Demasiado Poco Tiempo

I believe I spent the last week in the states. I can't say for sure because it went by so fast and much of it passed in a blur, but I have some tickets stubs that say I was there, so I must have been.

I got in to Denver last Wednesday night at about 9p. I left Costa Rica at 7 am that morning but spent most of the day at the Houston airport. My flight was delayed (thanks to high winds) and then I almost missed it due to having a couple of beers bought for me and being too accustomed to la hora tica (thanks to Darren (?) and Costa Rica respectively). The first indications of reverse culture shock came when I was unable to speak English in the Houston airport (possibly due to said beers) and when later that night at Qdoba, when the burrito boy asked if I wanted salsa I said "si" and then spent the next five minutes trying to convince him that I am accustomed to speaking Spanish and was not one of those dorks that says "si" instead of "yes" in all Mexican and Mexican-esque restaurants.

I spent Thursday morning at the DMV trying to get my driver's license back, a logistical remnant from the mugging. While waiting, I decided to walk over to the Rite Aid and pick up an Economist to read and pass the time. I searched high and low through a plethora of bridal, hotrod, celebrity and porn magazines but couldn't find it. I asked the girl working there if they had any news magazines at all, I would have settled for a Time or Newsweek even. She looked confused and offered a Discovery Magazine. "Never mind," I said. I guess campesino does translate.

Friday I had lunch with the Island Grove group. It was kinda our last she-bang as Nicole is moving to San Diego. Chris will be working on his post-doc. I suggested that where I come from, when someone is unable to finish going to school, it is sometimes referred to as being "held back." :) Lisa told me I was old, I told her "yes WE are." She is desperately avoiding motherhood although I think that any man that will still love you after you set his apartment on fire is one that maybe needs to be duplicated. :) Em looks happy and great and is learning to love a Republican. Donna is still amazing, still my hero and still working with the people everyone else wants to forget about, all the while suffering the British shenanigans of Dr. Hottie. And Mason.... Mason is still Mason, swinging from apron strings and looking for a lap to lay his head in. Headed off to counsel torture victims in Eastern Europe. Wei Wu Wei my friend.

Friday night drove to New Castle and hung out with the fam and 5 rapidly growing nieces and nephews. It's hard to miss that part. Billie and Rod have one more on the way, so soon there will be six. Saturday we headed to Grand Junction and hung out with a few select Sefcovics along with my girl Holly and the little man Ky. We had a very pleasant afternoon. Saturday night I met up with Aaron, Maria and Will (Bill) my buds from the initial El Salvador trip. We swapped some stories, did some shots, I lost Holly, but then I found her again. I am still getting used to American cell phones. Not sure what the big difference is, but I seem to be deaf to their ring tones. :) I learned that speaking Spanish makes me invincible at Shapiro’s although the big gringo standing behind me may have had something to do with that. :) Holly and I went to an after party at J-Dogg's or some other dreaded rapper sounding name. I spent most of the night staring at Grand Junctions alternative crowd thinking "you people are definitely not ticos." Sunday morning was back up to New Castle. I taught Holly about tico time she seemed to catch right on. We had breakfast with the Burns' et al. and then headed back to the Fort.

Monday, I kidnapped Sarah from her infant twins and 4-year-old and took her shopping. It was lots of fun. There was giggling involved. I had just enough time to squeeze in an hour of drinking coffee and writing in my journal at Starry Night before I met Shawn and Cassie for dinner at the Rio. They are expecting their second child or "young mind to corrupt" as I like to call them. Caroleena and Andy joined us and we ended the night with a PBR at the Trailhead. They are also doing well, finishing up school, working for Island Grove and hunting shrooms. Cool.

Tuesday Byron and I were going to go hiking but it was raining. (Did I mention that I froze 97% of the time I was in Colorado?) So we went over my financial stuff. I got a couple of "bad monkey" speeches but other than that, all went well. Byron seems to have inherited all of the "adult responsibility" genes, I predict that this will not be the last time I am found crashing on his couch. Dara still likes animals. I can't seem to talk her out of it. Although there maybe be hope for her after all, she spends her days cutting them up and placing their insides on glass slides, or watching other people to make sure they do said cutting correctly. Jack got onto my computer and learned to play chess. I may try to learn also and play with him next time I am home but that will probably end with tears. Not generally a problem, except that they will probably be my tears and that's not nearly as fun.

Wednesday I spent packing and desperately looking for quasi-formal shoes just in case I ever need to wear something besides my Chacos. Failed miserably. I have been cursed with gargantuan feet and they just don't make shoes for me. I have thought about shopping where drag queens shop, but I think I would be hard pressed to find a sporty-and-outdoorsy-yet-appropriate-for-semi-casual-drag-queen store. If you know of one, please let me know. :)

Wednesday night, I left. We, logically, flew from Denver (left at 1:30am) to Newark then to Costa Rica. I was only quasi-conscious through most of the flight. I got back to San Jose, grabbed a cab to my bus stop just in time to squeeze into the last space on the bus to Puntarenas. My house is in good/excellent order, thank you Marianne. My neighbors are already hooking me up with their husbands’ co-workers and my cat is MIA. Although I'm not worried about the cat, I know he has been around because there was half a mouse on the kitchen floor when I got back. He is probably just pouting because I was gone so long. He is so catty! HA! Anyhoo... like I said, I spent most of my time running frantically from one reunion to another. I learned that one week is not nearly enough time after being gone nearly two years.

I am still waiting to hear about the El Salvador job. So I still don't know, for sure, what I will be doing come October. Well, that's about as good an update as I can give you. I have a work report and a close of service report due soon so I will be spending the next couple of days at my computer.

Peace Out

T minus 4 months

Today I picked up my COS (Close of Service) packet from the encomiendos office (aka the bus stop.. you can send packages on the passenger busses.. .it's fun AND relatively convenient). I now have to think about wrapping up this whole crazy experience and sumarizing it in 2 pages or less to be filed away in the D.C. office for posterity. That'll give me something to think about for a bit.

Other than that, I am hanging out in the Puerto again. I am recovering nicely from the hernia opperation. It involves a lot of wandering around and watching it rain. It is not, really, much different than what I normally do.

I did have a pretty productive meeting with a group from the Ministerio de Salud (Health Ministry) about forming an HIV commission in Puntarenas. It sounds pretty promising, although I am still a little gun-shy about getting my hopes up. We have another meeting in a couple of weeks, so we'll see what happens.

New PCCR Logo

Que Pereza!

I am "recovering" in San Jose. I am BORED! I am actually feeling quite good. I am moving a little slow but the drugs are good so things aren't so bad. Anyhoo... I thought I would share with you all some of my favorite tico-isms (or translations that make me giggle):

The word for 'lesbian' is 'tortillera'

The word for 'vibrator' is 'consolador' (Ha!)

The word for 'handcuffs' is 'esposas' or 'wives' (a tad bit machista, eh?)

Anyhoo... that is my most recent cultural update. Hope it serves you well. :)

El Chunche

Well, I have four months left in Costa Rica and I figured one thing I havn't done yet is get cut open in third world hospital. So yesterday afternoon I remedied that. Yesterday, I had a hernia operation. I would like to point out though that the "third-world" hospital that I was in, was not really that. It was the private gringo hospital and is arguably better than most of the US public hospitals. Private room, cable, it could definately be worse.

I got a shiny gold star for my surgery. I have been pleasantly surprised that I have had very little pain and discomfort. The Surgery doctors and anestesiologists thought I was a little nuts because when they gave me the spinal, I couldn't stop giggling and saying "Hormigas! Hormigas! Me siento boracha!" Apparently the hernia was in the top of my leg muscle rather than my abdomen and it was BIG. (I try not to do anything half-assed.) But, all is well now. I am on the road to recovery and should be fine within a couple of weeks. Right now I am staying at a hotel in San Jose. Zoey has generously come into town to take care of me and cater to my every whim. I will be here until Saturday so I will have lots and lots of internet access. Yea!

Back to life in the Puerto

I have been in my site for over a whole week now. (I am not counting a quick day trip into San Jose to run errands). I was pretty excited that I was here on Friday and got to go to the feria de verduras (farmer's market). I havn't been able to go in about two months and I really miss it. It is definately the perk of my exciting weekends.I went to the beach and played in the surf with some kid friends on Saturday and got a pretty heinous burn on my right side. It's fading though so I really can't complain too much.

