Tuesday, September 21, 2010

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.

Friday, September 17, 2010

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...

Saturday, September 11, 2010

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.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

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.