Here is are some things that happened to me today that I thought were really funny:

Okay, so it was cloudy and cool today so I decided to go for a walk to the beach at 8:00am. I leave my house and haven't taken 3 steps when I hear someone yelling my name. I looked and found the person near the back of my house. He's a neighbor and I know him so it's no problem. So, I ask him whats going on and he and this other guy are chasing this rooster around and they want me to help them because the rooster is on my side of the fence. I hate the chickens. They make this weird moaning sounds all of the time and they're creepy. So I find the rooster and start to chase it and notice too late that it has a rope on its foot and I only needed to step on the rope, but, it had gone to the other side of the fence.

Once I got back from my run I was in my house doing some cleaning and stepped outside for a sec and see my other neighbor running around looking really happy. He sees me and yells “Laura, we're making a ping pong table!” he was sooooooo happy. I was took, I would love to play some ping pong. So, we I yelled something like “awesome, I can't wait”!

Today is a good day!

P.S. This happened on Friday. I told Deivin about the rooster chasing and he said this "Laura, you don't have to do everything that Pena (my neighbor) says, you don't have to chase the rooster". It totally made me crack up! Love it.

The Teleton 2010

This past week Costa Rica held it's annual teleton which is a nation wide fundraiser for the children's hospital. The hospital treats the kids of Costa Rica who have suffered serious burns, who have serious diseases that would normally cost a parent millions of dollars to treat over the course of a lifetime. The kids are given all that they need through the hospital, oxygen, wheel chairs, medicine, everything. So, each year people all over CR tune in and watch the teleton and donate money. Each year the Guias y Scouts of Costa Rica hit the streets with big tin cans to raise money for the cause. I had the great pleasure this year of being able to participate in the even with my Guias y Scouts in La Palma and this will go down as one of my greatest Peace Corps moments.

When I was given 12 big cans with slots in the top and told by Ruth the area director that we needed to fill them up I was not really sure how. We put them out in the different businesses so that people could donate, but they were really empty when Anna one of the other leaders and also my host sister in law went to check on them. So, on Wednesday; Anna, Gregory, Sary and I started hitting the streets Thursday and Friday and then organized Saturday as our big day when we would go to the town center and stop cars and have the kids bang drums and blow whistles and ask for money for the teleton. It was awesome! The kids were really excited and you could see that they were really taking ownership of it. They became somewhat possessive over their "alcancia" or can and would compare with each other "mine's heavier, look Laura, mine is the heaviest". There was even a girl who was helping her grandma cook for a church activity who asked if she could come with us to raise money. By the end of the day she had joined the scouts and was really excited to have been able to raise money for the kids. So, after working all day on Saturday we opened up our cans to count and we were all really excited to be able to report that we had raised 308,000 Colones! That's like $600 which is a lot for a little town. When I reported what we had raised to Ruth the area director she was really happy and told me that there were groups that had been formed for years that didn't raise that much. I was so proud of my kids at that moment.

So, after all was counted and reported we went home to watch the rest of the teleton. Group after group was going up and showing a giant check of what they had raised and they were doing testimonials from kids who had benefited from the teleton in the past (these were seriously heart wrenching stories). I started to get a little worried that I had missed the Scouts presenting what they had raised because it was getting so late. When they presented the Scouts they brought up the head guy from San Jose and like 6 kids to present the check for all of the Scouts all over Costa Rica and the amount was 125,000,000! After they revealed the amount Anna yelled to me through our shard wall "Laura, did you hear! We did it! This is great!", I yelled back “ I know, this is so cool”. It was such a great moment to know that I was able to be apart of something really great. The next day people were telling me how good they felt about having helped and I even had a neighbor stop by and ask if they could donate more!

Here are some things I learned: People who have less almost always give more. Those cruising around in their nice cars wouldn't even stop sometimes while those on bikes with no breaks and a wooden seat would stop to give. It feels good to give, to know that you were involved in something that helped those who need it most. Get involved! Help others to help others.

Nothing much

I've been in San Jose for about five days and it was a really nice break. While Peace Corps volunteers don't put in a huge number of "working" hours per day (depending on who you are and where your community), we do work and feel stress all the time! I am constantly wondering if I'm doing enough, too much, should I be doing something different, etc. Also, there is a lot of stress involved in trying to work in another language and culture. Why am I saying all this? I just want to say that I really needed a break and it felt really nice to have a little mini vacation from La Palma. It's an odd feeling to really want to get out for a while, but, miss Deivin. Mostly, I wish he could travel with me! Today I went to the doctor to have my knees checked out, hopefully we get my knee pain in hand and it all goes away soon! On this trip I got to see the newest Harry Potter movie which was the best yet in my opinion and I also saw Life as We Know It, a romantic comedy. Both really good. Not much else going on, I'm ready to get back to La Palma and see how the Scouts faired this past weekend.

Okay, sorry of the absence of blogs, I don't really have a good reason, or maybe I kind of do, but mostly I was just having some motivation issues. So, I recently had a very interesting Peace Corps experience 2 weeks ago and I wanted to share. Hurricane Matthew was passing over Costa Rica and bringing lots and lots of rain. There was no wind, just a huge amount of rain. Since I'm generally clueless as to what's going on in the world on Thursday the 4th I got a call from the Peace Corps office saying that there was lots of flooding expected in my region and they wanted me to evacuate to Palmar Norte (it's around 3 hours away). I had noticed that there was a lot of rain, but in my community the river was still really low and everything looked pretty safe. But, when the Peace Corps tells you to leave, you have to leave. So, I asked Oscar the taxi driver who has been a friend of mine since I arrived in La Palma if he was interested in driving me to Palmar, he said sure. I don't think either of us had any idea that we would be leaving the safety of the peninsula for a crazy trip into one of the really affected areas. I said my goodbyes to my host family and Deivin and made sure everyone knew that no matter what, SAVE TIGRE! They all thought I was crazy, they were like “she's a cat, she can swim and climb trees, she'll be fine”. I just didn't want her to be all wet and uncomfortable, she's my baby after all. So anyway, we took off and some 3 somewhat sketchy hours of driving later arrived in Palmar where I was to meet up with another volunteer who's community was actually flooded. As Oscar was getting ready to head back we found out that we were all trapped now, all of the roads were closed, there was no possible way to get to La Palma, San Isidro, San Jose, Panama, we were stuck. Luckily for Oscar his mom lives nearby so he headed to her house. I realized right away that I wasn't in La Palma anymore. Palmar Norte has the biggest river in Costa Rica flowing right through it and it was big! The rain there was much more intense and there were dump trucks full of soaking wet people arriving all the time. All of the surrounding farms and some entire towns flooded and people had to find a place to stay and that place was Palmar Norte. Well, I ended up staying in Palmar for 4 days until I was allowed to make my way back to La Palma. I had to take 3 buses, 2 taxis and a ferry to make it back since the main road was washed away and what should have taken 3 hours took 6. Tigre and Deivin were really happy to see me and I was soooo happy to be home.

