VAC Regional Meeting

Volunteers Advisory Council is kind of like the PC form of ASB in school. Each region of CR has one to represent the PCVs of that region. Every 4 months the PCVs in each region meet up to talk about regional projects, raise common concerns for the rep to bring to PC staff, make announcements, share ideas, and just be able to hang out with other PCVs for a while. This time the meeting for the Naughty North was held in La Fortuna over the 4th of July weekend. La Fortuna is the little tourist town right next to Arenal Volcano.

The weekend was pretty eventful, starting with the trip out there. It just happened that Pippa (the Australian who lives in my site) was going out to La Fortuna the same weekend with her husband Donald, some volunteers in town for the month, and some visitors she had from Australia. We took a scenic back road that took us through beautiful Costa Rican countryside, past wind turbines, and out to Lake Arenal. Once we were back on paved road, it was still very low traffic. Unfortunately, that did not stop us from witnessing a horrible accident. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. A man ran to cross the road, but not fast enough to avoid the car just in front of us. I didn’t believe I was actually seeing a man fly feet first above the car and then go crashing back down to the ground. We were all sure at first that he must be dead, but he made a movement to get out of the road, so Pippa went to help since she had had first aid training as a teacher in Australia. She got him in recovery position, kept the woman who knew him from freaking out and trying to move him, and applied towels to the bleeding. Though he had moved, he was definitely in bad shape. The windshield had been broken, he was bleeding from his head, and we had no idea what kind of internal injuries there could be. Donald had called the ambulance and the police and helped keep the woman’s brother who showed up to the scene from punching the driver of the car in the face. The rest of us stayed in the car, not wanting to further crowd the scene when we could not help improve it. When they had done all they could, we left, still not quite believing what we had witnessed, a little shook up by the whole thing.

So we continued on our drive around Lake Arenal, appreciating the gorgeous scenery, and trying to not think about the accident. We stopped in the quaint little town of Arenal Nueva, which was new because the old one was under water from when they had dammed the lake. We didn’t spend too much time there, but we did get to enjoy the delicious, yet overpriced German bakery that was there. Even though I could have gotten a whole meal for the same price in a typical place, I definitely enjoyed the Apple Strudel I finally decided on. We were now entering tourist area and the accompanying prices.

The rest of the trip was beautiful, and I arrived in La Fortuna much more comfortable than if I would have come by bus. I easily found the awesome little hostel that was a converted house that I was staying in with the other PCVs for the weekend. And since there were about 20 of us, we just rented out the whole thing, leaving the kitchen, TV (which had shows in English!), and BBQs to us.

Well that day being 4th of July and us being a big group of Americans, we made a patriotic party of the night complete with hamburgers, hotdogs, corn on the cob, and topped it all off with fireworks! It was a pretty decent celebration and nice to share it with some PCV friends.

The next day was full of fun as well. We walked just out of town to a beautiful river that had the most perfect rope swing. Well I wasn’t planning on going in the water, but after seeing how perfect the rope swing was, I just couldn’t resist - and I have to say it was a good decision.

For lunch we ate at a delicious and touristy (read - expensive) lunch before launching into our official meeting. We talked about regional projects like supporting organic agricultural, supporting improvements in Nicaraguan immigrants’ rights, and starting an environmental committee. We also talked about any common concerns that we had as PCVs and PC announcements.

Hot springs were the activity of the night. God really knows how to make a good jacuzzi. There was even a little cascade that served as great jets to relieve some PC tension. It was perfect since it was a cool night.

The next day after some homemade crepes made by James for breakfast, it was already time to go home. But at least we got one more good look at the volcano before heading out. Unfortunately we left one day before the volcanic activity started up. But even though we didn’t get to see fumes going up and lava spilling down, it was a great view nonetheless.