Mean Girls

Don’t worry, this isn’t about the other volunteers. It’s actually about one of my absolute favorite projects I’ve gotten to work on so far here. I’ve been leading a weekly workshop for third and fifth-grade girls at the school in Concepción. Every week, we tackle a different topic relevant to women and girls in Costa Rica. The first week, we talked about stereotypes of women and how the girls are and want to be different than those stereotypes. The second week, we talked about healthy relationships and dating violence.

Explaining the rules

Having fun during the review game

This week we worked on bullying which, as many of you know, is a huge area of interest for me because I had such a horrible experience with being bullied in middle school. Today was by far my favorite day of the class. It was really fun and exciting to take lessons I’ve already done with students in the US and use them in Spanish. It was definitely experiment, and it turned out fantastically, in my humble opinion. We started with a review game to refresh our memories about the first two weeks, and I think they had a lot of fun racing back and forth to the white board. Then, we played the telephone/whisper down the lane game to introduce them to gossip and bullying. They also had a lot of fun with that game, and thankfully all of the phrases they used got ridiculously distorted along the way! Then we had a more serious moment of talking about how badly bullying can impact people’s lives and we even talked about the slew of “bullycides” (suicides caused by bullying) we’ve had in the US in recent years. Then we had them journal about times when they have been bullies, times when they have been bystanders, and times when they have been bullied. We had them write advice to people who are being bullied and talked about how important the role of the bystander is. We even had a few girls confide in us that they are being bullied and we were able to report it to the school.

Teaching some basic stretches during the women's workshop

Another cool project we’ve gotten to do: My Spanish class put on a workshop for women in our community about healthy living. I taught them basic exercises that they can do with little to no space and no equipment. We talked about all of the health problems caused by a sedentary lifestyle and I had the women write a schedule of their daily lives and when they can fit in exercise, even for just a few minutes at a time. Most of them said they were re-committing to exercising and being healthy. The best part—my friend Anna actually saw one of the women out exercising with her family after that, and she said she was sticking to her plan!

That's all for now! All is well here. Much love,

Rachel

PCV Visit!

Last weekend, I went on a visit to a volunteer who is currently about a year and a half into her service. All of us trainees went to different places to get a taste of volunteer life, which is very different from training.

The view in Nicole's community

My volunteer, Nicole, lives in a really tiny, rural town called Sabanillas de Acosta in the San Jose province. She lives by herself (after the first six months of living with a host family, you can choose to get your own place) in an adorable house. I’ve always assumed I’d like to stay with a family the whole time, but after visiting and seeing that she is so well loved in her community but still gets to have her own space, I’m definitely considering moving out eventually. We’ll see!

The legendary waterfall!

Nicole lives really close to another volunteer, Jackie, who lives in Cangrejal. Jackie was also hosting a girl from my group, Annie, so the four of us spent a lot of the weekend together and had a really great time. On Friday, we went hiking down a somewhat treacherous hill (I’m talking sliding under logs, sinking in mud, and practically climbing a vertical slope) to get to this AMAZING waterfall. It was TOTALLY worth it. We went swimming in the little pool at the bottom of the waterfall and basically got a waterfall massage—the water is super strong! The best part of this day was definitely the following: After swimming for a while, we saw a cow at the very top of the super treacherous hill we had just scaled. The cow started walking down the hill very clumsily. Eventually, he started to trip and fall. And fall. And fall. And fall. And fall. I kept thinking he would catch his balance, but no. He fell the entire freaking way down that hill until he landed in the shallow water. He got up, shook himself off, looked at us with what, to me, looked like a lot of embarrassment (what?! Cows can be embarrassed!) and kept trucking along. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve told that story to, and every time people crack up. Including me. It never gets old.

Later Friday night, we went out and sang karaoke at a bar near Nicole’s house. We totally made a spectacle of ourselves as the gringas singing Adele, but it was fun! On Saturday, I got to observe Nicole while she taught a community English class. The Ticos really want to learn English and are super enthusiastic, so that makes me excited to get involved at my own site. Later on Saturday, we went to Jackie’s site to see a band practice at a cultural center she is starting. Throughout the weekend, we also cooked a lot of good food and enjoyed each other’s company a lot. I also ate peanut butter for the first time since coming here. Super exciting!! But seriously.