Miracle of miracles, my PANI office has internet up and working so I am taking advantage of the free internet time. It is definately not something to be taken for granted. I am waiting for my new APCD (boss), the infamous Dan Baker to get here so that we can have a meeting with my counterpart about where they are going to put Tico 17 volunteers. I have a couple of places that I would like to see them place some people so I am hoping that they will be able to happen. Other than that, there is not a whole lot to report. I have some stuff to be wrapping up, but I am mostly procrastinating. I still have an entire season of CSI on DVD to watch, it's tough work, but someone's gotta do it, and since Katheryn left, that leaves it all up to me.

Back in the Puerto

I am back home again. And I have been here for more than two days in a row. It is a little strange, but I think I can get used to this again. It's not quite back to normal yet though cuz I had out-of-town visitors Monday night. Kevin, a friend from the states that was a PCV in the Republic of Georgia was visiting so I got to hang out with him and his buddy Jairo. We had about as good a time as you can have in a seedy port town. Did some dancing, sang some kareoke, really, really badly and drank a couple of cervezas.

I am focusing most of my efforts now into wrapping things up here and preparing for the next step. I only have a little more than 4 months left til the end of service! I am still planning on going to El Salvador for a while when I finish here. I just don't know what I am going to be doing when I get there. Figuring it out is all part of the fun though right?

That's all for now.

La despedida mas triste

Me and Maria in Costa del Sol, El Salvador

I am still running. I think I have been home a cumulative total of two weeks in the past two months and a week and a half of that was hosting guests. I am beyond exhausted, but not yet done.

I spent last weekend with Maria. We went to Puerto Viejo, Cahuita and then I finally made it to her site. It was our farewell tour, you might say. Maria is headed back to the states on Saturday. She got accepted into a really great grad school program this fall and is headed out early to spend some time with the fam and go to her brother's graduation before she hits the books in Vermont. I'm really excited for her but I will also miss her terribly. I have spent the last two years figuring out how I am going to fill my time until we can hang out again. I'm not sure what I am going to do with myself. I actually think I am still in denial. So far it just feels like we are hanging out again and then we will go back to our sites. I think it will hit me for reals in a couple of weeks when I get the urge for coffee and Maria time and there is none to be had. Que tristeza!

Anyhoo... we are in San Jose now. Zoey, Maria and I went to our favorite restaurant, Tin Jo last night. Zoey heads back to her site tonight, I'll be here to see Maria off tomorrow. Then back to Puntarenas tomorrow, and hopefully I will get to stick around a bit.

One Small Good Thing

It's done! The following is what I submitted to the Cadena about my HIV Workshop:

The entirety of my service seems to come down to this. It wasn't an accident. I've been calling it, "my baby," my "legacy project" for months. And it has literally taken months for this one day to come together. The HIV infection rate in my barrio is estimated to be one infected person for every ten residents. One in ten. 10% of the population. So I give some charlas, start talking about what no one wants to talk about. Inevitably, I know that my voice, is just one voice, in one small place in the world that not even Google Maps can focus on. Christian mythology says that hope springs from the tiniest mustard seed, but futility was beginning to lap at my mustard seed. I was sitting in a meeting of my Junta de Proteccion zoning in and out of consciousness as they ranted about the dangers of traigamonedas. I could hardly mask my indignation... Drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, delinquency, HIV/AIDS and the group that is suppose to be protecting kids is worried about glorified pinball machines. "I'm outta here" I thought, and then my do-gooder conscious part said, "Quit whining and do something about it. Teach them."

I had done some work at the local HIV/AIDS clinic and suggested to the nurse there that we host a taller(workshop) for professionals educating them about HIV/AIDS. The hospital was already involved in doing some education in the schools and other organizations although their reach is severely limited in that they spend a great deal of time treating patients and they don't have the time or resources to dedicate to organizing charlas. I have the social connections I told him. I have drank coffee and talked about the weather in pastel colored cement buildings all over this city. The theory is that all service workers that work with the affected populations are working in HIV/AIDS, they just don't realize it. It's up to us to tell them, I said. He agreed. Well, he said, Where would we get the money?

We had no budget. It was made pretty clear that there would be no financial support from the hospital or any other social institution. (Speaks volumes doesn't it?) Our biggest expense would be the food, and there has GOT to be food. Whoever said, "There's no such thing as a free lunch" has never been to a tico taller. Not only is there a free lunch, you also get two cafécitos. "If you feed them, they will come." I decided I would write a PCPP and try to get the funding for the food. That would leave the facilities, all resources etc. up to the community to provide. My hospital counterpart had a contact at the Rotary Club and he thought he would be able to get the building donated, the clinic staff would be giving most of the presentations so that would not be a cost and the rest we would hunt and gather. We had a plan, we were good to go. We were on it. First things first let's pick a date. It is such a simple thing, you look at a calendar, you chose a day, you write it down, then you get to work.

We changed the date 3 billion times between November and April; the space wasn't available that day, he scheduled it during his vacation, then the doctor wasn't available, then the "donated" space became a "discounted" space and we were back at square one. This called from drastic measures. Fortunately, while researching "stress management techniques" and greater "community integration" on the Paseo de Turistas I met the brand, spanking new gringo owner of a bar/restaurant and ended up talking him into donating the upstairs of his building, and he would work within our budget for the food. Rockin'! Now I have a space, AND the irony of giving an HIV taller in a bar was really just too good to pass up. The good news; things are coming together. The bad news; it's becoming increasingly clear that this is my baby and very little help is coming from my "counterpart." I decide I am just going to have to live with that. It's not that they don't care or even that they don't want to do anything, it's that working on big problems with few resources tends to breed what looks like apathy, but is really just hopelessness and resignation.

The "S" word (sustainability) keeps popping up in my head. If I'm the only one invested in this, it's not sustainable. "One good thing," I think. "If I can just do one good thing during my service. I'll be happy." I had it in the back of my mind, but I hardly dared to whisper it. I wanted to create a Red de Prevención. There are a ton of HIV resources out there, but there is not any one organized entity in Puntarenas that is working on getting them there. It's a pipe dream, I know. But, I thought that if we could just get people together; the people that are already out there working in the most affected populations. If we could just get them to be aware of it. If we could get them to start talking about it, even in the smallest way, then that would be something. That would be my seed.

The week before the taller, the date was finalized (for real this time). We cranked out some invitations, I took half and my counterpart took half. I hit the streets. I walked all over Puntarenas with a stack of invitations and a sweat rag. I was running about half and half of those that said they would be able to go, and knew that probably about half of the ones that said they would make it wouldn't actually come. I spent the rest of the week typing up the agenda, pre and post tests, evaluations and surveys that would be the measurements and accountability portion of my project. My counterpart was working on getting us some folders donated.

Monday morning, the day before the taller, I got to the hospital to go over final stuff with my counterpart. He, the doctor and the psychologist are scheduled to present in the morning. I booked an amazing woman from Associacion Americas to come from San Jose to present in the afternoon. I got to the clinic Monday morning, the day before the taller and my counterpart has come through with the folders. Yipee! Then the psychologist walks in and I ask her if she is ready for the big day and she says, "yeah, I don't think I'm gonna make it. I think I am gonna be 'incapacitada"(sick) tomorrow." So I did what any mature professional would do... I told on her. My counterpart told her she had to go or at least had to find someone to stand in for her if she couldn't go. I confirmed the Associacion Americas woman that afternoon. I had all the speakers lined up with one exception, me. But I still had a good ten hours to get that together.

The morning of the taller I show a the restaurant at 8 am. The taller was scheduled to run 8-4, so needless to say, I was early. There were two minor (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!) catastrophes first thing. The new owners changed the name of the restaurant recently and had bought a new sign. The name I put on the invitations was in little-bitty print on the new sign. I had also mistakenly written "Oeste"(West) on the invitations instead of "Este"(East). I was on the verge of a breakdown. Was it all really going to fall apart due to one little extra 'O'? One little 'O', as in "Oh f*@#, everybody's lost." My ever so generous machito compañero helped me out, signs were made people came. Not a lot of people, but people none-the-less. I ended up with 11 professionals and 6 PCVs.

All in all, things went pretty okay. The presenters presented. The food was good. The service was good. People participated. The Associacion Americas presentation was incredible and impactful. It still had it's idiosyncrasies of course. It was Puntarenas HOT. The doctor sweat through his scrubs during his presentation. Don Flaco; so named because he is amazing emaciated (I think that taller provisions are his sole source of nourishment); still managed to bring up the evils of traigamonedas. The afternoon presenter was an hour late and my counterpart left after lunch. But then people started talking about the future. Shirley, this incredibly powerful and compassionate woman, starts talking about planning another taller for her coworkers and for MEP and IMAS. The women from the schools ask about scheduling the doctor to present at their school. And then it happens, the heavens open, a man from the Minesterio de Salud (Health Ministry) says it; "I am going to work on putting to together a commission to work on HIV prevention in Puntarenas."

