Hmmm..

Photos...maybe?

“Happiness is a long walk in beautiful, unfamiliar mountains.” – Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord

 I just got back from my weekend visit with my mentor volunteer. Her name is Andrea and she lives in the north of Costa Rica. I was very fortunate and my travels went smoothly. I left at 11am and arrived a 9:30pm. It was much warmer in that part of the country even walking to her house in the dark I was sweating.

We had a wonderful weekend together. She showed me around her community and I got to meet lots of wonderful people. We shared meals with three families and were very well fed! We also made some American food on Saturday, French toast an and a salad full of fresh veggies. I think I could live off of fresh fruits, veggies, bread and chocolate.

She is living in a beautiful wood house, my favorite feature of the house is a hammock on the porch.  It was wonderful to have a chance to relax in the afternoon heat, because training thus far has been go, go, go! I had some time for reading and it was so refreshing.

On Sunday we went on a hike with her neighbor who is a farmer. We walked through some of the local farm lands and then through a mountainous area. The purpose of the hike was to find the home of a boa constrictor the farmer has found earlier that week. So we walked for two hours and then Don Juan found a large bamboo stick and put the stick in a hole in the ground. What happened next shocked me: we heard a loud growl. Now when I say growl I am not saying that the hissing sound I associate with snakes was deeper than I expected. I am saying that I suspected that (based on the noise) there was a lion living in the whole, and we had upset him. But after a short while, Don Juan extracted an alive boa constrictor from the hole. The snake was over 2 meters long and weighed over 20 kilos. I still don’t had a firm grasp on the metric system, so in laymen’s terms it was GIGANITIC! We took some photos, marked the whole and continued on with our hike. Just another day in Costa Rica.

That afternoon the community was having a feria, a local community event including soccer games, music, food and usually fruits and veggies for sale. We spent the afternoon hanging out in the shade watching to soccer games. I left that night/morning at 330am and arrived safely home by 1pm. Now I have to finish my homework for the week and I think I am going to try to make hummus to bring to class for a snack tomorrow.

One final note – I received such a wonderful welcome when I arrived home today. I am so glad that after only a month I feel as though I have established a stable home base here in Costa Rica. And I am infinitely gratefully for my Tico family and my newfound PC friends.

Loves,

Chelsea

I’m off to see the wizard…

No idea why, but that is the song I have stuck in my head as I am about to leave for a weekend trip to visit another volunteer. She has been in country for a year and lives 9 hours from where I live. I will be taking 3 busses, and 2 taxis. I am hopeful that people will understand my Spanish and that I will not get lost. But there are still some butterflies merrily making their way about in my stomach. This is the first time I will be traveling alone in Costa Rica and it is a pretty long trip. Buena suerte a mi!

This week was another whirlwind. Here are some highlights:

-With my Spanish companeros, I taught a class to twenty 6th grade students about protecting the environment. It was the first of a series of classes and went surprisingly well.

-Other highlights of the week include learning a new way to say ‘I don’t understand you’

-On Monday I made tortillas from scratch on a wood-burning stove and they were delicious!

-I also tried 8 new types of fruit (cas, marinon, lemon dulce, guava, mango verde, granadilla, manzanas aguas and cailemote) and like all but one of them that smells like feet.

-I ironed my own clothes and my Mama Tica (who hates ironing) was very appreciative.

-Tuesday we had another money in the middle game of Frisbee, which was wonderful, and I took a short cut back to my town that cut through the coffee fields. We walked home during sunset and the views were absolutely breathtaking.

- I can walk up the hill to get to town with only moderate out of breathedness now, which I consider a huge accomplishment.

-I ate pizza, my first American food since arrival, with my companeros after class one day. The pizza was surprisingly delicious J

That’s all for now. I got my first piece of mail this week, a letter from my Momma, which was wonderful to receive. I probably won’t post this until after I return from my weekend adventure, but either way – Wish me luck (and comprehensible Spanish)!

Loves,

Chelsea

It was bound to happen…

This deserves it own blog entry. Last week (I can’t believe it took me this long to remember to write about it) I saw a tarantula. It was the size of my hand and black and hairy. I was watching a movie with my friends at a neighbor’s house and sitting on the couch. A foot away from the couch in the corner my friend spotted the tarantula. It didn’t attack anyone and eventually we killed it. But let me tell you, my heart was racing the entire time I sat in that room. So there you go, the advantages of tropical living, up close and personal  J

Oh and if you get a chance, google bot flies. Another advantage.

