Here is a survey that I recently filled out for WorldTeach about my experience this past year. I just thought I'd post it here as well, because maybe it'll answer some questions that people have. :)
1. How would you describe your students? What motivates them? What motivates you to return to their classroom?
I quickly found that kids are kids in every country and culture. My students are happy, fun, energetic children. Each grade is very different. My first graders get excited about anything that I get excited about, be it singing a song or doing an art project, whereas my fifth and sixth graders are often more worried about friends and appearances than studying for exams. Because I have so few students, I have been able to get to know each one very well. I see something special in each one of my kids, and have learned that what motivates each student is different. I have learned to relax and joke around more with my fifth and sixth graders and be more of a "friend" to them than an authority figure. With my younger students, I learned that if I act really excited about an activity, they will mirror my excitement. Thinking about that special aspect of each of my students is what motivates me to come to school each day and try to make each lesson plan live up to their expectations. It is often my most challenging students that most motivate me to come to school each morning with a new plan as to how to reach them. Also, I know that many of my students love being in school because they come from difficult home lives, so I try to make my classroom as positive and fun of an environment as I can for them.
2. What aspect of the WT program was most helpful for improving your teaching?
Although it was difficult at times, I learned most from trial and error this year, from being thrown into a classroom environment and each day trying something new to see what was the best way to reach my students.
3. Looking back, what do you wish you had known before participating in WT?
There were so many things that happened this year that were shocking at first, but then you learn to adapt. The number one way each volunteer's experience is similar is that we learn to expect the unexpected and deal with each new challenge as it comes.
4. What is the most interesting thing you learned about yourself through this experience?
When you're thrown into such a new environment with very few consistencies from your life in the States, you are forced to look deep into yourself and see both the good and the bad. It is a very introspective experience. I learned that I am able to adapt to many different situations. What surprised me most about myself was how much I had to struggle to keep my emotions under control and stay patient with others; however, learning this about myself has also allowed me to develop the skills I need to deal with this aspect of my personality.
5. What was most difficult for you in this experience? How did you confront this challenge?
My biggest challenge was learning to work in a school environment that was very different from any school I have ever known in the States. At first, I tried in vain to control the mass chaos that often took place in my school. As I'd watch at recess, kids would be climbing on huge rocks, up trees, over fences, running in the streets, throwing sticks and rocks, and playfully wrestling in the dirt. I suffered minor anxiety attacks as I pictured one severe injury after another occurring. With time, however, I learned that there were some things that I just needed to take a deep breathe and let happen. My school and town has been functioning this way for years, and although it may not be "ideal" by my standards, it has somehow managed to function pretty successfully for over 40 years.
6. What was your most memorable experience(s) with WorldTeach and why? (e.g. overcoming a challenge, something surprising about the country/program, a rewarding experience, etc.)
Some of my most memorable experiences have occurred toward the end of the year, as I have now more-or-less adjusted to the way of life here in rural Costa Rica. I have learned to accept our differences and cherish many aspects of this "tranquilo" culture. I have relaxed about so many things that used to really upset me, and am now able to see many things in a more positive light. My favorite experiences have been with my students and my host families.
7. What qualities do you think are important for WorldTeach volunteers to have?
Above all, the ability to be flexible and adapt. You will be faced with challenges that no one can predict beforehand. You will be one person in a town of dozens if not hundreds. There will be many things that you cannot change. More than anything, it is you who will change.
8. What advice would you give to someone considering WorldTeach?
Come into the year without expectations. Know that you will be faced with challenges, you will experiences highs and lows, you will be scared and nervous and lonely, but you will go on, and you will overcome every obstacle put in front of you. You will meet some of the kindest and most generous people, form wonderful relationships, and have some of the best experiences of your life. It is both empowering and humbling, and you will come out of it a stronger and more confident person.
9. Would you recommend this program to others?
I would highly recommend this program to someone who wants to come to Costa Rica and teach, to contribute to a rural community, to know another culture, and to learn another language. But you will be a full-time teacher and living with a host family. It is very challenging, but also very rewarding.
viernes, 26 de noviembre de 2010
Costa Rican Culture--November 2010 Essay
Before committing to volunteer in Costa Rica as an elementary school English teacher for a year, I spent several hours reading and talking to others about Tico culture. One reoccurring theme was that Costa Ricans do not value personal space and independence in the same way that we do in the U.S. As an extremely independent and self-sufficient American, I knew that this would be a struggle for me. I read that Costa Ricans, or “Ticos” as they refer to themselves as, often do not need nor want “alone time” as Americans often claim to require. Despite knowing that this would be a challenge for me, I began preparing for my year abroad, not knowing at the time how much Tico culture would truly impact me over the next 12 months.
I spent the first month in the breathtaking town of Orosi for orientation, where I stayed with a host family and attended classes on Spanish, teaching, and Costa Rican culture each day with the other 23 volunteers in my group. My host family seemed extremely nice and surprisingly understanding of the acculturation process I was going through. Days during orientation, however, were long and tiring. We were constantly having to process an abundance of new information, translating between English and Spanish, and experiencing a diverse array of emotions.
After a little over a week in Orosi, I arrived at my host family’s house tired from a full day of classes and uncharacteristically homesick. It was my dad’s birthday back in the States, so I was excited to call him. However, as soon as I arrived home, my family told me we were leaving in five minutes for a rezo to bless the nativity scene in a family member’s house. I felt overly disappointed and emotional, and although I was not in the mood to go, I decided to be flexible, telling myself that I would be home early enough to call my dad. We arrived at the party around 6:00 p.m. only to find out that it started at 7:00, meaning we would be home by 9:30 at the earliest. I was so overwhelmed with disappointment at not being able to call my dad that I could no longer hold back the tears. My family stared at me bewildered as I stood bawling in the foyer. They sat me down on the couch and tried to console me. Meanwhile, a steady stream of relatives poured into the house, only to find me bawling in the middle of the family room. I met several of my host aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time that night.
As family members continued to surround me, all I could think was “I want to be alone!” I knew that if they just left me alone for a few minutes, I could pull myself together and stop crying. Finally, I said I was going to go for a walk and left the house. My host mom told my 13-year-old brother he had to go with me, but I begged him to leave me alone. When I arrived at the house again 30 minutes later thinking I had gotten all the crying out of my system, my host mom hugged me and a new stream of tears began. This time they herded me into a side bedroom and people took turns sitting with me for the next hour or so as I cried non-stop. My host brother sat by my side the entire time, cracking jokes to make me laugh between sobs. When I was finally able to settle down, I was thankful to be surrounded by such caring people. I felt oddly close to this family whom I had just met a week ago. This was my first experience with one of the most challenging and one of my favorite aspects of Costa Rican culture.
Four weeks later, I arrived in the small mountain town where I would teach for the next 11 months. Upon walking into my new house, I quickly noted that there were no ceilings separating the rooms; not even the bathroom had a ceiling. In the house would be my host parents, my ten-year-old host brother, my five-year-old host sister, and myself. I have always loved kids, so I was excited to have young host siblings. As we sat on the couch that first afternoon, my sister studied me curiously. As she sat swinging her feet back and forth on the oversized chair, a big smile lit up her face and she told me that she liked my shoes. A few minutes later, she got up and ran into her room, returning with a piece of candy for me. Later that night, she gave me a princess sticker. As my host mom likes to say, we had an instant connection.
I quickly learned, however, that living with a boisterous five-year-old in close living quarters was also extremely challenging. Months later, we like to joke that my sister is my “shadow,” as she is always bounding behind me, full of questions and comments and wanting to see and touch everything. Despite the fact that I love her immensely, she is often a challenge. I frequently wake up in the mornings and stumble out of my room to find her sitting at the kitchen table smiling up at me, wide awake and bursting with energy. Within seconds, she is at my side. When I come home from school in the afternoons, she runs to open the door for me and asks me to play. If I am traveling for the weekend, she likes to help me pack my bag. With a lack of ceilings in the house and my sister waiting on my every move, privacy is hard to come by. Although my family is very respectful of my personal space, it can be difficult to explain my need for “alone time” to a hopeful five-year-old.
As a fiercely independent person, I am not accustomed to asking for help; in fact, it’s quite difficult for me. Luckily, many of the Costa Ricans I have met often do not seem to consider that I never asked them for help. In October, I planned a long-awaited Halloween party for my students. I wanted it to live up to their expectations, so I had several activities planned. As I began to prepare a few days beforehand, I quickly felt overwhelmed with the work ahead of me. The day before the party, I had accepted that I would be in the school until very late that night to finish preparing. Soon after I began making halloween treats in the school kitchen, the school cook found me and decided that she would help me. Although at first I told her I was okay, she insisted. Finally I relented and quickly realized that we worked much faster together than I ever could have done on my own. We finished my first project and ran to attend a school board meeting. Then, to my surprise, she insisted on staying to help me with my other projects. A few minutes later, a neighbor came in, saw what we were doing, realized that it was going to take awhile, rolled up her sleeves and set to work. The three of us finished my projects by early afternoon, and they turned out so much better than I could have done alone. I thanked my neighbors endlessly. They explained to me that Costa Ricans love to help others, and I could not agree with them more.
My year in Costa Rica has been full of experiences such as these. Although my first reaction is often “leave me alone!” or “I can do this by myself!” Costa Ricans have a way of shrugging off my requests and generously helping or accompanying me anyways. Many of these people who so often annoyed me with their persistent ways have left an unforgettable impression on me. My heart aches as I think about leaving them; however, I know that this is proof that this year has been an amazing and life-changing experience. One of the most challenging aspects of these past 12 months has also made it one of the best of my life. I have learned to take a deep breath and accept help and friendship where it is offered. As I often tell the Costa Ricans that I meet, of all the cultures that I have known, I have never met one that is as generous and kind as theirs.
I spent the first month in the breathtaking town of Orosi for orientation, where I stayed with a host family and attended classes on Spanish, teaching, and Costa Rican culture each day with the other 23 volunteers in my group. My host family seemed extremely nice and surprisingly understanding of the acculturation process I was going through. Days during orientation, however, were long and tiring. We were constantly having to process an abundance of new information, translating between English and Spanish, and experiencing a diverse array of emotions.
After a little over a week in Orosi, I arrived at my host family’s house tired from a full day of classes and uncharacteristically homesick. It was my dad’s birthday back in the States, so I was excited to call him. However, as soon as I arrived home, my family told me we were leaving in five minutes for a rezo to bless the nativity scene in a family member’s house. I felt overly disappointed and emotional, and although I was not in the mood to go, I decided to be flexible, telling myself that I would be home early enough to call my dad. We arrived at the party around 6:00 p.m. only to find out that it started at 7:00, meaning we would be home by 9:30 at the earliest. I was so overwhelmed with disappointment at not being able to call my dad that I could no longer hold back the tears. My family stared at me bewildered as I stood bawling in the foyer. They sat me down on the couch and tried to console me. Meanwhile, a steady stream of relatives poured into the house, only to find me bawling in the middle of the family room. I met several of my host aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time that night.
As family members continued to surround me, all I could think was “I want to be alone!” I knew that if they just left me alone for a few minutes, I could pull myself together and stop crying. Finally, I said I was going to go for a walk and left the house. My host mom told my 13-year-old brother he had to go with me, but I begged him to leave me alone. When I arrived at the house again 30 minutes later thinking I had gotten all the crying out of my system, my host mom hugged me and a new stream of tears began. This time they herded me into a side bedroom and people took turns sitting with me for the next hour or so as I cried non-stop. My host brother sat by my side the entire time, cracking jokes to make me laugh between sobs. When I was finally able to settle down, I was thankful to be surrounded by such caring people. I felt oddly close to this family whom I had just met a week ago. This was my first experience with one of the most challenging and one of my favorite aspects of Costa Rican culture.
Four weeks later, I arrived in the small mountain town where I would teach for the next 11 months. Upon walking into my new house, I quickly noted that there were no ceilings separating the rooms; not even the bathroom had a ceiling. In the house would be my host parents, my ten-year-old host brother, my five-year-old host sister, and myself. I have always loved kids, so I was excited to have young host siblings. As we sat on the couch that first afternoon, my sister studied me curiously. As she sat swinging her feet back and forth on the oversized chair, a big smile lit up her face and she told me that she liked my shoes. A few minutes later, she got up and ran into her room, returning with a piece of candy for me. Later that night, she gave me a princess sticker. As my host mom likes to say, we had an instant connection.
I quickly learned, however, that living with a boisterous five-year-old in close living quarters was also extremely challenging. Months later, we like to joke that my sister is my “shadow,” as she is always bounding behind me, full of questions and comments and wanting to see and touch everything. Despite the fact that I love her immensely, she is often a challenge. I frequently wake up in the mornings and stumble out of my room to find her sitting at the kitchen table smiling up at me, wide awake and bursting with energy. Within seconds, she is at my side. When I come home from school in the afternoons, she runs to open the door for me and asks me to play. If I am traveling for the weekend, she likes to help me pack my bag. With a lack of ceilings in the house and my sister waiting on my every move, privacy is hard to come by. Although my family is very respectful of my personal space, it can be difficult to explain my need for “alone time” to a hopeful five-year-old.
As a fiercely independent person, I am not accustomed to asking for help; in fact, it’s quite difficult for me. Luckily, many of the Costa Ricans I have met often do not seem to consider that I never asked them for help. In October, I planned a long-awaited Halloween party for my students. I wanted it to live up to their expectations, so I had several activities planned. As I began to prepare a few days beforehand, I quickly felt overwhelmed with the work ahead of me. The day before the party, I had accepted that I would be in the school until very late that night to finish preparing. Soon after I began making halloween treats in the school kitchen, the school cook found me and decided that she would help me. Although at first I told her I was okay, she insisted. Finally I relented and quickly realized that we worked much faster together than I ever could have done on my own. We finished my first project and ran to attend a school board meeting. Then, to my surprise, she insisted on staying to help me with my other projects. A few minutes later, a neighbor came in, saw what we were doing, realized that it was going to take awhile, rolled up her sleeves and set to work. The three of us finished my projects by early afternoon, and they turned out so much better than I could have done alone. I thanked my neighbors endlessly. They explained to me that Costa Ricans love to help others, and I could not agree with them more.
