settling in

after two months of wandering about slightly clueless and oftentimes lost in a web of miscommunication, we can finally say we are settled into our new life here in buenos aires. our apartment is now fully functional, with sufficient furniture pieces and kitchen appliances to call it home. we've even got our world map on the wall, as well as a few inspirational quotes to keep us motivated.
our first two months in buenos aires have been full of challenges, both personal and cultural. we spent many mornings discussing our choice to serve as peace corps volunteers in costa rica, while walking the pista (the local airport landing strip which is so seldom used it has become the community track). there we were, surround in all directions by mountains, sky and clouds, wondering what our role is here in this community and if we really had it in us to give two more years.
during this time, we were also struggling with an unusual and oftentimes awkward host family arrangement. because we live apart from the family (this was a decision made by peace corps staff before we arrived), our only connection was eating meals with them. after a while, it became clear that this just wasn't working for any of us. last week we began cooking all of our own meals. although this is completely liberating for us, relationships are delicate and complicated, and this may have permanently damaged the one we had with our host family.

in the meantime, it's more or less official that we've been "adopted" by another family. they invite us over for meals regularly, and constantly shower us with hugs and love. in no way am i trying to criticize our previous experience with the other family, but some things just feel right, and this is how it is with the new family. coy is teaching the son, emanuel, how to play chess, and i help his mother, viviana, practice her english. meanwhile, doña elder plays mother hen to us all. yesterday, coy cooked us all a pancake breakfast, which is emanuel's all-time favorite. they're already making plans for oatmeal pancakes at the next opportunity!
this family has truly helped us to see how blessed we are and how wonderful our life in costa rica can be. certainly their presence in our lives has helped shift our attitudes away from daydreaming of life in the states and toward the potential that exists right in front of us.
(this is the same family i wrote about a few weeks back, in case you're keeping track!)
what i'm trying to say is that it's starting to feel like home now. we're not all the way there yet, but we're definitely on the right track.

speaking of home, here's a shot of our bed, which we constructed from cinder blocks and lumber. the costa ricans we explained this to were horrified, but it actually works quite well. we built one during our last year in belize, thanks to the suggestion of our friend, mike. thanks, mike! cheap but comfortable is always a winner.

during the past two weeks, public schools have been enjoying a vacation. this left us with a lot of downtime, but we tried our best to get out and socialize when possible (aka when it wasn't raining).

we visited a section of our community called lomas del sol ("sunny hills"), which is technically classified as a precario, or "slum". the previous volunteer spent a significant amount of time in this neighborhood, helping community leaders to petition for a bridge and indoor plumbing for residents. while the living conditions here are rather extreme compared to the rest of the community, por lo menos the street is often full of laughter and friendly faces.

lidia is the president of the lomas del sol community development committee, and she is very active in her neighborhood. here, she is teaching a handful of girls how to weave baskets out of newspaper.

making the vinculos to weave the basket.

weaving, or tejiendo, the base.

i spent two hours at lidia's house and came home with a slightly lopsided basket which we are now using to store our eggs. (contrary to popular belief, eggs do not require refrigeration. lucky for us, cause we don't have one of those!) although i was not quite content with my finished product, lidia assured me that it was beautiful for me because i had made it. i suppose there might be some beauty amidst all that imperfection...at least it does a heck of a job containing eggs!
as our spanish comes along, so do our relationships with individuals. discovering common bonds and making jokes with neighbors help make the place you live more like your community, and this is happening for us poco a poco. we're seeing more and more familiar faces each time we walk down the street. the undeniably awesome thing about costa rica is that 9 out of 10 of those faces are just dying to say hello to you. even more awesome is that saying hello to them just might make their day. it might even make yours, too.