Chelsea

I couldn’t be happier…

I am reading The Impossible Will Take a Little While, an amazing book, which I highly recommend. It is a collection of essays of hope from well-known authors, political figures, etc. There was a quote that I read the other day that I want to share: “The great events of this world are not battles and elections and earthquakes and thunderbolts. The great events are babies, for each child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged with humanity, but is still expecting goodwill to become incarnate in each human life. And so God produced a Gandhi and a Mandela and a Harriet Tubman, an Eleanor Roosevelt and a Martin Luther King, Jr., and each of us to guide the Earth toward peace rather than conflict.” How poignant.

This weekend there is a fair type event happening 150 ft across the street from my house in a field. There are bull runs, motorcycle races, singing/dancing groups, DJs, concerts, fair rides and food. It is quite an event and is drawing a crowd from far and wide. I went with my family last night to see a dancing group and today there is a concert. Its quiet an event here is small town Costa Rica. I am definitely enjoying myself.

My Tico family and PC friends have thus far proved to be an extremely supportive group. I am enjoying making new friends and learning about Tican culture from my family. Language is slow and challenging, but we laugh a lot! I don’t always know why we are laughing, and I am probably the butt of quite of a few jokes, but at least there is laughter! I can’t wait for the day when I am able to think of and correctly say a comeback in Spanish J

As far as missing the states, so far I am doing surprisingly well. I am part of a wonderfully supportive community and there has been lots to do here in Costa Rica. Plus everyday I wake up amazed at the beauty that I am literally surrounded by. If I had to say I miss one things (sorry friends and family, but for now your not at the top of my list) it would be driving in cars with the music turned up loud and the windows rolled down. That is such a spectacular feeling! In Costa Rica not only do I not know the words to the songs, but I travel mostly on cramped buses with spotty radios.

Adjusting to food has been simple, rice, beans and meat. The carbo load was a little challenging on my system at first, but I have been taking advantage of the fresh tropical fruit as often as possible. And have I mentioned that the weather here is warm and sunny everyday! I am in love with the sunshine J Back to the food, the panaderias have amazing fresh made bread (sweet and savory) which I treat myself to every once and a while. The supermarket here is pretty extensive, but my family takes such good care of me that I think the only thing I have bought there is gum!

That’s all for now. Hope everyone back home is well. I miss hearing about your lives, and hope you know that even though I am far away I am thinking of you

Chelsea

Approaching about a 30% understanding

This past week passed by in a flash. Two days this week I went into city for training, which means I woke up at 5am to take the 90 minute bus ride into the city and didn’t return until around 8pm. And in Costa Rica bedtime usually happens around 8/9pm. I was pretty exhausted after repeating that for two days. But it was heartening to have Spanish again on Friday. I am really enjoying Spanish class, even though my speaking improvement is slow, I feel like I am learning a lot. (Plus Spanish class doesn’t start until 845am!)

This week my Tica mom invited all of my friends over for cafecito and we had 12 people over Monday afternoon for empanadas, cookies, and cafe. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed introducing my family to my friends and visa versa. Tuesday was tech training in a neighboring community. We are preparing to teach a three session Environmental Education class in our local elementary school, and so we got some information on that. After class a group of us played Frisbee in the plaza (soccer field) across the street and I had a really good time. Friday afternoon our group (7 in my community and a couple others from neighboring communities) went over for cafecito at another volunteer’s house. It ended up being a huge misunderstanding because the volunteer’s dad intended to invite us over for dinner and we all showed up at 4pm expecting cafecito. But after a good laugh everyone adjusted expectations and we had a really nice early dinner.

Nothing much else new. I feel a little like I am just reproducing a copy of my schedule for the week. Life already feels stable and predictable. But that is good, it means that I am comfortable here.

Sending love,

Chelsea

i love walking. i am learning to love the hills. or at least learning to tolerate them.

