December 5th, 2010.

It's hard to believe within 2 weeks I'll be stepping off the plane and into the arctic tundra of Wisconsin winter... Summer is just beginning here!

This year I spent Thanksgiving with a family, the husband of which, works for the American Embassy. Every year many "embassy families" open their homes to volunteers so they can celebrate with fellow citizens and enjoy the comforts of home-a big bird, stove top stuffing, pumpkin flavored desserts, and green bean casserole. My friend Becca and I spent the entire weekend with this exceptionally hospitable family and had fun using such gadgets as an oven, and a stove, to make pumpkin pie with ginger strudel. Quite the treat. We spent a little time in the city and then visited our host families from training and snuck away for a day at Jacó beach where 25 other volunteers had rented a house for the holiday weekend.


San José at night


This weekend I visited a married couple's site about 3 hours north of here to help out with a local artisan fair that they had organized-2nd year running! Last year over 25 artisans participated after they had discovered the large number present in their community, providing a forum for selling their goods and forming a local group. It was a blast! We provided the entertainment for the kids- painting faces (for free-and it shows) and then had fun with water balloons. Check out their Christmas cactus!

Library Inauguration pictures now posted! Look for them under "November 2010."

Look what popped up on my bookshelf the other night... I let him "stay the night," then decided (after doing his business on my floor) that it was time for him to go.

October 26th-28th I went to a Peace Corps/Costa Rican Red Cross training on HIV/AIDS prevention in San José. Ana Yanci, the social worker at my school, and Daniel, a college student, came with me to satisfy the requirement of bringing 2 community members (one having to be a "youth") to learn and then replicate the workshops. (I think they were interested in it too...) Here we are!


I was surprised to come back to the two new bookshelves made and standing outside of the library at 7:00 on Monday morning. Little by little, it's coming along...

Upon seeing them, the preschool teacher said (and I quote) "Oh, Lindsay I have sooo many books at home that I'd like to donate. Lots. And now that I see this is a serious project, I'll bring them in."



Seven months it's been in the works...

Pura vida.

Here's the book club psyched about making posters for the library inauguration on the 17th of this month. The cleaning ladies torn down my poster.... soo I thought we'd make 18 new ones.

Here's the most recent photo of the mural Cecilia, the English teacher, is painting in the library!! Beautiful! The kids love it.



While I was gone, we received 12 boxes of brand new student encyclopedias as a donation from a local association! Just goes to show what happens as soon as something is in place. I recently found out that the school has been in the "process" of creating a library for 8 years. Hmmm... Stamping and labeling! Fortunately with the help of a university student who has to do 24 hours of community service to keep his scholarship.




Here's the new bed I dug out for my garden this weekend. The other one has flooded so many times I finally decided to give up on it and re-locate. I spread my compost out yesterday and am anxious to plant!! I already have tomatoes and zucchini growing in containers and cilantro that's hung on in the other bed. Transplanting time!

Life rolls on in San Vito...

We had an All Volunteer Conference the last week in Sept where I presented my school library project to other interested volunteers. It went well and lots of vols from the new group are interested in spreading books and literacy as well in their own interested communities. That's exciting! ALL children and students deserve the opportunity to read and access books (in my humble opinion).

Then, Dan came for a second visit! We had a fantastic time up in the Monteverde Cloud Forest and hiking around La Fortuna and taking in Volcano Arenal. I needed that break to re-charge, see a different part of the country, and hang out with Dan. We had really unseasonable weather ironically too. October is the rainiest month of the year in Costa Rica. What we experienced would be classified as "extreme heat and humidity." This unforeseen break was very welcomed after a 4.5 hours bus trip to Monteverde turned into 11 hours after a trailer tipped over and a landslide blocked the road. This all in a torrential downpour (just outside of the capital) with no dinner and no clue what was going on. 5.5 hours at a standstill. Not a great start to the trip...




Next week I'll be going to a training put on by the Costa Rican Red Cross with two members of my community on HIV/AIDS prevention. The idea is to utilize the information we receive to replicate the same workshops back in our own communities. It's at the same hotel we stayed at for our Mid-Service Training (nice!!) so I'm looking forward to it. There is also a need to squash many myths about the virus as well with both teens and adults.

I'm excited to start on a new project tract. Already work plans are beginning to form for next year!!

Over the weekend I took a much needed trip AWAY from the paint fumes way way up north, near the border of Nicaragua, to a little town called Caño Negro. My friend and fellow volunteer, Mick, lives up there and I decided to check it out. 16 hours of travel on rocky, dirt roads in stuffy buses is all it took to arrive delirious and tired in his neighborhood of 210.

Several other volunteers live up in that area so we had a chance to all hang out together, sing a little karaoke, eat the best fish fry of my life!, sleep in hammocks, sweat profusely, and forget about work for a little while.

