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

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Not addicted to Cable TV anymore!!!

Hey All!

Todo tuanis aqui en Costa Rica. Ahorita estoy en In Service Training en San Josè. Es un placer ver a todos los voluntarios en mi programa y parece que todos se estan integrando en sus comùnidades muy bien.....Ok....so I just said that things are going well in Costa Rica....Right now I am in In Service Training in (beautiful....not) San Josè and that it is really great to see all of the volunteers in my program and that it seems like all of them are integrating into their sites pretty well.

In Service Training is something that all volunteers have after about 4 months in site. We receive charlas about different things/ideas that we could start for projects in our communities. So far, we have learned about Rainforest Alliance which is an organization that certifies hotels and organizations as being environmentally friendly and that also offers a kind of database (free publicity) for smaller eco-tourism groups that many of us are working with. This is great because there is an opportunity to basically have your own website put up on this page for free....this is a lifesaver for the groups that want to be on the web but that dont have the $ to pay for their own websites. We also learned about different Junior Achievement programs. With this, we have a few options. We can work with elementary school kids on teaching them why it is good to stay in school. There is also a different program that allows us to work with a group of high school students in which they develop a product and start a business. It is a 14 week course and in this time they learn all about the different areas that have to do with running a business....at the end of the 14 weeks everything is liquidated and the profits are split up among the group.

Lets see...we have also been having spanish classes every day. We FINALLY learned a bit about how to use the subjunctive form....which is a vast world in itself or so I´ve heard. This is used to express desires, reccommendations, and to talk about things that are uncertain among other things (pretty broad, right?). Other than this, we have been taking full advantage of the free....yes i said free...wireless....yes i said wireless....internet here in the hotel as well as the cable TV. I must admit that I am now used to having just 1 channel of TV in my life. Good old TeleTica. Re-entering the world of cable just puts me over the edge....I want to watch everything at the same time! How can you keep tabs on what is going on on each channel!? You cant! Ahhhhh!! My uncle, Barry, mentioned that I seemed less addicted to television when I was visiting for christmas vacation. I now realize that this is true....however pitiful this may be....but breaking the cable addiction is probably the first, biggest, personal change that has happened to me since I came here. Thanks Peace Corps!!!

I want to give a re-cap of my FABULOUS christmas vacation which was spent in both Huntington Beach, CA and Seattle, WA. I had a great time relaxing, catching up with family, decorating christmas cookies, going to movies, getting starbucks, sleeping in my bed, eating christmas food, consuming my weight in chocolate and pie, and just hanging out. I couldnt have asked for a better vacation. I was definitely scared that I would not want to return to CR after being tempted by all the comforts of home, but when the time came to leave, I was ok with it. I got back to my site and definitely flubbed my spanish for a good day or so and felt completely out of whack but after a few days I felt back to normal. Costa Ricans are still on summer vacation mode and will be until the end of February. Instead of fighting the system and trying to get people to do stuff I have decided to go with the flow and just kind of hang out until things get going again in February.

There are always an endless amount of ideas and possibilities for projects that I have. It is seriously overwhelming. Pejivalle (aka: Pejibaye or Pejiballe....we really need to decide on an official spelling) has so many formed community groups with a good amount of history to them and has a surprising amount of pull with the government that we are much luckier than a lot of other peace corps communities. It just feels as though sometimes we take the attention that is given to us for granted and just let it slip away. This is such a weird and unexpected concept for me. I assumed that I would be working in a community that is completely ignored and would be taking part in a fight to receive things that had been denied. I hope to change the current patterns that are going on....or at least make a dent...in my two years so that when I leave the community will be prepared to better handle the attention that it is given.

I took a bike ride the other day....usually I do the same loop that is about 12 km....and I always pass by this spot where you can see this HUGE tree off in the distance. So the other day I decided to veer off my path and go for the tree. It is up on this hill where you can see an incredible view of sugar cane fields for miles with a few dirt roads cutting through them and the Rìo Pejivalle. There is a plaque that is nailed to the tree saying what species it is and how tall it is (43 meters) but not how old it is. There was one guy that I passed on my way back down the hill and when I asked him he said that he was 45 years old and had always remembered the tree being exactly the same as it is now. I have to take a picture of this tree and the view that you can see from it to give you guys an idea of how cool it is.

My boss Felicia called me on Monday to tell me that the new volunteers (who start their training at the end of February) will be coming to visit me on their first field trip. How exciting, right?! I will be hosting half of the trainees from the community and economic development program for two days. The purpose of the field trip is to observe what kinds of work volunteers are doing, practice spanish, and visit new areas of costa rica. I could not be more excited and I have a million things that I want to organize for them. I also feel really lucky to have been picked to host them as only 4 volunteers have this opportunity. I am also a bit nervous because my site will be the first actual peace corps site that they will be seeing in costa rica and I want to make a good impression and hope that they leave excited and enthusiastic rather than scared and nervous. I am sure I will give many more updates as far as this goes....

We have two more days of this In-Service-Training and then on Saturday morning I am going to Puerto Viejo (southern caribbean coast) with two other volunteers from my group. I think the plan is to stay in Puerto Viejo and then rent bikes or something and go exploring all of the other small beaches that are near there. I have heard that Manzanillo, which is near there, is a really beautiful beach and national park so I would like to check that out too. Im sure I´ll take far too many pictures and hope to post some for your viewing pleasure asap.

Much love and best wishes,

Emily