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?