Popcorn! In an electric skillet. Not the easiest thing to do, but it worked better than my mini-fridge or blender would have so I'll chalk it up as a victory.

It has become very important for me to keep having and celebrating these small victories to keep me going during the laborious and often endless seeming larger projects. Speaking of, here is a visual update on how the library is coming along:








This upcoming Wednesday is Independence Day in Costa Rica so i'm trying to take advantage of the students' irregular school schedule to paint in peace. (This after 2 separate kids on 2 separate days ignored my 2 distinct signs to be careful-a sign that read "Please do not enter! Wet Paint!" and a 5' ladder blocking the door-and went on to both back plant against a wet wall. Sorry about the melon colored paint, Mom(s)!

Painting should be finished Monday or Tuesday at the latest...then it's on to shelf building and book buying!!

Wow, it's been over a month already... Well, I'll just hit the highlights.

*I spent 8 days at home and enjoyed every second of it. My grandparents celebrated their 60th anniversary, I went to a Brewer game, played lots of lawn games, and visited with lots of family, friends, and Dan! yay!

*A committee has officially been formed in "the projects." I'm ecstatic at the current momentum and hope that it continues in the future... "The projects" have been a difficult area to for me to integrate in to, but now with an "official" project, things are moving forward! All members want to work toward building a small community center and fixing up the 2 playgrounds in the community.

*The book club lost 8 members. 5 of which I "dismissed" due to inappropriate behavior (yelling, throwing, hitting) and the others left because their friends were booted. Life goes on.

*I turned 26!

*I bought a toaster oven and have already made 4 loaves of banana bread. Definitely a life changer.

*Next week we're painting the library. 14 "drawing contest winners" will be chosen to paint their drawings on two of the walls. I've also made contact with an organization to beef up our book collection. Finally, we have the grant $ in hand!

I posted pictures from the month... take a look!!

For the past two-ish weeks I've been without hot water. For some reason or another my shower-head heater, supposedly "new," is extremely temperamental and will choose to stop working at any given moment and then magically start again a week or two weeks later. Always a crap shoot. Well this past Wednesday I headed in to take a shower determined that TODAY would be the day it would start working again.

Tinkering with the sliding tab, the running water remained ice cold. (expletive) Even though the outdoor temperature may be 79, at 6:30 in the morning, cold water is still just cold water. Sigh. One more try. Ta-da! The shower gods bestowed their magic.

There really aren't words to accurately describe how great a hot shower feels after being without for a while. Reveling in it's greatest, I was nearing the end when BAM! POP! I was surrounded by a shower of sparks. I screeched and lept out of the shower dripping. (also taking sudden note of the swishing sounds of machetes in my back yard and the likely confused workers) POP! WHAM! POW! The metal wire connecting the shower head to the ceiling snapped in two, and began to smoke. The bathroom smelled of burnt electrical tape and the water continued to run as I contemplated my chances of electrocution. I wasn't too thrilled at the thought of having to be found, no doubt days later, in the shower after having succumb to the powers of that stupid 6" heater... and all for a little warm water.

But clearly, I've been granted another chance and thus survived to tell the tale of my 2nd house fire in less than 3 months. Thanks for everything, Costa Rica!!

The book club has officially accomplished it's first activity... de-cou-page! Despite it being the mid-year break, 5 out of 6 of the b.c. leaders came to school at 9a.m. to beautify a bookshelf bringing lots of excitement (and gluey hands). After two hours, and a bag of marshmallow treats, we were done. I was thrilled they all worked so well together; they were thrilled to get away from their parents.

Here's the before and after...





In other exciting library news....our grant application was approved!! (In May, I had applied to receive money (a max of $500) to go towards funding the library and the activities and supplies for the book club.) Finally, the wait is over. Within the next month we will be receiving $499.86! This money will be coming from an organization called "Kids to Kids" where kiddos in the states raise money to support projects involving kiddos in other countries. They then vote on the applications and choose the most "kid-friendly" projects. We're famous!

http://www.kidstokids.org/projects/project.php?project=474


The mid-year school breaks continues through this week and then it's back to the normal schedule again. I've taken advantage of the extra time to start a backyard garden and dig a compost pit. Yeah! I've been wishing and wanting to do so and finally got the green light from my landlord.

I've also had the opportunity to tag along with the "San Vito Bird Club" and go on a bird-watching hike through the beautiful botanical gardens with a group of kids. I'm not really into birding myself, but hiking through botanical gardens on a sunny Saturday morning is a great way to start the day. Especially when coupled with enthusiastic kids and a pair of binoc's.


The rain continues and continues. I fight to get my clothes dry and never leave the house without wearing my tall, leopard print boots. Lately I've been into making wheat tortillas and have tried my hand at "blender hummus" too. As mid-month rapidly approaches, so does the number 0 in my bank account... Hummus tortilla anyone?? (for the 3rd time today?)

