And such are the days...

Its hard to culminate weeks or a month into a singular blog post. The days seem to pass by now without even giving me a chance to X them off on my calendar. Shockingly, when I looked up from my desk this morning, it was May 30th, which means June is literally days away. Everyone says the second year just flies by.

I should probably include that things have been particularly slow in my site the past few months, and I was getting pretty frustrated. After consulting with my boss, I realized I had two options. Stick it out or change sites. I held a big community meeting to express my concern to community members and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of support I received. I am hopeful that the support will be long-lasting, but regardless, it helped me realize how important the relationships are that I have built this past year, and well, at the end of the day, I didn't join the Peace Corps to build buildings, I have always been more focused on making a more personal impact through building relationships.

Then I attended my Mid-Service Training with all of the other volunteers in my training class (Tico 22). We spent 4 days at the same camp-style location where we spent out first nights in this country. It was (surprisingly) the perfect venue, and allowed all of the volunteers a chance to catch up, goof around, and spend the time we needed together. I thought I would leave feeling refreshed, as I usually do after a stint in the city (and a hot shower), but I left feeling motivated. Which is exactly what I needed.

Training was followed by a completely unplanned (we were planning on going, we just didn't actually plan the things that need to be planned) trip to the beach. A beach where the water is turquoise, the sand is made of crushed seashells and when it downpours in the middle of the day, the tourists leave and you get the entire beach to yourself! We found a bus direct from San Jose to the beach, and then a place to crash for 8 bucks a night. I couldn't have planned anything more perfect.

Then another minor toe surgery, a day spent at a Costa Rican immigration office and I was on my way back to site. The corn stalk that is growing outside my back door (from what I can only assume was a popcorn kernal that fell to the floor that I then kicked outside) is now as tall as I am. I have decided that this is my favorite kind of gardening, the accidental kind. Piper is getting bigger, and has an anger problem. She does not like little boys, and when I say that she doesn't like them, I mean that she thinks that they were sent to this Earth so that she can bite them. She has yet to actually bite one, but darn, she has gotten too close for my comfort. The Ticos brush it off, but I have kept her diligently tied up since I got back and I am trying my best to break her of this awful habit/intention/desire? The rainy season has begun once again, which doesn't mean its any less hot (I know, right, what an injustice), but it downpours every afternoon, which makes leaving the house risky, because it means I could end up walking home in the sticky stucky mud, with lightning (which the Ticos tell me kills people ALL THE TIME) and the kind of downpour that hurts your skin it pelts you so hard. I still enjoy the rain, but I don't like wearing boots when I leave the house in 100 degree midday heat, and with these silly stitches I can walk barefoot. Oh Peace Corps problems.

This past weekend there was a Bingo and a Feria organized by the Church. It was a great time (you know you have been in the Peace Corps when...). I won half a prize at the Bingo, (inside joke: its like catching half a fish) as I was playing someone else's card. She had too many and couldn't manage them all, so she let me fill one up. My half a prize is a cute little Tupperware container. I played for a small (small, small, small) part of the soccer game on Sunday, and spent the rest of the day comfortably socializing. I know, you can go back and read that again if you didn't believe it the first time.

Then yesterday I spent the entire day at a neighbors house, they let me make lunch, the birthday cake for the birthday celebration, help with making dinner, and then around 8pm I fell asleep in a corner. Yea, it's pretty embarrassing to say now, but at the time, snuggling up with the refrigerator seemed like the best idea in the world! The moral of the story is that I have finally found a family with which I feel as comfortable as I did my host family during training. I have quite a few families that invite me to eat with them, or come visit me, but something about yesterday was different. I was comfortable to joke around, and be silly and to...sleep in the corner.

For now, that's all I got. Time to pull the yoga mat out and enjoy the rain on the tin roof. Thanks for reading and as always, sending loves,

Chels

Its all in the moments...

Sitting in my hammock, drinking my morning coffee and reading. Its recess at the school and a little boy walks into my living room, looks at me with really sad puppy dog eyes and says he feels sick. We sit on my porch and I give him a hug.

Riding home from a soccer game where I scored the winning goal (my first) with my girls soccer team screaming out chants and cheers. Going to the store the next day to have three people recount my goal to people who were not at the soccer game.

Finally finding a family that has an oven and making chocolate chip cookies. Pulling them out of the oven in the middle of the day heat and realizing that cookies warm from the oven will always make me smile.

Washing my house with two neighbors, and laughing so hard my stomach hurt after I got shocked from the electric socket we had just sprayed down with the hose. And then waking up to a clean house the next day, with no shit sand.

Starting each day with Piper, who makes it hard to hate the mornings as she pushes her wet nose against my mosquito net and nuzzles my cheek. And then proceeds to jump up and down, up and down, when I finally concede and get out of bed.

Watching a full moon rise over the plaza behind my house, knowing I have never seen a moon so beautiful and bright.

Receiving free food from my neighbors, from eggs, to fruits, to chicken legs, to empanadas. It was true in college and it is true in the Peace Corps, free food just tastes better.

Walking home after a long day, with the sun setting over the hill, a long stretch of empty mud road, fields as far as the eye can see, a silence filled to the brim with animal noise, and a serenity that the city will never know.