¡Maíz!

It has been corn season here for over a month. Almost everyone in my community plants at least a little bit of corn for personal consumption, while others plant fields full to sell. Lucky for me, my entire extended family has planted corn, and at different times, so there is always plenty to go around.

The most popular way to prepare corn is in chorreadas, or corn pancakes. But people also make corn bread, tamales and boil corn on the cob. One afternoon I ate corn in all four forms; I was in heaven! I LOVE chorreadas and can't believe that we don't have them in the US. It is probably more work than we are used to in the land of fast food J

Here is the process of making chorreadas with accompanying pictures.

My host mom and brother, Gabriel grinding the corn.

Cutting the corn off of the cob.

More grinding the corn.

After being grinded and ready to cook, just add sugar

Yummy chorreadas!!!!

My host aunt, Yanory, making sweet tamales.

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