Saturday, March 17, 2012

When to expect the unexpected, and other valuable lessons of living in the campo

First of all, I would like to acknowledge that I do actually perform work related tasks, while living my life here. I was reading through my blog the other day, and realized that very few of my updates or anecdotes include my professional life here. At least from the traditional Western perspective. I actually consider quite a few things as being work related activities, that in most other situations would never be construed as such. But regardless, there are formal work related activities that have been happening (its just that they aren´t always the most interesting or story worthy of events). In acknowledgement of this, I would like to share some of my more concrete work here, but don´t worry I have some more fun stuff I will include later on in the entry too.

My work usually divides up into two categories, work with adults and work with youth. Right now I have a few youth projects that I am working on.
-I have an environmental group, and we have organized weekly trash picks ups. The environmental group has a high school leader, and the two of us are trying to find funds to build a small recycling shed in town, so that we can begin a recycling program to minimize burning of recyclable materials.
-I also have a Young Women´s group, with a few local high schoolers and we meet once a week to discuss issues from self-esteem to violence against women to human rights.
-I am working with a local woman to start a pre-school in the community. She is currently holding classes three days a week in her yard for a few community kids, free of charge. Hopefully we will be able to secure funds to create a shelter where she can teach her classes, and buy basic materials with which she can stock the classroom.
-I am still very involved with my Women´s Soccer Team, and although I participate as a member, I also am constantly working with them to teach them how to be a more organized, efficient group.

As far as projects with adults, there are fewer, but they tend to be my main sources of frustration (probably because they have the potential to make the most significant impact, but the adults aren´t motivated).
-I work with the local government, and we are currently working on applying to the government to fund one of our projects. The local government meets twice a month, and the burden of infrastructural development for the town lies on them.
-There are a few smaller less organized groups in town, namely the Church Committee and the Children´s Rights Committee, that am trying to work with. But this can be challenging, because these groups often go months without meeting.
-More recently the Police from the region have been teaching classes once a week, in an effort to organize and develop the community. I have been attending these meetings, and trying to help the facilitator as much as possible.
-And there are the English classes that just won´t die. I currently have 4 students and I teach a total of 2 classes.

So there you go. For those of you who have been reading my blog and thinking (politely to yourself), ´I wonder what Chelsea does in Costa Rica?´ There are a few answers.

Now for something more entertaining. My life here can be so unexpected, I thought I would share with you a small story,

This morning I received a text message from my neighbor that read, ´Come pick up your dog.¨ I should preface this with the fact that my dog spends a lot of time at my neighbors house. She is friends with their dog, and the two of them play together. Yesterday when I asked why one of the little boys wasn´t at my environmental group another child answered that it was because my dog stole one of the boys shoes and now the boy can´t leave the house until he finds the shoe. Now who knows if it really was Piper who stole his shoe, but then I look down at my well worn and well chewed through flip flops and have little doubt that Piper is the culprit. So today upon receiving that message I left the house preparing to apologize profusely. When I arrive at their house I am greeted by the two parents who invite me in for lunch and proceed to entertain me with stories. Then the highschooler asks me for help with her homework and we end of sitting on her bed and chatting for a while. They invited me to go to a birthday party for a family member a town over later that afternoon. They were all getting ready. The teenager was frustrated that she had to wait because her father suddenly had to leave and help birth a calf. But once he got home and cleaned up there were ready to leave. Its finally on my way out, that I look down at the leash in my hand and then see Piper tied up back by the shed. I ask if everything is okay with Piper, if she is being a bother, and they profusely answer no. Never would have expected that result from the curt message I received in the morning.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Happy Anniversary Tico 22

March 1st, 2011 I began my journey here in Costa Rica. 1 year later- March 1st, 2012. Instead of sharing my lessons learned, I thought to celebrate this anniversary I would share with you the new norms of my life. You have traveled with me on my path to adjustment, but where has that path lead me? Here are a few of the norms of my current life:

-Once (well, ideally twice but sometimes the heat makes me lazy) I hand wash my clothes in the sink. Now this is something that I expected to do during my Peace Corps service, but I never imagined the battle that I would have to wage against mold. It probably doesn't shock you, that in a tropical climate with high humidity a lot of things mold. That statement sounds normal enough, seems predictable. But what threw me for a loop was the plethora of places where mold can and will grow. And mold is not scared a little elbow grease. But now when I put a t-shirt on, and it has that all to telling white circle I just throw it in the laundry without a second glance. New norm: All things have to be hand washed, and all things that will be hand washed will probably grow mold.

