Wednesday, October 29, 2008
rebellion
I think I have figured out how to thwart the webfiltering program at Habitat enough to post blogs =) That's all. I was excited about it.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Fiestas de San Rafael
So, on Sunday Dixie, Veronica, and I went to the fiestas of San Rafael, and met up with a bunch of our friends. San Rafael (aka: Churuca) is a town like 35 minutes from my village, on the way to Cartago. It was quite a party; there were a TON of people, and they had a huge Tope (horse parade). There were like 2,500 horses or something crazy like that. It is a lot the like the rodeo parade in Tucson, but pure horses. Everyone gets dressed up in there western gear and tailgates on the back of their trucks, and drinks. Really not so different from AZ at all; I never imagined that when I came to Costa Rica I would be wishing that I had brought my cowboy boots, but I do. It was fun, but got a little bit shady near the end when people started fights and throwing bottles and such. We got out of there in time to avoid that locura though. After the parade we went to a bar called the Cartagines and danced salsa, and some of my friends sang karaoke. We then ran to catch the last bus to Santa Rosa. For some reason that I now don’t understand, I offered my seat to a woman who was older than me (but not so old that I was obliged by the unwritten laws of the Costa Rican transit system to give her my seat). That was a bad idea because I then had to stand for the whole 45 minute ride up the mountain, which was considerably harder than usual because I had had a few beers. Speaking of beer- I have been budgeting pretty closely, so I hadn’t really planned on drinking at all. I bought one Imperial at the beginning of the day, but that was all I planned on spending. However, the culture of Costa Rica is so generous, that whenever I didn’t have an Imperial in my hand, someone would hand me one. Thank goodness, we made it home perfectly safely, I didn’t fall down or knock anybody over, and the fiestas of Churuca were a success.
A computer in my casa?! October 25
Yea! This is the first blog written from Santa Rosa! Habitat finally gave me a computer to use up here on the mountain! Granted, there’s no internet or anything, but at least I can blog more often, and also work on grant proposals and such from here! How many exclamation points do I need to use to express my excitement!!!!!!!!!? I would like to give my thanks to one Jose Montero, the new technology-guy/intern at Habitat, who made all this possible. Since he’s been in the office, things have actually been getting done! For instance, some of you may remember that when I first got here, I had a laptop for about 4 days, then it just stopped working. Since then, Habitat has consistently been promising to arreglar me one of the many broken computers that were sitting around, but Jose was the first person who actually put those plans into action. So, thank you José. Also on a happy computer-y note: my personal thumb drive hasn’t worked in the whole 4 months I have been here, and I was pretty bummed that it broke. However, when I stuck it in this máquina, it worked totally fine. My resumes and grad school documents and personal photos that I brought with me aren’t lost after all =) It’s a good day. On to more important issues:
On Wednesday we had a meeting with the whole Habitat Housing Community. I was much less nervous than the first time when I met everyone (at Eric's despedida in July). I was WAY more comfortable talking in front of everyone, and definitely made more sense that 3 months ago. Helen was going to come and talk to the committees about what Habitat can do to support them, but she had car trouble and couldn't make it. After an initial reaction where I was freaking out about what we would talk about, Abdon came to the rescue and managed to make it a very productive meeting, where we talked about a lot of issues that the families are facing right now. The global economic crisis is hitting these Costa Rican families hard. Many families barely make enough to get by, plus now the interest rates are going up on their houses (due to poor economic conditions everywhere). Some are seriously concerned about how they are going to pay their bills. This has lent some urgency to our projects in Santa Rosa. For instance, the hydroponics committee has pretty much decided that, instead of growing hydroponic lettuce, they want to join forces with more members of the housing community and start an association of organic farmers; they are going to grow mushrooms! I think that its a great idea- they have found a market where they really think they will be successful. They are in the process of legally forming an association (a lot like a farming cooperative). The proceeds will go directly to the families who participate. I am pretty excited about it, especially because this has been executed completely without my help- a sign that the project will be self-sustainable after I leave. I have offered to help however they need me, though. At the meeting we also decided to throw a fundraising BINGO to benefit the housing association. The recent torrential rains have trashed the roads in the Habitat neighborhood, and it looks like some of the funds from the BINGO will go towards these repairs. I also used this gathering to get the last few names, ages, and sizes of the kids in the Habitat neighborhood that I hadn't been able to track down when I went to visit their houses. There is a business that is going to donate Christmas gifts for all of the kids in Habitat Houses. I think its awesome that a business is so willing to look out for these kids, especially over the Holidays.
Ok, really, I don’t have all that much to write about, but am mostly just excited that I CAN write. This new addition to my household will mean that you all will get a more in depth picture of what I am doing, but that there will be like 4 new entries in one day… that I will upload when I drag my butt to the internet. Ok, love, love, love ya friends and family. Keep the emails coming!
