So when I said that I would try to update my blog every week, I guess the operative word was ‘try’. So I’ll try this again. I’ll do some catching up on old stuff spread out (so as not to overwhelm you or me) as well as new stuff. Added occasional bonus: Learning Moments.
New Stuff:
English Classes
Learning Moment: Saying “easy as a-b-c” does not apply in English class.
So I am an English teacher! Peace Corps Costa Rica (PCCR) has a partnership with an organization called Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano (CCCN), which aims to develop the relationship between the US and CR (no wonder PCCR partners with them). One of the things CCCN does is some pretty good English courses. So they do a little bit of training for us on teaching English, make the materials (books, workbooks, and teacher’s book) available at a low price to the students, and then give certificates to the students who complete the course. Now, certificates may not sound like a big deal, but Ticos really love their certificates. There are some people who do all sorts of courses and collect certificates as if it were a hobby. So it is a very big de
al that I can offer a certificate at the end of the course, and CCCN is a pretty well known one.
I offered the course mostly to the small business groups first and filled in the rest of the spots with other community members and a few high schoolers for a total of 16 students. My friend Pippa graciously offered her classroom where she also teaches English classes, which is great since she has created a very stimulating English nook with tons of fun resources that I am sure I will make use of. It’s a 3-hour course twice a week and this first beginner’s course lasts about 6 months.
Considering that I had never really been a teacher before, I wasn’t all that sure if this would be the thing for me. But after 2 weeks of classes, I’ve actually had a lot of fun. And the students seem to really like it and are pretty motivated since they see the value in learning English for their own interests. Most classes go pretty great and it’s nice to have a teacher’s book that has things pretty planned out for me, but I sometimes have to add or change things around. Like the first day, we learned the Beatles song “You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello” to practice the greetings we had learned in an entertaining way – my mom would be so proud. And then when the alphabet came up, the teacher’s plan had us go over it briefly then launch right into spelling and listening to spelling at full speed. But since it was really like learning 26 new words for them, we ended up spending more time on the alphabet than planned. Now with the help of the alphabet song and extra practice, they are doing a lot better.
Lots of work, but lots of fun too and I think it will be a project I really enjoy and that the students will get a lot out of.
Lost iPod Shuffle and Ant Invasion
Learning Moment: There are almost always 2 ways of looking at things.
The pessimistic way: I misplaced my iPod shuffle for over a month, leaving m
e without portable music and podcasts for long bus rides and morning runs (which was actually a pretty big bummer). Then I realized that I had had it all along when I had to empty everything out of my backpack when ants infested it, and found the shuffle in a small pocket. So I missed out on a month of comforting music and podcasts (one of the ways I stay sane and somewhat updated on world news) when I had it all along and then had to waste 30 minutes dealing with annoying ants.
The optimistic way: After a month of disappointing shuffle-less bus rides and runs, some ants were kind enough to help me look through my backpack more thoroughly (and realize that I need to wash it perhaps) to find my long lost shuffle! And after this time without a shuffle, I appreciate it so much more and am even more motivated to go on runs since, after all, I have a shuffle to listen to!
I think I like the optimistic way – a lot more constructive, especially for these 2 years.
Old Stuff:
Caño Negro
Learning Moment: Mango pizza is delicious!
Caño Negro is a pretty well known Wildlife Reserve and also happens to be where a PCV friend, Mick, is located. It’s got swamps, heaps of birds, and even prehistoric fish. Caño Negro is an interesting case. Though it is so popular and probably among the top 10 tourist destinations in Costa Rica, it almost exclusively gets tourism booked from outside companies that bring in and take out the tourists, without leaving much benefits for the actual community of Caño Negro behind. (I guess it’s not all that much unlike my own site with Rio Celeste)
But of all that it has to offer, pizza finally got me out there. Another PCV friend, James, is in a sight between Mick and I and happens to count making homemade pizza as one of his many talents. Well Mick and James decided that perhaps teaching some community members how to make pizza might offer a possibility of income for them. So I joined in on the fun.
The pizza workshop went quite well. Not sure if anything will start up, but I was happy to be a part of a few Costa Ricans’ first experience with pizza (yay PC goal #2).
We also got to go on a beautiful tour of the lake. We saw plenty of caimán (alligators), birds, monkeys, and gorgeous vegetation and scenery. It was a very traquilo and beautiful tour (due to technical difficulties, no pictures to show).
Rio Celeste Adventure
Learning Moment: 25km is a very long walk (especially in mud and rain)
So Rio Celeste is that gorgeous tourist destination with the turquoise crystalline waters that I visited with my Tarbaca host family in July. This amazing natural wonder is very close to Bijagua, but it’s not in Bijagua. We took a 4-wheel drive taxi when I went with my host family. Well they are working on another entrance to the park that used to only be accessible by horse, and with the construction, is now even less accessible. This new road begins in Bijagua. It will cut a few km off the trip and most likely have quite an effect on Bijagua. (Really hoping this will not ruin Bijagua and it can still keep it’s real Costa Rica feel, but that’s another issue)
Ryan and I had been talking about making the journey on foot for a while and we finally decided it was now or never (we chose now). Even though we got some crazy looks when we let people know what we were doing, we set out on our adventure early in the morning. The weather started out pretty well behaved, which made the muddy sections a bit more manageable. It was a pretty walk as we crossed through cow fields and across rivers. But by the time we finally arrived to the park entrance, I was already pretty exhausted and my hip felt like it was going to say
“screw you” and jump off my body.
But after a rest, we made our way onto the park trail. We went down to the waterfall (yep, still beautiful) and as it had started to rain a bit, we took the shortcut to the hot springs. The springs weren’t as hot as before since the river level was higher, but it still felt pretty amazing with the rain falling as we sat in the warm water.
It was really hard to talk my body into getting out of the water, but I finally did so we could make our way back. The return trip was more of a challenge, with my body already on strike, rain falling, and the mud much more reluctant to let my feet (sometimes ankles and calves) go.
But despite my doubts, we actually did make it back. We had left 8am, got back 4pm and covered roughly 25km (more than a half marathon covered in a work day). Great adventure, but I think I might wait for dry season before considering another one.
