It’s only a few days before Christmas, and I just got done spending just over a week with the best family and friends I could ask for. It’s exactly for that reason why it’s a bittersweet day.
I had been looking forward to this visit since that cold March Monday morning when I left a perfectly good life to live in the boonies, without any of the comfort and material things that we all get so used to in the States for a very different but equally satisfying life as a Peace Corps Volunteer. In the weeks maybe even months before I left I had many “going away get togethers” and tried to at least meet up with all my friends before I was to leave and put my life on hold for 27 months. I don’t think it really hit me until the Friday before I left when I went snowboarding for the last time, although I was 100 percent sure on my decision; to call last run on the mountain when you know you wont be back for 2 seasons is a hard one.
A couple days later I told my family and friends that I wanted pizza for my last meal with everybody. That Sunday about 20 or 30 great people met me for one last beer and a slice at Old Chicago. It was there that I realized; I had to say goodbye. It had been easy for me to say for over a year, “well, I want to go in the Peace Corps, but I don’t know if I’ll get accepted” and then it changed to, “well its still months away”, and day by day months changed to weeks and weeks changed to days. Finally there was no hiding the fact that I was leaving, while it wasn’t the hardest thing I have ever had to do, it was very difficult to leave a perfect family and great friends that have always been there for me for a life of the unknown.
That was 9 months ago, and now the unknown is here and it’s a little town called San Luís in Costa Rica. I can now say that I didn’t put my life on hold but rather opened a new chapter like college but way more satisfying and clearer minded. I made Peace Corps friends during training and our bond will last for all of our service and the few times we see each other during the year always makes for a good time. And my friends and family in my town are very important to me, in fact my job here would be very hard or not worth it if I hadn’t forged great friendships. But nobody can replace those of you from home, and that is why I had been waiting for this vacation since the day I left Oregon.
My family and friends arrived in Costa Rica and I was waiting for them outside the airport with a couple of Peace Corps buddies that wanted to meet them. It was a surprise for my mom and sister that brought a few tears out. Immediately we fell right back in place. We all told many stories that I had missed out on and I let them in on my life here that doesn’t always get put in my blog. They came to my town for a soccer tournament; John was a hit, who played for my team scoring one goal and 2 assists, and all the chicas thought he was hot. After the game they came to my house and met more of my family and tried to communicate with them. The lady that I live with made Arroz con leche, miel de chiotte, tamal, and coconut cookies. And her husband prepared moonshine sweetened with a bunch of stuff but still real strong (ask Steve about it). We also picked a couple of oranges form a tree behind my house and surprisingly in the end almost everybody told me that seeing where I live was the highlight of their trip. My family here was equally happy to meet my real family and it was a great day.
A few days later Dieter, Steph, John and I rented quads and rode them back to my town. Dieter and Steph weren´t in CR yet when we previously went my town, not to mention I had to pick up Janet, my lady friend. It was about an hour quad ride from our awesome house in Dominical to my town in the mountains. She was real surprised by the house but so was I, (dad you picked a great house) and she went with us to two national parks, Manual Antonio and Corcovado which we took a boat ride to get to and walked around a forest for a bit, which was cool but we can see the same wildlife in my town so that wasn’t that big of a deal and I didn’t know there was a waterfall and area to swim in, which we would have all rather have done, since it was real hot. However the boat ride through a Mangrove, and then into the ocean was cool for all of us, especially Janet who had never been on any boat in her life. When she left, she told me it was her favorite vacation ever.
Throughout the week we did a lot of stuff, enough that it was nice sometimes to get back and relax at the house. I was not used to staying up till the wee hours of the mourning or drinking like we did, so needless to say I was exhausted and although I didn’t want to leave everybody, I needed life to slow down again. I hadn’t even thought about how it was going to be hard to say goodbye once again until the last night that I was with them. They continued their trip for another day and a half but I had an end of the year party and graduation to attend in my town. That night we did a Christmas gift exchange and watched a lightning storm that was pretty cool. But I soon realized that I had that same feeling that I did 9 months before in Portland, knowing that the next morning, I’d have to say goodbye again. And once again it sucked, to say the least. Coincidently, in another 9 months I will be coming home for Gatto and Heather´s wedding, and once again I am already excited to see my family and friends that I just said goodbye to, and of coarse all of you that I wasn´t able to see.
Dad thanks for finding such a cool house, you made it a great trip, and I appreciate all the work you put in, and all the emails you sent. To the rest of you, I love you guys and had a blast with all of you. And don´t worry Hill your big brother will be home in 9 months to give you more crap!
Take care, Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all!
Oh and sorry for the lack of photos, everybody else took pics this vacation and Im sure they will send the to me and I can get them up...
Pura Vida,
-Leif
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Happy December from Costa Rica....
I wrot this blog about a week ago but better late than never, expect a new one next week about my family´s trip here, it was awesome!
It’s been a while since I have updated my blog so I thought I would say hi to everybody and wish all a happy December and holidays. Hope everybody had a stomach fulfilling Thanksgiving ate turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and fruit salad for me! I ate rice and beans, lol.... a bunch of other volunteers went to people houses from the US embassy and had traditional meal and stayed in a hotel afterwards, I unfortunately wasn’t able to make it, but was told by a couple of friends that the atmosphere wasn’t the same without me; which made me feel good. I hear the mountain has snow, Hill, Alison, and all other snowboarders/skiers, I’m super jealous; ride double time and enjoy a Widmier Seasonal Birrr for me, what I would do for a good beer... My dad’s been sending me the sports sections so I feel somewhat up to date with Beavs and Blazers. The last I read, it was all up to the Civil War to decide the fate of the Beavs or Ducks, do I smell Roses? Who knows but it will be the first thing I check when I get to the Internet to post this blog. I even talked about flying to Pasadena if that happens, but in reality, that’s a little bit of a rush. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll make a trip to home for the Civil War at Grant’s tailgate. Reading up about the Beaver’s improvement this year has been awesome, I hope they can finish strong. But whatever happens, its good for Oregon in general to have both teams fighting for the Rose Bowl. Hopefully it will be a more interesting game than last year’s Civil War.
