Hello and welcome back to my blog, sorry I haven’t updated it since I moved to my town, I’ve been busy and haven’t had the time. I’ve been living here for about 2 months. I’ve gotten to know just about everybody in my town and have started working and trying to find my place here. Which, I am happy to report has gone pretty well. Living in probably least populated PeaceCorps Costa Rica town ever; I was a little worried about how it would work out; it still is a concern but there is surprisingly enough things to do to pass the time, and I’m having a good time doing it. The PeaceCorps is a very interesting experience. I am the English teacher but other than that I don’t really have a job title, but if I were to describe what I do here, I would say that I am a very active member of the community. I have passed the days doing everything from exploring waterfalls to working in the banana, plantain, and coffee farms, to milking and slaughtering cows, repairing the school, working on trucks, killing poisonous snakes, and even fishing just to name a few.
Rural Costa Rica is a beautiful place to live, I wouldn’t trade it for anyplace in the world right now. I miss ya’ll back in Portland and those of you who live elsewhere, but I am truly happy here. Needless to say I miss the shit out of all you as well! I would like to congratulate Lauren and Tim, Alex and Lindsay, and of coarse Brent and Abbey; I would have loved to be at all three of your weddings. You’ll are all great friends, I apologize for missing your big days.
I have made new friends and learned a lot about myself along with the world outside the US. After watching four girls ride one quad together every morning at 5:30 am to get to a neighboring town where they can catch a bus to the high school, I have realized that education in the US is taken for granted. Its interesting how things work here, there is government aid out there for rural Costa Rica but the people have to search and ask for it (usually many times) For example I just finished writing a letter to the government owned electricity and communication company asking for public phone lines. There are no public phones in my town. But there is a program to give all schools phone lines with an emphasis on access to internet for the children, yet if we didn’t write letters asking for these programs that are usually only available in the city it would never happen. I also am in the process of looking for aid to build bridges that the area is lacking along with general road repairs (sometimes the bus that only comes once a week can’t make it to my town because the road or lack there of is in such bad shape, and I end up having to walk to my town anyway). But all in all, the development in Costa Rica has come a long way. Just 10 years ago there wasn’t electricity in my town, now it’s a common commodity that is fairly reliably. I’m also in the process of figuring out how much material cost for a cemetery project we have, I need to know exactly how material and the cost before I can ask the government for help. We’ll see how long it takes for these tasks done, unfortunately I hear that it can be a slow process, but in the mean time, I can soak up all of the beauty and fresh fruit rural Costa Rica has to offer.
Another interesting thing about PeaceCorps in Costa Rica that makes it unique is that CR is a major tourist destination, which in turn means a couple things. For example a good friend and fellow volunteer’s brother is joining the Marines so their family sent him to CR to visit her before boot camp. They went to some national parks and saw a lot of the beauty that CR has to offer, but had an extra day to spare on their trip back to San Jose and the Airport. We got started talking and the next thing I now I hitched a ride out of my town for a couple days and we went bungee jumping. For those of you that know Casey Dale and Bungee.com, he was nice enough to put me in contact with the owner of a 265 ft bridge and got us a killer deal. Needless to say my volunteer lifestyle was lacking a little adrenaline and it was just what I needed. Thanks Casey! After I got that out of my system I made my way back down to the central coast to meet up with a group of 20 or so volunteers in my zone for an annual meeting at a mansion we rented out that has a pool, hot-tub, life-size chess board, and waterfalls on the property. It was pretty amazing and nice to eat something other than rice and beans but after all that excitement I was more than ready to get back to my peaceful tiny town. I don’t believe there are many places in the world where you can live in a very humble but poverty stricken undeveloped town and within hours transform into a tourist that feels like you are in another country, it’s a weird feeling, but can be nice every once in a while for a change.
Well until next time take care,
Pura Vida,
Leif