Okay, that all happened a long time ago. Here is a more recent update, I'm currently in San Jose. I was celebrating Thanksgiving with some other volunteers and an embassy family that was nice enough to invite 6 of us to eat and stay with them in their home. They were very nice and incredibly generous. If going into the foreign services didn't mean constant travel I would want to join just so I could work with the type of people that I have met at the embassy over the past year and a half. I'll be in San Jose until Tuesday or Wednesday. I needed a bit of a break from La Palma so this was a nice chance to get away.

I promise not to be so bad at blogging!

Spay and Neuter Your Pets Update

On Wednesday the 20th we had our 6th clinic. We have now spayed or neutered 81 animals! I can't believe that this project has and continues to do so well. This clinic was a little bit different for me, usually the vet brings with him a volunteer assistant who helps him with the operations, they do things like clean the blood away while he's performing the operation or they hold up an instrument that needs to be held so the vet can see better or whatever. I normally stay outside with the pet owners and charge, greet, look after the animal that just got done, etc. On Wednesday there was no assistant so I got to be the assistant. That was the first time I've ever done anything like that before. I have seen the surgeries, I've gone in while they were going on, I knew the process, but this was different. I had no idea that it was such hard work. By then end of the day I was exhausted, but I really liked it. For the next clinic we are talking about only doing street dogs. I'm not exactly sure how we are going to be able to do it, but we'll figure out a way. I know of at least 2 female dogs in the town center that we can spay and there are more all the time.

On a personal note, last weekend I made a big batch of beans. I have got so many, it's incredible. For two dollars you can eat for weeks! It's an experiment, I think next time I might just make half a bag and then wait a few weeks for the other half but beans are a super food. I've actually been making Gallo Pinto lately and liking it! I'm turning tica. Sadly, Deivin doesn't like beans and is not so into the change. You can't win them all I guess.

Scouts update!

We have been meeting with the kids for about 3 or 4 weeks now and things have been going really well. 2 weekends ago we made tamales (their different from what we see in the states) and went around with the kids to sell them for a fundraiser. It went really well and we were able to raise enough money to buy uniforms. When I say buy uniforms know that it's also different from what you are thinking. In CR it's still really common for people to have their cloths made for them by a taylor. It's usually cheaper and then you get a custom fit. My host mom makes most of the uniforms for the schools and will probably make most of the uniforms for the Scouts. So, our plan is to buy a bunch of cloth and then people can either make the uniforms for their kids of have them made by someone. Also, we are thinking of taking the kids on their first ever camping trip in a couple of months. I'm going to see if I can get some grant money to finance us buying some tents, sleeping bags, etc. so that we can take the trip and have them for the future. We live at the entrance of one of the most famous parks in CR, but the majority of people in La Palma have never been to the park, hopefully we can change that for the scouts.

In other news, my english is horrible! Every time I re-read a blog post or my facebook status update I notice that I'm making all the mistakes that my students are making. I think it's getting worse and worse. I'm not really sure how to stop this free fall. I'm always reading and I watch some tv and movies in english, but it's no use! So, if you read this and think, wow, she is really bad at English, know that I was better before!

We want you to give a talk to the kids...

On Tuesday night I was hanging out in my house with Deivin when my host mom told me that my neighbor wanted to talk to me. I told her I'd give her a call. So, I call and she tells me that she wants me to go with her and the women's environmental group that I've been working with to the high school to pick up trash. I'm not that into picking up trash. I firmly believe in protecting the environment, recycling, reducing consumption of toxic chemicals, etc, but I'm just not that into trash pick up. But, I wasn't doing anything else so said sure, I'd love to go. I arrive at my neighbors house the next day and she tell me, "We want you to talk to the kids". I kind of sat there for a second thinking, hmmm, about what? Then I said out loud, what do you want me to talk to them about? She tells me to talk to them about anything. Them my mind kicks into over drive thinking about all of the possible things I could say to these kids; Finish school, it's really important, wait to have babies, you can love a baby the same in 5 years as you could in 9 months, Go to university, it will open up doors for you, etc. I sat there thinking for a while and reviewing my vocabulary to make sure I knew how to say everything (I did!). So, finally my host dad comes to pick us up and take us to the high school and we end up with 15 or so kids in a room and it's all really informal and she introduces me to talk. This is not my first time talking in front of people in Spanish, but the result is always the same. I totally forget how to talk and suddenly I'm saying things like "castrating dogs is also environmental". I totally forget what I was going to say and just start talking about random things. This time, I gave a replica speech of the one I had given the previous week to my scouts on how it's good to help others. Yes, this is a good thing to talk about, but it was more than just a little out of context. Here is an environmental group in the school that wants to help clean up trash and I'm telling them about castrating animals and helping others. I saw in the middle of the speech that I had taken a really bad left turn so I tried to save it by relating both subjects to picking up trash. I somehow think they were on to me. So are the adventures of a Peace Corps volunteer. We always end up in really strange situations that we are not really prepared for and just wing it and hope nobody can tell.

In other news, for those of you who don't know, I now have internet in my house!!!! I have 24/7 internet and am really happy about it. This should mean more blogs and sadly, it means that I spend a ton of time on facebook. I'm trying to keep it in check.

Life on the Osa

Lately life has been pretty laid back around here mostly due to the amount of rain that we've been having. It has rained everyday for the past few months and today has been raining all day and I expect it to continue for the rest of the day. I don't really mind this at all. It's significantly cooler and in general it's nice to have a few days where you just hang out at home watch some movies or in my case 3 seasons of Gossip Girl.

