June 5th, 2015

WOW!...It feels so surreal to be here and writing this as I am about to head off on the bus to my site for the next two years.  I have already been in country for three months but it feels like only a few days.  So many new friends, new experiences, new stories etc and to be thinking that I still have another 24 months ahead of me just feels crazy.  This update will encompass a lot of things but I will have to try to keep everything shorter so that this update isn't crazy long.  Over the past 2-3 weeks, I visited my site (and almost died on the way back to San Jose), cooked enough ground beef and shredded chicken for almost 130 people, and officially swore in as an official Volunteer in the United States Peace Corps on Wednesday!

I will start with my site visit.  What was supposed to be a 4 day, 3 night stay turned into more or less a 3 day, 2 night stay because there was no transportation to my site certain days.  However, this visit provided a great insight into where I will be for the next two years, opportunities to meet some people in the community, and most importantly my new family for at least the next 6 months.  The town itself is pretty well situated in between miles and miles of banana plantations and pretty well hidden from the rest of the county.  Roads into and out of the community are rock and dirt and unfortunately have not been fixed in the past 5 years ( a possible project opportunity?).  There is a school and high school and both just recently received laptops for all the students from an organization here called Omar Dengo that works to bridge the technology gap for students throughout Costa Rica.  The students are naturally incredibly excited to have their own laptop but because the teachers do not have much experience teaching technology classes, they are excited to see if I am able to give them the resources to teach their students.  My host mom seems to know just about everyone in the community and loves to talk and introduce me to everyone in the street which is great.  The rest of my host family consists of a 20 year old brother, 14 year old sister, and an adorable 9 year old host sister.  The house itself is modest but my room is much larger than the one I had in San Rafael and there is running water (non-potable), and electricity (no wifi though :'( -->sorry very posh corps up until now).  There are some very recent recent problems with the Cooperativa that I will be mainly working with and I haven't understood the full story yet so I am going to refrain from writing anything until I know the full story.

The next big event was a party for all the host families of the CED trainees.  I for some reason volunteered to be in charge of the food for this party.  This meant I had to create a budget using quantities and price that were complete guesses, go out and buy all the food and then cook and prepare all the food.  In all two other trainees and I cooked 10 kilos of ground beef and 8 kilos of shredded chicken for 130 people!  We made pico de gallo, salad and ice tea again enough for 130 people.  All I can say is that many people came back for seconds and the entire party went incredibly well but thank god that is over!

And finally, I officially swore in as a Volunteer on Wednesday in an amazing ceremony that took place at the residence of the ambassador of Costa Rica (who hasn't officially started in his position).  After a couple speeches from Costa Rican officials, the Peace Corps director and a representative from the United States embassy, we all said our oath and were given a certificate and were official volunteers!  We then had a huge lunch at our county director's housing complex and said our final goodbyes.  It really was fairly surreal again, like I would be seeing everyone again the next day at training.  Most everyone traveled back to their communities for the last night with the host family but a couple of us stayed the night in San Jose for a last dinner and last night together before they all traveled their different directions the next day.  At this point, I am the only one still in the training communities and I already feel the isolation beginning to set in.  Katie no longer is right next door, all the other volunteers aren't a couple hundred meters from my house, we can't all get together for a beer whenever we want.  The reality of where we are all going is really beginning to set in. My bus is in about an hour and a half and I (naturally) have to finish packing so I am going to end this entry here.  I will try to keep in touch the best I can given the situation in site but should have updates at least monthly.  Hopefully off to plant a few seeds of change!

Much love,

Conor