Cautiously Optimistic

Pizza party in Bijagua

Awkward self-photo at Río Celeste

New kitties living between the walls of my apartment and my neighbors

Recycle art project with the 4th graders

Oxen and oxcarts on the city streets in San Isidro

So I always hate to say this out loud, and it’s even more dangerous to write down where it will be forever visible somewhere in the blogosphere, but work has been going really well in the past few weeks. I have now been in Quebradas for exactly a year, and I have spent a significant amount of that time making a significant effort to integrate into the community, convince people to show up at my meetings and motivate them to get involved in projects. Something between a community organizer, consultant, and party planner. During this time, I have faced many disappointments and learned to measure success in baby steps. Most of all, I have learned to manage my expectations, which is why it makes me nervous how well things are going right now. But as many former Peace Corps Volunteers have told me, it can take a full year to really get things moving in your communities, and more and more now I understand why.

Our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts group, which we started talking about in January after our successful summer camp, took a while to get organized, and it didn’t look like there was going to be enough enthusiasm for the project at some points. But we now have a Board of Directors, a group of adult troop leaders, and a planned formal inauguration date to launch the group. We also have colors for our scarves, a logo, and a knot that symbolizes our “commitment to conservation,” the part that sounds the easiest but of course became VERY contentious. I attended my first training with the other troop leaders, in which we learned the various salutes, symbolism of different colors and animals for different age groups, and played games where we had to try to pop the balloons tied around other people’s ankles. It kind of made me wish I had been a scout myself. Though they don’t sell the cookies here…

I also got a new project started, the project I have been most interested in since I got here but needed this long to get to know people, establish trust and respect, and identify a solid group to move forward. This is the formation of a Community Credit Enterprise in Quebradas to give small loans to micro-entrepreneurs in the community. After two informational meetings with FINCA, the umbrella organization that Peace Corps works with to support ECC projects, we were able to get more than the requisite 15 people to sign up to participate in the training and form the organization. Then FINCA leaves me to actually carry out those trainings, coming back to check in and help out only for the most complicated ones. SO that means that I have to do a lot of teaching myself before I can teach the group the basics of capital, stocks, loans, accounting, etc. IN SPANISH. Fortunately, this is the kind of challenge I have been craving, and I think the material is interesting and will be useful to me for my future as well, so I do not mind the three to four hours of preparation that every meeting requires. It is a 22-step process, and we have now gotten through step 3, so there is quite a ways to go, but the idea is that we do one step every week, and the ECC is officially formed and can start selling stocks and giving out loans after step 7, which isn’t too far. Anyways I am really happy about how enthusiastic and motivated the group is, and my biggest concern is just keeping up that energy through the whole process.

And finally, I had a good breakthrough with the school this week. I have been working with them on environmental education since I first get here, but by working “with” them I mean the teachers generally leave the classroom to sit and have coffee as soon as I enter. Last year, there was a teacher who was really supportive of the recycling project and helped form a committee of parents, but now that’s she’s gone I have really been running it on my own, which doesn’t make much sense. Fortunately, Elysa, the Italian volunteer here, has been helping me with the classes and trash separation, which has kept me sane, but she is leaving in July and regardless, the teachers and parents should be more involved. So I talked to the school director about it, and she invited me to the Board of Parents meeting and also set up a meeting between all the teachers. They were all very supportive and said of course they wanted to continue to recycling and they understand how important it is and just let them know how they can help. We’ll see how much their words turn into actions, but at least the communication channels have been opened.

There has been time for a little fun, too. Last weekend, Adrienne and I made the looooooong journey up north to visit Brigitte in Bijagua. It was about a nine hour trip in total, which was pretty brutal but I have definitely gotten used to spending more time on public transportation and not worrying about urgently getting anywhere. So we spent two nights with her in her cute little house, visited Río Celeste and some hot springs, met her friends, made fajitas, baked cookies, watched movies, and went out for pizza. All in all, a short but very successful visit. It is always fun to see what other people’s sites are like because it makes you realize how different each of our Peace Corps experiences are, even within Costa Rica, though we share many of the same experiences and frustrations.