My year in Costa Rica has been full of experiences such as these. Although my first reaction is often “leave me alone!” or “I can do this by myself!” Costa Ricans have a way of shrugging off my requests and generously helping or accompanying me anyways. Many of these people who so often annoyed me with their persistent ways have left an unforgettable impression on me. My heart aches as I think about leaving them; however, I know that this is proof that this year has been an amazing and life-changing experience. One of the most challenging aspects of these past 12 months has also made it one of the best of my life. I have learned to take a deep breath and accept help and friendship where it is offered. As I often tell the Costa Ricans that I meet, of all the cultures that I have known, I have never met one that is as generous and kind as theirs.
May 17th Essay
Here's an essay that I wrote on May 17th, 2010 about my experience in Costa Rica up to that point:
When I arrived in Palo Verde to begin my year as a WorldTeach volunteer, several conflicting emotions ran through me—excitement, fear, anxiety, determination, uncertainty. I had visited for one night a week earlier during orientation to drop off a bag and to get my mind wrapped around where exactly I will be living for the next year. As before, I catch the only bus in Cartago that goes to my town and sit anxiously for the next 30 minutes or so, until the bus turns off the highway and makes its way, very slowly, down the mountainside. I again feel as though the bus is going to slide right off the mountain, but the driver competently maneuvers the vehicle down the winding road until we stop at Palo Verde. I awkwardly carry my excessive amounts of luggage off the bus and carefully make my way down the steep dirt road that leads to my house. I pass two other houses on the way, several cows that stare at me suspiciously, and quickly acquire a small parade of dogs behind me. As I walk up to the front of the house, my host mom, 9-year-old brother, and 5-year-old sister are anxiously waiting for me. I greet them all with a kiss on the cheek and then they show me to my room to unload my luggage. I glance around me at my new house. It’s very small and simple, but so much better than I had originally imagined. My house is well-built and clean. There are three bedrooms, a kitchen, a small living space, and one bathroom with warm water. From my windows, a seemingly endless expanse of mountainside stretches out before me with more green than I have ever seen.
My first few weeks in Palo Verde seemed to pass quickly. I took advantage of the first couple of days to get to know my new family and town and prepare for the first week of school. My first week of teaching went surprisingly well. Although I had been told that schools in Costa Rica often begin slowly and then trickle out towards the end of the year, I began teaching 80-minute classes the second day. I wake up at 5:00 every morning to shower before the rest of my family, as five of us share one bathroom, and arrive at school around 6:45 to begin teaching at 7:00. I teach the five 3rd- and 4th-graders from 7:00 - 8:20, at which time we then have a morning snack. From 8:40 – 10:00, I teach the six 5th- and 6th-graders, and from 10:00 – 11:00, I teach the three Kindergarteners. At 11:00 we eat lunch, and then I teach my last class of the day, my five 1st-graders, from 11:40 – 1:00 p.m. Especially during those first few weeks, I left the school around 2:30 everyday absolutely exhausted. However, as my mind and my body began to adjust to my new environment and the new language surrounding me, I became less and less tired and able to use my afternoons to take long walks up and down the mountainside and enjoy the beautiful scenery around me.
Palo Verde is a small town of about 100 people in the province of Cartago. It is literally on the side of a mountain and overlooks the valleys below and the mountains in the distance. There is a river that runs past the bottom of the mountain that I often walk to in the afternoons. I can walk down the dirt road that runs past Palo Verde and arrive in about 45 minutes at the neighboring town, where there is a small internet café, a little supermarket to buy basic food items, and a pulpería. At the center of Palo Verde, as in all Costa Rican towns, there is a soccer field and a Catholic church. The weather is often cool in the mornings and at night, but it can get quite warm in the early afternoons. It rains often, sometimes for a week or more at a time.
The most amazing thing I have learned about Costa Rica thus far is how generous and friendly the people are here. It no longer surprises me when I meet someone for the first time and within minutes they are giving me their phone number and telling me that “their house is my house.” The other day I was sitting on the bus waiting to go back to Palo Verde, when I started talking to a woman from a nearby town who I had just met. She excused herself and ran off the bus, to arrive a few minutes later with an ice cream cone for me. My neighbor recently took me to her mother’s house in a nearby city, and immediately they told me I was more than welcome to come stay at their house whenever I wanted to. People I just meet are often going out of their way to help me. Although teaching in Costa Rica has been difficult at times, it is the generosity and kindness of Costa Ricans that often make it worthwhile. I work everyday to give back to the Costa Ricans in my town even a fraction of what they have taught me in these past few months.
When I arrived in Palo Verde to begin my year as a WorldTeach volunteer, several conflicting emotions ran through me—excitement, fear, anxiety, determination, uncertainty. I had visited for one night a week earlier during orientation to drop off a bag and to get my mind wrapped around where exactly I will be living for the next year. As before, I catch the only bus in Cartago that goes to my town and sit anxiously for the next 30 minutes or so, until the bus turns off the highway and makes its way, very slowly, down the mountainside. I again feel as though the bus is going to slide right off the mountain, but the driver competently maneuvers the vehicle down the winding road until we stop at Palo Verde. I awkwardly carry my excessive amounts of luggage off the bus and carefully make my way down the steep dirt road that leads to my house. I pass two other houses on the way, several cows that stare at me suspiciously, and quickly acquire a small parade of dogs behind me. As I walk up to the front of the house, my host mom, 9-year-old brother, and 5-year-old sister are anxiously waiting for me. I greet them all with a kiss on the cheek and then they show me to my room to unload my luggage. I glance around me at my new house. It’s very small and simple, but so much better than I had originally imagined. My house is well-built and clean. There are three bedrooms, a kitchen, a small living space, and one bathroom with warm water. From my windows, a seemingly endless expanse of mountainside stretches out before me with more green than I have ever seen.
My first few weeks in Palo Verde seemed to pass quickly. I took advantage of the first couple of days to get to know my new family and town and prepare for the first week of school. My first week of teaching went surprisingly well. Although I had been told that schools in Costa Rica often begin slowly and then trickle out towards the end of the year, I began teaching 80-minute classes the second day. I wake up at 5:00 every morning to shower before the rest of my family, as five of us share one bathroom, and arrive at school around 6:45 to begin teaching at 7:00. I teach the five 3rd- and 4th-graders from 7:00 - 8:20, at which time we then have a morning snack. From 8:40 – 10:00, I teach the six 5th- and 6th-graders, and from 10:00 – 11:00, I teach the three Kindergarteners. At 11:00 we eat lunch, and then I teach my last class of the day, my five 1st-graders, from 11:40 – 1:00 p.m. Especially during those first few weeks, I left the school around 2:30 everyday absolutely exhausted. However, as my mind and my body began to adjust to my new environment and the new language surrounding me, I became less and less tired and able to use my afternoons to take long walks up and down the mountainside and enjoy the beautiful scenery around me.
Palo Verde is a small town of about 100 people in the province of Cartago. It is literally on the side of a mountain and overlooks the valleys below and the mountains in the distance. There is a river that runs past the bottom of the mountain that I often walk to in the afternoons. I can walk down the dirt road that runs past Palo Verde and arrive in about 45 minutes at the neighboring town, where there is a small internet café, a little supermarket to buy basic food items, and a pulpería. At the center of Palo Verde, as in all Costa Rican towns, there is a soccer field and a Catholic church. The weather is often cool in the mornings and at night, but it can get quite warm in the early afternoons. It rains often, sometimes for a week or more at a time.
The most amazing thing I have learned about Costa Rica thus far is how generous and friendly the people are here. It no longer surprises me when I meet someone for the first time and within minutes they are giving me their phone number and telling me that “their house is my house.” The other day I was sitting on the bus waiting to go back to Palo Verde, when I started talking to a woman from a nearby town who I had just met. She excused herself and ran off the bus, to arrive a few minutes later with an ice cream cone for me. My neighbor recently took me to her mother’s house in a nearby city, and immediately they told me I was more than welcome to come stay at their house whenever I wanted to. People I just meet are often going out of their way to help me. Although teaching in Costa Rica has been difficult at times, it is the generosity and kindness of Costa Ricans that often make it worthwhile. I work everyday to give back to the Costa Ricans in my town even a fraction of what they have taught me in these past few months.
sábado, 1 de mayo de 2010
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
Hiii everyone! It's now the beginning of May and I've been here for four months. Sometimes it seems like time has flown by, other times I can´t believe that I still have eight months left.... This is definitely a very interesting experience full of ups and downs and lots of challenges. At the end of March, Jen, Kurt, and Robby came to visit me for Semana Santa, which is the week before Easter. I went to San José on Monday and met them at the airport Tuesday afternoon. I actually woke up in the middle of the night on Monday with really bad stomach aches, and then woke up in the morning with a fever and body aches, so I ended up sleeping the whole day trying to feel better before they got in! Luckily after sleeping most of the day, I did feel better and caught the bus to the airport with another volunteer whose family was also getting in that same night. It was GREAT to see my sister and Kurt and Robby! That first night we stayed up and talked for a while, and then Wednesday morning took a van to Manuel Antonio, a popular tourist town on the Pacific coast. We spent most of our days trying to stay cool--I have never been so hot in my life!! I literally spent a few hours the last day in the sun, but besides that couldn't stand being in the sun for any length of time. We did a canopy ziplining tour one day, and hiked through the Manuel Antonio National Park another. We went down to the beach one day, too, but were there for about an hour before deciding we couldn't stand the heat. Even the ocean water was warm! And the Pacific can be pretty rough. We had some wonderful dinners at night. We stayed in Manuel Antonio from Wed-Sun, and then headed to Cartago for Sunday night. Unfortunately Saturday night we had a great Italian dinner, but all of us ended up with food poisoning the next day. We all took an antibiotic Sunday morning, but for some reason Jen and Kurt continued feeling sick until Monday afternoon. So needless to say, Sunday we drove back to Cartago and just stayed in the hotel.
Monday morning we all went to Palo Verde so that they could meet my students and my family. The school had an "acto civico"--school assembly--where they sang the national anthem and school song for us, and then I helped the kids ask Jen, Kurt, and Robby questions in English. Luckily they had brought a bag of chocolates to use as an incentive, because the kids were all really shy until they had a little more motivation to ask questions. After the school assembly, we headed to my house to eat "arroz con pollo" that my mom had made for us. My 5-yr-old sister Abi, who is the most talkative child I have ever met, said almost nothing the entire time! We have since decided that she was a little scared by Kurt and Robby, lol. So unfortunately they didn't get to know Abi as well as they could have. Then around noon we headed to Orosi for the night, where I had done my orientation. Since we didn´t have much time and Jen and Kurt still weren't feeling great, we just kind of walked around and then got dinner. On Tuesday morning, we headed to San José because I had a meeting I had to go to for WorldTeach, and then Jen, Kurt, and Robby headed out Wednesday morning. It was hard to say goodbye, but it was so great seeing them and we had a wonderful time!
I was a little nervous about readjusting to life in my town, but it wasn't too bad. I think knowing that my parents were coming in a week and a half helped a lot. I was sooo excited to see my parents! On Friday, April 16th I headed to San José to meet them at the airport. We then went to the car rental place to pick up our SUV, aka the death mobile, and then drove to Orosi to spend Friday and Saturday night. We got dinner at a typical Costa Rican restaurant Friday night, and then headed to bed early as we had all gotten up early that morning. On Saturday we ate breakfast at the hotel and then walked around a little before heading up to my Orosi host family's farmhouse in the mountains. Although we had planned on driving there, after seeing the dirt road that goes straight up the mountain, my parents decided taking a cab who is experienced in driving up extremely steep roads would be a better choice. That decision probably avoided massive heart attacks for both my parents. ;) We had also planned on spending only a couple of hours at the farm, but ended up staying there until around 10:00 at night. After being there for the day, my parents saw how wonderfully generous and kind Costa Ricans can be, but how hard it is to say NO to them as well! At times it can be very overwhelming. It was a great day though, and we had both lunch and dinner at the farm with my Orosi family and some extended family.
On Sunday we then headed to Palo Verde. We had rented a house there for the week. When I originally saw the house, I knew it was nothing amazing but I was pretty impressed--it was painted, it had beds, there was apparently warm water in the shower, and it looked pretty clean. Well I had overlooked a few details, like any form of dishes to cook with, towels, toilet paper, sheets, blankets, soap, etc. that usually are provided when you rent a house. My host mom did convince the owner to leave a few dishes and blankets, but nothing else. So needless to say, we borrowed sheets from my host family and went to Cartago to buy soap and toilet paper for the house on Monday. The house also had a wooden ceiling, which I have learned is warmer than a tin roof and therefore very attractive for bugs such as cockroaches.... So yes we also bought a big bottle of Raid and moved our beds away from the wall, much to my mom's disgust. I also discovered that my "mattress" was definitely not a mattress at all, but some old dirty pieces of foam that were layed on top of some wooden planks. So that was also interesting. I can definitely say we were not sad to say goodbye to that house when we left.
Sunday night we ate dinner with my host family and gave them the presents my parents had brought--a puzzle for each of the kids (which they have now each done at least 15times), bakugans for Justin, a Barbie for Abi (which yes, thank you mom, I now get to play Barbies after dinner every night :)), and a pressure cooker for my mom so that she can make beans (her wood-burning stove broke and it takes several hours on the normal stove without a pressure cooker). My host mom made a really good soup with meatballs for my parents. We stayed for several hours and then went back to our humble abode to sleep.
On Monday I woke up and got ready for school to teach for the day, leaving my parents to do whatever they wanted until around 1:30 when I'd get home. It's kind of hard to explain this part, but once I got to school, I was so mad and sad and frustrated that I was there teaching while my parents, who I was not going to see for several months, were a few minutes away in the house. So I started bawling uncontrollably to the cook, and she told me to talk to my director and ask him to give me the day or the week off. For some reason it is soooo hard for me to ask for time off. I feel like I need an extremely good reason to ask for any time off, even though I'm a volunteer here.... So eventually he came to talk to me and I just bawled and liteally could not stop, quite embarassingly, so he told me to go home and if I needed more time off I just had to ask. Of course even then, I still couldnt get myself ask for time off. So I left two hours after I had arrived at the school, still bawling, to find my parents sitting in the front lawn of the house. They were surprised to see me, lol, but happy that we now had the day to spend together. We headed to Cartago to buy a few things, and then Monday night went to a neighbor's house to eat dinner. She made "olla de carne," which is like a stew with lots of veggies and a really good cut of meat. It was a very special and expensive meal for them and very generous of her. We again had a very hard time getting away, but eventually had to say goodbye for the night.
