Laura Trinkle

It's Been a While

2012-02-06T20:58:00.003-07:00

For a long time I haven't felt like I had much to blog about. I think mostly my family reads the blogs to keep up with me, but now I'm living with them or seeing them all the time so there's not much to update them on.

Anyway, things have really moved along since August! After the wedding Deivin and I went to Montana and Yellowstone for our honeymoon. It was a great trip but once it was over I knew that my next mission was to find a job for me. I know from past experience just how difficult finding a job is and I was a little worried that I would be looking for months. Thankfully after just a week I was able find a temp to hire position which I had actually already applied for before the wedding. When I had initially read the position description I knew it would be the perfect post Peace Corps job and really wanted the job but after not hearing anything for over a month I figured it was one of those phantom job postings that so many employers put up to see who they get but have no real intention of hiring anyone. Months later the week that we returned from the honeymoon a family friend called to let me know that there was a job fair that week. At the job fair I saw that there was a temp agency with the same job that I had a applied for. So, I signed up with the agency and was working within a week! I feel soooooo blessed! I was hired on permanency a month and a half later and there you have it!

More that anything I've felt like I'm just trying to get my feet under me and it's been just in the past few weeks that I feel like things are starting to settle down and I'm finally starting to find normal. Deivin and I still have a long way to go, but we are getting there! Deivin's work permit just arrived and he also just got his learners permit to begin driving. That has been a long journey in it's self, but after many trips to the DMV and hours spent waiting, he now has the permit in hand and now drives us everywhere we go! That's progress! A lady I work with tells me that success is sticking with a plan long enough to succeed, I think she is right. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we just keep chipping away and with Gods help (and He has been a huge help) we are making progress.

I'll update more in a few days... So much has happened...

Two Weeks in Colorado

2011-08-11T11:33:00.002-06:00

We have now been in Colorado for 2 weeks and you can't imagine how busy we have been! Tigre the cat is now feeling really good and comfortable in the house and we are working on the outside. I think she prefers the indoors.

Deivin had been doing some gardening and is currently working on the wedding gifts that we will give out to our guests at the wedding.

I don't know if I already said this or not, but planning a wedding is really hard! There is no end to all of the little details. I'm working on checking things off the to do wedding list which turns out to be a full time job. Once I get caught up though I'm sure it will slow down.

Home Sweet Home

2011-08-06T08:31:00.002-06:00

Whew! I've been home for a little over a week and it has been so nice to be here! I have been and continue to be super busy with wedding, immigration and general settling in stuff, but I think that being busy is a good thing. Deivin is doing great! He has already totally redone my parents front yard, fixed a door that has been broken for 20 years and is currently teaching my dad how to use a machete. Deivin is keeping very busy with projects and bettering his english. We are no where near bored!

I had no idea that planning a wedding would be a full time job! There should be people that you can hire to do it... It will all come together I'm sure, thankfully I don't have a job yet so I can devote lots of time to it.

And let the Bitter Sweet Goodbye Begin

2011-07-24T08:24:00.000-06:00

I'm now in my final days as a Peace Corps volunteer. For the longest time I have dreamed of getting home and how great it will be and how I just can't wait to get there, but now that it's really close I'm finding that I'm actually really sad. I'm still excited and I can't wait to see my family and friends, but I'm really going to miss people here. Also, leaving Deivin's family and my host family are going to be really hard. I see the sadness in Deivin's mom and it breaks my heart. I know that she wants the best for her son and for him to be happy, but he's the first of her babies to leave her and I can tell that it will be a hard adjustment for her.

I'm finally done with all of my projects! Yesterday we had a beach clean up and hung up and moved around a bunch of signs that were all over the places to make things just a little more organized. Deivin made some new signs also that should help the Blue Flag group to get more stars in the coming year. La Palma and Guadalupe hosted the VIDA volunteers again! This is a group that organizes medical, dental and vet clinics that serve people in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. They bring students from the respective fields and they get hands on experience working with people and helping them to get free medical attention. They way it works is they have the students break up into small groups and for example the medical students work with a doctor and they do the interview with the patient, learn to take blood pressure, ask the right questions and they even learn to give shots though they only practice on each other. It's a really great program and the students really get a lot out of it.

Now Deivin and I have moved on from work to the various lunches, dinners, coffee times, etc that people are inviting us to. This part is always so stressful for me.

One Month to GO!!!!

2011-06-29T16:37:00.000-06:00

I officially have less than a month left before I'll be home!!!! I can't wait. On July 29th, at this time in one month I'll be in Colorado with dry skin!

I'll give you guys a quick work update, I'm actually really, really, really busy right now! It's good because it's making the time go super fast, but man, I have a lot to do.

We got our funding for the playground in Guadalupe and I went to San Jose with my community partner (Deivin too since we were already going up for the embassy interview) and we signed our contract and they gave us the money! Yay! So, this week I've been meeting with people in Guadalupe to organize with the parents of kids in the school who is going to cook the meals and who is going to donate what food for the workers (the contract is that we provide a place for them to stay and 3 meals a day). That was actually really easy. One of the teachers at the school helped out by taking the list of who was going to bring what and it was cool to see everyone shouting out a bunch of different things that they wanted to donate. Now, the workers will be here on Tuesday and in 2-3 days we should have our playground all ready to go! Pictures to come.

In June we had another spay and neuter your pets clinic and as always, it went great. Ricardo and I have now in La Palma fixed some 144 animals. We have another clinic on July 13th and it's a little sad. I'm going to miss my work with animals.

The group VIDA they are volunteers that do medical and vet clinics for free are coming July 19, 20, 21 and I'm organizing that. Yikes! We are going to hold 2 days in Guadalupe and one day in La Palma.

I have been trying to get everything ready with Peace Corps to close out my service and trying to figure out what to do about Tigre. We have reservations for her to travel with me inside the airplane, but I feel so bad that my poor baby is going to have to be cooped up for 8 hours+ 2 days in a row. For a while I was thinking of flying to San Jose from Jimenez, but it's just so expensive. I've been taking Tigre on walks to get her used to the cage and next Monday will take her to my English class so that she can brush up on her English a bit and be in the cage for a couple of hours at a time. Hopefully it works.

Deivin is almost done with work and is really excited to see Colorado and the US. We are planning to head to Montana for out honeymoon and then in early October do a Grand Canyon hike with my dad. Should be a fun couple of months. I just need to somehow manage to find a job at some point... I'm sure it will happen for me.

Update

2011-06-14T18:49:00.003-06:00

I have a lot to update! Que dicha – Finally! So, the biggest news of all is that we were approved for the visa!!!!! Now all we have left to do is go back and pick up Deivin's passport with the visa in it. Awesome! There were a few moments during our appointment at the embassy where I was pretty nervous because of my lack of income as a Peace Corps volunteer, but the interviewer just asked me what I was planning to do for work when I got back, I told him probably HR and he was happy with that. Mostly the interviewer wanted to know about my Peace Corps projects. So that's done! Thank God!

As far as projects go: We got our funding for the playground in Guadalupe and should be starting/finishing that in a couple of weeks. I'll have pictures coming when we begin construction.

Tigre still thinks that her cat box is a bed and now she is bringing the birds that she hunts outside to the box to play with them. A total failure to communicate. Hopefully she'll get it soon!

Life is good, God is good!

Cat Box Training and Visa Interviews

2011-05-24T09:58:00.001-06:00

5-24-2011

This update is mostly about Tigre the cat. So, Tigre is pretty much my bff here is Costa Rica, she's really the best cat ever. Since she was a baby, Tigre has known that she goes outside to use the bathroom. She's like a dog but better because I have a hole in the screen of one of my windows and just comes and goes when she wants too. Also, when I leave for trips to San Jose, I never have to worry about her starving to death because she is an exceptional hunter and catches birds, lizards and rats all the time. She's pretty much the coolest.

Now the time is approaching that we will go to the USA. Yes, Tigre the cat is also going to the states with me, but, I was lazy about training her with the cat box when she was a kitten because I just didn't want to have to clean it and now, what a problem. When we get to the states, she's going to have to be kept inside for at least 2 weeks so that she learns where her home is, otherwise she could get lost. In these 2 weeks, Tigre really needs to hit the target ie, the cat box. So, this last time that I was in San Jose I bought her a cat box and filled it with sand from where she usually goes outside. She's not sure what to make of this box with sand in it that is now in our house. Yesterday, I put her in there and she laid down like it was a new bed for her... At least today she has started to play around with the dirt. Training a dog is so not like training a cat. Hopefully over the next two months she will figure it out...

Update on visa stuff:

Last week Deivin and I were in San Jose running all over the place to take care of all the paperwork and stuff that he needs when we go the embassy for our interview. He had to have chest x-rays, blood test, vaccines and a visit to a doctor to make sure he is healthy. Each vaccine was $20! I could not believe it! So expensive. But, luckily they gave him a chicken pox vaccine so should my shingles come back one day, he won't catch a really bad case of chicken pox. Now we are all set for the interview that will be the 14th of June in San Jose. We should have the visa in hand a few days after that. Exciting!

2 more months to go!

2011-05-18T18:54:00.000-06:00

For the past couple of months there have been no real changes made to any of my projects. I took the scouts on an outing to Jimenez to participate in the international day of the forest and they had lots of fun. I'm still meeting with my english class and am currently planning yet another clinic. I'm still waiting on the money to build the playground so hopefully that will happen soon. No big changes.

I do have big changes that happened with the Visa! Deivin and I were approved from the USCIS a few weeks ago and we were then quickly approved by the State Department (it's where they do a background check on me) and the papers were forwarded to the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica where I was able to pick them up last week while I was in San Jose for Peace Corps stuff. It's all really come together. Now all we need to do it take care of the medical visits, blood test, x-rays for Deivin, call the embassy and schedule an interview. We are just a few weeks away from having the actual visa in hand! Super exciting! We are heading to San Jose tomorrow and after that it usually takes about a week to get an interview and then usually it's the next day that you get the visa. It's all really worked out perfectly! Now we have plenty of time to prepare to leave while we have the visa. We will be able to buy airline tickets, Deivin and give notice to his work. It's all worked out so much better than I could have hoped for. Thank God for that!

I'm pretty much in a holding pattern for the next 2 months. I'm sooooooo extremely ready to get back to the states and see my family and friends and find a job and all that good stuff. I have the next 2 months to enjoy my friends and family here and to say goodbye. It will be hard, but I can't wait to see what's next, marry Deivin and start our life together! Life is good!

Here is a rant:

2011-04-25T07:10:00.000-06:00

To give some background to this rant... Last week was holy week here in Costa Rica and everyone heads to the beach to be with family and it's a MAJOR holiday here. During this time all the people and things that make my house incredibly loud were visiting their family or they didn't have to get up in the morning and go to work or whatever the reason you can not imagine how peaceful it was last week. Which brings us to today. What a horrible nights sleep that was topped off with a ridiculous symphony of noise starting at 5:30am and ended with me giving up on sleeping at 6:15am. First, one of the dogs here Canela was poisoned 2 days ago. It was really sad, I came across here and we were able to give her some milk and sugar (I was told that was the cure) and she lived! We thought all was good and she was fine yesterday, but all night, I'm saying allllllllll night she was coughing really loud and dry heaving right outside my window. Then, at about 5:30am Oscar the taxi driver is out and messing around with his truck and the alarm on the truck which he manages to turn on and off a bunch of times. Thanks. Then comes Janet and Jose, they live in the cabinas that are connected to my house. Last night they got back from their holy week adventures and brought their little girl with them who for some reason unknown to me was really pissed off this morning and crying a lot. Then comes the final blow, Jose goes out to warm up their car to take Janet to work and leaves it running blaring ranchero music for no one in particular. Not cool or needed and as I write this very blog, it is still not 7:00am, my host dad has deemed it necessary to burn leaves outside of my window. Awesome. I live in a house that has a bunch on windows with no glass, just screen and bars, also, my roof is not fully connected to the walls so pretty much whatever is going on outside is also going on inside. Also, the wall that I share with my neighbors is not exactly sound proof, if they turn on their light it ligths up my room too. Not sound proof at all. Well, that's my rant. It's usually not so bad and I think I just got used to a week of quite and will need to get back to blocking out the noise. I have 3 more months in Costa Rica and then I will back to the peace of my parents house. I can't believe how well I slept when I went home for my visits, it is just so quite and in the winter when there is snow and of the windows are closed, you can't hear anything. Well, I think I can handle just 3 more months of noise, tonight I'll be using some earplugs.

My plan for today is a beach clean up at 9:00am with the banera azul committee and english classes in the evening. Should be a good day.

nada especial

2011-04-15T13:59:00.002-06:00

Last week ended up being a really busy week with Guias y Scouts meetings, and environmental group meeting and my english classes. At this point I really only have about 3-4 students, but let me just say, I love it! We all know each other so well now and they can speak so well that when we have class it's like friends sitting down to chat. I still teach a little from the book, but I really try and focus on them talking as much as possible and the fact that there are only 3 of them most of the time (sometimes 2) means they get a lot of that. I can't believe how much they know. I think the Matt/Laura combo really worked (he was the volunteer there before me). They had 2 years with Matt and now 2 years with me and I can really see a difference.

For the scouts we are taking them to Jimenez on April 30th to participate in the Day of the Forest celebration. Today they are making a work of art (a painting) in which each scout will paint something that makes them think of the forest and then they will take it to Jimenez and present it. Hopefully it goes well.

Currently I'm in San Jose just finishing up with the last left overs of shingles stuff and tomorrow will be attending AVC, all volunteer conference. It's pretty much a party for volunteers to get together and hang out. Should be fun and it's always a nice break to have some cable tv and a hot shower. Soon enough my regular life will be filled with both of those things! Weird to think that soon enough I'll have comfortable couches and chairs to sit on and mirrors and good lighting and a big comfortable bed and hot water all the time and a tv that works and most importantly, an oven! I really can't wait to have and oven and a grill, it will be great. I know little tigre is really going to miss hunting all of the lizards that are everywhere and the frogs, but she'll still have birds and rats to eat so hopefully the little dear won't be too sad when we get to Colorado.

On the visa front, one of my peace corps friends just got his visa approved! He was about a month ahead of me so hopefully we will move just as fast as he did. There is just no real way to know.

P.S.

Today was the most productive day I've had in the past 2 years. I was all over town and got tons of stuff done all in time to watch Days Of Our Lives by 11:00am. Not bad!

Rain, Rain, you can STAY!!!!

2011-04-11T16:40:00.002-06:00

My parents just came for a visit for the past 2 weeks and we had a really good trip. For the first time I headed over to Drake Bay and it was beautiful. What a cool place! We arrived from La Palma in bus which only took about an hour and a half super easy and direct. Our first day we took a tour out to the caño island where we snorkeled along the way. Super cool. It's actually the second time I've done the tour, but the first time for my parents. We saw tons and tons of cool fish. The next day we went hiking along the beach for most of the day and got caught in the total down pour on the way back. I knew it was a risk when I saw how late we were hiking out and knowing how long it would take us to get back, but what's going to the rainforest without any rain? This was not my first hiking/walking experience in really hard rain, but it was for my parents. It's warm rain so basically you're just totally soaked but not cold. I don't think my mom was such a fan of that part of the hike... I'm happy to report though that none of us were burned by acid rain and we are all still in perfect health (ticos try to get rained on as little as possible saying that it will make you sick or that it could have acid in it). We made our way our of Drake via boat to Sierpe and then in taxi to Palmar where I got a bus going South and my parents headed up North to San Jose where they flew out today early in the morning. All and all a really good trip and they got to spend some more time with Deivin so that they will all know each other well before we temporarily move in with them! Yay living with your parents in the basement ;).

I just have to say that I'm soooo happy the rainy season is back! I love the rain here and it is just so much cooler and I can go running at 10am or workout in my house and it's not an oven. It's my favorite season by far, the dry season is waaaay overrated.

Time is going by quickly and at the same time really slow. We are still waiting on the visa and will be for a lot longer. All in it's time...

Corcovado

2011-03-23T18:37:00.000-06:00

Life is rolling along at this point. I have had a ton of fellow Peace Corps volunteers come through my site in the past weeks on their way to Corcovado National park which I myself had the pleasure to hike last Tuesday with Deivin and 3 of my Peace Corps friends. We saw all 4 types of monkeys (3 at the same time), a sloth, a tapir which is a really crazy looking animal, wild hogs, mountain chickens and a weird type of wild turkey, frogs, snakes, and lots and lots of birds. It was a really hard hike but very worth it. We hiked 8 hours through the rain forest (which is hot, but there is no direct sun so not too hot) to arrive at the Sirena ranger station and then we stayed there for 2 nights and headed out. It was a great jump start to getting myself motivated to get back into shape and it was a great adventure.

My next project is just for me and it's getting back into shape! I have a wedding dress to shop for when I get home and I want to be ready.

In February and March we held clinics and in February fixed 13 animals and in March 14. We are going to hold Aprils clinic in Jimenez.

We are still waiting to hear on the visa, hopefully soon...

I'll try to post more.

Close of Service Ceremony

2011-02-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

This past week I was in San Jose for the close of service conference for my Peace Corps Costa Rica Tico 19 group. We started out as a group of 52 on March 10th 2009 and we are now a group of 47. We lost 2 volunteers in training to medical separations and over the past almost 2 years we lost another 3 also to medical separations. We were a special group in that we didn't have one single ET (early termination) an ET is when someone decides for personal reasons that they just don't want to continue. Usually in each group there is at least one if not several, but Tico 19 was a really cohesive group and we managed to not have a single one! They hold the conference at this time in our service to give us 3 months to tie up all of our loose ends, do the tons of necessary paperwork to leave and also to take care of all of the medical and dental visits that we need to be able to leave. During the conference we talked a lot about what we accomplished in our time here and reflect on our impact as a whole group. It was a great time and it's the last time that all of Tico 19 will be together. After the conference I'm feeling really reflective so I thought I'd write a little re-cap of some of the major events of my service...

