Work, work, work

While everyone around me seems to be winding down for the end of the year (since Costa Ricans don’t celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving, they start decorating for Christmas and acting like it’s Christmas toward the end of October…), I have been running around like crazy for the past couple weeks, to the point where my host father joked it must be a holiday when I sat down with them for a meal for the first time in days.

Things filling my time:

Recycling - We are doing one last push before school gets out, which includes a big campaign at the school on December 5 with an art exposition of Christmas decorations made out of recycled materials that the kids are working on in class. Yesterday some of the women from the committee went over to the house of another woman in the community who is very artsy and has an amazing workshop with every kind of craft material you could imagine. She also makes her own costumes and is often seen dressed as a clown in various parts of the Zona Sur spreading the word of God to children, but hey. Anyways we made this gigantic yellow banner that says: Recycle, Dec. 5, the Earth needs it, except in Spanish. So our publicity is looking much better than the last campaign.

Artisan group – Roger, the president of the Quebradas Artisan Association who came with me to the Peace Corps PDM workshop, and I presented our vision and work plan to the group last week, and they were generally receptive and excited, so we chose a date for the art exposition, December 13, and started assigning tasks and deadlines. In every group I’ve worked with, it is incredible, no one will have any ideas, and then as soon as we start talking about the food portion of the event, EVERYone pitches in at once. So needless to say, the kitchen committee is overflowing and we’re a little light on logistics and publicity, but the exciting thing is that we have an event planned where the artists will have an opportunity to exhibit and hopefully sell some of their work.

Other artisan group – We finally got all the forms and receipts and photocopies turned in for the $8000 donation the women’s recycled paper group is applying for. At the last minute, when we thought we had everything together, DINADECO, the government agency that oversees the donations, told us all the receipts we had gathered had to be in the name of the local development association instead of the women’s group, and the book containing the official act where our community approved the project had to be revised as well. Oh bureaucracy…So it was a last minute push but we got it in and now we just have to keep our fingers crossed!

Greenhouse – So after spending weeks asking businesses for free stuff and helping chop and lug bamboo down to the school, I showed up on Sunday morning at 7am when a few father’s from the community were supposed to help build the greenhouse, and only one guy showed up to tell me that the others had been partying all night and were probably really hung over. Awesome. So he said he would try to find another time but it would be a lot better if we could just pay someone to do it because that is the only way to guarantee they’ll show up. I had already been shut down by the school director multiple times, as she has made it clear that they are low in funds, and anything they do raise is not going to go to environmental education since there are many other priorities. Then today she told me to make sure to take pictures of our recycling banner to send in to the Ministry of Education to show them what good work we’re doing, but that’s an aside. Anyways today I was making angels out of toilet paper rolls and wire hangers with the 6th grade girls when an American woman I had met once at the Internet Café came into the classroom and told me that every year, her nieces and nephews like to make a joint donation to different charities, and this year they had decided to give it to the environmental education program at the school. And just like that she handed me an envelope with 50.000 colones, which is about $100! God bless those wealthy gringas…Anyways this was obviously very uplifting and hopefully the solution to the greenhouse dilemma, but we’ll see.

Community Newspaper – After about 15 hours of sitting with Javier at his very slow and old computer that took 10 minutes every time it saved a version of the publication, we finished the design and I think it looks great. The cover and back cover and first page and last page are going to be in color this time, and we have more ads and more articles from more community members. The paper was sent to print yesterday, so hopefully it will be ready by some time next week.

I’m also still going strong with English classes, Chicas Super-Poderosas, technology for old ladies, and Junior Achievement with the kids that live up by FUDEBIOL. And there has been some time for fun, including going to visit Adrienne for a night in her Canaan. It was cool to meet her host family and see how she relates to her community, which is way smaller than mine, only 150 people! So she literally knows everyone and I kind of feel like I know everyone after my visit. We also took a walk down to Monte Azul, the hotel where my dad and Lynne and Liza stayed when they visited, and were fed fresh-baked English muffins with herbed goat cheese and sent home with a bag of home made cookies. Just like visiting family!

And now I am in store for even more fun and TLC. Am about to get on a bus to San José and meet my mom, and then we will head to Tamarindo, for Thanksgiving and a weekend at the beach, with visits from a few other Peace Corps Volunteers. I am yet to see a turkey dead or alive in this country, but apparently they’re out there, and it should be delicious!