School Stuff

Good news! The parent/student strike is over! All the kids are attending class again, and we can stop reviewing old material and start teaching new stuff. As a result of the parent strike, there have been a few changes at the school. Classes are starting promptly at 7am (the official start of the school day), recesses last for scheduled 10 minutes (ok, maybe 15, but its a lot less than the previous 30), and the school lunches now include more fruits and veggies. The principal installed a bell, which sounds a lot like the tornado drill sound I grew up with, and she bought the school a coffee maker! I'm not a fan of the bell, mostly because I can hear it from my house, but it really does help insure that the school stays on its schedule.

Another change for this school year is that the 1st-3rd graders are going to be using English workbooks. I'm really excited to start using them. We will save sooooooo much time because the students won't have to copy stuff off of the board- they will all have their own copies of the materials all ready in their workbooks. We will also save time by not passing out photocopies, and the students will have a visual reminder of how much material they have learned. I think it will be really motivating and a great classroom tool. But, it was a controversial decision because the kids have to pay for their own workbooks. I think I've mentioned before that the English budget only covers the cost of photocopying the tests. Each workbook costs $7.00, and they only way to get them into to classroom is if each kid buys their own. That $7.00 represents a legitimate sacrifice on the part of quite a few parents- and some of the parents have opted to pay in installments. Hopefully we will have all our workbooks by the end of the next month. *I think it's worth mentioning here that students in Chimurria use workbooks for certain subjects in school, usually math and social studies*

La Maravilla, the smaller school that I work with, had its first PTA meeting last Thursday. The school has around 40 students k-6, and there were 16 parents at the meeting (14 mothers and 2 fathers). Considering that most of the students have siblings/cousins in school- nearly every student had a family member there to represent them. The critical points addressed at the meeting: who was willing to come to mow the school lawn, who was willing to chop wood for the school's stove, how much money each family had to give to the school (standard practice in public schools in Costa Rica), was there enough interest/money to have a soccer team this year.
The meeting went pretty smoothly, and it was encouraging to see how invested the parents were in the school.

First week of school

Today is the 6th day of the school year. Class has already been canceled twice- once for a regional meeting and today because the national teacher's union has organized strike.

The students in Chimurria are on strike, too. Over half of the students haven't been coming to school because their parents have issues with the principal. Half of the teachers want to switch schools. The whole feeling at school this past week has been tense. Everyone is on edge and nervous, anxious to see how this whole thing will end. I've been trying hard to be as uninvolved in the drama as possible. The organizers of the parent/student strike are some of my closest community friends. I work alongside the principal and she is one of my biggest supporters as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I think both parties are being too extreme, but there is no way that I'm going to speak my mind and get mixed up in this mess. I understand where both sides are coming from, and where both of their faults lie. I've decided that the best road for me to take is to duck and cover and wait for this whole thing to blow over. I don't want to mess up my professional relationship at the school with my principal and with the other teachers. I don't want to cause any tension with my friends in my community. So, I'm doing my best to keep my mouth shut- which is hard- and remain a neutral party. I think in another week everything will be resolved, my fingers are crossed.

Needless to say, teaching at Chimurria has been a challenge. With only half of the students coming we don't want to go over too much material because we know the other kids will eventually come and need to catch up. The kids who do come to school are perceptive of the anxious tension in the air and are being more timid than usual. But, silver lining, I have a whole goodie bag of new teaching supplies that the students at Evergreen sent down! So I have a lot of ideas and new activities to use with the kids who are coming to school. We are mostly doing review stuff (greetings, goodbyes, basic introductions). So far the most successful tool I've used has been a cd of children's songs by David Grover. I've used 2 of his songs to review greetings in 1st-3rd grade, and they've both been a hit. I've also been using the cd as background music for games like "hot potato." The songs are incredibly helpful in lightening up the classroom and taking the kids out of their shells. Thank you Evergreen Community!!!