I don't dare get my hopes up. There is excitement, there is energy, there are promises and sometimes they don't make it out of the building. When I leave here in September, the HIV infection rate will still be high. The social workers and psychologists will still be over worked and overwhelmed. Vital programs will still be under-funded. Important information will not be distributed because it is uncomfortable to talk about. The impact of the taller will fade. But maybe, just maybe, one small good thing remains.

This thing may actually happen

I don't want to speak too soon, but it looks like my HIV workshop for professionals may actually happen. The newest and latest date for it is next Tuesday. We are having it in a bar. No, the irony is not lost on me. I am running around today hand delivering invitations (read: begging people to come). I am not sure how this thing is going to turn out. I may be in tears come Wednesday, but at least it will be over and done with.

More irony: Last week I was in San Jose giving a talk to the new group about filling out Incident Reports after having been mugged and/or a victim of theft. When I got back to my house, I found out that the local crackheads had stolen my towels off my clothesline in my back yard. Oh those crackheads! You just never know what sort of shenanegans they'll be up to next!

Back but not completly

We got back to Costa Rica Sunday night at about 9pm after over twenty sweltering hours on a bus without air conditioning. To say the least it was good to be back. I was home for two whole days before I had to come into San Jose to do some training work. I am giving a training on safety and how to fill out an incident report since I have, unfortunatley, got the process down now. I am looking forward to spending some actual time back in my site.

The date on my HIV/AIDS workshop got changed again. It will be nice to have a little more time to get things together but I would also really, really like for it to get done. It has drug out a really long time. I am a little worried that I am more invested in it than my counterparts, but that is a pretty typical scenario. After so much anticipation, I am just hoping that it gets done without bombing too badly. On a good note, the food is paid for so I don't have to worry about people showing up! :)

Quick Note from El Salvador

I'm back in El Salvador. Zoey, Maria and I arrived Thursday night. We have been running like crazy. We have already eaten pupusas, been to the kareoke bar (twice), scoured San Salvador for the best jugo de naranja con vanilla, and went to a music festival. The girls are getting a crash course in Salvadoran history and culture. It's a tough one to swallow at times but they are hanging in there. We toured the UCA campus where 6 Jesuit priests and two women were murdered by the government death squads during the civil war and we went to Cinquera and hiked in a nature reserve and then spoke with the town patriarch about the war. Zoey caught the bus back to Costa Rica early this morning. Maria caught some sort of bug that kept here in the hammock all day, but seems to be doing better.

Anyhoo... that's all for now.

Pre-trip check in

I am still in San Jose. Dan Baker Day was a success. It will be nice to have an immediate supervisor again. Work-wise things are going well. Trying to get some stuff done between vacations. It's a tough, but I have nearly a month worth of days to take before June when I am no longer allowed to take vacation days. So... it must be done. :)

Tonight, or more specifically, tomorrow morning at 3am, Zoey, Maria and I are headed to El Salvador. I am really excited that they are going with me. We are all staying with Carlos. He gave me a quick rundown of our itinerary and it seems that the phrase "we'll sleep when we are dead" translates perfectly.

I went to the art museum today. It is in a building that used to be the airport. It is really pretty. It is not huge, it is not the DAM (Denver Art Museum), but it was nice. Although I was a little disapointed because they had advertised a special Rembrandt exibit which ended up being a special timeline of his life. It did not include any originals nor reproductions of his actual work. But, the other stuff was pretty cool and just the right amount of things to see that I didn't get kindergartner antsy before the end.

Anyhoo, I'll try to get a post in from El Sal!

It's a tough gig....

I am having a hard time keeping up with the blogs. Been running a lot lately. All this paseando (vacationing) is tough work! Dad, Carol and Dee Dee were here for a week. I saw them off on Friday. It was a lot of fun and quite an adventure navigating the cultural divides. But, we went fishing, ziplining, snorkling and even saw some dolphins. (Oh yea... there were monkeys too.) We even drug Dad and Carol kicking and screaming to a Japanese restaurant so I could get my sushi fix. It was really good, but I gotta say it is tough to switch between English, Spanish and Japanese. It was funky.

I was hostess for volunteers all weekend coupled with trying to get ready to go to El Salvador for a week. It is also Dan Baker Day on Tuesday so I am headed to San Jose. Then to El Sal on Thursday. Dan Baker Day, for those of you who do not yet have it marked on your calendars.... is the welcome party for our new program director.

Anyhoo... I had better get going. I have got some actual work to squeeze in between vacations!

Last Dance of Malcrianza

Okay... well, my AIDS presentations went very well. Or at least they ended on a very good note so that has rosied my recall of the disorder and chaos that they started out being. Overall, I am quite happy with the results. I was able to train two other volunteers also so that felt sustainable. Although I can't say that they were overwhelmingly effective as one of the girls kept unbuttoning her blouse and making eyes at Jacob, the male volunteer helping me out. And at the end of one of the presentations, a kid came up to me and said (to my breasts), "I know I don't look it, but I am 15 years old and I know what to do with a condom." I said, "well, I feel like my work here is done."

I spent the day Saturday in Jacob's site. He lives across the gulf in a small town called Jicaral. They were having their fiestas civicas or civil festivities whose main attraction was the last ride of a world(Tico)-famous man-killing bull called Malcrianza loosely translated as "Born to be Bad." Supposedly he has killed two men and is very vicious. So we packed into a little arena, and I do mean packed. We were sardines on wooden benches. It was not comfortable. The most exciting part of the evening was marveling at the natural consequences of a country without liability laws. The arena was not all that big to begin with, probably only about 30 yards across in any one spot, and there were about 20 spectators in the ring with the bull that would taunt it and then try to scurry up the fence as it came their way.

I have to say that the riding and roping styles were interesting. I consider myself to be a fair judge as I have been to a rodeo or two in my day. It was announced that the first rider would be riding in the "free hand" style, which means that he would be riding with both hands held in the air. I was pretty excited to see how this would be done as I have seen many a good rider not make eight seconds, even while holding on with at least one hand. He came out of the shoot, flopping around like a rag-doll, both hands in the air and I was amazed, until I saw that his feet were strapped to the bull. The purist in me insists that this is cheating. That was pretty much the end of the excitement. Many of the riders made the full eight seconds. Generally there would be 2-3 seconds of rough bucking followed by and equal amount of half-assed bucking and then the bull trying to get past the harrassment of the spectators to get back into the pen. Each "ride" was seperated by at least 20 minutes of what I assume to beintensive preparations, while the spectators shifted uncomfortably trying to keep their bums from sleeping.

The roping style was also quite distinct from that which I am used to seeing. I have to say that it was right online with the tico cultural trait of indirectness, but much more fun to watch. Although I didn't get to examine one upclose, the larriats looked to me slightly less rigid than american ones. The loop was huge, it looked like it was about 6-8 feet doubled, or nearly big enough to run it around the entire bull without touching it. To throw it, they would spin it on one side of the horse, flop it over and spin it on the other and then sort of lob it over the bull. Their accuracy wasn't 100% but it was really fun to watch. It was like the trick ropers that would spin their larriets around themselves and their horses.

Anyhoo, we left after the third bull and according to the Brittish woman that stuck out the entire thing, we missed very little, although ticos insisted that we missed the ride of the century and assured us that Malcrianza was surely possessed by some sort of evil spirit that would make him so blood-thirsty. I can't speak for the level of demonic possession, but I can imagine I would have been seeking blood if I had waited out the entire show. Of course, a seat cushion may have changed my outlook on the entire event.

Update

I guess it has been a while since I wrote. Not a lot going on, mostly just killing time inbetween vacations. Just kidding...

Um what's new. On the subject of barrio wildlife, I spent about a half an hour helping my neighbor capture a ferrel bunny rabbit in the dark. I told her next time to get a white one, they're easier to see.

Next week I have a bunch of HIV/AIDS presentations I will be doing at the local high school. 11 in 4 days. I should be certifiable by Friday, just in time to give a presenation on NOT beating your children to a group of moms. I'm also working on getting my HIV/AIDS workshop together. I am pretty excited, I found out that the grant proposal I wrote was accepted and the project was fully funded. You all should be excited too cuz it was originally a "hit up folks from home" grant. So, consider this your "get out of donating" free card.

