An update....

Time flies in Costa Rica. Since November my life has been a rollercoaster. In late October-early November the winter storms devastated my house and community. For 3 days the center of Ciudad Cortes (which is where I live) was covered in 1-3 meters of water. The aftermath left 3 inches of mud throughout my house and small fish flopping around in my room. I had to evacuate my community during this period. It’s safe to say that the clean up in and around my house wasn’t too easy!

For the Thanskgiving Holiday, I had dinner with a family from the U.S. Embassy here in Costa Rica. I had a great time and met a lot of interesting people. Also, students from my English class and I organized our own Thanksgiving party in my community. We killed and roasted three chickens (which actually tasted more like turkey), had corn on the cob, potato salad, tortillas, slaw, pumpkin/winter squash bread (actually pan de ayote, which I made for the desert). We had a great time. After eating, we sang karaoke and danced to los ritmos tropicales.

From December to the middle of February many Costa Ricans take off for the summer vacations, especially those that work in the school system or that work for the government. During this time, people in my community do a little bit of everything. Since one of the popular pastimes in my town is fishing and going to the local beaches, I especially enjoyed it as this gave me an opportunity to take some fun fishing trips and have some great cultural experiences, learning more and more about my community. A few weekends ago I went camping on the beach with several Tico families.

From December 23-28, I had two special visitors from the U.S. - my mom and my aunt. It was a whirlwind tour of my community and the surrounding area. I think by the end of the trip they were both exhausted, but overall had a great time and carried back some unforgettable memories. We visited many friends and family from my town. It was a great cultural experience for them because they got to see what a Tico Christmas was like and they got to have lots of cafecitos with tamales. Two of my good friends, Javier and Jonathan, gave my mom and aunt a tour of the mangrove swamps, estuaries, and el Río Térraba in boat. We visited the aunt and uncle of Jonathan, who basically live on an island where the river empties out into the Pacific Ocean. If you want to be specific, we went to one of the many mouths of el Térraba, Boca Chica (Here is a link to see some fotos from the trip: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=38709&id=100000750415407). I also wanted them to see the archeological site in Finca 6, which displays many of the mysterious indigenous stone spheres that are only found in the zona sur of Costa Rica. I did lots of translating, but we also spoke lots of Spanish, which was fun. Of course, we also went to the many local beaches that are around my area. The final night, we had a special dinner party with several of the members from my English class.

In early January, two fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and I did the Corcovado National Park hike. It was an amazing trip and quite tiring. The first day is a hike across the Osa Peninsula. We say an abundance of wild animals - most of which are in danger of extinction – and different types of vegetation. Much of the hike is completed walking through rain forest. However, there is also a pretty large portion of the hike which is done walking along the beach. I preferred walking through the rain forest, as we were able to see much more animals and different types of fauna. I posted lots of fotos from the trip on my Facebook account. Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=541111042418&id=44701811&aid=2049040&ref=pd.

Throughout the months of December and January I had been working with a youth group from the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) on a series of environmental problems found in the community. During the sessions, the participants investigated a specific issue, such as contaminated water or soil sources, or what have been the effects of climate change on the community in recent years. At the end of the project, two of the participants put together a Powerpoint presentation of their findings, which was later presented in an environmental workshop/forum in Bahía Ballena. Unfortunately, the two participants were unable to attend, but luckily another community member that is quite interested in environmental issues helped present the final project.

I’m almost a year into my service, which meant it was time to go to San Jose for my medical and dental check-up. The doctor commented on how well my health had been this year, but ironically, only a week later I burned my hand with boiling water and had to go to the hospital for a couple of days. I would have preferred to watch the Super Bowl, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. That’s my most recent experience. Luckily, I’m doing much better and my hand is recovering, but I cannot explain the amount of pain my hand was in when it initially happened.

What else is new? Summer vacation is almost over and school is starting back up here in Costa Rica. I’m looking forward to starting up some new projects in my community. We’ll see how things go. If there is one thing I have definitely learned during my time here, it’s that one can never be certain of what will happen in some of the seemingly most certain circumstances. I’m sorry for not keeping things updated more frequently. I’ll try my best, but like I said, time flies here in Costa Rica as a Peace Corps Volunteer!