Big plans for this weekend include an ECC meeting tonight, taking an Italian cooking lesson tomorrow from Elysa, rock-painting with the artisan group on Sunday and planning our next community newspaper. And most importantly, rumor has it that a Pop’s ice cream shop just opened behind the church in San Isidro, so I will most definitely be finding my way down there. MY Peace Corps experience just got that much better…

Hitting the halfway mark

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…

Holy Week, Yoga and the Katies’ Adventures

Our bed"room" at the Yoga Farm

View from the yoga deck

My special candle placed, appropriately, in my home-welded menorah

As my dad and Lynne filled me in on who was coming to Passover dinner this year, I was reminded of my invitation on the second night of Passover to participate in a religious march through Quebradas, and some members of the church group had even made me a special candle to carry, so I kind of had to show up. There was no charoset or matzah, but lots of singing and hugging, so at least there was that similarity between my past Passovers and this year’s Holy Tuesday. That was one of many activities planned in Quebradas for Semana Santa. All the kids are off school and most people have Thursday and Friday off work, so it is kind of like spring break with a lot of praying and eating.

But for Peace Corps Volunteers, Semana Santa usually means a great time to pasear and aprovechar the last days of summer, which is exactly what I did. It is also a time to reflect, which seemed appropriate since I’m about at my halfway point now and want to make the most of my next year here. So Brigitte, Adrienne, Chamisa and I headed down to Golfito, where we picked up Katie McKinstry, who had flown down, and all shared a 4x4 taxi to Punta Banco, which is super far south right by Panama on the west coast. There we spent three days in paradise at the Yoga Farm, interpret name as you will. It is basically a retreat center for really beautiful, healthy people (mostly women) who all talk really slow and smile a lot. Us being the obvious misfits…Nevertheless, we were immediately welcomed into the community and got quickly sucked into the lifestyle. Wake up, yoga, eat, beach, eat, read, yoga, eat [insert game of Bananagrams if we had energy], sleep. The “farm” basically consists of an open kitchen and dining area, wooden lodge with yoga deck and a few bedrooms, two composting toilets, two showers and an organic garden. All with an amazing view of the ocean down below and a soft breeze. Meals were healthy and light, and I was a little disappointed when I first realized there would be no chocolate cake or ice cream for three days, but the rest of the experience made up for that. So it was a great spot to just kind of cleanse and think and be with friends and really truly relax. When we left, one of the guys who runs the place told us we brought a great energy to the farm, which we took as the utmost compliment from this crowd.

Then it was of course back to work and a VERY busy week, which was made infinitely easier and more fun by Katie’s presence. She was a serious asset working in the school garden, proctoring my English test, proving to Tico’s in my community that I am not the only crazy person that runs for fun, but most amazingly pretty much being my housewife for the week. I arrived home every night exhausted after class or meetings to delicious, healthy food on the table (she even made matzah balls one night from Lynne's mix so now actually qualifies as a Jewish housewife), clean dishes, and even clean laundry! Now I can definitely see what the machista men her are hanging onto…We also got to do some of her favorite activities from home with a Costa Rican twist, including jam-making with a local women’s business, shopping at the farmer’s market in San Isidro, planting my own mini herb garden and hiking up a giant mountain. She also got her first every pedicure with my neighbor, and it was Tica-fabulous with French tips and a painted flower for less than $4! That deal is hard to beat in NYC.

On Saturday morning we switched gears and took a super early bus to San José, where we were picked up by my Assistant Program Director and taken to Tarbaca, my original training community, where I gave a presentation on how to start a community newsletter and working strategically with community organizations to the 19 new Tico 20 CED Trainees. It was really fun to see their group dynamic, remember how I felt a year ago in their shoes (and how happy I am I’m not there anymore), and to feel like I actually now have something of value to say and impart on the next generation. Mark and Brigitte were there too, so afterwards we headed down to the family compound where Mark and Jake used to live and hung out with their old host families, which was SO much fun because of course they haven’t changed at all and are as crazy and wonderful and welcoming as ever. After being fed twice and hearing a lot of bad jokes, we finally made our way back down to San José and checked into our various hotels and rested a bit before the annual all-Volunteer dinner/dance party, which was at a bar/restaurant nearby. Since by then Katie had learned all the Peace Corps acronyms and project goals after sitting through our four hour presentation that morning, she fit in at the dinner with no problem. It was a really fun night and I saw a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time and met some more of the new Trainees and got to say goodbye to some of the Tico 18ers, who are leaving in less than a month. Weird.

