June 21, 2010
City Girl
This is not a dream. I am officially a Peace Corps volunteer after a year and six month application process. This is it, I am finally here. I’ve been trying to imagine this moment for such a long time and now it is a reality. In fact, a close friend and I were just talking about our b!@#% fest (via internet of course) over the enduring PC application process and now we are both volunteers serving on different sides of the equator, but nonetheless are dreams have been realized.
I’ve been assigned to Costa Rica’s Children, Youth, and Families project for the next two years of service. I’ve been in country for four months. Four months? I’ve been living in CR for four months? It is crazy how time really passes by. I am done with PST! Yes, I’ve said it! I am done. I’ve survive the lengthy sessions, sitting in those darn semi-circle while participating or observing a NFE session. PST is the pre-service training process that all volunteers go through, the length various from country to country. Here it is the first 11 weeks of initial service, where you are learning the specifics of your assigned project, how to implement projects, tech week, site visits, language learning, culture sensitivity training, and safety and security stuff. After all, I am living in a country with active fault lines and quite close to the epicenter, so earthquakes are bound to happen at any time. In fact, four days after landing in this beautiful country, I experienced my first “temblor”. I still call it an earthquake, but here because they happen so frequently they distinguish earthquakes from seismic trembles. It was quite freakish, as I am unaccustomed as to what the hell to do. So, I pretty much just sat there as calm as I could be, as my neighbor… Ok, so I will explain a little further, during the first week you are in country, there is this thing called a Retreat, which is a slow acclimation process to your…well, país. It is a chance to meet your fellow Peace Corps trainees’ (No preocupes, PC handles this process quite well, there are all sorts of activities that ease the pressure of you creating small talk, so you’ll learn of the group dynamics quite early-on like the extroverts/introverts, the “know-it-all”, the jokester, computer guy/gal, the odd 1. I mean, it all is quite fascinating as I am the laid-back observer). The Retreat provides a glimpse of your PST schedule (which is quite intense), you’ll take a LPI-language proficiency evaluation, and so forth. Moreover, during the Retreat you share a room, in my case a hostel style bungalow with about 8-10 girls (it is same-sex unless you are a married couple). Getting back to the topic, I was pretty much as cool as a cucumber, as my neighbor looked over at me horrified. To her defense, she was on the bottom bunk, so if it had been more severe, she would have been crushed. I never knew what an earthquake would feel like, thank God, it was quite mild. I will say that you are aware right away that it is an earthquake. I mean after all the earth is really shaking! So, no I am not dreaming, I am a PCV, by the way following your PST you will be sworn-in as a volunteer, so your title and privileges will change. You kind of grow in to you beard or if you are a lady you grow into your bra. I will admit the first three months are tough and not all of those, whom you arrived in country with, will be standing along with you singing the national anthem during your Juramentación. Four trainees have left service during my PST phase. So, if you can get through that you are pretty much in it to win.
To catch you up to speed briefly, I’ve been assigned to the Guanacaste region. It is hot, hot, hot, hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Luckily, it is it’s the rainy season, so some times when it rains it cools off and other times it is humid. Thank goodness, the Guanacaste region is known for it’s dry heat, which makes it more bearable, but honey I am from the Northeast, so this is all knew to me. This sort of weather would be considered a heat wave, in the north that is. I’ve been here for one month and just about everyday I ask myself, “How in the world do they survive in heat like this and whose idea was it to settle here?”. I don’t know just a thought. Some days are worst then others. So, I have to change things up a bit, which means I wake-up earlier to go for a run around 5:00 am (I would get up earlier, but it is dark out), between the hours of 12-3, I try to do things that involve being in doors, like chillin’ with the Guancasteco fam, hanging out in the Equipo-Interdisciplinario(Interdisciplinary team-social worker, psychologis, and I cannot quite figure out the translation for the Orientadora) office, visiting one of the Community or Social Institution centers with AC, as most homes are not equipped with them, or just having cafecito (I should say tea or OJ because I do not drink coffee) with the vecinos. For the first three months you are to do a community analysis or diagnostic of the community to figure out what the hell you are doing there. So you talk to folks, service providers (i.e.,health clinics), visit social institutions (e.g.,schools), and make personal observations to find the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and of course project opportunities to analyze with your counterpart or interested neighbor. That is really all you have to do for the first three months, is integrate into your community.
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