On Tuesday I figured I'd be fine to go to school and teach, and then ask my director for Wednesday afternoon and Thursday off. Wrong. I got to school and right away the Kinder teacher and my host mom asked me how I was, if I was feeling better, why I wasn't with my parents, etc, so I of course started bawling uncontrollable again and the director just flat out told me to go home, again. So once again, my parents were surprised to see me at the house a few minutes after I left. I had not expected to be so emotional while my parents were there, and I hadn't felt so emotional the entire time I've been here. The best way I can explain it is I've been reasonably strong here these past few months because I had to be--there was no one to lean on, nothing comforting, just me. I also am almost always playing the role of "teacher" in my town, rarely just relaxing to be myself. Then once my parents were there, it was like I had someone to kind of depend on again and just be myself with, and that really understood me and how I've been feeling with the whole experience so far, that I just kid of broke down. Even though it was hard having them here, though, it was sooo nice to see them and it helps a lot now knowing that they can picture where I am and got a really good look into my experience here. And although it's been a little tough to adjust again, I know that I'll be just fine and need to remember to appreciate every moment and experience I can here, both good and bad.
We then drove to San Gerardo de Dota Tuesday afternoon, which is supposed to be like a little paradise in the mountains. It's a valley 9 km down from the highway with a couple of hotels and restaurants and it's absolutely beautiful. There is also a very rare bird there, the Quetzal (believed to be a God by the Aztecs and Mayans, I think), and we were lucky enough to have seen both a male and female while we were there. The male has a bright green/turquoise back and head, a bright red belly, and two really long beautiful tail feathers. Absolutely beautiful. We then had lunch at a restaurant there and then headed back to Palo Verde. Our dinner that night consisted of crackers and peanut butter, and for me, wine--at times very necessary. Wednesday morning my parents came to the school to meet my students. Each of the kids introduced themselves to my parents in English, and then asked them questions, some of which they had prepared in advance as homework. It was, as they would say here, "beautiful." From the school, we headed to Manuel Antonio to spend a few days on the beach. Our hotel was very nice, and we spent the majority of our time sitting by the pool, which we often had to ourselves. It was definitely the most relaxed I've been the entire time I've been here.
One thing I struggle with a lot here is the fact that, for example, we spent way more money on one night in a hotel room, which wasn't an extremely expensive hotel by our standards--about $150--than my host family spends on groceries for an entire month. There is a woman in my town that just lost half of her house and is now forced to cook outside. Her family is extremely poor, and she has three young kids--a 7th grader, a 4th grader who is special needs and not receiving any of the help he needs, and a 2-yr-old who is dying for attention that her mom is too exhausted to give her. We could probably have built her a new kitchen for the money we spent on the hotel for a few nights. There are lots of examples like this in the area, but then again, there are people that are a lot worse off than them as well. Just something to think about. I don´t know what the answer is and probably never will. One thing that is very certain though is that we are EXTREMELY lucky.
On Monday, we drove back to Palo Verde and my parents dropped me off, and then they headed to San José and stayed in a hotel near the airport, as their flight left early Tuesday morning. Saying goodbye was really hard. We have for sure decided though that I will come home during our two-week break in July. I'll probably get home around July 3rd, so hopefully I can see most of you!!
So I just finished my first week back of teaching since my parents left. It went alright, and I jumped right back into my normal routine. My students are extremely behind academically, so I struggle with that everyday. Sarah Garske and I just started doing penpals over the internet with my 11 3rd-6th graders and her 22 4th graders, which I think is going to be a really great experience for the kids and the're really excited about it. I learned, though, that they have NO clue how to use a computer, which is clearly going to put them at a huge disadvantage later in life, so I'm now considering using one of my class periods a week to teach typing skills. We'll see, I need to prioritize.
We also had a parent meeting on Thursday afternoon. One of my neighbors/friend/mom of one of my students came to the school to talk to/yell at my director. She later told me that she had told him that I'm very unhappy here, which she then listed several reasons as to why (some of which I had privately told my host mom, apparently not-so-privately, just to vent to someone), including I don't have a classroom, one of my 6th graders is extremely disrespectful, I have nowhere to put my things, etc. She then told him that if he didnt to something about it, I was going to leave. She told me she told him this so that he would get off his butt and do something. I understand that her heart was in the right place, but I was pretty upset that she went to my director saying that I'm extremely unhappy. I have never told them that I'm unhappy here, and while there are lots of challenges, I am not unhappy, and I have commited to be here for a year and I'm not leaving. The parent meeting then continued with parents literally yelling at each other over building me a classroom, while I sat feeling confused and helpless and trying to understand what they were screaming about. The next day, the 1st-3rd grade teacher pulled me aside to ask me if I was unhappy, and I told her definitely not and while there are difficulties and some days I am very frustrated, I do not need a classroom NOW, if ever, and I am not leaving. She told me I need to be very careful with what I say to people in my town, as they are very gossipy. There is apparently a rumer going around right now that I'm unhappy and not coming back after our 2-week break in July. I told the teacher that that was absolutely not true, and also pulled aside one of the moms to tell her the same. Apparently I need to be much more careful about what I say to people. There is a reason people don't live AND work in a small town.
Anyways, that pretty much catches you all up on my life here right now. Hopefully I don't come across too negative. It's been a little tough at times but I really am enjoying the experience and learning a lot. I have never regretted my decision to do this and never wished to be somewhere else. I miss you all TONS though and can't wait to see you again in July! And THANK YOU to everyone who has donated material to my school!! The kids LOVE it and it's extremely helpful to me, as well, so thank you for your generosity! You are all amazing! Hopefully we are making a small difference in their lives.
Monday morning we all went to Palo Verde so that they could meet my students and my family. The school had an "acto civico"--school assembly--where they sang the national anthem and school song for us, and then I helped the kids ask Jen, Kurt, and Robby questions in English. Luckily they had brought a bag of chocolates to use as an incentive, because the kids were all really shy until they had a little more motivation to ask questions. After the school assembly, we headed to my house to eat "arroz con pollo" that my mom had made for us. My 5-yr-old sister Abi, who is the most talkative child I have ever met, said almost nothing the entire time! We have since decided that she was a little scared by Kurt and Robby, lol. So unfortunately they didn't get to know Abi as well as they could have. Then around noon we headed to Orosi for the night, where I had done my orientation. Since we didn´t have much time and Jen and Kurt still weren't feeling great, we just kind of walked around and then got dinner. On Tuesday morning, we headed to San José because I had a meeting I had to go to for WorldTeach, and then Jen, Kurt, and Robby headed out Wednesday morning. It was hard to say goodbye, but it was so great seeing them and we had a wonderful time!
I was a little nervous about readjusting to life in my town, but it wasn't too bad. I think knowing that my parents were coming in a week and a half helped a lot. I was sooo excited to see my parents! On Friday, April 16th I headed to San José to meet them at the airport. We then went to the car rental place to pick up our SUV, aka the death mobile, and then drove to Orosi to spend Friday and Saturday night. We got dinner at a typical Costa Rican restaurant Friday night, and then headed to bed early as we had all gotten up early that morning. On Saturday we ate breakfast at the hotel and then walked around a little before heading up to my Orosi host family's farmhouse in the mountains. Although we had planned on driving there, after seeing the dirt road that goes straight up the mountain, my parents decided taking a cab who is experienced in driving up extremely steep roads would be a better choice. That decision probably avoided massive heart attacks for both my parents. ;) We had also planned on spending only a couple of hours at the farm, but ended up staying there until around 10:00 at night. After being there for the day, my parents saw how wonderfully generous and kind Costa Ricans can be, but how hard it is to say NO to them as well! At times it can be very overwhelming. It was a great day though, and we had both lunch and dinner at the farm with my Orosi family and some extended family.
On Sunday we then headed to Palo Verde. We had rented a house there for the week. When I originally saw the house, I knew it was nothing amazing but I was pretty impressed--it was painted, it had beds, there was apparently warm water in the shower, and it looked pretty clean. Well I had overlooked a few details, like any form of dishes to cook with, towels, toilet paper, sheets, blankets, soap, etc. that usually are provided when you rent a house. My host mom did convince the owner to leave a few dishes and blankets, but nothing else. So needless to say, we borrowed sheets from my host family and went to Cartago to buy soap and toilet paper for the house on Monday. The house also had a wooden ceiling, which I have learned is warmer than a tin roof and therefore very attractive for bugs such as cockroaches.... So yes we also bought a big bottle of Raid and moved our beds away from the wall, much to my mom's disgust. I also discovered that my "mattress" was definitely not a mattress at all, but some old dirty pieces of foam that were layed on top of some wooden planks. So that was also interesting. I can definitely say we were not sad to say goodbye to that house when we left.
Sunday night we ate dinner with my host family and gave them the presents my parents had brought--a puzzle for each of the kids (which they have now each done at least 15times), bakugans for Justin, a Barbie for Abi (which yes, thank you mom, I now get to play Barbies after dinner every night :)), and a pressure cooker for my mom so that she can make beans (her wood-burning stove broke and it takes several hours on the normal stove without a pressure cooker). My host mom made a really good soup with meatballs for my parents. We stayed for several hours and then went back to our humble abode to sleep.
On Monday I woke up and got ready for school to teach for the day, leaving my parents to do whatever they wanted until around 1:30 when I'd get home. It's kind of hard to explain this part, but once I got to school, I was so mad and sad and frustrated that I was there teaching while my parents, who I was not going to see for several months, were a few minutes away in the house. So I started bawling uncontrollably to the cook, and she told me to talk to my director and ask him to give me the day or the week off. For some reason it is soooo hard for me to ask for time off. I feel like I need an extremely good reason to ask for any time off, even though I'm a volunteer here.... So eventually he came to talk to me and I just bawled and liteally could not stop, quite embarassingly, so he told me to go home and if I needed more time off I just had to ask. Of course even then, I still couldnt get myself ask for time off. So I left two hours after I had arrived at the school, still bawling, to find my parents sitting in the front lawn of the house. They were surprised to see me, lol, but happy that we now had the day to spend together. We headed to Cartago to buy a few things, and then Monday night went to a neighbor's house to eat dinner. She made "olla de carne," which is like a stew with lots of veggies and a really good cut of meat. It was a very special and expensive meal for them and very generous of her. We again had a very hard time getting away, but eventually had to say goodbye for the night.
On Tuesday I figured I'd be fine to go to school and teach, and then ask my director for Wednesday afternoon and Thursday off. Wrong. I got to school and right away the Kinder teacher and my host mom asked me how I was, if I was feeling better, why I wasn't with my parents, etc, so I of course started bawling uncontrollable again and the director just flat out told me to go home, again. So once again, my parents were surprised to see me at the house a few minutes after I left. I had not expected to be so emotional while my parents were there, and I hadn't felt so emotional the entire time I've been here. The best way I can explain it is I've been reasonably strong here these past few months because I had to be--there was no one to lean on, nothing comforting, just me. I also am almost always playing the role of "teacher" in my town, rarely just relaxing to be myself. Then once my parents were there, it was like I had someone to kind of depend on again and just be myself with, and that really understood me and how I've been feeling with the whole experience so far, that I just kid of broke down. Even though it was hard having them here, though, it was sooo nice to see them and it helps a lot now knowing that they can picture where I am and got a really good look into my experience here. And although it's been a little tough to adjust again, I know that I'll be just fine and need to remember to appreciate every moment and experience I can here, both good and bad.
We then drove to San Gerardo de Dota Tuesday afternoon, which is supposed to be like a little paradise in the mountains. It's a valley 9 km down from the highway with a couple of hotels and restaurants and it's absolutely beautiful. There is also a very rare bird there, the Quetzal (believed to be a God by the Aztecs and Mayans, I think), and we were lucky enough to have seen both a male and female while we were there. The male has a bright green/turquoise back and head, a bright red belly, and two really long beautiful tail feathers. Absolutely beautiful. We then had lunch at a restaurant there and then headed back to Palo Verde. Our dinner that night consisted of crackers and peanut butter, and for me, wine--at times very necessary. Wednesday morning my parents came to the school to meet my students. Each of the kids introduced themselves to my parents in English, and then asked them questions, some of which they had prepared in advance as homework. It was, as they would say here, "beautiful." From the school, we headed to Manuel Antonio to spend a few days on the beach. Our hotel was very nice, and we spent the majority of our time sitting by the pool, which we often had to ourselves. It was definitely the most relaxed I've been the entire time I've been here.
One thing I struggle with a lot here is the fact that, for example, we spent way more money on one night in a hotel room, which wasn't an extremely expensive hotel by our standards--about $150--than my host family spends on groceries for an entire month. There is a woman in my town that just lost half of her house and is now forced to cook outside. Her family is extremely poor, and she has three young kids--a 7th grader, a 4th grader who is special needs and not receiving any of the help he needs, and a 2-yr-old who is dying for attention that her mom is too exhausted to give her. We could probably have built her a new kitchen for the money we spent on the hotel for a few nights. There are lots of examples like this in the area, but then again, there are people that are a lot worse off than them as well. Just something to think about. I don´t know what the answer is and probably never will. One thing that is very certain though is that we are EXTREMELY lucky.
On Monday, we drove back to Palo Verde and my parents dropped me off, and then they headed to San José and stayed in a hotel near the airport, as their flight left early Tuesday morning. Saying goodbye was really hard. We have for sure decided though that I will come home during our two-week break in July. I'll probably get home around July 3rd, so hopefully I can see most of you!!
So I just finished my first week back of teaching since my parents left. It went alright, and I jumped right back into my normal routine. My students are extremely behind academically, so I struggle with that everyday. Sarah Garske and I just started doing penpals over the internet with my 11 3rd-6th graders and her 22 4th graders, which I think is going to be a really great experience for the kids and the're really excited about it. I learned, though, that they have NO clue how to use a computer, which is clearly going to put them at a huge disadvantage later in life, so I'm now considering using one of my class periods a week to teach typing skills. We'll see, I need to prioritize.