Me and Nicole :)

Sunday, Nicole and I went to some soccer games in her community and had a little picnic. I know, I know. What was I THINKING going to a soccer game? Well, it was actually a lot of fun, and involved very little soccer watching. It involved more of me falling asleep in the sun like a content gato (and getting a nasty sunburn…oops), reading my current obsession (The Help), and eating some yummy food. That night, we went out to dinner (FRENCH FRIES YEAH! – can you tell I miss some foods from home??) and sang more karaoke. Then, on Monday, I got to go to Nicole’s unidocente (a small school that had kids from first to sixth grade) and see her teach again. It was a really good chance to see what I’ll be doing soon enough!

All in all, I had a great time and Nicole was a wonderful host! The visit made me super excited to get off to my own site!

Tico Time

Time operates a bit differently here in Costa Rica. Basically, everything consistently happens a LOT later than it’s supposed to. The other day, I got to Spanish class at 8AM and our teacher didn’t arrive until about 8:30. Last week, my host mom told me we needed to catch the bus at 7:30. We didn’t leave the house until 7:40, and we still made it on time. My second week here, I had a meeting with the principal of the school in Concepción at 8:20. I didn’t step into his office until 9:00. Basically, this is perfect for me. It’s Rachel time. The other night, I was actually ready and waiting around for my host family for about 15 minutes. (Take that, dad! I’m NOT always the last one ready!).

On a similar note, in addition to being late a lot, things here tend to be rather disorganized. For example, we are teaching English classes in our communities’ schools during training. We had our first day at the school on Monday, and the director had completely forgotten that we were coming. In addition, he had mixed up all the dates of the English classes with the dates of the girls’ empowerment program I am doing. So, we spent a solid hour and a half sorting out that mess and re-making the entire schedule on Monday. We ended up teaching our first English classes today, which went very well. The kids seemed to learn a lot and have fun.

Today was also the very first day of the girls’ empowerment program I am running here at the local school. Today we talked about stereotypes of women and how the girls themselves are different from those stereotypes and how they imagine their future selves. We had a great turnout—17 girls—and we all had a lot of fun. At the end of each class, the girls are going to write in a journal about what we learned that day. I am hoping to combine their writings into a book we can get printed at the end of training to give back to them as a souvenir. Next week, we are talking about healthy relationships and relationship violence, which is really important because of all the sexism that remains here in Costa Rica.

Everything here is good! This weekend, I am going to a place called Sabanillas de Acosta to visit a current Peace Corps Volunteer and get a taste of volunteer life. Wish me luck, and cross your fingers that I don’t get lost!

Rabid Cats and Rainbows

The title pretty much sums up my last week. The whole second week of training was a total whirlwind that just flew by! Let’s go day by day…

Monday: We had a massive rainstorm with tons of wind, which, according to the Ticos, is rare for this time of year (It’s not the rainy season). I was pretty much wet all day (we’re talking horizontal rain). The rest of the week was rather rainy as well, but one awesome thing was that I saw more rainbows during the week than I had seen in my whole life before then. They were so beautiful. We’re talking full, sometimes even double, rainbows arching all the way across the sky. I legit walked THROUGH a rainbow.

Monday was a little rough for me, because I was feeling homesick and also getting tired of the ridiculously unhealthy Costa Rican diet...

Tuesday: After my rough Monday, I woke up Tuesday morning around 5:30, opened my bedroom door, and was met by….a crazy, spitting, hissing, rabid cat. The best part? My host family doesn’t even have a cat. I was pretty startled and disoriented since I was basically still half asleep. I ran back in my room, slammed the door, and hid for about 20 minutes before I got up the courage to go out. I had tried calling to my host mom, but she couldn’t hear me. So I talked to my mom on the phone for a while and we both cracked up about the incident. That was kind of a turning point for me. It was that moment when I simultaneously felt like sobbing and laughing, and I decided to laugh. In fact, I am still laughing about it even as I write this. And I have felt much better about everything since then. So, thank you, Rabid Cat, for terrifying me to my very soul.

Wednesday: We visited San José. Basically, I had a nice time getting out of my little community and hanging out with other volunteers, but I have not that many nice things to say about the capital city of Costa Rica. It’s loud, smelly, dirty, and chaotic. Traffic is terrifying. There are no crosswalks. I have no desire to visit it again anytime soon. On the bright side, though, we got to visit the Peace Corps office, where I borrowed a bunch of books from the library and got three beautiful letters in the mail from Alex and Allyson!

Thursday: Nothing too excited, just a basic day of training and some fun with other volunteers during a cafecito after class.