Teaching at La Maravilla has been entertaining. La Maravilla is tiny- less than 40 students in grades 1-6. The vibe there is much more relaxed. Last Thursday the kindergarten teacher bought a full grown chicken from another teacher and the transaction took place at school. During school said chicken was tied to a tree so that she wouldn't run away. At one point the chicken hid herself under a bush and the kindergarten teacher got worried that she had escaped. In order to keep a better eye on her, she put her in a rice bag and decided that the best place to hang her would be in the classroom where we were teaching English. So all during English class there was a chicken hanging from the wall in a rice bag. The chicken was too traumatized to make any noise and I think the students weren't really phased by it. I was the only one who was distracted. I kept worrying about the chicken, thinking that if she got scared and started moving around too much that the bag could fall to the floor. Thankfully, she never fell, and now she's out of the rice bag at her new home at the kindergarten teacher's house.

It's been a weird week.

Shack Attack

This is my first take at a video blog. I don't know why this didn't occur to me earlier. Here is a video of my house. Well, there are two videos. The sound didn't work for me when I played it in divx, but it worked fine in windows media player. I'm not really sure why- but hopefully you can get the sound to play.

Part 1




and

Part 2





That's my little house!

I moved in last November and am still fixing stuff up. Maybe in a few more months I'll have done something with my extra room. What I really want to do is get a table/desk and turn it into an office. Where I can work on lesson plans and make materials for classes. I really hope that these videos work. Let me know if you are having issues seeing them or hearing them.

Lazy Daze

It’s been a week since I got back from Panama, and there is still another week before school starts. Our first day of class is February 8^th. Things have been pretty slow around Chimurria. People are all in vacation mode and lots of folks are out of town visiting relatives and friends. I don’t have any secondary projects going on right now and don’t plan on starting any up until school is back in session. So what do I do when there’s nothing to do?

I usually spend these lazy days baking ridiculous things and cooking for hours making gourmet meals for one. I read some, do laundry, sweep my house. I spend time with my friends in my community. I write letters to my friends in the states. In the evenings I sit with my can of Raid and wait for the spiders to come out, probably while watching a movie on my computer. The days are slow and have a tendency to roll right on into each other. When my days are free they have their own way of filling themselves, and I sometimes find myself in unexpected places.

For instance, a few days ago, when I was just about to embark on a bagel making endeavor, one of my 5^th grade students knocked on my door. She said that she needed me to come over to her house to help translate. There was a man there from the states who didn’t speak Spanish. She asked if I was busy (I wasn’t) and if I could come over (so I did). Honestly, I couldn’t believe that there was a foreigner in Chimurria. Since I’ve been here the only foreigner’s who’ve been to Chimurria (on purpose) have been my friends and family. So I unplugged my fan and headed over to my student’s house to see the alleged foreigner for myself.

Wadayaknow! There was a man from the states in her house and they legitimately needed me to be a translator. The man, Gary, was a missionary for the Methodist church in Upala. He had come down to help build a parsonage. He’s an architect and had drawn the blueprints for the new building. Gary was with the pastor and the pastor’s wife- who had taken him to Chimurria so that he could see the river and spend time with my student’s family (they are active members of the Methodist church). The pastor’s son is a high school English teacher and he usually helps translate, but for some reason he couldn’t be there, thus I was summoned. The pastor and the pastor’s wife were relieved when I got there. They really wanted to be good hosts and show Gary around Chimurria but were struggling with the language barrier. I was glad to help- and although my translating skills are miserable- its fun to practice.

It was great to meet another non-tourist foreigner. We got to talk about our different experiences in Costa Rica and compare stories about culture shock. Gary has been to Costa Rica once a year for the past 5 years and has a deep network of friends in the Upala area. He travels to different churches in the area and helps them with their construction projects. His Costa Rican experience has been vastly different than mine and it was interesting to hear about it.