We also had a parent meeting on Thursday afternoon. One of my neighbors/friend/mom of one of my students came to the school to talk to/yell at my director. She later told me that she had told him that I'm very unhappy here, which she then listed several reasons as to why (some of which I had privately told my host mom, apparently not-so-privately, just to vent to someone), including I don't have a classroom, one of my 6th graders is extremely disrespectful, I have nowhere to put my things, etc. She then told him that if he didnt to something about it, I was going to leave. She told me she told him this so that he would get off his butt and do something. I understand that her heart was in the right place, but I was pretty upset that she went to my director saying that I'm extremely unhappy. I have never told them that I'm unhappy here, and while there are lots of challenges, I am not unhappy, and I have commited to be here for a year and I'm not leaving. The parent meeting then continued with parents literally yelling at each other over building me a classroom, while I sat feeling confused and helpless and trying to understand what they were screaming about. The next day, the 1st-3rd grade teacher pulled me aside to ask me if I was unhappy, and I told her definitely not and while there are difficulties and some days I am very frustrated, I do not need a classroom NOW, if ever, and I am not leaving. She told me I need to be very careful with what I say to people in my town, as they are very gossipy. There is apparently a rumer going around right now that I'm unhappy and not coming back after our 2-week break in July. I told the teacher that that was absolutely not true, and also pulled aside one of the moms to tell her the same. Apparently I need to be much more careful about what I say to people. There is a reason people don't live AND work in a small town.
Anyways, that pretty much catches you all up on my life here right now. Hopefully I don't come across too negative. It's been a little tough at times but I really am enjoying the experience and learning a lot. I have never regretted my decision to do this and never wished to be somewhere else. I miss you all TONS though and can't wait to see you again in July! And THANK YOU to everyone who has donated material to my school!! The kids LOVE it and it's extremely helpful to me, as well, so thank you for your generosity! You are all amazing! Hopefully we are making a small difference in their lives.
domingo, 7 de marzo de 2010
Sunday March 7, 2010
Again, sorry for the long hiatus…. The past month and a half has been a little overwhelming, but I know feel more adjusted to my life here. I came to Palo Verde to stay on Monday, Feb. 1st. That was in the midst of the whole contract issue. We were told the Friday before that the government would probably not be signing the contract for this year and that we would either have to go home, stay here with another program, teach here “illegally,” or transfer to a program in another country. I had pretty much absolved to stay here in Palo Verde, use the money I got back from my program to pay my family here, and try to teach either during the school day or private classes after school. I talked to my Palo Verde family about everything on Monday afternoon when I arrived. We were supposed to find out the final decision on Wednesday, Feb. 3rd. Apparently the director of my program sent out an email Tuesday night saying that there was a mix-up and the government did still want to sign the contract and that everything was going to be fine; however, I didn’t have access to the internet so I didn’t find this out until Wednesday afternoon when the other WorldTeach volunteer near me (about a 45-60 min walk) called me and told me about the email. I was really surprised, as the director had been pretty convinced the contract was not going to go though. Anyways, after this whole issue, I then had to refocus and get ready to begin teaching in less than a week. I spent the next few days trying to get to know my family here in Palo Verde and prepare for teaching. On Saturday morning, I traveled to San Jose with E.J. (the volunteer in La Estrella who is a 45-60 min walk from me) and Ashley, who’s about a 20 min bus ride from me in Palmital Sur (maybe a 1.5- or 2-hour walk through the mountain from me—literally up and over a mountain). We spent the day in San Jose using free wi-fi in our hostel to talk to our families, went to a movie, bought school supplies, and just tried to relax before we had to begin teaching the upcoming week.
My first week of teaching went pretty well. I had been told that schools here in Costa Rica begin slowly and kind of trickle out towards the end of the year, and that it was highly probable that I wouldn’t actually begin teaching that week. My school is somewhat of an exception here though, and I did begin teaching all my classes that first week, and 80-min classes on top of that. So I kind of jumped right in to the whole teaching thing. The first few weeks here I was absolutely exhausted. I think it was a combination of having to translate from Spanish to English and vice versa in my head all day long, the stress of teaching for the first time in my life, and trying to adjust to a completely new environment where I knew no one and absolutely nothing was “comfortable” like home. I would come home from teaching around 2:30 in the afternoon and pass out for about an hour. My entire body was just exhausted, and my head no longer wanted to function. I could not speak or understand Spanish by mid-afternoon, as though my head just decided by that time that it had had enough. It was really frustrating to be so tired, as I spent several hours every afternoon/evening trying to prepare lessons and materials for the following day and being so exhausted, I was left with no time to get to know my community, exercise, play with my brother and sister, etc. Fortunately, the past week and a half, I have felt much better. I’ve been able to start running or going for walks in the afternoons and I’ve been able to spend more time with my family and community members. I also spend less time (although still a lot!) planning lessons, as I’ve begun to learn shortcuts, as well as be less of a perfectionist. I’m starting to enjoy teaching more and more, and my students are really great.
Monday through Friday I am here in Palo Verde. It is a small town of about 15 families on the side of a mountain. It is absolutely beautiful. There is a river at the bottom of the mountain that is about a 15-20 minute walk from my house that I love to walk to in the afternoons. I’ve decided that is where my private sanctuary will be. There is a dirt road that runs past Palo Verde to La Estrella, which is a larger town (there are 70 students in the school in La Estrella, whereas I have 19…). I can walk on the road for about 45-60 min to get to La Estrella, where there is a small internet café, a little supermarket to buy basic food items, and a pulperia. I discovered a few weeks ago that there is also a “truchería” there, aka. tons of trout in pools that you can fish and then a restaurant there will cook it for you. The woman who owns the internet café and pulperia took me there a few weeks ago and bought me a trout. I was so happy to see a bar/restaurant with PEOPLE! They call Palo Verde a “ghost town” because it’s so small and the houses are pretty spread out, so you rarely see other people. Not to mention that there are no restaurants or places to go hang out, so people are in their houses most of the time.
On the weekends I almost always spend at least a few hours in Cartago to use internet, buy teaching supplies, make copies or print for the upcoming week, etc. I have also returned to Orosi three times now, twice to visit my family and once to visit a friend and use the free wi-fi there. This weekend I stayed here in Palo Verde and just went to Cartago yesterday for a few hours to buy a few things I needed. I’m headed in a few minutes to La Estrella to use the internet and make copies.
One thing that I have learned to love about Costa Rican culture is how friendly and generous people can be. Just little things like the owner of the internet café taking me to the bar to buy me a trout make such a huge difference. The other day I was sitting on the bus in Cartago waiting to go back to Palo Verde. I was talking to a woman (whom I had just met) from La Estrella for a minutes while we both waited, and then she got off the bus to run and grab something. She came back a few minutes later with an ice cream for both me and her! The other weekend, my neighbor decided that I would come to her family’s house in Tejar (about 25 minutes from Palo Verde) to meet her family. We got there around 7:30 am (the bus leaves here at 6:30 am on weekends), and her family fed me a huge and delicious breakfast. Then they told me that their house is my house, that I can stay there whenever I want to, and they have a computer with internet that I can use whenever I want. They were so generous and nice. Their 27-year-old daughter walked with me to show me where the internet café in Tejar is, where I can make copies, and where the supermarket is. Their daughter (my neighbor’s sister) is studying English, so I promised her one day during a weekend we could meet up and she could practice her English. I have yet to call her because I’ve been so busy with everything else, but I definitely will be doing that one of these days.
I also started holding a class for high school students this past Thursday. The high schoolers here have to take a bus for about an hour to La Lucha or Cartago to get to high school everyday. Students from several rural towns and larger more urban areas all go to the same high school. They are all expected to already have had several years of English throughout elementary school. However, in Palo Verde, they have had almost no English, so high schoolers really struggle and often fail English in high school. A lot of them drop out, either because school is too hard for them or because their families need them to work and make money, or both. My plan is to host a class for a couple of hours every Thursday to help them with whatever homework they have. I figured this would be better than having an English “class” for them, as they are all learning different things in their English classes in high school. This week only two students showed up, but we weren’t able to tell many families about it beforehand and one student wasn’t able to come because she had a math class. Last night, one student came to my house for help and she ended up being here for 3 hours. She’s 21 and never went to high school, so she just went back and is in her first year. She has never had English before, not to mention she’s been out of school and working for 8 years or something. She works everyday from 7:30-4:30, and then goes to school from 5:30-9:30 several days/week. We spent several hours discussing what is a verb and a subject, what it means to conjugate a verb, how to conjugate verbs in the present tense, pronouns, etc. She has a lot of work to do and it’s A LOT of information for someone who has had no prior experience with English. The teacher expects that much of this is review. She says the teacher speaks in English the whole time and writes on the board the entire class time, and she just copies it into her notebook. She didn’t understand most of what she had written down. Nevertheless, many of the high school students have quite the challenge. Depending on how the English help goes, I may start doing it twice a week.
I took pictures of all my students this week to upload the pictures and develop them as well, but I left my camera in my classroom, which is locked for the weekend and I don’t have a key…. So I’ll have to try to upload them this week sometime or this weekend, depending on when I have internet access again. There are a few pictures of my brother and sister and host mom here in Palo Verde up, though.
The hardest parts so far have been the exhaustion and teaching for the first time, especially without textbooks or workbooks or any materials. It’s been hard living with a random family and not having the freedom to buy and make my own food or the comforts of my own house; however, for the most part, I have felt surprisingly comfortable with my family here. They really are great. They are pretty laid back about everything. My mom is a great cook. I’m getting used to eating rice and beans often three times a day. I actually miss beans if I don’t get them for a meal or two. Rice is ALWAYS included in the meal, and that I could definitely do without. A lot of the volunteers here don’t get vegetables or fruits because their families are too poor. My mom is pretty good about buying some vegetables and including at least one vegetable in our diets each day, which is really great. I eat breakfast at home each morning before school, around 6:00 am. We have a snack in the school at 8:20 am, which is often tortillas, arroz con leche, empanadas, etc. I then eat lunch at the school at 11:00 am, which is usually rice and beans and something else, either spaghetti, hot dogs (kind of), some other kind of ground-up meat in patty form, fish, potatoes, etc. My family always has a “cafecito” around 3:30 in the afternoon, which is always coffee and a snack, usually cookies, bread, empanadas, or tortillas. The past couple of weeks I’ve been trying to run or walk in the afternoons, so usually I’ll eat a snack earlier—something that I’ve horded in my room (dry cereal, crackers, or apples)—and then skip the cafecito. We then eat dinner around 6:30, and then the kids go to bed around 7:15. I go to bed usually between 8:30 and 9:30, as I have to get up at 5:00 am. My host mom gets up at 4:00 am every morning, and I usually hear her alarm and hear her preparing breakfast, so I’m usually half awake by 4. School starts at 7:00 am everyday, and goes until 1:30.
Okay, now that I’ve somewhat caught you all up on my life here, please let me know how you are all doing and what’s going on in your lives! Also, my sister, Kurt, and Robby are coming to visit me March 30th, and my parents are coming April 16th, so if anyone has any school supplies or kids English books, toys, games etc. that they’d like to donate to the kids here, please let me know and Jen or my parents can bring it to me. Thanks so much! Miss you all!
My first week of teaching went pretty well. I had been told that schools here in Costa Rica begin slowly and kind of trickle out towards the end of the year, and that it was highly probable that I wouldn’t actually begin teaching that week. My school is somewhat of an exception here though, and I did begin teaching all my classes that first week, and 80-min classes on top of that. So I kind of jumped right in to the whole teaching thing. The first few weeks here I was absolutely exhausted. I think it was a combination of having to translate from Spanish to English and vice versa in my head all day long, the stress of teaching for the first time in my life, and trying to adjust to a completely new environment where I knew no one and absolutely nothing was “comfortable” like home. I would come home from teaching around 2:30 in the afternoon and pass out for about an hour. My entire body was just exhausted, and my head no longer wanted to function. I could not speak or understand Spanish by mid-afternoon, as though my head just decided by that time that it had had enough. It was really frustrating to be so tired, as I spent several hours every afternoon/evening trying to prepare lessons and materials for the following day and being so exhausted, I was left with no time to get to know my community, exercise, play with my brother and sister, etc. Fortunately, the past week and a half, I have felt much better. I’ve been able to start running or going for walks in the afternoons and I’ve been able to spend more time with my family and community members. I also spend less time (although still a lot!) planning lessons, as I’ve begun to learn shortcuts, as well as be less of a perfectionist. I’m starting to enjoy teaching more and more, and my students are really great.
Monday through Friday I am here in Palo Verde. It is a small town of about 15 families on the side of a mountain. It is absolutely beautiful. There is a river at the bottom of the mountain that is about a 15-20 minute walk from my house that I love to walk to in the afternoons. I’ve decided that is where my private sanctuary will be. There is a dirt road that runs past Palo Verde to La Estrella, which is a larger town (there are 70 students in the school in La Estrella, whereas I have 19…). I can walk on the road for about 45-60 min to get to La Estrella, where there is a small internet café, a little supermarket to buy basic food items, and a pulperia. I discovered a few weeks ago that there is also a “truchería” there, aka. tons of trout in pools that you can fish and then a restaurant there will cook it for you. The woman who owns the internet café and pulperia took me there a few weeks ago and bought me a trout. I was so happy to see a bar/restaurant with PEOPLE! They call Palo Verde a “ghost town” because it’s so small and the houses are pretty spread out, so you rarely see other people. Not to mention that there are no restaurants or places to go hang out, so people are in their houses most of the time.
On the weekends I almost always spend at least a few hours in Cartago to use internet, buy teaching supplies, make copies or print for the upcoming week, etc. I have also returned to Orosi three times now, twice to visit my family and once to visit a friend and use the free wi-fi there. This weekend I stayed here in Palo Verde and just went to Cartago yesterday for a few hours to buy a few things I needed. I’m headed in a few minutes to La Estrella to use the internet and make copies.
One thing that I have learned to love about Costa Rican culture is how friendly and generous people can be. Just little things like the owner of the internet café taking me to the bar to buy me a trout make such a huge difference. The other day I was sitting on the bus in Cartago waiting to go back to Palo Verde. I was talking to a woman (whom I had just met) from La Estrella for a minutes while we both waited, and then she got off the bus to run and grab something. She came back a few minutes later with an ice cream for both me and her! The other weekend, my neighbor decided that I would come to her family’s house in Tejar (about 25 minutes from Palo Verde) to meet her family. We got there around 7:30 am (the bus leaves here at 6:30 am on weekends), and her family fed me a huge and delicious breakfast. Then they told me that their house is my house, that I can stay there whenever I want to, and they have a computer with internet that I can use whenever I want. They were so generous and nice. Their 27-year-old daughter walked with me to show me where the internet café in Tejar is, where I can make copies, and where the supermarket is. Their daughter (my neighbor’s sister) is studying English, so I promised her one day during a weekend we could meet up and she could practice her English. I have yet to call her because I’ve been so busy with everything else, but I definitely will be doing that one of these days.
