Sorry it’s been such a long time
since my last post, so much new to report on.
Today for lunch we had some sort of
mystery meat so I decided to just go for it and eat it since otherwise it would
have been just rice and beans, which is all I had for breakfast too. After I finished eating my host sister told
me the reason her daughter hadn’t eaten lunch today was because she doesn’t eat
huevos de torros, a.k.a. I had just eaten bull testicle!!! I thought it might
have been mondongo, cow intestines, because my host mom had made me try that
before. Really the testicle wasn’t quite as gross as eating the intestines……but
it might have been easier since I wasn’t aware what I was eating……Anyways I am
quickly adding things to my list of weird stuff I’ve tried such as blood
sausage and a plate of snails in Spain. I might be persuaded to try iguana here
but I absolutely refuse to eat turtle eggs which they like to eat here.
In two weeks I will have officially
been here in Costa Rica for half a year! It’s gone by fairly quickly, but at
the same time I feel like so much has happened during that time. The first 3 months in site we are supposed
to do interviews with community members to learn about the community and try to
figure out projects for the future. The
interviews have been some of the coolest and most interesting parts of my first
months in site. It’s been a good excuse
to go talk to people who live in other neighborhoods. I was able to go talk to
people in “barrio chino” a poorer neighborhood where a lot of Nicaraguan
immigrants live, and people in “barrio fosforo” probably the poorest neighborhood,
where many houses just have wood stoves
in the backyards. As my mom from back
home put it, “isn’t it weird that some gringa is coming around on her bike
trying to ask people questions”, and really that would be my response if
someone came knocking on my door, but I’ve
been really touched by how willing people are to open up to me after just
sitting and talking for a few minutes.
One woman from barrio fosforo told
me her life story about how her husband had left her with 6 small
children. Not only that but he sold
their house leaving them homeless. They had to sleep under trees and during the
day a neighbor would let her cook on her stove. She would wake up every morning at 1 am to
cook her kids’ food and then head to work.
She told me she wasn’t able to get far in her education but that she
really loves to read, so if we do a library project in the high school I want to
bring her books to read. It was also interesting hearing peoples’ immigration stories
to Costa Rica and their hard work to succeed despite encountering a lot of
racism. Doing the interviews really made me realize what a unique and wonderful
experience it is to be here. I get to interact and become friends and adoptive
family with so many people I would have never met otherwise. I already feel a great deal of responsibility
towards the people in my community and especially towards my host family. I feel like they really deserve to have a volunteer
in their community, and despite how challenging volunteering can be at times I’m
going to do my best to stick it out for the full two years.
Other random things to report from
the month of july:
1)It was really nice and my
immigration proceeding to get my equivalent to a green-card happened to fall a
day after 4th of July. So I
was able to go celebrate 4th of July with a lot of the other
volunteers in the capital. Then, the
next week I went down to Quepos to see another volunteer’s site and to see some
other volunteers. I like my site but I’ve realized the
importance to taking breaks and taking trips to see other volunteers. Sometimes you really just need a break from
constantly trying to integrate into a different culture and it’s nice to just
be able to relax.
2)The month of July is a big time
for parties here in my region of Guanacaste since on the 25th they
celebrate their independence day.
Because of this the past two weeks have been the fiestas in
Liberia. It has been a lot of fun, I’ve
finally been able to get my fill of dancing in. I really love all the
traditional dancing here such as merengue, cumbia, salsa, and bachata. It makes me feel thankful to be placed here in
Central America.
3) By
default fishing has become my new pass time. It’s something I would have never
gotten into in the states, but it’s really popular in my community. Honestly it’s just a good excuse to get out
into the beautiful nature around me and just sit around and be peaceful. It’s a
nice break from all the screaming teens and pre-teens in my classes.
4) My community classes on Monday and
Wednesday are still going well. They’re
also one of the most rewarding parts of my service. It’s nice to have a class of my own since my
time in the high school is spent supporting tico teachers. It’s nice to be in charge and be able to work
on whatever I want with the students.
5) I’m starting the process of
trying to organize an art class in the elementary school! I’m really excited about
the prospect and so are many kids I’ve talked to in the school. Really there is
no lack of student interest. I think the
hardest part is going to be getting parents involved to fundraise to purchase
some basic supplies. I also intend to use a lot of recycled materials but there
are certain things you have to buy. Next
week I’m going to try to have a parent meeting and hopefully some parents will
show up… fingers crossed!
