Read all about it! (10/10/09)

It’s been a pretty eventful past week, the most exciting part being that the first issue of La Voz Quebradeña came out last Friday. We had paid for 200 copies but the printer printed 300, so there were plenty to go around. I was thrilled when I saw the first copy, both because it was very satisfying to see a tangible outcome of one of my projects, but mostly because they guy who designed it did a fantastic job and it looks really professional. I have a PDF version but I can’t find a way to post it on my blog so if anyone wants me to e-mail them a copy let me know.
Anyways I distributed the copies at all the local pulperías, the Internet Café, the mini-supers, and the bar, and I also tried to hand them out personally to everyone who had bought an ad or written an article and thanked them for their support. It was really well-received and so cool to see people reading it in the street and getting excited to see their names, photos, or ads. I even got a phone call from a woman I had never met congratulating me and saying she couldn’t wait for the next one! So all the feedback has been very encouraging and I hope it leads to more people wanting to contribute in one way or another to the next publication, which will come out in December.
Last weekend was packed with various meetings and activities, including movie and sleepover with Peace Corps friends Adrienne and Liz, the annual assembly of the local artisans group, for which I am proud to say I actually helped prepare the arroz con pollo, spending the night at FUDEBIOL hanging out with some university students over chicharrones (basically pig fat…mmmmmm) and beer, and then an all-day strategic planning session with the university students about FUDEBIOL and it’s future goals. It was actually a pretty productive session and people shared a lot of good ideas, but the frustrating part is that it is much harder to get people to act on them, especially since everything requires time and money, neither of which the leaders of this organization seem to have to offer.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I started an “Exploring the Internet” class with six women from the women’s group in Quebradas that runs the volunteer exchange program. They want to be able to connect with more tourism and volunteer organization to expand their clientele, but none of them have any idea how to manage their web page or check their email address, both of which Porter, the volunteer before me, helped set up for them. So I am starting the class once a week at the Internet Café for those of them that are interested in learning. During the first class, after going over the VERY basics of how to turn on the computer and use the mouse, I taught them how to Google things. First they googled their own web page to see how a client would find it, and I had them do whatever they were interested in and they came up with recipes, love advice, images of volcanoes and waterfalls etc. and they were SO excited to realize how much is available out there. So although it’s a SLOW process, and even tougher because the Internet at the Café is pretty spotty, I think they are really motivated by all the things they could do on the Internet and by seeing their kids know how to use it so well. Last week we set up personal email accounts for all of them and I am thinking that this week we might try gchat. Anyways, I think I’m enjoying it both because of how much they’re enjoying it and because it makes me feel like a technological whiz, which is a rare occasion.
Then on Wednesday through Friday I was in San José to help edit another newspaper, though this time in English. La Cadena is the countrywide Peace Corps publication that comes out three times a year with articles from volunteers and staff. A spot was open for an editor that left so I am the newest member, and the other two are girls in Tico 18 who have already been here a year and a half. So the big perk is that we get three paid work days in San José to do the editing and layout, so we spent the days in the Peace Corps office working but got to stay in a hotel and hang out and try new restaurants (which we then reviewed for the paper) at night. It was fun to get to know some volunteers from the previous generation and also see all the staff in the office and become a little more familiar with San José. My main takeaway from my urban explorations is that there were no crosswalks to be found. I actually had to run across two highways and a divider at one point to get to the supermarket (my sincere apologies Connie if you are reading this). So not the most charming city, but we did find some good restaurants and a nice park to run in.
I got back super late last night and then had to get up bright and early for our first recycling campaign. The name really makes it sound more exciting than it was, but we basically advertised and spread the word all week that the school would be open from
8-12 for anyone who has been storing material in their houses and can bring it by. It got off to a slow start and I was a little worried that everyone would get discouraged, but then people started coming by and other people saw people coming by and remembered they had material in their house too, and by 11 we were pretty booming and had the whole committee and a few kids helping clean and separate. We collected 532 glass bottles, and when we get to 5,000 Coca Cola will build us a real Centro de Acopio where we can separate and store our recycling, so we’re one tenth of the way there! The only problem is where we’re going to store all those bottles in the mean time, since right now the bags of recycled goods are going under a tin roof next to the school cafeteria, which is neither very clean nor very large.
Anyways I thought it was a successful first campaign and hope that more and more people will catch on every time. The best part was definitely the kids who are in my environmental education classes who came with their parents to drop off their recycling and were really proud that they had gotten their parents involved.
So now I am totally exhausted and will probably go to sleep before 9. Another wild Saturday night in Quebradas!

10-11
So it turns out after high hopes for finally going to bed early some friends called to go watch the Costa Rica-Trinidad and Tobago game so I got out of my pajamas, which I had been wearing since 4pm, and went out with them which ended up being really fun because both Costa Rica AND thus US won, so everyone was happy!