One of the reasons why I don’t update my Blog more often is for the fact that I haven’t been as busy as I would like to be, so I guess I should explain what that means and why that is. I live in a town with some really nice, caring people and I am very happy I was placed here and I wouldn’t change the experience that I have had for anything. During training we were asked what sort of town we would like to be placed in. I said the most rural town possible, that I didn’t mind being alone and far from other volunteers. I also mentioned that working with children especially teaching was a goal of mine. So in a sense PeaceCorps placed me exactly in a town I described. By far I live in the smallest town that of the 150 volunteers in Costa Rica (My friend Dan lives in a town with more people but far more cut off having to cross a river without a bridge to leave his town on the Bri-Bri indigenous reserve) within the three communities I work with there is probably less than 150 people within a 10-mile radius. In other words it is very spread out over the most mountainous terrain in Costa Rica. It’s some of the most beautiful country I have seen not only in Costa Rica but also of the world that I have seen. This is another reason why there are so few people; a majority of my town has sold to “gringos” and moved to other parts of the country where is easier and cheaper to farm. My town was formed 50 years ago by farmers who couldn’t afford land anywhere else; now their land is worth much more than the places they left from. This makes getting support for development projects a little slow because very few families see themselves staying for the long haul. For those reasons I wont be advising PeaceCorps to send a volunteer to replace me (teaching English is the main desire for my town so I am planning to contact World Teach for the possibility of one of their volunteers). At my closing of service conference in February I have to start getting my paperwork in line to come home and that is when we would recommend a volunteer but for the lack of community groups/individuals to work with, unfortunately I wont be recommending my town. I just feel that other communities could take a better advantage of having a Peace Corps Volunteer.
With that said I just had one of my most rewarding weeks in country last week with a basketball camp. A few Youth and Family Development volunteers that live near the center of San Isidro planned a weeklong free basketball camp for all kids interested. The majority of kids that came were from the volunteers’ town and most of them are “at risk” youth. We had about 150 come to learn how to play basketball and around 15 volunteers came from all parts of Costa Rica to help out. I, being such a good basketball player volunteered to help with the youngest kids from 5-8 years old. For such a young group the little ones did very well, but we had to be creative because unlike the older kids, the 5-8 year olds don’t want to practice basketball all day long. So we ended up taking them to a park with a playground and doing lots of group activities as well. I even got to show my art skills and do face and hand paintings on the kids. Most the girls just wanted stars, flowers or rainbows; which I perfected quite well. One boy came up and told me he wanted a semi truck painted on his hand. I thought it was a very unique and different than the girls’ paintings so I gladly puff painted a sparkly 18-wheeler on his hand.
It was an awesome fun filled positive week for children that don’t have opportunities to get out much. I was kinda sadden that no kids from my towns came in but I live in the “campo” and its coffee picking season and the children have to pick coffee so in their parents eyes an educational basketball camp was out of the question. I posted signs and told all the parents about it (even saying I would accompany them on the bus) but wasn’t surprised when nobody came. I stayed at the facilities with the other volunteers the days that I didn’t have night English class back in my town. Its always fun when we get a bunch of volunteers together to go out and have dinner or a beer or two. After the camp some of the more athletic volunteers played a game against the Perez Zeledon Division 1 basketball team and actually won. Most the volunteers who played are exceptional athletes 3 of them played college sports and one pitched minor league for the Yankees (he ended up rolling his ankle on a rebound and after a trip back to San Jose and an x-ray found out it was broken) That being the only downer to the week.
After the camp finished three of my buddies and I took a remarkable backpacking trip into the heart of Corcovado National Park (supposedly being the most biodiverse place in the world) and that trip belongs in a blog of itself, with lots of pictures so it should be up soon. If you want a preview to it you can read my buddy's blog at coclanis.blogspot.com he talks about our trip and a visit he took to my town and the are some good pics...