I have been working on getting my ducks in a row for the visa application for Deivin. I first have to file a lot of paperwork with the USCIS which takes around 6 months and then we begin the process of working with the Embassy here. It's pretty complicated, but, luckily this is not my first rodeo with international paperwork/visa applications. I had to go through this to go to Spain for a year in college and also go get into the Peace Corps. I know it's do-able I just hate actually doing it. Thankfully I've had internet access at home for a couple of days which has made that a lot easier.

Next Tuesday I'll be heading to San Jose for my second and last All Volunteer Conference. This is a time when all the volunteers from all over CR get to hang out together and have some training for a week. Last year it was a lot of fun and I think this year will be the same. It's always good to see friends and be able to hang out. Also, we get to share whatever movies and shows we have downloaded which is huge and I spend lots of time watching movies and tv when there is nothing else to do. It's pretty funny, I went from a fan of current events and news to Gossip Girl... Not sure how that happened.

After AVC I will be heading to Palmar which is another town in the south where I was invited to come and teach a group of women how to make the hand bags out of wrappers. That should be fun! Other than that things are pretty calm. I'm keeping busy with Guias y Scouts and the clinics and whatever other little projects pop up.

Guias y Scouts

Two weeks ago we had our official swearing in ceremony for Guias y Scouts and last weekend I went with two leaders from La Palma for a training on how to do the personal development aspect of the program and here it is, finally, this Saturday we will have our first meeting with the kids of La Palma. Super exciting. These are some pics from the swearing in ceremony, I had more, but a little rule I now have is don't let locals use or touch my camera because they always somehow manage to delete all of my photos. I only came out of this one with ten pics by sheer luck. So, don't let people who don't speak english use your camera ever, unless you want to loose your pics.

I may have yet again found a way to have easier access to internet, I know I've said this before, but this time I think it's for real. One of the professors at the high school lives in the cabinas where I live and he has and internet zip drive. He only uses it after school so it looks like I might have access to it during the day. I'm hopeful.

I've been a little bored lately, it hits me harder right now because I don't have a good book to read. I'll be in SJ in less than 2 weeks and can find a bunch of good ones then. Thats about it for me.

P.S. Due to an extremely slow download there will be no pics...

Riding the bus today....

I just want to give a little glimpse into my morning today...

I arrived at the bus stop at 5:30am and waited for my bus to come which didn't come until 6:00 (this is pretty normal). I take this bus all the time and have never had to stand so I never worry about buying a ticket. Today, this proved to be a tragic mistake. As the bus pulled up I noticed it was unusually full. As I went in the bus I started to look for a seat, I saw a seat and asked the lady if anyone was sitting there and she said no so I thought, wow, that was lucky and sat down. Some 3 min later after all the other open seats on the bus were taken a lady gets on the bus and tells me to get out of her seat. Thanks a lot other lady for telling me it was open and taking my chance at a seat. So, I moved to back of the bus and tried to find a nice place to stand because I'm looking at standing on this bus for the next 5 hours. Not cool. So, on we go and after about 10 min a guy gets up and leaves the bus. I feel like I had just won the lottery. I walk up the aisle and feeling really happy until my happiness is somewhat, how to say, squashed. I look in the seat and it looks like I'll be sharing my seat with half a person. Yes, I will now be traveling for the next 5 hours with a very, very large person who takes up all of their seat and half of mine. What can you do? The answer is nothing. I tried to take my spot on the seat and felt grateful that the person was soft and not hard and settled in for the ride. I'll leave my story there. There is no real point, I was just really squished and hot today, but I know my seat partner was too. We all made it and I was more than grateful that today I was only going half way.

It finally happened!

After a year of talking, cheerleading and planning meeting after meeting after meeting it finally happened. Yes, La Palma now has it's first ever Guias y Scouts troop 152. Sunday was our swearing in ceremony, we hosted a the Guias y Scouts from Jimenez and Palmar. The whole event was very official and was a great way for the community to have a little introduction into what we are and what we do. Now we have our uniforms, we have kids that want to be in the group who's parents have signed permission slips and we have leaders for the group. While planning and executing the day was a ton of work and left me really exhausted, it was really satisfying. This has the potential to be something really valuable for the community. In my tiny town on a tiny peninsula there are no activities for youth, there are no football, basketball, baseball teams, there are no music and dance classes, there is tv and a really ineffective school system. Guias y Scouts has the potential to improve the lives for many of the kids here, that being said, all of it's out of my hands and in the hands of the community. It will be interesting to see how it goes for them in the future. I have another 8 months or so to help out, in that time my goal will be to help them to not need me at all.

In Spay and Neuter your pet clinics.... Yesterday I held my 4th clinic in La Palma and things went very smoothly. We have now spayed of neutered 61 cats and dogs. I'm trying to come up with ways for this to continue when I go. I know the town in counting on another volunteer, but I don't think one will be placed here again for a while so I need to try and come up with something.

In other news... Last month Deivin went to one of the bigger towns near us to apply for his passport and yesterday it arrived in the mail. Now we're moving on to Visa applications (a much more difficult process). I'm doing my best to make sure I have all my ducks in a row with both Deivin and Tigre so that when May hits we can all leave together. Yesterday, poor Tigre had to have 2 vaccines and she was not happy about it, but, it's the only way she can come with me so we are making it happen. Laura +2.

More clinics....

So, last week we held our 3rd spay and neuter your pets clinic in Guadalupe which is a really small neighboring community of La Palma (it's where Deivin is from). I learned some good lessons from the clinic; first, not all communities are ready for the spay and neuter concept. The people in Guadalupe are mostly not there yet (though of course some are). Second, people is La Palma know me really well by now and so it's a lot easier for me to hold the clinics in La Palma because more or less the people find me, I don't really have to look at all. Third, without support from someone in the community, it just makes the whole thing really difficult. I had to clean and take care of everything by myself while in La Palma I have a really strong support. So, all that being said, it was still really successful, we spayed or neutered 12 dogs and one cat. This week we will hold another clinic in La Palma and from here on will hold one per month in La Palma. So far we have spayed or neutered 46 cats and dogs and if you think about, that's a pretty big dent in the population. Depending on how things continue with the donations, I should have enough to hold one per month until I leave and if we go over at all I want to try to rescue a few street dogs, clean them up and find them homes as a side project.

In other news, I have finally figured out how to make the coin purses out of recycled coffee and chip bags and am currently teaching people here how to do it. The hope is that this will be an income generating activity in the community. It's a pretty time consuming process so my hope is that for every 10 people that I teach maybe 1 will take to it and actually make them. I'm going to teach Deivin's family how to make them as wells so they can begin to sell them in the hotel down the road from them. Hopefully at least one person will make and sell them.