PST (per-service training) was a great time. I had a great group in Acosta and we had so much fun together. I spent more time in the beginning at Mick and his host families house than my own. We had a lot of fun cafecitos as a group at Mick's house after class and were a group that never had any drama, just a lot of fun. Then we headed to our new communities and I could not have been further away from Mick, Brianna and Chase (my Acosta mates).

Next, I had not been in site for 4 days when the shingles struck and struck hard. It was a challenge getting to the hospital and admitting that for the first time in my life, I was sick, really sick. When I actually made it to the hospital I was convinced that I was going to lose my eye and possibly die. I had never stayed in a hospital before and had never had and IV before let alone two going at once, but I knew that I was in really good hands and felt very comforted by my doctors at the Clinica Biblica hospital. After leaving the hospital I went back to Acosta to start the recovery process. After a few weeks I headed back to La Palma to finish out recovering for the next 6 months. In this period I was really unhappy with pretty much everything, but I decided to stick it out until December when I would have a 3 week trip home to decide if I was going to stick it out or give up. I had some small projects going and was just in the basic finding people stage for the Guias y Scouts and had my English classes, but I was not very capable of anything during this time.

At Christmas 2009 seven months into my service and ten months in Costa Rica I headed to Colorado to re-group. It was the best thing that I could have done. I remembered what it was like to be me again and had the best time with my family and friends getting to meet for the first time my 2 week old nephew and see Mandy who was in town from Alaska. I had a few R-ball sessions with Jess and Mandy, went skiing with my family and in general had the best time ever. I'm talking a lot about this because this was a major turning point for me in my PC service. I needed this time to remember who I was and to get back to being me.

When I got back to La Palma my life changed again the same day that I arrived. I got in on the 8:00pm bus and my host family was there waiting for me and it felt so good to be back! They informed me that night that I was going to go to the dance at the beach with them and since I was feeling so good I said okay and we left maybe 30 min. after I got there. It was there that Deivin and I would start what would turn out to be a great love. I had no idea when he asked me dance that night that he would be the first and only love in my life. We danced and talked that night and began to date from then on. Also at this time, all of my projects started to turn around. Guias y Scouts started to really move along, my English class became a whole lot more enjoyable for me, I started to work a little with the development association and would soon find Tigre my cat which would lead me to probably my most successful project, the castration clinics. Once I had clinics going and the scouts were moving along and I had the flow of my English classes, life got a lot easier.

By the mid point of my service things had begun to work out and I had been wondering what was going to happen with Deivin. I knew from that start that I wanted to be with him, but he said that he didn't ever want to leave Costa Rica, that he had a good job, his family and that he never had wanted to leave. I respected this because I too felt that way about the United States, but by this time we knew that we wanted to be together and we knew that there would be more opportunity in the US. After a lot of thinking and as time passed he said that he would be able to go to the states and so we began to plan and think very seriously about the future and if we wanted to really make it happen by getting married. My projects were all going well and I was pretty busy with clinics, Scouts, English and the occasional side project of working with a group of women and teaching people how to make wrapper purses.

As time passed I worked on strengthening the scouts (and still continue to work on that), I've had many castration clinics including one 3 day clinic with vets, dentists and doctors and I still have my English classes. Deivin and I are waiting on word about the visa and hope to have it ready by the end of July. I'll be staying 2 extra months which I'm calling my victory laps to help build a playground in the little town of Guadalupe and hopefully wait out the visa.

It's been a long crazy ride, but it's been a really good one. I've gone through so much and changed a lot, but all for the best. If we never go through hard times, we never learn just how strong we are and who we are in the face of adversity. I never thought I would come to CR and leave with a Tico fiancee, I never thought I'd almost go blind from shingles. Life is one crazy ride and if you let God take you where you need to go, it's not all roses, but there always seems to be a great reward in the end.

Planning the Scouts Camping Trip

2011-01-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

Next weekend we will be taking the Guias y Scouts older kids on their first ever camping trip and we are all super excited. I think it's really important that we get going on the camping and get the kids a little more familiar with what the Scouts do. At this point we tell them things like they need to have a flag for each troop and each troop needs to have their own call, but I think it really is one of those things that you have to see first. Needless to say the kids are a little lost, so, hopefully camping with a more experienced group will help them to find their way. Also, we want them to start feeling like a team, a family and there is no better thing than a sleep over for that. I'm hoping lots of kids can make it. We were originally going to make it up to Los Patos the national park entrance, but had to change at the last minuet to the beach (not a shabby change). We'll still go up towards the park with just our kids, but it works out easier this way with the other group. This and filling my application for an extension of service and getting organized on the new playground for Guadalupe have kept me pretty busy.

On a personal note, Deivin and I celebrated our one year anniversary on the 25th, but he had to work all day and had his computer class until 9:00pm so there was not much of a big celebration, just a nice dinner at home and some ice cream sundaes. Next year we'll have to plan something a little bigger, but for now, ice cream and dinner were just fine. We haven't really heard anything on the visa for a while which is fine. We won't hear anything for a while assuming everything is going well, no news is good news for a while anyway.

I have a request from a while ago to write about Mandy and Danny's trip. We did so much that I'm going post a different blog. It feels like so much happened that it's hard to capture it all, I'll post that soon and highlight some of our best adventures...

Also, you will notice that my English is horrible now. My brain is working mostly in Spanish these days so while I'm writing in English sometimes I'm using Spanish grammar. I'm sure it will go back to normal when I get back to the States... Anyone wishing to learn another language and have some fun adventures, consider the Peace Corps, you can't help but learn the language and there is no escaping lots and lots of adventure.

Update on me

2011-01-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

Laura Update...

Many people know that over Christmas I got engaged to my boyfriend Deivin. Here's the low down on the day...

After spending Christmas eve day in Guadalupe with Mandy, Danny and Deivin and his family we made our way back to La Palma. It was late (8:00pm) and Mandy and Danny were done for the day. I knew that Deivin really wanted to do our gift exchange at the beach. I've been trying to get him to go to the beach at night with me for months, so I was up for it. The moon was almost full so there was lots of light and it was a beautiful night. So, we jumped on our bikes and headed to the beach, to the place were we had our very first date. It was so perfect, the moon was huge over the gulf, he lit a candle and there was no one anywhere. So, I gave him his present, a pair of shoes. He liked it, but I had a feeling that his present for me was going to be waaaay better. So, he hands me a little handmade wooden box. When I opened it up there was my engagement ring and he asked me to marry him. It was a beautiful night with a perfect ending. We stayed there for a while and then we rode back to La Palma. We have been working on the fiancee visa for a while now and just this week I got word that it was being processes and had been moved from one facility to another. Originally we had hoped to leave at the end of May for the U.S. But due to some unforeseen complications we have changed that plan for the end of July. What are two more months anyway? I'm working to extend my Peace Corps service for those 2 months. While doing the clinics this past week I got some new ideas for projects that will need funding and you can only get funding if you have a certain amount of time left. With the added two months it should be enough. I want to see if we can get a playground for the school in Guadalupe. At the moment they only have 8 car tires that are half buried. Not cool. I'm hoping to get a playground and maybe even a basketball hoop. They already have a flat slab of concrete in the school yard, why no get a hoop and some basketballs and the kids can shoot hoops...

That's it for me. Deivin and I are happy and excited to see what the future brings.

Adopt a Family with Guias y Scouts

2011-01-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is a post from 12-20-2010, I'm a little behind...

Shortly after the teleton success the leaders of the scouts group decided that they wanted to participate in the Scout Navedeno, which is basically adopt a family. Anna one of the newest leaders (dirigentes) was yet again the driving force. I think I'm so wrapped up in all of the other organizing stuff that I just don't have it to be thinking of extra things to do. Anna was very insistent that we do it and I said sure, I'd participate and do whatever, but they had to tell me what to do, I did not want to be the lead. Which, I'm happy to say Anna did a great job. I'm beginning to see her as a real leader and someone with a lot of confidence, something that wasn't there before. So, we all said that we would buy a gift and go around to the stores in town to see what they would donate.

Real quick let me tell you about the family. They are a family of 5 kids and a dad. The mom left them a few years ago so it's 4 girls and 1 boy and the dad. The dad has only one functioning hand. The other is kind of there, kind of not, but it doesn't really work. The boy Simone is 9 years old, but cannot talk or walk and has really serious needs. He will never be able to be left alone. He can walk a little, but as we saw, he has no balance and if someone is not there and paying attention, he could seriously hurt himself. There is a 16, 13, 12 and 7 year old girl. They are all just so tiny, but you can tell that their dad had done a really good job of taking care of them because they were all very clean and were wearing cloths that didn't have holes in them. The house that this family lives in is falling apart. The dad was careful to tell us not to lean on the one wall they had inside the house because it was about to fall apart. Their kitchen floor is made of dirt, but it got wet and is now fairly muddy. The dad can't work because he cannot leave the little boy for very long, he does work on occasion, but it's not steady. When we arrived and explained that we were there to bring gifts and things for the house the dad saw the food and said “may God pay you for this, please, go into the kitchen, you'll see that there is no food in there”. So this takes me back to the end of the first paragraph. We had gone to the supermarkets and asked shoppers if they would be willing to donate any food, soap, toilet paper, etc to this family and it was incredible! Two separate people donated $40 dollars worth of food! There was something like 5 big bags of rice, a bunch of beans, oil, sugar, coffee, everything. We had people donate sanitary pad for the older girls, lots of nice smelling soap, people donated body sprays (everyone here wears perfume of some sort), it was just amazing to see how much people were willing to give! The kids, the dad, everyone was excited. We had cloths for everyone, toys for the younger kids, a pair of shoes for the dad. They all loved their gifts, but soon the interest turned to the food and they all wanted to see what food they were going to be eating that night.

Even with all the food that we brought and the cloths and the toys, it just wasn't enough, it's just not. We found out that they don't have enough money to pay the registration fees for the two girls in high school, they missed the first dead line because they just don't have the money. Thankfully, at that moment one of the dirigentes present took their names and said that the next day she would pay for both girls. It's something like $12 for both, but they just don't have that. I saw their bedrooms and for 5 people there were only 3 twin size beds. These beds didn't have sheets. We plan to get them sheets! I have seen people in the US that are poor by US standards, but this is different. This is a whole different level. As a scouts group we plan to continue helping this family with their needs, uniforms for all of the kids for school, continue to buy them soap, food, sheets, etc. Once you see how bad it is and how unfair it is, you have to try to do something.

Someone actually said to us “Gracias a Dios que hay los Scouts en la palma” or “Thank God that there are Scouts in La Palma”. I'm just happy that there is a way for those who want to help other to do it. If you are thinking about giving, helping, something this holiday season, do it. People aren't poor because they are lazy, sometimes life throws you something like a very handicapped son and there is nothing you can do but love and take care of him the best that you can.

2010-12-12T16:27:00.002-07:00

Here is are some things that happened to me today that I thought were really funny:

Okay, so it was cloudy and cool today so I decided to go for a walk to the beach at 8:00am. I leave my house and haven't taken 3 steps when I hear someone yelling my name. I looked and found the person near the back of my house. He's a neighbor and I know him so it's no problem. So, I ask him whats going on and he and this other guy are chasing this rooster around and they want me to help them because the rooster is on my side of the fence. I hate the chickens. They make this weird moaning sounds all of the time and they're creepy. So I find the rooster and start to chase it and notice too late that it has a rope on its foot and I only needed to step on the rope, but, it had gone to the other side of the fence.

Once I got back from my run I was in my house doing some cleaning and stepped outside for a sec and see my other neighbor running around looking really happy. He sees me and yells “Laura, we're making a ping pong table!” he was sooooooo happy. I was took, I would love to play some ping pong. So, we I yelled something like “awesome, I can't wait”!

Today is a good day!

P.S. This happened on Friday. I told Deivin about the rooster chasing and he said this "Laura, you don't have to do everything that Pena (my neighbor) says, you don't have to chase the rooster". It totally made me crack up! Love it.

The Teleton 2010

2010-12-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

This past week Costa Rica held it's annual teleton which is a nation wide fundraiser for the children's hospital. The hospital treats the kids of Costa Rica who have suffered serious burns, who have serious diseases that would normally cost a parent millions of dollars to treat over the course of a lifetime. The kids are given all that they need through the hospital, oxygen, wheel chairs, medicine, everything. So, each year people all over CR tune in and watch the teleton and donate money. Each year the Guias y Scouts of Costa Rica hit the streets with big tin cans to raise money for the cause. I had the great pleasure this year of being able to participate in the even with my Guias y Scouts in La Palma and this will go down as one of my greatest Peace Corps moments.

When I was given 12 big cans with slots in the top and told by Ruth the area director that we needed to fill them up I was not really sure how. We put them out in the different businesses so that people could donate, but they were really empty when Anna one of the other leaders and also my host sister in law went to check on them. So, on Wednesday; Anna, Gregory, Sary and I started hitting the streets Thursday and Friday and then organized Saturday as our big day when we would go to the town center and stop cars and have the kids bang drums and blow whistles and ask for money for the teleton. It was awesome! The kids were really excited and you could see that they were really taking ownership of it. They became somewhat possessive over their "alcancia" or can and would compare with each other "mine's heavier, look Laura, mine is the heaviest". There was even a girl who was helping her grandma cook for a church activity who asked if she could come with us to raise money. By the end of the day she had joined the scouts and was really excited to have been able to raise money for the kids. So, after working all day on Saturday we opened up our cans to count and we were all really excited to be able to report that we had raised 308,000 Colones! That's like $600 which is a lot for a little town. When I reported what we had raised to Ruth the area director she was really happy and told me that there were groups that had been formed for years that didn't raise that much. I was so proud of my kids at that moment.

So, after all was counted and reported we went home to watch the rest of the teleton. Group after group was going up and showing a giant check of what they had raised and they were doing testimonials from kids who had benefited from the teleton in the past (these were seriously heart wrenching stories). I started to get a little worried that I had missed the Scouts presenting what they had raised because it was getting so late. When they presented the Scouts they brought up the head guy from San Jose and like 6 kids to present the check for all of the Scouts all over Costa Rica and the amount was 125,000,000! After they revealed the amount Anna yelled to me through our shard wall "Laura, did you hear! We did it! This is great!", I yelled back “ I know, this is so cool”. It was such a great moment to know that I was able to be apart of something really great. The next day people were telling me how good they felt about having helped and I even had a neighbor stop by and ask if they could donate more!

Here are some things I learned: People who have less almost always give more. Those cruising around in their nice cars wouldn't even stop sometimes while those on bikes with no breaks and a wooden seat would stop to give. It feels good to give, to know that you were involved in something that helped those who need it most. Get involved! Help others to help others.

Nothing much

2010-11-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

I've been in San Jose for about five days and it was a really nice break. While Peace Corps volunteers don't put in a huge number of "working" hours per day (depending on who you are and where your community), we do work and feel stress all the time! I am constantly wondering if I'm doing enough, too much, should I be doing something different, etc. Also, there is a lot of stress involved in trying to work in another language and culture. Why am I saying all this? I just want to say that I really needed a break and it felt really nice to have a little mini vacation from La Palma. It's an odd feeling to really want to get out for a while, but, miss Deivin. Mostly, I wish he could travel with me! Today I went to the doctor to have my knees checked out, hopefully we get my knee pain in hand and it all goes away soon! On this trip I got to see the newest Harry Potter movie which was the best yet in my opinion and I also saw Life as We Know It, a romantic comedy. Both really good. Not much else going on, I'm ready to get back to La Palma and see how the Scouts faired this past weekend.

2010-11-27T21:19:00.002-07:00

Okay, sorry of the absence of blogs, I don't really have a good reason, or maybe I kind of do, but mostly I was just having some motivation issues. So, I recently had a very interesting Peace Corps experience 2 weeks ago and I wanted to share. Hurricane Matthew was passing over Costa Rica and bringing lots and lots of rain. There was no wind, just a huge amount of rain. Since I'm generally clueless as to what's going on in the world on Thursday the 4th I got a call from the Peace Corps office saying that there was lots of flooding expected in my region and they wanted me to evacuate to Palmar Norte (it's around 3 hours away). I had noticed that there was a lot of rain, but in my community the river was still really low and everything looked pretty safe. But, when the Peace Corps tells you to leave, you have to leave. So, I asked Oscar the taxi driver who has been a friend of mine since I arrived in La Palma if he was interested in driving me to Palmar, he said sure. I don't think either of us had any idea that we would be leaving the safety of the peninsula for a crazy trip into one of the really affected areas. I said my goodbyes to my host family and Deivin and made sure everyone knew that no matter what, SAVE TIGRE! They all thought I was crazy, they were like “she's a cat, she can swim and climb trees, she'll be fine”. I just didn't want her to be all wet and uncomfortable, she's my baby after all. So anyway, we took off and some 3 somewhat sketchy hours of driving later arrived in Palmar where I was to meet up with another volunteer who's community was actually flooded. As Oscar was getting ready to head back we found out that we were all trapped now, all of the roads were closed, there was no possible way to get to La Palma, San Isidro, San Jose, Panama, we were stuck. Luckily for Oscar his mom lives nearby so he headed to her house. I realized right away that I wasn't in La Palma anymore. Palmar Norte has the biggest river in Costa Rica flowing right through it and it was big! The rain there was much more intense and there were dump trucks full of soaking wet people arriving all the time. All of the surrounding farms and some entire towns flooded and people had to find a place to stay and that place was Palmar Norte. Well, I ended up staying in Palmar for 4 days until I was allowed to make my way back to La Palma. I had to take 3 buses, 2 taxis and a ferry to make it back since the main road was washed away and what should have taken 3 hours took 6. Tigre and Deivin were really happy to see me and I was soooo happy to be home.

