Still Sizzling in Costa Rica

Even though I´m in Costa Rica, I still feel the intensity and miss the excitement of football in February. I am not alone I found, and a sizeable group of Peace Corps volunteers decided to meet in San Jose on Superbowl Sunday for a little flag football in central park followed by watching the game and eating giant American style burgers and fries at one of the few “American” bar and restaurants in Costa Rica. It was a blast. Here we were, a group of about 20 gringos in the middle of rows and rows of soccer fields where curious Tico bystanders stopped their soccer dribbling to stare at this weird sport where you touch the ball with your hands. We had little orange cones set up as the end zones and were strapped up with belts and flags; devices I´m sure are rarely seen here. We played for a good 2 and a half hours, occasionally having to stop and kick a runaway soccer ball out of our small patch of land. Then we headed to the bar and I joined the group of New Orleans fans hoot and holler for the Saint´s while enjoying for the first time in nearly ayear real tomato ketchup instead of the sugary tomato paste Ticos use.
One weekend I made my way to Malpais, the somewhat famous tip of the Nicoyan Peninsula. It only took about two hours from my site and was worth the trip. Although tourism has nearly overtaken the shores with hoards of foreigners and expensive restaurants, there is some local artisan work and the beaches are gorgeous.
So we have a computer center in our town now, but it is not open yet and it does not have Internet. We do not have Internet yet for the same reason I have no phone; the ridiculous and sad excuse for the phone and internet company here called ICE. They are inefficient, disorganized, slow, and full of bureaucracy. So, we continue to wait for them to decide to install Internet to our computer center which is now equipped with 6 nice new machines. But when we do have it, I already have requests for classes on how to do basic word processing and Internet searches.
One Sunday I was invited to play softball with the sort of American club of retired gringos who live down on the beaches in their fancy beach retirement homes. I was the only female who played and the only person under the age of 45, but I had blast and played fairly well for never having really practiced the sport. I´m not too bad at catching balls in the outfield. Again I participated in a “strange Gringo sport” that was viewed by surrounding Ticos with mild mocking curiosity.
A fellow volunteer who lives not far from me in distance came to give a course on beekeeping to my community. We were at a Peace Corps meeting when I got to know him. He was in Paraguay for two years for Peace Corps already and he decided to do an extension transfer here to work with rural agriculture development. The course was excellent due to his immense knowledge on beekeeping as well as due to it being very hands-on with a demonstration of how to make a smoker, smoke the bees out of their hives and into a bee box, and then care for the combs in preparation for honey production. We made cardboard “beehives” for a more realistic demonstration, he used volunteers from the audience, and then answered every question with patience and a true knowledge of the topic. He also passed out copies of a well written packet (from Peace Corps Paraguay) detailing all instructions of the process and including pictures. Even I understand way more about beekeeping than I ever thought possible. Many women from the women´s association attended, but in addition, a lot of local farmers attended who are simply interested in adding this possibly lucrative and sustainable project to their personal land. Two days after Michael left I was informed that two of the attendees had already constructed a beebox , found the location of bees on their property and were preparing to extract them using the techniques they learned from Michael’s talk.
One weekend in March I had the pleasure of hosting Ms. Meredith Burgess, a Tico 20 RCD Peace Corps trainee. They arrived the first week of March, and just like me and my Tico 19 group did a year ago, they are making their way through the three month Peace Corps training. One of the parts of the training is visiting a current volunteer in his or her site to see firsthand what the work is all about. Meredith and I had a blast watching some local soccer games, visiting the beach below, meeting some community members, and running a session of my Chicas Poderosas youth group. She seemed to enjoy the experience and I hope it gives her some extra strength to get through the stress of training.
In sad news a fellow volunteer in my group, Georgina Garcia (my only fellow New Mexican in Peace Corps Costa Rica), has been forced to medically separate from the Peace Corps due to ongoing digestive issues. She will be the fifth Tico 19 volunteer to early terminate, and one of four that have left due to medical reasons. I am reminded how thankful I am for my health and the stomach of steal my mom passed down to me.
The time finally came for Tatiana´s wedding. After being postponed from February, my 21 year –old neighbor and friend tied the knot to her boyfriend of a year. I was the equivalent of the maid of honor and witnessed the stress and bridezillaness of the final hours of singleness. We cleaned and decorated the salon and the church of Coyote, the town below where the ceremony was held. And on the day of, I accompanied her to the salon for hair, makeup, nails and the dressing. Everything as usual was running behind, and I was the one who hastily pulled on the gloves, placed the earrings and necklace, etc. In the end, despite some disorganization, it was beautiful. The red, gold and white color theme was excellent, the ceremony was beautiful, and the dance and party afterward was a blast. She has now moved down to Coyote to live with her new husband where it is 15 degrees hotter, but only about ten minutes to the beach. I will definitely be visiting.