Roosters, Goats, Birds, Cows and Pipas: Which one doesn't belong?

Those are all animals that I have seen in the past four days.  Except the last one is something I ate/drank.  This past weekend I got a glimpse of what life in the Peace Corps is like.  I have spent the past four days in a town in the NE part of Costa Rica called Sarapaqui with a current PC volunteer.  My mom informed me that the guidebooks call Sarapaqui a hot spot for adrenaline junkies, with lots of opportunities for whitewater rafting, kayaking, ziplining, etc.  Though, none of those activities were on my agenda this weekend to peak into the life of a current Peace Corps volunteer, many other things were.  Some of them were firsts, and include the following:

1. I drank and ate my first Pipa (coconut water and the coconut) 30 seconds after it was pulled from the tree.

2. Met people from South Africa, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Canada, and the US.

3. Did yoga in the Chilamate rainforest (www.chilamaterainforest.com) with some of the above persons (which was actually more like Bikram's yoga due to the temperature).

4.  Hiked through the Chilamate Rainforest and was eaten alive by bugs (probably carrying Malaria and Dengue, but hopefully not).

5. Ate my first fried cannoli (the italian pasta filled with cheese, but Costa Rican style, fried, like most things here).

6. Practiced english with a High School class preparing for jobs in the field of Tourism in Costa Rica

7. Ate a mango on the street corner.

8. Showered two times every day and enjoyed the cold showers for the first time ever (thank you, humidity).

9. Drank a coke (unheard of for me!).

10. Got a tour of the town/village by three local young boys who also included the history of the area before and after the earthquake, and important social problems they see in their community.

What a weekend it was.  I will post more pictures from my camera, this is just one from the PC volunteer's camera who I visited.  Mine to come soon.

Hola, ¿Como esta? Buena suerte.

For any of you that know Spanish, you know that the title of this post means, “Hello, how are you? Good luck.”  Sounds like a little bit of an odd sentence……but not too odd.  Unless of course you are meeting your host mother for the first time.  Yes, that’s right, out of nervousness, excitement, and partly my language level (even though I got placed at Intermediate Middle and know better than to greet someone with ´Buena suerte´), I mumbled those exact words as I leaned in to greet my new host mother with a kiss on the right cheek (the official greeting of Costa Rica).  I hoped she didn’t hear it, as I sort of mumbled it under my breath once I realized what was coming out of my mouth.  I tried to brush it off with repeated “Buenas Dias” and lots of smiling.  Thankfully, after that encounter they still decided to keep me.   

 And so it began…three months of living with my new Tico family during Peace Corps training.  And by ‘living with’ I mean sitting with, smiling at, awkwardly laughing with, unknowingly nodding at, and enjoying new cultural situations and language barriers galore.  Though I still continue to make language mistakes and say things like, “yesterday we will go to the grocery store and bought roosters,” or ´Is this the soup I use to wash the dishes?´   I try and remind myself that I’ve only been here a week, and I have much to learn.  My family is wonderful though.  I have my own entrance, bedroom and bathroom.  We have a big back yard with a common area for parties (most of their family lives on the same street) with an outdoor bar, ping-pong table, and lots of couches and chairs.  The backyard is filled with new and interesting fauna and flora including many wild orchids.  Today while in the yard, my host dad pointed out a flower that I apparently ate in a meal the day before.  Huh, not sure what it was but I must have liked it.  Anyway, we have two roosters (that wake me up at 4 am right outside my window), many birds, a large green parrot, and a golden retriever named Bruno.  I am lucky for sure, being the animal-lover I am.  I live with Ana and Jorge, and two of their three 30-something-year-old sons. 

My training community is semi-urban, but a bit more semi-rural.  I have Spanish class three days a week, six hours a day with two other trainees.  It is about a 25-minute walk to the classroom, which strangely enough is located in a funeral home next to a cemetery.  Today we had a lovely picnic in front of the cemetery under the intense Costa Rican sun.  My SPF 20 sunscreen that I brought has proven useless, as my skin is already red.  One day I week I meet with my entire program training group (18) in a nearby training community, and the last day I travel to the capitol of San Jose to meet with the entire group of volunteers (52) for safety and health training.  Days are long, and they don’t end when we come home…..we have to continue to stretch our brains to say simple things like, today I did this or that.  I usually retire to my bedroom around 8 or so, as it’s nice to have some alone time and rest the brain.  Getting used to a new culture is extremely mentally exhausting.  Now I see why I am here two years.  I’m hoping just living will become more natural/secondhand/easy.