Friday: At home, we had a surprise birthday dinner for my host sister-in-law Silvia. The kids and I made cards for her. Later on, I went out with some other volunteers to celebrate our beloved Beto’s birthday. My whole host family walked me to the bus stop, meaning I had six bundled-up escorts (It’s kind of chilly here). We had a great time and ate two giant plates of nachos, which we determined would be disgusting in the states, but which we loved because we are a little bit homesick for American food right now.

Saturday: I had a really nice, relaxing day with my host family. We cleaned, I worked on homework, we went to mass where my little host sister Cristal had el recibimiento (something to do with Catechism and first communion).

Sunday: I went to the Feria del Agricultor in San Isidro, basically a really cool farmer’s market in the center of the town. I love all the energy there and people out on the street. It’s a little bit busier than my town. Later on, my good friend Carlitos got me addicted to How I Met Your Mother and let me copy his seasons onto my laptop, so I know what I’ll be doing for the next month…

Today was a really interesting glimpse into the Costa Rican school system and all it’s disorganization…but more on Tico time later. For now, all is well. Missing everyone! 

Una Semana Down

I have almost an entire week here in Concepción with my host family, but it feels like so much longer, and I mean that in a good way. We are already into a very nice routine, and we get along super well. My favorite part of my new family here is that I get to play with 5 adorable little kids all the time. The one I spend the most time with is named Jordan (they call him Jorditan affectionately). He is pretty much obsessed with me and runs up and hugs me every five minutes, not just when I first get home. He loves to play cards (I taught them how to play war, aka, Guerra haha) and snuggle and the other day he asked me if I could take him to the US one day after school hahaha. I explained that it takes a long time to get to the US and he should come visit me there someday. We are pretty much best friends haha.

My most exciting piece of news right now is that I am starting a girls' group at the school here, Escuela Concepción. There is a lot of machismo here in CR, so we are going to work on empowering the girls, having them think about what they want to be when they grow up, helping them figure out what interests them, working on helping them develop strong female friendships (kind of like what I did with SARA in Gettysburg), and also we are planning to talk to them about domestic violence, which is on the rise here in CR. We have a group of about twenty girls lined up, in grades three and five. I went to the school to talk to the director today and plan out all the details, and I also got to introduce myself to the girls. They all seemed very excited about the idea, and my little host sister Cristal is in the group, yay! :) This is going to be my main project here in Concepción, in addition of course to teaching English two days a week at the school and going to all the training classes. I will be a busy girl! But that's okay, that's how I like it.

In other news, I am doing my best not to get fat here. At each meal, they give us HUGE amounts of food that I would eat over the course of three meals back in the US. I've been explaining to my family, as graciously as possible, that I just can't eat that much. They think that's really weird. They also think it's weird that I like to drink plain water all the time. And that I workout every day. But they are very nice and let me do my thing haha.

The other day on my way to class, I had a run-in with a very large, very scary cow. With giant horns. Just walking down the street, nibbling at a bush. Completely loose. Yep, that happens here. He was staring at me, and I had a brief flashback to the time I was chased by cows as a kid, but thank goodness he just kept on munching.

I also had my first run-in with a very large Costa Rican spider. During the night, I use a bathroom that is kind of like an outhouse in the back of our house, because the normal bathroom is in my host mom's bedroom. There, I found a giant spider, with huge eyes, staring at me. I didn't go back for a couple of days, and now I make a very close and careful inspection when I do.

All is well here. Much love!

Rachel

I have hot water!!!!!!!!!!

2/27/12 

(I'm writing posts and saving them on my laptop until I have wi-fi to post them...so that's why this is late).

That is just one of MANY exciting and wonderful things to happen to me in the last week. Since I last wrote, we wrapped up orientation week, and I am now living with a wonderful host family. I could not be happier.

To recap:

We had a lot of different orientation sessions all week, ranging from safety and security to technology here in CR to an overview of the TEFL program I’m working with. We all gave personal presentations about our lives, which means I talked about all of you lovely readers a lot.

My favorite part of the week was Saturday morning, when we finally escaped from the hotel (they wouldn’t let us leave the premises all week) to the city of Heredia, the provincial capital of the province also named Heredia. The city was beautiful, especially in the Parque central (Central Park) where they dropped us off. It was warm and sunny and busy, all of my favorite things. We had some tasks to complete as a group (my group consisted of five people). For example, we had to find the train station and figure out the hours. We also had to explore el Mercado viejo (Old Market). The market was awesome. There were so many vendors, all peddling their specialties—fruit, meat, fish, vegetables, baked goods, etc. There were also some lovely cafes throughout the market offering casados, a typical dish in Costa Rica that consists of rice, beans, and some type of meat, as well as plátanos (imagine a banana in vegetable form). We ate at one of those restaurants after wandering the town for a while and completing all of our tasks. I also managed to set up my cell phone. It was an awesome morning, full of fresh air and cultural immersion (I’m a dork, so sue me).