I also started holding a class for high school students this past Thursday. The high schoolers here have to take a bus for about an hour to La Lucha or Cartago to get to high school everyday. Students from several rural towns and larger more urban areas all go to the same high school. They are all expected to already have had several years of English throughout elementary school. However, in Palo Verde, they have had almost no English, so high schoolers really struggle and often fail English in high school. A lot of them drop out, either because school is too hard for them or because their families need them to work and make money, or both. My plan is to host a class for a couple of hours every Thursday to help them with whatever homework they have. I figured this would be better than having an English “class” for them, as they are all learning different things in their English classes in high school. This week only two students showed up, but we weren’t able to tell many families about it beforehand and one student wasn’t able to come because she had a math class. Last night, one student came to my house for help and she ended up being here for 3 hours. She’s 21 and never went to high school, so she just went back and is in her first year. She has never had English before, not to mention she’s been out of school and working for 8 years or something. She works everyday from 7:30-4:30, and then goes to school from 5:30-9:30 several days/week. We spent several hours discussing what is a verb and a subject, what it means to conjugate a verb, how to conjugate verbs in the present tense, pronouns, etc. She has a lot of work to do and it’s A LOT of information for someone who has had no prior experience with English. The teacher expects that much of this is review. She says the teacher speaks in English the whole time and writes on the board the entire class time, and she just copies it into her notebook. She didn’t understand most of what she had written down. Nevertheless, many of the high school students have quite the challenge. Depending on how the English help goes, I may start doing it twice a week.
I took pictures of all my students this week to upload the pictures and develop them as well, but I left my camera in my classroom, which is locked for the weekend and I don’t have a key…. So I’ll have to try to upload them this week sometime or this weekend, depending on when I have internet access again. There are a few pictures of my brother and sister and host mom here in Palo Verde up, though.
The hardest parts so far have been the exhaustion and teaching for the first time, especially without textbooks or workbooks or any materials. It’s been hard living with a random family and not having the freedom to buy and make my own food or the comforts of my own house; however, for the most part, I have felt surprisingly comfortable with my family here. They really are great. They are pretty laid back about everything. My mom is a great cook. I’m getting used to eating rice and beans often three times a day. I actually miss beans if I don’t get them for a meal or two. Rice is ALWAYS included in the meal, and that I could definitely do without. A lot of the volunteers here don’t get vegetables or fruits because their families are too poor. My mom is pretty good about buying some vegetables and including at least one vegetable in our diets each day, which is really great. I eat breakfast at home each morning before school, around 6:00 am. We have a snack in the school at 8:20 am, which is often tortillas, arroz con leche, empanadas, etc. I then eat lunch at the school at 11:00 am, which is usually rice and beans and something else, either spaghetti, hot dogs (kind of), some other kind of ground-up meat in patty form, fish, potatoes, etc. My family always has a “cafecito” around 3:30 in the afternoon, which is always coffee and a snack, usually cookies, bread, empanadas, or tortillas. The past couple of weeks I’ve been trying to run or walk in the afternoons, so usually I’ll eat a snack earlier—something that I’ve horded in my room (dry cereal, crackers, or apples)—and then skip the cafecito. We then eat dinner around 6:30, and then the kids go to bed around 7:15. I go to bed usually between 8:30 and 9:30, as I have to get up at 5:00 am. My host mom gets up at 4:00 am every morning, and I usually hear her alarm and hear her preparing breakfast, so I’m usually half awake by 4. School starts at 7:00 am everyday, and goes until 1:30.
Okay, now that I’ve somewhat caught you all up on my life here, please let me know how you are all doing and what’s going on in your lives! Also, my sister, Kurt, and Robby are coming to visit me March 30th, and my parents are coming April 16th, so if anyone has any school supplies or kids English books, toys, games etc. that they’d like to donate to the kids here, please let me know and Jen or my parents can bring it to me. Thanks so much! Miss you all!
viernes, 19 de febrero de 2010
First few weeks in Palo Verde
So I have apparently slipped back into my normal internet-hating, lack-of-communicating self. Sorry! In my defense, we had a minor setback with the organization a few weeks ago, and then I have not had internet in Palo Verde and have to walk an hour to and from La Estrella to use the one computer with internet they have there, so when I was able to use it I usually emailed and did things for lesson planning. Anyways, excuses aside, where to begin.... My last weekend in Orosi wasn´t quite as we had planned. On the last day of orientation, I was so excited and really loving my experience here thus far. However, after lunch that day, we had a special meeting where our director informed us that the WorldTeach contract with the government had yet to be signed by the government and it now looked as though they were not going to sign it. This would be that we had four options:
1. Receive half of our program fee back and go home.
2. Transfer to a different WorldTeach program in another country for "free." The two other Spanish-speaking countries are Ecuador and Chile, and both are very different programs from Costa Rica.
3. Stay in Costa Rica and teach "illegally." Furthermore, our Visas would not be accepted without the contract, so we´d have to leave the country every three months for 72 hours and then re-enter for another three months.
4. Try to find another volunteer organization in Costa Rica that was somewhat similar to WorldTeach.
Needless to say, I was seriously crushed. I had really been looking forward to the year ahead and was excited about my site placement and both of my host families. Furthermore, Palo Verde was expecting an English teacher this year for the first time. On top of that, I had fundraised money for the students in Palo Verde. How do I tell the donors that there money will no longer go towards the students in Palo Verde? It was a tough weekend. For the next few days I contemplated my options. Going home was definitely not an option, so it was between staying in Costa Rica or going to either Ecuador or Chile. I've really fallen in love with Costa Rica so far, and I really wanted to stay here, so ultimately I decided that I would stay here and try to teach in Palo Verde somewhat illegally. The downside of this was that I would not have the support of WorldTeach or the CR government. Anyways, I spent Saturday night at my Orosi family's farm in the mountains, and then went to Palo Verde Monday morning. I talked to my family and asked if I could stay with them even if the contract falls through, and they said yes. I was pretty much prepared to get the news that the contract did not go through, but I found out on Wednesday that it did!! Thank God! So it was all just a minor set back that ultimately reaffirmed why we're all here in the first place.
Hmm... okay so I just had a lot more written and this program logged me out and failed to save what I had written, so when I have more time I will update you all on my life in Palo Verde! Miss you all tons! Thanks for the emails and comments--keep them coming! Sorry for my lack of replies! Hopefully as things settle down, I'll have more time for emails and blog updates!
1. Receive half of our program fee back and go home.
2. Transfer to a different WorldTeach program in another country for "free." The two other Spanish-speaking countries are Ecuador and Chile, and both are very different programs from Costa Rica.
3. Stay in Costa Rica and teach "illegally." Furthermore, our Visas would not be accepted without the contract, so we´d have to leave the country every three months for 72 hours and then re-enter for another three months.
4. Try to find another volunteer organization in Costa Rica that was somewhat similar to WorldTeach.
Needless to say, I was seriously crushed. I had really been looking forward to the year ahead and was excited about my site placement and both of my host families. Furthermore, Palo Verde was expecting an English teacher this year for the first time. On top of that, I had fundraised money for the students in Palo Verde. How do I tell the donors that there money will no longer go towards the students in Palo Verde? It was a tough weekend. For the next few days I contemplated my options. Going home was definitely not an option, so it was between staying in Costa Rica or going to either Ecuador or Chile. I've really fallen in love with Costa Rica so far, and I really wanted to stay here, so ultimately I decided that I would stay here and try to teach in Palo Verde somewhat illegally. The downside of this was that I would not have the support of WorldTeach or the CR government. Anyways, I spent Saturday night at my Orosi family's farm in the mountains, and then went to Palo Verde Monday morning. I talked to my family and asked if I could stay with them even if the contract falls through, and they said yes. I was pretty much prepared to get the news that the contract did not go through, but I found out on Wednesday that it did!! Thank God! So it was all just a minor set back that ultimately reaffirmed why we're all here in the first place.
Hmm... okay so I just had a lot more written and this program logged me out and failed to save what I had written, so when I have more time I will update you all on my life in Palo Verde! Miss you all tons! Thanks for the emails and comments--keep them coming! Sorry for my lack of replies! Hopefully as things settle down, I'll have more time for emails and blog updates!
viernes, 22 de enero de 2010
Thursday, Jan. 21st, 2010
So a little over a week has passed since I last wrote and I feel like I could write a book. One exciting part of my life here that I forgot to mention in my last blog is that I’m slowly growing accustomed to sharing my room with cockroaches…. So a little background for those of you who don’t know, I’m not a big fan of bugs, especially large ugly ones that are fast and blend in well with anything dark. Therefore, my goal here in Costa Rica is to learn to appreciate all animals for what they are and “to be one with nature.” ☺ Anyways, my first encounter with a cockroach in my room occurred last Sunday night as I was getting ready for bed. I spotted the “beautiful creature” on my wall, shrieked, and ran to my host mom’s room to tell her that there was a cockroach on my wall! She laughs and slowly saunters over to my room with a can of Off bugspray and starts to spray it. It just sits there like “yeah right, as if that’s going to do something,” so she just keeps spraying until it moves enough for her to reach it to hit it to the floor, and then she steps on it. She just kept looking at me as I sat horrified on my bed like “what is wrong with you?” I just found two more in my room tonight, for a total of probably about 15 now. I killed one this morning and let it sit on the floor for about 15 minutes, and when I went to clean it up it was already surrounded by ants. So yes, slowly becoming one with nature….
Side note—my host brother just walked by my bedroom door and whispered, “I hope a ‘montón de cucarachas’—a LOT of cockroaches—fall on you tonight while you’re sleeping.” Sweet dreams bro.
Where to begin since last Tuesday? They keep us extremely busy here in Orosi, with Spanish classes in the morning, teacher training in the afternoons/practicum, and family activities in the evenings. Oh yes… so last Wednesday was my dad’s birthday and I really wanted to call him (I had yet to talk to my parents at this point). I had class until 4:30, called Robby for the first time, and then went home with the intention of eating dinner, doing homework, calling my dad, and going to bed early. I get home and my host mom is telling me to hurry up because we’re leaving for a rezo in 5 minutes (blessing-the-nativity-scene party so that this house can put away the nativity scene for the year—every house has to have a party for this purpose). I for some reason am extremely agitated by this, but just tell myself to calm down and go anyways. I told my host mom, too, that I needed to be back early to call my dad because it’s his birthday, and she says we’ll be home before 9. Not ideal but okay. We jump in the car and drive to my host mom’s sister’s house for the rezo, and when we get there they tell us it doesn’t start until 7 (it’s now 6). So now we won’t be home until around 10, and this just puts me over the edge for some reason…. I cannot hold in the tears, and yep, start crying. I just turn and walk away from the house, and my mom sends my youngest host brother after me so that I don’t go alone. She thinks I’m going to call my dad from a pay phone, which I originally intended to do but also refused to call him while I was bawling. I ask Osvaldo to just let me go alone, so being the 12-year-old that he is, he complies. I walk for a few minutes, trying to calm down, and then go back to the house because I know my host mom is probably freaking out that I’m walking alone (although it really is pretty safe in Orosi and I was in a very populated part of town). So I return to the house and am standing outside contemplating how to open the gate without drawing a lot of attention to myself when my host mom walks up behind me. She had gone out looking for me! So we go into the house and I seriously cannot stop crying. I met my host mom’s entire side of the family absolutely bawling, to the point where I couldn’t form words to explain to them that it was nothing to do with them, that I was just sad because I missed my family and friends. And just to give you a picture, my host mom has 8 brothers and sisters, so it was a lot of people! Costa Rican culture is a very warm and friendly culture, and they don’t value personal space the way we do in the US. All I needed was a little time by myself to gain composure, but they would not leave me alone, so I eventually just decided to go with it and let them sit with me, hug me, give me tea, stare at me, laugh at me, whatever. They were actually extremely nice to the crazy American girl crying in the other room, and my host brother sat with my for a long time and cracked jokes until I forgot why I was so sad in the first place. I was able to eventually explain to my host mom that I loved living in her house and with her family, and that I did want to come here, but that at the same time it’s really hard to leave my friends and family for a year. I’m not entirely sure she understands this part because most of her extended family lives within a 5-block radius, but I’m sure she can imagine. As embarrassing as that night was, though, I think it made me closer with my family here in Orosi and I think they understand a little bit more now. My host brother Ury still always makes fun of me saying “Don’t cry!” whenever something happens….
Saturday morning I went to Palo Verde—the little town where I’ll be teaching this year—for the first time just to visit for the night. And by “little,” I mean 15 families! They had originally told me 40 families, but my host mom said nope, 15. But it is so gorgeous. It is literally up high on the side of a mountain, and it overlooks the valley below and the other mountains. I took a bus with three other girls from Orosi Saturday morning to Cartago, and then from Cartago two of us took the bus to Palo Verde. The other girl will be in La Estrella, a bigger town about a 40 minute walk from Palo Verde. On the bus ride to Palo Verde, I literally thought we were going to fall off the mountain, it was so steep! My “new” host mom, Silbana, brother, Justin (9 years old), and sister, Abigail (5 years old), were waiting for me at the bus stop. The bus driver helps me get my massive rolling suitcase off the bus and then I greet my new family. The kids are absolutely adorable, and both give me a kiss on the cheek (how people greet each other here). My host mom helps me carry my suitcase down the mountain to the house. We try to roll it at times, but it’s all gravel and extremely steep so we had to carry it most of the way. Unfortunately they have no idea that this is only like half of my stuff…hehe. The other half is back in Orosi for me to bring when I come for good. We pass two other houses on our way, and then come to a little house next to a field of skinny brown cows and she says “this is our house!” It’s very small and simple, but definitely better than I had imagined! The staff person who had gone out to the house to meet with the family and to set everything up told me that the walls of the house don’t touch the roof, which is very possible as many of the houses here are like that. I, not yet being one with nature, was extremely uncomfortable with the thought of cucarachas having free reign over coming and going from my room. So good news, the outside walls of my house do touch the roof, it’s just the inside ones that don’t. So there is absolutely no sound barrier between any of the rooms, including the bathroom, but at least I’m not basically living outdoors like I had pictured. There are three bedrooms, one bathroom—with WARM water!! Ah heaven—a kitchen, and a small living area. The walls and floor are cement/wood, and the roof is metal, and there is no drywall. It’s kind of as though they just didn’t finish off the house. But really, it’s much better than I had pictured! And I’ll just have to get used to the lack of sound barriers, which I’d much prefer over sharing my room with cockroaches.
