Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Happy 50th Anniversary Peace Corps!



I am now fully integrated into city life once again. I have joined a gym down the street from my apartment and I’ve found a local women’s indoor soccer team that plays once or twice a week at a really nice indoor facility in a suburb of San Jose. Office life is great too. I truly appreciate a bit of a routine and enjoy my position as a volunteer leader. I try to stay in touch with the 20 TEFL volunteers to help them with anything they need in their sites, offer them support and resources, and act as a messenger between them and the office when necessary. We are also working diligently to plan for the next incoming group of volunteers which will take place in February. We will receive 20 new TEFL volunteers and we must not only find the sites in which they will work but also plan their 3 month pre-service training. I enjoy working on site development and narrowing down the goals and objectives of the TEFL project in Peace Corps Costa Rica. It is strange to think that there are 20 idealistic and excited people awaiting a letter of invitation to Peace Corps Costa Rica just as I did almost 3 years ago. It was in December of 2008 when I finally (or at least I felt like it was finally) received a formal invitation to be a rural community development volunteer in Costa Rica starting in March of 2009. And now here I am on the other side, feeling rushed to welcome 20 new members of our Peace Corps community.

My other work consists of my counterpart organization Costa Rica Multilingue, located in the President’s House in another area of San Jose. My major work with them involves expanding a grassroots project called Community Conversations. The idea of this initiative is to match native speakers of English (or other foreign languages) who live in Costa Rica, with local Costa Ricans who wish to improve their basic or intermediate level English through conversations. So basically I have been trying to do a lot of networking and media exposure for the project in order to connect people to form these groups. I have given presentations to several ex pat groups in attempts to find volunteers to participate in the project and it is moving along well. At CR Multilingue I also do translating work and fundraising research as the organization is non-profit even though it is governmental.

I spent a month in the USA in June and July and enjoyed an amazing family reunion and Fourth of July party. I was able to catch up with friends and family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Rye, Colorado and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I actually drove from New Mexico to Oklahoma, and had a blast although it took some getting used to after two years not being behind the wheel. I also played a whole lot of tennis! It came back fast after a couple rusty hitting sessions, but I still have the knack and the passion. Hopefully it will come back again after my year long extension.
In mid-July I said farewell to North America and began my new life in the capital city of Costa Rica. Dina and I quickly made routines for ourselves and found we live very well together. We do all our fresh food and produce shopping every Saturday morning at the local farmer’s market where every fruit imaginable can be found. I go to the gym in early AM during the week and have discovered my new favorite workout (not including sports of course); Spinning. I am even considering buying the little clip bike shoes. I borrowed a friend’s mountain bike one weekend and went for a nice ride as well.

With the full work load I haven’t had many opportunities to take advantage of the easy transportation for travel from San Jose. But I was able to sign up with Dina and some other PC friends for a US Embassy trip to Tortuguero National Park. This was a National Geographic paradise. The boat tours revealed a wide variety of animal life, including many beautiful birds. And of course, we saw the turtles. We went during nesting season and were able to see the giant sea turtles laying eggs on the beach. They heave themselves up the sand, dig a giant hole and drop around 75 eggs in the hole before filling it with sand. Then they pull themselves back down into the water and never look back. It’s a very fend for yourself life for turtles. The experience was surreal. I stood within feet of the mother turtle as she went about her business with no care about my presence at all.

I also took a weekend in early September to go back to the place I called home for two years. Quebrada Grande hadn’t changed much from when I left, but I also saw a great impact from Austin’s work there now. He has developed and expanded the computer center to the point where nearly all the community kids have been adding me as friends on Facebook. And he has picked up right where I left off in teaching English in the school and to community members. After visiting with many community members during my visit I think it’s safe to say they are all very happy with their new Peace Corps volunteer.

It was of course bittersweet to me as there were things I miss. I took a few of my favorite hikes and enjoyed the calm quiet air and the views of the ocean from the mountain tops. I strolled from house to house where I was offered local coffee and was given all the gossip updates. And my dog (who I guess is no longer mine) greeted me as if I had never left and followed me around the entire weekend up until I boarded the 4:45am bus to come back to San Jose on Monday. I do indeed miss having an animal companion, but city life in an apartment just isn’t conducive.
This month and year marks the 50thanniversary of Peace Corps around the world. Washington DC will be alive with Peace Corps returned volunteers, advocates and supporters starting Sept. 20th. And here in Costa Rica we will be hosting a photo exhibit and party entitled “Costa Rica through the Eyes of Volunteers” where winning photos from volunteers will be displayed.

I am definitely proud to be a Peace Corps volunteer and I am proud of this organization’s work throughout the world. I will keep you all updated on my city Peace Corps life. But so far, so good!

No comments:

Post a Comment