Living in Costa Rica: Heath's Journal: July 2008

I know it has been a long time since I last wrote, which means I have a lot to talk about. He it goes:

About 4 weeks ago we had an optional training event in San Jose, which I went to, about a program to teach micro-enterprise development in the high school. That night I went back to my training town, Jerico, with the other volunteers from there and spent the night in my old host-family’s house. It was quite nostalgic for us, remembering all the good//bad/awkward times we had there. The following day we all got a hotel in San Jose and had a party for Tico 15 who was closing service and leaving for the US the following week. I came back Sunday evening and since there are no busses to my town on Sunday I had to walk over 3.5 hours from the highway up the mountain roads (most of it in the dark and pouring rain) to get to my town.

The next 4 days I just hung out in my town and did my thing until Thursday when a bunch of us met up at Jaco Beach for a couple nights to celebrate the 4th of July. We rented a little cabina a block from the beach and had a really good time. It was quite the adventure finding my way to Jaco from my town. I had to take 4 different busses. The bus from my town had to be pulled up the mountain with a truck because it was too muddy to make it out on its own.

The following week a bunch of college students from the University of Costa Rica came to my town studying the area, which they believed to be a good place to start a rural tourism project. They stayed in the national park down in the valley and walked up every day for almost a week (a 3 hour walk up a steep mountain). They organized a town meeting in my community center and explained to the town some possible tourism projects that would be possible to implement. The people who came to the meeting thought it was a great idea and we have had two meetings since then and are in the process of forming a “junta de tourismo communal:” An organized tourism group to start researching projects and see what we have to do to put our ideas into action. I will give you more details later after we have our next meeting this weekend.

Now that I have been in my town for over two months I feel like I am getting to know a good amount of people and almost everyone knows/has seen me. People are starting to invite me to their house more and I have been making friends/acquaintances with the important people of the town. I have even had other families ask me to move in with them. I guess what I’m saying is that little by little I am starting to feel more comfortable here. I still have a long way to go with my Spanish and I still have my share of awkward moments buts it’s either getting better or I’m starting to get used to it.

I am still teaching English in the high school to 11th and 12th graders. We are supposed to have class every Monday and Wednesday in the afternoon for about an hour and a half. Monday and Wednesday are supposed to be the later days when there is class until 2:30-3:00ish and there is an open window of time for me to teach between 1:00 and 2:30. More often than I would like the teachers find an excuse to leave early and there is no afternoon classes. Sometimes it’s because there isn’t enough food to feed the kids lunch, sometimes its because it looks like its going to rain and the kids don’t want to walk home in the rain, and sometimes I show up and they are already gone.

I am definitely unimpressed with the rural education system here. The students spend more time in recess than in class, there is little discipline, and the teachers can come and go as they please, they rarely stay until 3:00 like they are supposed to. The school itself is basically a big open barn with 5 different classrooms set up in different corners. It is very loud and distracting and I can tell a lot of kids aren’t paying attention most of the time. Hopefully things will get better after we build the new high school with separate classrooms.

About a week and a half ago 12 American came to my town to build the aqueduct to bring water to the new high school, which we hope to start building in November. They were from a group called Leader Treks and most from a Christian camp in Wisconsin. It was all girls except for the leader. It was a lot of fun having them around for a while. They worked really hard and had really positive attitudes. Because of them I went to the church in my town for the first time, which was a pretty interesting experience. There was more singing and clapping than any church service I have ever been to. If we weren’t there, there would have only been 5 people at the service. In the afternoons they held activities for the youth of the community, which allowed me the chance to meet and/or become better acquainted with many kids from the area.

In the short time they we here the group became very popular with the youth of the town, especially the boys. Everyone was sad to see them leave and a lot of them were sad to go. We had a nice little going away party the night before and all the kids left the high school and elementary school the next day to go outside and officially say goodbye when the taxies came to pick them up.

The Friday of that week I went to Tamarindo Beach with a friend from my town. Luckily his aunt has a house about 15 minutes from the beach. We stopped there and met up with his two cousins and went to the beach “too look for the ladies in the string bikinis” as they kept saying. We hung out on the beach until the sunset, enjoyed the nightlife for a while and took a bus back to the house. We never did find any girls in string bikinis. When we all woke up the next morning they offered to let me ride one of their bulls before they went off to work in the fields. As tempting as it sounded at 5:30 am after a night at the beach, I had to respectfully decline their offer. After breakfast we were on the 6:30 bus back to Nicoya. On a side note, everyone gets up really early here. Usually between 5:00 and 5:30. One day I slept until 8:30 and my family thought I must have been sick or something.

There is a lot more that has happened that I haven’t mentioned but this is already getting too long so I will try to wrap it up.

I have been reading a lot of books here. In the last 2 months I have read:

-Into the Wild by John Krakaur
-Drop City by T.C. Boyle
-The Kite Runner by Khajed Hosseini
-The Life of Pie by ?
-Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
-Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
I am currently reading a The Haves and the Have-Nots, an anthology of short stories by various historic/famous authors analyzing economic distribution and the class system in America.

I am also slowly working my way through books in Spanish but I don’t find this as enjoyable. I am still lacking so much vocabulary that I have to use my dictionary way too much. I also don’t understand most idiomatic expressions usually I read a few page and have only a basic idea of what’s going on in the story.

Some historic information: 184 years ago today, July 25th, the independent state of Guanacaste decided to become part of the republic of Costa Rica, increasing the size of the country by almost 20 percent. Every year there are big parties and festivals throughout the province, especially in the three main cities: Liberia, Santa Cruz, and Nicoya. Nicoya, although being the smallest, is the most historic with a colonial church dating back to the early 1500’s.

Right now I am in an Internet café in Nicoya and the city has transformed itself into a big party. There are venders everywhere, all kinds of traditional food, cloths, art, parades, and music. There is a big stage set up for a concert later tonight, and mechanical rides in the central park. It kinda reminds me of the Altamont fair. I heard a rumor that the president of the country is coming either tonight or tomorrow night to give a little speech. I’m meeting up with a girl soon who lives here and she’s gonna show me around and stuff and I guess I’m going to hang out with her and her friends tonight. I have to make sure I get back to my town at a reasonable hour because I’m supposed to help the pastor of our church plant corn at 7:00am.

Anyway thanks for reading I and will try to keep this updated more frequently so I don’t have to write such long posts. Hope you enjoy the picture.

My host brother in his favorite shirt.

The church

The bar

The church across from the bar.

This is the main crossroads in my town. I live down the road on the left, the national park is down the road to the right, and if you keep going strait you eventually get to the beach after passing through a few other small town. Behind me the road leads up to the school and soccerfield area.