We sat on the couch and talked for a while. My host mom asked me about my food preferences, and I told her I pretty much eat all fruits and vegetables, and rice and beans (given), and the only thing I don’t eat much of is meat. She said that’s perfect because they don’t eat much meat. I also told her I love eggs which made her incredibly happy. She seemed really worried that I wouldn’t like the food they eat. It’s really pretty simple—rice, beans, eggs, and the occasional fruit or vegetable—which I’d prefer anyways over lots of meat or seafood. They told me a little about the town and that an English teacher came two times a week last year to teach the kids, but that they didn’t know very much. She said she and her husband had debated for a while whether or not to host a volunteer, but that they decided to as it would be a good experience both for her kids and for the town. I told her I’d like to speak English with the kids as much as possible so that they can learn a lot of English this year, especially since they’re at such ideal ages to learn a new language. We ate lunch—rice, beans, a little meat (from an ox? Is that the same as a cow? Lol), and a little salad. It was good except very salty, even for me! Oh well. After lunch the kids and I went out back and they picked some fruit off of their trees and had me try it. One of them was really sour but good, and the other was kind of weird. I don’t think these fruits exist in the US so I’m not sure how to translate the names, which I don’t remember right now anyways. They also showed me their chickens—they have two—and the old house next to their present one that they used to live in. Then we took a walk around the town. And by around the town, I mean straight down and straight up the side of a mountain, lol, passing the school, church, soccer field, and about three houses. I slipped on the gravel walking down from my house to the school literally at least 5 times. The kids thought it was hilarious, and my Justin told me that he and his friends run down the mountain to school each day. It will be very interesting walking down the dirt road while it’s raining, which it apparently does a lot!
Both of the kids melted my heart, they were so sweet! Abigail, the 5-year-old, kept laughing at me and they she’d say “oy Estacey.” So cute! I can’t wait to show you all pictures! And when she smiles her whole face crinkles up. And the little boy is so good with her! They both showed me their toys when we got home, and after playing Barbies and kitchen, we watched Strawberry Shortcake (Rosita Frescita). I also took out my electronic Spanish-English dictionary to look up a word, and they LOVED it. We literally played with that for over an hour. Abi doesn’t know how to spell or read yet though, so she’d just make up words if we didn’t tell her which letters to press. For dinner later that night we had eggs with green beans cooked into them and rice and beans. I played with the kids for a little while longer, and then we put the kids to bed and I literally went to bed at 8!
At 5 the next morning I woke up to my host parents whispering and laughing in bed (remember, no sound barriers…), and then a few minutes later Abigail woke up and right away asked if she could come get me. Her parents said no, and then she called to Justin (sleeping in her room with her since I was in his room), until he woke up, lol. After a few minutes of silence, Abi says “Papi, te quiero.” (Daddy, I love you). And then a few minutes later, “Daddy, aren’t you proud of me for not calling for mommy last night?” ☺ I decided to actually get up around 5:30 or so. I showered and then we had breakfast, and the whole time Abi was asking if we could play some more. My bus left Palo Verde at 7:30 am, so we played kitchen for a few minutes and then I had to go! It was a good trip and it’s really nice to know now where I’m going to be for the next year. And my family seems very sweet.
Just to give you all a little perspective as to where I am in the country, Palo Verde is about 30 minutes south of Cartago (pop. I think around 200,000?), almost right in the middle of the country. The weather is pretty much the same year-round, with a few months getting more rainfall than others. The temperature averages around 74 degrees, and it rains almost every day in the afternoon, or if not rains becomes very overcast.
Unfortunately later on Sunday I started to feel nauseous, and Sunday night I was up a good portion of the night throwing up. ☹ Not fun. My host brother and niece in Orosi both had the flu the week before, so I apparently caught whatever they had. I was sick from Sunday until Wednesday afternoon this week. It’s now Thursday and I just ate my first actual meal since Saturday night. I didn’t eat anything at all for three days, and then I just drank yogurt and ate a few mashed potatoes on Wednesday. Even now food tastes really rich and I can’t eat a lot at one sitting. This week we began practicum. World Teach offers free English classes for a week in Orosi to 1st-5th graders who are on summer vacation right now, which is our time to get some experience teaching. Monday and Tuesday I taught second graders, who were so cute and of course full of energy! Then today (Thursday) I taught 5th graders, which for me was harder because I’m used to working with younger kids. I really wanted to challenge the fifth graders, and my lesson today ended up being a little over their heads. Oh well, I guess that’s how I’ll learn! It was a really busy and stressful week, especially being sick, but it was fun, too. This weekend we have a “free” weekend, so our whole group of volunteers is heading to the beach! We’re going to the Caribbean side near Puerto Viejo. A few people in Orosi have told us not to drink the water there, but also not to shower! And to be very careful of what we eat. I’m PRAYING I don’t get sick again! But I’m so excited to have a relaxing weekend!
I just got back from my host mom’s sister’s birthday party—so much fun! They hired a mariachi singer to come, and they sang and danced until 11 pm, kids and elderly included! They forced me to dance, probably so they could laugh at the “gringa” attempting to dance, but nevertheless, it was lots of fun! Their family is huge and crazy but I really like them. They are extremely welcoming and warm, and they are always looking out for me. I’m so lucky to have such a great family here in Orosi!
Side note—my host brother just walked by my bedroom door and whispered, “I hope a ‘montón de cucarachas’—a LOT of cockroaches—fall on you tonight while you’re sleeping.” Sweet dreams bro.
Where to begin since last Tuesday? They keep us extremely busy here in Orosi, with Spanish classes in the morning, teacher training in the afternoons/practicum, and family activities in the evenings. Oh yes… so last Wednesday was my dad’s birthday and I really wanted to call him (I had yet to talk to my parents at this point). I had class until 4:30, called Robby for the first time, and then went home with the intention of eating dinner, doing homework, calling my dad, and going to bed early. I get home and my host mom is telling me to hurry up because we’re leaving for a rezo in 5 minutes (blessing-the-nativity-scene party so that this house can put away the nativity scene for the year—every house has to have a party for this purpose). I for some reason am extremely agitated by this, but just tell myself to calm down and go anyways. I told my host mom, too, that I needed to be back early to call my dad because it’s his birthday, and she says we’ll be home before 9. Not ideal but okay. We jump in the car and drive to my host mom’s sister’s house for the rezo, and when we get there they tell us it doesn’t start until 7 (it’s now 6). So now we won’t be home until around 10, and this just puts me over the edge for some reason…. I cannot hold in the tears, and yep, start crying. I just turn and walk away from the house, and my mom sends my youngest host brother after me so that I don’t go alone. She thinks I’m going to call my dad from a pay phone, which I originally intended to do but also refused to call him while I was bawling. I ask Osvaldo to just let me go alone, so being the 12-year-old that he is, he complies. I walk for a few minutes, trying to calm down, and then go back to the house because I know my host mom is probably freaking out that I’m walking alone (although it really is pretty safe in Orosi and I was in a very populated part of town). So I return to the house and am standing outside contemplating how to open the gate without drawing a lot of attention to myself when my host mom walks up behind me. She had gone out looking for me! So we go into the house and I seriously cannot stop crying. I met my host mom’s entire side of the family absolutely bawling, to the point where I couldn’t form words to explain to them that it was nothing to do with them, that I was just sad because I missed my family and friends. And just to give you a picture, my host mom has 8 brothers and sisters, so it was a lot of people! Costa Rican culture is a very warm and friendly culture, and they don’t value personal space the way we do in the US. All I needed was a little time by myself to gain composure, but they would not leave me alone, so I eventually just decided to go with it and let them sit with me, hug me, give me tea, stare at me, laugh at me, whatever. They were actually extremely nice to the crazy American girl crying in the other room, and my host brother sat with my for a long time and cracked jokes until I forgot why I was so sad in the first place. I was able to eventually explain to my host mom that I loved living in her house and with her family, and that I did want to come here, but that at the same time it’s really hard to leave my friends and family for a year. I’m not entirely sure she understands this part because most of her extended family lives within a 5-block radius, but I’m sure she can imagine. As embarrassing as that night was, though, I think it made me closer with my family here in Orosi and I think they understand a little bit more now. My host brother Ury still always makes fun of me saying “Don’t cry!” whenever something happens….
Saturday morning I went to Palo Verde—the little town where I’ll be teaching this year—for the first time just to visit for the night. And by “little,” I mean 15 families! They had originally told me 40 families, but my host mom said nope, 15. But it is so gorgeous. It is literally up high on the side of a mountain, and it overlooks the valley below and the other mountains. I took a bus with three other girls from Orosi Saturday morning to Cartago, and then from Cartago two of us took the bus to Palo Verde. The other girl will be in La Estrella, a bigger town about a 40 minute walk from Palo Verde. On the bus ride to Palo Verde, I literally thought we were going to fall off the mountain, it was so steep! My “new” host mom, Silbana, brother, Justin (9 years old), and sister, Abigail (5 years old), were waiting for me at the bus stop. The bus driver helps me get my massive rolling suitcase off the bus and then I greet my new family. The kids are absolutely adorable, and both give me a kiss on the cheek (how people greet each other here). My host mom helps me carry my suitcase down the mountain to the house. We try to roll it at times, but it’s all gravel and extremely steep so we had to carry it most of the way. Unfortunately they have no idea that this is only like half of my stuff…hehe. The other half is back in Orosi for me to bring when I come for good. We pass two other houses on our way, and then come to a little house next to a field of skinny brown cows and she says “this is our house!” It’s very small and simple, but definitely better than I had imagined! The staff person who had gone out to the house to meet with the family and to set everything up told me that the walls of the house don’t touch the roof, which is very possible as many of the houses here are like that. I, not yet being one with nature, was extremely uncomfortable with the thought of cucarachas having free reign over coming and going from my room. So good news, the outside walls of my house do touch the roof, it’s just the inside ones that don’t. So there is absolutely no sound barrier between any of the rooms, including the bathroom, but at least I’m not basically living outdoors like I had pictured. There are three bedrooms, one bathroom—with WARM water!! Ah heaven—a kitchen, and a small living area. The walls and floor are cement/wood, and the roof is metal, and there is no drywall. It’s kind of as though they just didn’t finish off the house. But really, it’s much better than I had pictured! And I’ll just have to get used to the lack of sound barriers, which I’d much prefer over sharing my room with cockroaches.
We sat on the couch and talked for a while. My host mom asked me about my food preferences, and I told her I pretty much eat all fruits and vegetables, and rice and beans (given), and the only thing I don’t eat much of is meat. She said that’s perfect because they don’t eat much meat. I also told her I love eggs which made her incredibly happy. She seemed really worried that I wouldn’t like the food they eat. It’s really pretty simple—rice, beans, eggs, and the occasional fruit or vegetable—which I’d prefer anyways over lots of meat or seafood. They told me a little about the town and that an English teacher came two times a week last year to teach the kids, but that they didn’t know very much. She said she and her husband had debated for a while whether or not to host a volunteer, but that they decided to as it would be a good experience both for her kids and for the town. I told her I’d like to speak English with the kids as much as possible so that they can learn a lot of English this year, especially since they’re at such ideal ages to learn a new language. We ate lunch—rice, beans, a little meat (from an ox? Is that the same as a cow? Lol), and a little salad. It was good except very salty, even for me! Oh well. After lunch the kids and I went out back and they picked some fruit off of their trees and had me try it. One of them was really sour but good, and the other was kind of weird. I don’t think these fruits exist in the US so I’m not sure how to translate the names, which I don’t remember right now anyways. They also showed me their chickens—they have two—and the old house next to their present one that they used to live in. Then we took a walk around the town. And by around the town, I mean straight down and straight up the side of a mountain, lol, passing the school, church, soccer field, and about three houses. I slipped on the gravel walking down from my house to the school literally at least 5 times. The kids thought it was hilarious, and my Justin told me that he and his friends run down the mountain to school each day. It will be very interesting walking down the dirt road while it’s raining, which it apparently does a lot!
Both of the kids melted my heart, they were so sweet! Abigail, the 5-year-old, kept laughing at me and they she’d say “oy Estacey.” So cute! I can’t wait to show you all pictures! And when she smiles her whole face crinkles up. And the little boy is so good with her! They both showed me their toys when we got home, and after playing Barbies and kitchen, we watched Strawberry Shortcake (Rosita Frescita). I also took out my electronic Spanish-English dictionary to look up a word, and they LOVED it. We literally played with that for over an hour. Abi doesn’t know how to spell or read yet though, so she’d just make up words if we didn’t tell her which letters to press. For dinner later that night we had eggs with green beans cooked into them and rice and beans. I played with the kids for a little while longer, and then we put the kids to bed and I literally went to bed at 8!
At 5 the next morning I woke up to my host parents whispering and laughing in bed (remember, no sound barriers…), and then a few minutes later Abigail woke up and right away asked if she could come get me. Her parents said no, and then she called to Justin (sleeping in her room with her since I was in his room), until he woke up, lol. After a few minutes of silence, Abi says “Papi, te quiero.” (Daddy, I love you). And then a few minutes later, “Daddy, aren’t you proud of me for not calling for mommy last night?” ☺ I decided to actually get up around 5:30 or so. I showered and then we had breakfast, and the whole time Abi was asking if we could play some more. My bus left Palo Verde at 7:30 am, so we played kitchen for a few minutes and then I had to go! It was a good trip and it’s really nice to know now where I’m going to be for the next year. And my family seems very sweet.
Just to give you all a little perspective as to where I am in the country, Palo Verde is about 30 minutes south of Cartago (pop. I think around 200,000?), almost right in the middle of the country. The weather is pretty much the same year-round, with a few months getting more rainfall than others. The temperature averages around 74 degrees, and it rains almost every day in the afternoon, or if not rains becomes very overcast.
Unfortunately later on Sunday I started to feel nauseous, and Sunday night I was up a good portion of the night throwing up. ☹ Not fun. My host brother and niece in Orosi both had the flu the week before, so I apparently caught whatever they had. I was sick from Sunday until Wednesday afternoon this week. It’s now Thursday and I just ate my first actual meal since Saturday night. I didn’t eat anything at all for three days, and then I just drank yogurt and ate a few mashed potatoes on Wednesday. Even now food tastes really rich and I can’t eat a lot at one sitting. This week we began practicum. World Teach offers free English classes for a week in Orosi to 1st-5th graders who are on summer vacation right now, which is our time to get some experience teaching. Monday and Tuesday I taught second graders, who were so cute and of course full of energy! Then today (Thursday) I taught 5th graders, which for me was harder because I’m used to working with younger kids. I really wanted to challenge the fifth graders, and my lesson today ended up being a little over their heads. Oh well, I guess that’s how I’ll learn! It was a really busy and stressful week, especially being sick, but it was fun, too. This weekend we have a “free” weekend, so our whole group of volunteers is heading to the beach! We’re going to the Caribbean side near Puerto Viejo. A few people in Orosi have told us not to drink the water there, but also not to shower! And to be very careful of what we eat. I’m PRAYING I don’t get sick again! But I’m so excited to have a relaxing weekend!
