15 de setiembre

Costa Rica's Independence Day is September 15^th. The day celebrates all of Central America's independence from Spain. Apparently the word of independence was spread down from Guatemala through all of the Central American countries, which is why each country has a different date of independence. To symbolize this transfer of information, every year a torch is carried from Guatemala all the way down to Panama, and it enters Costa Rica on the morning of September 15^th.

Also, instead of fireworks, like we have on 4^th of July, the tradition here is to make faroles. Faroles are lanterns that are usually homemade and lit at night with a candle. On the night of September 14^th all communities in Costa Rica have a small parade of the faroles. The parade is usually organized by the school and all students have to go in uniform and with their farol. In my community it is a fun activity because the everyone leaves their houses and walks through the dark streets with their lanterns. Almost everyone, mother, father, grandpa, small children, bring their own farol.

Here are pictures of the last 2 year' celebrations:

Marlon, my host cousin, with his very creative lantern made out of egg cartons

The parade through town.

My host sibling's lantern

My host sister, Daniela, with the lantern that my host brother mad for me.

Women's group

The women's group has been working hard for the past few months, and is really coming together as a group. A few weeks ago that started the process to become a legalized group, which means that they can then receive donations, or purchase land.

The latest project was building a small greenhouse to grown cilantro, tomatoes, peppers and more. Below are some pictures of the process.

They also through a BINGO to raise money. They raised over $300, so it was quite a success. I have also learned that I am quite lucky, because I won three prizes!

Yamileth nailing down the plastic.
Building the structure
My Bingo cards.
The community center full with people eager to win a prize!
Alba Luz, all smiles, while selling food.

Chicas Poderosas!

Sorry I have been so bad about posting lately. My computer died 2 months ago, which has made blogging (and many other things) more difficult. So, what have I been up to? The month of July was pretty slow because the kids had 3 weeks vacation and it was the start of the rainy season, so I spent a lot of time indoors. I was also consumed with studying for the GMAT. Yes, I have decided to go to business school next year. So, studying for the GMAT and thinking about my essays and applications has taken up a lot of time! I am planning to submit my applications in Round 1, which means in the middle of October I will be free and just have to sit back and wait for the decisions.

Things did pick up in August, and one of my new projects is called Chicas Poderosas. It is a program to promote leadership and self-esteem in young girls. I am working with the 4th, 5th and 6th grade girls at my school, and so far it has been a lot of fun! There are 12 of them and they have so much energy. It has been a refreshing new activity for me and is allowing me to get to know these girls a lot better. I also think that they are enjoying having something new to do once a week after school. So far the topics that we have discussed are: Communication and Teamwork. Future topics are: Making Decisions, Nutrition, My Future, Dating, Values and many more. Below are some pictures of the girls going sticker crazy decorating their notebooks and working on one of the activities about teamwork

I can't believe that I have only 9 months left. It is going to be sad to leave because I have made a lot of good friendships in my community, especially with my host family. But, I am also excited about what the future may hold.

Kelsey

Mid-service Training

Two weeks ago I was at a retreat center outside of San Jose for a week for Mid-service training. That means that we have completed over 1 year in our sites. The week was dedicated to sharing stories and best practices with other volunteers to learn from eachother. It was great catching up with eachother and hearing the amazing things that everyone is doing. We also had medical exams and got our teeth cleaned!

I can´t believe that I have less than a year left. It is going to be hard to leave my host family and my town, so I better cherish the time I have left. The picture is of all the Rural Community Development volunteers in Tico 18 and our boss, Chris, who has left us to go to grad school.

Thanks to all for the support you have provided over the past 15 months. And those of you who want to come visit better start planning soon because time is running out!

Kelsey

Medical Mission

At the end of May I had a different type of volunteer experience. US Air Force doctors and nurses from bases throughout the US came to Pavon, a larger town only 8 km from me, to host a free health clinic. My fellow PCV, David, and I were asked to help out during these 3 days. We ended up translating for various doctors that did not know Spanish.

