Computers!
Getting silly with the girls...
Most flattering uniforms ever
Last weekend was full of parties near and far, in some cases a little too near. Every near during the summer, the Quebradas Development Association puts on a big three-day “turno” right across from the soccer field, which also happens to be right next to my apartment. It is three days and nights of non stop music, karaoke, food, drink and all the noise, trash and good times that generally entail. A local band called Los Talibanes (which I later learned acquired their name soon after 9/11 because the lead singer’s name is Bin – they’re not so concerned about political correctness here…) played every night and the majority of the community showed up even though it rained in the afternoons.
Anyways it was pretty fun and funny how all the adults bring their kids and get drunk while the kids run around and play tag on the soccer field and nobody seems to mind. Unfortunately for me, though, my general routine of passing out by 10pm was disrupted for three nights straight, which was particularly tough because on Saturday morning, I woke up at 4:30am to head with the new volunteers in Quebradas to San Gerardo de Rivas to watch 250 crazy people race up Chirripo, the highest mountain in Costa Rica and second highest in Central America. It is a big all-weekend festival as well, but super inspiring and amazing to see these people without an ounce of fat on their bones leave the starting line at 7am and show up before 10:30am, accomplishing what takes most people two full days in less than 3 and a half hours. It definitely made me want to at least hike up the mountain, though not quite as quickly…
Sunday morning was the highlight, a Quebradas women’s soccer game versus a neighboring community, Miravalles. My friend had told me about the game about a week before, and we trained three times last week, with about five people showing up each time and about two of us actually knowing how to play. But incredibly enough, 20 women arrived the day of the game ready to play, including my friend Adrienne, a ringer we brought in from Canaan. We had a pretty big audience since the turno was still going on, and everyone was worried because Miravalles is supposed to be pretty good, and it turned out they were. We ended up coming back from losing 3-1 to tie the game 3-3, much help from Adrienne and me, and we had the whole crowd pretty riled up and I had big hopes of making my name in Quebradas history, until I missed my penalty shot and we ended up losing. Big bummer. However, all the girls seemed really pumped after the game and impressed by how Adrienne and I played and how fit we were (although we had both been complaining before about how out of shape we felt…it’s all relative) and enthusiastic about continuing with the team. So that would be a really fun thing to get going, and it was great to see women from the community running around outside of the house and having fun.
Monday was a bit of a downer, as my new cell phone was stolen out of my pocket on the bus. It was a big ordeal to get the phone and it is going to be a big ordeal to get another and I was pretty upset and frustrated with myself for not being very aware. But that evening, the great news arrived that the government computers I had solicited in October would be delivered to FUDEBIOL the next day. And sure enough, they showed up and were entirely installed, equipped with cameras, headphones, all the most recent software, and desks and chairs. Pretty exciting and should be a great resource for the biological reserve and people who work/volunteer there as well as the nearby community members. So that is just one example of how fast my life can go from up to down to up again in the Peace Corps.
Other than that, we are still moving forward with the school garden and recycling, working on the next community newspaper and potentially getting and “intern” from a nearby university to support the project, and I met with a guy today who recently moved here and is interested in starting a rural tourism project by building super low-cost suspended bamboo huts on family fincas. And most excitingly, my dad is coming tomorrow to visit for a week! So we will both have our work cut out for us…
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