December 9th
While its only been a week since my last update, there likely won't be much happening between now and the next 10 days when the rest of the Maryland Farrells arrive. So I figured, while its still fresh in my mind, I would throw in an update about the Courts for Kids project, a small update about a potential partnership with Rustic Pathways and a little about the disappointing meeting with ICT.
Courts for Kids (CFK)
Just an hour ago, I finished with a call with the director of Courts for Kids, Derek to discuss a few intricacies about our upcoming project in May. We are 100% a go!!! A team of 16 student athletes accompanied by 3-4 administrators from Kansas State University (!!) will be coming down from May 18th-May 25th as well as a CFK representative as this is their first project with the Kansas State team (so a good amount of pressure to make sure this trip is successful). The call was mainly to talk about the community, how we are planning on raising the necessary funds and some project specific questions. In regards to raising the necessary funds, the high school director is proposing a type of cow auction that they have done in the past and raised over $2000! The idea is the colegio will provide a central location, likely the plaza, where farmers can come to sell their cows at auction to other farmers looking to buy cows. During the auction, we will also hold a small bingo event so that those not participating in the auction have the opportunity to still spend their money :) and of course food and possibly beer sales (which will attract a lot more people). We have one farmer already offering to donate a cow (which can raise from $400-$600 each!) but this will require a LOT of planning and organization, both of which unfortunately don't seem to be strengths of this community...so that's where I come in. Tomorrow, the high school director and I are going to sit down after the graduating ceremony to discuss the plan and how I can get started planning while the colegio is on vacation and hopefully get the ball rolling so we can hold the event in late February or early March. Very exciting and now I can tell the community it is 100%...we just have to work a little to raise the rest of the funds. And the coolest part is at the end of the construction and a small basketball camp to teach the youth here the basics of basketball, CFK includes a small budget for a touristy trip at the end and usually invites the Peace Corps volunteers that help during the construction (8 other volunteers have already offered to come help with the construction!!). Because of our proximity to Tortuguero National Park, Derek and I decided that this will offer the greatest tourist opportunity for the student group. Lots of work to be done between now and May 17th but big step forward!
Rustic Pathways Partnership
As I mentioned in my previous update on December 1st, during a call on Thanksgiving Day, I spoke with the director of strategic partnerships, Ignacio, from a company called Rustic Pathways. The opportunity to work with a team from their company would be a huge help in funding and completing much needed community projects and certainly help put Linea Vieja on the map. After consulting with PCCR's director, Anne, she decided it was best to speak first with Peace Corps headquarters about the partnership and last Friday, we got the go ahead! Ignacio is still discussing things with his own boss about where to go from here and is expecting to call me later today to decide on the best way to begin this partnership. He seemed really excited about the possibility of partnering with us during our previous call and I am really optimistic about our possibilities and Anne has already offered to be the direct contact person in the office should he have any questions that I don't have the answer to. I will update below when I receive more information about the next steps!
ICT Meeting: December 3rd
I was really looking forward to this meeting as an opportunity to show the community to the ICT representative and describe our plan for starting this rural tourism business here. Unfortunately, nothing went to plan...Rather than coming in the more scenic route, she came the back way into the community and proceeded to get lost for an hour and didn't arrive until 3 instead of 1. So that left us with only 2 hours to discuss the plan and show her the attractions. We started by describing the idea and how we plan to operate, introduced the group and then asked her for her opinions. She was definitely knowledgeable and refreshingly direct which you almost never find here in Tico culture. However, her opinion was that everything about our community is completely opposite of what she looks for in touristic locations (greatt). But really, she only mentioned that fact that we are so far into the plantations and are difficult to get to, the rest of the natural beauty she said definitely provided touristic opportunities but we would need to find ways to transport people here. She was definitely a good contact to have but unfortunately, as a government organization, they cannot support a group until we are a formalized, operating business. So pretty much once we are operating and making money, they will come in to offer training and advice. Oh well, it was worth a shot and we still have plenty of other organizations we can contact.
Recycling Committee
Nothing new here but just wanted to include that I should hear back about the grant by next week at the very latest, this week if were lucky. Since the science teacher won't be around until school begins again in February, he put me in charge of trying my best to organize the group of students during the school break to continue with our efforts in the community and clean out the recycling center here.
Hopefully a little more updates later this week or early next week about the grant and the cow auction event. Only 11 days until the Farrell's arrive in Costa Rica and get greeted by a big community party here in the host family's house.
As always, thanks for reading.
-Conor