Anyhoo... I have to give an aerobics class to my little old ladies this afternoon and then I have penciled in a big, fatty nap in the hammock.

7th Street Bookstore and Café Milagro

Here's a pic of me in one of my favorite San José hangouts. The 7th Street Bookstore where I am able to have a cup of Joe, read a book (or magazine) and write in my journal. It is full of gringos, but the closest thing I have found to stand in for Starry Night.

0 to 12,530 ft

Maria, Zoey and I spent three days last week climbing Chirripó, the highest point in Costa Rica. (On a clear day, you can see both the Pacific and Carribean Coasts.) Thursday we hiked to the albergue or hostel-like thing located 14.5 km up the mountain. Friday we climbed the last 6 km to the summit and ended up doing so with a group of Ticos that included the former director of the parks who was able to tell us a lot of "insider information" about the park history and geology. We also summitted with the sports reporter from one of the local channels who, although I had never seen before, is apparently quite famous in Costa Rica. They were a really fun group and ended up offering to give us a ride back to San Jose on Saturday, which we jumped on like we do any other opportunity to avoid 6 hours in a hot, dusty bus. On Saturday we climbed down and were absolutely, totally and completely exhausted by the time we reached the bottom. We collapsed in a heap but were ecstatic that we had completed our journey and, even better, that the guys had waited for us and we still had a ride back to San Jose. It was an amazing trip! Day 1 5:30 a.m. Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed

View of Costa Rica's West Coast from top of Chirripo (The coast is just underneath the clouds.)View of Costa Rica's East Coast (Coast again just below clouds)

We collapsed at the bottom... but we still arrived to a round of applause!

Sunday, we watched the Superbowl at the Boulevar. Go Colts! Today, I am so sore, I am moving like a little old lady and actually cried out trying to climb the stairs to board the bus. Well worth it though!

Tomorrow... I am back to work!

Yes... there is some actual work going on

Okay... beyond all the mugging excitement, I have actually been getting some work done. I gave three charlas to Tico 15ers on Monday. Yesterday I had a meeting with a doctor at the children's hospital that works in the AIDS clinic. It was really interesting, a little depressing, but a good opportunity for project colaborations. The most disturbing thing I found out is that the hospital only places HIV positive kids in PANI foster homes if there is absolutely no other alternatives. The education level for PANI workers regarding AIDS issues is abysmal. The doctor told me that they had actually treated PANI babies for mal-nutrician because the caretakers didn't feed them because they were afraid they would get the disease. So... to say the least there is a need for education campaigns.

Luckily... I am currently working on an education workshop for PANI workers. I will be saying more about this later and asking for your help with it so... be sure to watch for that.

Today, I will finish up in San Jose by giving another charla to 15ers about Love and Logic parenting/discipline techniques. Love and Logic is a parenting curriculum that I used to use when I worked in the treatment centers in the states. They generously donated the curriculum to me to use here.

Anyhoo.... that's what I'm up to lately. Later today I will be headed back to my barrio and tomorrow I'm headed to the OIJ (Tico FBI) to report my mugging. Let the good times roll!

As long as we are keepin' it real...

I debated about whether or not I should post this blog as it will probably get some hearts started, but to stay true to my honesty policy I guess I had better fess up. I was catching the 4am bus to San Jose Monday morning to do trainings for another Tico group and I was mugged by two guys with a machete crossing the runway between my barrio and the main road where I catch the bus. Not something I am anxious to repeat, but all ended well. They got my wallet but I got to keep my camera and my laptop. Lost my Peace Corps ID and my Colorado Driver's license but nothing irreplaceable just inconvenient. Today I am going to go the the bank and see how many days it will take me to get a new bank card. Anyhoo... life goes on.

A quick rebuttal then back to the fluff....

One of my favorite things about the blog format is that I get to write about my experiences and then from a distance of thousands of miles, people can tell me how I didn't actually experience what I think I did. But, I guess I chose this format and I must live with those consequences.

Here's the thing... this is part of MY Peace Corps experience. All of it. The beautiful stuff as well as the devestating. Read the disclaimer. When all of this is said and done, if I end up in frigic climate working out of a cubical somewhere gazing at a tropical screensaver, I may be tempted to romantacize also. Romance isn't real. This experience is. I'm trying to be as true as I can be.

I know it is tough to swallow but working for the biggest bureaucracy on the planet is not a little slice of heaven everyday. But I believe in what I am doing. I believe in the Peace Corps. I believe in the Peace Corps acknowledging that it is imperfect and, at times, can be the poster-child for futility and personality defects. Assume whatever you need to to be able to sleep at night, but at the end of the day the reality is that a great volunteer was sent home.

I would hope that anyone reading this who is thinking about joining the Peace Corps will do so. It has been, the most significant experience of my life. In fact, I am hoping to be able to extend my service to a third year (in El Salvador). I also hope that if you do, that you are able to appreciate it for what it is and what it will be... real.

No Tolerance for Zero Tolerance

This week we've lost a volunteer. Saturday, Mike Q. is leaving on a jet plane. This is nothing less than tragic. Actually, I believe 'ironic' would be a better describer. Mike was faced with 'administrative separation' for not calling Peace Corps to tell them that he would be out of his site. He was working in San Jose, and simply forgot to call in. It's something I, in my gnat-like attention span and attention to detail, have done more than once. Peace Corps found out and he was given the option to quit or be fired. So he had 24 hours to pack his things, say goodbye to his community and get out of the country. There is a policy, of course. The new policy is 'zero tolerance' and he is being made an example of. Anytime subjectivity is removed from punishments, it always seems to fall on the people that deserve it the least.

People need to call in. It's a safety thing. And yes, there are plenty of people that are screwing around, vacationing more than they are working, and there needs to be consequences. Those people are better (luckier) at not getting caught.

Mike was an excellent volunteer. His heart was in his work. He was doing great things. He, in many ways, embodied what a Peace Corps Volunteer should be. With zero tolerance, none of that matters. I am about to start a series of workshops teaching parents how to administer appropriate consequences to their children so that the message is not lost in the punishment. Maybe I should start with the office. The message we are getting is that as long as we are physically in our sites, it really doesn't matter if we are doing anything else or not. If our work performance is irrelevant in keeping our jobs... what does that say?

Mike will be fine. He is meant to be elsewhere. He'll move on from this and do great things...somewhere else. It's our loss. It's the loss of his community. Of course, if there were no injustice in the world, we would be out of a job.

Anyhoo, good luck Mike! You will be missed. Your absence will devastate Costa Rica's datability potential. :)

BBBRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I have been staying at the koosh hotel in San Jose which means that I have had access to Denver news channels. Looks pretty damn cold there. Part of me wishes I were there to enjoy the snow, although it is a frigid 72 degrees here in San Jose and I am COLD so I'm not sure I could survive the cold front.

Back in the Port

Here's a couple photo highlights from the El Sal trip. It was really a great time. It gets harder and harder to leave everytime I go. It kinda put my post service plans up in the air again. Anyhoo... we'll see where I end up.

Kids from El Espino waiting for the toys to be handed out. I tried to be incognito with the camera so I could snap some candids... I failed miserably. :)


The Salvadoran New Year's tradition is to eat Chompipe (Turkey) for New Year's Eve and then all day the next day. We bought the turkey's live. This is me sizing it up before he hits the oven. To say the least, there are not a lot of turkey's that see the new year in El Salvador.

This is me and the guys: René, Chus, me, Carlos.

Fireworks are also a big New Year's tradition. Needless to say the burn unit at the local hospital keeps pretty busy. Sparklers and colors are fun but I would like to beat the guy that invented the loud ones. My ears are still ringing.

Made it back to Puntarenas about 10 pm Wednesday night. Spent most of yesterday reclaiming my house from the spiders and other critters. Was not very excited to find a mouse carcass under my stove. Other than that, all is well. Things are cleaned up and back to normal.

Maria stayed the night with me last night with her brother and sister. I made my first attempt at Indian cooking and made Curry Garbonzo beans and Palaak Paneer. The Paneer turned out a little funky but still tasted good. The garbonzos were a hit, I must admit. Anyhoo, all is well. Trying to get back in the swing, but not having a lot of luck motivating myself as I am headed to San Jose next week to work on the Cadena.