On a more sobering note, I received the news that Dennis Moore (Ryan Moore’s dad) passed away.... Ryan, you’ve been my best friend since junior high school, I remember growing up with both your parents. And have great memories of them both whether it’s from freshman year when Shelley walked in on us putting eye drops in our glazed over eyes and you having to explain our misdeeds. Or watching countless football games with Dennis. They are memories I will cherish forever. It seems like just a couple months ago I heard the news of your mom, now I can’t believe your father’s goon too. Sorry man, like I said a year ago; death is the shittiest part of life. Keep your head up dude, sorry I couldn’t be there for you! Love you like a brother...
Ok, now let’s change the subject to Costa Rica!
It’s Tuesday December 8th and I’m sitting in my house writing this blog that I will post when I go to the city to greet my family and friends at the airport. Something that I am super pumped to do. Hopefully my mother and sister do not read this before they board the plane because they are under the impression that I can’t make it to the City to greet them. But, if all goes as planned it should be a good surprise. I’ll be spending just over a week with my parents, sister, our friends Ed and Rosie, John and his sister Austin, Steve and Ash, Deiter and Steph.... They all rented what looks to be a sweet house about an 1.5 hours on a bad dirt road from my house, unfortunately unless we have a 4x4, to get to my community we’ll have to loop around to San Isidro on the highway about an 2 hour detour. I can’t wait to spend time with all of them, and on Sunday they will be able to see one of the communities I work with, who’s hosting a soccer tournament. They’ll be able to meet some of my friends that a have made here and even a girlfriend who doesn’t speak English. Yes, I said it; I have a girlfriend... I really planned on not having a relationship, but shit happens, lol. Her name is Jeannette and she was one of the first friends I made in my town, she’s actually a younger sister of the guy I live with, one of 13 kids, a good Catholic family, lol. She’s almost a year younger than me and collects coffee and makes cheese for a living. Needless to say we have extremely different backgrounds. I remember meeting her in my community and thinking to myself, “careful Leif, she’s a cute one, you could get yourself in trouble here, lol”. And for almost 6 months I behaved myself, but as we became better friends my feelings got the best of me. I have no idea where we’re going with this and can’t tell the future but for now I’m happy living in the moment. She’s going to spend a night or two at the house with my family which is amazing that her family is allowing that, the really trust me, little do they know, lol, no in all seriousness it should be fun for her, she’s never been to a house with a pool or visited any of the 3 national parks that are within 50 miles of where she’s lived all her life. So it’s an opportunity that she doesn’t get very often or ever, the language barrier should be interesting, she just started to learn English so hopefully she tries to speak a little, lol.
On the business side of things, I have good news to report. I wrote a proposal a few months back to fix up the cemetery; last week I was informed that I got about $10 thousand dollars to build a fence around it, and a building where they have their funerals, I don’t know what its called in English they call it a “Capilla”. Its important to them and the community is stoked. The same week I was also was informed that we are going to receive a bunch of materials to fix up the school and its kitchen, a truck delivered the material this week. Including 53 bags of cement, paint, wood, tin roofs, toilets, sinks, and bars for the windows, which is a requirement for a program that could bring a satellite for internet and telephones to my community. So it’s a start to something I really want to see in here.... Two agencies of the Costa Rican government are funding these projects. There is money here for projects the problem is the majority of the public doesn’t know how to get the funds, especially in the rural communities so my job is to show them that they can develop their community if they know where and how to look for help. It does help that I write in the proposals that I am a Peace Corps volunteer, but the goal is that in a year and a half when I leave they can continue their development of the community. I’m also in the process of trying to figure out what happen to a lot of money that was signed to repair the roads of my area more than 2 years ago. None of the reparations were ever done, so with any luck, we can fix up the roads, because some of them are not passable unless you have a moto or quad.
Ok well, I believe I have rambled on for enough, miss ya’ll that I won’t be seeing this week! And, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! To leave you all with a quote,
“You’ll never regret the chances you take, you’ll regret the ideas you don’t pursue.” A quote by Andy Mercier before I left Oregon. It has a lot of truth to it, thanks.
Pura Vida,
-Leif
It’s been a while since I have updated my blog so I thought I would say hi to everybody and wish all a happy December and holidays. Hope everybody had a stomach fulfilling Thanksgiving ate turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and fruit salad for me! I ate rice and beans, lol.... a bunch of other volunteers went to people houses from the US embassy and had traditional meal and stayed in a hotel afterwards, I unfortunately wasn’t able to make it, but was told by a couple of friends that the atmosphere wasn’t the same without me; which made me feel good. I hear the mountain has snow, Hill, Alison, and all other snowboarders/skiers, I’m super jealous; ride double time and enjoy a Widmier Seasonal Birrr for me, what I would do for a good beer... My dad’s been sending me the sports sections so I feel somewhat up to date with Beavs and Blazers. The last I read, it was all up to the Civil War to decide the fate of the Beavs or Ducks, do I smell Roses? Who knows but it will be the first thing I check when I get to the Internet to post this blog. I even talked about flying to Pasadena if that happens, but in reality, that’s a little bit of a rush. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll make a trip to home for the Civil War at Grant’s tailgate. Reading up about the Beaver’s improvement this year has been awesome, I hope they can finish strong. But whatever happens, its good for Oregon in general to have both teams fighting for the Rose Bowl. Hopefully it will be a more interesting game than last year’s Civil War.
