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!