Made it to Costa Rica, again...

Hello my family, friends, and few random people that read strangers’ blogs no offense intended.

So I’m writing this in the middle of August 2010. I came back to Cost Rica about couple of weeks ago and finally settled back into the way of life here, which as I have probably mentioned is way different than my life back in Portland. By the way, my trip home went better than expected, whenever I go home or talk to my family and friends I realize how much I have to look forward to when I come home for good. The only problem is that it makes it even harder to leave that comfort for support. And for an unexplainably reason it was even harder to leave this time. As somebody put it, its “bittersweet”, but that’s life and I am excited to finish what I have come to Costa Rica to do. It’s also crazy to think that I could be home as early as 8 months from now.

So all this made me think, shit I still got a lot to do and I know from other volunteers’ experiences it goes by quick. My remodel on the school is done, but where is the Internet and public phones? This was one of my main goals when I arrived here and time is now a concern. I did receive a positive email after my 10th letter I have written on the subject to different government institutions that basically said that my school was a priority due to the fact that my community doesn’t have a house lines, a public phone or cell service worth a damn. But still waiting, things take way too long; I now understand why Peace Corps is a 2-year commitment. I know the town will receive the satellite dish and phones, it would just be nice to see them implemented while I am still here.

My English classes are going good, before I was teaching 2 classes, twice a week for the School in Ceibo but only one class (all grades 1-6) in San Luis twice a week as well. I have now separated the youngest in both schools so that the older kids can learn more which is especially important for the handful that will go to high school and the few that might make it further to a University.

Waiting, waiting, it seems like I’m always waiting... So I guess its a good thing I teach English because now we are waiting on a couple of engineers to come and inspect a bridge that’s in bad condition and also another creek where a bridge is super necessary. We cant cross the creek when it rains, which isn’t so much a problem for me, but for others that live on the other side it could be a very big danger during an emergency. Oh, also waiting on an engineer to inspect our water tank to see if a filtration system is necessary.

So if you know me, or have listen to me ramble I don’t like to wait and do nothing. So while I am waiting on those projects that may or may not bloom in the next half year or so. I decided to write a proposal to try and build a playground for one of the schools I work with. It would be nice for those who don’t like to play soccer. I’m writing this proposal to the same institution that give us 6,700,000 colones or over 13 thousand dollars for proposal I wrote last year for their cemetery. I would feel pretty good about helping kids get a playground in their community so wish me luck.

Oh, one last thing... I scored a goal to help my town beat our biggest town rival in a soccer game last Sunday. As much as I dislike soccer it does feel good to score goals...

Ok, well that’s all I have time for now, I will put some pics together of my remodel and post them next week, I just got a call from Peace Corps to come to San Jose next Friday for a training session for some new volunteers, so I will have internet for a whole night, lol. Ok take care,

oh, and I met the President of Costa Rica today, that was unexpected. She showed up at a meeting I went to in the City...

-Peace
Leif

Finnally an update...

School Garden-

One cool thing about Costa Rica is it’s awesome climate for growing foods. I personally have next to nothing experience with gardening, but I quickly realized that growing vegetables in Costa Rica is a breeze. This probably has to do with the tropical climate, nutrient packed and relatively new volcanic soil, and also an abundance of cow and chicken shit to use as fertilizer. The photo above I took from a green house I started with the school kids in my town it’s a couple months old (now the whole green house is full). The actual structure of the green house was already there but needed a few reparations because it had been abandoned five years ago when the ex-teacher retired and moved away. Unfortunately, the new teacher didn’t want to keep the garden in the curriculum for the kids. However, he was open to the idea if I worked with them. People my age from the town remember taking care of the garden being their best memories from their school days, and my goal is to bring that back.

We have planted tomatoes, lettuce, celery, green beans, radishes, carrots, beets, chilies, cucumbers, cilantro, and papaya trees outside of the green house. The kids love it so far, especially because now they eat the same vegtables they planted everyday during lunch. It’s a cool learning process for the kids (and me) and can stick with them for the rest of their lives. It’s also healthy; sadly the majority of the locals don’t grow much of their own veggies for consumption, especially ones with good nutritional value. Resulting, in the majority of meals being heavily rice and beans with sometimes eggs or meat but no veggies because they’re expensive to buy. This garden should change that problem at least in the school. The school’s cook likes the changes and is working with me as well; my hope is that she can keep it going when I leave to be something sustainable for the kids.



MOPT materials

If you have been keeping up with my blog, you might have heard me talk about some materials that MOPT (ministerio de obras publico y transporte) Ministry of public works and transportation) donated after I wrote a solicitation. Below are a couple pictures of the kids from the school in my town (one of two schools I teach English in). The first two pics are taken inside the old school room. You can notice cement (55 bags), wood, paint, a toilet, plywood and hardboard, and square metal bars for security on the windows. We’re in the process of remolding the school and kitchen. Community members that don’t have a salary-paying job (they only make money during the months of picking coffee) are doing the work and getting paid with a program I solicited from the Ministerio de trabajo (Ministry of work). So the project is pretty cool because its bringing a little extra money to families that could use it and when that’s complete, my goal is to get internet, some public phones and turn it into a computer center/library. But it’s a slow process, so I’m taking it one step at a time.