For the past couple of months we have been officially in the rainy season. Last year we really didn't have one at all, I think it rained for 2 weeks and that was it. Now, it's raining almost everyday and we have had many days when it rains all day long. I really prefer this as it makes it a lot cooler. I've even been cold a few times! I think it was around July that my body finally acclimated to the heat, previous to that I was a nonstop sweat factory and always hot, now I feel pretty normal. Thank God that happened, other wise it would have been 2 pretty uncomfortable years.

Hello Everyone!!!

Sorry for the lack of blogs, I'll explain.... I got back to CR from my trip to the states and was exhausted. On my last trip home in December I arrived in San Jose and went to Acosta to re-group before making the long trek to La Palma, this time I went for the straight shot and it was a very long day. I arrived in SJ at 5:00am and made my way to my bus stop and waited in a soda for a couple of hours for the bus to leave at 8:00 am. I was sooooo incredibly sad to see that bus drive arch nemesis was going to be the driver of the trip, my heart sank. There are a 4 bus drivers that always make the trip from La Palma to SJ and I have made the trip many many times so you can imagine that I know all of the drivers by now. There is one that I just can't stand, it has nothing to do with him on a personal level, I'm sure he's a great guy. It's just that with all of the other bus drivers the trip is 7-7.5 hours long and all are happy. With this guys your looking at 8.5-9 hours in the bus! It drives me crazy! Okay, so long story short after 9+ hours in the bus I arrived in La Palma totally exhausted after 20 hours on the road or in the air or waiting to get on the road or in the air. I was very pleasantly surprised by Deivin. He took the day off and cleaned and organized my house and had lunch/dinner all ready for me when I arrived. It was a really nice surprise and I was able to eat, shower and sleep by 7:00pm.
Almost as soon as I got back I had people calling me about english classes and Guias y Scouts. It turned out there was a Guias y Scouts training in a week in the nearest city (5 hours away) and they wanted me to go. I didn't want to go, but I knew it would be valuable so I went. Also, the Micro finance bank called me to see if I would go to another training right after the Guias y Scouts training for 4 days. It was really the last thing that I wanted to do, but so it happens in the life of a volunteer. So, all of that is to say that I'm just now back and still after 2 weeks here trying to get back into the swing of things. I have a ton of work to do with Guias y Scouts and 2 spay and neuter your pet clinics coming up in August plus I may be starting Junior Achievement in the high school which is a program that teaches basic business skills and how to open a business to high schoolers. I'm wondering how I'm going to make it all happen, but I'm sure it will work out. That's pretty much it for me, I'm hoping to not leave La Palma until the next Peace Corps activity in late September. I'm ready to be in one place for a while.

Back in CR

Hey, just a quick note to say that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, but I don't really have time to write much. I've been back for a couple of weeks now and things are really moving!!!! I have some new project updates that I'll get into when I have a second! Until then, stay classy.

Being Home

I've been home for 11 days so far and let me just say, it's been great. Last week I made it up to Avon and was able to see and lot of great friends (not all sadly). Here are some things I've noticed about being home:

1. Hot showers are really nice, but they become really normal really fast.
2. I never noticed it before, but almost all of the houses in my neighborhood have really nice yards and flowers, I just never noticed this before.
3. Americans have a ton of stuff. I was on Craig's list the other day looking at the free section and was amazed at all the stuff on there. We just have soooo much stuff available that we have to give it away!
4. We eat a LOT of meat here, it's crazy.
5. I miss Deivin and Tigre a lot.
6. I'm sad to leave, but really happy to get back and finish out my service. I have some great projects and great people to work with so my attitude is, let's get to it and finish strong.

That was just a quick recap. Life it good and it's great to see lot's of great friends and hangout a ton with my family. Nephews are great!

Guias y Scouts Update

As many of you know I have been working for a very long time (almost a year) to form a Guias y Scouts group in my town. Guias y Scouts is the Costa Rican version of the boys and Girl scouts. I did not know this until I started, but the boys and girl scouts were actually started by a man named Biden Powell in England. He was a general in the English military and he started a boy scout group using some of his military background for the structure of the group. Shortly after he started the boy scouts his wife started a group for girls and that is where the girl scouts began. The program spread internationally and is now in 160 countries. Guias y Scouts has a different format from what you may remember, but it has the same foundation. Due to fewer resources in Costa Rica we have both boys and girls together and within one troop there maybe up to 4 different sub groups to help with organization as well as open it up to more kids. So, to get on to my group...

We will be having our official swearing in ceremony on August 29!!!! On this day the regional director of Guias y Scouts will come to La Palma and we will take our official oath and they will give us our leader/board of directors patch. I can't tell you how excited I am to wear my Guias y Scouts uniform and stand with my group as we are presented to the community. It will be a great day. The same day we will have activities for kids and we will begin signing kids up. I can't wait to see how it all goes and I know that we are going to have far more kids interested than we have leaders for, but, it will all even out after a while. I can't say enough about my board of directors group as well as my group of leaders. Over the past almost year I have really gotten to know them and am excited to see how they work together as a group (especially once I get out of the way). As a volunteer I'm always thinking and worrying about sustainability and with Guias y Scouts I feel confident that this will stick. So that's Guias y Scouts for now. As soon as I have pics from the swearing in I'll post them. At the moment my host mom is making me the uniform pants and one of the leaders is picking me up a shirt, I'll just need to sew on my patches! Who knew I'd be so excited about a uniform...

