The first days

Hey all!

Right now Im sitting in an internet cafe in a little town called la Fila. I´m living in a town/village/community called el Rosario (which means rosary...I think). There isnt an internet cafe in Rosario, so I cant promise fequent updates

side note: I LOVE love LOVE my community and my host family and all the Peace Corps volunteers.

I spent the first 5 days in Costa Rica at a training center with the rest of the PCV´s (peace corps volunteers). We were basically getting to know the basics of PC costa rica, and getting to know each other, and learning about our assignments. I am so excited about the program that I am assigned to.

I am doing TEFL ( teaching english as a foreign language). We are a pilot program, the first PC TEFL program in Costa Rica. Costa Ricas last president Oscar Arias (who won a nobel peace prize) had a goal to have all of Costa Rica bilingual in Spanish and English by 2017. Its an incedible goal, but Costa Ricans are working hard on acheiving it.

What Im doing here is primarily assisting English teachers in the Public School system. We are helping them improve their English skills and also doing workshops so that they can establish a network and learn new teaching methods. In some cases we will be teaching classes ourselves, but mostly we are there as aids to the teachers. We are also going to go into the community and create opportunities for people to speak English, and we are also working with the students in the schools. But I wont be able to work on that project until Ive finished the 10 week training program here in el Rosario.

My training consists of Spanish classes all day MWF and then technical classes on T-Tr. MWF I go to the community center in El Rosario and take classes with the 4 other PCVs in my community. T-Tr I take a bus to Tarbaca and meet up with all the PCVs in my class (there are 43 of us).

There is so much to say, I cant even think of where to begin.

I arrived here Saturday, and immediately met at least 20 different family members. My host sister, Elena, then took me on a tour around the community and we went to a few of her friends and families houses. I have met so many people. It was fun walking around with my new sister. We just walked up to the houses and knocked and they let us in. Everyone here always has their house open to visiters, and apparantly visters come by all the time. It is a much more intimate community than Im used to. And everyone is incredibly nice and patient with me.

Today my host grandma taught me how to make tortillas from hand, and then we made empanadas. The stove in my house is like a raised bowl with a little fire in it.

Well, Im running out of time!!

adios!


also, if you want to call me. here is my CR number: 011 506 2540 1398

be sure to ask for hooolia