The first day I worked with 2 dermatologists and saw many different skin problems! Luckily I am not grossed out easily, because I saw some crazy rashes, infections etc. I also learned that yeast infections of the skin are very common! It creates a white circular skin discoloration and looks a lot like sun spots.

The second and third days I worked with the gynecologist and lost all embarrassment as I had to ask people about their sex lives, periods etc. It was overall a really fun experience and cool to do something completely different for 3 days. A ton of people from my town came, including my host parents, so I guess I was also directly helping people from my community too.

This is a really great program of the US Air Force and they definitely helped out a lot! The ophthalmologists were giving out free glasses, the dentists were pulling teeth, and all doctors gave out vitamins and lots of much needed, expensive medicine.

Here are pictures from the clinic:

The whole crew

People in line waiting for their turn

More waiting outside of the exam rooms

Helping out one of the dermatologists

David working in the pharmacy

Me with the two main coordinators

Water, Water Everywhere

On May 15^th the national water company of Costa Rica, AYA came to my town to dedicate the water tank project. This ceremony marked the end of an 11 year struggle to obtain potable water, 24 hours a day in the houses. Only in the last few years has there been an aqueduct system, bringing water to houses from a well in the center of town. And in November 2008 the water tank was completed, which meant a constant stream of water all day.

When I got here a year ago, we had potable water in our house, but not all the time. The water committee would turn on the pump to stream water from the well to the houses at 7 am every morning and it would last only 2 hours. During that time, each house had to store as much water as they could in its own personal water tank. Needless to say, in a house of 6, the water we stored during that time did not always last the whole day. Many times during my first few months here we would run out of water around 7 or 8 pm.

Finally in November, with the completion of the water storage tank, we now have water all the time. The water committee still only turns on the pump for a few hours each morning, but that water is now stored in the large tank and is distributed to all the houses throughout the day. It is nice knowing that there will still be water to brush my teeth every night!

Even though the town now has an aqueduct system and a storage tank, there are still many members of the community that only use wells. Unfortunately the cost of water is just too much for some families that don’t have steady income. Hopefully in the future everyone will recognized the value of potable water and connect to the aqueduct system.

Here are pictures from the dedication ceremony:

The Water tank

Members of the committee who worked on the project for 11 years

The school kids at the dedication

Kids playing

Here are pictures from the dedication of the playground on Saturday. The kids were so excited it was hard to make them wait for the prayer. The ceremony consisted of a prayer of thanks and then we served cookies and fruit punch. Then the kids played for hours! It was most fun to watch the little ones go down the slide and play on the see-saw. Thanks again for all of your support!

Doña Marta saying a prayer.

Kids playing!

Three members of the Comité Tutelar, Isa, Flor and Miriam, serving the refreshments

The moms and sisters enjoying the shade.

Osvaldo, my host cousin.

Carolina enjoying the swing.

Daniela, my host sister, having fun on the see-saw.

Playground!!!!!!

We have a playground! The men came to install it at 7am on Wednesday morning, and left my site at 9am on Thursday morning. We were all amazeded by how quickly it all went. Unfortunately the kids have to wait about 2 days to play in order to let the cement etc. dry. So the women of the Comite Tutelar have decided to have a small inauguration ceremony on Saturday right before we let the kids play. We are going to have someone say a prayer, let all of the kids know the rules, and then serve sno-cones. It should be a lot of fun...and all the kids can´t wait.

Thanks again to all of you who made this dream come true for the kids of Cristo Rey. I will definitely post pictures of tomorrow´s ceremony soon. But first, here are a few pictures of the prep of the land and the installation. Enjoy!

6am on Wednesday, finishing up leveling the land for the playground.

Unloading the wooden beams.

The four men that installed the playground, taking a break for cafecito at 4 pm.

The finished product!

A new skill!