Okay, that all happened a long time ago. Here is a more recent update, I'm currently in San Jose. I was celebrating Thanksgiving with some other volunteers and an embassy family that was nice enough to invite 6 of us to eat and stay with them in their home. They were very nice and incredibly generous. If going into the foreign services didn't mean constant travel I would want to join just so I could work with the type of people that I have met at the embassy over the past year and a half. I'll be in San Jose until Tuesday or Wednesday. I needed a bit of a break from La Palma so this was a nice chance to get away.

I promise not to be so bad at blogging!

Spay and Neuter Your Pets Update

2010-10-22T18:05:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday the 20th we had our 6th clinic. We have now spayed or neutered 81 animals! I can't believe that this project has and continues to do so well. This clinic was a little bit different for me, usually the vet brings with him a volunteer assistant who helps him with the operations, they do things like clean the blood away while he's performing the operation or they hold up an instrument that needs to be held so the vet can see better or whatever. I normally stay outside with the pet owners and charge, greet, look after the animal that just got done, etc. On Wednesday there was no assistant so I got to be the assistant. That was the first time I've ever done anything like that before. I have seen the surgeries, I've gone in while they were going on, I knew the process, but this was different. I had no idea that it was such hard work. By then end of the day I was exhausted, but I really liked it. For the next clinic we are talking about only doing street dogs. I'm not exactly sure how we are going to be able to do it, but we'll figure out a way. I know of at least 2 female dogs in the town center that we can spay and there are more all the time.

On a personal note, last weekend I made a big batch of beans. I have got so many, it's incredible. For two dollars you can eat for weeks! It's an experiment, I think next time I might just make half a bag and then wait a few weeks for the other half but beans are a super food. I've actually been making Gallo Pinto lately and liking it! I'm turning tica. Sadly, Deivin doesn't like beans and is not so into the change. You can't win them all I guess.

Scouts update!

2010-10-18T16:19:00.002-06:00

We have been meeting with the kids for about 3 or 4 weeks now and things have been going really well. 2 weekends ago we made tamales (their different from what we see in the states) and went around with the kids to sell them for a fundraiser. It went really well and we were able to raise enough money to buy uniforms. When I say buy uniforms know that it's also different from what you are thinking. In CR it's still really common for people to have their cloths made for them by a taylor. It's usually cheaper and then you get a custom fit. My host mom makes most of the uniforms for the schools and will probably make most of the uniforms for the Scouts. So, our plan is to buy a bunch of cloth and then people can either make the uniforms for their kids of have them made by someone. Also, we are thinking of taking the kids on their first ever camping trip in a couple of months. I'm going to see if I can get some grant money to finance us buying some tents, sleeping bags, etc. so that we can take the trip and have them for the future. We live at the entrance of one of the most famous parks in CR, but the majority of people in La Palma have never been to the park, hopefully we can change that for the scouts.

In other news, my english is horrible! Every time I re-read a blog post or my facebook status update I notice that I'm making all the mistakes that my students are making. I think it's getting worse and worse. I'm not really sure how to stop this free fall. I'm always reading and I watch some tv and movies in english, but it's no use! So, if you read this and think, wow, she is really bad at English, know that I was better before!

We want you to give a talk to the kids...

2010-10-07T13:14:00.003-06:00

On Tuesday night I was hanging out in my house with Deivin when my host mom told me that my neighbor wanted to talk to me. I told her I'd give her a call. So, I call and she tells me that she wants me to go with her and the women's environmental group that I've been working with to the high school to pick up trash. I'm not that into picking up trash. I firmly believe in protecting the environment, recycling, reducing consumption of toxic chemicals, etc, but I'm just not that into trash pick up. But, I wasn't doing anything else so said sure, I'd love to go. I arrive at my neighbors house the next day and she tell me, "We want you to talk to the kids". I kind of sat there for a second thinking, hmmm, about what? Then I said out loud, what do you want me to talk to them about? She tells me to talk to them about anything. Them my mind kicks into over drive thinking about all of the possible things I could say to these kids; Finish school, it's really important, wait to have babies, you can love a baby the same in 5 years as you could in 9 months, Go to university, it will open up doors for you, etc. I sat there thinking for a while and reviewing my vocabulary to make sure I knew how to say everything (I did!). So, finally my host dad comes to pick us up and take us to the high school and we end up with 15 or so kids in a room and it's all really informal and she introduces me to talk. This is not my first time talking in front of people in Spanish, but the result is always the same. I totally forget how to talk and suddenly I'm saying things like "castrating dogs is also environmental". I totally forget what I was going to say and just start talking about random things. This time, I gave a replica speech of the one I had given the previous week to my scouts on how it's good to help others. Yes, this is a good thing to talk about, but it was more than just a little out of context. Here is an environmental group in the school that wants to help clean up trash and I'm telling them about castrating animals and helping others. I saw in the middle of the speech that I had taken a really bad left turn so I tried to save it by relating both subjects to picking up trash. I somehow think they were on to me. So are the adventures of a Peace Corps volunteer. We always end up in really strange situations that we are not really prepared for and just wing it and hope nobody can tell.

In other news, for those of you who don't know, I now have internet in my house!!!! I have 24/7 internet and am really happy about it. This should mean more blogs and sadly, it means that I spend a ton of time on facebook. I'm trying to keep it in check.

Life on the Osa

2010-09-21T13:08:00.004-06:00

Lately life has been pretty laid back around here mostly due to the amount of rain that we've been having. It has rained everyday for the past few months and today has been raining all day and I expect it to continue for the rest of the day. I don't really mind this at all. It's significantly cooler and in general it's nice to have a few days where you just hang out at home watch some movies or in my case 3 seasons of Gossip Girl.

I have been working on getting my ducks in a row for the visa application for Deivin. I first have to file a lot of paperwork with the USCIS which takes around 6 months and then we begin the process of working with the Embassy here. It's pretty complicated, but, luckily this is not my first rodeo with international paperwork/visa applications. I had to go through this to go to Spain for a year in college and also go get into the Peace Corps. I know it's do-able I just hate actually doing it. Thankfully I've had internet access at home for a couple of days which has made that a lot easier.

Next Tuesday I'll be heading to San Jose for my second and last All Volunteer Conference. This is a time when all the volunteers from all over CR get to hang out together and have some training for a week. Last year it was a lot of fun and I think this year will be the same. It's always good to see friends and be able to hang out. Also, we get to share whatever movies and shows we have downloaded which is huge and I spend lots of time watching movies and tv when there is nothing else to do. It's pretty funny, I went from a fan of current events and news to Gossip Girl... Not sure how that happened.

After AVC I will be heading to Palmar which is another town in the south where I was invited to come and teach a group of women how to make the hand bags out of wrappers. That should be fun! Other than that things are pretty calm. I'm keeping busy with Guias y Scouts and the clinics and whatever other little projects pop up.

Guias y Scouts

2010-09-17T12:25:00.004-06:00

Two weeks ago we had our official swearing in ceremony for Guias y Scouts and last weekend I went with two leaders from La Palma for a training on how to do the personal development aspect of the program and here it is, finally, this Saturday we will have our first meeting with the kids of La Palma. Super exciting. These are some pics from the swearing in ceremony, I had more, but a little rule I now have is don't let locals use or touch my camera because they always somehow manage to delete all of my photos. I only came out of this one with ten pics by sheer luck. So, don't let people who don't speak english use your camera ever, unless you want to loose your pics.

I may have yet again found a way to have easier access to internet, I know I've said this before, but this time I think it's for real. One of the professors at the high school lives in the cabinas where I live and he has and internet zip drive. He only uses it after school so it looks like I might have access to it during the day. I'm hopeful.

I've been a little bored lately, it hits me harder right now because I don't have a good book to read. I'll be in SJ in less than 2 weeks and can find a bunch of good ones then. Thats about it for me.

P.S. Due to an extremely slow download there will be no pics...

Riding the bus today....

2010-09-11T22:01:00.002-06:00

I just want to give a little glimpse into my morning today...

I arrived at the bus stop at 5:30am and waited for my bus to come which didn't come until 6:00 (this is pretty normal). I take this bus all the time and have never had to stand so I never worry about buying a ticket. Today, this proved to be a tragic mistake. As the bus pulled up I noticed it was unusually full. As I went in the bus I started to look for a seat, I saw a seat and asked the lady if anyone was sitting there and she said no so I thought, wow, that was lucky and sat down. Some 3 min later after all the other open seats on the bus were taken a lady gets on the bus and tells me to get out of her seat. Thanks a lot other lady for telling me it was open and taking my chance at a seat. So, I moved to back of the bus and tried to find a nice place to stand because I'm looking at standing on this bus for the next 5 hours. Not cool. So, on we go and after about 10 min a guy gets up and leaves the bus. I feel like I had just won the lottery. I walk up the aisle and feeling really happy until my happiness is somewhat, how to say, squashed. I look in the seat and it looks like I'll be sharing my seat with half a person. Yes, I will now be traveling for the next 5 hours with a very, very large person who takes up all of their seat and half of mine. What can you do? The answer is nothing. I tried to take my spot on the seat and felt grateful that the person was soft and not hard and settled in for the ride. I'll leave my story there. There is no real point, I was just really squished and hot today, but I know my seat partner was too. We all made it and I was more than grateful that today I was only going half way.

It finally happened!

2010-09-09T11:46:00.001-06:00

After a year of talking, cheerleading and planning meeting after meeting after meeting it finally happened. Yes, La Palma now has it's first ever Guias y Scouts troop 152. Sunday was our swearing in ceremony, we hosted a the Guias y Scouts from Jimenez and Palmar. The whole event was very official and was a great way for the community to have a little introduction into what we are and what we do. Now we have our uniforms, we have kids that want to be in the group who's parents have signed permission slips and we have leaders for the group. While planning and executing the day was a ton of work and left me really exhausted, it was really satisfying. This has the potential to be something really valuable for the community. In my tiny town on a tiny peninsula there are no activities for youth, there are no football, basketball, baseball teams, there are no music and dance classes, there is tv and a really ineffective school system. Guias y Scouts has the potential to improve the lives for many of the kids here, that being said, all of it's out of my hands and in the hands of the community. It will be interesting to see how it goes for them in the future. I have another 8 months or so to help out, in that time my goal will be to help them to not need me at all.

In Spay and Neuter your pet clinics.... Yesterday I held my 4th clinic in La Palma and things went very smoothly. We have now spayed of neutered 61 cats and dogs. I'm trying to come up with ways for this to continue when I go. I know the town in counting on another volunteer, but I don't think one will be placed here again for a while so I need to try and come up with something.

In other news... Last month Deivin went to one of the bigger towns near us to apply for his passport and yesterday it arrived in the mail. Now we're moving on to Visa applications (a much more difficult process). I'm doing my best to make sure I have all my ducks in a row with both Deivin and Tigre so that when May hits we can all leave together. Yesterday, poor Tigre had to have 2 vaccines and she was not happy about it, but, it's the only way she can come with me so we are making it happen. Laura +2.

More clinics....

2010-08-22T10:59:00.000-06:00

So, last week we held our 3rd spay and neuter your pets clinic in Guadalupe which is a really small neighboring community of La Palma (it's where Deivin is from). I learned some good lessons from the clinic; first, not all communities are ready for the spay and neuter concept. The people in Guadalupe are mostly not there yet (though of course some are). Second, people is La Palma know me really well by now and so it's a lot easier for me to hold the clinics in La Palma because more or less the people find me, I don't really have to look at all. Third, without support from someone in the community, it just makes the whole thing really difficult. I had to clean and take care of everything by myself while in La Palma I have a really strong support. So, all that being said, it was still really successful, we spayed or neutered 12 dogs and one cat. This week we will hold another clinic in La Palma and from here on will hold one per month in La Palma. So far we have spayed or neutered 46 cats and dogs and if you think about, that's a pretty big dent in the population. Depending on how things continue with the donations, I should have enough to hold one per month until I leave and if we go over at all I want to try to rescue a few street dogs, clean them up and find them homes as a side project.

In other news, I have finally figured out how to make the coin purses out of recycled coffee and chip bags and am currently teaching people here how to do it. The hope is that this will be an income generating activity in the community. It's a pretty time consuming process so my hope is that for every 10 people that I teach maybe 1 will take to it and actually make them. I'm going to teach Deivin's family how to make them as wells so they can begin to sell them in the hotel down the road from them. Hopefully at least one person will make and sell them.

For the past couple of months we have been officially in the rainy season. Last year we really didn't have one at all, I think it rained for 2 weeks and that was it. Now, it's raining almost everyday and we have had many days when it rains all day long. I really prefer this as it makes it a lot cooler. I've even been cold a few times! I think it was around July that my body finally acclimated to the heat, previous to that I was a nonstop sweat factory and always hot, now I feel pretty normal. Thank God that happened, other wise it would have been 2 pretty uncomfortable years.

Hello Everyone!!!

2010-08-03T13:59:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the lack of blogs, I'll explain.... I got back to CR from my trip to the states and was exhausted. On my last trip home in December I arrived in San Jose and went to Acosta to re-group before making the long trek to La Palma, this time I went for the straight shot and it was a very long day. I arrived in SJ at 5:00am and made my way to my bus stop and waited in a soda for a couple of hours for the bus to leave at 8:00 am. I was sooooo incredibly sad to see that bus drive arch nemesis was going to be the driver of the trip, my heart sank. There are a 4 bus drivers that always make the trip from La Palma to SJ and I have made the trip many many times so you can imagine that I know all of the drivers by now. There is one that I just can't stand, it has nothing to do with him on a personal level, I'm sure he's a great guy. It's just that with all of the other bus drivers the trip is 7-7.5 hours long and all are happy. With this guys your looking at 8.5-9 hours in the bus! It drives me crazy! Okay, so long story short after 9+ hours in the bus I arrived in La Palma totally exhausted after 20 hours on the road or in the air or waiting to get on the road or in the air. I was very pleasantly surprised by Deivin. He took the day off and cleaned and organized my house and had lunch/dinner all ready for me when I arrived. It was a really nice surprise and I was able to eat, shower and sleep by 7:00pm.
Almost as soon as I got back I had people calling me about english classes and Guias y Scouts. It turned out there was a Guias y Scouts training in a week in the nearest city (5 hours away) and they wanted me to go. I didn't want to go, but I knew it would be valuable so I went. Also, the Micro finance bank called me to see if I would go to another training right after the Guias y Scouts training for 4 days. It was really the last thing that I wanted to do, but so it happens in the life of a volunteer. So, all of that is to say that I'm just now back and still after 2 weeks here trying to get back into the swing of things. I have a ton of work to do with Guias y Scouts and 2 spay and neuter your pet clinics coming up in August plus I may be starting Junior Achievement in the high school which is a program that teaches basic business skills and how to open a business to high schoolers. I'm wondering how I'm going to make it all happen, but I'm sure it will work out. That's pretty much it for me, I'm hoping to not leave La Palma until the next Peace Corps activity in late September. I'm ready to be in one place for a while.

Back in CR

2010-07-30T14:18:00.003-06:00

Hey, just a quick note to say that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, but I don't really have time to write much. I've been back for a couple of weeks now and things are really moving!!!! I have some new project updates that I'll get into when I have a second! Until then, stay classy.

Being Home

2010-07-11T20:36:00.004-06:00

I've been home for 11 days so far and let me just say, it's been great. Last week I made it up to Avon and was able to see and lot of great friends (not all sadly). Here are some things I've noticed about being home:

1. Hot showers are really nice, but they become really normal really fast.
2. I never noticed it before, but almost all of the houses in my neighborhood have really nice yards and flowers, I just never noticed this before.
3. Americans have a ton of stuff. I was on Craig's list the other day looking at the free section and was amazed at all the stuff on there. We just have soooo much stuff available that we have to give it away!
4. We eat a LOT of meat here, it's crazy.
5. I miss Deivin and Tigre a lot.
6. I'm sad to leave, but really happy to get back and finish out my service. I have some great projects and great people to work with so my attitude is, let's get to it and finish strong.

That was just a quick recap. Life it good and it's great to see lot's of great friends and hangout a ton with my family. Nephews are great!

Guias y Scouts Update

2010-07-09T22:40:00.004-06:00

As many of you know I have been working for a very long time (almost a year) to form a Guias y Scouts group in my town. Guias y Scouts is the Costa Rican version of the boys and Girl scouts. I did not know this until I started, but the boys and girl scouts were actually started by a man named Biden Powell in England. He was a general in the English military and he started a boy scout group using some of his military background for the structure of the group. Shortly after he started the boy scouts his wife started a group for girls and that is where the girl scouts began. The program spread internationally and is now in 160 countries. Guias y Scouts has a different format from what you may remember, but it has the same foundation. Due to fewer resources in Costa Rica we have both boys and girls together and within one troop there maybe up to 4 different sub groups to help with organization as well as open it up to more kids. So, to get on to my group...