So please send me your gardening tips n tricks and cheap (no-bake) recipes!! I'd like to spice it up.

P.S. I'm trying to keep up with the picasa photo albums as well so if you're dying to see more than the thumbnails I include here...have a look! The 1st set of pix are from a 4th of July BBQ I went to with a bunch of ex-pats. There was a chocolate cake contest as well and I was an official judge. Tough job.

Today is the first day of the "mid-year" break for all school kids and I'm relaaaaxing. Made some whole wheat pancakes with a fruit salad for breakfast, and am now enjoying NOT hand-washing clothes, doing chores, or frantically trying to organize this or that at the school or in town.

Last weekend I randomly decided to take a box of chalk and head over to "the projects" to do an "hora de arte" with the kiddos. They loved it! The idea is to eventually do a legitimate mural with paint but, this is a start.





Hmmm, what else. We've officially elected the "coordinadores" for the book club (they were soooo excited when they found out) and are having a "coordinator's activity only" over break to beautify the library. Whiiiich in this case, without money or resources at this time, means de-cou-paging a book shelf with colorful wrapping paper and a glue/water solution without paintbrushes. I'll also throw in a little q&a about leadership, setting good examples, project ideas, etc etc. The first official project of the book club is to start a story hour for the kids in pre-school and kindergarten. They came up with the idea and will essentially be in charge of coordinating the whole thing! Yay kid power.

The school board has now officially given it's support to the library project!! This is big news for it's future. Along with the President, we're hoping to get a group of interested parents involved because "other logical sources" (cough teachers) are "unable" to do so. This is just the news I wanted to hear as the first half of the year came to a close....

Finally! The much anticipated lip sync contest happened. After 26 classroom presentations, 13 posters, and 4 date changes, it happened. And the kids loved it. WHY were there 4 date changes?

Weeeeeeell, after planning and proposing the idea to the school director, she approved the dates. Two weeks before this approved date she named me on a committee planning an "art festival" for the exact two dates she approved, which hung on 13 posters throughout the school, and resonated in the brains of approximately 280 children and 25 staff.

"What? What contest?" Was the response I received when I mentioned this during a meeting in front of 4 other personnel.
"Oh no, there's time for both."
"No there isn't."
"Yes there is. Ok well we'll just do it on Friday." (this is exactly what I had wanted to avoid which is why I planned for 2 days)
Date change #1.

Another week passes and I hear in passing that Friday is the day for the all-day all-school assembly celebrating "National Day of the Environment." (this had been in the works for weeks as well)

Date change #2.

After approaching the director with my new-found information: "Oooook Liiiiindsay. Let's do it next Thursday. The 10th. That ok?"
"Alright, I'd prefer it to be 2 days as originally planned, so how about thursday and friday?"
"Ok." She writes it down.

Date change #3.

Two days later, after having changed all 13 posters and visiting all 13 classrooms of confused children, she "realizes" there are no classes on Thursday. Nope. There's a teacher training and no children will be coming to school. (this has been in the works for weeks as well)

Date change #4.

Irate. Poster change, confused children, the godforsaken lip sync that I no longer have interest in carrying out is on FRIDAY the 11th.

Due to all the changes, many children forgot, forgot their music, or forgot their costumes. But many others did not and it was a riot. There WAS a "Billie Jean" act complete with costume, attempted moon-walking, and classic MJ moves. A group of 6th grade boys brought in their drums and did an original number. Two kindergarten girls dressed as cowgirls and preformed their own choreographed dance. Some children improvised and sang the songs that they meant to play on a disc and others did traditional Costa Rican dance in full costume. All the students and teachers alike got in to and it ended up being a success. I'm glad I persevered. I'm not sure I will repeat that format ever again. (didn't I say this after Earth Day??)





June 14th-18th was Mid-Service training. It was a time for information sharing, camaraderie, and lounging in a sweet hotel with all the amenities. Unfortunately, I became very ill mid-week with a virus mimicking dengue fever. I have never had such horrible body and joint pain in my life. Coupled with a high fever, pain behind my eyes, and chills, I spent a fair amount of time in bed longing for sleep. So I had to make a couple trips to the hospital and stayed in the capital a few extra days to ensure everything was alright. Today is the first day I'm really feeling better. Dang you virus.

So now I'm back in action. Getting ready to watch the U.S./Ghana soccer game, having just finished a few hours of laundry. But I feel re-inspired to continue with the library project-the club has officially formed and we have started meeting!!-and forge ahead with new projects and new groups as well.

Oh yeah...the rain is taking it's toll on the roads around here... Look what happened walking to school.

Onward we go...