Last Monday I learned how to crochet! The newly formed women's group decided a few weeks ago that one of our first activities would be crocheting. The president and a few other women in the group already know how to crochet, so they said they would help teach the rest of us. I bought my needle and a small ball of yarn for a little over 1 dollar and I was set. At first everyone was going so fast that I thought I would never learn, but with a little individual attention I was slowly getting it. I crocheted while watching tv and waiting for meetings etc. and in a week I have finished my ball of yarn! Crocheting is a actually not as hard as it looks! So here is my first crocheted item (I don't actually know what its use is, but I am still proud of it!):

So, learning to crochet has so far been a fun, bonding activity for the women's group and a way to share skills. It looks like our first real project will be to help out with the community garden that we are growing on the school grounds. We decided to join the local 4-H or Club 4-S, which means that they will come give us training on organizational skills and more technical training, such as growing vegetables etc. It should be a great opportunity for us! We will also be growing an undetermined crop (we will choose at our next meeting) on a small plot of land that a member of the community is letting us use.

I am very impressed by the sense of unity that the members of the women's group already have. I really believe that they will be successful in whatever project they decide to embark upon. The group was successful in its first fundraising activity, raising over $60 in cold drink and ice cream sales at a local soccer game. It was a very simple idea raised by a few of the women and everyone else jumped on board and offered to donate a few items to sell, such as sugar cane juice, coconut water and iced chocolate milk, each with a value of 200 colones, or about 35 cents. Needless to say, everyone was very proud of the success of the activity.

I am really excited about working with the women, not just because I am learning new skills, but because of the opportunities that this group will bring to the many women in the community.

And we have a high school!

Friday marked the end of the third week of high school classes in my town. We have over 30 students, aged 14-40, and coming from the surrounding 3 towns, enrolled in the program. The program is called tercer ciclo, or third cycle, and is available to anyone over 14 who wants to study 7^th – 11^th grade (this is considered high school, or colegio, here). The way the program works is that the students buy 6 work books, which basically teach each material and include practice questions. The idea of tercer ciclo is that the students do most of the studying at home, by reading the week's chapter, and then they come to class each week with their questions. The six different subjects are: Math, Science, English, Social Studies, Spanish and Civics. The students have class 3 times a week:

Wednesday, 3pm to 7:30 pm – Math and Science

Thursday, 3pm to 4:30 pm – English (with yours truly as the teacher every other week)

Friday, 3pm to 7:30 pm – Social Studies, Spanish and Civics

Here is a background of the prior educational opportunities for members of my town: The nearest official high school is 8 kms away by bus, which isn't that far, but costs each student $2 a day in travel expenses. This is extremely expense for members of my community, who on average make about $120-$150 a month. There are national scholarships for students, but not even those cover the transportation costs for the month, let alone the extra expenses like uniforms, notebooks, photocopies etc. For this reason, very few kids have continued on to high school after graduating from 6^th grade. For example, last year only 1 of the 5 graduates is currently studying in the high school; and the year before that 1 out of 6 graduates went to high school. Therefore there are a lot of young people in town that were denied the opportunity to continue their studies based on financial reasons, and who are now able to study just a few blocks from their house 3 nights a week. There are also a lot of 20 and 30 year olds who have decided to study here because when they graduated 6^th grade there wasn't even a bus to take them to the high school.

I have been very encouraged throughout the process of opening this high school, which took about 5 months of constant communication with the Superintendant, by the enthusiasm that everyone has to learn. I am constantly stopped on the street, on the bus, or people even come to my house, to ask how they can sign up to study. I am really happy with the success of this project, and just hope that the students keep up their motivation to learn and that this will be a permanent institution in my town.

Training

I am currently sitting in Pavon (a town 8km from my site) waiting for 9 trainees to show up. They are the new group of PC volunteers and are coming to visit my site for 6 days. It should be quite an experience! I am super excited because I know that it is going to be really fun for my community. I am pretty much the only gringa that they really know, so they are going to learn a lot about how different we all look, act etc. from these trainees. Can you imagine 10 gringos in a town of 300 people?