We will be having our official swearing in ceremony on August 29!!!! On this day the regional director of Guias y Scouts will come to La Palma and we will take our official oath and they will give us our leader/board of directors patch. I can't tell you how excited I am to wear my Guias y Scouts uniform and stand with my group as we are presented to the community. It will be a great day. The same day we will have activities for kids and we will begin signing kids up. I can't wait to see how it all goes and I know that we are going to have far more kids interested than we have leaders for, but, it will all even out after a while. I can't say enough about my board of directors group as well as my group of leaders. Over the past almost year I have really gotten to know them and am excited to see how they work together as a group (especially once I get out of the way). As a volunteer I'm always thinking and worrying about sustainability and with Guias y Scouts I feel confident that this will stick. So that's Guias y Scouts for now. As soon as I have pics from the swearing in I'll post them. At the moment my host mom is making me the uniform pants and one of the leaders is picking me up a shirt, I'll just need to sew on my patches! Who knew I'd be so excited about a uniform...

Spay and Neuter your pets clinic #1

2010-07-03T10:17:00.012-06:00

Okay, I wanted to take some time to talk about a new project that I recently undertook and the results. On June 9th we held our first clinica de castraciones de los animales in La Palma. I got the idea from my friend and neighbor Alba. Alba asked me what I was going to do about my kitten Tigre since she's female and I told her that I would have to take her to Jimenez to have her spayed and she then asked why not have the vet come here and then she could have her 3 dogs neutered. I had never thought of it before and I told Alba that I thought it was a good idea and that I would think about it. That night I started to think about all of the street dogs that I have gotten so used to seeing, they are battered and skinny and everywhere, but I've just gotten so used to seeing them that what once made me angry now doesn't even register on the radar. The next morning I started making some phone calls to the CR equivalent of the ASPCA and asked if they could come and do a castration clinic in La Palma but since we are just sooooooo far away it ended up being way more expensive to have them come down than it would be to work with the local vet. So, I decided to head to Jimenez and see the vet there. We set a date for the clinic. I was in charge of organizing the event; advertising, making appointments, setting up the location, etc. The price of a castration is 8,500 colons, that's about $17 plus the cost of medications which depends on the weight of your animal. You may be thinking, wow, that's cheap! But to a Costa Rican living off of just $200 a month, it's a huge cost. Most people in my community use all of their money just to live each month, they don't have an extra 8,500 colons to throw towards a dog or cat. This worried me. Even if the vet came to La Palma and it was easier for the people to bring their animals to him, most still wouldn't be able to afford it. So, I started to have a hope of finding a donor, yet I did nothing to find one, but I started to hope that I could possible find one. I started to ask around town "If it were only 2,000 colons, would you castrate your animal?" and everyone I asked said YES! So, I went one day to the Danta Lodge where Deivin works and they are nice enough to let me us the internet and talked to a retired professor who lives there about the clinic. He thought it was a wonderful idea and wished me luck and said if there was anything he could do he would help. Not a week later I get a call from Deivin at work saying that a guest at the lodge wanted to talk to me on the phone. I said okay and I talked on the phone with Judy and we made a date for me to meet up with her at the lodge later that day. After a 20 min bike ride I arrived and we talked about the clinic and I told her that I was going to try and find a donor to supplement the cost for the people, I never thought in a million years that Judy would offer to be a donor for the first clinic right there on the spot. I was blown away, I never expected that and it was such an encouragement. So, the very first clinic was ready to go, all I had to do was find the people which was not at all difficult. It turns out that most people wanted to spay or neuter their pets, it was just financially out of their reach and also it was so far and difficult to get their that the location was almost impossible for most people to reach. Now, people had a chance. So I went around and told a bunch of people and had them make appointments and waited for the day of the clinic the whole time afraid that nobody was going to show up. On the actual day of the event people showed up with their pets, lots of people and lots of pet. From 8:00am to 7:30pm the vet and his volunteer assistant worked to spay/neuter 20 animals and were able to save the life of a dog that had been attacked by a wild animal that day and had some serious wounds to his face, neck and arm. By the end of the day it was becoming obvious that we were not going to be able to attend all of the animals that had show up so I took the names and phone numbers of the owners of 8 dogs and told them that we would have another in a couple of weeks and would call and give them appointments. All and all the day was a huge hit. Now when I'm out and about in La Palma everyone is always asking me when is the next clinic, they want to castrate their pet. The vet was blown away by the response as well, he was so happy with the results that we are planning to do one clinic per month in either La Palma or some of the other surrounding communities that are also in need. Thanks so much to Judy for making it all happen and I think we are on our way to a change. More info to come on the other spay and neuter clinic as well as Guias y Scouts.

I have a lot of updating to do.....

2010-07-02T09:31:00.000-06:00

To start with, there have been no blogs for the past month or so because my computer broke. In the past I would type out my blogs at home and then when I got to internet I would just cut and past the blog and continue on. So, that's why there were no blogs. I kind of suspect Tigre as a culprit in the computer breaking, but I have no proof and she's just such a little sweetheart so I'm not pursuing that line of thinking... Also, I mean, the computer was rusting in places and it was around 5 years old and had been trucked all over Costa Rica in my backpack for the past 16 months so it's not like it's time wasn't up anyway.

I'm currently in the United States and loving life!!!! I arrived yesterday at noon. My parents picked me up at the airport and we went straight to Red Robin for a really tasty hamburger (I love the USA). I then got to take an nap while watching Days of Our Lives and then went to see my brother, sister in law and my two adorable nephews. It was such a great day!

Okay, I have huge updates work wise, but I really want to sit down and type it out and ad pics and such so I'm going to save that for tomorrow. Just know that the spay and neuter you pet clinics have been hugely successful and I'm really very excited about it! I'll write more tomorrow.

Project updates....

2010-05-30T11:17:00.000-06:00

Well, the spay and neuter your pet clinic has yet to happen, but it's already been super successful. I have 17 animals signed up with appointments and room for up to 8 walk in's. I'm really excited to see how it all works out. Already there are more people signed up than I thought we would see. Thanks to the donor I think there is the potential for another clinic, I just need another donor... Anyway, if I can somehow find support the idea will be to have the clinics every 2 or 3 months to catch all the new puppies and kittens that were too young this time and to make it possible for all those that there was no room for this time. It has potential.

Guias y Scouts are coming along really well. We had our final training for the board of directors last week and now we are preparing for our final training for the leaders. I'm hoping that within the next 2 months we'll be ready for some kids. I was thinking of trying to find a grant to pay for all of the uniforms for both the kids and adults. Each uniform is about 4,000 colones, which is around 8 dollars, that may sound like very little to you, but the reality is that here at the end of the month most families have 0 left over. It's a pay check to pay check life for most so throwing 8 dollars which here is more like 30 is a pretty big burden. I'm hoping to make is possible for all of the kids to have the uniform (they can join with or without it).

Computers....I'm not hopeful.

English classes are going really well. Last night we listened and translated a song (which is always a hit). They loved it and hopefully they learned some new vocab. My students are lots of fun and though we don't always stick to the book, they are learning a lot. The hard part is getting them to talk. I honestly don't know how to teach that. I learned how to speak Spanish in Spain because I had to. I lived with a family and if I wanted something, anything, I had to speak Spanish. They all want to learn how to speak, but it's hard because I learned, but only by living in a Spanish speaking country. I think it is possible, just really difficult. Hopefully we get there.

Quick updates:

2010-05-13T17:15:00.000-06:00

The giant spider that I thought was a tarantula and saw a few months ago, do you remember that? Well, he's been spotted again only this time he's way bigger! The body of the spider was about the size of a silver dollar and the legs made it huge! I went to open my back door in the morning and down drops the spider. I quickly yelled for my host dad, mom, Oscar, who ever to come and kill it. All three came to see what the Gringa was yelling about and said, oh, that's no tarantula that's a pico caballo (a horse bite spider) then Oscar says, no, it's not a pica caballo, it's a pica gringa. Haha. Sadly we did not kill it, it is still behind my sink but my host dad did spray a bunch of poison so hopefully it will die. I'm not a fan of this squatter. My rabbit has yet to be lost or killed, this is really saying something because everyone else that I know who got a rabbit around the same time as me has lost it or it has died. Currently I'm out sourcing my rabbit care to a neighbor who had 2 and one died so he asked if I could loan him mine so his wouldn't be so lonely. Sadly, his one remaining rabbit has been lost, but I haven't gone back for Cadburry just yet, he's got a good thing going over there but I'm guessing the neighbor is going to get sick of rabbit sitting soon. I'm impressed with the rabbit, I just let him run free almost all day and there are dogs everywhere, maybe it's because he's so big... Arroz con conejo anyone? Tigre is doing well, she's starting to settle down a little which is good because she's been super hyper. I guess this is more of an animal world update.

Faces and Places # 5 - Meet Tigre!!!!

2010-05-09T13:19:00.001-06:00

This is Tirgre my new little kitty. I have a really cute video of her playing in a box and will post is next time I have the cable to my camera so I can transfer it. Tigre was brought to me by my host nephew who found her in the street. Apparently she had been dumped there since she was a female (nobody wants kittens and nobody spays their animals). So, he brought her to me and I couldn't resist her, she's just too cute and she was soooooo young. She was taken away from her mother much too early. Anyway, I've had her now for a month or so and she has become a really great cat. When I walk through the gate towards my house she runs to meet me and now she follows me everywhere I go around the house and yard. I'm planning on taking her with me when I leave so don't worry and also, she has an appointment to be spayed in June when she will be old enough. Which, brings me to my next and newest project, I'm currently organizing a spay and neuter your pets project for La Palma. There is a vet in Jimenez who is willing to come to La Palma for the day, sadly, it's pretty expensive to spay or neuter your pet here. I was really lucky last week to come across a donor and we are going to be able to have the clinic at a very low cost. I've been telling everyone I meet in my community that it will only cost 2.000 colones (4 dollars) per animal and everyone gets excited and asks to be signed up. Depending on how the clinic goes, I'm hoping to be able to hold a clinic every 2 or 3 months so that the puppies and kittens that are too young right now can be taken care of before they become pregnant. Hopefully this will help to reduce our street dog population and the lower the number of kittens thrown away. Depending on how the clinic, you should consider being a donor for the next (hint, hint), I'll keep you all posted.

Faces and Places of La Palma #4 – Meet Oscar

2010-04-23T11:44:00.001-06:00

Faces and Places # 4 – Meet Oscar!

Oscar has lived at the cabinas where I live for the past 5 years or so. He is a taxi driver in La Palma, but not in the sense of I drive a marked car kind of taxi driver. He drives a big truck which he's put some wood slats down as seats and then he put a tarp over the top in case it's too sunny or it rains. Oscar was my first friend in La Palma. When I was going through a hard time in the beginning (see shingles blog) he was always there for me to talk to and he always put himself into my shoes before he said anything. He's been a great friend. Each night Oscar's 14 year old son comes to the cabinas and they sit together and talk for a couple of hour and then Oscar walks his son home. On more than one occasion Oscar has told me that he really doesn't like La Palma and that he would like to leave, but he's waiting until his son is grown because as he told me, now is the most important time for him to be with his son. That's being a parent! Oscar is surprisingly philosophical and it's not hard to have a deep conversation with him (this is rare!). As my biggest competition for the hammock, we have come to an agreement. I get the hammock pretty much all day and he gets it in the evening/night. It works out well since most of my activities are at night.

Project update:

Everything is pretty much the same, computers some day, Guias y Scouts in the near future, English is on going. I do have a couple of new projects on the horizon that I'm really excited about! First, one of my friends in the community told me that she was looking into calling in the vet to do a spay and neuter clinic in La Palma. The price is about $16 per animal for the operation and then another $14 for the medications. There are very few people in my community who can afford to spend 30 dollars on a cat or dog, most animals are lucky to see dog/cat food in their lifetime. So, I got to thinking, there has got to be another way. I'm in the process of seeing how I can fund raise so that we would be able to do the clinic for free for everyone. I spoke to some people in town and they all agree that if we do the clinic for free there will be hundreds of animals taken care of. What a difference this would make! So, I'm going to see what I can do.
Next, I've been loosely working with a woman's group that does recycling and that once had a building and a library and tourist center. Some time ago their building was burned down and they have kind of stayed in tact since, but they have really been struggling. Just recently we sold food at the fiestas of La Palma and were able to make enough money in one weekend to re-build their old building and we worked 2 weekends. So, I'm going to be working with them on bringing in books for a library and also some marketing for the tourist center. It's an exciting development and the ladies are really excited about it. That's it for now.

Bye mom and dad :(

2010-04-19T09:19:00.002-06:00

From Dominical we moved on to La Fortuna where we saw the Volcan Arenal. If you are heading to Costa Rica, you have to see this volcano! It's active and we were lucky enough to be able to see the lava flowing and hear the rumblings at night. It was beautiful! We hiked some hanging bridges and went to the hot springs. The last day of my parents trip we went to Acosta where they got to meet my host family there. The time flew by and we had a great time. I'm pretty sad to say goodbye to my parents, but I'll be home for a visit in the next few months. No more gringo vacations for me for a while.

Bye mom and dad!

Vacationing with Mom and Dad.

2010-04-12T07:42:00.002-06:00

I haven't really had the chance to blog for a really long time and I'm going to go ahead and blame it on my mom and dad. Since they arrived we have been super busy having tons of fun doing lots of activities that leave me totally exhausted at the end of the day. During our time in La Palma we went on Costa Rican fishing adventures with my host family, a tour of Corovado national park, snorkeling in Los Mogos, a nocturnal insect tour, lots of days at the beach in Jimenez, a day playing in the water at playa blanca in La Palma, and more. My parents got to meet and spend a lot of time with Deivin. Deivin really liked them and was sad to say goodbye and they both really liked him so that was nice. We taught Deivin how to play Cribbage (in English) and he loves. After about a day and a half of only eating Tico food both mom and dad agreed that that was enough. I just thought, ha, try 9 months straight of it with no option of escape!

We are currently staying in Dominical at a really nice place on the beach. I can't imagine a more beautiful beach, there are waves breaking on the rocks, surfers and lots of natural beauty. I highly recommend Dominical. There are options for all kinds of budgets. We're going to stay here for another night before we head on North.

In other news, I've just about hit the half way mark of my Peace Corps service. Just a couple more days and I hit the down hill stretch. My official second year begins May 28th. Time really goes by fast!

Faces and Places of La Palma #3 – Playa Blanca

2010-03-26T09:05:00.006-06:00

Playa Blanca is the white coral beach that is 3 Kilometers from where I live. I go there almost every day, on bike it's about 10 min away. The beach is beautiful and there are ofter dolphins and whales visible (so I'm told, they always seem to be hiding from me). The beach is surrounded by a manglar forest as well as palm trees and almond trees. There is a lot of bio diversity and each day one can see many Scarlet Macaws, Ibis', hawks, etc. There is place to camp right on the beach, if anyone is interested in doing some camping on the beach it's both beautiful and affordable, just let me know and I'll hook you up.

Commenting on blog posts

2010-03-22T13:57:00.002-06:00

Hmmm, I wonder at times if there is anyone out there in the blog world reading my posts... I wouldn't know because there are very few people that rarely leave a comment. So, that being said, please don't be shy to leave comments on the blogs, even if it's just something like wow, Laura, you're sooooo cool or you really know what you're doing (Just joking). But really, I love it when you leave comments, so please feel free to do so.

Here is just a little scoop for now, I have now adopted a little kitten that I've named Tigre and the dog that I had was returned to his owners. The zoo continues. The rabbit and cat are friends and cat especially like my host families dog. We're just one big happy family.

My parents will be here in a week and I'm super excited to see them. We'll be traveling around for the next week seeing many sites in CR and spending a lot of time on the peninsula so they can really get to know where and how I live. I'll get a faces/places up on Wed. when I'll be in SJ for a night.

Giving rabbits baths

2010-03-09T14:33:00.003-07:00

Okay, so the computer lab that was going to built in January was then going to be built in March, now, I'm thinking June, if we're lucky. That's the way of the world here, one just has to deal with it. Guias y Scouts is moving right along. We had our first training the other day and are having a meeting in the next week to vote on our troupe number and the colors of our bandannas, it's kind of the first step to making it all a little less of an idea and more reality. I'm excited for the meeting. My parents are coming very soon and I'm really excited to get to show them my life here and show them how we do things Tico style.

I have some happy/sad news. My dog's owners came back for him so I no longer have a dog. I still however have Cadbury the rabbit. Here he is. Today I was forced to give him a bath. From experience I can now tell you, I don't think rabbits were intended to be bathed. He just looked so sad all wet and I actually thought for a second that I was killing him. So, if you have a rabbit that gets dirty, maybe just try and use a damp cloth to rub off some of the dirt. I'm still not entirely sure he's okay, it was seriously traumatic.

Here is a not so good pic of Deivin my boyfriend. I'll get a better one soon, but this is what I have for now.

English classes are starting soon. I'm sooooo sick of talking about them and having everyone and their mom talk to me all day about English classes. I just want to start so I can say, oh, sorry, we've already begun. Now before you start thinking "that doesn't seem very nice" well, just know that you are not understanding the situation fully. Maybe I'll write a blog on it...

Quick update:

2010-03-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

* Tomorrow I have a Guias y Scouts training for the board of directors or "la junta". The training process can take up to 6 months, but it's totally worth it, we want to build a really strong foundation.
* I'm not entirely confident that we will be breaking ground with the computer lab this month (I was told March). Hopefully April...
* I'm thinking about trying to build a library, it's a possibility.
* English classes should start in the next couple of weeks, hopefully we will find a place to do it.
* As I was walking out the door to leave for San Jose on Monday another bat decided to move in with me, he was flying all around my head. I'll be forced to have my host dad kill him...
* A new group of 55 volunteers arrived last night. We're excited to no longer be the newbies and meet some new people, they make our super tiny worlds just a little bigger.
* I've recently read: Breaking Dawn, Redeeming Love and Captivating, all really good books.
* Rabbit is still alive and growing and my new dog friend likes to go on runs with me and follow me everywhere I go. Good stuff.

