Feria del Agua, super-sized

Last andaribel ride of the day

Water-ballooning with the Scouts

Our very intimidating women's soccer team

The ladies of AJAQ (Alianza de Jóvenes Ambientalistas de Quebradas)

Lamb or sheep? You tell me...

Dancing in the dark

Ribbon-cutting ceremony

This weekend was the culmination of many of my projects in Quebradas, and definitely a high point in my Peace Corps service. I think the experience is best represented by the fact that I wore three different uniforms in one day, as pictured above.
The excitement began on Friday night, when I met Ashley Campbell at the bus station in San Isidro. As promised, she was able to make time in her crazy med school schedule to come visit me before I left, and it was so great to give her a hug after a year and a half without seeing each other.

After a delicious meal at El Gato Sin Dueño (the best restaurant in San Isidro which I am sad to report is closing in June), I mentally prepared her for what was going to be a whirlwind weekend, and even more so for her in a foreign language.
On Saturday morning we went up with two Scouts’ mothers to Gilberth’s house, where he handed us giant raw legs of sheep and pig to chop up into pieces and marinate for the kebabs we were going to be selling on Sunday. Luckily, the mothers knew what they were doing and took charge, and Ashley and I stuck to the vegetables and the marinade.

We then headed over to FUDEBIOL, where at 11am there was a formal inauguration of three big new projects, two of which I helped fund. The mayor of San Isidro and local assemblywoman were there, as well as representatives from other organizations that had helped fund projects with FUDEBIOL, and all the former presidents of the foundation. They did a little presentation and the Junta members of FUDEBIOL said really nice things about all my contributions to the organization and presented me with a certificate, and the mayor recognized my accomplishments in his speech as well, which was pretty cool. Then we went outside for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the renovated office, the solar panels and the andaribel, a new installation which is kind of like a zipline except you sit down and have to peddle your way across the rainforest. I got to cut the ribbon for the solar panels, and everyone was really interested in the project and curious as to how it worked.

After a big lunch at FUDEBIOL, we got a ride back down to Quebradas, where I had to make an appearance at our development association’s annual assembly. Although I have hardly worked with them and they have never seemed very open to working with me, they insisted that I be there, so I knew they were planning something. After starting an hour late and sitting through all the formalities, they finally said they had someone special they wanted to recognize this year and called me up and actually apologized for not being more willing to work with me because now they saw how many contributions I had made in the community and they wished they had taken more advantage. Unfortunate that it took them this long to figure it out, but it was a really nice gesture, especially coming from a culture that does not like to acknowledge conflict or mistakes. They then presented me with a box of Costa Rican kitch: a Pura Vida t-shirt, a hot pink beach bag that says Costa Rica, and a magnet in the shape of a flip flop. Amazing.

THEN, we started making our way back up to FUDEBIOL, along with new additions Nisha and David from Tico 20, who came up for the weekend festivities. Luckily we were able to hitch a ride and had time to put on our party dresses before the evening’s event, a full moon concert in the woods, began. We settled into the albergue where we would be spending the night and then came down for our welcome cocktail, where we made Adrienne and Jostin and my friend José, who were all my guests for the evening. The concert began at around 6:30 with some classical pieces by high school students from the school of music in San Isidro. After a short intermission, “El Big Band” from the National University came on the stage and played some fun rock and roll and tropical music, which was really upbeat and even got some of us dancing on the grass by the end. At around 7:20, they called us all out from under the tents where we were sitting because the moon was beginning to rise above the trees, and they turned all the lights off on stage and started playing some jazz pieces. As we all stood there watching the full moon rise, the musicians came out into the crowd and serenaded us. I don’t think I have ever consciously watched the moon rise before, but it was pretty cool to do surrounded by nature, music and friends.

The celebration continued later that evening with a barbeque at Gilberth’s house. The menu included polenta, bleu cheese and caramel popcorn hors d’ oeuvres, followed by meat, meat and more meat. All the members of the FUDEBIOL Junta were there with their families, and everyone was in good spirits after the very successful evening. An in-depth conversation ensued about the difference between lamb and sheep (or cordero and oveja in Spanish) as we tried to figure out what we were actually eating. Conclusion: I’d rather not think about it. Then I broke a wine glass and we decided it was time for the gringos to go home.
Sunday morning started with a brisk hike through the FUDEBIOL trails with David, Nisha and Ashley, and then it was time to work as people were already starting to arrive for the Feria del Agua. I put on my first uniform, newly printed t-shirts that had our names on the front and the AJAQ logo and slogan on the back for the environmental youth group that was in charge of giving tours of the butterfly garden all day. They did a great job of getting organized and had even written down some talking points beforehand to help them on the tour.

After running back and forth for the first few hours between AJAQ, the Scouts mothers selling kebabs, and the Empresa de Crédito group selling snowcones, I suited up in my Scouts gear for our water-themed games, which included a water balloon toss that degenerated into everyone throwing balloons at each other. It got a little crazy, but a good time was had by all. After shoveling my face with my almuerzo campesino lunch, I changed into my final uniform of the day for our women’s soccer game and then stopped by the renewable energy charla that Purasol was giving before heading to the field. I was really excited to see that all day people were stopping by the solar panels and asking about them and seemed really fascinated by the technology. A nine-year old boy even asked how much the solar water heated cost because he was hoping to bring one home with him!
We had enough girls show up to the soccer game this time to have two subs, which is a huge success in itself. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone who likes/knows how to play goalie, and we got beat pretty bad, but everyone seemed to have fun and I scored two goals and Ashley played some solid defense, so no complaints.

Finally, it was time to change into regular clothes and pack up and help clean up and say goodbye to everyone. Ashley and I snuck in to be the last people of the afternoon to get to ride the andaribel, which was a fun way to end an exhausting but exhilarating weekend. We got a ride down from FUDEBIOL with Pierre and Arine, the Belgian and Dutch couple from Purasol, along with their baby, two students from the National University, don Jesús, and a solar water heater. It was a tight fit, but resulted in a dinner invitation for Indonesian food and wine at their house in San Isidro on Wednesday night, so again, no complaints.

So that’s the play-by-play of Feria del Agua weekend, which is something I have been working up to in various ways for a long time, and was a really fun and satisfying way to see a lot of my projects come to a head. Ashley commented about how cool it was just to see that everyone there knows me and relies on me to get things organized and asks me questions about what’s going on, and although that sometimes drives me crazy, it also is the best part. I feel like such an integral part of this community at this point, and I will probably never again know my neighbors so well and love them so much.
I’m so glad I got to share this weekend with great friends, old and new alike, and I am already penciling in the date to come back and visit for spring break next year!