On a more sobering note, I received the news that Dennis Moore (Ryan Moore’s dad) passed away.... Ryan, you’ve been my best friend since junior high school, I remember growing up with both your parents. And have great memories of them both whether it’s from freshman year when Shelley walked in on us putting eye drops in our glazed over eyes and you having to explain our misdeeds. Or watching countless football games with Dennis. They are memories I will cherish forever. It seems like just a couple months ago I heard the news of your mom, now I can’t believe your father’s goon too. Sorry man, like I said a year ago; death is the shittiest part of life. Keep your head up dude, sorry I couldn’t be there for you! Love you like a brother...
Ok, now let’s change the subject to Costa Rica!
It’s Tuesday December 8th and I’m sitting in my house writing this blog that I will post when I go to the city to greet my family and friends at the airport. Something that I am super pumped to do. Hopefully my mother and sister do not read this before they board the plane because they are under the impression that I can’t make it to the City to greet them. But, if all goes as planned it should be a good surprise. I’ll be spending just over a week with my parents, sister, our friends Ed and Rosie, John and his sister Austin, Steve and Ash, Deiter and Steph.... They all rented what looks to be a sweet house about an 1.5 hours on a bad dirt road from my house, unfortunately unless we have a 4x4, to get to my community we’ll have to loop around to San Isidro on the highway about an 2 hour detour. I can’t wait to spend time with all of them, and on Sunday they will be able to see one of the communities I work with, who’s hosting a soccer tournament. They’ll be able to meet some of my friends that a have made here and even a girlfriend who doesn’t speak English. Yes, I said it; I have a girlfriend... I really planned on not having a relationship, but shit happens, lol. Her name is Jeannette and she was one of the first friends I made in my town, she’s actually a younger sister of the guy I live with, one of 13 kids, a good Catholic family, lol. She’s almost a year younger than me and collects coffee and makes cheese for a living. Needless to say we have extremely different backgrounds. I remember meeting her in my community and thinking to myself, “careful Leif, she’s a cute one, you could get yourself in trouble here, lol”. And for almost 6 months I behaved myself, but as we became better friends my feelings got the best of me. I have no idea where we’re going with this and can’t tell the future but for now I’m happy living in the moment. She’s going to spend a night or two at the house with my family which is amazing that her family is allowing that, the really trust me, little do they know, lol, no in all seriousness it should be fun for her, she’s never been to a house with a pool or visited any of the 3 national parks that are within 50 miles of where she’s lived all her life. So it’s an opportunity that she doesn’t get very often or ever, the language barrier should be interesting, she just started to learn English so hopefully she tries to speak a little, lol.
On the business side of things, I have good news to report. I wrote a proposal a few months back to fix up the cemetery; last week I was informed that I got about $10 thousand dollars to build a fence around it, and a building where they have their funerals, I don’t know what its called in English they call it a “Capilla”. Its important to them and the community is stoked. The same week I was also was informed that we are going to receive a bunch of materials to fix up the school and its kitchen, a truck delivered the material this week. Including 53 bags of cement, paint, wood, tin roofs, toilets, sinks, and bars for the windows, which is a requirement for a program that could bring a satellite for internet and telephones to my community. So it’s a start to something I really want to see in here.... Two agencies of the Costa Rican government are funding these projects. There is money here for projects the problem is the majority of the public doesn’t know how to get the funds, especially in the rural communities so my job is to show them that they can develop their community if they know where and how to look for help. It does help that I write in the proposals that I am a Peace Corps volunteer, but the goal is that in a year and a half when I leave they can continue their development of the community. I’m also in the process of trying to figure out what happen to a lot of money that was signed to repair the roads of my area more than 2 years ago. None of the reparations were ever done, so with any luck, we can fix up the roads, because some of them are not passable unless you have a moto or quad.
Ok well, I believe I have rambled on for enough, miss ya’ll that I won’t be seeing this week! And, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! To leave you all with a quote,
“You’ll never regret the chances you take, you’ll regret the ideas you don’t pursue.” A quote by Andy Mercier before I left Oregon. It has a lot of truth to it, thanks.
Pura Vida,
-Leif
Monday, October 12, 2009
Life´s not always ¨pura vida¨....
This blog update was unexpected, and not a happy update but it’s a story that needs to be told, so here I go… Last week I experienced something that I always hate to see, but as I know all too well, its part of life. On Sunday my football team or should I say soccer team went to the neighboring town of La Florida for a soccer tournament. 13 teammates and some fans pilled into the back of a truck and off we went, with various motos, quads, and even some people on horses following. This is a typical weekend activity for the towns where I live. We arrived early in La Florida and were ably to watch a game between two other towns while we waited for our game to start. We played a good game and won! I played the second half and had a couple good looks at a goal but wasn’t lucky probably because I suck at soccer. Afterwards we ate dinner and had a couple of beers with everybody that came to watch us play.
This is the main way rural communities make money. In almost every town there is a football field and a kitchen near. The community cooks a bunch of food and has plenty of drinks on hand to sell. Our last one-day tournament, we raised about 500 dollars for the school, which is surprisingly a lot of money here. At about 6:00 pm, the truck I came in was about to leave. I had a great time, drank a couple of beers, ate some great food, and it looked as if rain was in the forecast; so I elected to leave with the truck that I arrived in. However, the party was not quite over, there was still Karaoke going on and a significant amount of people still hanging out. One of those people, who had even bought me a beer earlier was a guy named Nila, he asked me if I wanted to stay. Various people had mentioned I could get a ride home on one of their motos or quad. Most people that know me, know that I don’t usually call it an early night, but I did… I had to get up early the next day to go to town to get some information on a couple of projects I am working on so I thought it was time to go home. Little did I know that was the best decision I could have made...