We spent some time talking in the house, then we all went down to the river. I stayed on the river bank and gossiped with the pastor’s wife and my friend while everyone else splashed around. After a while a rain cloud showed up and scared us back inside. Once the rain passed we went out to the soccer field to watch the community pick up game. That evening they invited me to a pizza dinner. A new pizza place opened up in the neighboring town and we had to try it. Not a bad way to spend the day!

When school’s out and my schedule’s free it’s fun to see where the days take me. I have really been enjoying the freedom of this past week- being able to focus more on myself and sustaining my relationships with people in Chimurria. I’ll be excited for school to start, but for now I’m content with my extraordinary amount of free time. It means I have time for life’s random adventures- like being an impromptu translator for a missionary, or crafting the most delicious carrot coconut soup. It’s all in the journey.

The Bike Ride

I'm pleased to say that our border to border bike ride was a success. (short story: I helped organize a cross country bike ride to raise awareness about healthy lifestyles. For the long story check out this and my previous blog entries) So we did it! and here's how it went:

Day 1, Jan 5th

The day before the bike ride begins everyone met up in Upala. We had 8 Peace Corps volunteers and 4 staff members to start out with. Along the ride we gained and lost riders.

That evening 5 of us lead a drug awareness workshop for a marginalized youth population in Upala. We talked to them about the effects of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and cocaine on the body. Then we opened up the conversation to the effects these drugs have not only on individuals but on families and communities. The workshop was done in partnership with a local organization thats funded by UNICEF and works with marginalized youth. At the end of our workshop they were able to talk to the participants about services that they offer to youth in Upala and a few of our participants joined up with them. Overall we were really pleased at how the workshop went. The youth asked really good questions and our group conversations were productive and relevant. It was the perfect way to kick off our bike ride.

Day 2, Jan 6th (Nicaraguan border to Monterrey)

We woke up early, intending to leave at 6. We didn't actually hit the road until 7. It's funny how PCVs constantly complain about people showing up late to their meetings and events yet when it comes down to it we are the most notoriously time-flexible group of people that I have ever known.
Once on our bikes we ride 10k down a gravel road to the Nicaraguan border. At the crossing there is a knee high stone beside a tattered Nicaraguan flag. The stone has a small plaque that labels the border. On the other side of the road there is a Nicaraguan border patrol officer sitting on a wooden bench and holding a very large gun. We took a group shot at the border, turned around, and headed south to Panama.

The first 2/3 of the day were mostly flat. We rode alongside pineapple farms, past an indigenous reservation, and then we hit our first hills. The last 1/3 of the day were serious uphill. Costa Rica is a fairly mountainous country and there is really no way to avoid climbing up some hills if you want to bike across it. Luckily we had a nice overcast day and there was a light misting to help keep us cool. Avoiding the sun was a blessing. We got to our destination exhausted, but safe. That night I had planned on making myself a pb and banana sandwich to save money, but was so tired that I caved and ordered a casado (a typical rice and bean dish) at a local restaurant. It was delicious and so worth it.

That evening we had a group meeting, went over the game plan for the next day, and went to bed early.

Day3 Jan 7th (Monterrey to Venezia)

This time we only left 45 minutes late. We biked through some hills in the morning and the hit a nice flat stretch. That day we had a workshop scheduled at 10am in a volunteer's community, Platanar. He lives only 6k off the route. The workshop was scheduled to be about health and nutrition and 2 of the volunteers leading it had run marathons and one had previously worked as a physical therapist and is incredibly knowledgeable on all things health and nutrition. I was really excited for the community of Platanar and excited to do our 2nd workshop. Unfortunately only two participants showed up for the workshop. As PCVs this has happened to all of us and I think we've become jaded to our intended workshops failing before we even have a chance to give them. So we got on our bikes and rode on to Venezia. We had another workshop there in the evening and another shot to talk about health and nutrition with our Costa Rican counterparts.
The nice flat valley abrubtly turned on us and we encountered the wost climb of the entire trip, 4km of straight uphill under a fierce Costa Rican sun at 1 in the afternoon. The hill to Aguas Zarcas was mean and at the top everyone sat down for a good hour and a half to recover for the last 12k into Venezia.
The last 12k were hilly, but not as bad as getting to Aguas Zarcas.

