Busy busy busy

Introducing...Quebradas grupo #47 Guías y Scouts

Siempre lista!

The new face of ECC Quebradas

The DeWitt girls on the road to Turrialba

Night on the town

At the mall with the girls

So mid-June hit and my schedule for the following six weeks has been filled to the brim and will continue to be so through the end of July. Totally crazy, but all good things. From June 14-18, we had five full paid days at a fancy hotel in San José for our Tico 19 Mid-Service Training. It was filled with sessions reflecting on our first year of service and looking forward to our second year, sharing project ideas, giving feedback to Peace Corps staff, etc. We were fed every three hours between buffet breakfast, two cafecito breaks and lunch, and THEN for the first training ever we were actually free after 5p.m. to explore San José and choose our own dining options. One night we went to a mega-mall and ate TCBY and saw Sex and the City 2 among a young and metropolitan crowd, and it felt just like home. So all in all, a great break from my site to rejuvenate, see people I hadn’t seen in a while, eat good food, sleep in a super-comfy bed, take hot water showers and even watch some World Cup games on a big screen TV!

On the last night of MST, Liza got in from the US and crashed in our hotel and the next morning we went with a group of 25 volunteers and friends of volunteers on a river rafting trip in Turrialba. It was SO beautiful and the rapids were big enough that Liza and I both fell out of our boat at the same time, but not so big that it was actually scary. We spent an evening in Turrialba with Adrienne and Brigitte and then headed back to Quebradas on Sunday. It was back to work for me on Monday, and Liza went off to begin her volunteer program working on various organic farms in some nearby communities.

Highlights of my week included electing our Junta Directiva and selling our first stocks at the newly formed Quebradas Community Credit Enterprise, getting my Scouts uniform and marching in the weekend church parade to promote the group, which we are officially launching on Saturday, July 3 (si Dios quiere) and playing bingo with Liza and pretty much every single person in my community at a very successful church fundraiser on Sunday. It is so fun to have my sister around to hang out in the apartment and around Quebradas and I am so excited to get to see more of Costa Rica with her in the next month!

Now I am BACK in San José for two days, but this time it’s not as much of a vacation. We are slaving away at what will by my last edition of La Cadena, the quarterly national Peace Corps publication. Then I rush back to my site tomorrow morning in time for English class and to get organized for our Scouts launch, our first loan at the CCE, and a 4th of July visit from the DeWitt cousins. Who would’ve thought I could find a way to be THIS busy in the Peace Corps?

Scouts Camp

This was definitely one of the more remarkable weekends I have spent in Costa Rica. It began, in typical Katie DeWitt fashion, with me trying to participate in multiple activities that occur at the same time instead of choosing one or the other. As I now do every Friday evening, I went to teach my micro-finance course from 6-8, then literally ran back down the hill to my apartment, grabbed my pre-packed gear (which included a sleeping bag and pillow, a pan and dishware, clothes, toiletries, a costume and my “siempre listo” bag of tape, scissors, needle and thread, rope, tissues and a bandana) and made the 8:10 bus into San Isidro, where the Regional Director of Guías y Scouts picked me up and whisked me off to General Viejo, where the adventure really began.

When I arrived around 9pm, the 30 other “campers” were already divided into their troops diligently practicing their knot-tying. I was shown to my group, the Castoras (beavers) and immediately told to get out my rope and start practicing. They seemed a little peeved that I had arrived late, as it could possibly put them at a disadvantage in our evaluation since I would be behind on my knotting skills. Not to mention that I had NEVER tied a knot for any useful purpose other than my shoelaces in my life, and that all the names were in Spanish.

We were all out until 10:30 working on knots and then sent to our various tents to rest. I briefly saw Yajaira, José, and Nalleli, the three Scouts leaders from Quebradas and the reason I decided to do the camp, but we were all dispersed. I shared a tent with the five other beavers: Sharon (our leader), Yanoori, Roxana, Mayra and Yohana. The latter four were all mothers ages 25-45 who were interested in being Scouts leaders because their kids participate in various groups. Sharon was my age and VERY energetic and intense about being a leader, but that made here very good at it. Anyways they all seemed to lighten up once we were getting ready for bed, and we got to know each other a bit, but Sharon would not let us go to sleep until we had thought of a really good cheer for our group, which kept us up until 2am, when she announced that she was setting her alarm for 4:30 am so we could all be showered and ready for breakfast at 6. That was when I realized it was going to be a looooooong weekend…

Saturday was jam-packed from 6am to 11pm with sessions and activities on constructing with bamboo, using and maintaining tools (yes, mom, I had to sharpen a machete), putting up and taking down a campsite for all weather conditions, and planning and designing a campfire. The evening concluded with said campfire, during which our costumes were used, many songs were sung, and at the end marshmallows were handed out and I got SO excited that we were making s’mores, until I saw people just eating the marshmallows plain, without even roasting them.

We got slightly more sleep on Saturday but were still up by 5 on Sunday, as the Castoras were assigned flag-raising duty, and Sharon wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get it just right. Then we had various closing events, including some Bible-reading and reflection and our final knot-tying examinations (I think they went easy on me), and then packed everything up, had lunch and were out of there by 1pm. Saying goodbye to everyone felt like the last day of summer camp, and as the four Quebradeñans boarded our bus home, we were all giddy with excitement and exhaustion.

So, what was my takeaway from this most unique and intense of experiences? I’m still processing and running on not enough sleep, but I found that I enjoyed myself more than I’d anticipated and was thoroughly impressed with the entire operation. That is to say, these were not stereotypical Ticos in the sense of Pura Vida, arrive late to meetings, slow-paced, do-it-tomorrow attitudes. Every participant and director at that camp clearly had a passion for the organization and an energy that they wanted to do something productive with. Many of them have had similar experience in their communities in terms of lack of support from parents, lack of organization on the Board of Directors, lack of monetary resources for uniforms and other equipment, but they have all made it work because they believe in the values that the Guías y Scouts represent, for themselves and the kids they are sharing them with.

I still don’t know that the Scouts would have been for me as a kid, but in a country and culture that is often lacking in discipline, organizations, and defined goals, I think the organization can offer a lot to children and parents alike. It made me happy to see how much the other participants from Quebradas were enjoying themselves, and I hope that we can all bring the spirit of our experience back to the community and get the rest of the group excited and keep this project moving forward.

Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera, but many pictures were taken so I hope to get a hold of some soon and share with you all, just in case you don’t believe I can tie a butterfly, fugitive or fireman knot. Not sure I’d be capable of using them for anything useful, but they look good…