We got back to my town and I took a cold shower and wrote a letter I needed to give to an engineer the next day in the city. Monday morning I took the two-hour long bus ride through the mountainous dirt road to San Isidro and everything went smoothly in town. It wasn’t until I got back to my town that afternoon that I learned Nila had an accident in his quad the night before and died.
The news came to me as a shock. He wasn’t a very close friend but, he was always nice to me and I never wish death upon anybody. It kinda messed with my head that he was the last person that I talked with in La Florida, and that I could have stayed and been on the quad with him. Riding on quads and motos is a normal way of transportation here and is also against PeaceCorps rules, but to be honest that wasn’t the reason why I wasn’t on the quad with him.
Se dice, “they say” that around 7:30-8:00pm he was returning home on his quad and lost control while crossing a bridge and went off the bridge. A lot of the bridges in my area don’t have side rails, which probably would have saved his life. He and his quad fell about 20-30 ft where he hit his head on rocks and received the injuries that took his life. A helmet could have saved his life as well. He had previously talked to me about his quad and how he had bought it in the New Jersey while he was working in the states roofing. A lot of ticos go (or went) to New Jersey to work in roofing. He also told me that he had a bought a $150 helmet in the states as well, but here; he never used it. A neighboring house to the bridge heard the crash and called an ambulance; he was in intensive care until Monday at 1:00pm, when he died. There was nothing they could do to save his life. His brother told me that he was coherent to hear and understand everything that people were saying to him but could not talk. His family was ably to say their good byes to him; he even cried when his mom talked to him. A priest came for him to confess (even though he wasn’t able to talk), it something that is common for the Catholic religion and he died shortly after.
Tuesday afternoon the body was brought in a casket to the family’s house where it is tradition for the family to stay awake while family and friends pay their respects through out the night. Emilio the man I live with and his son Denier, went to their house at 2am and did not return until 5:00am when they had a quick breakfast and then they asked me to accompany them to the cemetery to help dig the grave with only hand shovels to prepare for the funeral. Within a couple hours about 10 of us had taking turns digging the 8 ft deep hole, and it was ready. It was an experience that I hope I don’t have to repeat in the next year and a half.
Needless to say I feel really bad for the family and it made me think back to loosing my brother and how shitty of an experience it was. But as we all know so well, its part of life and you never know how quickly it can be taken from you, so live it up.
As for those of my friends that bikes or quads, you’ll know I love adventure sports as much as anybody and I fully understand that they’re not the safest sports. And my advice is still to enjoy life and experience as much possible, and I can’t wait to get home and start riding with you’ll again. But please, ride as safe as possible. I know that all you guys wear helmets on your quads and bikes, but I also know and have been guilty myself of every once in a while hoping on one without a helmet, just for a short while. But in reality, it’s not worth it. And when you feel like having a drink, do it… Shit, have a few, its fun as well. But once you start drinking stay off your bikes and out of your trucks for the rest of the night. I know we’ve all made bad choices and had relatively good luck with some of those bad decisions, but all it takes is a little bad luck with a bad decision and it can change your life. Ok, I’m done giving advice, I just don’t want to experience what just happened here in Costa Rica to happen closer to home, so be safe, at least until I come home, lol
Leif
This is the main way rural communities make money. In almost every town there is a football field and a kitchen near. The community cooks a bunch of food and has plenty of drinks on hand to sell. Our last one-day tournament, we raised about 500 dollars for the school, which is surprisingly a lot of money here. At about 6:00 pm, the truck I came in was about to leave. I had a great time, drank a couple of beers, ate some great food, and it looked as if rain was in the forecast; so I elected to leave with the truck that I arrived in. However, the party was not quite over, there was still Karaoke going on and a significant amount of people still hanging out. One of those people, who had even bought me a beer earlier was a guy named Nila, he asked me if I wanted to stay. Various people had mentioned I could get a ride home on one of their motos or quad. Most people that know me, know that I don’t usually call it an early night, but I did… I had to get up early the next day to go to town to get some information on a couple of projects I am working on so I thought it was time to go home. Little did I know that was the best decision I could have made...
We got back to my town and I took a cold shower and wrote a letter I needed to give to an engineer the next day in the city. Monday morning I took the two-hour long bus ride through the mountainous dirt road to San Isidro and everything went smoothly in town. It wasn’t until I got back to my town that afternoon that I learned Nila had an accident in his quad the night before and died.
The news came to me as a shock. He wasn’t a very close friend but, he was always nice to me and I never wish death upon anybody. It kinda messed with my head that he was the last person that I talked with in La Florida, and that I could have stayed and been on the quad with him. Riding on quads and motos is a normal way of transportation here and is also against PeaceCorps rules, but to be honest that wasn’t the reason why I wasn’t on the quad with him.
Se dice, “they say” that around 7:30-8:00pm he was returning home on his quad and lost control while crossing a bridge and went off the bridge. A lot of the bridges in my area don’t have side rails, which probably would have saved his life. He and his quad fell about 20-30 ft where he hit his head on rocks and received the injuries that took his life. A helmet could have saved his life as well. He had previously talked to me about his quad and how he had bought it in the New Jersey while he was working in the states roofing. A lot of ticos go (or went) to New Jersey to work in roofing. He also told me that he had a bought a $150 helmet in the states as well, but here; he never used it. A neighboring house to the bridge heard the crash and called an ambulance; he was in intensive care until Monday at 1:00pm, when he died. There was nothing they could do to save his life. His brother told me that he was coherent to hear and understand everything that people were saying to him but could not talk. His family was ably to say their good byes to him; he even cried when his mom talked to him. A priest came for him to confess (even though he wasn’t able to talk), it something that is common for the Catholic religion and he died shortly after.