A volunteer, Katherine, lives in Venezia. She played hostess for us and the PCVs camped out in her yard.

That evening we had our 3rd scheduled workshop. It was also scheduled to focus on health and exercise. We were going to do it in the community center, but, there was a double booking with a wedding reception and we had to relocate to another building. We didn't have enough time to spread the word, and, again only two people showed up. We gave them some information, had a really informal conversation, and headed off to bed. Again, this wasn't the first or last time I'll experience low numbers and logistical problems while I'm in Peace Corps. I'm disappointed, but not devastated, and focus my energy on resting up for tomorrow's ride.

Day 4 Jan 8th (Venezia to Guapiles)

We get ourselves together and on the road a mere 20 mintues behind schedule. The first 15k of the ride are rolly polly up and down these steep hills, and then we hit a long downhill. Our car driver is Jose, he's one of our bosses and super friendly and encouraging. He was our cheerleader the whole time and it was fun to ride with him and have his support. In his youth he was on the national champion Costa Rica bike team and he has (obviously) a lot of experience and advise to share with us. I learned so much with him guiding us up and down the hills.

We arrived to La Vigen de Sarapiqui at 7am. The workshop wasn't scheduled until 10, so the big group went on while the workshop leaders hung back and waited to give the workshop. There were three workshop leaders, myself and two other good pcv friends of mine. One of them, beth, lives in La Vigen, and we hung out at her house and stretched and relaxed for a few hours.

At workshop time, only three women showed up. We soldiered on and gave the workshop despite the low numbers and it was a hit! The women were really into what we had to say and learned a lot. Us three workshop facilitators worked really well together. We had a good energy and complimented each other perfectly. We were all in the same training community before we swore in as volunteers and have had practice co-facilitating together. It was fun to reuinte and work with them again.

At the end of the workshop the three women participants were interested in having Beth give more workshops in a retirement community and in the elementary school in La Virgen. There is also talk of starting up a yoga class! The workshop was small but had ended on a really positive note.

Nicole, Beth and I then got on our bikes and caught up to the big group.

That day we went to the bus terminal and bussed it from Guapiles to Limon. The staff was really worried about the safety of the group riding on that particular stretch of road. It is heavily trafficked, full of tractor trailors, and there is basically no shoulder. As a group we decided to abandon that leg of the trip. As sad as it was, it really was the best decision we could have made.

We put our bikes and bodies on the bus and that night we slept in Limon

Day 5th Jan 9th (Limon to Cahuita)

The most beautiful and enjoyable bike ride of my life. It was a flat 5ok almost entirely alongside the Caribbean coast. We woke up early so we could bike and watch the sunrise over the Caribbean. I was riding with 3 great friends and we complimented each other perfectly. We rode as a team, each person took turns riding up front to break the wind for the rest. Thinking back on this ride the best word to describe it is: joy. I was so happy to be where I was, to be with the people I was with, and to be doing what I was doing. For me, right then, all the work that I had put into this bike trip was worth it. I was so proud of what our group had accomplished.

The day got even better once we got off our bikes. We had the majority of the day to lay on the beach and walk around Cahuita National Park. The park was as close to paradise as I could imagine, and we were all in high spirits basking in the endorphin rush that follows heavy exercise. Essentially-it was bliss.

That day we had another health and nutrition workshop scheduled. It was our last workshop of the trip. Unfortunately, because we had to change our bike route at the last minute, we were unable to give the workshop. There wasn't enough time to notify everyone and we had to cancel yet another workshop. It was disappointing to have that workshop canceled. Facilitating the other workshops had given me so much motivation along the trip and the workshops we had given were all successful. I felt like our message had been received and there was promise in each community for the ability to continue working with Peace Corps Volunteers to promote healthful living. I hated to have lost one more connection with yet another community, but I know that I did the best I could to make it happen and couldn't have done anything differently. A lesson I'm still learning is not to take things personally when plans don't pan out as expected. I'm getting better at it, but am still working on it.

