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.