Hopefully tomorrow their presence will help get people to attend the annual meeting of the Development Association (it is often hard to get quorum to actually have the meeting). I am also excited because all 9 of them have to teach a different English class for practice. So this week my kids are going to learn a lot of English, and I think it will be good for them to hear different accents and learn from someone new.

Unfortunately it has started raining and my road is once again very muddy. I hope it clears up, because I feel bad that the trainees will have to walk around without boots, either getting their shoes really dirty or having to walk around town barefoot.

Anyway, I am really excited about their visit and think it is going to be a fun experience! I will let you know how it goes.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I just got word today that my town´s playground project is fully funded!! Thank you all for your support and helping me raise over $5,000 in about 2 months. I am excited to get back to my site today and let the women of the Comite Tutelar know. They are going to be so happy.

Now it is time to get to work and prepare the land, order the playground etc. I will keep you all updated on the progess.

Thanks again,
Kelsey

Farm Life Part 2

As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, one of the things I am enjoying about living on a farm in rural Costa Rica is the fresh food that we eat. With sustainability being such a popular concept these days, it is great to experience it firsthand. I love eating the fresh fruit and veggies that we just picked from a local tree or my host dad's farm. Speaking of fruit, I have tried so many different types of tropical fruits, most of which I don't even think have a name in English. Some of the fruits that we have growing in my town are: Mangos, Pineapple, Manzana de agua, Coconut, Caimito, Guava, Guanabana, Grenadilla, Granada, Oranges, Jocones, Limones. I will have to take a picture of some of them soon and post them.

Many of you know that before doing Peace Corps I was not a big meat eater. In fact, I think I once went over 5 years without eating beef. And after having Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation speak at my college graduation, I was even less inclined to eat beef, especially from McDonalds. Well, things have definitely changed! At first, I was still hesitant of eating meat, but once I realized that I didn't have much choice (since a strictly black beans and rice diet gets old really quick) I gave it a chance, and am actually enjoying eating beef and pork. It also helps that I know exactly where the meat I am eating came from. If the pig was not raised 50 feet outside my bedroom, by my host family, then it was probably raised by one of our neighbors. And the beef that we eat is almost always a calf of one of my host-grandfathers or also from a neighbor.

In high school, I wouldn't dare step foot into the "wet markets" in Singapore, which had cows, chickens etc hanging up with their blood dripping out. Or if I did ever venture in with my mom, I would only look at the ground and would hold my nose the whole time. Oh how things have changed… I now joyously go to the slaughtering of the cow or the pig, and I take lots of pictures! I have decided not to post the bloody pictures here, but if you would like to see them, just let me know. I have quite a few! As I mentioned in my previous post about the hen, it has been so interesting learning about the anatomy of the different animals, such as seeing the various stomachs of the cow! I really do think I am turning into a farm girl.

As I mentioned above, a lot of the meat that we eat might come from our neighbors. This is another benefit of living in a small town – everyone shares their crops, meat etc. If someone's cow dies and they have to butcher it, they will send the meat to at least 10 different families in town. Or after someone picks all the yucca, pineapple, or other vegetable, they give a lot of the extra to whoever wants it. This really creates a sense of community, and is something that you won't find in the big city!

Here are some fun pictures to reflect my farm life:

My Costa Rican Family

I want to pay tribute to my wonderful host-family. I am so lucky to have them, because they have really embraced me as a member of their family. In fact, I was walking the other day with my host mom and two host sisters in the mud with our boots on and my little sister says, "The whole family wearing boots…" And then my older sister joked with her about calling me her family. But it is true, most of the time I think that we all consider me another member of the family.

So, my tico family consists of:

William, 40

Isabel, 40

Gabriel, 11

Noemi, 8

Daniela, 3

Sugarcane!