On Wednesday we had a meeting with the whole Habitat Housing Community. I was much less nervous than the first time when I met everyone (at Eric's despedida in July). I was WAY more comfortable talking in front of everyone, and definitely made more sense that 3 months ago. Helen was going to come and talk to the committees about what Habitat can do to support them, but she had car trouble and couldn't make it. After an initial reaction where I was freaking out about what we would talk about, Abdon came to the rescue and managed to make it a very productive meeting, where we talked about a lot of issues that the families are facing right now. The global economic crisis is hitting these Costa Rican families hard. Many families barely make enough to get by, plus now the interest rates are going up on their houses (due to poor economic conditions everywhere). Some are seriously concerned about how they are going to pay their bills. This has lent some urgency to our projects in Santa Rosa. For instance, the hydroponics committee has pretty much decided that, instead of growing hydroponic lettuce, they want to join forces with more members of the housing community and start an association of organic farmers; they are going to grow mushrooms! I think that its a great idea- they have found a market where they really think they will be successful. They are in the process of legally forming an association (a lot like a farming cooperative). The proceeds will go directly to the families who participate. I am pretty excited about it, especially because this has been executed completely without my help- a sign that the project will be self-sustainable after I leave. I have offered to help however they need me, though. At the meeting we also decided to throw a fundraising BINGO to benefit the housing association. The recent torrential rains have trashed the roads in the Habitat neighborhood, and it looks like some of the funds from the BINGO will go towards these repairs. I also used this gathering to get the last few names, ages, and sizes of the kids in the Habitat neighborhood that I hadn't been able to track down when I went to visit their houses. There is a business that is going to donate Christmas gifts for all of the kids in Habitat Houses. I think its awesome that a business is so willing to look out for these kids, especially over the Holidays.
Ok, really, I don’t have all that much to write about, but am mostly just excited that I CAN write. This new addition to my household will mean that you all will get a more in depth picture of what I am doing, but that there will be like 4 new entries in one day… that I will upload when I drag my butt to the internet. Ok, love, love, love ya friends and family. Keep the emails coming!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
So, I am pretty much the worst blogger ever! I apologize to all my readers (I sound so important when I say that) for being so inconsistant in my posting. It is that some days the Habitat webfiltering blocks blogger, but today it let me get on, so I am goign to aprovechar, and I will try to make up for my previous blogging deficiencies with a long, detailed blog today. I will try to keep it from being boring though.
Examenes- This week was exam week for my adult English class in the noches. Actually, they were scheduled for last week, but there were such aguaceros (torrential rain) that one night 0 people showed up for class, and the other night only a few could come. So, we postponed the tests. on Friday they took the written and listening portions, and on Monday they did short presentations as an oral exam. On Monday, I baked apple pie and brought it so that we could eat while they were doing their presentations. We have recently been learning food vocabulary, and they had mentioned that they wanted some typical American food. I figured apple pie was about as comida tipica as you get. I am so proud of my students! Most of them got As and Bs, and the lowest grade was a 65% (but she admitted outright that she hadn't studied at all). The high schoolers have their tests tomorrow and Monday, and I hope that they do as well.
Teaching-Yeah, um, my 6th graders made me cry on Tuesday. Its not even as if they were any worse than usual (they are ALWAYS awful), but if just got to me more that day. I was tryign to explain to them how I had a fun day planned, where we were going to have like a little ? words olympics (they'll be learning words like "How much" "Who" and "How long"). However, they wouldn't stop talking long enough for me to explain it! There are 3 girls in particular who give me nothing but attitude, it is a serious falta de respeto. Anyway, I let my emotions get the best of me, and I started crying, then, I was embarrassed to be crying, and that made me cry more. It was awful. I am going to try and meet with the principal tomorrow and talk to her about how we can make these rude kids obey.
