So yes, not that I’m counting, but I have now officially been in Costa Rica for a longer time than what remains of my Peace Corps service. This is particularly evident because Tico 18, the group that came a year before me, is on their way out next week, and Tico 20, the group that got here in March, have been assigned their sites and are about to be sworn in as PCV’s, like I was a year ago. Additionally, I remember since before I left talking with my mom about going to Peru a year into my service, and the trip finally came and went and was as or more amazing as I had imagined.
I met my mom and Dan in Lima on April 16, and from there we all flew to Cuzco the next morning and spent a week hiking through the Andes, exploring ruins, learning about ancient Incan and current Peruvian culture (which included drinking many Pisco Sours), and of course delighting in the wonder and mystery of Machu Pichu. The landscapes were beautiful and SO different from Costa Rica, as were the people. Much more indigenous influence and history. It was really interesting to experience another Latin American culture after being in Costa Rica for a year, and to imagine how different it would be to be a Peace Corps Volunteer there. We visited a tiny, poor town in the mountains called Hueloc where there was one telephone and one radio for the whole community and no other means of communication, everyone dressed in typical Peruvian weavings, the kids, many barefoot and dirty but all with big smiles, lined up and then clamored over us as we handed out bread, oranges and bananas, and there is no bus that comes anywhere near the windy dirt road that leads to the entrance of the community. It definitely made me realize how much more developed Costa Rica is on the scale of “developing” countries. But most of all, it was so wonderful to share the experience with my mom and Dan and as always, very hard to say goodbye.
Now I’ve been back in Quebradas for two weeks, recharged and slowly easing back into things. The big news is that we harvested our first vegetables in the school garden. That’s right, I, Katie DeWitt, made something grow. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds, and I was pretty heartbroken when during my first class back, it started to pour rain in the afternoon and the greenhouse completely flooded, knocking down two of our plant boxes and creating one big, muddy mess. Right, the rainy season is back, which will complicate everything for the next eight months…BUT the kids were great and didn’t mind getting muddy and helped dig a canal around the whole greenhouse to catch and divert the water, and we were able to salvage most of our work. The following week, we had a big bucket of radishes for the school dining hall as well as mustard lettuce and squash for the kids to take home. Everyone was very excited.
In other news, I started a new English class for beginners because there were so many people that had been asking me for it, so although I was entirely opposed to teaching English when I signed up for the Peace Corps, it turns out it is really important here because of the amount of tourism and ex-pats that live here, and it turns out I actually enjoy it and am finding it one of the best ways to really get to know people and empower them to achieve something they never thought they were capable of. I also started a computer class in our new computer center up at FUDEBIOL for the kids who live up there. Turns out, surprise surprise, that since I’m not very good at computers in English, it’s pretty tricky teaching someone else how to use them in Spanish, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Our fourth version of the community newsletter came out right before I left for Peru, and this time it was better quality print and more pages in color, which was exciting, but I think I am going to take a break from that for a bit and maybe start releasing it every four months instead of every two months and really try to start looking for someone who can take more responsibility in the project, because it is a lot of work and not very sustainable if I am doing most of it on my own. We officially formed the Board of Directors for our Guías y Scouts group and have a training tomorrow, so hopefully we will be able to sign up kids soon and really get moving. And finally, last Sunday I invited FINCA, the microfinance organization that Peace Corps works with, to give a charla on how to start a Community Credit Enterprise, and although not as many people showed up as I had hoped, most of those who did seemed really enthusiastic about the project, so hopefully they can pull some other good people into it and we can get a dedicated group together.
So as usual, I have lots going on, but have learned after a year of practice that these things all take more time than anticipated and that not all of them are going to work, or at least not in the way I expect them to. If nothing else, I think it’s a very valuable lesson…
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