Then this morning Katie and I enjoyed San José’s best complimentary breakfast at Hotel Aranjuez, walked around the city a bit, and parted ways as she went on to Monteverde and I headed back to Quebradas. I couldn’t have asked for a more open-minded and adventurous visitor, and it is sad to not hear her shifting around on my deflated air mattress outside tonight, but it was so fun to have her and I suppose I will just have to readjust to taking care of myself again…

All these pictures looked better in person, but...

Baile típico at the Feria de Agua

Up in the Air

Composing my victory haiku

Chirripo is just around the bend!

View of Los Crestones (still looking for a direct English translation)

That was just celebrating getting to base camp...

Making progress on the 4R's...

!

It has been way too long not to blog for such an exciting few weeks. The biggest highlight of course was my dad’s visit. We spent the first weekend up in Monteverde, the quintessential Costa Rican rainforest. And although it was the dry season, it stayed true to its name with a constant refreshing mist. We stayed at a treehouse hotel up in the clouds that included delicious breakfast and 5 o’clock tea to watch the sunset. And we met some interesting characters, including a nature guide who had a fondness for potty jokes and spent more time talking about porcupines pooping and bird indigestion than about all the beautiful plants and animals we saw.

On Monday we headed back to Quebradas with a stop in San José for my Junior Achievement training, a course I am starting with high school aged kids in Quebradas that teaches them how to start their own business. And since I’ve never started my own business, I may need more than a three hour training to be qualified to teach the course, but it’s a start. In Quebradas, dad got to come to an English class, help out with building some planting boxes at the school for our greenhouse, observe a chaotic artisan group meeting and went on his own adventures in San Isidro where he learned the names of lots of new tools in the hardware store in order to construct a screen door for my bedroom. Not exactly a relaxing visit, but he did great.

And just to make sure he left good and tired, we decided to climb the highest mountain in Costa Rica for his last few days in town. Brigitte came down all the way from Bijagua and we picked up Adrienne in Canaan and made our way up 3820 meters and back in two days and one night, plus some side trips to some cool rock formations and a beautiful lake. It was an incredible hike. We walked through various microclimates: rainforest, desert, burnt trees, and up a trail called the “Hill of the Repentants,” right before we got to the lodge on the first day. So it was tough, but well worth it. Meals consisted of PB&J, granola, trail mix, and pasta with bagged tomato sauce for dinner, cooked over a portable burner that took a good 45 minutes to boil water. The second morning we got up super early to summit Chirripo, and it was as awesome as every says it is. We were above all the clouds and it was gorgeous and peaceful and totally exhausting, especially since we had to go all the way back down that same day. But we all made it more or less in one piece, and it was such a wonderful experience to share with my dad and my friends and I have a feeling I will be up there again before I go.

Although it was sad saying goodbye to dad on Sunday, I have hardly had time to miss him as last week was crazy with preparations for the Feria de Agua at FUDEBIOL, their big annual event. I was coordinating a lot of the activities, publicity and transportation (you may have heard me on Thursday’s San Isidro Catholic radio broadcast), and on top of all that preparing for my PCT visit. For those who have been following my adventures from the beginning, you may recall that a year ago, I headed off wide-eyed and clueless to visit a seasoned Peace Corps Volunteer in her site. Now I get to play that role and host a fresh-off-the-boat Peace Corps Trainee, and of course the visit was planned for the craziest weekend in Quebradas, but it ended up working out great because a bunch of the other volunteers near me who are hosting trainees all came to Quebradas on Saturday night and we had a campfire and slept up at FUDEBIOL and then they were all there for the activities on Sunday and lent some extra creativity and resourcefulness to the last minute activity planning. Not that I should be surprised at this point, but on Friday I was not feeling terribly optimistic about the event, and of course everything came together and there was a HUGE turnout (the bus I had begged FUDEBIOL to contract but they were skeptical of whether it would fill up ended up having to make extra trips and fit about double its capacity each time) and the scavenger hunt, traditional dance performance and soccer games I helped organize were all a big hit. So my visitor, Liz, definitely got to see one of the more eventful Sundays ever in Quebradas and we both left drenched from playing soccer in the rain and socially overstimulated, which means it was a good day in my book…

Party Time (3/4/10)

Computers!

