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.

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

Rest in Peace Gidget

Gidget

My sweet little kitten, Gidget, died yesterday in the veterinarian´s office. I found her Monday morning hiding behind the toilet, soaking wet and covered in dirt. She couldn´t stand up and barely had the strength to meow. He nose and lips were completely white and she was trembling. I left on foot from my house, with her wrapped in an old shirt, hoping that someone would pass me and give me a ride to the nearest large town. After 30 minutes I got a ride, and we arrived in Guatuso an hour later. At the vet´s Gidget only got worse. Her body temperature was so low that it didn´t register on the thermometer. She was so dehydrated that the vet couldn´t find a vein to put fluids in, and her pupils didn´t respond to light. About a hour after we arrived, her heart stopped and she passed away. Her tiny lifeless body lie on the table, with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. The vet believes that she ate a poisonous bug or frog, or a mouse that had been poisoned. By the time I got her to the vet, it was really to late. She was so small and so dehydrated -she barely had a fighting chance. I began crying in vet´s office, and then wandered around town until it was time to take the bus home. The whole time I was trying to swallow my tears. When I got home Piper kept sniffing around like crazy looking for Gidget.

I feel helpless. Gidget had been meowing during the night. And I ignored her because I thought she was just hungry. She had been acting a little weird the night before, but I just assumed it was because I was a day or two late with her deworming meds. Knowing that she spent her last night wet, cold, alone and in pain makes me so sad. I know that logically I couldn´t have saved her, but I feel so culpable.

Gidget is the third pet that I have lost in my time here in Gallo Pinto. A friend told me - ´that life is hard in the campo.´ She is right, life here is hard. I never imagined that during my time in the Peace Corps I would have four pets and loose three of them. 

Can I see?

Introducing Piper and Gidget


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Summer Camps January 2012


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Zona Norte VAC Meeting Cano Negro


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what of a much of a whirlwind

Prepare yourself for what may be my most disconnected and most sporadic post ever. Fair warning.

First of all, I would like to formally introduce my new family members - its definitely getting crowded here at 25 meters West of the Escuela (yep, that's my official address here in Costa Rica - although I doubt it would help anyone who doesn't live in town find my house). Although never formally introduced, Gidget, the black and white 2 and a half month old kitten has been living with me since mid December. She is a pretty laid back kitten, although she gets manic when she sees her food and she loves swinging in the hammock with me. The newest member of the clan is Piper, the month and a half old puppy. Piper has a white body, with small black spots all over, a large black spot where her tail meets her back, a large black spot on her left eye, and another on her right eye and right ear. She has darling little brown eyebrows and currently sports a purple collar. She is a handful and a half. Fortunately Gidget gets the brunt of Pipers energy and enthusiasm. Gidget walks around perpetually looking over her shoulder, because Piper loves to pounce on Gidget and either bite at her scruff or  put Gidget's head in her mouth. Gidget is mostly a good sport, although as Piper bounces around in front of her, yipping with excitement, Gidget puts her ears back and looks rather disdainfully annoyed. In the evening when I read in my hammock, they both curl up in my lap and nap together, which has to be the most endearing thing ever.

Today is the fourth day in a row that I have spent 2 hours in the morning doing laundry. Today I finally finished and found the bottom of the laundry bag (which will be hidden again tomorrow). I really don't have that many clothes, its just that hand washing takes much more time, and quite of a few of my clothes have started growing mold, which is harder than it looks like to get rid of.

There is one more new resident in my house - a dove or paloma - who now lives in my kitchen. When I was out of town I guess she thought that the perch in my kitchen was an ideal location- nice and quiet, safe and protected from the elements. Little did she know, that I had already laid claim to this piece of property. Although at first she would manically fly from her perch whenever I entered the kitchen, which made me jump, she has adjusted to my presence in the house. I can now go about my business in the kitchen without bothering her and without her bothering me. I think she has eggs in her nest, I will keep you updated.

Yesterday I played soccer with my women's soccer team, and although the other women's team didn't show up, we organized a small game against the men's team and everybody enjoyed themselves. Although one of my cleats broke (believe me it is not redeemable, not to mention the pair only cost me $8, so they were not high quality to start with). You see I didn't break the cleat, the visiting men's team did show up, so the men played first. And usually only half of the people who are playing on any team at any given time have half of the equipment they need to play. Thank God we are not sharing uniforms with the men's team anymore, everyone still shares cleats, socks, shin guards and the like. I have large feet for a Costa Rican female, so someone from the men's team usually borrows my shoes. Well he broke the left shoe, and at the end of the night when I went to take my shoes home, I found a lime green left shoe sitting next to my black unbroken right shoe. So now I have a pretty stellar non-matching set of cleats. But I can't figure out....where did he find the lime green left shoe and what happened to the lime green right shoe?

Now I am going to tell you about the shit sand. I know that poop sand would be a little more appropriate, but honestly, you have to agree that it just doesn't have the same ring. So the shit sand. The local government stored supplies in my house before it was my house. And they still store supplies in it, now that I live here. I was assured that the supplies would be moved after a few months...my hope is dead and rotting that they will every move these supplies out of my house. But in all honestly, the majority of the supplies are no big deal at all. Except for the sand which lives in my dining room. My lovely animal family, thinks that the sand is either a litter box, or 'dirt' from outside, so when the door is closed at night they choose to 'do their business' in the sandbox in my dining room. Now at first this made me laugh and think "Well, that's what the local government gets for not moving their sand." But here is the thing, its been a while now, and although I clean the chunks out, as much as I can, I don't want a pile of shit sand in my dining room - it doesn't smell great. And yesterday after her flea killing bath, Piper ran right over to the shit sand and rolled herself all over. Needless to say, I did not enjoying cleaning the shit sand out of her fur into the only sink in my house.