Later that day, we had a bunch more informational sessions, including orientations for how we should talk with our host families, words that only exist in Costa Rican Spanish, and so on. That night, we had a barbeque with AMAZING food, and afterward, Xinia, part of the Peace Corps Costa Rica staff, gave us dance lessons. She taught us salsa and merengue. Needless to say, I am awful at both, but we all had SO MUCH FUN.

Now, on to the MOST exciting stuff: MY NEW HOST FAMILY! I found out on Saturday evening that I would be spending the next eleven weeks with a 56-year-old woman named Hilda and her 35-year-old daughter Katia. That was not the whole story! Hilda’s two sons and their wives and children all live right next door and share a backyard with Hilda and Katia. Between the two sons, there are five kids, all under the age of ten! I am in HEAVEN. They are adorable; they love to play with me; and the youngest boy is constantly snuggling me. What more could I ask for?

Peace Corps dropped me and my fellow trainees (there are a few others besides me who live in this town) in the center of the town, which is called Concepción de San Isidro. My host mom greeted me with a never ending bear hug and was just so kind and welcoming. So was Katia, my new sister. We then climbed a HUGE hill (of course, I live at the top) with all of my suitcases—I almost died. Okay, not really, but it was hard. They were very gracious and helped me with my bags. Once we got to the house, it was time for lunch. We ate with Hilda’s son, John Carlos, and his wife Silvia, and their two children—Jean Carlo (6) and Kendal (2). They boys are both adorable, but I’ve spent the most time with Jean Carlo so far. He talks my ear off about everything from dinosaurs to my favorite animal to the movie Cars. Everyone was so welcoming and we had a lovely lunch with a lot of conversation and laughter. Shortly after that, Silvia showed me their house (which, of course, is right next door), and then I want to the supermarket, called MegaSuper, with the whole family. Jean Carlo kept me busy, every five minutes stopping to say, “¡Venga, Raquel!” (“Come here, Rachel!”) to show me or tell me something new. Later on, we had some ice cream outside on the porch. That’s when I met the other three grandchildren – Cristal, Jordan, and David. Jordan is the youngest and is constantly snuggling me and sitting on my lap. He is adorable and helps me ease the homesickness I feel for my favorite kiddos back in Gettysburg. Cristal is about 8 and she is obsessed with learning English. David is very sweet as well, and has endless energy.

Today, I had my first day of Spanish classes, right down the street from my house, down the big hill. We did typical Spanish class stuff and also took a walk to get to know the town. I came home for lunch and then went back to class. After class, I spent the afternoon playing with my host nieces and nephews! I taught them how to play war and we practiced some English. I was also very cordially invited to play Monopoly tomorrow.

So, a little more about the town: Conce (as the Costa Ricans have nicknamed it) is a town of about 2,000 residents (to give you an idea, about 2x the size of my high school in Lancaster). It basically consists of a lot of beautiful, brightly-colored houses, a small convenience store, the school, the church, and a small medical clinic. There is no post office or library. It is nestled in the mountains and you can see the bright lights of San Jose from my front porch. I love walking to school because I can take in all the beautiful scenery. 

Tomorrow, 2 friends and I are planning to walk to our class in San Isidro (about half an hour away, and the biggest town nearby). I’ve been taking photos like crazy, and I’ll post them as soon as I can.

I love my house here. It’s a beautiful aquamarine color, as are the walls in my bedroom. Life here is a weird mix of things we have at home and things that are different. For example, I do have hot water, but I don’t normally have banana trees in my backyard. My host mom cooks over an open fire. The back half of the house is made of tin panels and make a lot of noise when it’s windy (which it has been since I got here!). A lot of the time, the three houses here feel like one big house because everyone leaves the doors open, eats together, and moves back and forth between the houses. I’m loving this new experience.

Interesting note: there are two words for “you” in Spanish, a formal version (usted) and a less formal version (tú). Here, the Costa Ricans always always use usted no matter who they are talking to. Even though I know this, it always makes me feel more important.

Thanks for reading, chic@s!

Love,

Rachel