Spay and Neuter your pets clinic #1

Okay, I wanted to take some time to talk about a new project that I recently undertook and the results. On June 9th we held our first clinica de castraciones de los animales in La Palma. I got the idea from my friend and neighbor Alba. Alba asked me what I was going to do about my kitten Tigre since she's female and I told her that I would have to take her to Jimenez to have her spayed and she then asked why not have the vet come here and then she could have her 3 dogs neutered. I had never thought of it before and I told Alba that I thought it was a good idea and that I would think about it. That night I started to think about all of the street dogs that I have gotten so used to seeing, they are battered and skinny and everywhere, but I've just gotten so used to seeing them that what once made me angry now doesn't even register on the radar. The next morning I started making some phone calls to the CR equivalent of the ASPCA and asked if they could come and do a castration clinic in La Palma but since we are just sooooooo far away it ended up being way more expensive to have them come down than it would be to work with the local vet. So, I decided to head to Jimenez and see the vet there. We set a date for the clinic. I was in charge of organizing the event; advertising, making appointments, setting up the location, etc. The price of a castration is 8,500 colons, that's about $17 plus the cost of medications which depends on the weight of your animal. You may be thinking, wow, that's cheap! But to a Costa Rican living off of just $200 a month, it's a huge cost. Most people in my community use all of their money just to live each month, they don't have an extra 8,500 colons to throw towards a dog or cat. This worried me. Even if the vet came to La Palma and it was easier for the people to bring their animals to him, most still wouldn't be able to afford it. So, I started to have a hope of finding a donor, yet I did nothing to find one, but I started to hope that I could possible find one. I started to ask around town "If it were only 2,000 colons, would you castrate your animal?" and everyone I asked said YES! So, I went one day to the Danta Lodge where Deivin works and they are nice enough to let me us the internet and talked to a retired professor who lives there about the clinic. He thought it was a wonderful idea and wished me luck and said if there was anything he could do he would help. Not a week later I get a call from Deivin at work saying that a guest at the lodge wanted to talk to me on the phone. I said okay and I talked on the phone with Judy and we made a date for me to meet up with her at the lodge later that day. After a 20 min bike ride I arrived and we talked about the clinic and I told her that I was going to try and find a donor to supplement the cost for the people, I never thought in a million years that Judy would offer to be a donor for the first clinic right there on the spot. I was blown away, I never expected that and it was such an encouragement. So, the very first clinic was ready to go, all I had to do was find the people which was not at all difficult. It turns out that most people wanted to spay or neuter their pets, it was just financially out of their reach and also it was so far and difficult to get their that the location was almost impossible for most people to reach. Now, people had a chance. So I went around and told a bunch of people and had them make appointments and waited for the day of the clinic the whole time afraid that nobody was going to show up. On the actual day of the event people showed up with their pets, lots of people and lots of pet. From 8:00am to 7:30pm the vet and his volunteer assistant worked to spay/neuter 20 animals and were able to save the life of a dog that had been attacked by a wild animal that day and had some serious wounds to his face, neck and arm. By the end of the day it was becoming obvious that we were not going to be able to attend all of the animals that had show up so I took the names and phone numbers of the owners of 8 dogs and told them that we would have another in a couple of weeks and would call and give them appointments. All and all the day was a huge hit. Now when I'm out and about in La Palma everyone is always asking me when is the next clinic, they want to castrate their pet. The vet was blown away by the response as well, he was so happy with the results that we are planning to do one clinic per month in either La Palma or some of the other surrounding communities that are also in need. Thanks so much to Judy for making it all happen and I think we are on our way to a change. More info to come on the other spay and neuter clinic as well as Guias y Scouts.

I have a lot of updating to do.....

To start with, there have been no blogs for the past month or so because my computer broke. In the past I would type out my blogs at home and then when I got to internet I would just cut and past the blog and continue on. So, that's why there were no blogs. I kind of suspect Tigre as a culprit in the computer breaking, but I have no proof and she's just such a little sweetheart so I'm not pursuing that line of thinking... Also, I mean, the computer was rusting in places and it was around 5 years old and had been trucked all over Costa Rica in my backpack for the past 16 months so it's not like it's time wasn't up anyway.

I'm currently in the United States and loving life!!!! I arrived yesterday at noon. My parents picked me up at the airport and we went straight to Red Robin for a really tasty hamburger (I love the USA). I then got to take an nap while watching Days of Our Lives and then went to see my brother, sister in law and my two adorable nephews. It was such a great day!

Okay, I have huge updates work wise, but I really want to sit down and type it out and ad pics and such so I'm going to save that for tomorrow. Just know that the spay and neuter you pet clinics have been hugely successful and I'm really very excited about it! I'll write more tomorrow.

Project updates....

Well, the spay and neuter your pet clinic has yet to happen, but it's already been super successful. I have 17 animals signed up with appointments and room for up to 8 walk in's. I'm really excited to see how it all works out. Already there are more people signed up than I thought we would see. Thanks to the donor I think there is the potential for another clinic, I just need another donor... Anyway, if I can somehow find support the idea will be to have the clinics every 2 or 3 months to catch all the new puppies and kittens that were too young this time and to make it possible for all those that there was no room for this time. It has potential.

Guias y Scouts are coming along really well. We had our final training for the board of directors last week and now we are preparing for our final training for the leaders. I'm hoping that within the next 2 months we'll be ready for some kids. I was thinking of trying to find a grant to pay for all of the uniforms for both the kids and adults. Each uniform is about 4,000 colones, which is around 8 dollars, that may sound like very little to you, but the reality is that here at the end of the month most families have 0 left over. It's a pay check to pay check life for most so throwing 8 dollars which here is more like 30 is a pretty big burden. I'm hoping to make is possible for all of the kids to have the uniform (they can join with or without it).

Computers....I'm not hopeful.

English classes are going really well. Last night we listened and translated a song (which is always a hit). They loved it and hopefully they learned some new vocab. My students are lots of fun and though we don't always stick to the book, they are learning a lot. The hard part is getting them to talk. I honestly don't know how to teach that. I learned how to speak Spanish in Spain because I had to. I lived with a family and if I wanted something, anything, I had to speak Spanish. They all want to learn how to speak, but it's hard because I learned, but only by living in a Spanish speaking country. I think it is possible, just really difficult. Hopefully we get there.

Quick updates:

The giant spider that I thought was a tarantula and saw a few months ago, do you remember that? Well, he's been spotted again only this time he's way bigger! The body of the spider was about the size of a silver dollar and the legs made it huge! I went to open my back door in the morning and down drops the spider. I quickly yelled for my host dad, mom, Oscar, who ever to come and kill it. All three came to see what the Gringa was yelling about and said, oh, that's no tarantula that's a pico caballo (a horse bite spider) then Oscar says, no, it's not a pica caballo, it's a pica gringa. Haha. Sadly we did not kill it, it is still behind my sink but my host dad did spray a bunch of poison so hopefully it will die. I'm not a fan of this squatter. My rabbit has yet to be lost or killed, this is really saying something because everyone else that I know who got a rabbit around the same time as me has lost it or it has died. Currently I'm out sourcing my rabbit care to a neighbor who had 2 and one died so he asked if I could loan him mine so his wouldn't be so lonely. Sadly, his one remaining rabbit has been lost, but I haven't gone back for Cadburry just yet, he's got a good thing going over there but I'm guessing the neighbor is going to get sick of rabbit sitting soon. I'm impressed with the rabbit, I just let him run free almost all day and there are dogs everywhere, maybe it's because he's so big... Arroz con conejo anyone? Tigre is doing well, she's starting to settle down a little which is good because she's been super hyper. I guess this is more of an animal world update.