Tuesday afternoon the body was brought in a casket to the family’s house where it is tradition for the family to stay awake while family and friends pay their respects through out the night. Emilio the man I live with and his son Denier, went to their house at 2am and did not return until 5:00am when they had a quick breakfast and then they asked me to accompany them to the cemetery to help dig the grave with only hand shovels to prepare for the funeral. Within a couple hours about 10 of us had taking turns digging the 8 ft deep hole, and it was ready. It was an experience that I hope I don’t have to repeat in the next year and a half.
Needless to say I feel really bad for the family and it made me think back to loosing my brother and how shitty of an experience it was. But as we all know so well, its part of life and you never know how quickly it can be taken from you, so live it up.
As for those of my friends that bikes or quads, you’ll know I love adventure sports as much as anybody and I fully understand that they’re not the safest sports. And my advice is still to enjoy life and experience as much possible, and I can’t wait to get home and start riding with you’ll again. But please, ride as safe as possible. I know that all you guys wear helmets on your quads and bikes, but I also know and have been guilty myself of every once in a while hoping on one without a helmet, just for a short while. But in reality, it’s not worth it. And when you feel like having a drink, do it… Shit, have a few, its fun as well. But once you start drinking stay off your bikes and out of your trucks for the rest of the night. I know we’ve all made bad choices and had relatively good luck with some of those bad decisions, but all it takes is a little bad luck with a bad decision and it can change your life. Ok, I’m done giving advice, I just don’t want to experience what just happened here in Costa Rica to happen closer to home, so be safe, at least until I come home, lol
Leif
Monday, September 21, 2009
Checkin in....
Hello everybody and welcome back, I hope everybody is doing great and of coarse had a great summer. I think its coming to and end up there; which sadly means I missed out on a season of rafting, camping, dirt biking, boating, BBQing, beer drinking, and probably many other fun summer activities that I would have loved to partake in with all of you.
As for me, I’ve been in Costa Rica for over 6 months now and it has flown by. Nevertheless, if I think by to the last time I saw my family or friends from back home, it does seem like forever. However, I prefer to look at the bright side of things and think about all that I have done in the last 6 months and the experience that I am having.
Since my last update I’ve just been “Pura Vida”. Literal it means “pure life” but anybody that has experience of Costa Rica knows that it is much more. It is used to describe just about anything. Ticos (Costa Ricans) always are pura vida, even if they’re having a shitty day, its still pura vida. In that since, I understand why Costa Rica was named one of the happiest places to live in the world on some CNN special I heard about. Not to say it doesn’t have a fair share of economical and social problems as any third world country, but if I had to generalize, it’s a happy culture, so we get along pretty well, lol.
I don’t really have any new updates on work here, waiting on a couple of projects that we are putting together mainly getting some public phones, remolding the school, cemetery, and trying to get a bridge over a creek that cars cant pass when its rains which is about 5 months out of the year. And of coarse teaching English has basically been filling up my days. Not to mention for the last month and a half I have been concentrating on a report that I have been writing about my community, it’s a pretty through Spanish document, about 15 pages of info which, for my little community was a feat. After it gets edited and corrected I can give it to the town and we can attach it to project proposals and hopefully it might make a difference, I’m just glad I don’t have to worry about it anymore. It made me feel like I was back in college writing a report.
On the health side of things I am glad to mention that I’m having luck as well; since I have been gone I have yet to be struck by any serious illness (knock on wood), which is something that can happen much easier in a third world country. I’m blessed with a strong stomach but, Costa Rica is home to some unfriendly parasites, worms, other stomach illnesses, and diseases in which I hope to continue to avoid, and of coarse the usual illnesses that plague all countries including the AHNI flu that is from my understanding now a pandemic, which is present in Costa Rica; our President Oscar Arias was the first leader of a country to get it. In all reality I am not too worried about it, since I don’t spend much time in the city, and I am young and healthy enough that if I did get it, it wouldn’t be all that bad. Not to mention the Peacecorps has pumped me full of some good but many unnecessary vaccinations along with drugs against Malaria, which I personally don’t feel the need to take, but I would never break a PC regulation. (If you can read sarcasm; there might be a little there) The side effects of the anti-malaria drug include but are not limited to mind-altering dreams, along the lines of a hallucinogenic drug trip and hair loss (I really don’t mind the dreams, but from the looks of my father and grandfather I wont need any help losing my hair… I think the side effects out number the possibility of me actually getting malaria since the small number of cases are confined to the Caribbean side of the country and I live on the Pacific Coast, and nobody in my town knows anybody who has contracted it. I’m more scared of getting bit by a torceopelo (fairadlaine in English) a very poisonous snake that unfortunately is extremely common in my town, if you look at a previous post there should be a photo of a dead torceopelo we killed. The good news is they have anti-venom at the hospital in San Isidro only an hour away by car, and they only kill about 5 people a year in Costa Rica, which is surprisingly less than bees. Dengue Fever is another disease that I want to stay away from; like malaria it is passed by mosquitoes and from what a fellow volunteer who got it said, it was the worst experience of his life. Supposedly it’s a terribly fever accompanied by your whole body aching to the point where you can’t do anything. On a more positive note if for some reason I did fall victim to some nasty illness the Peace Corps has a good connection with a top-notch hospital in San Jose. I was able to see the hospital’s care first hand when I visited a friend of mine, who for her second time since arriving in country in January as a World Teach Volunteer is back in the hospital. That visit made me realize how thankful I am to have been able to stay healthy here in Costa Rica.