My host uncle has a lot of sugar cane and he just repaired the trapiche (grinder?) so we can drink fresh juice whenever we want. Here are pictures of us grinding sugar cane:

Farm Life

This morning my host mom, Isa, killed one of our hens to make soup. Though she has done this many times before, today was the first time that I witnessed the whole process. After slicing its neck and draining the blood, she pours some hot water over it. This helps with the de-feathering. I was surprised by how easy it was to pluck all the feathers. Once she sliced it open we found multiples eggs in different stages. One was today's egg and was complete and ready to fry up. The rest were different sizes and in different stages of formation. The picture below should help explain this better.

While she was preparing the hen, my host dad went out to pick some of the vegetables for the soup. He grows yucca and other tubers, which my host mom added to the soup. I have found that this is the great thing about living on a farm! All the fresh meat and veggies.

Here is the soup ready to eat!

Park and Playground

Greetings from Costa Rica! I hope that you are all doing well and surviving winter and the economic crisis. I am writing to tell you about a project that I am working on and to ask for your help.

I can’t believe that I have been in Costa Rica for over a year! I am really enjoying myself and very happy with my decision to be a Peace Corps Volunteer. Living in a rural Costa Rica, in a town of 300 people has turned out to not be as hard as I thought; I'm actually quite enjoying the farm life!

As I have written before, in the past year I went through 3 months of training, did a community analysis of my site by conducting interviews, started teaching English classes and am working with various community groups in Cristo Rey. In the past few months, I finally feel like I have a good idea of what the community’s priorities are and how I can help them achieve these goals. Thus, I can kind of picture how my final year and 2 months will play out. After all the surveying, one of the projects that the community of Cristo Rey is the most enthusiastic about (me too!) is the construction of a park and playground in the center of town.


I am currently working with a group of women who form the Comite Tutelar, a group formed last year to protect and promote the rights of children in the community. These women feel that the lack of safe recreational opportunities for the kids in the community is a major issue. And let me tell you, at least from an American perspective, there currently really isn't a place for kids to play--the few kids that have bikes ride them up and down the street, but the rest generally stay inside their homes.

Based upon the awesome work of these women, the local Catholic Church has generously donated a 20 x 20 meter piece of land right in the center of town. Our plan is to install the playground in the center, place benches on the outside and plant flowers and trees.


This park will make a huge difference in my community, not only for the kids, but for the whole town. It will not only be really pretty (my master gardener mother is helping research some of the best plants), but also extremely functional. My hope is that by working with the community and engaging the community in the building of the park, it becomes a point of pride for the whole community. Also, I am excited that the park will provide both kids and parents a healthy place to congregate and interact with one another. Even though the community is very small, it is still very common for the women and young kids to stay in their houses all day and have little interaction with their neighbors.

The women in the Comite Tutelar, and the community as a whole, are very excited and dedicated to this project, as am I. We can all picture what a difference it will make for the kids and the community.

The budget for this project is $5,000 and the community has committed to contributing 25% of expenses. Unfortunately, due to a number of reasons, raising the rest of the money in-country will be difficult (we don't have a title for the land, being one of many) and so, with Peace Corps approval, I am asking you, my friends, family, and friends of friends and family to help make a real difference in this community by donating to this project. Your contribution will be fully tax-deductible and you can do it online by visiting the Peace Corps website, http://www.peacecorps.gov/contribute. Once there, simply click on "Donate to Volunteer Projects", type in "515-153" to search for my project, and click submit (you may need to scroll down the page to see the project come up.) You can also see a more complete project description online if you are interested.

Please help Cristo Rey by donating to this project. I hear (through my NPR podcasts) that times are tough in the US with the economic crisis, but any amount that you can give, even $10 takes us a step closer to our goal. Also, we´re shooting to get started in May, before the rainy season starts, which means that I need to raise the money by the end of April. Again, anything that you can give will help a lot!