Faces and Places of La Palma # 2 – Meet Louisa, my host mom

2010-03-01T14:28:00.001-07:00

Louisa is a very incredible woman. Pretty much all on her own she runs the cabinas, has a sewing business and a little cafe for the the guests of the cabinas. She manages all of this while assisting with the other family businesses (the buses and the micro bus taxi). I've really learned a lot from Louisa, she is so generous, strict and knows how to have a good laugh. On more than one occasion I've heard her say “What's the hurry, there's more time than life”, how true is that? Whenever I need anything or am thinking about buying anything in town or out of town for that matter, I go to Louisa first to see what she has to say, she know everyone and just about everything in La Palma. I would rarely leave the house if it weren't for Louisa and Bereno. If I see them doing something, I'll at least try it, if I see that they aren't doing something, I make sure why before I try anything. They know their stuff. Next Blog, I'd like to show you how we make Coffee Costa Rica style, it's so easy, economical and environmental and to top it all off, I think the coffee tastes better this way... Coming soon.

Oh, in other news, I think I just may have myself a dog now. I found him the other day and after running around all day trying to find his owner, he decided he was mine. I'll post a pic if he sticks around, I'm turning into Dr. Doolittle here with my many animal friends.

Bunnies, boyfriend and bats

2010-02-19T10:52:00.002-07:00

Here is the skinny on the past week or so. I've been super busy but I wanted to share a few things. First of all, just the other day I was confronted with a tarantula in my kitchen sink. It was huge I'm talking the body was the size of 2 quarters. I was not happy about said tarantula, but I was way too freaked out to take care of it myself so I yelled for my host sister to come and help me. She is crazy, let me just say that. She comes in and says, "what, what happened, oh, it's nothing" She then proceeds to try and pick it up with the bare hands, she got it into the air and then dropped it and it went behind/under my sink. I now live with a tarantula somewhere in my kitchen. As long as he stays there and leaves me alone, I'm okay with it. Okay, so the same day as my spider friend paid me a visit another wild friend decided to move in. I was laying in bed already traumatized when I here the bat squeaks and hear a bat flying around my room. Great. Don't get me wrong, I love bats, I just don't want to live in the same house with them. Bats outside, Laura inside, all is good and in order. So, I didn't know what to do, it was too late to call my host sister to come and help and I thought maybe mister bat would see that I was a bad roommate and leave. Days pass and I don't see any signs of the bat...until i lift up my bag off the floor and what do I see, mister bat has been with me all along. So, I call my host nephews, Alfred who's 13 and Joel who's 8 to come and help me with the bat problem. It was really funny, here I am jumping around and yelling a Spanish/English mix and the boys are trying help find a bag and I'm trying to sweep the bat into the bag with a broom all the while all three of us are periodically screaming and jumping. So, finally we sweep the bat out the door. I'm thinking he's not going to want to come back after that, I was wrong. Apparently once they think a place is their home, they go back to it. So, the next day I'm sitting with my boyfriend Deivin when mister bat returns. I get all jumpy and am yelling for Deivin to kill it and he grabs is and hit's it once and let's him go out the back door. I ask him, why didn't you kill it? and he says "es que, me da mucha lastima" or, it's just so sad. So, what happens a few days later? You guessed it, the bat is back, this time just like the friendly tarantula he's in my kitchen sink where it appears he spent the night. I decide it's time to call in the big guns and go and find Bereno. Bereno takes one look at my little and friend and killed him. I was sad to see him go, but the relationship just working out. He couldn't be house trained and I didn't want to be bitten. One of us had to go. Okay, onto the bunny.
So, for valentines day Deivin comes over to my house after he get's off work and tells me that he has a surprise for me. I'm thinking, oh, how nice, a surprise. He says it's something to keep me company when he can't be with me. I'm thinking, okay.... Then he hands me a gift bag. I look in the bag and suddenly a little white rabbit pops it's head out of the bag and scares the crap out of me! I almost threw the bag across the room, it's a good thing Deivin still had a hold on the bag, otherwise the bunny would have had a wild ride. So, I collect myself and meet my new rabbit friend. I've never had a rabbit before and I don't think I had every planned on having one, but we're working out. I got him a nice little cage and named him cadbury. I let him run free in the house in the mornings and he's actually pretty cool, he's used to humans and runs around. What did I get Deivin you ask? I'll tell you, I made him some brownies... Okay, that's a quick update. I'm sure you are sitting here wondering Boyfriend, when, how? Well, I don't have enough time for that. Another day. God bless.

Another quick report.

2010-02-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

Since I've been back a lot has been going on. I'm super happy to report that after totally giving up on the idea, I actually think the computer lab is going to happen. Construction on the new building with start in March and then I can start the process of getting the computers. Life will be soooo much easier when we have faster internet and computers in town. I'm gearing up to get started with Guias y Scouts. At this point the Junta or board of directors need to be trained which can take around 6 months and once they are all ready to go it will be time to find some kids. Finding the kids will be the easy part for sure, already whenever I walk down the street kids are asking me when it's going to start so they can join. I'm trying my best to get motivated and started on my english class again. I'm only going to continue on with one and they are a great class, it's just a process of me contacting all of them, collecting money for the books and then placing an order for the books. So far, I can't seem to motivate to do it, tomorrow... Otherwise things are going better than I ever could have imagined. Everything is falling into place.

Faces and Places of La Palma #1 – Meet Bereno!

2010-01-22T21:49:00.002-07:00

Bereno is my host dad and along with my host mom was the first person I met in La Palma. He and my host mom are fairly rare as they have been married for over 40 years and are still going strong. On more than on occasion I've seen Bereno run up and for no reason give my host mom a huge hug and kiss, he totally loves her and it's really nice to see. Bereno was once a farmer with a lot of land in and around La Palma. A number of years ago (I think like 10ish) they sold their land and made a really nice profit. With that money they were able to build the cabins (where I live), a micro bus (what we would call a mini van, but they use it for tourism) and 2 buses to run the bus line between Jimenez and La Palma. He and my host mom always seem to be a few years ahead of everyone else and I largely contribute that to their creativity. Bereno works all day long, he loves to work. If he's not busy taking people on rides in the microbus, he's working in the garden, fixing something in the cabina or using the machete on something. Bereno is super funny and always up for a laugh and a smile. I'm pretty lucky to have him on my side as he is very well known and respected within La Palma and on the peninsula. His actual name is Benadicion, but everyone calls him by his nick name Bereno. I'm pretty sure he can fix or make anything out of anything. He built the house that I'm now living in and he built the cabinas, this guy can do anything.

What a difference a trip home can make

2010-01-21T16:22:00.010-07:00

I had no idea how much I needed to see my family and friends and how just spending three weeks with them would change every thing for me. When I arrived in La Palma and saw my host family and my friends here it was like I was seeing it all with renewed eyes. Before I left I was so sick and tired of everything here and was thinking that another year and a half was going to be torture. Now, I'm here and I'm so happy to be here and I'm so excited to see what the next year and half will bring. What a difference!

I'm officially moved into my new little house here are some pics “Cribs Style”

This is my little green house from the front. I love my little house!

Kitchen/living room area.

Room with a view and Platanos that are growing into my house. It's just easier that way...

My bed room. I just bought the mattress and it's been so nice to have a comfy bed!

Vaulted ceilings. This is very normal in Costa Rica. They finish the ceiling last, it's a lot cooler in the summer to have a ceiling, but if you can't afford it, you can live without it. I'll post more pics via flicker, posting through the blog is a pain!

Also, I don't know how it happened, but I hadn't been here for a full 24 hours and suddenly I had meetings to go to and a group that actually wanted to work with me. I've had a meeting every day since I've been here and spent all day Monday in Golfito (that is where all the governmental work is done) and the development association and I were able to get a ton of work done. Now it's looking like we are going to get the computers after all. I had given up on it, but now that I have some people to work with, I think it's going to happen.

Okay, so I'm going to start a new series in the blog called the Faces and Places of La Palma. I'll try introduce you all to the people in my life and the places so that everyone can have a better idea what life is like here. More to come on that. God is good and he change a situation over night, you just have to wait on Him. His timing now ours.

I'm baaaack!

2010-01-12T17:46:00.002-07:00

My flight left Colorado at 12:15am and let me tell you, sleep was not easy to come by. The seats were just really uncomfortable, nobody was loud or annoying, it was just simple uncomfortable. I arrived in San Jose at 6:20am and boy was I tired. While we were getting off the plane I saw that a fellow volunteer from my group happened to be on the plane with me and we were able to tag team the first bus from the air port to SJ center which was a big help since we both had a ton of ridiculous luggage. I brought back soooo much stuff and I was really regretting it at various time throughout my journey from the baggage claim to Acosta and I know I will further hate the trip from Acosta to La Palma, but, I will thank myself for it in about 3 weeks. I brought back some peanut butter, some dried fruit and nut mix from costco, some new shorts and a toaster. I know I'm going to be loving that toaster for the next year and a half. Anyway, luggage sucks.

I'm excited to be back and to get started again. I'm hoping that my new house will provide me with some much needed privacy and tranquility. I'm hoping Guias y Scouts is able to start up soon and I hope to be able to pick up my friendships that we forming where they left off. After 3 weeks of eating a ton of yummy holiday treats and gringo food, I'm also ready to get back on track with eating healthy and working out.

Thoughts on 2009

2009-12-30T23:11:00.000-07:00

This was a really really really hard year for me and I know for many of you. Every single thing that could change in my life has, which is both really good and really hard. I think we sometimes we need change and difficult situations to push us toward what we can be. With out change/adversity it's really hard to challenge oneself and to grow as a person. Basically, when life kicks you while your down, it's usually for your own good in the end. This year, I was kicked multiple times while I was down, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I have lot's of hope for this coming year. It will be a full year dedicated to the Peace Corps and La Palma. I have a lot of hope that some of my projects will work out. God has me there for a reason and I hope that in this next year I'm able to realize that reason. Life is good. I love, love, love the United State! I'm sad to have to leave in just 2 short weeks, but I'm happy that I had the opportunity to visit. It's been a real treat to have a cell phone, internet, my car, a 'real' bed, hot showers, the mountains and my family and some friends. I'm seriously blessed and I hope that all of you out there can see the blessings in your life. God is good all the time.

Thrift stores, Target and r-ball

2009-12-27T16:29:00.002-07:00

Colorado is so great. Today I went to Target and was able to find a bunch of really cool things. I can't believe how easy it is to find stuff here. I then went to my local rec center and played r-ball (aka - racquetball) with my best good friend Mandy. After some serious games of the r-ball Mandy and I went to a thrift store and let me tell you, I was amazed. It's just so easy to have anything here. Lamps with lamp shades are so cheap. I saw a really nice looking couch for $25, that's crazy! I'm blown away by how much we as Americans have and can get a hold of. It just blows me away. At least I know when I get back from CR I'll be able to find a lot of nice stuff for really cheap. Yes, I'm talking thrift store shopping. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Home for the Holidays

2009-12-24T08:57:00.001-07:00

I arrived in Colorado on the 22nd at about noon and I was so excited. A few days earlier I had spoken with my best good friend Mandy and she had told me that she was going to go skiing the day I was getting in and might not be able to make it to dinner that night. I was pretty bummed, but I was just hoping that she would be able to stop by when she was done skiing. As I exited the international passenger area I was looking around for my mom and got quite the surprise when I saw Mandy standing next to my mom. My brain was like- does not compute, does not compute. I couldn't believe it. I said "but you were going skiing" and Mandy said, oh that was just to throw you off. What an awesome surprise!! As we drove home we headed to Jim's Burger Haven for some good old fashioned American food and then we had a spaghetti dinner with my whole family and Mandy where I got to meet my brand new baby nephew. He's just a little button and about 3 weeks old. I spent probably 3 hours yesterday just holding him and plan to get some serious baby action with both nephews every day for the next 3 weeks. I'm sooooooo happy to be home. I feel like I haven't really slept for 9 months. I'm just so happy to have my family with me. I love them so much, this time so far has been totally perfect. It's going to be really hard to leave them, but I'm not going to think about that for now. God bless you all and please, show your family how much you love them. Happy holidays!

Random stuff

2009-12-05T13:45:00.001-07:00

On December 3rd my new nephew James was born. This little guy came a week late and had to be forced out of the womb. James is 9 pounds 5 ounces and a little chunk. I can't wait to meet him in person in just 2 and a half more weeks and I'll be home in Colorado.

In La Palma we are moving out of the rainy season "winter" and into the dry season. It's so hot, you have no idea. Yesterday I worked out and was literally wringing my cloths out, literally. I'm talking it's hot. 2 showers a day, you sweat all day long kind of hot. I don't know how people can live like this. I make it because I know I'm leaving in a year and a half, but forever? I think it would kill me.

Last night I watched the movie P.S. I Love You and I think that's the most I've ever cried at a movie. I cried throughout the entire movie. Super sad, but good. So if you want to cry a lot, check it out.

That's all for now, not much going on since things kind of shut down in December.

Thanksgiving in Costa Rica

2009-11-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Many people have asked me how I spent my Thanksgiving in Costa Rica, so here it is. The Peace Corps was nice enough to ask the US Embassy if they had any families willing to host volunteers for the holiday. There were quite a few families willing to host and I was able to celebrate with my fellow volunteer and friend Becca and 3 families (2 from the Embassy). We stayed with an Embassy employee named Julie, her husband Mauricio and their 4 year old Claudia and 6 month old Lucia. Their home is beautiful and they made us feel right at home from the start. For the actual holiday another Embassy employee and his family came over for dinner along with another American family. The food was beyond good, we ate the traditional Thanksgiving dinner and everyone shared what they were thankful for that year. It was a really nice time. One of the things I'm thankful for this year (among many) is the generosity I've encountered since I've arrived in Costa Rica. I have never had more people offer their homes, food, exercise equipment, rides, etc. to me in all of my life. There is such an attitude of look, I have this, you can have some too (or more often than not, I really want to share this with you, please let me). It's been a really important lesson for me. I hope that is something I will take away with me when I go. I hope to write further on the subject as it is so important to me. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Here is a list of what I'm thankful for:

Generosity, so many people have given me so much in this past year.
Shingles, I know that sounds weird, but I am thankful for it. God has taught me so much about him, about me, about life through shingles so I wouldn't change that.
God, for not allowing me to go blind.
Clinica Biblica, for helping me when I needed it most.
My family, for keeping me sane when I was losing it and for being my greatest support.
My friends, for getting me through.
Jesus, for making the ultimate sacrifice for me.

A Cause for some Laughter

2009-11-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

Before I begin my funny story I need to breakdown my current funny/laughter situation and my past funny/laughter situation. In the past (pre-Peace Corps) I laughed all the time, I mean all of the time. Especially when I'm with Mandy, Jess and my Montana crew. It was probably really annoying, when Mandy and I are together we can seriously laugh all day, there are a minimum of 3 laughing attacks per day. It was a lot of fun. Also, in Avon, my friends and I laughed all the time. We joked around and we did funny things. It was a lot of fun. Okay, so that was my past funny/laughter situation. Currently, I maybe laugh once a day. Jokes are so culturally based and based of on history and a million things, so I don't get the Tico humor. I try, and sometimes I can pick up on most of it, but usually since it's Spanish I'm still super literal. I'll ask what they meant and that just makes them laugh harder, and then they explain it to me and I usually say “oh”. Trust me, it just doesn't work. To remedy the situation I have 3 seasons of Arrested Development a super funny series and I make sure to watch at least one show per night so I can laugh. Okay, so here's the funny...
Today I was looking at some magazines on a shelf in the corridor that leads to my room. The shelves are really high, and go probably 6 inches over my head. So, I'm sorting through old News Weeks and Cosmos from 2002-2004 and contemplating reading them when out of the corner of my eye I see something move on the self over my head. Just as this happens my friend Carla was walking past me in the hallway. The thing I saw move was a giant green iguana and it scared the crap out of me. I screamed, scaring the poor lizard and causing it to jump, consequently, Carla just happened to be right in the path of the lizard and it almost lands on her, causing her to scream. The iguana hits the ground and takes off at a sprint for the garden and Carla and I were left just cracking up. It was really fun. That's the hardest I've laughed in a really long time. While I'm such a fan of flying iguanas, I do love a good laugh.

Back in La Palma. Again.

2009-11-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

I would like to be able to say that after my week in SJ/Acosta I was ready to get to back in the swing of things in La Palma. Well, I'm back, but for some reason it's always difficult to come back. I think I miss being around people and when I'm in La Palma for a long time I forget that I miss it, but when I leave and am surrounded by friends it makes the feeling of being alone all the stronger. Anyway, I'm working on it.
We had our first Guias y Scouts meeting last Thursday and things went great. Now we are forming la junta or the board of directors and then we will begin the process of training the adults. I'm trying to do a good job of making sure everyone knows that we are running a marathon, not a sprint, so the process needs to be slow and steady so we can build a strong foundation. I'm excited to see where this goes. This program has the potential to really benefit the community. Regarding other project ideas... Well, the computers are on hold at least until February. I'm waiting to see if the internet really does make it here in December like we have been told. If that's the case, I'd like to encourage an entrepreneur to open an internet cafe, it's really the most sustainable form. When a community hads donated computers they are hard to maintain because there is no way to charge for the use, therefore you cannot pay someone to be there and keep the center open. You can see the problem. English classes are still going, I'm going to continue on with just one in the coming year. I think it will be better to teach one class well, rather than two classes mas o menos (more or less). Asi es (that's how it is). I'm heading to San Jose on Wednesday (or Acosta more exactly) and then to Escazu, then San Jose for the weekend. I'm going to spend Thanksgiving with an embassy family and Becca my Peace Corps friend and then I'm going to hang out with Mellany a former roommate from my first season at Beaver Creek.

