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!