The next photo is of the same school kids after I gave a class on brushing their teeth. The supplies that they are holding were donated by Ashley Carl and the dentist office where she works, thanks again Ash, you’re awesome! In general, Costa Ricans consume copious amounts of sugar. With every meal instead of water they drink refesco, which is nothing more than sugar water. Costa Rica is also known for great coffee; unfortunately the locals will never be ably to taste the difference because they make their coffee extremely weak and very sugary. Needless to say most adults have lost their teeth and have dentures. Since I have given the lecture on teeth hygine the students in both schools now brush their teeth after lunch.

The other pics are of my buddy´s dog Rabito and of coffee I toasted.

I´´m a horrible blogger

Hello everybody and welcome back to my blog, sorry I have slacked off a bit and haven’t updated it in a while, I’ve just been enjoying my time here and haven’t really had time to write. SO, here I go, my town is finally starting to remodel the school with materials I solicited from a government institution; Ministry of Public Works. We´ve had the materials for a few months now but been waiting on the money for wages that I solicited from the Ministry of Work. I can happily report that we received the money and community members are starting the construction on Monday. If all goes well in a couple months the school will be prepared for the internet access and public telephones that I solicited about 6 months ago. Needless to say it’s a slow process, and when that happens I will start soliciting computers for a computer center, that’s my goal anyway. I also just got done writing a solicitation to the environmental government agency to get barrels to start recycling. I am sick and tired of watching everybody burn everything including things that don´t burn and just pollute. Costa Rica has to be one of the more developed countries PeaceCorps is in, So its projects like starting to recycle that could have a lasting effect on the community. And of coarse I´m still working away teaching English.

OK that is what´s going on in my professional life, I have also done some really cool things lately, including scoring my first goal in a soccer game (in my life I think, lol), went on a all day hiking adventure to two remote waterfalls and collected honey from a wild bee hive, it was intense, like harder than hiking out of the Grand Canyon. I also took a trip to Cajuita an awesome Caribbean beach in Talamaca, the culture there is way different and it was a really cool trip I took with 5 other volunteers. I have pics of the waterfall and some other cool stuff but still haven´t transferred them to my computer so expect another update with more photos soon.

Below should be a link to a cool blog a guy is writing that visited my town. There´s a couple pics of me and my buddy Deiner.

http://www.dreamcatcherimaging.com/blog/

Pura vida,
-Leif

Spending the Holidays Tico style
If you´re reading this you probably know that my family and some awesome friends made the journey down to Costa Rica in December to visit me. In order to save a little money the vacation ended a few days before Christmas. So I headed back to my town exhausted and ready for the slow pace of ¨campo¨ life. It was hard for me to think that it was Christmas, being in sunny and in the 80 and 90s. This Christmas and New years was very different than I had ever spent, but in the end, both holidays passed and I enjoyed them very much, but of coarse Oregon was on my mind.
Holidays in the boonies of Costa Rica involve a lot of killing… Don´t get scared nobody died, just a lot of animals, and boy did they taste good! It all started the 23rd when we killed a few chickens for the tamales that were really good. Here they grind up corn to make the filling, then put some rice, sweet pepper, and green beans in with a piece of Chicken. It’s then all wrapped up in a banana leaf and tied with vines and put in boiling water. They taste delicious and it’s cool that everything comes from the community, they grow or raise everything.
Christmas Eve was interesting I left my house at 5 in the morning to round up a cow that we were going to kill. I even felt bad a little; this cow was the tamest cow I have been around. I walked right up to it, put a rope around its horns and walked it to the creek where we shot it behind the head with the good old 38 special, Lol. I was holding a hind leg while we bleed it out in a bucket for its blood when it gave one last kick, luckily it got me in the shoulder and not the face or I would be missing a few teeth, lol. And of coarse, we never slaughter a cow without the proper toasting material; Guaro (alcohol) We had a shot after we killed it and a few more one we got it back to the barn to part it out. We cut the whole damn thing up into little pieces for the Christmas barbeque. The hooves, spine, intestines and other parts will be saved for soup.
The Christmas party was at my host dads parent´s house, about 50 people came and we barbequed, drank and let off fireworks, (some mortars, and quarter sticks of dynamite) it was pretty cool actually. The meat taste good, some better than others, I’m sure the more tender pieces were the better parts of the cow, but it was all mixed together so who knows what part I was eating. Oh, and the bbq is a little different, the put a couple blocks of cement down build a fire in-between and lay the back to an old refrigerator for the grill (the radiator part) Surprisingly it worked. One thing is for sure, they are resourceful.
New Years Eve was nice too. I few less people, another bbq, but this time with a pig, they killed a pig the day before so this time it was bbq pork, that I think I liked better than the cow, either way it was good. And some ceviche (fish cured in limon) and of coarse some more guaro and even some beers, which is a must for New Years. And there was even some karaoke going on inside, but I stayed outside in my comfort zone, I hate karaoke, in English let alone Spanish lol. In the end, my holidays went by very nicely.
Ok, well that was a quick version of my holidays in the Campo of Costa Rica. Hope all yours went by nicely!