Back in Acosta for a couple of days

2009-11-09T08:56:00.001-07:00

I'm back in Acosta for a couple of days and it feels so good. I missed my host family here so much. It's strange that I only lived with them for a month and a half and yet my bond with them is so strong. My host mom has saved me twice now. The first time she saved me was from a really bad living situation with another host family, things just didn't work out and I was soooo stressed out living with them. When I moved in with her it was like I could breathe for the first time since arriving in Costa Rica. The second time was after my little shingles out break and my time in the hospital. I was so weak after 6 days of IV antibiotics and antivirals. The treatment killed the staph infection and prevented the virus from making me blind, but it also seriously damaged the rest of my body. I was so weak and tired and sick and my host mom took care of me for a week or so until I felt strong enough to go back to La Palma. So, needless to say, I really love my host mom and family in Acosta. I have missed the mountains and the cooler weather, it's so nice to be back.

VAC Meeting 2009

2009-11-07T10:36:00.001-07:00

These past few days I had the pleasure of attending my very first all volunteer conference. This is a time when all of the volunteers from Tico 18 and Tico 19 (my group) get to hang out, get to know each other, share ideas and struggles and just have fun. I really need times like these to get out of La Palma and have friends to talk to. November is going to fly by. I'll be staying in SJ area for a few more days, I get back to La Palma and have my Guias y Scouts meeting right when I get back, then it's 2 weeks and then I head back to SJ for Thanksgiving. I can't believe how fast time is flying by!

English Classes

2009-11-04T09:12:00.001-07:00

Perhaps there was a time in my life when I entertained the idea of being a teacher. I thought it would be fun and maybe when one has the proper training, it is. However, I don't have the proper training and I think I just may be the worst English teacher ever. I have no idea what I'm doing. Imagine if someone gave you two training sessions to be an accountant and then told you to go and do it, probably you wouldn't be very good at it. People go to school to get a degree in accounting, go figure, people also go to school for 4 years to learn how to be a teacher. I'm a horrible teacher, I almost feel sorry for my students, at least it's free for them. Oh well, maybe by the time I leave I won't will have learned how to be only a sort of bad teacher, rather than a super bad one.
In other more cheery news, I'm looking forward to a Peace Corps get together when all of the volunteers in Costa Rica are going to go camping together and spend 4 days re-grouping. I'm pretty excited about it. After training I'm going to go to Acosta to visit my host family and the host families of my compañeros of Acosta. I really loved my host family and I think it will be a great time to reconnect with them and have a little break from La Palma.

Funny thing happened to me the other day...

2009-10-31T12:17:00.000-06:00

Okay, here is a really funny story. As you consider what I'm about to write, also, please consider that this type of thing happens to me all the time. And so I begin...
On Thursday I went walking at 6:00am with my ladies (these are some friends and my host mom and we go for an hour walk on Tuesdays and Thursdays). So, we are walking and one of the ladies asks me “Laura, are you going to run in the race? I bet you're going to win”. I respond, “oh, wow, that's today? I don't know, maybe, I haven't eaten or drank anything today, so I don't think so. Also, I haven't been running in weeks, but I guess I'll see if there's time for me to eat and maybe”. Okay, so we walk on and I find out that the race starts at 8:00am and it's only 7:00am so there is time. So I go to this race, where there are including me 8 participants. There were 2 woman and 6 men. I'm thinking, okay, I'll run, why not. So we begin the race and me and the other lady start to run together, I was pretty happy with it, we ran the whole race together. So, towards the end of the race the last Kilometer I'm thinking, well, in the past usually I take off and bust it out in the end for the win, but, I don't think that would be really cool to do since I know that lady that I'm running with really well and we've been together the whole time and I think it would be really cool for us to finish together. So I think this whole thing out for the last lap of the race and I finally decide, I'm not going to sprint the finish, I'm going to be cool and finish with my friend (I really did debate about this for like 3 min in my head, I'm super competitive, but that's not always good). Okay, so when we are about 75 feet from the finish line, I'm thinking oh, how great, we made it and just as I'm about to say something to my friend, she takes off at a full sprint. Typical. At first I started to run after her, but then I thought, “no vale la pena” or, it's not worth it and I just let her go. Wow, is all I could think. Typical, enough said.

I'm just going to go ahead and say it, I hate rice!

2009-10-28T14:55:00.000-06:00

Okay, I do, I hate rice. I don't care what the rest of the world says, I've never really liked rice. Ever since I was little I've only liked rice one way with milk, butter, sugar and cinnamon. That's a tasty breakfast all warm and delicious. So, back to my hate for rice, here in Costa Rica it just so happens that rice is eaten as the main part of every meal. I'm not exaggerating. It's seriously the base of every meal and sometimes it makes me really angry. I'm laughing as I write this because the irony of it all is just too much. Okay, when I eat at places like Chipolet or Moes Southwest where they have awesome burritos; when I placed my order I always said “no rice please”. So that you know, I didn't eat it before I came here, I don't like sushi and I almost never go out for Chinese food, why, because I hate rice. Now that you all know that, recently in one of my English classes we were learning “I'm going” so learning the simple future tense. One of the activities was that we were going on a picnic and then we would go around the class and say “I'm going to bring ...”. So I started and then had my class go. Maurice says “I'm going to bring rice and beans”. I just looked at him and said “I'm sorry, you can't come to my picnic” (joking of course). Then we got into a conversation about the rice and beans and I asked them “do you guys seriously like rice and beans, I mean really like, you're serious”? They all said that they did, they like it, they really like it. Unbelievable. I'm shocked, I just can't imagine a day when I'm going to say, wow, get me some rice and beans. I don't mind the beans by the way. I am sick of only ever eating one type, I would love to switch it up a little, not just white rice with black beans. What's wrong with red beans? And, if we're eating pasta, why not skip the rice? Or, when we're eating potatoes, why not pass on the rice? I know I'd be okay with it.

Just Some Random Stuff

2009-10-18T19:44:00.000-06:00

I don't have a whole lot to update on. My English classes have another test this week, with one class finishing the book. Instead of starting the next book just to take a massive break in December and January, we're going to have conversation classes and do little work shop type things (this will be easier and more fun for me, I hope). Guias y Scouts is coming along nicely, I'm hoping to have the adults in place and ready to go by December and then find the niños sometime in February. That's a pretty ambitious time line, so I'm not too worried if it takes a little longer...
I'm planning on getting a dog soon, probably in January. I think it will be really nice to have a little friend to hangout with and keep me company. Other than that, I'm still reading a lot. I'm currently reading Jane Eyre, a classic which is really good so far. After this I think I'm going to finish up my No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books which will be really sad. Not much else to report for now. The rain has picked up a little in the past couple of weeks which is a big relief and a nice break from the heat.
Weigh lifting with my friend Elena is going really well, she loves to work out as much as I do and we help to push each other so that has been a really pleasant surprise.

Here are some strange things that have happened or that I do...

2009-10-10T11:20:00.000-06:00

First, I used to hate the show Xena Warrior Princess. It was on when I was in high school and I thought it was super lame. I don't think it's on anymore, but they are showing it here in Costa Rica, dubbed in Spanish. Now, one of my favorite things to do is watch Xena with my adult host brother every morning. We sit down and watch it and if I miss something or can't figure something out he explains the show to me. Today I asked him, what are the little gremlin looking monsters all about and he said “who knows what those strange little monsters are supposed to be”. I don't know why, but I thought it was really funny. Anyway, I love the show now and when I get back to the states (permanently) I'm going to be Xena for Halloween, she's awesome.

Second, here is something that happened just the other day. My host family and I were hanging out on the front porch where we spend most of our time and I saw a little black thing about the size of a lime in the curtain. I thought it was a giant spider and it kind of freaked me out. I asked them what it was and they said something, but I didn't know the word. I asked if they were just going to leave it there and my host dad says “no” and walks over to it and picks it out of the curtain. I see that it's a little bat. I've always really liked bats for some reason and I'm thinking oh, how cool, maybe he's going to throw it into the air and the little thing can fly away. Wrong. My host dad grabs it by the wing and slams it onto the ground. I was soooooo sad. I didn't kill the poor thing the first time so he did it 3 times and then chucked it across the street. I was crushed. That was a sad moment, but stuff like that happens a lot.

Third, I've found a place to lift weight and use an elliptical machine to avoid the sun. It's awesome and I love it. My new friend is great and we have a really nice time lifting. There is just one minor problem. You can't imagine how much I sweat in that little house with no A/C and it's super humid here. It's a total problem. I bring a towel with me, but by the end of the session all of my cloths are soaked, and I mean soaked. The towel is soaked and my shoes are soaked. I don't think there is anyway to stop it. I'm a sweater and put a sweater indoors in a humid climate on a hot day (everyday) and you're going to have a problem. It's okay though, I'll take it over weak arms.

Guias y Scouts

2009-09-28T10:12:00.001-06:00

Since I arrieved in La Palma and heard about the boy/girl scout troup in Jimenez, I've sort of casually thought of starting a troup in La Palma. It's called Guias y Scouts and it's based off the USA version, but it's obviously adapted to the Costa Rican culture and the boys and girls are in separate troups but they all meet together, have the same uniform and it's the same program that they follow. So, this past weekend I went with the Jimenez troup to Cartagena and we hiked in the Corovado national park and stayed at a really cool eco lodge called La Leona. There is a ton that I can write about each of these things, but I don't have a ton of time so I'll stick to Guias y Scouts and fill you in on the park and the lodge later. You can not imagine how seriously they take their troups and how well they do it. In CR there is a real lack of things for people to do. There is a lot of TV watching, but it's not like in the States where you can just join a club or play on one of 100 teams. There is just nothing to do, so Guias y Scouts provides a really healthy activity for the kids where they can learn a ton of life skills and feel really proud to be a part of something. It's really beautiful. I watched as the troup leaders would blow their whistles and the kids would run from where ever they were to fall in formation and shout out their troup call. It was so cool. I did girl scouts when I was a kid, but I don't think I took it very seriously and I don't recall their being any troup calls or whistles. The program is great and I'm going to do everything I possibly can to make it happen in La Palma. The kids will love it and I think it could really help keep them safe and teach them how to have fun in a really health and way.

I'm still working on the computer problem in La Palma, This is going to take a while... Otherwise, I'm doing really well, time is flying by and as I get to know more people in the community and make friends and have more projects, I'm feeling a lot happier here. I think I may have made it through the hardest part (hopefully).

***Okay, as I read over some of my blog entries and e-mails, I'm noticing that my English no is very good (that was a joke). But, really, if you read this and think, wow, that was really bad sentence construction, just know that pretty much all day everyday is in Spanish and it makes it hard to switch over to English with out any bumps. It's kind of funny actually, I catch myself making some of the same mistakes that my English students make.***

Soccer

2009-09-22T10:48:00.000-06:00

This past weekend I found a women's soccer team to play on and ended up playing in a mini tournament Saturday and Sunday. It was probably the most fun and the most normal I've felt since I arrived some 7 months ago. I loved it so much. The ladies were so excited to have me on the team and after the first game were asking me how long I could play with them for and when I told them that we had a good year and a half together they were thrilled. I was great. I've found a team who work really hard and put forth a really good effort. The level of play isn't super high, but it's high enough to be fun. I think soccer is going to make time pass a lot quicker without huge weekend gaps to try and fill up with, oh, nothing to do...
Last week I was in Jimenez and was able to hang out with the volunteer there and that was really nice. I'm hoping to hangout with her today for a bit and also some on the weekend, It's good to have a friend and someone to talk to.
Life here is pretty up and down. Days go by where I like it and I'm excited to be here and then a day like yesterday will hit and it's all I can do to try and make the time pass. I'm not really sure what it is that make some days harder than others, but I'm sure once I'm a little busier it won't be so up and down all the time.
God is good.

Books

2009-09-14T10:46:00.000-06:00

Something I do a lot of is read, so I thought I'd talk a little about some of the books I've been reading. First, I love love love The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I'm eight books into the series and I am so in love with the characters. Since I lack friends and in general, deep human interaction, the characters of this series have become a real comfort to me. I try not to read the books one after the other and instead try and wait until I “need” them. It's sad, I know, but it's true. So anyway, check them out, Mma Ramotswe is a great source of wisdom and has a great outlook on life.
Right now I'm on book two of the Twilight series, New Moon and of course it's great. I must admit sometimes I'm a little frustrated will Belle the protagonist and her “poor me, I'm so clumsy and plain” attitude, but once I got past that, I fell in love with the book. I try not to read too much, but certain days (the last week) it's hard not to.
I also just finished the Glass Castle, I'm going to say it's good, but not great. It's one of those really sad life memoirs, which are good, but it seems like I've read a lot of those.
I totally recommend the book the Tale of the Town of Widows. This book was great, though there was a brief period (maybe 30 pages toward the end) when the author kind of lost me by being just a little too obvious with the symbolism. I mean come on, don't hit me over the head with it. But, it was really just a short bit and then he got back on track, it was a unique and good book.
That's what I've read the past 2 weeks or so. Books are kind of becoming my friends, since I'm kind of lacking in that department. Making friends here, I'm not so sure is going to happen for me, but I'm coming to accept that or at least hope that someone is on their way here, it could happen. Other than that I've been watching the series Arrested Development and Bones on my computer at night and that has been a lot of fun. A friend gave me the 2 series when I was in training a few weeks ago and it has been a really nice addition.

A new friend?

2009-09-10T13:13:00.000-06:00

I'm back in La Palma and feeling re-charged. Never under estimate the power of some good food, good friends and some cool weather. I'm excited to get going on some things in La Palma. I met the elementary school english teacher yesterday and we are going to start working together. She seems really nice and I think I may have a friend on the horizon! We'll see. We planed to get together and on Friday and talked about me visiting her classes a couple of times per week to help out and give the kids some experience hearing a native speaker. Other than that, I'm just sweating a lot, but I'm happy to be hear.

I did book my flight home for Christmas and it made me sooooo happy. I'll be flying home on the 22nd and sticking around for 3 full weeks. It will come sooner than I can imagine.

YAY FRIENDS!

2009-09-06T19:43:00.005-06:00

IST (in service training) ended up great. It was so nice to see all of my fellow Tico 19ers (that's the name of volunteer group). Everyone had great stories and so much had happened to each of us, 3 months on our own in el campo (the country) and a lot of crazy things went down.

Since we weren't ready to go back to our sites and say goodbye to our last chance at friendship, 3 other volunteers and myself took off for Uvita for the weekend. There was a whale festival going on and I must say, the town of Uvita did a great job. There were half price whale watching tour, exhibits, photo displays and lots of people selling lots of souvenirs.

On Saturday we left our hotel in San Jose at 4:30am. It was a struggle and I hate waking up early, but the whales were calling to me so I made it happen. Some 6 hours later we arrived in Uvita. It's actually very similar climate and vegetation wise to La Palma only there are waves to play in. After dropping our things at the hotel we headed to the beach to meet some new friends. We were so lucky to be able to go out in the afternoon at 3:30 because our trip included seeing lots of humpback whales multiple times and a beautiful sun set. There was a mom and a baby whale that were hanging out near us and we got to see the two of them various times. It was so beautiful! Here are some pics of our new friends as well as Uvita and my friends.

On the boat looking at some whales, Mick looking intense.

Becca and I

more from training

2009-09-03T21:36:00.001-06:00

Training is going really well. I have a ton of new ideas for my site, most of them center around computers. In my town there is currently only dial-up internet (which is pretty much the same as not having internet) and only one computer available for the people to use. This means that if people really want or need to use the internet they need to travel to Jimenez the closest town with internet which is about an hour away. So, they have to pay for the bus ride to Jimenez and then pay in Jimenez to use the internet in an internet cafe, but, because my area has a ton of tourists, using the internet here cost more than double per hour than using the internet in San Jose. It's not cool. So picture you're a high school student who has an assignment that needs to be typed and then printed out. You have to pay round trip bus fare, then you have to pay for the time spent on the internet, then you have to pay for the print outs, in the end it's a lot of money and it's not like in the states where high school kids can have jobs. So, you see the problem. The high school of my town already has plans to bring computers which is great, but it's still 2k from La Palma center and it would just be for the high school kids. I want to work with the elementary school to get them a computer lab and also with the towns development association to try and have a free computer lab for the community (these are very common in CR and there is a program in place, all you need is a building and then the CR government will provide the computers and support). I'm really excited about the possibilities that the technology will bring to La Palma. If people can learn to use computers and the internet they will have education, information and all kinds of possibilities at their finger tips.

I'm totally going to beat the ants

2009-09-02T19:54:00.001-06:00

Hello!!!
In the ant war, I think I've won! There are still a few running around but their forces have been knocked back a lot and I think if I keep up the attack eventually they will give up.
In other really happy news, I'm at IST (in service training)! This is the training once you've been 3 months in site and it's a really great time to see friends and re-charge a bit. I have missed having friends so much. Never under estimate how nice it is to be able to just chat or play with people who you understand and who understand you. It's great and I'm really happy to be here. Also, the food is great. We get to stay at a place in the mountains that is beautiful and has cold nights. I miss cold nights! I have definitely felt a lot of homesickness and this is a little rest from that.
More than just playing and joking around together, IST is a good time for us to have some training with fresh eyes. Our training before was great, but did not have a lot of context. We had no idea where we were going, who we would be working with or what programs would be needed. Now we know and it's nice to see how I can directly use the training in my site. More to come on that.