So yeah, that’s all I have time for today a have to go catch a 2 hour bus ride and then walk another hour to get home, so until next time…
Pura vida
-Leif
As for me, I’ve been in Costa Rica for over 6 months now and it has flown by. Nevertheless, if I think by to the last time I saw my family or friends from back home, it does seem like forever. However, I prefer to look at the bright side of things and think about all that I have done in the last 6 months and the experience that I am having.
Since my last update I’ve just been “Pura Vida”. Literal it means “pure life” but anybody that has experience of Costa Rica knows that it is much more. It is used to describe just about anything. Ticos (Costa Ricans) always are pura vida, even if they’re having a shitty day, its still pura vida. In that since, I understand why Costa Rica was named one of the happiest places to live in the world on some CNN special I heard about. Not to say it doesn’t have a fair share of economical and social problems as any third world country, but if I had to generalize, it’s a happy culture, so we get along pretty well, lol.
I don’t really have any new updates on work here, waiting on a couple of projects that we are putting together mainly getting some public phones, remolding the school, cemetery, and trying to get a bridge over a creek that cars cant pass when its rains which is about 5 months out of the year. And of coarse teaching English has basically been filling up my days. Not to mention for the last month and a half I have been concentrating on a report that I have been writing about my community, it’s a pretty through Spanish document, about 15 pages of info which, for my little community was a feat. After it gets edited and corrected I can give it to the town and we can attach it to project proposals and hopefully it might make a difference, I’m just glad I don’t have to worry about it anymore. It made me feel like I was back in college writing a report.
On the health side of things I am glad to mention that I’m having luck as well; since I have been gone I have yet to be struck by any serious illness (knock on wood), which is something that can happen much easier in a third world country. I’m blessed with a strong stomach but, Costa Rica is home to some unfriendly parasites, worms, other stomach illnesses, and diseases in which I hope to continue to avoid, and of coarse the usual illnesses that plague all countries including the AHNI flu that is from my understanding now a pandemic, which is present in Costa Rica; our President Oscar Arias was the first leader of a country to get it. In all reality I am not too worried about it, since I don’t spend much time in the city, and I am young and healthy enough that if I did get it, it wouldn’t be all that bad. Not to mention the Peacecorps has pumped me full of some good but many unnecessary vaccinations along with drugs against Malaria, which I personally don’t feel the need to take, but I would never break a PC regulation. (If you can read sarcasm; there might be a little there) The side effects of the anti-malaria drug include but are not limited to mind-altering dreams, along the lines of a hallucinogenic drug trip and hair loss (I really don’t mind the dreams, but from the looks of my father and grandfather I wont need any help losing my hair… I think the side effects out number the possibility of me actually getting malaria since the small number of cases are confined to the Caribbean side of the country and I live on the Pacific Coast, and nobody in my town knows anybody who has contracted it. I’m more scared of getting bit by a torceopelo (fairadlaine in English) a very poisonous snake that unfortunately is extremely common in my town, if you look at a previous post there should be a photo of a dead torceopelo we killed. The good news is they have anti-venom at the hospital in San Isidro only an hour away by car, and they only kill about 5 people a year in Costa Rica, which is surprisingly less than bees. Dengue Fever is another disease that I want to stay away from; like malaria it is passed by mosquitoes and from what a fellow volunteer who got it said, it was the worst experience of his life. Supposedly it’s a terribly fever accompanied by your whole body aching to the point where you can’t do anything. On a more positive note if for some reason I did fall victim to some nasty illness the Peace Corps has a good connection with a top-notch hospital in San Jose. I was able to see the hospital’s care first hand when I visited a friend of mine, who for her second time since arriving in country in January as a World Teach Volunteer is back in the hospital. That visit made me realize how thankful I am to have been able to stay healthy here in Costa Rica.
So yeah, that’s all I have time for today a have to go catch a 2 hour bus ride and then walk another hour to get home, so until next time…
Pura vida
-Leif
Monday, July 27, 2009
Getting settled in...
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
Monday, June 15, 2009
Finally a volunteen
I can finally say that I am a Peace Corps Volunteer, up until Swear-In day on May 29th I was considered an “aspirante” or trainee in English. For those of you who aren’t up to date on who the PeaceCorps functions or have been wondering what the hell I have been doing in Costa Rica, I’ll give a little summary of to what has gone on.
March 10th I flew to Washington DC, where I met the 51 other volunteers in my training class “Tico 19”
March 11th I arrived in Costa Rica and spent one week in a retreat center outside San Jose. This is where we met the Staff and got to know each other a little better. The center is a beautiful complex with sport courts, fields and sits on top of a large hill to overlook a town called Tres Rios. The trees where also home to hundreds of Parrots which I happily listened to every morning.
March 15th I traveled to my training community San Juan Sur. Here my community was in a cluster of 4 training communities separated by level of Spanish and also by program, mine being Rural Community Development. It was in this town that I had Spanish training 3 days a week with the other 3 volunteers (was 4 but one decided to go back to the States). We also traveled one day a week to a neighboring town Jerico for technical training with the other 3 communities. And every Friday we got the painful experience of going to San Jose for Safety and Security training. This on a packed hour and half bus ride usually standing up. In San Jose we learned about earthquakes, floods, diseases, more earthquakes, and diseases. Oh, and sometimes we were lucky enough to get vaccinations during lunch. I would say that I got a good one-hour of useful information each 8 hour day there. During the 11 weeks of training I also visited to current volunteers at their rural sites (neither of which are even close to as rural or small as mine). It was these site visits that I enjoyed most during training, not that there wasn’t good information giving to us during training I just enjoyed being in rural Costa Rica, that’s why I’m here.