First communions- On Sunday, we celebrated the first communions in Santa Rosa. There were two celebrations in my extended host family: Frander and Gerard, my host nephews. Eric (the volunteer who I replaced) arrived in Santa Rosa last year on the day that they were celebrating the third graders' first communions- he told me that it was craziness; he arrived to meet our whole host family all at once (there must be like 50 of them) at a big party in Gaudy and Hilbert's house. Our family is definitely escandolosa (loud!) and I can understand how hard and overwhelming it must have been for him to be instroduced to the community in that way. At least I have three months of family under my belt already, so I was a little bit more prepared, but it was still a LONG day! We went to mass in the morning, and most of the family sat together. I woke up with an awful cold and was sneezing all through the service. I was pretty miserable, and Marta kept looking at me and giving me this look that seemed to convey "Mikey, you look miserable, but its kind of funny". From the misa we headed to Wilma's house to celebrate. On the table were two beautiful cakes, one for each boy. One was shaped like a Bible, the other said ¡Felicidades!. There were a ton of people there, but it was probably one of the most successfully executed parties I have ever been to, in any country. When we arrived, there were chairs set up, and there were actually enough! Then, Margoth and Silvana brought around little cups of rompope (a lot like Eggnog- with alcohol for the adults, virgin Rompope for the kids) for everyone. Padre Pablo then led us in a prayer, and we toasted the two young men with our rompope. Then, everyone immediately had a bowl of delicious posole (a soup of hominy, pork, and other delicousness). As soon as we finished the posole, someone took the bowl, and replaced it with a plate of rice, some tasty pork, and a potato salad. Plus, a homeade refresco of kas. But wait, there is more! After this main course came desert: individualized dishes of something that they called crema alemana which was kind of like pudding, but fluffier, and with graham cracker crumbles on top. Then, there was a short respite, and out came a HUGE container of icecream, which was spooned into cones and given to everyone who could manage to stuff something else into their stomachs. By this point, it was about 3pm, which is the traditional time for the Costa Rican cafecito. Out came the coffee, accompanied by a variety of pastries, crousants, and cakes. There were also tacos. Throughout all of this, the two huge cakes sat on the table, and I kept thinking"they can't possibly expect us to eat the cakes!I will explode!" As it turned out, the cakes were for the next day, (but they brought me a piece at my house!). By the time Marta, Patri, and I left, it was 5 pm, and I was exhausted. My cold definitely hadn't improved. I went home, took a sudafed, and fell asleep until about 6:30. When I woke up and wandered back over to Marta's house, she informed me that we were going back to Wilma's. I tagged along, and there were still about 20 people sitting around chatting and drinking and eating. I couldn't believe it. I apparently don't have the party stamina that Santa Rosans do. I probably gained like 20 pounds, but I didn't even care. It was a really fun day, and I was glad that I was able to celebrate it with my familia tica.
Centro Infantil- Dustin (the other international volunteer, who lives in Alajuela) has been a huge help with our childcare center project! He got in touch with some architects, and it looks like he found one that is willing to draw us a building plan, for free! This is awesome, because once we have plans, we can estimate costs, and once we know about how much it would cost to build the building, I can start fundraising and grant writing and searching for that amount. So, Dustin came up to the village last weekend to take pictures and measure the lot that has already been donated. I am super excited about these developments, and hope that things keep going smoothly. Also, I am applying for a grant of like 8000 Euros from the German Embassy- it will be totally awesome if we get it! However, there are a lot of hoops I have to jump through first, so we'll see.
That's probably good for now- a little update on how I have been doing. Tuanis-
Examenes- This week was exam week for my adult English class in the noches. Actually, they were scheduled for last week, but there were such aguaceros (torrential rain) that one night 0 people showed up for class, and the other night only a few could come. So, we postponed the tests. on Friday they took the written and listening portions, and on Monday they did short presentations as an oral exam. On Monday, I baked apple pie and brought it so that we could eat while they were doing their presentations. We have recently been learning food vocabulary, and they had mentioned that they wanted some typical American food. I figured apple pie was about as comida tipica as you get. I am so proud of my students! Most of them got As and Bs, and the lowest grade was a 65% (but she admitted outright that she hadn't studied at all). The high schoolers have their tests tomorrow and Monday, and I hope that they do as well.
Teaching-Yeah, um, my 6th graders made me cry on Tuesday. Its not even as if they were any worse than usual (they are ALWAYS awful), but if just got to me more that day. I was tryign to explain to them how I had a fun day planned, where we were going to have like a little ? words olympics (they'll be learning words like "How much" "Who" and "How long"). However, they wouldn't stop talking long enough for me to explain it! There are 3 girls in particular who give me nothing but attitude, it is a serious falta de respeto. Anyway, I let my emotions get the best of me, and I started crying, then, I was embarrassed to be crying, and that made me cry more. It was awful. I am going to try and meet with the principal tomorrow and talk to her about how we can make these rude kids obey.