You may have noticed that I don't have pictures anymore. My camera has walked away from me so probably until Christmas I will have to rely on my friends here for pics, so hopefully soon!

Laura 1 – Ants 1

2009-08-24T10:44:00.000-06:00

I tried the boric Acid (I had written carbonic acid, but it's boric) and the ants ate it right up. I mixed the boric acid powder with sugar and the ants were all over it, hopefully now they will all die, otherwise I just gave them some desert. In other bug updates, when I first arrived here the mosquitos, zancudos and pretty much everything else were driving me crazy, I was always covered in bites and itching all the time. I'm not sure what happened, maybe it's because of the food I've been eating, but the bugs are leaving me alone now. It's crazy, it's like they had their fill. I'm really happy about this, I thought I was going to go crazy with so much itching.

As far as projects go, the emu project is coming to a close, the business plan is pretty much done and now it's time for the guy to decide if he wants to do it or not. I'm still working with the vivero but I think we are some months away from any sort of progress in the marketing field. My two english classes will have their first test with me on Tuesday so hopefully they do well. I spoke with someone yesterday about getting some ladies together for and exercise group, hopefully we can get that going when I get back from training which is the first week of September.

I can't believe that it's already in service training time. I've been in Costa Rica for 3 months and now my site for 3 months. This has been a weird 6 months.

Ants 1 - Laura 0

2009-08-16T07:45:00.000-06:00

The ants took one look at my poison on the wall and walked around it. They walked up to it, smelled it and thought, wow, better walk around that and did. Not cool, I'm going to try my dad's suggestion of carbonic acid mixed with peanut butter or honey. I'll keep you updated.

I'm currently up in Escazu with some of my Peace Corps friends and it has been great. We rented a house (and it's a really really nice house) and have been cooking American food and watching tv in English and having wifi! I love it. I've missed my friends and I think to maintain sanity we are going to need to do throughout our time in CR.

English classes are going in one case really well and in the other it's improving. I'm starting to really enjoy the classes, which is good.

Soccer is going great. The girls are really fun and seem to really appreciate having a female coach. I've been working with them on really basic skills and some really really basic drills. It's been really fun and I'm really happy to be there.

The Emu project has been going great. We have made some progress with the business plan and through this project I have met a lot of new people and seen some new areas on the peninsula.

Life is good, my health has improved 100% since the start of August, I can't tell you how good it feels to feel normal again. 2 months of sickness are enough for me. Hopefully I've satisfied my quota for my Peace Corps service.

The War has begun

2009-08-11T13:16:00.000-06:00

That's right, I'm at war. I'm so over the ants that love to live in my room. When I first arrived in CR I would look at the little streams of little ants running all over the wall and think, oh, how cute. When they pass another ant they always stop and greet each other, it's kind of cool. I thought that until I moved into my current room and the little jerks are EVERYWHERE! I hate them. Okay, so I could handle them on all of my things, then they crossed the line and have moved into my bed. It's not enough that my bed has termites, the little jerk ants have to crawl on it too and bite me! So, it's war. I won't stop until I have killed them all (at least the ones in my room). I'll keep you updated on the killing spree. So far I have knocked them back, but they are still going, I'm going to look for better poison in San Jose this weekend.

God is pretty awesome!

2009-08-07T14:09:00.000-06:00

Things in La Plama are really picking up. In the past 2 weeks God has really been to blessing me and helping me out of my funk. I think I wrote about a guy that stopped by the house who wanted some help with writing a business plan for and emu farm. Well, last weekend I went to his farm for lunch and to see the emus and his farm and it is beautiful! But, as it turns out the guy and his family just love the Lord and we ended up talking about how great God is for the entire day, we hardly had 20 min to talk about the business plan and I was there for probably 6 hours. It was such a blessing for me, I've just been so sick for so long that I was really feeling discouraged and beginning to think that it was going to be a really long 2 years, but since that time things have really turned around for me. We all prayed together that day and since then, great things have been happening and I have been meeting really great people who love God! God is good, even when we have to go through really hard times, God is good!

Here are my current projects:

Tue/Thur nights I have 2 English classes
Mon/Wed/Fri nights I'm helping out with the high school girls soccer team
I'm still working with the vivero ladies, though we need to come up with a better schedule for working together
The emu farm business plan
The micro finance group
*and possibly I might start working with another guy on some Christian tourism projects. I'm excited to explore the possibilities of this. The idea would be that people could come down as a church group or group of friends, hike the park, explore the south a bit and have a speaker, do some work to help out the local churches, etc. Let's see where it goes.

Life is good!
Laura

You don't want to play a game? Well, you have to.

2009-07-31T11:44:00.000-06:00

My English classes have officially begun. Last night I had 2 full classes, one a beginner and one a beginner intermediate. Both classes were full and we had a lot of fun. I decided that everyone in the class needed to have an English name so I gave out English names and had my students stand up and introduce themselves to the class with their new name. I thought it was pretty fun, most of the students did too, but I could tell that this whole interactive learning thing was pretty new for a lot of them. In Costa Rica the school system is largely based on students copying stuff in their notebooks. They come into class and are told to copy something from the board into their notebook, that is how it's done, at every age in every subject. Just copy. This is not how I choose to teach because I don't think it works and it's really boring to me and learning should be fun. Anyway, so some of the students are adjusting to the games that we play in class. It's kind of funny, at first their like, we have to play a game (all whinny about it) and then once we start playing they are laughing and really having a good time. I guess we will see how it goes. I expect that some students will not make it to the end of the course, but that's very typical.

Other than that I'm just hanging out. I'm currently 5 books into the #1 Ladies Detective Agency books. They are awesome, I really enjoy reading them and would recommend them to any of you. I'm working on getting some more pics of La Palma to post, hopefully I'll have that ready for next week.

La Sabana

2009-07-26T11:36:00.000-06:00

Today I went to a park in San Jose called la Sabana. It was filled with everything I love. There were people everywhere running, biking, roller skating, playing soccer, walking and picnicking. It was beautiful. There must have been 20 soccer games both formal and informal. There was a free outdoor aerobics class that must have had 50+ people participating. It was so awesome. This park is full of giant trees and even has a little pond. I loved it. It really made me miss the Colorado and Washington park.

Just call me Laura the Train Wreck Trinkle, or Train Wreck for short.

2009-07-25T19:40:00.000-06:00

To begin, things in La Palma are going great. I have english classes, I am working with my ladies in the vivero and I have a new project with a guy and an emu farm, yes, emu. I'm really excited to see what comes from the emu project, it has a lot of potential and could really help the peninsula.
On to my train wreck that is called my health; my body has decided that it hates the tropics and will no longer be healthy. On the bright side, during my trips to San Jose I get to eat what I want (this never includes rice or beans) and I have US TV and hot showers and cooler weather, what more could you want? My health may not be so good, but I have hope that it will get there, I've got 1 year and 10 months to get healthy and strong again. I should be getting better soon! Hopefully. Otherwise, I'll know and have had pretty much everything possible.

Okay here is a brief description of my Peace Corps life so far.

2009-07-21T14:37:00.000-06:00

I wake up anywhere from 6:30 to 8:00, I prefer 8:00. Usually my host family is doing something outside of my window and there is a rooster always crowing. I usually lay in bed for a while hoping that it's going to rain a lot today because that means I'm a little more justified for not doing anything. I can't do XY or Z, it's raining too much. Okay, so then I get up and get dressed in my "house shorts" which are my soccer shorts and I go and have my breakfast. Guess what it is? Do you give up? It's Gallo Pinto, or rice and beans. But, I actually kind of like the Gallo Pinto and I usually have a fried egg that I get to make so it's cool. So I eat my breakfast and drink my coffee and chat with my host family and usually chat with my host mom and my firend Carla while we watch "Buen Dia" the Tico version of good morning America. I don't really get this program, they have all of these how too's and cooking guides and decorate your home clips. I wonder if I'm living in the same country that they are. They talk about expensive vacations and hiring personal decorators for your home. I have yet to meet a Tico that could/would do any of this. It's just so US and not Tico, yet, it's really the only channel that people get so they watch it.

After all of that I move out to the front porch and rock in either the hammock or a rocking chair and read for a couple of hours. On certain days I go and visit the ladies in the vivero or I do laundry. Lots of people stop by the house and pretty much every day I have this conversation atleast once:

Person: Hola
Me: Hola
Person directed to someone in my host family: Who is this, where is she from?
Me: Hi, my name is Laura, I'm from Colorado, the US.
Person to my host family: The US, how long is she here for?
Me: I'm here for 2 years.
Person: Do you dance?
Me: (This question for some reason happens no matter who I meet and for some reason it really pisses me off) (In my mind I think, why do you care, out loud I say:) yes, I dance.
Person directed to my host family: Oh, how great she said she dances.

At this point with the dancing question if it's a male I say no and then they repeat "no, you don't dance, well, we can go out and sing and play music then" I then respond with "No, I don't dance, sing or play any musical instruments". I don't always say that, but it has happened. I've learned the hard way that with men here if you try and be nice and say things like "Oh, maybe someday" then they start to stop by and act creepy. Now I just think it's better to say no right from the start.

Okay, so my day is a lot of reading and now I've decided to start drawing which has been a fun way to pass the time. I usually head to the store at some point, talk to some people around town, go on a run to the beach each day and hang out there for a while, then I watch my soap opera which is super bad, but it helps me learn Spanish and it gives me something to do at 5:30. For lunch I have rice and beans and something fried, for dinner I have rice and beans and something fried. Pretty much I each rice and black beans everyday. I can take it for breakfast, but sometimes I go on strike for lunch or dinner and eat ceral or yogurt or both.

I expect things will pick up as I get to know more people. Right now due the the swine flu all classes and indoor meetings have been canceled in CR so once that stops I will resume with classes. Okay, I hope you all enjoyed a little glimps into the day of Laura.

Getting going in La Palma

2009-07-15T09:29:00.000-06:00

I've been in La Palma for about a month now and things are going well. I've made some friends and have even started a project and taught an English class. All and all not bad. Normally in the Peace Corps the first 3 months of service are really slow. There is not a lot of activity and for the most part you are just getting to know the community, making friends and seeing where there may be some need. My community is a little different since I'm taking over for another volunteer and we have some overlap which has made my entry a lot easier. La Palma has seen 5 volunteers so far and I'm number 6 so you say Cuerpo de Paz and everyone knows right away what you're talking about. This is both a positive and negative thing. I'm happy to be here and the people are very welcoming, however, the town has learned well over the years all that the Peace Corps has taught and they really seem to be doing really well. I'm sure I'll find my way.
I wanted to talk about a project I'm starting with some ladies who own/operate a vivero (nursery). About a year ago these ladies received a grant from the municipality of La Palma to reforest a section of the rain forest near La Palma. With this money the women were able to reforest the section of rain forest and also start the vivero. At this point they have a large number of trees, but not really any marketing or sales going on. I was thinking that we could start selling trees to people outside of Costa Rica and then the women would go and plant the trees in a section of rain forest that needs to be reforested. Each person who bought a tree could indicate which type they would like to buy and would be sent a picture of their tree being planted and then as time passes sent pictures of progress made in the reforested section. The women are committed to helping the rain forest and I know there would be plenty of people who would also like to help to actually reforested the rain forest. We are just in the starting stages of the project and trough this I will be able to teach the women how to use e-mail, word, excel, accounting and hopefully some English. I'm pretty excited to see how it all goes. It at least is a start.

Tomorrow I'm heading back to my site

2009-06-24T20:22:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I'll be heading back to my site and I could not be happier about it. I have learned a lot in the past 2 weeks, here are some of the things I have learned:

1. Never ever ever take for granted you health. Thank God for it every day that you have it, because it can go away and when it does life gets a whole lot more difficult.
2. TV from the US is so great, it may sound sad, but it was a huge comfort, and I loved having it. I think it might be the best in the world, just a thought.
3. wifi is the greatest invention ever. I was able to talk to my family and friends for free, all thanks to wifi and the skype. What a life saver that was.
4. It's okay to cry and cry a lot, but eventually you need to find a way to laugh.
5. Your family is more important than you could ever imagine.
6. Sometimes you just need to be happy that you have an eye and not worry too much that it does not open as much as the other one does yet.
7. Sometimes life throws things at us that forces us to do something that you would never do otherwise. In my case, it's taking medicine, I never used to take it and hated the idea of it, I had to get over that and take my medicine.
8. It's okay to just let people take care of you.
9. I have a wonderful family in Acosta.
10. Never ever judge someone unless you have walked in their shoes (I learned that before, but this reinforced it).
11. Sometimes you just can't explain why something happened, just accept it and learn as much as you can from it.

Okay, that is some of what I've learned. I'm sure I'll think of some more stuff as time goes by. I'm excited to start my service and to get back into shape. I'm excited to see what other obstacles my Peace Corps experience will throw my way!

I'm getting there

2009-06-23T10:17:00.001-06:00

For the past 5 days I've been staying with my host family in Acosta regaining some strength and doing a basic re-group. I was originally staying in a hotel in San Jose, but this was just not a good idea. I was having some side effects from the pain medication and realized that I was not going to really get better in a hotel. My host mom is Acosta is soooo great, she has been such a blessing and has taken awesome care of me. She cooks everything from scratch and she cooks over a wood burning stove, I never thought I would like rice and beans, but I love her rice and beans. There is something to be said for taking your time and really cooking your food, it just tastes better.

Yesterday I went back to the eye doctor, I had felt for the past 3 days that there was something in my left eye (the problem eye) and was convinced that there was something wrong with it. After looking at my eye and doing a through examine the eye doctor told me that he did not think that I had anything in my eye, but that he thought I should go and talk to the neurologist and that I was experiencing Postherpetic Neuralgia. Basically shingle effects the nerve where it surfaces, in my case the nerve on the left side of my face. If the nerve is like a whole banana, after shingles it's like the banana has been peeled and is sending all kinds of messages to the brain, so even thought the shingle are gone you still feel pain and can feel it for a long time depending on how damaged the nerve is and how quickly it heals. So, when I went to the neurologist I told him that I had started to take my pain medication once a day at night instead of twice and day, this was my problem. Apparently, I need to take it twice a day and I need to take it twice a day for a really long time. I wanted so badly for this to be over and to just be better, but that's not how it works. Potentially this could last anywhere from a few weeks to 9 months, it all depends on many factors. Now that I know, I will be taking my medication as prescribed, opps.

For those of you who pray, I would really appreciate a lot of prayer for healing. I really don't want to have to take this medication for the next 3 months and sooooo believe in the healing power of God, so please pray with me for healing!!!!!

I'll be heading back to La Palma on Thursday, I'm excited to get back and find my normal, I hadn't been there long enough to have a normal, but I hope to get one soon! The past 2 weeks have been difficult, but there have been a lot of good things that have come from it, for example, I've been able to talk daily or twice daily with my parents. I've been able to talk to my brother and sister in law a bunch and see my little nephew via skype and hear him say his new words and jump and play. I've been able to talk a ton with John. I've been able to watch some american tv (it's awesome!) and I've been able to spend time in Acosta, I love Acosta.

A quick update on Laura...

2009-06-16T21:34:00.000-06:00

Last night I left the hospital around 9pm and headed to my hotel. It was nice to have the IVs out of my arms, but extremely overwhelming to try and keep track of all the medicines and times and eye drops and gels and washes, etc. At least I'm done with one of the medications tomorrow. I have some follow ups with the doctors on Thursday and Friday and then I'm going to try and figure out something else to do, the hotel thing is not the best solution for me at this point. Today I was able to see a fellow Tico 19er Leah and she arrived at the perfect time. It was so great to spend a couple of hours with a friend and to feel somewhat normal for a while. Tomorrow I will meet up with a former roommate from my Beaver Creek days and spend some time with her, that should be exciting. All in all, I'm just trying to get a grasp on what just happened and how I feel about it, I'm definitely missing my family and friends in Colorado a ton and am going to need some serious time to feel normal again. I think this is the longest period of time that I've been sick and it's definitely my first time in a hospital as anything other than a visitor. I think I like the visitor role better. Ok, well, more updates to come, I hope that come Saturday I am no longer in the hotel, where I will be I'm not sure, but I think somewhere other than the hotel would be best.

Update on the Laura

2009-06-12T13:06:00.001-06:00

Okay, well, I wanted my next blog entry to be all about the awesome time I had with John last week. It was awesome, we went to the USA vs. CR game and it was great, we drove to La Palma and stopped along the way at the beaches along the Domincal highway. We were all over the Osa Peninsula and I think we both feel like we really know the peninsula, though of course there is always more to know. We spent a ton of time at the beach and a lot of time with my host family. They loved John and he was able to help my host mom with some adjustments that were a great relief for her after she had a little accident that left her with a really sore neck. It was great to watch her and how much she loved him, when she served him gallo pinto she would ask me "has he ever eaten this before? Does he like it?" It was so much fun to translate and also to watch as John learned new words and increased his ability to communicate as he already knew a little bit of Spanish. I think somehow people who speak less Spanish are able to endear themselves faster to a family because everyone fells such a sense of care for that person. You really are dependent on people when you don't speak the language and they know it and it's a beautiful exchange. So John left me on Monday morning really early. I was really sad to say goodbye and you can't imagine how much I miss him.

Okay, so now the update...

On Saturday night I think around 5 or 6 I was feeling pretty tired and decided that I needed to go and lay down for a while. As I was laying in my bed I felt what I thought was a spider bite on my left eyebrow. It really hurt and I slapped at my eyebrow to kill the bug and drug it toward my hair line near my temple. The bite was really bothering me so I decided to just get up and go and hang out with the family and John, though the bite was seriously annoying me.