May 14th I met my counter-part for my community who happens to be the President of the development association that I will be working with and went to the town for a week. I enjoyed it, went back to my training town for a week to swear-in and now I’m back!
Ok, that should have got you caught up on what the hell I have been doing, basically a lot of BS mixed in with some good training, lol. And now for the next 2 years I will be living in the community of San Luis, Peréz Zeledón. I will be working with the Development Association on a variety of projects and teaching English as well.
As you should be able to see from my photos, I lucked out on the beauty of my site. I definitely have the best view that I have seen in Costa Rica just 20 yards from my house. My town’s name is San Luis outside of San Isidro on the way to Dominical. There’s a 300 ft waterfall that we can see just a couple kilometer walk from my house or I have gotten in the habit of running to it every morning, it takes about 20 minutes. There is also a river on the way to the beach that is good for fishing, or I can go fishing in the Talapia pond a 3 minute walk from my house. My family is super nice, sometimes I go working in the family’s banana or coffee farm. The father is teaching me the guitar, so hopefully in 2 years I will be able to play because, right now I suck… Oh yeah, the town let me on their soccer team. Some of the weekends we go to neighboring towns for town parties and soccer games. They set up a kitchen and bar and all the neighboring towns come to socialize, play soccer and it’s actually a pretty fun time.
So other than that I am just trying to get to know everybody in town before I can really start doing anything. I have a community assessment project to do in my first 3 months here, I have to interview basically everybody in town and go to town meetings to figure out what they want to improve in their community. The only bummer in my town is its size. To have a development association you need 100 members and to get any government funds or to receive a PeaceCorps Volunteer you need the association. Well, my town has it but in order to receive it they formed an association with 2 neighboring towns, which sucks for me! In my town I have counted 11 families so far, so the nice thing is I will be able to get to know everybody in my town easily. The bummer is the walk to the other towns, Ceibo and Morete. Ceibo is actually bigger than my town and want me to work with their school as well but I hope to wait till a get a horse or something to make the walk easier. Also the climate is changing to the raining season. So every morning it is beautiful and sunny, by the afternoon I can’t see 20 yards in front of me because the fog is so thick and the evening is filled with strong thunder showers along with the heaviest downpours I have ever seen. It’s actually relaxing and I enjoy the storms, assuming I am inside…
Now that I am done with training, I can finally start the real process of being a PeaceCorps Volunteer. Its something that I have wanted to do for well over a year and now I can make it happen. This comes as a bitter sweet feeling, although this has been a dream of mine, the reality of isolation starts to set in. Up intil this point I have been surrounded around some people that I now call close friends. We`ve had some good times together and for the majority of these volunteers, I probably wont see but a couple times a year. However I am sure when we do meet up it will be filled with more good times.
Well, until next time,
Tenga un buen día
Pura Vida, Leif
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I know where to call home for the next 2 years, finnaly!
Hello and welcome back, I’m sitting at my training community’s house writing from here for the last time. The last couple of weeks have gone by very fast and I’m happy to say that I know where to call home for the next 2 years. Friday I will swear-in and become a PeaceCorps Volunteer and the next Monday I will arrive at my site. Training has been a long, frustrating and fun process; but I am very ready to move on. I have made some great friendships that I will feed off of for the next 2 years but I came here to live among the locals and learn from them as well as help them and training is just prolonging that process.
My community’s name is San Luis and is located in the mountains above Punta Uvita and Parque Ballena (whale’s park) which is a beautiful part of Costa Rica. My family has the only Pulperia (tiny store that sells everything from gas to rice and flour) in town just up a small hill about 25 yards from our house where you can see this awesome part of the Costa Rican coast. If you haven’t googled Punta Uvita you should! Other than the Pulperia the town has a small one-room school with 11 students up to the 6th grade. If I had to guess I would say there is about 50 people in my community, but I will be working with the Development Association from 2 other towns as well. Unfortunately most students can’t continue their education in high school due to the lack of transportation. In fact there are only 5 students from my town that attend high school. There is one boy who has a dirtbike and can ride the 15 kilometers on a dirt and sometimes very muddy road. The other 4 girls share a quad and pack all four on it at once. Seeing how difficult it is just to get to high school really makes one realize how much we take our education for granted in the US. Transportation is an issue for me as well, which the director of my program said was one reason why I have a very difficult site, but I’m up for the challenge. I have bus service to my town once a week on Monday’s assuming the rain isn’t too hard and hasn’t washed away the road. The bus passes by at 5:50am and leaves San Isidro at 2:00pm to get me home around 4:00pm. Tuesday through Saturday there is also one bus roundtrip but to the neighboring town which is about an hour and half walk and there is no bus service on Sunday. The good news is that my host dad has to buy supplies in San Isidro once a week for the Pulperia or I can hitch a ride with one of the many Gringos that live around my community and have farms in the area and are stoaked that I am here to help the community they have been living here for years and employ some of the community.