Faces and Places # 5 - Meet Tigre!!!!

This is Tirgre my new little kitty. I have a really cute video of her playing in a box and will post is next time I have the cable to my camera so I can transfer it. Tigre was brought to me by my host nephew who found her in the street. Apparently she had been dumped there since she was a female (nobody wants kittens and nobody spays their animals). So, he brought her to me and I couldn't resist her, she's just too cute and she was soooooo young. She was taken away from her mother much too early. Anyway, I've had her now for a month or so and she has become a really great cat. When I walk through the gate towards my house she runs to meet me and now she follows me everywhere I go around the house and yard. I'm planning on taking her with me when I leave so don't worry and also, she has an appointment to be spayed in June when she will be old enough. Which, brings me to my next and newest project, I'm currently organizing a spay and neuter your pets project for La Palma. There is a vet in Jimenez who is willing to come to La Palma for the day, sadly, it's pretty expensive to spay or neuter your pet here. I was really lucky last week to come across a donor and we are going to be able to have the clinic at a very low cost. I've been telling everyone I meet in my community that it will only cost 2.000 colones (4 dollars) per animal and everyone gets excited and asks to be signed up. Depending on how the clinic goes, I'm hoping to be able to hold a clinic every 2 or 3 months so that the puppies and kittens that are too young right now can be taken care of before they become pregnant. Hopefully this will help to reduce our street dog population and the lower the number of kittens thrown away. Depending on how the clinic, you should consider being a donor for the next (hint, hint), I'll keep you all posted.

Faces and Places of La Palma #4 – Meet Oscar

Faces and Places # 4 – Meet Oscar!

Oscar has lived at the cabinas where I live for the past 5 years or so. He is a taxi driver in La Palma, but not in the sense of I drive a marked car kind of taxi driver. He drives a big truck which he's put some wood slats down as seats and then he put a tarp over the top in case it's too sunny or it rains. Oscar was my first friend in La Palma. When I was going through a hard time in the beginning (see shingles blog) he was always there for me to talk to and he always put himself into my shoes before he said anything. He's been a great friend. Each night Oscar's 14 year old son comes to the cabinas and they sit together and talk for a couple of hour and then Oscar walks his son home. On more than one occasion Oscar has told me that he really doesn't like La Palma and that he would like to leave, but he's waiting until his son is grown because as he told me, now is the most important time for him to be with his son. That's being a parent! Oscar is surprisingly philosophical and it's not hard to have a deep conversation with him (this is rare!). As my biggest competition for the hammock, we have come to an agreement. I get the hammock pretty much all day and he gets it in the evening/night. It works out well since most of my activities are at night.

Project update:

Everything is pretty much the same, computers some day, Guias y Scouts in the near future, English is on going. I do have a couple of new projects on the horizon that I'm really excited about! First, one of my friends in the community told me that she was looking into calling in the vet to do a spay and neuter clinic in La Palma. The price is about $16 per animal for the operation and then another $14 for the medications. There are very few people in my community who can afford to spend 30 dollars on a cat or dog, most animals are lucky to see dog/cat food in their lifetime. So, I got to thinking, there has got to be another way. I'm in the process of seeing how I can fund raise so that we would be able to do the clinic for free for everyone. I spoke to some people in town and they all agree that if we do the clinic for free there will be hundreds of animals taken care of. What a difference this would make! So, I'm going to see what I can do.
Next, I've been loosely working with a woman's group that does recycling and that once had a building and a library and tourist center. Some time ago their building was burned down and they have kind of stayed in tact since, but they have really been struggling. Just recently we sold food at the fiestas of La Palma and were able to make enough money in one weekend to re-build their old building and we worked 2 weekends. So, I'm going to be working with them on bringing in books for a library and also some marketing for the tourist center. It's an exciting development and the ladies are really excited about it. That's it for now.

Bye mom and dad :(

From Dominical we moved on to La Fortuna where we saw the Volcan Arenal. If you are heading to Costa Rica, you have to see this volcano! It's active and we were lucky enough to be able to see the lava flowing and hear the rumblings at night. It was beautiful! We hiked some hanging bridges and went to the hot springs. The last day of my parents trip we went to Acosta where they got to meet my host family there. The time flew by and we had a great time. I'm pretty sad to say goodbye to my parents, but I'll be home for a visit in the next few months. No more gringo vacations for me for a while.

Bye mom and dad!

Vacationing with Mom and Dad.

I haven't really had the chance to blog for a really long time and I'm going to go ahead and blame it on my mom and dad. Since they arrived we have been super busy having tons of fun doing lots of activities that leave me totally exhausted at the end of the day. During our time in La Palma we went on Costa Rican fishing adventures with my host family, a tour of Corovado national park, snorkeling in Los Mogos, a nocturnal insect tour, lots of days at the beach in Jimenez, a day playing in the water at playa blanca in La Palma, and more. My parents got to meet and spend a lot of time with Deivin. Deivin really liked them and was sad to say goodbye and they both really liked him so that was nice. We taught Deivin how to play Cribbage (in English) and he loves. After about a day and a half of only eating Tico food both mom and dad agreed that that was enough. I just thought, ha, try 9 months straight of it with no option of escape!

We are currently staying in Dominical at a really nice place on the beach. I can't imagine a more beautiful beach, there are waves breaking on the rocks, surfers and lots of natural beauty. I highly recommend Dominical. There are options for all kinds of budgets. We're going to stay here for another night before we head on North.

In other news, I've just about hit the half way mark of my Peace Corps service. Just a couple more days and I hit the down hill stretch. My official second year begins May 28th. Time really goes by fast!