The next day I woke up and my left eye was a little swollen, but not too bad, I just thought I was having an allergic reaction to said bite so I took a benadrly and called it good.

On Monday after saying goodbye to John I noticed that my eye was more swollen so I decided to call the Peace Corps medical office to see what they thought I should do. They thought what I thought, that it was an allergic reaction to the bite and that I should step up my benadryl intake (I had only taken one on Sunday). So I did. That night the eye had gotten worse and before bed I called the PC doctor to see if it was okay for me to go to the doctor the next day. She said that would be just fine and we decided that rather than traveling 8 hours to San Jose, it would be better to travel 1 hour to Jimenez (the nearest bigger town).

On Tuesday, I went to Jimenez and my confidence was not super inspired by the clinic. In fact, as I was standing in one of the lines I just couldn't keep the tears from falling from eyes. I was moved from line to line, eventually I got to see the doctor and he said that it was an allergic reaction to the bite and that it was infected so he prescribed me some antibiotics and some anti-allergy and some pain stuff and some other stuff... Anyway, I was happy to have some stuff to take, but on the other hand something was telling me that I was not having an allergic reaction, if I were the benedryl would have at least helped a little.

On Wednesday, I woke up and now the swelling was under my eye and to my nose and my eye was swollen shut. No bueno. I called the Peace Corps doctor and she gave me the go ahead to take the bus to San Jose. I had to take the 10:00 since there are only 2 busses and that's the last one. So I packed some dirty cloths (after my week with John everything was dirty) thinking I would be staying in a hotel and could go to a laundry mat or something and thank God I packed up my laptop and jumped on the bus. I was not a fun ride. I think the bus ride is the first time that I felt as bad as I looked (pics to come eventually, but probably not until I look normal). I arrived in San Jose around 6:30pm and went to the emergency room. The bus driver was super nice and stopped the bus early to let me off right in front of the hospital and wished me luck with my eye.

Once I was checked in and saw the doctor she looked right at me and said (all of this is in Spanish by the way) you have herpes zoster. I was like, no no no, not herpes, a bug bit me and she was like no way, this is herpes zoster, have you ever had the chicken pox and I said yes and she said, you have herpes zoster. After taking some samples of the sores and taking some blood it was official, I have shingles aka herpes zoster. The doctor said that she wanted admit me and I said okay and I've been in the hospital for the past few days and will be here for the next few.

Wow, who knew. The doctors and myself are quite perplexed as to how this happened. It's very rare in somebody my age and it's very rare in somebody who is healthy. This is my first hospital stay and I've got to say, I love this hospital. It is super nice, I have american TV which has been a real comfort, I have been able to watch all of my favorite shows and I have wifi and a warm shower, this place is great! I love Clinica Biblica!!!!

So, that's the update. I've still got a long way to go, but I'm making good progress, the swelling has gone down a lot and I'm starting to be able to open my eye without a lot of effort. I need to keep checking in with the eye doctor to make sure my vision is okay, but so far it looks good. Who know, shingles! Of all things. Well, I guess if you're going to have to go to the hospital, it may as well be a hospital in Costa Rica and you may as well do the whole thing is Spanish, it would be way to easy in english...

It's official, I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer

2009-05-29T18:10:00.003-06:00

Yay, today was the big day and I'm officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. They had us raise our right had and pledge to defend the constitution and all that good stuff. It's a pretty big day, we all went to the house of the US ambassador's house and there was a formal ceremony and everything, My host Mom got to go with me and it was a great time to prepare to move on, again.

Here are a few pics.

2009-05-28T16:19:00.007-06:00

Here is a link to some more photos. I will try and get caught up... http://www.flickr.com/photos/36935590@N03/

Here are some photos and people from my pre service training. Tomorrow we will be sworn in as official volunteers and we are all very happy! Here are a few memories of Acosta and PST.

Sunset in Acosta and above is Karina our Spanish teacher, we love her and she is a ton of fun!!!! I will miss having her to hang out with during the week, come to think of it, I will miss all of my fellow PCVs.

This is my Acosta host mom Marta. I moved in with her and her family a month and a half into training and I love her soooo much. I will be so sad to say good bye to her

Today was a no good very bad day.

2009-05-27T14:58:00.002-06:00

Okay, we all have them, not everyday can be a good one and today has been a bad one. Here's what happened... I have an international phone card that I have been using to call the US and it has been working really well, or so I thought. I have been using this phone card and it has been charging me twice. First it charges the house where I make the call from for and international call at international rates and then it charges me the minuets that I had on the phone call. Not a good deal. I'm probably going to need to pay around $80-$100+ to the owners of the homes where I made my phone calls. This sucks. In addition to this, now I don't have a way to call home. Okay, so I received this news this morning. Then one of my fellow trainees rescued a puppy and the puppy was sick this afternoon. I was carrying the puppy to the vet when I noticed something weird. The puppy had diarrhea on my shirt. It was totally nasty. After this my classmates/teacher were nice enough to buy me an ice cream for my prize. Also, today I realized that I failed to call my brother and sister in law for their birthdays. I missed it, and by a lot. I'm so not a fan of today. I still don't know how the phone card situation will work out or how much it will cost me in the end. At least I was able to clean the poop off of my shirt.

Training is coming to an end

2009-05-23T11:36:00.001-06:00

We are getting down to the end of training and we are all burned out. I am ready to go to my site and relax and take a moment to breathe. I'm excited to get to know my community, move into my room and make it feel like a home. The first few weeks are going to be spent settling in and learning more about the town (possibly the first few months). I'm excited to see what I can do and what the town wants since that is the key, finding where the towns needs/wants meet my abilities and interests. It's an exciting time, but also a time for me to recharge my batteries since training has left me pretty drained.

In other news... Last night two of my friends found a little puppy in the gutter and adopted him. His name will be pulga, which means flea in Spanish. Super cute and I'm typing with him on my lap right now.

La Palma

2009-05-18T14:58:00.004-06:00

On Friday I arrived at my new home for a get to know you type of visit. I will be living with a family in a "cabina" format, but it`s pretty much like I live in the house, once I get to my computer I`ll be able to explain a little bit better, but it`s cool because I have my own entrance and bathroom that makes me feel a little more independent. I really like the family and I will also be living with another volunteer for the first 2 months of my service. I`m taking over the site from a guy named Mateo so he will be my little brother for the first 2 months. It`s kind of cool that he is there for the start of my service since that will help me to get to know the community and help me get started a little quicker with my work in the community. Osa is beautiful, you can`t imagine a place more beautiful. The other morning I ran to the gulf and it was the perfect distance. The golf is so blue and is surrounded by lush green (pics to come). It is a bit hot, but I`ll have the impending rainy season to help me stay cool. In really great news, John is coming on June 3rd to visit. We will be heading to the CR vs. USA world cup qualifier, I`m really excited as you can imagine and he will get to know La Palma and my family down here and La Palma. I can`t wait. I`ll have more to write once I get back to Acosta and have a chance to take in all that has been happening...

In Trinkle news, my brother and his wife are going to have another baby due at the end of November, I can`t wait!!!! I`m already planning a trip home for a few weeks around Christmas.

Site Assignment Day

2009-05-10T19:01:00.004-06:00

Hello Everyone and I have some really really awesome news for you. Friday was our site assignment day, the day when we find out where we will be for the next two years. This is a huge day for a Peace Corps Trainee, for the past 2+ Months we have been training and training for this and at this point it's so close we can taste it! Well, let me give you a little background on the site selection process. Our bosses go around the country and talk to different communities that have requested a Peace Corps Volunteer, they work with the community to see what their needs are, if the community is safe for the volunteer, etc. Well, they work on site development for a really long time and then we arrive and they begin to train us and get to know us and ask us what we would like to do and what we are looking for in a community, they then try to match us up with a community. This could be pretty tricky as you can imagine. I mean, here you have 50 different people all with a different idea of what they want and they try their best to make happen for everyone.
So, my site is La Palma on the Oso Peninsula!!!! I could not be happier. I'm located a 15 min walk from the beach and I will be living in my own cabina with my own bathroom. I could not be happier, this is perfect. YAY!!!!!! I am so happy about my placement and the projects that I'll be working on. I'll be replacing a current volunteer named Matt who will be in site with me for the first 3 months. Okay, this is all I have time for, but I'm going to visit my site for a week this Thursday and will post lots of pics of my future home! Yay, this is so perfect.

This is my Acosta training group, we are all going to opposite sides of CR. We are all really happy with where we are going, but sad to be so far apart.

GRRRRR

2009-04-29T10:54:00.004-06:00

Okay, it seems the link to my pics was not that great, so here we go agian. There should be pics from the Volcano, Boruca and my first days in Acosta. More to come...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36935590@N03/

So, this week I am doing a week of technical training and let´s just say I`m putting up with it, but I´m not really that fond of it. Imagine that you go to a random town, live with a family that you don´t know for a week, you don´t have half of you things because it took you 8 hours to get there and you wanted to pack light. Then, you have a ton of projects to do that you´re not really all that into. I mean, right now, I´m preparing to give a talk to elementary school kids on pollution and I´m so not into it... Okay, that´s my mini vent for the day. Lot´s of really cool things have happened in this week too, I´ll make sure to write about that too. Right now, I´m just really not feeling the pollution talk in Spanish.

English Class

2009-04-26T16:04:00.000-06:00

For the last 2 weeks on Tuesday I have been giving english classes and for the most part they are going well. For the first english class I had the students (I think there were six) choose a song and we listened to it and translated it and talked about what the song meant. Much to my dismay they were in love with the Katy Perry song Hot and Cold. This song is horrible, or maybe not horrible, but at least it`s way over played and when I was leaving the states I was not sad to leave that song behind. But anyway, we listened to the song about 10 times and we all learned a lot. I hope. It´s good practice since they will be able to learn all of the words and will be able to recognize them when they hear them. In Costa Rica there is a pretty big problem with the students being able to read and write english, but not able to understand or speak it at all. I plan to focus on these two aspects in my classes in the future. For my second class I had my student learn a section of a Friends episode. He had a lot of fun.

Okay, I have some news, I have a new host family and I´m really enjoying my new family. I really really love my new host mom and feel really good about my new family.

More news: For the next week I´ll be in Guanacaste doing technical training. I´ll try and blog throughout the week, I´ve already got some really funny stories, but I´ll share them later....

2009-04-14T18:42:00.002-06:00

Okay apparently I need to clarify my comment about the toilet paper. I have toilet paper, gracias a Dios, but I'm not allowed to throw the toilet paper that I use into the toilet, you throw it in a trashcan in the bathroom. The only thing allowed in the toilet is, well, lets say 100% organic... Hope that clears things up a little, my bad!

Things this week are going great. My month crisis has passed and I'm finding my flow. I found an awesome gym and have going as often as is possible. It is a great way for me to feel a little bit of normal in my life and you all know how much I love to hang out at the gym.

Tonight I'm teaching an English class and tomorrow I'm working with a group to help them with their organization. This is a practice run for the business advising that we will be doing during our service. My Acosta group (aka. Team America, I'll write more on this later) will be doing a swot analysis for the group that will hopefully help them to reorganize a little. Thank you MSU-Billings for making me write a hundred swot analysis throughout my years there!

Check out some pics. More to come soon

2009-04-10T17:31:00.002-06:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=sets

These are my pics from my trip to Boruca. Hope you enjoy them!

The month crisis

2009-04-09T16:36:00.003-06:00

When I studied abroad in Spain they had what they called the month crisis. After just about a month of being away from home, but still staring a year or so in the face, students would have a mini meltdown. For some it was more dramatic than it was for others. I think I was just a little grumpy and tried to call home and write a lot. That being said, I've now been in CR for a full month and I think I've hit yet another month crisis. Nothing big or unexpected, I think mostly it's getting adjusted and realizing that I have only been here for a month, but at times it feels like a century. Our days are so packed and we have so much to take care of that it really feels like we live two days each day. But, I know that really long journeys get easier as you go. When you're getting ready to walk 1,000 miles, it must seem like you haven't even made a dent in the journey for the first 100. Anyway, that's a little insight into my current world, next week could be the best one yet. I'm really just trying to keep it all in perspective.

So, a little tid bit about Costa Rica. As and American, I have adapted easily to the no toilet paper in the toilet, to the cold shower, to the constant rice and beans, but one thing that is really hard for me is the adapting to the walking pace of the Tico. You have never seen anything like it in your life and it's a sure fire way to drive a gringa crazy. Ticos don't really walk, they kind on randomly meander. A walk that I could do in 15 min will take a minimum of 30. We have to stroll and stop to rest a lot and then we have to stop to talk and then we have to stop to just stop. Oh man. It is so hard for me to deal with, you have no idea! Today I was walking with these 4 girls and it almost killed me. I have to laugh about it though, what a great lesson in patience. They just are not in a hurry and they really don't like to exercise. That's it, it's just a different way of doing things. On Saturday we are heading to a volcano for a day trip... Pics to come.

Laura

A weekend in Boruca...

2009-03-31T18:19:00.002-06:00

This past weekend I went to visit a current volunteer in a small indigenous village called Boruca. This is one of the few indigenous villages that remain in Costa Rica. I had such a great time there, you can't imagine how different life in Boruca is not just from the states, but from where I am in Acosta. The majority of the population still cooks over fire (even if they have a stove, they say it's just how they would rather do it). I was lucky enough to stay will a lovely band of women that some how reminded me of the women in the book/movie The Secret Life of Bees. The family consists of the mother, her daughter who lives a stones throw away, her two daughters, the woman who helps them with their store but also lives most of the time with them in their house, her daughter and then the PC volunteer Mariana. They were so much fun to watch and hangout with. I was immediately welcomed and felt like a part of the family. I loved watching how much they cared for each other and how powerful each one was in her own way.

I met so many great people in the span of 3 days. One man named Noel was nice enough to invite Mariana (they are friends) and myself to his farm so that he could show us his fruit trees and we could eat fruit off the tree. It was incredible. I ate coco seeds, coconuts from the tree and a fruit called granadilla and I think a water apple, not sure what it was, but it was good! I saw so much, it's hard for me to give a good break down of my time there. Just know that I wish I could go back and have that be my site, the whole town was so incredible!

That's all I have for now, I have a lot more stories to share, but I'll have to save that for another time!

Miss you all,
Laura

Check out some photos at this link. Let me know if it doesn't work.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36935590@N03/show/

Usted tiene telefono?

2009-03-20T21:40:00.000-06:00

Two things:

1. I hate barking dogs. Why do people just let dogs bark, it's annoying.

2. I hate not having a phone. I think I'm going through cell phone withdrawal issues at the moment. I have tried for the past 4 days to call and talk to John without success. You maybe thinking, what's the big deal, just call back. It's not so easy. I can't just pick up my phone and call because, lets think, I don't have one and neither does my house. To talk on the phone I have to grab my computer, walk for like 5 min up a hill; ask my friend/fellow volunteer Mick to open the door for me; sit and chat with his host family for 30 min. then get in the room; hookup my computer, start it and hope that the internet is working. This is a process people! I'm talking a process. The days of just deciding to make a call are gone. I only have 2,000 colones per day to spend and when a phone card is 500, that's a lot of my pay! Anyway, I really have no cause for complaint since I'm on of the few who have such easy access to internet and for free, we're the only town.

I found an women's soccer team to play on and play with them for the first time on Thursday night. They call it fut 5, which is similar to indoor. It was awesome, I had so much fun everyone there was so nice to me and they have invited me onto the team. I'm so happy I found them! I was in San Jose today for classes and will be back tomorrow.

Have fun!

PST

2009-03-16T20:00:00.003-06:00

We have left our compound and have headed to our homes for the next 3 months. I´m living with a roommate named Gabriela and her daughter Ada. You may notice that I`m writing in very simple sentences and that`s because the Spanish has begun full on and now and to match my Spanish language level it seems my English abilities are also on their way down. I´m excited to not be able to write or speak either language well. My Spanish is coming back to me quickly, but I still have a long way to go.

My town is a beautiful pueblo in the mountains called Acosta and I really like it. All of the people have been soooo welcoming and my host sister has really made me feel right at home. So far we are just learning and getting settled in. I have 3 other volunteers with me in the town and I don´t doubt that by the end of our time we will be great friends.

I made it!!!

2009-03-11T17:23:00.003-06:00

I wanted to post a quick update. I made it! After a really really really long day that began last night at 1:30am east coast time and did not end until around 1:00pm mountain time I am at a retreat with 52 other volunteers. We are training for the next few days and the schedule is pretty packed. Here is the summary:

Day 1 -

First earth quake or "tremor" not sure of the difference, but I know the room shook. (This is my first ever and it was weird)

The people are great, everyone is really nice and I'm excited to get to know them.

I miss John a lot.

Getting closer...

2009-02-06T09:56:00.001-07:00

Today I received an e-mail from the Peace Corps giving me all of my travel details. On March 10th I'll arrive in Washington DC and go to registration at 1:30pm where we will fill out paperwork and sign in. Then we have a class from 3:00pm to 7:00pm. Next they have a buss pick us up at 2:00am to take us to the airport where we will fly to Florida and then onto Costa Rica.
I have been feeling so great and so calm and assured with the Peace Corps, today I felt a major spike in nerves. This does not mean that I'm doubting my decision, I just realize how much I have to do and just how hard it is going to be to take that first step. From experience I can tell you that the hardest part of starting any big adventure is just getting there. You have to say all of your goodbyes and let go of everything. When you're away, you just have to have faith that everything will work out and will be taken care of. I'm really lucky to have a lot of really great people to support me. That's the update for now. I'm about to call the PC travel company and book my flight.