First off I think most people are wondering why is Peace Corps still in Costa Rica? And to be perfectly honest, that was my first reaction when I opened up my placement envelope. It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting from Peace Corps after growing up with my mom’s stories of service in Afghanistan. However, training has put my mind much more at rest about that. USAID pulled out of Costa Rica in the late 1990’s and Peace Corps was going to pull out as well. However, the Costa Rican government asked for the Peace Corps to stay. It has become more clear to me that it is good that Peace Corps is remaining in Costa Rica as they go through this process of national development. It is great that the peace corps is present to see the process through and not cutting and running as soon as things started to improve. Regarding my project of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL), in 2007 then President Arias stated a country goal of being bilingual by 2017. As our country director comically put it, President Arias requested that the Peace Corps send 200 TEFL volunteers and in return they got 25. It just makes me feel that I am going to be doing something that is really desired by the country and that will be effective in assisting the country in further development.
These first couple days of Peace Corps have been some of the longest of my life. With 12 hour training days my brain feels crammed with new information. However, I have been getting very excited about moving in with my first host family on Sunday and starting service!
We flew into country on Wednesday. We had to get on the bus for the airport at 2 am for a 7 am flight, so we ended up arriving at the airport an hour and a half earlier than the airport staff even arrived. It turns out this is some sort of peace corps hazing ritual they do to most trainees probably to see how we react to high stress situations while tired. After we arrived in the capital San Jose we were taken by bus to a training center in Heredia, a region right nearby which is higher up and has a cooler climate. We had time for a coffee and then we delved right into the training curriculum after a solid 2 hours of sleep the night before.
We’ve mostly been having classes on the logistics of peace corps service, safety, and meeting the extensive staff. We had our diagnostic Spanish test yesterday and it was just so great to get talking in Spanish again. I had been using Spanish a good amount while I was nannying but it had kind of gone to disuse the last month before my departure. There’s something pretty exhilarating about talking in Spanish for me. As corny as it sounds speaking in another language really does feel like it opens up a new world as you get to have conversations with those wouldn’t have interacted with otherwise. That thought really excites me and makes me feel like the world is still such a big and unexplored place for me.
I got placed at an “advanced low” level, which was exciting to know that my dedication to Spanish is starting to pay off. It’s also equally exciting to know that I still have a lot to improve on and living here in Costa Rica for two years will give me the opportunity to get to a higher advanced level. What my trainer said is true though, it’s easier to move from novice to intermediate, but once you start getting to a higher level it takes even more time to refine you language skills and achieve fluency.