First communions- On Sunday, we celebrated the first communions in Santa Rosa. There were two celebrations in my extended host family: Frander and Gerard, my host nephews. Eric (the volunteer who I replaced) arrived in Santa Rosa last year on the day that they were celebrating the third graders' first communions- he told me that it was craziness; he arrived to meet our whole host family all at once (there must be like 50 of them) at a big party in Gaudy and Hilbert's house. Our family is definitely escandolosa (loud!) and I can understand how hard and overwhelming it must have been for him to be instroduced to the community in that way. At least I have three months of family under my belt already, so I was a little bit more prepared, but it was still a LONG day! We went to mass in the morning, and most of the family sat together. I woke up with an awful cold and was sneezing all through the service. I was pretty miserable, and Marta kept looking at me and giving me this look that seemed to convey "Mikey, you look miserable, but its kind of funny". From the misa we headed to Wilma's house to celebrate. On the table were two beautiful cakes, one for each boy. One was shaped like a Bible, the other said ¡Felicidades!. There were a ton of people there, but it was probably one of the most successfully executed parties I have ever been to, in any country. When we arrived, there were chairs set up, and there were actually enough! Then, Margoth and Silvana brought around little cups of rompope (a lot like Eggnog- with alcohol for the adults, virgin Rompope for the kids) for everyone. Padre Pablo then led us in a prayer, and we toasted the two young men with our rompope. Then, everyone immediately had a bowl of delicious posole (a soup of hominy, pork, and other delicousness). As soon as we finished the posole, someone took the bowl, and replaced it with a plate of rice, some tasty pork, and a potato salad. Plus, a homeade refresco of kas. But wait, there is more! After this main course came desert: individualized dishes of something that they called crema alemana which was kind of like pudding, but fluffier, and with graham cracker crumbles on top. Then, there was a short respite, and out came a HUGE container of icecream, which was spooned into cones and given to everyone who could manage to stuff something else into their stomachs. By this point, it was about 3pm, which is the traditional time for the Costa Rican cafecito. Out came the coffee, accompanied by a variety of pastries, crousants, and cakes. There were also tacos. Throughout all of this, the two huge cakes sat on the table, and I kept thinking"they can't possibly expect us to eat the cakes!I will explode!" As it turned out, the cakes were for the next day, (but they brought me a piece at my house!). By the time Marta, Patri, and I left, it was 5 pm, and I was exhausted. My cold definitely hadn't improved. I went home, took a sudafed, and fell asleep until about 6:30. When I woke up and wandered back over to Marta's house, she informed me that we were going back to Wilma's. I tagged along, and there were still about 20 people sitting around chatting and drinking and eating. I couldn't believe it. I apparently don't have the party stamina that Santa Rosans do. I probably gained like 20 pounds, but I didn't even care. It was a really fun day, and I was glad that I was able to celebrate it with my familia tica.
Centro Infantil- Dustin (the other international volunteer, who lives in Alajuela) has been a huge help with our childcare center project! He got in touch with some architects, and it looks like he found one that is willing to draw us a building plan, for free! This is awesome, because once we have plans, we can estimate costs, and once we know about how much it would cost to build the building, I can start fundraising and grant writing and searching for that amount. So, Dustin came up to the village last weekend to take pictures and measure the lot that has already been donated. I am super excited about these developments, and hope that things keep going smoothly. Also, I am applying for a grant of like 8000 Euros from the German Embassy- it will be totally awesome if we get it! However, there are a lot of hoops I have to jump through first, so we'll see.
That's probably good for now- a little update on how I have been doing. Tuanis-
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Post rapido
Heyo-
I, as always, am waiting for a bus, but am gonna try and write a quick post in the 15 minutes that I have. Actually, I am gonna make two short lists: one of things that I am loving about being here right now, and another of the things that I am not digging so much right this second. That way, more content, less time. Who needs sentences? (this coming from the girl who spent all of last year studying pronouns =))
Loving:
-My friends here
-The fact that we got a donation and maybe (fingers crossed) will be building a hydroponics greenhouse soon.
-The fact that Caty and Nancy are for sure coming down on December 26th to visit me! I am so excited! I have so many ideas for things for us to do!
-Walking in the mornings- the only time its not raining- gorgeous.
-The card game UNO, and dominoes.
Not loving so much:
-Rain all the time.
-Mudslides that trap us on the mountain
-How expensive it is to call home.
-How inefficient somethings can be.
Ok, times up, gotta run. I'll try and post more later this week. I am working at a Habitat bnefit concert on Saturday-Mal Pais- and will probably be able to parar at an Internet cafe.
Hugs!
I, as always, am waiting for a bus, but am gonna try and write a quick post in the 15 minutes that I have. Actually, I am gonna make two short lists: one of things that I am loving about being here right now, and another of the things that I am not digging so much right this second. That way, more content, less time. Who needs sentences? (this coming from the girl who spent all of last year studying pronouns =))
Loving:
-My friends here
-The fact that we got a donation and maybe (fingers crossed) will be building a hydroponics greenhouse soon.
-The fact that Caty and Nancy are for sure coming down on December 26th to visit me! I am so excited! I have so many ideas for things for us to do!
-Walking in the mornings- the only time its not raining- gorgeous.
-The card game UNO, and dominoes.
Not loving so much:
-Rain all the time.
-Mudslides that trap us on the mountain
-How expensive it is to call home.
-How inefficient somethings can be.
Ok, times up, gotta run. I'll try and post more later this week. I am working at a Habitat bnefit concert on Saturday-Mal Pais- and will probably be able to parar at an Internet cafe.
Hugs!
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