Day 6 Jan 10th (Cahuita to Panama)

The last leg of our trip and incredibly bittersweet. We went through another indigenous reservation, up our last hill, past all the Chiquita banana plantations, dodged hundreds of pot holes, and biked right onto the Panamanian border at Sixaola.

We made it. All the way from Nicaragua to Panama on our bikes. Everyone safe and accounted for. We helped teenagers in Upala understand the risks of drugs, we taught women in Sarapiqui about nutrition and the value of exercise, we encouraged and inspired each other. We did it! We promoted healthful lifestyles in Costa Ricans and PCVs- and we had made national news. That day, La Nacion, the most prestigious national daily newspaper for Costa Rica, featured our trip in an article. My Spanish literate friends can check out the link here:

http://www.nacion.com/2012-01-10/AldeaGlobal/miembros-del-cuerpo-de-paz-recorren-el-pais.aspx

Getting to the Panama border was such a great moment for me. It was a struggle- every bit of it was hard- logistically planning a bike trip across a country, organizing and supporting the participants, and the actual physical doing of it. It was nothing but a challenge! When I got to the border I was so proud of all that our group had accomplished. We biked across a country together! I still can't believe that I made it all that way and in case you can't either here is the photographic proof: beginning, middle, and end.


At the Nicaraguan border


biking through Costa Rica


On the Panama Border

Ride for your Life!

Tomorrow I’m going to ride my bike to the Nicaraguan border, turn it around, and head south to Panama. By next week, I should be passed out on an island in Panama. That’s my plan, at least.

I’ve been reluctant to talk about this trip with friends and family from home. I’ve been too scared that I’ll jinx it or that something will fall through. But it looks like it’s actually happening, so I’m making this very public announcement to let you all know where I’ll be and what I’m up to.

For the past 4 months my friends Marissa, Katherine, and I have been organizing a cross country bike trip for Peace Corps staff and volunteers. We have 2 goals: (1) to inspire healthy lifestyle choices in PCVs and Costa Ricans and (2) to ride our bikes across Costa Rica. As we bike across the country we will be stopping in various communities to give workshops on nutrition, exercise, and drug awareness. There are about 20 staff and volunteers who plan to participate in the trip. And if all goes right we should reach the Panamanian border at the end of 6 biking days. We start our trip about 40k from my community and will bike over 425k of Costa Rican roadway to the Panama border crossing at Sixaola. The route crosses over some steep mountains, but luckily the last few days are relatively flat.

The PC Costa Rica office has been incredibly supportive of this idea. They are offering us 2 (yes, 2!) support vehicles that will accompany us. So, mom, I don’t want you to worry. The staff has got our back and will be there in case we get sick, run into bike trouble, or forget to put on our reflective vests.

I’m so excited that all the planning is behind us and all the riding is up ahead! It’s been a lot of work- and I can’t wait to get my bike on the road tomorrow.

Wish us luck because here we go!

Motivation

There is an elementary school in Asheville, in Haw Creek, that has been keeping me motivated and inspired. At the beginning of my service I got an email from a 2^nd grade teacher at Evergreen Charter School. She wanted to connect our classrooms: to give our students a chance to make friends with children their own age in a foreign country. She had found me by chance: saw my name in the local paper announcing that I was about to serve in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica. She looked me up online and sent me an email. At the time I was checking my email twice a month- these were before the days of my bicycle ownership and I didn’t get to go into town as much. When I first got her email I was in disbelief. At the time I felt completely disconnected from my old life. I was having a hard time getting in contact with my family, I didn’t hear much from friends from home, and Peace Corps protocol didn’t allow me to leave my site very often those first three months. I spent most of my time immersing into life in Chimurria, speaking Spanish and playing soccer. Here I was, living in this tiny community of 600 people in rural Costa Rica, and *plop* into my in-box comes an email from a teacher from my hometown. It seemed so incredible to me that I could feel so removed, so far away from everything familiar, and then at the same time be google-searched, facebooked, emailed. I had never before quite realized the capacity of the internet to connect people.