so i live in a very mountianous community. i would also like to add that i am typing this on a costa rican key board which is different than an american key board. because of this i do not know how to capitalize things or how to spell because the spell check is in spanish. i apologize for both, but eh, at least we are speaking the same language, that makes this easy. back to my mountainous community. there are a lot of hills, and i have to walk up and down them. i am usually out of breath, but i have high hopes that one day i will be able to walk up the hills without losing my breath. i will let you know when that happens. spanish class is great, i am learning a lot. but there is still a ton more to learn. i am very busy during the weeks and there is no internet at my house. plus i probably wouldnt have time to use it if there was. and we learned this week that the internet cafe closed a little bit ago, so i am using the internet at my aunts house. which is very sweet. so far everyone i have met has been extremely generous and welcoming. things i like about my community include...the grocery store is called the heart of jesus, everyone says hi how are you when passing each other on the street, the hills are forcing me to stay in shape, so far it has been sunny everyday, there are amazing views from everywhere, and my family is amazing. this is kinda stream of consiousness, sorry. i cant speak in spanish or think in english, whatcha gonna do. but this week has been great. i cant stress that enough. i dont mind not having internet or a cell phone. i have plenty to do and there are lots of friends within walking distance, i may be walking for an hour, but at least when i get where i am going there are always friends there. my favorite part of tican culture so far, is cafecito, a coffee and snack break taken in the afternoon. i have been going to my friends houses and having cafecito with their families, it is a lot of fun. i also love the fruit! this weekend my family and i went into the city and went to an outdoor farmers market that was huge. it was amazing...most of you know my love of farmers markets. i was in heaven. and the fruit here is perfect. there is no other word. i think i am done talking now...gotta go

sending love, hugs and happy thoughts
chelsea

poco a poco

Today marks the end of my first week in Costa Rica. I would swear that it has been at least a month. I have been living in my community since Saturday and I am amazed at how comfortable I feel with my host family. My Tico parents are so kind and they have been amazing Spanish teachers. My Spanish is improving in leaps and bounds. I still only speak in present tense, which can be confusing and I am not able to understand when native speakers are speaking quickly to each other. But poco a poco (little by little) I am finding that I can express my thoughts. I have also noticed that I am remembering things that I am learning, which is amazing because I am usually a visual learner. It is cool to learn just by practicing speaking. I still have a long way to go though, but its only day 2 of training ;-)

The first day of language training went well. We spent some time in the classroom, but we also spent time walking around the town approaching people and talking with them. I will admit that I still don’t feel comfortable approaching strangers, even though everyone we have talked with has been very nice. But I guess as time goes on I will get used to it, networking is going to be an important part of my job. I really like my language teacher and there are only 3 other students in my class. I am in the lowest beginner class though (a little embarrassing) but that just means I have the most to learn!

Today was technical training day number one. My largest reflection on today is that 8-5 is a long time to sit and listen to someone talk. The trainer did a good job having us get up every once in a while through group work and other activities. But all of the carbs in a Tico lunch made me SO sleepy! The highlight of class today was when the trainer drew a diagram that answered 17+ of my questions about how I am going to be working towards development in rural Costa Rica. It was a very helpful picture! This is also the second day that after class I have gone to another volunteer’s house for cafecito (coffee in the afternoon with bread or cookies). It is nice getting to know that other families. Two other volunteers live on the same street that I do, and 6 other volunteers live in the same community. The three of us that live on the same street get together often -which is nice.

I am really enjoying my host family experience, and I can tell already that it is going to be hard to leave. They have been so welcoming and helpful. It has to be such an imposition to have a stranger come and live in your house, especially when that stranger is from a foreign culture and doesn’t speak your language very well. But they have been so accepting of my differences and extremely willing to explain everything to me. I am very grateful, I only wish I had the word to convey my gratitude.

I am off to bed, 9pm here. I will wake up at 6am for my morning climb (the hills here are intense) and a little run. I am still working up to breathing effectively in Costa Rica, the air doesn’t seem to agree with my lungs. Poco a poco.

Sending love and hugs

Chelsea

And the Journey Begins…

And the Journey Begins…

Today I moved in with my host family. It was difficult to leave the constant support of all of the other volunteers, because we became so close so quickly. But less than a week ago they were all strangers, so there is much hope for the future.

My family consists of a Mama, Papa, a hermana who is seven years old and a perrito. The three next-door neighbors are my Mama’s sisters. All of the four familias – (wifes, husbands and kids) came over for cafecito this afternoon. It was wonderful having a house full of people and everyone was extremely kind. I spent some time at the adult table, not understanding Spanish and some time playing games with the kids. I cannot stress enough how kind and caring the entire family has been. I am so grateful. Spanish is challenging, I am able to speak very little and understand less than I thought. But everyone has been extremely patient. I have a house full of wonderful teachers!

The house is very comfortable and the community is in the mountains. It is absolutely gorgeous! There are spectacular views everywhere you turn. Although for every view there is a hill, so walking around the community is going to be a great workout! I have my own room and closet to hang up my clothes (which is endlessly exciting!). My Mama makes really good food. Today we had rice, black beans and stewed chicken. The coffee is spectacular. There are coffee plants growing adjacent to my family’s home.  And they had salt for the tomatoes on the salad. I haven’t seen salt in Costa Rica until today, and I was so grateful for that little taste of home.