Faces and Places of La Palma #3 – Playa Blanca

Playa Blanca is the white coral beach that is 3 Kilometers from where I live. I go there almost every day, on bike it's about 10 min away. The beach is beautiful and there are ofter dolphins and whales visible (so I'm told, they always seem to be hiding from me). The beach is surrounded by a manglar forest as well as palm trees and almond trees. There is a lot of bio diversity and each day one can see many Scarlet Macaws, Ibis', hawks, etc. There is place to camp right on the beach, if anyone is interested in doing some camping on the beach it's both beautiful and affordable, just let me know and I'll hook you up.

Commenting on blog posts

Hmmm, I wonder at times if there is anyone out there in the blog world reading my posts... I wouldn't know because there are very few people that rarely leave a comment. So, that being said, please don't be shy to leave comments on the blogs, even if it's just something like wow, Laura, you're sooooo cool or you really know what you're doing (Just joking). But really, I love it when you leave comments, so please feel free to do so.

Here is just a little scoop for now, I have now adopted a little kitten that I've named Tigre and the dog that I had was returned to his owners. The zoo continues. The rabbit and cat are friends and cat especially like my host families dog. We're just one big happy family.

My parents will be here in a week and I'm super excited to see them. We'll be traveling around for the next week seeing many sites in CR and spending a lot of time on the peninsula so they can really get to know where and how I live. I'll get a faces/places up on Wed. when I'll be in SJ for a night.

Giving rabbits baths

Okay, so the computer lab that was going to built in January was then going to be built in March, now, I'm thinking June, if we're lucky. That's the way of the world here, one just has to deal with it. Guias y Scouts is moving right along. We had our first training the other day and are having a meeting in the next week to vote on our troupe number and the colors of our bandannas, it's kind of the first step to making it all a little less of an idea and more reality. I'm excited for the meeting. My parents are coming very soon and I'm really excited to get to show them my life here and show them how we do things Tico style.

I have some happy/sad news. My dog's owners came back for him so I no longer have a dog. I still however have Cadbury the rabbit. Here he is. Today I was forced to give him a bath. From experience I can now tell you, I don't think rabbits were intended to be bathed. He just looked so sad all wet and I actually thought for a second that I was killing him. So, if you have a rabbit that gets dirty, maybe just try and use a damp cloth to rub off some of the dirt. I'm still not entirely sure he's okay, it was seriously traumatic.

Here is a not so good pic of Deivin my boyfriend. I'll get a better one soon, but this is what I have for now.



English classes are starting soon. I'm sooooo sick of talking about them and having everyone and their mom talk to me all day about English classes. I just want to start so I can say, oh, sorry, we've already begun. Now before you start thinking "that doesn't seem very nice" well, just know that you are not understanding the situation fully. Maybe I'll write a blog on it...

Quick update:

* Tomorrow I have a Guias y Scouts training for the board of directors or "la junta". The training process can take up to 6 months, but it's totally worth it, we want to build a really strong foundation.
* I'm not entirely confident that we will be breaking ground with the computer lab this month (I was told March). Hopefully April...
* I'm thinking about trying to build a library, it's a possibility.
* English classes should start in the next couple of weeks, hopefully we will find a place to do it.
* As I was walking out the door to leave for San Jose on Monday another bat decided to move in with me, he was flying all around my head. I'll be forced to have my host dad kill him...
* A new group of 55 volunteers arrived last night. We're excited to no longer be the newbies and meet some new people, they make our super tiny worlds just a little bigger.
* I've recently read: Breaking Dawn, Redeeming Love and Captivating, all really good books.
* Rabbit is still alive and growing and my new dog friend likes to go on runs with me and follow me everywhere I go. Good stuff.

Faces and Places of La Palma # 2 – Meet Louisa, my host mom

Louisa is a very incredible woman. Pretty much all on her own she runs the cabinas, has a sewing business and a little cafe for the the guests of the cabinas. She manages all of this while assisting with the other family businesses (the buses and the micro bus taxi). I've really learned a lot from Louisa, she is so generous, strict and knows how to have a good laugh. On more than one occasion I've heard her say “What's the hurry, there's more time than life”, how true is that? Whenever I need anything or am thinking about buying anything in town or out of town for that matter, I go to Louisa first to see what she has to say, she know everyone and just about everything in La Palma. I would rarely leave the house if it weren't for Louisa and Bereno. If I see them doing something, I'll at least try it, if I see that they aren't doing something, I make sure why before I try anything. They know their stuff. Next Blog, I'd like to show you how we make Coffee Costa Rica style, it's so easy, economical and environmental and to top it all off, I think the coffee tastes better this way... Coming soon.

Oh, in other news, I think I just may have myself a dog now. I found him the other day and after running around all day trying to find his owner, he decided he was mine. I'll post a pic if he sticks around, I'm turning into Dr. Doolittle here with my many animal friends.

Bunnies, boyfriend and bats

Here is the skinny on the past week or so. I've been super busy but I wanted to share a few things. First of all, just the other day I was confronted with a tarantula in my kitchen sink. It was huge I'm talking the body was the size of 2 quarters. I was not happy about said tarantula, but I was way too freaked out to take care of it myself so I yelled for my host sister to come and help me. She is crazy, let me just say that. She comes in and says, "what, what happened, oh, it's nothing" She then proceeds to try and pick it up with the bare hands, she got it into the air and then dropped it and it went behind/under my sink. I now live with a tarantula somewhere in my kitchen. As long as he stays there and leaves me alone, I'm okay with it. Okay, so the same day as my spider friend paid me a visit another wild friend decided to move in. I was laying in bed already traumatized when I here the bat squeaks and hear a bat flying around my room. Great. Don't get me wrong, I love bats, I just don't want to live in the same house with them. Bats outside, Laura inside, all is good and in order. So, I didn't know what to do, it was too late to call my host sister to come and help and I thought maybe mister bat would see that I was a bad roommate and leave. Days pass and I don't see any signs of the bat...until i lift up my bag off the floor and what do I see, mister bat has been with me all along. So, I call my host nephews, Alfred who's 13 and Joel who's 8 to come and help me with the bat problem. It was really funny, here I am jumping around and yelling a Spanish/English mix and the boys are trying help find a bag and I'm trying to sweep the bat into the bag with a broom all the while all three of us are periodically screaming and jumping. So, finally we sweep the bat out the door. I'm thinking he's not going to want to come back after that, I was wrong. Apparently once they think a place is their home, they go back to it. So, the next day I'm sitting with my boyfriend Deivin when mister bat returns. I get all jumpy and am yelling for Deivin to kill it and he grabs is and hit's it once and let's him go out the back door. I ask him, why didn't you kill it? and he says "es que, me da mucha lastima" or, it's just so sad. So, what happens a few days later? You guessed it, the bat is back, this time just like the friendly tarantula he's in my kitchen sink where it appears he spent the night. I decide it's time to call in the big guns and go and find Bereno. Bereno takes one look at my little and friend and killed him. I was sad to see him go, but the relationship just working out. He couldn't be house trained and I didn't want to be bitten. One of us had to go. Okay, onto the bunny.
So, for valentines day Deivin comes over to my house after he get's off work and tells me that he has a surprise for me. I'm thinking, oh, how nice, a surprise. He says it's something to keep me company when he can't be with me. I'm thinking, okay.... Then he hands me a gift bag. I look in the bag and suddenly a little white rabbit pops it's head out of the bag and scares the crap out of me! I almost threw the bag across the room, it's a good thing Deivin still had a hold on the bag, otherwise the bunny would have had a wild ride. So, I collect myself and meet my new rabbit friend. I've never had a rabbit before and I don't think I had every planned on having one, but we're working out. I got him a nice little cage and named him cadbury. I let him run free in the house in the mornings and he's actually pretty cool, he's used to humans and runs around. What did I get Deivin you ask? I'll tell you, I made him some brownies... Okay, that's a quick update. I'm sure you are sitting here wondering Boyfriend, when, how? Well, I don't have enough time for that. Another day. God bless.