El Salvador

I made it. Más o menos 20 hours in a bus and voila! Whole other country. Whole other world would probably be a better description. I am again finding that my vacations from my Peace Corps life seem more like what I thought my Peace Corps life would be like. It's kinda throwing me into a quandry.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. Mine was very, very mellow. Carlos' family really doesn't celebrate x-mas with much fanfare, so we didn't do much of anything. They do their family thing on New Years so will have more to report later. We did distribute toys to the kids in the neighborhood so that was pretty cool. I got some pictures I will try to get posted soon. It was much harder to snap candids as they don't tend to get a lot of gringos here so I stuck out and the weird thing I kept pointing at people got a couple looks to. When I showed the kids the photos of themselves they burst into giggles, which was actually more foto worthy than the actual picture. The kids also loved the toys of course. Without a doubt they were the only ones they got this year.

Other than that I have been running around with my friend Carlos. The first night I was in town I helped him and some of his friends coordinate a romantic dinner to help him win back his girlfriend. Poor guy needed all the help he could get. It was looking to be hit or miss there for a while, but she was no match for the Mariachis. It was quite a show. Mission accomplished.

Last night I hung out with another friend, Alejandro, that I actually met on the bus ride the last time I came up here. He is actually one of the very, very few small business owners in El Salvador. He showed me around the city. San Salvador is a very interesting city. There are a number of architectually beautiful buildings and parks in the center but extroaordinarily bad government has buried them behind poverty and delinquincy. It's really a shame. There are also an incredible amount of Gringo stores. All the fast food, of course, but also a lot of malls and big name American stores. I actually saw a 9 West store. It is a very interesting place. The contrast between the haves and have nots is overwhelming. Hopefully one day El Sal will be able to reclaim their cultural landmarks and heritage.

Anyhoo... that's all I have to report for now. I am here until the 3rd. I am not sure I will be able to write before then. Internet is definately more challenging here. Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

On my way....

I am in San Jose. I am headed to El Salvador on the bus at 3 a.m. I am hoping to stay awake until then so I can sleep as much as possible in a bus. I am already fading though so I don't know how well that plan is going to work.

Anyhoo.... Hope everyone has a Happy ChrismaKwanzaHannukka!

Critter

I have a new part-time roommate. It is a cat. I was going to say that I got a cat... but I didn't really get one. There was no effort whatsoever exerted in the aquisition, much like all my other critter roommates. It officially belongs to a neighbor but hangs out at my house. I decided to let it stay because I figured it may help fend off the rats. For those of you that have witnessed my apathy for animals this may be surprising. However, I have found that the cat and I have come to an mutual understanding of tolerance if, and only if, acknowledgement is unavoidable. The cat is also bi-lingual, meaning that it disregards me in English as well as Spanish. It has actually brought me some peace of mind in that I now can assure myself that it is just the cat making strange noises at night.

Semana de talleres

Wow! Where has time gone? I just finished up a whirl-wind week and things do not seem to be slowing down at all. I went to two workshops this week. The first one was about physical punishment for kids. It lasted two days and was a collosal waste of time, I kept having . But there were about 6 other fvolunteers fromt he vicinity that came into Puntarenas to share in the mind-numbing glory so we hung out at my house to recover. Priya, who is Indian-American made some incredible Chicken Curry for us at my house which made up for the fact that she broke my key off in my door that morning. All is forgiven. :)

The second workshop was with the local women's office and was about HIV/AIDS. It was a little crazy but night and day better than the first one. I made some good contacts for the workshop I am putting together for early March. So hopefully all will go well.

Yesterday, a fellow PCV, Brandon came down from Liberia with a friend that is visiting him. We took the Playa Naranjo Ferry (a.k.a. Booze Cruise) and had a great time living up the PCV lifestyle. Today is Friday and I spent the day trying to get caught up, if not ahead. I am headed to El Salvador on Wednesday to spend the holidays there. I will be back on the 3rd of January. Hopefully at some point I will have email access but communication is much more difficult there. My phone will also not be of any use so for those of you who call me from time to time (both of you) no need to bother for a while.

It was really an exhausting week. The family I hang out with in my barrio didn't see me at all and nearly sent out a search party. I wasn't even able to make my dance or exercize classes so I feel like a perezosa. I was able to get some work done but it feels like it was lost in the black-hole of downtime in captivity. Oh well.

I will be in San Jose on Tuesday so hopefully I will have time for one last post before I go.

Christmas Tamales

I spent most of last Friday afternoon making Christmas tomales with my "little old ladies" that I teach aerobics to. They were making them to sell and we ended up making about 200 tomales. They were so excited that I was helping them and learning to make tomales so that I could make them back in the states and/or for my Tico husband. They couldn't seem to decide which outcome they would rather see but had a great time debating the two.



It was a lot of fun and the tomales turned out ricisimo. Here's what I learned....





First you roast the banana leaves

Then you cook some stuff....

The tomales are masa (corn meal dough stuff), rice (no lack of carbs here), potatos, carrots, green peppers, pork, and chayote (a tropical vegitable) rolled in plantain leaves.

Then tied with love by little old ladies (Emphasis on the little, I don't think that either of them hit 5')

That's it!

Que torta

The rats have carried off my toothpaste.

Día del Pavo

Thanksgiving 2006 has officially been declared a "raging success." Gracias a Zoey. We spent the holiday in a lodge like rental just outside of San Marcos del Terrazu, South of San Jose. We had everything... turkey (2), stuffing, sweet potatoes, hummus and pretzle jello. We stuffed ourselves shamelessly. We played games, we chortled, we drank. It was a thoroughly enjoyable time. I even got the pictures uploaded and sent out. I am quite possibly one of the best foto sharers in the Peace Corps. :)

Anyhoo... hope Turkey Day for all back home was good. Love you and miss you all. Next year, I'll eat, drink and play games with you. Si Díos quiere.

Saturday Morning

I wake up this morning at about 6:30 and go for a run. In another month it will be way too late in the day to do this without risking a heat stroke. But this morning is slightly cloudy so I am able to run for just over forty five minutes with only the usual rivers of sweat. I get back to my house and realize I have nothing whatsoever to eat for breakfast so I wait about 20 minutes for the sweat to quit sreaming and walk to the conejo to buy a couple of things. On the way I great Carlos' grandfather who is retired from whatever he worked at and now spends his days telling his neighbors that it is "a pleasure to greet you." At the market, I have avocados, tomatos, cream cheese and natilla. (I was going to buy some tuna because I have found that the conejo is the only place in town were I could buy a can of tuna in water for under $1, never mind that I live 2 miles from a cannery, but they aren't carrying it anymore. Salada yo.)

I say "Hi" to the butcher who is also my only remaining English student. I was all set for a nice breakfast. I get to the counter after about a 15 minute wait in line and the guy tells me the credit card machine is down. I don't have enough cash so again; Salada yo. I walk to a bakery on the corner that I walk by at least twice a day but have never been into. No reason really, just havn't. The guy is really excited that I am there. He asks me how long I have been in Costa Rica and if I like it. He calls me Reina and mi Amor about fifteen times in the three minutes that I am there. I walk down to the pulperia passing nasty bar owner who implies that he likes what he sees. At the pulperia I ask about some natilla, a yogurt like dairy product that I initially hated but have aquired a taste for. It costs 300 colones and I only have 200. Julian tells me I can bring the other 100 later. I head home and greet my neighbor who has about half a dozen roosters tied to pegs in the park. Funny they never seem to have hens.

I go home, make toast and organic coffee I bought at the AVC that was grown by another volunteers community. I dip my toast in natilla, only 2/3 paid for, read a September issue of The Economist that has been passed, and will continue to be passed, from one volunteer to another. I drink my coffee. I eat my breakfast. I read my magazine.

¡Que Barbaridad!

Apparently I wasn't the only one that lost my right to vote this year. Although I do have to say that the reasoning behind mine was much more legitimate, assuming of course that there was reasoning. A nice reminder that, although we put ourselves as the world leaders of democracy, we still got some kinks to work out.

Anyhoo... since I didn't get to vote, I am going to scold: I am also sorely disapointed in the results, specifically that Musgrave and Tancredo were re-elected and that Amendment 46 passed and Referendum 1 didn't. Unfortunately, intolerance and discrimination continue to reign....

Overall... shameful and humbling results on many levels.

Nationally though, the picture is much better. So I just may make it back to US soil... Maybe.

Raise your Voice

Well, it's election day. This is my opportunity to remind all of you that you don't have to travel halfway around the world to make a difference. The least you can do is vote. Unfortunately, this election cycle I have been stripped of my right to vote as my absentee ballot did not arrive. I am sure it is some kind of conservative conspiracy. :)

Anyhoo... get out there and VOTE. You might also take a moment while doing so to appreciate all the first world conveniences that make doing so, so darn easy.

