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!