Books That I have Read So Far....

  • I haven't read any more books cuz I'm dedicating my free time to learning the ukulele
  • Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
  • The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
  • A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
  • Night by Elie Wiesel
  • Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
  • Atonement by Ian McEwan
  • Finding Fish by Antwone Q. Fisher
  • The Memory Keeper´s Daughter by Kim Edwards
  • The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
  • The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  • The World According to Garp by John Irving
  • Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen

Friday, September 21, 2007

All is well!

Hey Guys!

This has to be short but I just wanted to say that everything is great! I officially moved to my site on Sunday the 16th. So far I have been working mainly in the escuela and colegio (the school and the high school). I will be helping out with english classes in both schools and the environmental conservation projects that are going on in the high school. I am going to try to start an english class for adults by mid October. The current volunteer who is going to be leaving in about a week has been really great. She has introduced me to a lot of important people and has shown me around Pejibaye. Right now we are in the nearest big city called Turrialba and she has been showing me around. I bought a hammock today which I am so excited about! Now I can sit in it and read in my spare time! I will upload more pictures soon I promise. I wanted to mention that my mailing address will remain the same for now. I can make it into San Jose to pick up my mail from time to time. There is a post office in Turrialba but I dont know if I will get a PO box here just yet.

I miss everyone at Penn State! I have heard that the football team is doing pretty well, we beat Notre Dame which is awesome and I bet the place was bonkers. Jean and Barry, I am excited to receive your next letter! Thanks for keeping in touch! Miss you and hope all is well.

More to come soon!

Emily

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Site Visit

Hey All!

I just got back from my final site visit. I went to my future site (Pejibaye de Turrialba) and stayed with my future host family and got to check things out. I don´t think things could have gone any better than they did. I met with my counterpart organization which is the Camara de Turismo and they seem really nice. They are responsible for pretty much all things having to do with tourism in my town. There are two national forest reserves as well as many rivers that are great for rafting in the community so there are some pretty big draws for attracting tourists. The camara just received a grant to develop a community rafting project so I think this will be the main thing to work on right off the bat.

I also went to the colegio (the high school) which is a colegio ambientalista meaning that students take classes on the environment and learn about conservation and other things. I met with the youth committee which is comprised of one advisor and then several teenagers in the community. They have a band that many of the colegio students play in and is part of the youth committee. They play at all the parades that happen on holidays...they dont have very many instruments (only some drums and recorders) so right now we are going to work on planning a talent show for the community so they can raise funds to buy more instruments.
I also got to talk to some of the english teachers in the colegio about helping out in classes and possibly teaching some myself.

I went on a field trip with a class of 7th graders to one of the national reserves (called El Copal). We got to walk all around the forest and hopefully see some wildlife. However, knowing how 7th graders are, we were wayyy too loud and scared every animal away. Still, it was INCREDIBLY beautiful, unlike any kind of forest/jungle I have seen before. Just the number of different plant and insect species was immense. There is an organization that has a lodge that accommodates 20 people that is the headquarters of this reserve. I talked to the people there and hopefully I will be able to work with them to bring more groups (tourists or costa ricans) to the reserve to walk around and stay. One thing I observed while being with the 7th graders is that they are all friends. There is no cliques or a popular group or anything which is awesome. I have always said there is no amount of money you could pay me to go back to Junior High because it was awful. But here the kids are all friends, some are more popular than others but nobody is mean to anyone. They were also really nice to me...I wasn´t sure if they would see me as a stupid Gringa who can´t speak Spanish or what. But instead they were all curious about me and asked lots of questions and included me in everything.

Now, about my family, I arrived on Friday in the pouring rain and only my two brothers (Luis Carlos, 17 and Diego, 16) were home. I thought it might be awkward at first because it was just me and them and they are teenage boys - not people that I have much in common with. However, just like the colegio kids, they had a mountain of questions for me and we had a pretty good conversation. Later, my mom (Rocio) and dad (Carlos) and sister (Kimberly, 10) came home and we had dinner. They are all really nice people and so far we have gotten along great. I had to confront them about the amount of food they would give me for meals....they gave me so much food it was rediculous and I had to tell them about 4 different times that I wanted to be served the same amount as the 10 year old girl. Finally they got it and now all is good for now. One night I went to take a shower immediately after dinner and they would not let me because they think that if you shower after you eat you will die. Apparently this is some myth that many people in Costa Rica and maybe other places in the world believe in. I had to wait exactly 30 minutes before I could shower.

One day I went to a local waterfall (biological reserves, rivers, waterfalls....what more could a girl ask for?!) with my host siblings. This waterfall was so beautiful and clean and it is perfect for swimming. I took pictures which I will upload next time.

I also got to talk to the current volunteer who is living in Pejibaye. She has about a month left and then she will go back to the US. I found out about the projects that she is working on that I can continue and also got a lot of advice and information about the community in general.

Other than this, I spent a lot of time hanging out at the house getting to know my family and going to their families houses to meet more people. Both my host mom and host dad have many brothers and sisters who also live in Pejibaye and my host dad´s parents live right next door.

Now I have about a week and a half left of training and then I will move to Pejibaye and be there for the next two years!

I want to send a shout out to my badass parents who both have birthdays this week! Happy Birthday Mom and Dad! I love you! Look for my package in the mail!

Pura Vida!

Emily