Also... on a personal note. You should also be sure to vote correctly. If the laws in Colorado scream ignorance and intolerance, I may not come back.

AVC

The All Volunteer Conference is officially over but I am still in San Jose. The conference was really amazing. I got to know my fellow volunteers better and am newly inspired by the work that they are doing. I have to say that the people I have met through the Peace Corps, as a group, are some of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure to know. (Besides, of course, my lovely blog-reading public.) We also had our Halloweeen party, we were the Black Eyed Peas... get it? it was fun... I will send pictures soon. My computer is acting up so I am going to keep this short. Hope all are well.

"Falling on my head like a tragedy..."

Well, the rains have finally hit. It has been pretty dry here, but the last week or so has been quite rainy. I must explain here that it is not rainy like it is back home. The biggest difference being that there is not that fresh clean smell after a shower. Here, it POURS rain. As in water-comes-into-the-house-and-destroys-furniture rain. As in streets-become-rivers-rain. As in smells-like-ass rain. What happens is that all the stuff that had been sitting around as aesthetic polution, trash, feces, rotting fruit, etc. begins to float and due to some magical scientific chemical process begins to smell... so as I said, that last description is not an exageration.

It has given me a very clear picture of the devestation that floods cause, not by the initial water damage but by the influx of diseases that follow. People are getting sick. There is talk of Dengue. (Of course, there is always talk of Dengue.) It's subtle, it's not an epidemic, it's just what happens when it rains. We had just a couple of strong days of rain, I can't imagine, although now I have a better idea, what it would be like if it were really flooding.

Anyhoo, I am headed to the AVC (All-Volunteer Conference) next week. We are all getting together for halloween this year. Should be interesting. Sure to be cold. Well, cold for Costa Rica. We will all bundle up. This year should be particularly freezing as now that I have become accostomed to living on the sun, if the temp drops below 80 I start to shiver.

Another Holiday

I came into San Jose last night. I was actually suppose to go to visit another PCV in Ostional on the Guanacaste coast and watch the turtles come in to lay their eggs, but she ended up with Dengue (which I thought was very inconsiderate). So I came in to San Jose and we watched a movie and I harrassed her for getting Dengue.

We watched an Inconvenient Truth. I was pretty shocked that it was being shown here since we generally only get the no-brainer movies but it is here and we watched it. It was really quite good and I highly recommend that everyone go see it. Two things occurred to me as I was watching it: One, that if the sea level rises 20 feet... there will be no more Puntarenas. So I would be S.O.L. Two, probably the most "world-saving" good deed I have done in all of this is that I have not driven a car and have been completely dependent on public transportation for over a year now. I don't think I even have to mention that I don't even mess with adjusting a thermostat. :)

Anyhoo... watch it. It's good and then do your part. Even Byron is on board. :)

Que Pereza

I find myself running around like crazy but I really can't identify anything I have actually gotten done. What happened to my Pura Vida lifestyle? I have had a hard time getting back into work since I got back from MST. I am still busy though I just don't have any idea what I have been doing. But it seems like the days keep passing and the list of things I have NOT accomplished gets bigger and bigger. So... life seems a lot like life here.

The big news on the block is that I have a new site mate. Marianne has moved into El Roble which is where Andre was. It is about a 15 minute bus ride from my barrio. It is kind of nice to have someone I can hang out with and we don't have to check out tits. Although we have already made a pact that we can't follow up every tedious and pointless meetings with an afternoon of drinking. Just the really tedious and pointless ones. That should keep us down to no more than once a week.

I am hoping to have something quasi productive to report soon. ALthough it is October and the holiday season is coming up which means that it is really time to start slowing down. :) What a life!

There's the official story and then there's the truth....

Quick update....

I made it through MST (Mid-Service Training) It was a little early, October 1 is my official anniversary date. The year did seem to fly by and everyone says the second goes by even quicker. I will let you know. Anyhoo, training went well. It was nice to hang in luxury again. Although it has made it much harder to come back. It is amazing how quickly you get re-accustomed to not having to pick bugs off of you.

Speaking of which...

I ended up having to go back into San José yesterday to get x-rays on my toe cuz I jammed it big time. It is actually not that big of a deal, nothing is broken and the official diagnosis is "ugly". I have pictures... you will see. I know you are all probably wondering how this could have happened. Well, the official story is that I was attacked by a band of 40 thieves. A struggle ensued wherein I had to fight them off with my Jackie Chan-esque fighting technique. In the struggle, I suffered a sprained big toe. Yup... that's the official story.

The truth is that I got into the shower and when I turned on the water I startled a mouse that had apparently been hanging out in the shower curtain. He ran across my foot, I jumped and came down on top of my big toe. Little bastard! I am hoping that this will even out my rodent karma after tossing the rat over the fence.

3rd World Living Lesson #184

Have you ever tried to burn a pile of tropically-moist leaves and grass? It takes a good amount of lighter fluid and produces a significant amount of smoke which naturally wafts directly into the house.

I happened to have some lighter fluid lying around as I mistakingly assumed that "alcohol multi-uso" was the Spanish translation for "rubbing alcohol" and not "lighter fluid." To say the least, my new earrings are sterile.

Web links

In addition to Tom's rural Costa Rica website project that includes tourism opportunities to see the "real" Costa Rica, I also posted a link to a website for a coffee co-op that Zoey has been working with. You can order coffee online that is environment and humanitarian friendly. It is also really, really good coffee.

Check them out and support the cause! :)

Poop on a bus

Here's a little something they didn't mention in the brochure...

I complete my first year of service at the end of the month. Which means that I will be in San Jose next weekend for Mid-Service Training (MST). Basically this entails those of us that have survived the first year (25 of 32) get together and try to figure out how to report what we have accomplished... as in... how do you justify the fact that your biggest accomplishment so far has been learning to point with your lips. The other fun part is that we will be hit with a barrage of medical exams and consultations to make sure that we are still alive and, relatively, well. These tests do include three consecutive days of getting a stool sample analyzed. The kicker is that you have to get the sample to the lab within 4 hours of its creation. As fun as that is normally... let me just tell you that it makes navagating transportation that much more fun.

Campo exchange

Quick update. We finished up in San Jose with the Cadena (PCV newsletter). All went well; good reviews from the director and no "revisions for content" required. I thought you all might be interested; a fellow PCV and Cadena editor, Tom, has set up a website for the women's group he is working with. The address is www.ruralcostarica.com. It is in English as well for those of you who are Spanish impaired. There is also a really great pig picture. :) I will put a link up on the right side of the blog.

Anyhoo... I am back in my site and although I am missing the bourgeois living I did at the hotel in San Jose I am happy to be back in dance classes. I am actually teaching my instructor to do Country Western dancing. It is quite amusing. Mostly because I don't know it very well and in order to describe the the Country Western "technique" I have been referring to many farm animals. As in: "Stiffen your arms and elbows like a chicken" and "walk like you you've been on a horse for two days." The hardest part is explaining to him that there is no hip motion. It's a ton of fun though. I'll keep you posted.