I was amazed, and I was definitely interesting in starting up a pen pal exchange between her students and mine.

The day we got the first pen pal letters was so memorable. As a teacher, I was excited to share with my students to opportunity to contact native speakers their own age. It’d be near to impossible to find a more motivating classroom tool. As a Peace Corps volunteer, I was excited to be able to promote cross-cultural understanding in both Costa Ricans and US citizens. In general I was just excited that a classroom full of kids from my hometown was getting ready to “meet” a classroom of children from Chimurria, Costa Rica.

My 2^nd graders loved their letters so much. They pasted them into their notebooks- and they would pull them out and show them to me for weeks afterwards. Writing the response letters was a challenge for them, and they tackled it beautifully. Costa Rican classrooms tend to inspire perfectionism and an intense fear of failure. I try my best to avoid that mentality in my class, but my students still come to school with that ideology and it’s hard to get over. So, for them, writing letters to native English speakers was really scary. They were afraid to mess up and write something incorrect in their letters. They were nervous about what a US 2^nd grader would think about them. And it was their first time writing a letter- in any language. I guided them through the concept of a letter, of a pen pal, and each student ended up writing 2 drafts of the letter that they wanted to send. Then they filled the white space with pictures and drawings of Chimurria. I have never seen my class so focus and concentrated as when they are writing to their pen pals. I wish you could have seen how proud they were of their letters.

Afterward we took pictures of the class to send to the students in the US- to help personalize the letters- and partly because my students love having their picture taken.

The next day school was canceled for some reason or another. I was at home with my host brother (a second grader) and he asked me if he could work some more on his letter. I took it out for him so that he could work on it, some other kids saw him working on his letter, and they wanted the chance to polish theirs, too. Soon I had a group of about 5 students in my living room- and once their first letters were up to their standards, they wanted to write a second letter. I was floored. School was canceled, and here was this group of 2^nd grade students gathered together writing letters in English. In that moment I was so proud of and impressed by them.

We’ve had a few more letter exchanges, and each one is filled with anticipation and excitement by the class. They love reading and writing their letters. Each time it’s a little less intimidating and each time their English improves.

Their US pen-pals are really special kids, too. I’m proud that we share the same hometown. My mom, step-dad, and little sister had the privilege of going to Evergreen Community Charter School and actually got to meet them. The students, their parents, and teacher had organized a bake sale to raise money to send me teaching materials. They were going to pass off the materials to my mom so that she could bring them to me when she came to visit. My mom and step-dad came for a visit a few weeks ago (which deserves its own blog entry- I know I’m behind) when I opened the suitcase with the teaching materials I could have cried. After teaching all year on a budget of $0, I have been craving to use books and have more exciting interesting materials in the classroom than my sad looking drawings on construction paper. These 2^nd graders in Asheville got together to send me dozens of English books, children’s songs, markers, flash cards, tangrams, geoboards, a twister game, and various other teacher goodies. It was the most beautiful Christmas gift I’ve ever gotten. My class is going to be so much more fun, exciting, interesting. My students are going to be able to read actual books!!! I am so blessed to have been the recipient of such great teaching materials, and I am so excited for my students to be able to benefit from them. I am awed by the kindness and generosity of the students and parents at Evergreen. These kids have such big hearts, and their hard work will improve the quality of the education of their Costa Rican pen pals. It is inspiring to see kids reaching out to help other kids- they motivate me to be a better volunteer. I love Asheville for so many reasons- it’s incredible to have my community support me they way that they do.

I want to send out a giant THANK YOU to the students, parents, and teachers at Evergreen. Thanks for your collaboration with the pen pal exchange, thanks so much for the teaching materials, and thanks for keeping me motivated and inspired over the past year.