Thursday, August 31, 2006

Sounds like...

Although I live alone, I really live "alone" in that I share a wall with my neighbors. The wall is concrete which is nice except that it stops about a foot before it meets the ceiling. Thus... although I am the only one in MY house, I can HEAR my neighbors. I hear them talk. I hear them fart. I hear their TV/alarmclock at 5 am. I hear baby coo. I hear dad play with baby. I hear mom sing. I hear baby cough and cry. I hear mom and dad yelling and hitting each other. I hear things being thrown and breaking. I hear mom crying. I hear their lives.

From outside the house: I hear trucks going by. I hear thunder. I hear evangelical preaching and blaring music. I hear the fan running in the house next door. I hear dogs bark. I hear roosters crow. I hear dogs bark and roosters crow all night long. I hear crickets and birds and frogs and geckos sing. I hear mice and rats scampering. I hear rain on my tin roof so loud it drowns out everything else.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

You can't make this stuff up!

One of the great things about my barrio is that alot of the Puntarenas panhandlers live there. So we all kinda commute into "work" together. There's Lady-In-Wheel-Chair-With-Kid, One-Legged-Guy, and Crazy-Lady-That-Hits-People, to name a few. Today on the way in I sat next to the transvestite begger. We have a history of serial eye-contact and the occassional "adios" so I thought I would take the next step and ask his/her name. That's how I met Shakira.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Photo Highlights....















Good Morning



I got up this morning and took the 4am bus to San Jose. It was early and relatively uneventful except that some poor kid got sick and threw up. It wasn't actually that bad as far as puking on a bus goes cuz it didn't smell and he managed to keep it all in a plastic bag. The rough part was that his mother was about 3 rows behind him and kept yelling at him and asking him why he didn't tell anyone he was throwing up. I felt bad for the kid more for the mother than for the sickness. Other than that, pretty uneventful, thankfully. I am planning on spending the weekend in San Jose. Tomorrow morning I am doing a project presentation to the newbees. Tonight I am going salsa dancing and tomorrow drunken debauchery.... it's a full weekend.

Monday, August 14, 2006

A few thoughts on sustainability....

I decided first thing this week to start focusing more on sustainable projects. "Sustainable," in this case, meaning "finding someone to do my work for me." So I went to the University and am trying to get hooked up with the financial aid department. Here, all students that receive financial aid have to complete community service hours, which I think is a great idea. So I am hoping to get someone or a couple of someones to help me with some projects. "Help," in this case, meaning "do it for me." So far it looks promising. Luckily I have a contact there that is a Philosophy professor. He also asked that I come back and give some charlas to his classes about my work and the Peace Corps.

I had meant to spend most of this month in my site, but will be headed to San Jose this weekend to attend a project fair with the new group. Other than that things are rolling along just like normal... me trying to get out of work. :)

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Bye Bye Down Time

Time is speeding by and I feel like I am running all over the place. I just finished up the trainee visit. It was fun but we were busy. I feel like I need a week to relax but that is not going to happen for a while. I have a week full of PC office staff visits and then a two day training to attend with the local women's organization. I now have 6 different women's groups I am doing groups with. It is keeping me on my toes but I really like it. I am actually trying to figure out how to get out of the program I have at the school. I have realized that I really like working with kids less and less. Too bad I am in the "youth" program. Oh well. I think I am going to try and find a college student that needs community service credit to take over the group and then I get extra points for sustainability as well.