I just got back from my host mom’s sister’s birthday party—so much fun! They hired a mariachi singer to come, and they sang and danced until 11 pm, kids and elderly included! They forced me to dance, probably so they could laugh at the “gringa” attempting to dance, but nevertheless, it was lots of fun! Their family is huge and crazy but I really like them. They are extremely welcoming and warm, and they are always looking out for me. I’m so lucky to have such a great family here in Orosi!
jueves, 14 de enero de 2010
Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010
It’s currently around 6:30 pm and I just got back from charlas (group talks/lectures.) I’m sitting in my room while my host family is sitting right outside the door at the computer looking something up—Uriel, Osvaldo, Marcela, Pamela, and Carlos—while my host mom is making dinner in the kitchen. I tried to say hi to Pamela, the 2-yr-old, when I came in and she started crying and stared at me with huge frightened eyes, so I thought maybe it would be better if I hung out in here for a little while. So where to begin today….
Sunday afternoon I went with my family to my host dad’s mom’s house for “un rezo,” a party to bless the nativity scene so that their grandma can put it away for the year. I met a lot of the relatives, none of whose names I can remember, and listened while they all prayed. It was interesting and very religious. A woman at the front of the room read the prayers and sang, and everyone else repeated after her. This lasted for about 20 minutes, and was followed by a typical Tico dish that was similar to a chunky soup, with corn and pork. I soon found out that this filling dish was just an appetizer, and was followed by rice and beans (of course). Just a side note, ticos do not consider it a meal if rice and beans are not included. This usually includes breakfast, as well. We also had a delicious Tico alcoholic drink called rompompe, which is creamy and tastes similar to Bailey’s. Surprisingly everyone at the party was given a Dixie cup of this drink, including the two-year-old children…. The rompompe was followed by grape fanta. I’m learning that Costa Ricans LOVE sugar and salt (the latter is just fine with me). All their drinks are extremely sweet, and they love Coke. The only diet drink I can find here at all is Coke Light. A carb-lovers heaven!
Anyways, after eating we all played Bingo! People in Orosi—I’m not sure about the rest of the country—LOVE their bingo and are extremely serious about it! My extended host family gets together once a month on Sunday to play bingo together, and the money they save from this they use for a big game at the end of the year. Winners won little prizes like a plate, Tupperware, ball, chocolate, etc., but they get pretty excited about it. After bingo, I sat with my host dad’s brother, Uriel (although I didn’t know it was his brother until two days later...), who was really nice. He said he’s had a lot of foreigners stay with him over the years, and he was telling me about his experiences with them. He said people in Orosi really like having foreigners here, as they bring a lot of business, as well as cross-cultural exchange. He was also telling me about what he does for a job—works with an electric company that produces energy for the entire country, called ICE. My host dad works for the same company. He was explaining to me the different means of producing energy. I’ll spare you guys the details.
When we went home, I decided to shower so that I didn’t have to do it in the morning. I washed my hair (in freezing cold water), and when my host mom saw me she freaked out. She seriously was running from room to room telling everyone in the house that I washed my hair and it was wet. I just kept telling her it was okay, but she was so convinced that I was going to get sick. So she sat next to me on my bed and watched me dry my hair with her hair dryer, lol. Then we talked for a while and she looked at more of my stuff. She unfortunately found my pepper spray, which I took away from her right away and explained to her what it was and that my dad and boyfriend wanted me to bring it “just in case.” She thought it was absolutely hilarious and yelled to my oldest host brother, Mauricio, to come see it. Awesome. I also showed them the Frisbee I brought for my placement site and the little erasers and things for the students. She also found my flashlight and thought it was also funny. Apparently they don’t own a flashlight…? She was saying how great it would be for their farm. Anyways, eventually we both decided to go to bed.
Monday I had to get up early for our Spanish placement test followed by class at 7:00 am. My class challenges me, which is good, and my teacher (Margarita) forces us to speak. There are only 6 of us in the group—Me, Flynn, Kerry, Peter, Erin, and Colleen—and she is constantly calling on us randomly to answer questions, give examples, translate, etc. It’s probably a good thing though, as it forces me to speak and make mistakes without being so self-conscious about it. After Spanish we had a charla and then lunch at OTIAC—hamburgers and fries. Nice change from the past few days of rice and beans. I tried to savor every bite, as anything that is not rice and beans will probably be very rare this year. In the afternoon we continued with more charlas, and then I came home for dinner. At 7:00 we went to OTIAC for bingo night with our families. Julieta and Osvaldo came, and I bought each of us two cards. We sat at a table with Julieta’s brother, Carlos, and his wife, and the married couple in my group, Alix and Jim. Julieta was so excited that she won!
This morning I woke up at 5:30 to go for a run with Liz and Meryl. We were planning on meeting at the Plaza at 6:00, but after waiting for Meryl for 10 minutes, Liz and I just decided to go by ourselves. We ran across this crazy suspension bridge—it’s really narrow and swings as you walk across it! And the river is really wide and rough at this point. It’s really cool, though—I definitely need to take pictures of it. Then we ran on a road at the bottom of the mountain. It was gorgeous, and it was really nice to be out early and prepare for the day. I definitely need to keep running this year, not just for the fact that I’m going to gain 20 pounds with all these carbs, but also for my mental sanity!
I came back and had to force myself to take a freezing cold shower. The weather is actually pretty cold here right now, and it’s been raining for two days straight. I’ve been wearing jeans, a sweatshirt/long-sleeved shirt and jacket, and I’m still cold! And my family told me that Palo Verde is a little bit colder than Orosi. I may not be using my dresses and tank tops a whole lot…. Oh well. Cooler temps mean fewer bugs, which is a pretty fair trade to me! Anyways, I ate a massive breakfast of an egg, sausage, gallo pinto (rice and beans), and coffee, and then went to class. Spanish was fine, and in our charlas we discussed teaching techniques, warm-up activities, how to use our resources, and tico culture. At the end of the day, I had to walk home to get my passport to make more photocopies of it for my visa, and then I stayed at the school to buy postcards and use the internet for a while. It’s now 7:30 and I just finished dinner and am seriously tired enough to go to bed now. Unfortunately I still have homework to do and I really should get some stuff organized. More to come soon!
Sunday afternoon I went with my family to my host dad’s mom’s house for “un rezo,” a party to bless the nativity scene so that their grandma can put it away for the year. I met a lot of the relatives, none of whose names I can remember, and listened while they all prayed. It was interesting and very religious. A woman at the front of the room read the prayers and sang, and everyone else repeated after her. This lasted for about 20 minutes, and was followed by a typical Tico dish that was similar to a chunky soup, with corn and pork. I soon found out that this filling dish was just an appetizer, and was followed by rice and beans (of course). Just a side note, ticos do not consider it a meal if rice and beans are not included. This usually includes breakfast, as well. We also had a delicious Tico alcoholic drink called rompompe, which is creamy and tastes similar to Bailey’s. Surprisingly everyone at the party was given a Dixie cup of this drink, including the two-year-old children…. The rompompe was followed by grape fanta. I’m learning that Costa Ricans LOVE sugar and salt (the latter is just fine with me). All their drinks are extremely sweet, and they love Coke. The only diet drink I can find here at all is Coke Light. A carb-lovers heaven!
Anyways, after eating we all played Bingo! People in Orosi—I’m not sure about the rest of the country—LOVE their bingo and are extremely serious about it! My extended host family gets together once a month on Sunday to play bingo together, and the money they save from this they use for a big game at the end of the year. Winners won little prizes like a plate, Tupperware, ball, chocolate, etc., but they get pretty excited about it. After bingo, I sat with my host dad’s brother, Uriel (although I didn’t know it was his brother until two days later...), who was really nice. He said he’s had a lot of foreigners stay with him over the years, and he was telling me about his experiences with them. He said people in Orosi really like having foreigners here, as they bring a lot of business, as well as cross-cultural exchange. He was also telling me about what he does for a job—works with an electric company that produces energy for the entire country, called ICE. My host dad works for the same company. He was explaining to me the different means of producing energy. I’ll spare you guys the details.
When we went home, I decided to shower so that I didn’t have to do it in the morning. I washed my hair (in freezing cold water), and when my host mom saw me she freaked out. She seriously was running from room to room telling everyone in the house that I washed my hair and it was wet. I just kept telling her it was okay, but she was so convinced that I was going to get sick. So she sat next to me on my bed and watched me dry my hair with her hair dryer, lol. Then we talked for a while and she looked at more of my stuff. She unfortunately found my pepper spray, which I took away from her right away and explained to her what it was and that my dad and boyfriend wanted me to bring it “just in case.” She thought it was absolutely hilarious and yelled to my oldest host brother, Mauricio, to come see it. Awesome. I also showed them the Frisbee I brought for my placement site and the little erasers and things for the students. She also found my flashlight and thought it was also funny. Apparently they don’t own a flashlight…? She was saying how great it would be for their farm. Anyways, eventually we both decided to go to bed.
Monday I had to get up early for our Spanish placement test followed by class at 7:00 am. My class challenges me, which is good, and my teacher (Margarita) forces us to speak. There are only 6 of us in the group—Me, Flynn, Kerry, Peter, Erin, and Colleen—and she is constantly calling on us randomly to answer questions, give examples, translate, etc. It’s probably a good thing though, as it forces me to speak and make mistakes without being so self-conscious about it. After Spanish we had a charla and then lunch at OTIAC—hamburgers and fries. Nice change from the past few days of rice and beans. I tried to savor every bite, as anything that is not rice and beans will probably be very rare this year. In the afternoon we continued with more charlas, and then I came home for dinner. At 7:00 we went to OTIAC for bingo night with our families. Julieta and Osvaldo came, and I bought each of us two cards. We sat at a table with Julieta’s brother, Carlos, and his wife, and the married couple in my group, Alix and Jim. Julieta was so excited that she won!
This morning I woke up at 5:30 to go for a run with Liz and Meryl. We were planning on meeting at the Plaza at 6:00, but after waiting for Meryl for 10 minutes, Liz and I just decided to go by ourselves. We ran across this crazy suspension bridge—it’s really narrow and swings as you walk across it! And the river is really wide and rough at this point. It’s really cool, though—I definitely need to take pictures of it. Then we ran on a road at the bottom of the mountain. It was gorgeous, and it was really nice to be out early and prepare for the day. I definitely need to keep running this year, not just for the fact that I’m going to gain 20 pounds with all these carbs, but also for my mental sanity!
I came back and had to force myself to take a freezing cold shower. The weather is actually pretty cold here right now, and it’s been raining for two days straight. I’ve been wearing jeans, a sweatshirt/long-sleeved shirt and jacket, and I’m still cold! And my family told me that Palo Verde is a little bit colder than Orosi. I may not be using my dresses and tank tops a whole lot…. Oh well. Cooler temps mean fewer bugs, which is a pretty fair trade to me! Anyways, I ate a massive breakfast of an egg, sausage, gallo pinto (rice and beans), and coffee, and then went to class. Spanish was fine, and in our charlas we discussed teaching techniques, warm-up activities, how to use our resources, and tico culture. At the end of the day, I had to walk home to get my passport to make more photocopies of it for my visa, and then I stayed at the school to buy postcards and use the internet for a while. It’s now 7:30 and I just finished dinner and am seriously tired enough to go to bed now. Unfortunately I still have homework to do and I really should get some stuff organized. More to come soon!
domingo, 10 de enero de 2010
Sat., Jan. 9th, 2010--Orosi, CR
Wow, I can’t believe only two days have passed since I last wrote. It seems like two weeks. Where to begin… so I met most of the WorldTeach group at a deli outside of the international terminal in Dallas on Thursday at 12:30 for a pre-departure meeting. The assistant field director from last year was there to meet us. He handed us our WorldTeach ID cards and emergency cards, and then we just sat and got to know one another. It was funny to be able to put faces to a lot of the emails I’ve been getting over these past few weeks. Everyone seemed really nice and it seemed like a very interesting group of people. I immediately felt better knowing that we were all in this together. Eventually we all headed through security and boarded the plane. Luckily, I was able to sleep most of the flight. As we approached San Jose and made our descent to land, the winds were really strong. We were literally only a couple of feet from the ground when the pilot pulled the plane back up because the winds were too dangerous. He tried to land again and couldn’t, so we flew to Managua, Nicaragua to re-fuel and then head back to San Jose to try again. Once we were in Managua for more than 30 minutes, though, we apparently had to go through customs, so we had to stay the night and then take off in the morning.
The hotel was right across the street from the airport, and it was really pretty. The temperature in Managua was around 70 and humid, even though it was around 11 pm. Despite its beautiful appearance, however, very little actually functioned at this hotel.... Also, when I was getting into bed I found a dead bug, so of course as I’m laying there, I’m thinking that for sure there are more bugs in my bed, or at least under it that are going to come out in the middle of the night for an easy meal. As far as I know though, I didn’t get bitten that night…. I woke up at 6:15 the next morning to shower, eat, and head to the airport. We figured out that although there was a handle to turn for hot water in the shower, it was for appearances only and did not turn. So I took a cold and very short shower, and then headed to breakfast. Our flight to San Jose was successful this time, and upon landing we went through customs. The lady that I went to was not happy with my explanation of what I was going to be doing there for a year and only spoke Spanish, so I was trying to explain everything to her and she kept wanting to see my return ticket, which clearly I don’t have. Eventually she let me through with my 90-day tourist stamp. We then all got our luggage, which was a miracle in itself, and then went to meet the WorldTeach staff and the rest of our group. Most of us struggled to carry all of our bags out of the airport... how I'm going to get all this stuff to my little town on the side of a mountain is beyond me!
