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.