Another quick report.

Since I've been back a lot has been going on. I'm super happy to report that after totally giving up on the idea, I actually think the computer lab is going to happen. Construction on the new building with start in March and then I can start the process of getting the computers. Life will be soooo much easier when we have faster internet and computers in town. I'm gearing up to get started with Guias y Scouts. At this point the Junta or board of directors need to be trained which can take around 6 months and once they are all ready to go it will be time to find some kids. Finding the kids will be the easy part for sure, already whenever I walk down the street kids are asking me when it's going to start so they can join. I'm trying my best to get motivated and started on my english class again. I'm only going to continue on with one and they are a great class, it's just a process of me contacting all of them, collecting money for the books and then placing an order for the books. So far, I can't seem to motivate to do it, tomorrow... Otherwise things are going better than I ever could have imagined. Everything is falling into place.

Faces and Places of La Palma #1 – Meet Bereno!

Bereno is my host dad and along with my host mom was the first person I met in La Palma. He and my host mom are fairly rare as they have been married for over 40 years and are still going strong. On more than on occasion I've seen Bereno run up and for no reason give my host mom a huge hug and kiss, he totally loves her and it's really nice to see. Bereno was once a farmer with a lot of land in and around La Palma. A number of years ago (I think like 10ish) they sold their land and made a really nice profit. With that money they were able to build the cabins (where I live), a micro bus (what we would call a mini van, but they use it for tourism) and 2 buses to run the bus line between Jimenez and La Palma. He and my host mom always seem to be a few years ahead of everyone else and I largely contribute that to their creativity. Bereno works all day long, he loves to work. If he's not busy taking people on rides in the microbus, he's working in the garden, fixing something in the cabina or using the machete on something. Bereno is super funny and always up for a laugh and a smile. I'm pretty lucky to have him on my side as he is very well known and respected within La Palma and on the peninsula. His actual name is Benadicion, but everyone calls him by his nick name Bereno. I'm pretty sure he can fix or make anything out of anything. He built the house that I'm now living in and he built the cabinas, this guy can do anything.

What a difference a trip home can make

I had no idea how much I needed to see my family and friends and how just spending three weeks with them would change every thing for me. When I arrived in La Palma and saw my host family and my friends here it was like I was seeing it all with renewed eyes. Before I left I was so sick and tired of everything here and was thinking that another year and a half was going to be torture. Now, I'm here and I'm so happy to be here and I'm so excited to see what the next year and half will bring. What a difference!

I'm officially moved into my new little house here are some pics “Cribs Style”

This is my little green house from the front. I love my little house!

Kitchen/living room area.

Room with a view and Platanos that are growing into my house. It's just easier that way...

My bed room. I just bought the mattress and it's been so nice to have a comfy bed!

Vaulted ceilings. This is very normal in Costa Rica. They finish the ceiling last, it's a lot cooler in the summer to have a ceiling, but if you can't afford it, you can live without it. I'll post more pics via flicker, posting through the blog is a pain!

Also, I don't know how it happened, but I hadn't been here for a full 24 hours and suddenly I had meetings to go to and a group that actually wanted to work with me. I've had a meeting every day since I've been here and spent all day Monday in Golfito (that is where all the governmental work is done) and the development association and I were able to get a ton of work done. Now it's looking like we are going to get the computers after all. I had given up on it, but now that I have some people to work with, I think it's going to happen.

Okay, so I'm going to start a new series in the blog called the Faces and Places of La Palma. I'll try introduce you all to the people in my life and the places so that everyone can have a better idea what life is like here. More to come on that. God is good and he change a situation over night, you just have to wait on Him. His timing now ours.

I'm baaaack!

My flight left Colorado at 12:15am and let me tell you, sleep was not easy to come by. The seats were just really uncomfortable, nobody was loud or annoying, it was just simple uncomfortable. I arrived in San Jose at 6:20am and boy was I tired. While we were getting off the plane I saw that a fellow volunteer from my group happened to be on the plane with me and we were able to tag team the first bus from the air port to SJ center which was a big help since we both had a ton of ridiculous luggage. I brought back soooo much stuff and I was really regretting it at various time throughout my journey from the baggage claim to Acosta and I know I will further hate the trip from Acosta to La Palma, but, I will thank myself for it in about 3 weeks. I brought back some peanut butter, some dried fruit and nut mix from costco, some new shorts and a toaster. I know I'm going to be loving that toaster for the next year and a half. Anyway, luggage sucks.

I'm excited to be back and to get started again. I'm hoping that my new house will provide me with some much needed privacy and tranquility. I'm hoping Guias y Scouts is able to start up soon and I hope to be able to pick up my friendships that we forming where they left off. After 3 weeks of eating a ton of yummy holiday treats and gringo food, I'm also ready to get back on track with eating healthy and working out.