Barrio Silvestre

You don’t have to be a PCV for long before you discover that there are certain aspects of Peace Crops life that are indisputably distinct from your former existence. My “Treaty with Urban Wildlife,” as I have come to refer to it, is a good example. It runs something like this: Spiders are welcome in the house although physical contact is highly discouraged. Webs are left in tact except when erected in high traffic areas. Cockroaches are prohibited within the house and trespassers are swept outside. The occasional toads that wander in from the rain and are gently escorted to the nearest exit. The presence of mice and ants is also banned but compliance is erratic at best and negotiations continue. I am rather proud of my harmonious co-existence with the barrio creatures. I sometimes think of myself as the “Ghetto Goodall.” I am significantly less interactive and amorous with my wildlife subjects than the renowned primatologist but I am living with nature… sort of.
However, in the past few weeks, rodent treaty negotiations have intensified and are putting into question my “Goodall” status. Gnawed masa bags and nocturnal scampering escalated negotiations to full combat operations. I had resorted to setting out poison after my efforts of dissuasion and bartering had gone unheeded. The poison was only out a short time before my Buddhist sensibilities began to get the best of me. (Interestingly enough, my Buddhist sensibilities have not evolved to the point of vegetarianism, although I have developed a personal policy of not condoning the killing of any creature I am not personally willing to eat.) I finally decided that I did not want to be responsible for the karmic repercussions of destroying a living creature, even if it is a vile living creature. All illusions of having avoided butchery come to a halt when I walk onto my back patio and discover a dead rat lying under my sink precisely where I place my right foot to brush my teeth. My immediate reaction is a jerky, disjointed spastic dance. Once that is accomplished, I reassess the situation. It holds that there is a dead rat under my sink precisely where I put my right foot to brush my teeth.
I live alone, so this is not a problem I can ignore and hope it goes away. At some point I am going to have to brush my teeth. What exactly is the Standard Operating Procedure for rodent carcass removal? I check the PCV Handbook and find no answers. I figure my best bet is to burn it with the trash. Cremation sounds karmically acceptable; ashes to ashes, blah, blah, blah… I need a shovel to transport the corpse from beneath my sink to the trash pile. I look around and I’ve got nothing at all shovel-like. Then it hits me…BAM! I am a woman living alone in a machista culture. I so don’t have to deal with this. Granted… I don’t have a father, brother, husband or boyfriend BUT no importa, I can borrow my neighbor’s. Suddenly tolerating all of Fat, Nasty Bar Owner’s catcalls will pay off. I go next door and with all of the innocence and feminine docility I can muster I ask how one goes about removing a dead rat from under a sink. The marido takes the bait.
I show him the carcass and he exclaims, “¡Hue’pucha! ¡Qué grandota!” He kinda makes a face and I can tell that he really has no desire to remove my rat carcass either and is probably wishing “que no me hubiera dejado el tren.” He looks around, and then, apparently not finding whatever he is looking for he picks up the rat by the tail and holds it away from himself exactly as if he were holding a dead rat by the tail. I am thinking about rodent diseases and am about to remind him to wash his hands when he swings the thing down and then tosses it like a horseshoe over the concrete wall and into the neighbor’s yard. I stand, mouth agape, and as I watch it tumbling through the air head-over-tail over head-over-tail and then disappearing from my life forever I can’t help but feel like my entire plan has backfired.
Okay, let’s make the best of this situation. What I have now is an opportunity to teach, to challenge the status quo and instill higher values. That’s what I’m here for anyways, isn’t it? I ready myself to explain that “out of site” is not “out of mind,” that we need to work together as a community to solve these pressing concerns, that environmental and sanitation issues especially require collaboration and cooperation. We can’t just toss our problems into our neighbor’s yards and expect that we won’t experience repercussions. I take a deep breath and say:
“Gracias.”
Well…. it was implied.

Herein lies the problem, somewhere between intention and execution. Apparently all that first world, liberal-educated indignation with which I watched the rat fly over the wall was significantly overshadowed by a stark sense of relief. In reality, my number one priority was removing the carnage from my dental hygiene staging area. Punto.
Puro Peace Corps. We arrive full of bright-eyed idealism. There are answers. Take my hand. I’ll show you. We’ll do it together. We begin and there is buy in. There is energy. There is excitement. There is cafecito. Then it starts to crumble. There are obstacles. There is conflict. There are excuses. There is pereza. We think we’ve failed. We think we’ve failed because we have failed. The problem is not failure. Human beings are a flawed species. Our collective failure and frustration are born not from our inability to realize the Utopia we’ve imagined but from trying to escape the fallibility of the human condition. One day one may travel thousands of miles from home to “make the world a better place,” and the next toss a dead rat into a neighbor’s yard.
In regard to a treaty with the untamed human barrio creature…negotiations continue and are conducted, as often as humanly possible, with patience and compassion.

(The above is the article I wrote for La Cadena, the CR volunteer newsletter.)

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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.

Can you sing the Barney song in Spanish?

I spent the weekend trying to keep 60 hormone racked teenagers from procreating. One of the boys still ended up with a hickey but so far there are no indications that that the conference produced offspring.

I was able to fill all four spots and took 3 girls and 1 boy to the camp. It was a last-minute frenzy to get them all there. I didn't have all four confirmed until the Thursday afternoon. We left at 8 am Friday morning. The camp was in the mountains of Heredia North of San Jose. We spent four days and three nights emmerced in teenage drama. I was assigned a group so I and a principal from Lìmon were in charge of eight girls. I ended up loaning away nearly all of my clothes at one port or another because although we had advised, insisted, and even demanded they bring warm clothes for high altitude cold, rainy weather, most of the kids brought shorts and skimpy tank tops. I think for the most part, they just have no concept for the idea of cold. Where a lot of the kids are from, you remedy getting a chill by putting on a t-shirt.

The camp was emceed by a local company and they were really amazing. We did all the camp stuff: sang songs about chickens and boogers, clapped and chanted, danced, hugged, cried, had bonfires and s'mores, hiked through rain and mud, had a talent show. It was utterly exhausting but the kids ate it up. On the last day, I got up at 5:30 a.m. and didn't get to bed until nearly 1 a.m. the next morning. When I finally got home in the middle of a downpour, I collapsed in my hammock and went to bed at 8 p.m.

It was really an incredible experience for the kids though. Not just getting to go to a new part of the country that they have never seen and most likely will never see again. The day to day lives of many of these kids is racked with a miriad of third world social problems and broken dreams. The opportunity to participate in the insanity of being a normal hormone racked teen-ager is as foreign to many of them as if they had camped on the moon. The kids started crying Sunday afternoon because they knew they would have to say goodbye Monday morning.

Unfortunately, this may have been the last youth conference for a long while. Peace Corps has limited camps to one per year period. Last year, the Youth program hosted two, splitting the boys and girls, and the Rural program hosted a Women's camp. Now with the new Micro-development program, we will have three programs fighting over the chance to host one camp. Burreaucracies want measureable results and it's tough to prove that kids didn't get pregnant or start taking drugs, or drop out of school because they spent a weekend in the mountains and realized that another reality was possible.

La tecnica de gato montes

Two down, one to go. I got through the community activities. They went pretty well although I had to scale back pretty massively for multiple logistical reasons. The kids really liked them though and keep asking me when we are going to do them again. I am working on that....

Yesterday and last night I hosted a group of 9 trainees in my barrio. It went pretty well. I hung out last night with a friend of mine that has been organizing the dance classes. We went out with her son and nephew and caught crabs on the beach. It was so fun. I didn't actually catch any, I mostly ran around screaming and laughing. I did witness her son perform a very interesting technique for catching a crab that involves springing on it like a cat. I laughed so hard my face hurt.

This weekend I am taking, hopefully, four teenagers to a camp near San Jose. I am still struggling to get the kids to confirm they can go but I am hoping that it will all work out in the end. Vamos a ver.

Runnin'

I was in Puerto Viejo over the weekend with Maria and Zoey. We had a great time, didn't do a whole lot besides hang out on the beach and in coffee shops (and bars) but there was an abundance of good conversation and overall enjoyment. That is always welcome.

I celebrated the 4th on a bus and arrived just in time to give my English class. The class is going pretty well and I think my students are even learning something. I taught them how to say "This sucks!" to carry them through the frustrating parts. I am suppose to start another one next month and I am not sure how I am going to work that since I have less and less time to spare.

I am busy now planning for camp activities that I am going to do in my barrio next week. I started making preparations more than a little too late so I am having to scale back quite a bit. It also doesn't help that Peace Corps as an organization is becoming more and more beauracratic and less and less willing to support volunteers. That is super frustrating, not because I am not used to being expected to do more with less but that I expected better from them. Of coarse we will take it. We will continue on because we believe in the work more than we are willing to protest a system that is conter-productive. That and we are one part humanitarian, two parts masochistic. "Ho-hum," say the social workers...

I will be also hosting a group of trainees on the 17th. The new group arrived at the end of last month. I still havn't met any of them but I expect to eventually. I am trying to find houses for them to stay in and it is proving more difficult than I had anticipated. I am sure it will work out somehow. It always seems to. Besides... I think it is kind of exciting to wait til the last minute and go through the panic of impending failure.

On the bright side... my camp activities have been integrated into being partially sponsored by the newly formed Sports Association. I pretty much had to bribe my former "host brother" to invite me to the meetings but he finally did. (He is a politician and, I believe, would rather keep any advances in his name.) They have had a total of 3 meetings and I have been to 2. At first I was leary and wondered how they would accept me, since it took so much for me to be invited in the first place and then I was the only girl in the middle of a bunch of "machisto" guys. They talked about how they wished more women would join and how they felt like when people think of sports, they only think soccer. I offered to incorporate them into my camp activities and they thought about it and talked about it and then their eyes got a spark. They quick organized to meet on Sunday to clean the park really well, marking a new era, a new beginning. They held their daughters in their laps, and gently stroked their hair, "We can start something" they said.

