Euphoria (10/22)

Team Eco-Animos

The PCV's and our products

Mother-daughter dance group (don't get any ideas, mom...)

Swearing-in of the socios

Beautiful view, beautiful people

It is 10:40 pm and I have to get up in less than five hours to take a bus to San José, but I want to remember one of my biggest highs since I’ve been here. Tonight we inaugurated the Quebradas Community Credit Enterprise, and after six months of trainings and a few weeks of planning, during all of which I was unsure we could really pull this off, it was a beautiful event. Everything came together at the last minute, as things tend to do here, and we made it work. There was no stereo, so we put the microphone up to my computer as three ladies performed a folk dance with their children. Don Gilberth’s motivational video wouldn’t function, so he just decided to wing it and began drawing fantastic metaphors between the construction of the first road in Pérez Zeledón and building our CCE in Quebradas. A very well-known and loved man in the community died on Wednesday and his funeral fell at the same time as our activity, as well as the school’s bingo fundraiser, so there was the most traffic I’ve ever seen in the center of Quebradas. But everyone still showed up, and afterwards they went to pray, play bingo, or next door to the bar, in my case. There were tamales and gallos for all, we had a lovely passing of the torch ceremony accompanied by Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the violin by a nine-year-old investor, and somehow we were able to clean up in less than half an hour and everyone went home content. It is these rare moments in my Peace Corps experience that make me so happy and so sure I am in the right place.

10/24

I was not as happy when my alarm went off at 3:30 am the next morning, or when the taxi I was sharing with one of my students showed up at 3:31 and I had about four minutes to get ready. But before 4 am I was on a bus with 22 Junior Achievers on our way to San José for the product fair. We spent the entire day at the Plaza del Sol mall selling our shampoo, bath gel and aromatic candle packages amongst many other stands of students participating in the program throughout the country selling everything from candy to computer cases to car servicing in the parking lot. It was a pretty impressive production and of course I am biased but I think my group did great. Their stand looked really good and they were very professional in explaining and selling our product. There were eight judges walking around doing interviews and taking notes, and then just people passing through the mall whose attention they caught. They didn’t sell as much as they were hoping, and it was a very long and exhausting day that involved a lot of standing around, but I think it was a really good learning experience and everyone left seeming motivated and satisfied. We have four more weeks of the course, which entails selling all our leftover product, liquidating the company, and going to the closing ceremony where prizes are awarded to the best micro-enterprises and entrepreneurs.

Workwise, this was definitely one of my most fulfilling 24 hours as a Peace Corps Volunteers. Two of my big projects came to a head at once, and it was a bit overwhelming but people’s positive reactions to both our ECC inauguration and the project fair made me feel very satisfied and proud of what I have accomplished and helped other people accomplish in the past few months.

Rewinding a week, I had a wonderful visit from my mom and aunt Carrie for five days. The rented a car together and drove down to San José and despite getting seriously lost they made it over the Mountain of Death just in time to catch my Scouts meeting on Friday and give out chocolate to all the kids, followed by coffee and gallo pinto (which we forced my mom to try and she actually enjoyed it) at the home of a local artisan. On Saturday they came and bought some products from my Junior Achievers, helped make tamales with all the women from the ECC, ate lunch on Gilberth’s balcony overlooking all of San Isidro, and then had coffee and some mysterious sandwiches with the Board of Directors of FUDEBIOL before we headed down into San Isidro, picked up Chamisa and Adrienne, and drove to the coast for a lovely and relaxing weekend in Uvita. We stayed at a beautiful hotel in the mountains with a view of the national park and the ocean, ate and slept really well, and had lots of laughs. Aunt Carrie always brings life to the party.

My mom came back with me for one more day in Quebradas, came to my English class and talked a little about her job, which was really exciting for my students, came and watched the school kids plant and dig in our greenhouse, and spent a good chunk of time seriously cleaning my apartment. It looks better than it has since she helped move me in a year ago so I’m just hoping everything will hold up for my last six months.

Now I have less than a month before coming home for Thanksgiving, and things should be a little more low-key. Thanks to all who have donated to my renewable energy project so far and I will keep you updated on my progress!