AVC and PDM

Well-fed and cultured in San José

Just like being a freshman girl all over again...

Proud Peace Corps representatives

Tica'd Out


These are two of the many Peace Corps acronyms that have filled my past two weeks to the brim. It’s been super fun but super exhausting. Last week was our annual All Volunteer Conference, the only time when every single Peace Corps Volunteer in the country is in the same place at the same time. The conference is organized by volunteers but staff are there also. This year we spent three nights at a campsite/recreation center in Cartago, right outside San José. Activities ranged from project fairs and committee presentations to trivia night, a Ropa Americana (sober) dance party, talent show, and staff-performed operetta composed by our new Country Director. The food was disappointing and the weather was a little cold and rainy, but it was a really well-organized and much-needed event to bring us all together, give us a break from our sites, and inspire us with stories of all the cool and creative things other volunteers are doing. For me it was especially interesting to get to know more of the Tico 18 Volunteers, who have been here for a year longer than me, and see how they have approached their service and hear their advice and how they are feeling now that they are almost done and thinking about their next steps.

I spent Saturday night in San José with some other volunteer friends, and it was the most positive experience I’d had yet in the capital city. Previously, I really only knew the touristy area downtown and the part around the Peace Corps office. But thanks to a fantastic recommendation, we found a cute and cheap bed and breakfast in a quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of downtown with lots of park space, beautiful colonial architecture, cool restaurants and a zoo! THIS is what I had been looking/hoping for and thinking had to exist somewhere in a big city with a somewhat sophisticated population. Anyways we indulged in just about everything: saw the Michael Jackson movie at the mall, found hummus and pita, frozen yogurt, South African wine, a jazz café, and bagels. It was pretty awesome and for the first time left me wanting to come back and explore San José more.

Two days after getting back to my site, I packed my backpack again and headed to a three-day INTENSE Project Design and Management Workshop. Fortunately for me, the workshop for the Zona Sur was being held at FUDEBIOL in my community, so I didn’t have to go far. Eight volunteers from my area attended with counterparts from their community as well as four Peace Corps staff members. The idea of the workshop is to introduce Peace Corps Volunteers and someone they are working with on a project in their community the Peace Corps methodology for developing, monitoring and evaluating projects. This is where we got super acronym heavy, so I’ll spare you most of the details, but it was actually the most useful and productive training I have experienced with Peace Corps so far, partly because I was with someone from my community, and partly because it was very focused and well-run and applicable to what I am working on.
It was also really fun and interesting to see my peers interacting with their counterparts and get to know people from their communities and hear about projects they are working on. There was definitely a good amount of awkwardness in that we were all staying together in bunk beds in the lodge and trying to speak Spanish to be polite but slipping into English because that’s what we’re used to speaking together. The days were jam-packed with sessions from 8am-6pm, but there were good meals and snacks in between and fun activities in the evening, including seriously competitive games of Banana-grams and a viewing of El Ultimo de los Mohicanos…

I decided to bring the president of the artisan group I am working with, and the project we focused on was their much talked about but never acted upon dream of having their own workshop to do trainings for the community and sell their products. He gets very excited about things and was fun to work with though sometimes dominated the sessions and conversations a bit, but I much preferred that over someone who would have been too shy to participate. Anyways we came out of the workshop with a vision, mission, objectives and work plan that we feel really good about. The hard part, as always, will be getting the rest of the group committed and involved. But we are going to present our work to them on Tuesday and solicit feedback and hope it gets them motivated.

Now I am finally back in my site, doing LOTS of laundry and trying to get organized and think about what I want to get done by the end of the year, which is sneaking up fast, and how I might want to reevaluate and rethink my priorities and work for next year. I am almost at my six month in community mark, and I think I have a better sense now of what I most enjoy doing and where I can have the most impact.

I also have many exciting countdowns going, including less than two weeks until my mom’s Thanksgiving visit followed by a big move to my own apartment! Now we just have to scour this country for a turkey…