I gots da' fever!

No...not dengue... DANCE FEVER! I found dance classes in my barrio. I went last weekend and sweat like a human faucet. I never knew so much sweat could come from one person. I would have been really embarrassed except that everyone else was dumping buckets as well. So I just sucked it up.

I am hoping to continue. The classes are kind of expensive and actually a little out of my league ($2/hour, 4 hours/weekend) but I am working on a trade with the instructor. He teaches me to dance, I teach him to speak English. We'll see how it goes. We are also, very much like in the states, short on male partners. I am hoping to do some recruiting to earn my keep as well. I don't know why guys don't learn to dance, it is the best way to get the girl....

Project wise I am working on planning a camp for the upcoming "Vacación de Quince Días" (two week vacation). I am hoping to get it paid for by local businesses. There is a fertilizer factory dumping polution in to the community so I thought it would be nice for them to put up some "plata" so I can teach the children about the evils of fertilizer factories. Needless to say my solicitation letter will be de-emphasizing this portion of the activities.

This weekend I am headed to the Carribean side. I am going to go to Puerto Viejo with Maria and Zoey to celebrate the 4th. Most of the celebrating will be done early, and I don't expect fireworks. I will be commemorating the independence of my country by spending long hours on a bus and then teaching English in a foreign country.

Fun facts....

Did you know that I have 5 nieces and nephews and exactly 0 school pictures of any of them.

(How's that for subtle?)

Retraction

Okay... a little more research and I found out that there IS treatment for kids 15-18 it is just that they still have to go to San José to get it. The not so great news being that the social worker at the Puntarenas hospital didn't know this. That says a lot too. And... handing out condoms on the street corner would go over about as well as someone handing out "Plan B" on a street corner in the Bible Belt. Condoms aren't even available in the pulperias and even if they were, it is doubtful that anyone would buy them because of the chisme (gossip) factor. Then there is the whole issue of knowing how to use them correctly.... on and on it goes.

I have been bombarded all of a sudden with a billion things to do. I am planning a camp for the kids in the barrio for the second week of July. They have a school vacation for a couple of weeks. I also just signed on with the social worker and psychologist at the school to start some groups with the 5th and 6th graders in which I will be discussing certain delicate topics including sexuality. (Yes, fifth graders are having sex. They do it in the states too, so if you have a fifth or sixth grader you better get on talking to them about it.) I am also hoping to run a coordinated program with their parents so that they will a)not freak out about what I will be talking about in the groups and b)be more educated about the things their kids are facing. I am kind of excited about it and I hope that it will work. The part with the kids is pretty much a go. I am hoping to get the parents involved although I may be pulling my hair out in a few weeks.

A new group of volunteers will arrive in country next week. Not only are we not the new kids anymore, but the next group will be Youth volunteers and I will be hosting them for a tour of the barrio and then later will have a trainee hang with me for a couple of days. I am pretty excited about it.

My English class is coming along. I don't know if they are really learning any more English, but it is fun and I am meeting more people in the barrio. It is really exhausting to be working in both languages. I get to a point sometimes where nobody understands me in English or Spanish. Fun times.

VIH/SIDA Adventures

I received an email from my buddy Aaron (shout out to the Junction) with questions about my projects and I thought I would answer them publically so all could enjoy and maybe encourage others to ask cuz life is getting to be a lot like life and doesn't seem quite so much like an adventure anymore and I'm not sure what you want to hear about. Way to be a trend setter Aaron!

Anyway, I am going to start with my VIH/SIDA (HIV/AIDS) project. The whole thing started months ago when I attended a informational charla at my school. Among other things I found out that there were 29 current SIDA patients in my barrio alone. Generally when you are talking about HIV/AIDS, at least in Costa Rica, they have what they call the "rule of nine." That means that for every single diagnosed case there are most likely 9 people that have the disease that have not been diagnosed. There are 3000 people in my barrio, so taking this into consideration the HIV/AIDS rate is about 1 in 10. That is really, really high and really, really scary. General consciousness regarding the disease is practically non-existant. For example, I mentioned that I was working on an HIV/AIDS project to a barrio resident and he said, "That is so sad that they have that disease in Africa." So to say the least, an education program is lacking.

As far as my program and projects go. I have ALOT of liberty to work on projects that the community needs and/or wants. This is really great because I have the freedom to work on an HIV/AIDS project even though it may not directly fall under "Children, Youth and Families." Of coarse, being thrown into a foreign community and being told "Okay Do-Gooder; Go do good," was a little disorienting. But now I have got my feet under me more or less and am rolling.

I am currently trying to get some local institutional body to take up a project. I keep running into more and more "here and there" organizations that have small projects. I am hoping that at some point we will be able to form some sort of committee or association that will focus primarily on education and prevention. Ideally this will be sponsored or within an existing institution so that it will maybe stick around for a while. Not that it would be guaranteed even then. But, since the goal is sustainability....

The local hospital has an HIV/AIDS clinic that treats a massive population within a huge geographical area. Right now they are treating aproximately 175 patients. It is important to note that the hospital only treats adults age 18 and up. There is a children's hospital in San José that treats children, ages 0-15. If you are paying attention you might notice that there is a three year age gap, 15-18. If you happen to be a young person in this age group with HIV/AIDS, or basically any ailment the local clinic can't treat, you are salado. (That is means "S.O.L." in Spanish.) Right now I am primary working with the hospital. One plus in Costa Rica is that all HIV/AIDS treatment is provided under the national health care, so pharmeceutical treatment is actually available. The down side being that the lack of HIV/AIDS consciousness is pretty much across the board. Confidentiality really doesn't exist here so many people don't get tested because of the stigma. It is not uncommon for patient's to be discriminated against including losing their jobs, friends, etc. There are even cases when their families toss them out of the house. So there is quite a bit of social pressure to remain ignorant.

Currently the education branch of the HIV/AIDS clinic is ran by the nurse. Sometimes the doctor helps out. Two major problems with this; the first being that if they are giving charlas in schools, they are not treating patients; and the second being that they focus primarily on the physical health end of the disease and do not address the social factors that play a huge role in prevention, seeking treatment and living with the disease. So we are trying to work on that. Then there is the church; Costa Rica's officially a Catholic country... Need I say more?

I have found pockets of people and organizations currently working on this. Hopefully we can get something going. Fortunately and also unfortunately, there is only so long that they can ignore this disease before there is a major catastrophy and they are MADE to pay attention. So I guess there is some hope.

By popular demand...

Okay... I guess it has been a while since I blogged. Part of the problem is that I have been somewhat busy and that things here are starting to feel a lot like life in general and a lot less like exciting adventures. The other part is that I am receiving less and less feedback so I wasn't sure if anyone was still paying attention. For those of you that emailed, thanks and for those of you that don't "shame on you!" Okay... enough chastising.

I FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY got my cell phone. It only took a month and massive international interventions. Not really, but I got my phone so I will be able to be in contact with the world again.

All of a sudden I have quite a few projects going on as well. Things that I had hoped to start months ago are suddenly coming to pass. Wonders never cease. I am starting an English class Tuesday night and an exercise class for "older" women on Wednesday. I have found a group of high school kids that I am going to start working with, that I am pretty excited about. I have also been doing quite a bit with the AIDS clinic and I am hoping to continue to do so in the future.

I gave a charla to AIDS patients and their families a couple weeks ago that went really well It felt good to be counseling again (somewhat). You don't realize how much you miss contributing and being a part of something productive until you do it again. It's like, "oh yeah, I remember this.... working... it's kinda nice." So things are coming along.

I spent last week in San Jose working on the Cadena. The issue turned out really well. We had quite a bit of volunteer contributions. This issue is our biggest yet. It was kind of nice to be in San Jose and out of the heat a bit. It is like a different world when I go there... sometimes it is a 20 degree temperature difference. (Not exaggerating).

I came back yesterday and Maria, her brother and his girlfriend stayed at my house. It was really nice. We made dinner, drank some beer, and talked. They didn't even mind having to sleep on the floor with me. Or at least they didn't tell me they minded so much. I have new neighbors that are quite loud so I am less excited about that. I share a wall with then that misses meeting the ceiling by about four inches so there is literally very little to block sounds like conversations, television/radio(which must always be played loud enough to deafen children and small animals) and, of coarse, bodily functions. But, así­ es la vida.