If you have any questions I am happy to send you more details or a complete project proposal. Also, please consider helping me even more by sending this to your friends and family who may not know me personally, but might be interested in helping build a playground! Everyone who donates will get playground construction updates (and serious thanks) from me!

Grupo de mujeres

Today we formed a women's group! This morning I was a little hesitant about how the meeting would go, and if we would have trouble electing the officers, but everything went smoothly. I had the women do a lot of brainstorming; to discuss the resources in the community, the necessities and then possible projects for the women's group. We only went off on a few tangents, which is quite an accomplishment!

In the end we had the elections (or discussion about who should be in which post) and it wasn't too difficult. The women would throw out names and that person would say whether she was willing to assume the post or not. The former director of the school was chosen as President, which is great because everyone respects her in the community, she is well educated and very organized.

All of the 23 women who showed up to the meeting seem pretty excited about forming the group and working together. We'll see what happens in the next few months!

On Wednesday, people from Costa Rica's equivalent of the 4-H are coming to meet with us, and hopefully help us with the legalization of the group and maybe with possible project ideas.

One year anniversary

I can't believe how fast time flies! Before signing up for the Peace Corps, I remember that one hesitation I had was about the time commitment. Could I really be away for 2 years? Now that I have been here for a year (though only 10 months in site, which means that I will be here for another year and 2 months) the two-year commitment seems not that big. And I begin to wonder if it is enough to complete all that I am doing in my community.

During training, everyone always said that the Peace Corps is a two-year program because they have found that development workers need at least that long to see progress in their work. I totally agree with that finding. After nine months in my community, things are just now really starting to pick up. This week I have a meeting every day of the week!

So I begin thinking, what did I do in my first 9 months here? The answer is: getting to know the community, its members and groups, and figuring out its needs. I guess it has taken me this long to feel really comfortable in the community and to figure out the different group dynamics etc. This past 9 months consisted of a lot of cafecitos while visiting the different houses, lots of sitting in on meetings of the community groups, and also lots of reading in my house.

I am excited about all the upcoming activities/projects in the year to come! Here are some things I will be working on:

Building a park and playground

Forming a Women's group

Teaching English in the elementary school

Working with the Junta de Educacion (School Board) to improve the school and maybe build a kindergarten classroom

Helping with the accounting and organization of the community bank

Helping out with the new night high school

Starting a community garden at the school

And who knows what else might come up!

The Nuts and Bolts

As my first blog post, I thought I would share the three goals of the Peace Corps and the goals of my program, Rural Community Development. As you can see, this blog fulfills goal number 3!

Peace Corps Goals:

Goal 1: To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women

Goal 2: To help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the peoples served

Goal 3: To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of the American people.

Rural Community Development:

Residents of small rural Costa Rican communities will experience improved quality of life through improved organizational development and increased engagement in educational opportunities (or educational enrichment).

Organizational Development: Local Development Associations and community groups will improve skills and practices in organizational management to plan, organize, lead and obtain and coordinate resources to meet community development priorities.

Objectives include: Planning, Organizing, Leadership, Coordinating/managing financial resources, Fundraising and Proposal Writing

Educational Development: Rural community members will expand activities and improve resources to increase access to and quality of educational opportunities.

Objectives include: Strengthening English Skills, Organizing Extra-Curricular Activities, Improving Educational Resources, and Expanding Vocational Education.

My first post

Hello readers!

I am trying out this new technology (my first blog post ever!) while I am sitting at a Pizza Hut in Ciudad Quesada. It has wireless internet!

This past weekend we had our 1-year anniversary of being in Costa Rica. I really can't believe that I have been here that long, and that I haven't been to the US in over a year. I am really enjoying my life here as a Rural Community Development volunteer, and hopefully through this blog I will be able to share a bit more of my life with all of you.

Well, I have to run to catch a bus to my site.