Getting silly with the girls...

Most flattering uniforms ever

Last weekend was full of parties near and far, in some cases a little too near. Every near during the summer, the Quebradas Development Association puts on a big three-day “turno” right across from the soccer field, which also happens to be right next to my apartment. It is three days and nights of non stop music, karaoke, food, drink and all the noise, trash and good times that generally entail. A local band called Los Talibanes (which I later learned acquired their name soon after 9/11 because the lead singer’s name is Bin – they’re not so concerned about political correctness here…) played every night and the majority of the community showed up even though it rained in the afternoons.

Anyways it was pretty fun and funny how all the adults bring their kids and get drunk while the kids run around and play tag on the soccer field and nobody seems to mind. Unfortunately for me, though, my general routine of passing out by 10pm was disrupted for three nights straight, which was particularly tough because on Saturday morning, I woke up at 4:30am to head with the new volunteers in Quebradas to San Gerardo de Rivas to watch 250 crazy people race up Chirripo, the highest mountain in Costa Rica and second highest in Central America. It is a big all-weekend festival as well, but super inspiring and amazing to see these people without an ounce of fat on their bones leave the starting line at 7am and show up before 10:30am, accomplishing what takes most people two full days in less than 3 and a half hours. It definitely made me want to at least hike up the mountain, though not quite as quickly…

Sunday morning was the highlight, a Quebradas women’s soccer game versus a neighboring community, Miravalles. My friend had told me about the game about a week before, and we trained three times last week, with about five people showing up each time and about two of us actually knowing how to play. But incredibly enough, 20 women arrived the day of the game ready to play, including my friend Adrienne, a ringer we brought in from Canaan. We had a pretty big audience since the turno was still going on, and everyone was worried because Miravalles is supposed to be pretty good, and it turned out they were. We ended up coming back from losing 3-1 to tie the game 3-3, much help from Adrienne and me, and we had the whole crowd pretty riled up and I had big hopes of making my name in Quebradas history, until I missed my penalty shot and we ended up losing. Big bummer. However, all the girls seemed really pumped after the game and impressed by how Adrienne and I played and how fit we were (although we had both been complaining before about how out of shape we felt…it’s all relative) and enthusiastic about continuing with the team. So that would be a really fun thing to get going, and it was great to see women from the community running around outside of the house and having fun.

Monday was a bit of a downer, as my new cell phone was stolen out of my pocket on the bus. It was a big ordeal to get the phone and it is going to be a big ordeal to get another and I was pretty upset and frustrated with myself for not being very aware. But that evening, the great news arrived that the government computers I had solicited in October would be delivered to FUDEBIOL the next day. And sure enough, they showed up and were entirely installed, equipped with cameras, headphones, all the most recent software, and desks and chairs. Pretty exciting and should be a great resource for the biological reserve and people who work/volunteer there as well as the nearby community members. So that is just one example of how fast my life can go from up to down to up again in the Peace Corps.

Other than that, we are still moving forward with the school garden and recycling, working on the next community newspaper and potentially getting and “intern” from a nearby university to support the project, and I met with a guy today who recently moved here and is interested in starting a rural tourism project by building super low-cost suspended bamboo huts on family fincas. And most excitingly, my dad is coming tomorrow to visit for a week! So we will both have our work cut out for us…

A warm welcome for the new volunteers (one of whom is a vegetarian)

Providing entertainment in San Cristobal Norte

Our entertainment in San Cristobal Norte

The runners up

Laura! Firme y Honesta...