Now for something a little more serious. After having spent some time out of site, I returned with a renewed sense of enthusiasm for the projects that I can accomplish with the community. I was jazzed up. And then I returned, and it's amazing how quickly those ganas disappeared. I have given it some thought, over the past few days (this is not the most well thought over premise) but I think that in order to to live in rural Costa Rica I have to accept certain things. I have to accept that I have to walk from the bus-stop in the mid-day sun. I have to accept that people won't show up to meetings on time. I have to accept so many things every day, just so that I don't go crazy from frustration and aggravation. In some ways I think its a good thing, I have learned to accept things that I can't control. But I am beginning to realize that there are downsides to this acceptance. I have gotten so used to accepting things that I can't control, sometimes I accept things that I can or could control. And this phenomenon extends further than just me. So when frustration over the status quo is missing, how do I motivate people to work for change?

One final random paragraph and thought. (I was going to type about, well I honestly can't remember). Just NOW, 10 seconds ago, as I was sitting in this chair at this desk in my bedroom --- I shift my bare feet on the floor. I feel something move underneath them, weird. I look down, expecting to see, my cat, my dog, a flip flop, a worm, a spider, a cockroach? Nope. Instead I see a BAT crawling out from UNDERNEATH my foot. My BAREFOOT! I squelched and did an awful little dance. Now I have shoes on, and will be unfailingly skittish for at least the next few hours. GROSS!

Sending loves.

just another day

After celebrating New Years I arrived back at site and settled back into the rhythm of rural life. A slower and more isolated life- it felt like pulling on an old pilly sweatshirt that doesn’t quite fit, but the extra room makes it all the more familiar and comfortable.  But the stability didn’t last too long.

January is the equivalent of summer vacation in the states. Regularly scheduled meetings aren’t happening. Kids are home from school for the second month-finally getting a little antsy doing household chores and filling their empty afternoons. And the pace of life is more unhurried than ever.

I held two summer camps for the elementary school kids during January and they were both huge successes. First an art camp, where we painted and learned about colors, drew and learned about lines, wrote books and learned about creative writing, and made kites and friendship bracelets. The theme of the camp was teamwork, and any chance I could I included a teamwork icebreaker or an art project where the kids had to work as a team. There were 4 kids and they gave great feedback about the camp. Second I held a sports camp, and invited another volunteer to help me out. The kids learned how to play Frisbee, volleyball, four square, kickball, and baseball and dance hip-hop. We focused on sportsmanship and by the last day the kids had made a surprising change in how they were communicating and treating their team members. There were 7 kids for sports camp and I am hopeful that in the next few months I will see some more variety in their afternoon activities.

My friend who visited was a soccer coach in the States, and she held a training session with my women’s soccer team. The team is full of energetic girls, but they have never run a drill or practiced any skills. For our practice every Friday the team plays a pick up soccer game with whoever shows up. The girls are good at soccer, because they have been playing since they could walk, but they lack ball handling skills, passing skills, communication and teamwork. During the practice it started to downpour, the kind of rain that stings your skin as it streams diagonally from the sky. I was very proud of the girls who kept practicing right through the rain!

Also the first meeting of my local government was held, and although they were the most frustrating part of my work in 2011, there are a few new members and I am hopeful for 2012. If this group is able to put forth the time, effort and energy that is required- they have the ability to make a huge impact on their community.

I have spent the next few weeks traveling for a few different work projects. I organized a meeting for volunteers in my region as a part of the Volunteer Advisory Council. I am the elected regional representative, which means that I organize quarterly regional meetings and then share the volunteer’s feedback with Peace Corps staff at the national meeting. 11 of the 24 volunteers in my region met for the weekend at an undeveloped tourist spot in our region.  It’s called Cano Negro, and it’s a wildlife reserve and swamp. We stayed at this amazing place with cabins, a perfect great space and a communal kitchen. We also took a boat tour through the swamp and saw crocodiles and some really awesome wildlife.

After that meeting I helped in another volunteer’s site with an art camp, which was hugely successful. After the art camp I came down with strep throat, and have spent the past week recovering on a friend’s floor, because I couldn’t make the trip back to my site. This weekend I will be traveling to the capital to participate in the national VAC meeting and celebrate a friend’s birthday.

I am definitely ready to return to site and settle back in to the day in day out life of a volunteer. And…good news from site- the old teacher is coming back for the next school year, which means that I don’t have to move! Very exciting news. 

Feels like Home

I have been happy, joyful, and excited. I have had times of contentment and successes to celebrate. But this week I have stumbled upon something new, a sense of calm. Nothing changed externally. My house is the same, same community, same weather, same food, same work, same life. The challenges and frustrations are ever present, as always. But something inside has shifted. I don't know why or how, but I have stumbled upon a new peacefulness. The anxiety- to do, to fill my hours, to be productive- is gone. The concern that I am not contributing enough, or that my work isn't making a difference - is gone. I am not living the 9th month of my Peace Corps service in Costa Rica. I am just living my life. I am submersed in moments. The way that the leaves of the orange trees rustle on the roof when a strong breeze passes, the way the kitten bats at the dust particles that float languidly through the sunshine or the way a new character in my book reminds me of an old friend. Lying in my hammock on the front porch, watching the sun set distantly behind the forest, I can't help but acknowledge that something inside feels peaceful...in a new, and overwhelmingly beautiful way.