My host family seems real sincere, the father is a hard working Campesino named Emilio. Him and his 7 brothers have coffee and banana farms that they work together as well as produce many other fruits and vegetables on a personal farm. I drink café every morning, which they make all in the home. My host mom Rita is Native so she speaks another language as well as Spanish and I have a little host sister named Melissa who is a pretty awesome 10 year old. She is one of the 11 students at the school and is excited to learn English (we already started a little) I have a 21 year old host brother named Denier who is married, he and his wife live about a half mile away but came over almost every night in the week I was there. They really like Monopoly so we played that a couple nights last week. That brother didn´t go to school after the six grade but works in the finca with his dad and uncles, there is another brother named Danier who is 19 years old and did go to the high school and a received scholarship for one of the best universities in Costa Rica for engineering and lives with distant family in Cartago. Along with that my dad is one of 13 children ranging from mid early 20s to mid 40s so I have a large new family that has been very accommodating. I also was able to go fishing in the family´s Talapia fish pond that they built 4 years ago, which is something I see myself doing quite often. A larger fish farm for the community is also one of the plans for me to help out with along with being the English teacher among other things. While I was there I helped my dad collect a semi truck full of bananas which was a good work out as well as use a chainsaw and hammer to help my brother build a green house which was fun. My host aunt who is 23 took me on a hike to see a water fall that was very pretty, unfortunately I didn´t bring my camera so you´ll have to wait for photos. That night I woke up to feel something on my thigh, when I could feel that it was stuck in my skin I knew it could be only one thing; a tick. I got up turned on the light and had the pleasure of pulling out and killing it. After seeing it in light I realized the color and shape and lack of little legs wasn´t ticklike but yet some other nasty little insect that I didn´t want in my body… But other than that experience all was great! lol
The house I will be living at is very simple and kept very clean for being not fully enclosed. The floor is cement and there isn´t a ceiling just the tin roof that is kinda fun for listening to the winter rain shows at night. Unfortunately, the walls don´t go all the way up so lights and noises are shared throughout the whole house which is interesting, lol. The kitchen is partially outside as well and they use a wood stove for cooking. But it is a very peaceful place that I think I will enjoy very much. The other morning I grabbed a ripe mango from the tree outside our house and sat in a chair over looking the sea and just listened to the tucans and howler monkeys, ate my mango and drank my home made coffee as I realized this will be my home for the next 2 years of my life and got a big smile on my face. So as for now I am excited to swear-in get back to my site and get to know the community a little more, and see where it takes me!
-until then, take care
My community’s name is San Luis and is located in the mountains above Punta Uvita and Parque Ballena (whale’s park) which is a beautiful part of Costa Rica. My family has the only Pulperia (tiny store that sells everything from gas to rice and flour) in town just up a small hill about 25 yards from our house where you can see this awesome part of the Costa Rican coast. If you haven’t googled Punta Uvita you should! Other than the Pulperia the town has a small one-room school with 11 students up to the 6th grade. If I had to guess I would say there is about 50 people in my community, but I will be working with the Development Association from 2 other towns as well. Unfortunately most students can’t continue their education in high school due to the lack of transportation. In fact there are only 5 students from my town that attend high school. There is one boy who has a dirtbike and can ride the 15 kilometers on a dirt and sometimes very muddy road. The other 4 girls share a quad and pack all four on it at once. Seeing how difficult it is just to get to high school really makes one realize how much we take our education for granted in the US. Transportation is an issue for me as well, which the director of my program said was one reason why I have a very difficult site, but I’m up for the challenge. I have bus service to my town once a week on Monday’s assuming the rain isn’t too hard and hasn’t washed away the road. The bus passes by at 5:50am and leaves San Isidro at 2:00pm to get me home around 4:00pm. Tuesday through Saturday there is also one bus roundtrip but to the neighboring town which is about an hour and half walk and there is no bus service on Sunday. The good news is that my host dad has to buy supplies in San Isidro once a week for the Pulperia or I can hitch a ride with one of the many Gringos that live around my community and have farms in the area and are stoaked that I am here to help the community they have been living here for years and employ some of the community.
My host family seems real sincere, the father is a hard working Campesino named Emilio. Him and his 7 brothers have coffee and banana farms that they work together as well as produce many other fruits and vegetables on a personal farm. I drink café every morning, which they make all in the home. My host mom Rita is Native so she speaks another language as well as Spanish and I have a little host sister named Melissa who is a pretty awesome 10 year old. She is one of the 11 students at the school and is excited to learn English (we already started a little) I have a 21 year old host brother named Denier who is married, he and his wife live about a half mile away but came over almost every night in the week I was there. They really like Monopoly so we played that a couple nights last week. That brother didn´t go to school after the six grade but works in the finca with his dad and uncles, there is another brother named Danier who is 19 years old and did go to the high school and a received scholarship for one of the best universities in Costa Rica for engineering and lives with distant family in Cartago. Along with that my dad is one of 13 children ranging from mid early 20s to mid 40s so I have a large new family that has been very accommodating. I also was able to go fishing in the family´s Talapia fish pond that they built 4 years ago, which is something I see myself doing quite often. A larger fish farm for the community is also one of the plans for me to help out with along with being the English teacher among other things. While I was there I helped my dad collect a semi truck full of bananas which was a good work out as well as use a chainsaw and hammer to help my brother build a green house which was fun. My host aunt who is 23 took me on a hike to see a water fall that was very pretty, unfortunately I didn´t bring my camera so you´ll have to wait for photos. That night I woke up to feel something on my thigh, when I could feel that it was stuck in my skin I knew it could be only one thing; a tick. I got up turned on the light and had the pleasure of pulling out and killing it. After seeing it in light I realized the color and shape and lack of little legs wasn´t ticklike but yet some other nasty little insect that I didn´t want in my body… But other than that experience all was great! lol
The house I will be living at is very simple and kept very clean for being not fully enclosed. The floor is cement and there isn´t a ceiling just the tin roof that is kinda fun for listening to the winter rain shows at night. Unfortunately, the walls don´t go all the way up so lights and noises are shared throughout the whole house which is interesting, lol. The kitchen is partially outside as well and they use a wood stove for cooking. But it is a very peaceful place that I think I will enjoy very much. The other morning I grabbed a ripe mango from the tree outside our house and sat in a chair over looking the sea and just listened to the tucans and howler monkeys, ate my mango and drank my home made coffee as I realized this will be my home for the next 2 years of my life and got a big smile on my face. So as for now I am excited to swear-in get back to my site and get to know the community a little more, and see where it takes me!
-until then, take care
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