-Another general Peace Corps expectation is the battle with two, four, six and eight (and hundred) legged critters. I remember my first encounter with a tarantula, I was sitting on the couch at a friends house and she told me not to look behind me. To which I of course jumped out of my seat and whipped my head around to see what was behind me. Cue large and (surprisingly) hairy tarantula. We ended up calling her host mom to come help us, who killed it with a gas poison pump contraption. Thinking back to that story, I laugh at my squeamish self. If only I knew the critters that I would encounter in the upcoming year. Well after the rats, bats, centipedes, spiders, scorpions, termites, grasshoppers and other creepy crawlers I have grown a thicker skin. New Norm: Always look first, because chances are if you don't, the bug will get to you before you get to it.(oh yea, and flip flops are the BEST method to kill just about anything)

-Waste management and the accompanying measures that one has to take when there is no organized system to dispose of trash. I am lucky, I am not referring to liquid waste, although many people in my community still use septic tanks and because of the smell have to have their bathrooms in separate structures set away from the house. I have a toilet inside my house, that flushes (when there is water) just fine. I also have what you could call a shower (PVC tubing shower head) that flows with wonderfully cold and refreshing water. The waste that I am referring to, is garbage. I have to burn it or bury what can't be burned. At first this made the liberal environmentalist Seattlite inside of me cringe with guilt. After a year, its just another part of the normal routine. Although I will say that knowing that I have to burn everything that I buy and don't eat (packaging, etc) I make wiser purchases and I reuse or repair a lot more often. Because who wants to burn an old pair of headphones just because the cat chewed the cord and they don't work anymore. New Norm: Buying it means burning it, if its broken it can be fixed or repurposed.

-Acceptance. One word that encompasses so many new norms. I have accepted the pace of life and other unchangables - the heat, the water and electricity coming and going, the lack of phone signal, the monotony of rice and beans and a multitude of others. But I have also come to accept some changables, I have learned to pick my battles in life. Some things are worth putting up a fight, but most of the time, its better to just let things slide off. My bathroom leaks when it rains, meh. Most of the people in town show up late for meetings, but hey, at least they show up. New Norm: Tranquila.

-I play soccer at least 3 times a week. I enjoy it, and (not to brag) but I'm not so bad anymore. You'd be surprised. Only those of you who know me well can fully appreciate this, because you see, you play soccer with your feet, and I am not so great with my feet. Actually, it has been said more than once, that I am downright clumsy. So imagine, I am running, I am stopping the ball with my feet and kicking it again, WITHOUT falling. Its pretty impressive. New Norm: Coordination... (that may be taking it a little too far)

-Sleeping! This is a glorious new norm. I average 10 hours of sleep a night. Generally I head to bed around 10pm and sleep in until 8am. 10 hours of sleep, every night. Its beautiful. The downside, of course is that I go to bed at 10pm every night because there I have no night life, which per chance is not ideal, but the sleep - its glorious. New Norm: Well rested, ALWAYS.

-I guess the final norm would be my adjustment to the isolation. Being the only foreigner in my community, living alone, and having my nearest town be 2 and a half hours a way - that took (and takes) time to adjust to. I bounce around my house happily now. With dance parties one night, yoga the next morning, afternoon reading in the hammock, movies with popcorn the next day, and LOTS of talking to my animals. I am comfy alone, it feels stable, free, enjoyable! New Norm: Solitude.

Well, that's all for now, off to swing in the hammock and work on the next stripe in my blanket. Sending loves,

Chelsea