pura vida

tomorrow marks our 100th day in costa rica. it feels like yesterday we were waking our family in the middle of the night to drive us to the airport (thanks again, sis!) and then spending the rest of the day testing our patience with airline officials while we got rerouted and disregarded. we arrived in san josé after nightfall, and were quickly recovered by the peace corps super squad known formerly as christian and harold (you guys rule!). we awoke the next morning to our first breakfast of gallo pinto and eggs (roughly equivalent to rice and beans, accompanied by scrambled eggs. wheaties lied, because this is the true breakfast of champions) and met up with our amazing training peers. as pre service training would have it, we all hit the ground running, and we literally continued at a sprint for 10 weeks. on may 13th (tragically a friday), we were sworn in as peace corps volunteers at the u.s. ambassador's residence in san josé.

these ladies are our fabulous language and cultural facilitators. their patience and sense of humor is truly amazing.

our equally impressive cyf team
(children, youth, and families is the name of our peace corps program)

after the ceremony, we were officially on our own. thankfully, buenos aires is an enjoyable 5 hour bus ride from san josé. the view is breathtaking, as most of the drive is through the mountains. it even gets quite chilly up there. most passengers bring a blanket or sweater to cover up. also, halfway through the trip, the bus stops for a meal at this little restaurant with a great view and more hummingbirds than you've ever seen in one place. those little buggers are crazy! we arrived in buenos aires just after midday, and our new host dad kindly drove down to the bus stop to haul us and our worldly possessions to his house. our host family is actually the same family i stayed with during our tech week...you remember, the ones with the pool? because of limited space, as well as peace corps' housing requirements, our program manager actually decided it would be better to place us in the cabina next door, so we are not actually living with our host family, as most volunteers are. however, we still share meals with them and are trying our best to be part of the family. our cabina is a one room apartment, with a tiny bathroom (which is actually more than 50% shower. the shower totally rules! i've been a peace corps volunteer way too long...i get so excited by things like good water pressure and tiled shower stalls). it has tiled floors, a laundry sink, and big window...and that's about it. there are 5 other cabinas in the building, and also a bakery closest to the street. at times, the aroma of freshly baked bread is almost maddening, but we've been doing well at limiting our intake of flour based products.
our peace corps site assignment is actually for a specific neighborhood of buenos aires, but we are also encouraged to work with one of the two high schools, as well as explore any other work opportunities in the area that interest us. we are replacing a super star volunteer, morgan, who may not have slept for the past two years, because i am pretty sure she was working the whole time. there are two elementary schools nearby, as well as two neighborhood development committees eager to work with us. additionally, todo el mundo has been asking us about english courses, and we've already taken over morgan's tuesday and thursday exercise classes.
our first three months at site, we are required to carry out a community assessment (called the cat), which consists of personal interviews, surveys, meetings with organizations and institutions, and lots of stats and graphs. we will actually write our cat in spanish, and present it to members of the community. it will contain all kinds of info on the history and demographics of the community, as well as outline challenges and our personal work plan to help address these challenges. it's pretty much like peace corps-next level. anyway, we've been rocking out hard with the interview portion, and it's actually really interesting to hear what people have to say about their community. it's also an awesome opportunity to explain what peace corps is really about and help folks understand exactly why these new gringos are in their neighborhood.
coy and i are pleasantly surprised everyday by the kindness we are met with. whether by our host mom, who is always smiling, or by the woman at the grocery store (who refers to me lovingly as mi negrita or mi reina every time we buy bananas). although we've only been here 3 weeks, we're already starting to feel like part of the community.

the women in our exercise class enjoy going on hikes. we've actually been on 2 hikes with them so far. this particular walk took us about an hour and 15 minutes each way.

we walked to the nearby indigenous community of ujarrás. these ladies are hardcore!

this is our host dad, sergio, and host mom, sandra, on her birthday

sandra's birthday party

i am still trying to figure out exactly what this national holiday was all about...i think the basic idea was to promote exercise and recreational activities. all i know is there was a huge event at the school, and we made an appearance.

like a good peace corps volunteer, morgan kicked off the day with an aerobics class for hundreds of school children.

this teacher deserves a gold star for extra effort (the wig and shades made it all the more comical). hey, at least she was setting a good example for the kids!

the day consisted of classes rotating through a series of stations, many of which were traditional games and recreational activities.

during a snack break, i caught up with some future travelers, studying the world map mural on the wall of the cafeteria. we tested each others' geography knowledge for a while until it was time to get back to the games.

it's not a true event without the traditional greasy pole with baggie of money at the top. these teachers were for real...there was so much vegetable shortening on that pole you could see it gleaming white from afar.

the "mechanical" bull was a huge hit

our host family was very close with the former peace corps volunteer, morgan. and seeing as how our host dad, sergio, loves to cook, he prepared a feast for her last lunch in buenos aires. the kitchen at our house is always buzzing. sergio cooks exclusively on a fogon, which is like a wood stove. he also has an enormous grill out back, where he prepares all kinds of succulent meats...yummmm. plantains are also a part of nearly every meal in our house, which is something i will never grow tired of. more plantains for everyone!

yesterday was our little sister, valeria's, birthday. happy 11th birthday, machita!

i took a walk with the girls to an airplane landing strip nearby. since planes very rarely land here (the strip actually belongs to PINDECO, known in the states as DelMonte), many people in the community use it as a walking track. it's about a kilometer long and there is a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains.

we have three host sisters, but maria had too much pereza to come with us! (she was just being a bum!) alexhandra is 16 and i believe maria is 13.

100 days in, and i can already feel myself slowly becoming a tica (costa ricans refer to themselves as tico for men and tica for women). cafecito (afternoon coffee time) has already become an essential part of my day, and i am unable to find adjectives which describe things and situations better than linda and bonita (everything here is lovely and pretty and nice. it's a situation worth sacrificing adjectives for). i use the phrases tranquilo (relax) and pura vida (practically the national motto, which roughly means "life is good" or "it's all good") more and more each day. my spanish is coming along poco a poco but not for lack of practice.
all in all, things are good here...pura vida! we are happy and healthy, and looking forward to each new day.


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