It's always a let down to come back to the "real world"-even if that real world is Costa Rica-after a fabulous vacation. It's an even bigger let down when you don't bring your house keys and have to dive through the window only to discover you weren't the first person to do that. I was pretty confident that someone had been there after seeing the rug askew, one curtain rod laying across my couch, and mud on the floor, but when I discovered my iPod missing, that's what sealed the deal. Hmpf. Back to the real world.

But, the weeks leading up to it were great! Dan was here visiting and we managed to make it to the Panamanian border to buy some cheap household goods, to Zancudo beach for some fun in the sun, and finally up to Orosi Valley to check out the oldest, used church in Costa Rica and the local biking. Our second day in the Orosi Valley we did a 20 mile bike trip around a lake, through the ruins of Ujarra, and straight up the mountain looping back into Orosi. It was by far the most spectacular bike trip I've ever taken. And we were able to meet up with my partner in crime, Becca, and her visiting friend Greta for our trip to Orosi too! Woo hoo!

Otherwise, life back here is life back here. Lots of rain n mud, avocados n mangos. This Thursday and Friday is the lip sync contest! Finally! I can't wait to see what the kids come up with... there have been rumos of an MJ impression...

I also recently submitted a grant request to support the library and book club project. Fingers crossed!! It'd be great to receive that money to really get the project rolling-more books, paint for murals, posters, an official stamp, book dividers, reading games, bean bag chairs, etc. I should know within the next month or so if our project has been approved.

So that's that! A week from Monday is already the Mid-Service Training-how time flies. Well, technically it's not MY mid-service point. But who's counting... :)

This evening I decided to take a walk because very unusually, it was not raining. In fact, it was one of those really beautiful evenings where there was seemingly no temperature change between indoors and outdoors. So off I went in the direction of "the projects." There's always a lot going on over there-kids riding bikes, neighbors chatting on stoops, random dogs trotting about-so that's where I headed. I also wanted to catch up with a woman regarding our proposed project to fix up the playground, so armed with that excuse, my entrance into "la urba" was made legit.

Before I even reached the first row of houses, I was met by Christian, one of the cutest boys in the school from one of the cutest families. "Hi Lindsay!" he said. "Let's go to the playground!!" So he abandoned his friend he had been playing with and we headed toward the playground. On the way we encountered his younger brother, Calep (the only boy cuter than Christian), who was walking home from school. Barf. Out of nowhere Calep leaned over and puked. That's why I don't eat the chicken in the lunchroom.

Fortunately we were close to their house and after one frozen ice pop, he was feeling better. So, the plan remained to go to the playground to swing, play jacks, the ush when we passed a house with four 4th grade girls inside dancing and singing. "Lindsay!! Lindsay! Come in and watch-we're practicing for the lip sync contest!!!" (the lip sync contest is in 3 weeks) I was so touched that I went inside completely disregarding the fact that I'm the head judge.

That moment made it worth giving all the other presentations to the kids who interrupted me to say how stupid the contest was and that they'd never participate. Those girls are the ones that matter. I'm taking it to the bank!!

So often people ask me, "what's a typical day like for you?" And I immediately sigh and come up short... because really there's no such thing. I can definitively say that every day is different and usually I'm not sure what's going to happen much more than 10-15 minutes before hand. But, in an attempt to NOT come up short, I decided to pluck a day out of my life (today) and tell you about it!

I woke up this morning around 7:30, and decided that although it IS the weekend, I have a ton of laundry to do and I need to take advantage of the hot and sunny morning. So up I went and began the washing...


Which was quite the arduous task because I had to include my sheets and blankets in that process... very unfortunately (read: disgustingly) I picked up scabies while staying at a dodgey hotel after the all volunteer dinner.


After that was out on the newly strung (packer colors) line, I did a little house cleaning, picked up some money I was owed from a neighbor 15 min away, then started breakfast!!





As far as the rest of the day goes... come what may. Fortunately everything has dried so I won't be held hostage to the inevitable afternoon rain. I'll probably head into town to pick up some more householdish items-stools, dishes, lightbulbs. And speaking of lightbulbs...

The second night after moving in, I had a bit of an incident with a lightbulb. I had just finished eating dinner and was enjoying a pineapple/orange yogurt cup on the sofa when suddenly the kitchen light when out. Almost as a reflex, I turned around to look at it when there was a loud POP! and a shower of sparks. Outside it was down pouring so I figured some water had leaked it and it had short circuited. Suddenly the shower of sparks turned into a series of flames and the fixture was on fire. I jumped up, turned the switch off and immediately turned to the breaker box expecting an explosion. Frantically I filled a coffee mug with water as the flames reached higher and higher toward my plywood ceiling. Fortunately, all it took was 2 mugs full of water and the fire was out.

Very typical of costa rican homes, there are no smoke detectors, bars on the windows, and no home addresses in the event you'd need to call the fire dept. Oh well...I lived to tell the story.