, though there was a brief period (maybe 30 pages toward the end) when the author kind of lost me by being just a little too obvious with the symbolism. I mean come on, don't hit me over the head with it. But, it was really just a short bit and then he got back on track, it was a unique and good book.
That's what I've read the past 2 weeks or so. Books are kind of becoming my friends, since I'm kind of lacking in that department. Making friends here, I'm not so sure is going to happen for me, but I'm coming to accept that or at least hope that someone is on their way here, it could happen. Other than that I've been watching the series Arrested Development and Bones on my computer at night and that has been a lot of fun. A friend gave me the 2 series when I was in training a few weeks ago and it has been a really nice addition.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

A new friend?

I'm back in La Palma and feeling re-charged. Never under estimate the power of some good food, good friends and some cool weather. I'm excited to get going on some things in La Palma. I met the elementary school english teacher yesterday and we are going to start working together. She seems really nice and I think I may have a friend on the horizon! We'll see. We planed to get together and on Friday and talked about me visiting her classes a couple of times per week to help out and give the kids some experience hearing a native speaker. Other than that, I'm just sweating a lot, but I'm happy to be hear.

I did book my flight home for Christmas and it made me sooooo happy. I'll be flying home on the 22nd and sticking around for 3 full weeks. It will come sooner than I can imagine.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

YAY FRIENDS!







IST (in service training) ended up great. It was so nice to see all of my fellow Tico 19ers (that's the name of volunteer group). Everyone had great stories and so much had happened to each of us, 3 months on our own in el campo (the country) and a lot of crazy things went down.

Since we weren't ready to go back to our sites and say goodbye to our last chance at friendship, 3 other volunteers and myself took off for Uvita for the weekend. There was a whale festival going on and I must say, the town of Uvita did a great job. There were half price whale watching tour, exhibits, photo displays and lots of people selling lots of souvenirs.

On Saturday we left our hotel in San Jose at 4:30am. It was a struggle and I hate waking up early, but the whales were calling to me so I made it happen. Some 6 hours later we arrived in Uvita. It's actually very similar climate and vegetation wise to La Palma only there are waves to play in. After dropping our things at the hotel we headed to the beach to meet some new friends. We were so lucky to be able to go out in the afternoon at 3:30 because our trip included seeing lots of humpback whales multiple times and a beautiful sun set. There was a mom and a baby whale that were hanging out near us and we got to see the two of them various times. It was so beautiful! Here are some pics of our new friends as well as Uvita and my friends.
On the boat looking at some whales, Mick looking intense.

Becca and I







Thursday, September 3, 2009

more from training

Training is going really well. I have a ton of new ideas for my site, most of them center around computers. In my town there is currently only dial-up internet (which is pretty much the same as not having internet) and only one computer available for the people to use. This means that if people really want or need to use the internet they need to travel to Jimenez the closest town with internet which is about an hour away. So, they have to pay for the bus ride to Jimenez and then pay in Jimenez to use the internet in an internet cafe, but, because my area has a ton of tourists, using the internet here cost more than double per hour than using the internet in San Jose. It's not cool. So picture you're a high school student who has an assignment that needs to be typed and then printed out. You have to pay round trip bus fare, then you have to pay for the time spent on the internet, then you have to pay for the print outs, in the end it's a lot of money and it's not like in the states where high school kids can have jobs. So, you see the problem. The high school of my town already has plans to bring computers which is great, but it's still 2k from La Palma center and it would just be for the high school kids. I want to work with the elementary school to get them a computer lab and also with the towns development association to try and have a free computer lab for the community (these are very common in CR and there is a program in place, all you need is a building and then the CR government will provide the computers and support). I'm really excited about the possibilities that the technology will bring to La Palma. If people can learn to use computers and the internet they will have education, information and all kinds of possibilities at their finger tips.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

I'm totally going to beat the ants

Hello!!!
In the ant war, I think I've won! There are still a few running around but their forces have been knocked back a lot and I think if I keep up the attack eventually they will give up.
In other really happy news, I'm at IST (in service training)! This is the training once you've been 3 months in site and it's a really great time to see friends and re-charge a bit. I have missed having friends so much. Never under estimate how nice it is to be able to just chat or play with people who you understand and who understand you. It's great and I'm really happy to be here. Also, the food is great. We get to stay at a place in the mountains that is beautiful and has cold nights. I miss cold nights! I have definitely felt a lot of homesickness and this is a little rest from that.
More than just playing and joking around together, IST is a good time for us to have some training with fresh eyes. Our training before was great, but did not have a lot of context. We had no idea where we were going, who we would be working with or what programs would be needed. Now we know and it's nice to see how I can directly use the training in my site. More to come on that.

You may have noticed that I don't have pictures anymore. My camera has walked away from me so probably until Christmas I will have to rely on my friends here for pics, so hopefully soon!