It is 830 and I am exhausted. I am going to sleep now and I will hopefully wake up and go for a run around the community tomorrow morning. If not I have been told that tomorrow is the day of shopping! Which is wonderful ;-)

Sending loves,

Chelsea

Musical Chairs Champion

Today my technical group broke into groups and ventured out into a local city about 45 minutes away. We had tasks- buy a phone card, visit a central mercardo, ask questions about a historical site (mine was a beautiful basilica that the Virgin Mary appeared at), and eat lunch for under 2000 colones. It was great to get out of the training center and walk around Costa Rica.  My Spanish is in dire need of improvement, but hey- I figure after a weekend of pantomiming I should be full of laughter!

I found out information about my host community and my host family today!!! I will be living in a training community with 5 other volunteers. It is in the hills, a semi-rural community. I will be living with a Mom, Dad and a sister who looks around 8ish. I got to see a picture of them! I am very excited and very nervous. We leave tomorrow and I move into my training community for the next 10 weeks.

Today was a wonderful day for laughter. Jokes about my Spanish ability and misunderstandings with host families made my stomach hurt this afternoon. Then this evening we had a BBQ with wonderful food and a talent show with two hilarious skits poking fun at our journey so far. Then we Latin danced the night away! It so much fun. In the middle of the evening there was a game of musical chairs instigated, where 22 volunteers all danced around the chairs. After many an elimination I nudged everyone out with my....lets just say tenacity :-)

Overall an amazing day. I am sad to leave the other volunteers but I'm excited for living in my community and beginning training. Quick brief on training- MWF Spanish, T Technical Skills, TH CORE PC training. Three weekend trips, one alone to visit a PCV, another with my technical group to work in a community for a week, and finally alone to visit my site! Also Holy Week happens during my stay with my training host family and I'm excited for that.

A few updates from PC. Receiving packages here will be extremely difficult. I will have to pay $100-$300 in custom fees go receive your packages. Feel free to send letters and padded envelopes, but boxes are a no go. Also tonight is my last night of stable wi-fi so I don't know when I will be able to update next. But I love emails and comments!

I have also posted a few photos-hope you enjoy.

Sending amor,

Chelsea

And then there was sunshine...

After 8 hours of sleep I felt much better today! I was woken up at 5:15am by the birds chirping in the trees outside my room. For such an ungodly hour it was surprisingly pleasant. Going to bed early helped too. I was able to take a warm shower this morning (such a blessing!) because during the night I was pretty cold. I was sleeping under a blanket from the retreat center, and tonight I will definitely be doubling up on blankets!

The day consisted of lots of speakers. It is interesting learning about Peace Corps and what I am going to be doing. But the more I learn the more questions I am left with. The most common phrase today must have been 'we will cover that later.' I am feeling more confident about living with a host family, not any particular  reason why- I just think the stability of living in the same place for 3 months has become a comforting idea. Some of the speakers were a little overwhelming, but most were sensitive and didn't try to scare to early out of the gate.

My favorite part of the day were personal presentations. All of the staff give a 10 minute presentation before they speak and this evening 5 trainees also gave personal presentations. It was great to learn more about everyone and the environment was very accepting. We laughed a lot also, which felt really good!

Today is the first day I didn't Skype home. Instead I did yoga with another volunteer. I am feeling more comfortable in Costa Rica and less scared and sad. Mom- I did not cry once today, you would be proud!

Positive thought for today: I got to lounge in the warm gorgeous sun for 30 minutes during my lunch hour and it felt like my body was literally absorbing happiness ;-)

Sending love to all,

Chelsea

Safely Arrived in Costa Rica

Woke up at 2am. Flight to Miami 7am. Flight to San Jose at 12pm. Arrive in San Jose at 2pm. Retreat Center at 4pm. Sessions. Dinner. Exhaustion.

A part of me can't believe that I am actually here. The past few days have been an emotional roller-coaster, especially because I wear my emotions on my sleeves. I am starting to make new friends and there are quite a few people who feel the same way I do, which is comforting. I'm just taking things one day at a time.

The retreat center is beautiful and Costa Rica is gorgeous. I saw the most magnificent magenta sunset tonight and the city lite up at night is spectacular. There are birds chirping constantly and everything is very green. And its warm with a cool breeze - perfect!

My positive thought for the day is: I have met lots of like minded people in the past two days - and everyone is welcoming and understanding.

Love to all-

Chelsea