We spent the next few hours in San Jose. First, we went to la Clinica Biblica, which is a large private hospital where the doctor who we’ll be contacting in the case of an emergency works. The doctor managed to scare most of us pretty well with warnings of snakes, crocodiles, parasites, the fact that pedestrians do not have the right of way in Costa Rica (which I’m learning is very true!), different tropical diseases that we could get, food, not to touch brightly colored and interesting-looking insects and animals, etc. He also decided to tell us a wonderful story about how he was chased by a rattling snake at dusk. Usually I'm okay with snakes but aggressive ones... hmm. Then we headed to the US Embassy where several different people talked to us about Costa Rican politics, economics, crime, safety, culture, etc. Although the talk was slightly morbid, all countries have crime and problems, so there wasn’t a lot that we heard that would not happen in the U.S.
Around 4:30 we jumped back on the bus and headed to Orosi to meet our host families for the next three weeks! Scary! We unloaded our tons of luggage and then had a brief meeting before being told who our host families were. The host families had gathered outside of OTIAC (our school), and we were called one by one to step up in front of everyone, get our luggage, and then walk with our host moms to our houses. My host mom is Julieta, and she is very sweet. We are one of the farthest houses from the school, so it was a good 15-minute-walk with my luggage to the house. I have three host brothers, one who is 12, Osvaldo, and Uriel, who is 25. My other host brother, Mauricio, also lives at the house but I haven’t met him yet, as he works in San Jose. I also have a sister, Marcela, who lives nearby with her husband and 2-year-old daughter, Pamela. My host dad is Carlos, and I really like him so far.
The first night went okay. My host mom made me dinner right away, which consisted of rice, beans, a fried egg, some sausage-type thing, yucca, fried plantains, and fresh mora juice. Moras are like tiny little raspberries, and they are sour when you eat the fruit but the juice is sweet. Needless to say, tons of food! Anyways, I met everyone that first night. They were all really nice. My host mom came into my room as I unpacked and looked at all my stuff, which was really embarrassing, and I showed her all the little things I got for the students I’ll be teaching. I also showed her my pictures of home, which I felt bad doing just because our house would be HUGE for them, but oh well I guess. Their house is actually really nice. Osvaldo, my 12-year-old brother, also poked his head in and was like, “Whoa! You have enough clothes for 5 years!” And then he left. Thanks Osvaldo. Orosi is the most beautiful town!! It seems to be pretty well off, too, as there are many beautiful houses. I have my own room which is pretty nice. I’ll try to take pics of things and post them. Around 10:00, I was so tired I could barely move and I had to go to bed. I slept pretty well—it was a long day!
Today I woke up at 6 when everyone else in the house did, but around 7:00 I fell back asleep until about 8:30. My host mom and dad were going up to their farm in the mountains for the day, where they grow all kinds of fruit. They said they’d take me up there sometime. So my 12-year-old host brother showed me where my host mom had left me breakfast—pretty much the same thing as my dinner last night. I chose to just eat two little bananas instead which he thought was weird, but I think they’re used to weird American quirks, as they’ve had close to 30 volunteers. Osvaldo kept laughing at me during breakfast and after, and he tried to lock me out of the house at one point! He also made up the name of a fake sport and tried to tell me he played it, so I looked it up on their computer and he starts laughing and says “no existe!!” haha. He also has some game where he points at things and then I look at where he’s pointing, and then he laughs. He thinks it’s so funny, and he just says “no it’s a game” when I asked him about it. So it was an interesting breakfast. Then Osvaldo and I walked to the Plaza where the volunteers were meeting at 10:00 to play games with their host families. As soon as we get there though, Osvaldo says he’s not going to stay because “his stomach hurts.” I said that was fine if he didn’t want to participate or stay, and I asked if he’d done this before with other volunteers and he said yes. He did actually stay for the whole thing, though, and just watched and goofed around with a friend, who after I couldn’t pronounce his name, told me to call him Steven. Osvaldo is very much so a typical 12-year-old. They did get pretty excited about water balloons, though.
At 11:45 Osvaldo and I walked home, where I showered…. So my family supposedly has hot water, so I asked Osvaldo on our way home if he could show me how to use the hot water. Showers have a little water heater on the spout, so it has to be low water pressure so that the water can heat as it comes out. He tells me, though, that they don’t have hot water. I thought he was trying to play another joke on me, so I’m like yeah right. He says no, really, we don’t have hot water, the heater is broken, which Uriel later confirms for me. So I say no problem, I’ll take a cold one. But “cold,” I soon find out, does not just mean “lukewarm,” it means ICE cold! I could not breathe, and I was gasping so loud they had to have heard me outside the bathroom. So my shower was quite short, and this cold water thing is going to take some getting used to, lol. We then had lunch—rice and manicotti-type pasta filled with tuna, and then I had to go to OTIAC to meet up with my group. We played some ice breakers and talked about some other things that I already don’t remember, and then we broke up into groups of 4 for a scavenger hunt around town, where we had to ask locals all kinds of questions and take pictures with them. Embarrassing but fun at the same time, and the locals are apparently used to it. I’m attempting to post these pictures. Orosi, by the way, is like a large suburb in the US, so it’s a decent-sized town, and it really is beautiful. I then went home for a quick dinner—rice, beans, pork (I think), yucca, and a weird fruit that I’ve never had and cannot remember the name of, but the best way I can describe it is a cross between a potato and a pear. Then I met up with the WorldTeach group at a bar called Nido (“nest”) for a few drinks and to socialize. It was fun and good to talk to people. Tomorrow we are apparently going to a party, called a “rezo,” at my host dad’s mom’s house, with all the relatives, to bless the nativity scene so that she can put it away for the year (all the houses do this), then eat food and play Bingo. No school stuff tomorrow, it’s a free day! Spanish classes and the serious stuff start on Monday. I’m actually looking forward to that part though. Structure can be comforting. Good night everyone!
The hotel was right across the street from the airport, and it was really pretty. The temperature in Managua was around 70 and humid, even though it was around 11 pm. Despite its beautiful appearance, however, very little actually functioned at this hotel.... Also, when I was getting into bed I found a dead bug, so of course as I’m laying there, I’m thinking that for sure there are more bugs in my bed, or at least under it that are going to come out in the middle of the night for an easy meal. As far as I know though, I didn’t get bitten that night…. I woke up at 6:15 the next morning to shower, eat, and head to the airport. We figured out that although there was a handle to turn for hot water in the shower, it was for appearances only and did not turn. So I took a cold and very short shower, and then headed to breakfast. Our flight to San Jose was successful this time, and upon landing we went through customs. The lady that I went to was not happy with my explanation of what I was going to be doing there for a year and only spoke Spanish, so I was trying to explain everything to her and she kept wanting to see my return ticket, which clearly I don’t have. Eventually she let me through with my 90-day tourist stamp. We then all got our luggage, which was a miracle in itself, and then went to meet the WorldTeach staff and the rest of our group. Most of us struggled to carry all of our bags out of the airport... how I'm going to get all this stuff to my little town on the side of a mountain is beyond me!
We spent the next few hours in San Jose. First, we went to la Clinica Biblica, which is a large private hospital where the doctor who we’ll be contacting in the case of an emergency works. The doctor managed to scare most of us pretty well with warnings of snakes, crocodiles, parasites, the fact that pedestrians do not have the right of way in Costa Rica (which I’m learning is very true!), different tropical diseases that we could get, food, not to touch brightly colored and interesting-looking insects and animals, etc. He also decided to tell us a wonderful story about how he was chased by a rattling snake at dusk. Usually I'm okay with snakes but aggressive ones... hmm. Then we headed to the US Embassy where several different people talked to us about Costa Rican politics, economics, crime, safety, culture, etc. Although the talk was slightly morbid, all countries have crime and problems, so there wasn’t a lot that we heard that would not happen in the U.S.
Around 4:30 we jumped back on the bus and headed to Orosi to meet our host families for the next three weeks! Scary! We unloaded our tons of luggage and then had a brief meeting before being told who our host families were. The host families had gathered outside of OTIAC (our school), and we were called one by one to step up in front of everyone, get our luggage, and then walk with our host moms to our houses. My host mom is Julieta, and she is very sweet. We are one of the farthest houses from the school, so it was a good 15-minute-walk with my luggage to the house. I have three host brothers, one who is 12, Osvaldo, and Uriel, who is 25. My other host brother, Mauricio, also lives at the house but I haven’t met him yet, as he works in San Jose. I also have a sister, Marcela, who lives nearby with her husband and 2-year-old daughter, Pamela. My host dad is Carlos, and I really like him so far.
The first night went okay. My host mom made me dinner right away, which consisted of rice, beans, a fried egg, some sausage-type thing, yucca, fried plantains, and fresh mora juice. Moras are like tiny little raspberries, and they are sour when you eat the fruit but the juice is sweet. Needless to say, tons of food! Anyways, I met everyone that first night. They were all really nice. My host mom came into my room as I unpacked and looked at all my stuff, which was really embarrassing, and I showed her all the little things I got for the students I’ll be teaching. I also showed her my pictures of home, which I felt bad doing just because our house would be HUGE for them, but oh well I guess. Their house is actually really nice. Osvaldo, my 12-year-old brother, also poked his head in and was like, “Whoa! You have enough clothes for 5 years!” And then he left. Thanks Osvaldo. Orosi is the most beautiful town!! It seems to be pretty well off, too, as there are many beautiful houses. I have my own room which is pretty nice. I’ll try to take pics of things and post them. Around 10:00, I was so tired I could barely move and I had to go to bed. I slept pretty well—it was a long day!
Today I woke up at 6 when everyone else in the house did, but around 7:00 I fell back asleep until about 8:30. My host mom and dad were going up to their farm in the mountains for the day, where they grow all kinds of fruit. They said they’d take me up there sometime. So my 12-year-old host brother showed me where my host mom had left me breakfast—pretty much the same thing as my dinner last night. I chose to just eat two little bananas instead which he thought was weird, but I think they’re used to weird American quirks, as they’ve had close to 30 volunteers. Osvaldo kept laughing at me during breakfast and after, and he tried to lock me out of the house at one point! He also made up the name of a fake sport and tried to tell me he played it, so I looked it up on their computer and he starts laughing and says “no existe!!” haha. He also has some game where he points at things and then I look at where he’s pointing, and then he laughs. He thinks it’s so funny, and he just says “no it’s a game” when I asked him about it. So it was an interesting breakfast. Then Osvaldo and I walked to the Plaza where the volunteers were meeting at 10:00 to play games with their host families. As soon as we get there though, Osvaldo says he’s not going to stay because “his stomach hurts.” I said that was fine if he didn’t want to participate or stay, and I asked if he’d done this before with other volunteers and he said yes. He did actually stay for the whole thing, though, and just watched and goofed around with a friend, who after I couldn’t pronounce his name, told me to call him Steven. Osvaldo is very much so a typical 12-year-old. They did get pretty excited about water balloons, though.
At 11:45 Osvaldo and I walked home, where I showered…. So my family supposedly has hot water, so I asked Osvaldo on our way home if he could show me how to use the hot water. Showers have a little water heater on the spout, so it has to be low water pressure so that the water can heat as it comes out. He tells me, though, that they don’t have hot water. I thought he was trying to play another joke on me, so I’m like yeah right. He says no, really, we don’t have hot water, the heater is broken, which Uriel later confirms for me. So I say no problem, I’ll take a cold one. But “cold,” I soon find out, does not just mean “lukewarm,” it means ICE cold! I could not breathe, and I was gasping so loud they had to have heard me outside the bathroom. So my shower was quite short, and this cold water thing is going to take some getting used to, lol. We then had lunch—rice and manicotti-type pasta filled with tuna, and then I had to go to OTIAC to meet up with my group. We played some ice breakers and talked about some other things that I already don’t remember, and then we broke up into groups of 4 for a scavenger hunt around town, where we had to ask locals all kinds of questions and take pictures with them. Embarrassing but fun at the same time, and the locals are apparently used to it. I’m attempting to post these pictures. Orosi, by the way, is like a large suburb in the US, so it’s a decent-sized town, and it really is beautiful. I then went home for a quick dinner—rice, beans, pork (I think), yucca, and a weird fruit that I’ve never had and cannot remember the name of, but the best way I can describe it is a cross between a potato and a pear. Then I met up with the WorldTeach group at a bar called Nido (“nest”) for a few drinks and to socialize. It was fun and good to talk to people. Tomorrow we are apparently going to a party, called a “rezo,” at my host dad’s mom’s house, with all the relatives, to bless the nativity scene so that she can put it away for the year (all the houses do this), then eat food and play Bingo. No school stuff tomorrow, it’s a free day! Spanish classes and the serious stuff start on Monday. I’m actually looking forward to that part though. Structure can be comforting. Good night everyone!
Thursday, Jan. 7th, 2010
So I’m sitting in the Dallas airport trying to eat a sandwich and wondering what I’ve gotten myself into. In about an hour I’ll be meeting most of my fellow volunteers. I should be really excited to meet them, and a few weeks ago I was, but right now I just can’t imagine any of them being as wonderful as my friends and family at home. As usual when I leave home for an extended period of time, I am reminded of how important my family and friends are to me and how lucky I am. I just need to remember that those people will all still be there when I get back in a year. Right now, though, I feel like turning around and going home. Just got a text from my dad saying “You know why you do this! You’ll know why when you get there. Helping people and learning is what you do! Love Dad! Have fun!!” And now I’m sitting at a table in the airport crying and watching people trying not to look at me, lol. Oh god, I’m a mess. I know, too, that this is the worst part. All I can think about right now is all the people I left behind instead of all the people I’m going to be meeting in these next few weeks. In a year from now, I’m probably going to be sad to leave my tico family and friends that will become important to me. I just have to have faith that those relationships will happen, that there is a wonderful group of volunteers who will become great friends and a little town on the side of a mountain in the middle of Costa Rica that will hopefully become like a second family to me. And how lucky will I feel in a year that I have two groups of people that are important to me—one in Costa Rica and one at home? Some people don’t even have one of those....
I also keep going over all the stuff I packed and I know I have way too much. It really does help to not procrastinate when it comes to packing for a year…. probably something I will never learn. Okay, well, I’m off to meet my fellow volunteers, with a quick stop at the bathroom on my way so that I don’t look like the crying mess I do right now… more to come soon!
I also keep going over all the stuff I packed and I know I have way too much. It really does help to not procrastinate when it comes to packing for a year…. probably something I will never learn. Okay, well, I’m off to meet my fellow volunteers, with a quick stop at the bathroom on my way so that I don’t look like the crying mess I do right now… more to come soon!
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