I Got Sucked In

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The Happy Things in Life

David and Jeffry hauling lumber.


I just finished up a great week here in Santa Cruz. This past week I had a lot going on with a partnership between Peace Corps and Habitat for Humanity. Last Sunday a group of 9 arrived from the States to take part in a new type of "Exposure Trip" that Habitat is trying out. The group came to learn about the problem with housing here in Costa Rica, to help with the building of a Habitat house and also to help local Peace Corps Volunteers with their current projects. This is where I came in. We had a nice welcome dinner in Nicoya (about 30 minutes south of my town) on Sunday evening where we met all of the people involved. On Tuesday we all worked on the building of a house in another town about 30 minutes from my town in the opposite direction of Nicoya. That was a tough, hot day but it was really fun getting to know Bill, Sheri, Jon, Colleen, Kate, Rosie, Ian, David and Nicola. We moved two big piles of rocks and about 30 slabs of concrete wall closer to the work site in the blazing sun. It was a tough job but somebody had to do it. The next day, the group, including the group leaders, Kelly and Maribeth came to work in my albergue. This is where my greatest happiness took place. In the 5 hours that they were there, they scrubbed outside walls in the play area that were covered with dirt and crayon, picked up glass, separated good toys from the broken ones (there were very few good toys left in the end), built a roof and door on a storage shed, made a picnic lunch for the kids, paid to have all of the "junk" hauled off to the dump, PLUS they left a bunch of donated gifts for the children. They made such a big change at the orphanage that day that I was just ecstatic and so were all of the little kids. I think the caretakers were really happy to see such an improvement in the state of the albergue as well. It was a wonderful day. Today, I just finished up with a goodbye lunch for the group including slide show and dancing. The entire partnership was a great success and as much as I know the group made a big impact on the albergue, that experience working there made equally as big of an impression on the group. I just want to say a great big MIL GRACIAS to everyone for their time, effort and dedication to the week. You will always be in my heart.

August Updates from San Jose

Well, due to a few people's responses saying they do read my blog, I will continue posting. I am currently in the capital for a few days. Today I gave a presentation to current trainees on how to use recyclables as learning aids in the classroom. I am apparently a "pro" at this since I was an art major and work in the classroom. Yeah right. It went really well though. You should have seen my binoculars made out of toilet paper rolls and checker board made out of the inside of a cereal box. The entire presentation was a great hit. Tomorrow I head back to my site with a current trainee named Katie who I just met today. She is from Denver and will spend the next 3 days with me learning what it's like to actually live like a PCV and to observe my current projects. I went on the same trip about a year ago when I was a trainee and had just an OK time so I want to make sure that Katie has a REALLY GOOD time.

Earlier this week, I took a 3 day vacation with two of my closest PC friends to a beautiful beach which is located inside a National Park called Manuel Antonio. About 8 hours by bus from my town (three buses actually), it was probably one of the best beach experiences I have had so far here in CR. Too bad I couldn't have taken my parents there. Maybe if Jason comes to visit. Hint, hint! My friends Rebecca, Jennifer and I were in the water for all of 10 minutes when a raccoon came out of the forest and started rummaging through Rebecca's backpack for food. Luckily, he only got ahold of her plantain chips. It was a good time with good friends.

At the end of July, I finally got to participate in the Youth Conference put on by my fellow PCVs. I took 4 teenagers from my barrio to the 4 day camp in the mountains outside of San Jose. Everyone, and I repeat EVERYONE had a really good time. My friend Jennifer and I were camp counselors for a group of 7 13 year old girls. There were probably about 60 teens there in total and by the end of the long weekend, everyone was crying when it was time to go home and leave friends they had just made 4 days earlier. All of the kids from my town are begging me to take them back next year. I'm happy it was such a great success because a lot of time and money was put into planning the camp which focused on teaching the teenagers to make good decisions in regards to their futures. Sessions on continuing education, sexuality and starting projects in their communities were some of the lessons including lots of songs, skits, team work and hugs. I look forward to participating next year if there are funds to have another retreat of a similar nature.

That's about all from me for now. I hope everyone is doing well and my family and friends are in my prayers, especially my grandparents.