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
Friday, August 20, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
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.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
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
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
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!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Today is a bittersweet day…
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
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
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
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