All in all, I am loving things so far.  I couldn’t be happier with my Tico family, my training community, and of course, the amazing food I am fed more than three times a day (not to mention my host father owns a fruiteria, thus every meal is filled with bowls of fresh tropical fruit).  And for all those who know how much I hate coffee and swore I would not become a coffee drinker here……well, there’s a small chance that may become a reality.  I had my first cafecito the first day with my family, and I enjoyed it.  Of course it was chock-full of milk and sugar, but less bitter and more pure than in Los Estados Unidos.  For now, I will stick with my té, but time can do so much.

Algunas fotos para ustedes: 

Our retreat center where we spent the first five days:

A few new Peace Corps friends: Morgan (very serious), Brigitte, Lindsay, y Joshua at retreat:

Some ruins of an old church destroyed in an earthquake in Cartago near San Jose:

Getting ice cream en Cartago:

On the bus to our new host families, Me, Josh and Lindsay:

A church of Our Lady of Los Angeles in Cartago, and a pilgrimage site for Costa Ricans:

Te y cafe time!!!!

In my bedroom at my new host family with my gorgeous mosquito net:

The most important lesson of living in Costa Rica.....I learned on day one

Yesterday I arrived in Costa Rica! And it was then that I learned the most important lesson of all - we should expect unfamiliar movements from the earth on a fairly regular basis. Both simple and strange at the same time.

It was a particularly beautiful day here and we were on break from retreat sessions. Many of us were lying out in the sun beneath the flowering tress enjoying the breeze. Suddenly, I felt a strange movement. I brushed it off to being hot, tired, and probably dizzy from my 5 hours of aggregate sleep the two previous nights. Well, that wasn't the case. When someone said "do you feel that?" I realized I wasn't alone. It continued on for what seemed like 3 minutes, but in reality was only about 20 seconds. It was a slow undulating movement that emanated from deep below the ground on which we were all lying. One of the Peace Corps directors came running out asking if we all felt that. The movement? The result of a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that hit down in the South Pacific region of Costa Rica, and the aftermath is what we felt (i.e tremors or small magnitude 'quakings of the earth', not to be confused with 'earthquakes.') Important insertion here: we were told that although it was 5.9 'earthquake' and that seems high on the ol' richter scale, that is not necessarily the case. So don't worry. 5.9 magnitude earthquakes can often never be felt.

When another small tremor happened again today while in Program Training Sessions, it later led us all to an intense Q & A regarding earthquakes versus tremors. And this is where I learned the most important lesson of all.

Costa Rica lies on what is called the Ring of Fire - a seismically active region that makes a ring throughout countries from the western part of North America down through South America to the Eastern part of Asia and the South Pacific. This I was aware of. However, I did not fully know the difference between earthquakes and tremors, the latter one being quite frequent around here. With tremors happening two out of the three days I have been here thus far, I would say that statement is pretty dead on. But they assure us not to worry. The term "earthquake" is used for movement of the earth's plates beyond a certain magnitude. But often times many of those cannot even be felt. A tremor was described to us as something much smaller. We were told a very clever way to think of a tremor - "it is simply the earth stretching.....it is good for it to stretch so it lets out some of its energy, thus preventing larger quakes and harsh movements from happening." We then went on to learn all the protocol should a larger quake happen.

So there you have it - the most important lesson of all, I learned on day one and two of 27 months in this beautiful country! Though I haven't seen much (airport to the retreat center only), I have a feeling I am going to really love it here. And even though the concept of experiencing tremors and earthquakes is new to me, and to be honest, a little trippy, next time there is a tremor I will remind myself that the earth is just stretching. When I stretch I feel much more grounded, collected, and in control of things. Let's just hope the earth does too.

For your viewing pleasure, three random pictures:

On the bus with one third of the group to the retreat center upon arrival in CR:


This is the field in which I experienced my first tremor (i.e the retreat center):


And finally, Costa Ricans know La Pura Vida (and love to eat GOOD food. Often.):