March 2015
Arrival to Training Communities
March 25, 2015
Well I arrived! Still doesn't quite feel real but I have begun my training to become a Peace Corps Volunteer. After spending about five days at a fairly plush hotel, we found out our training communities and our host families with whom we will be living for the coming three months. My family is Dona Lucia, Don Bertillo, Jacklyn (30s), Teo (30's and I have yet to meet), Manuel (30s) and Sergio (22) in the town of San Rafael. Whats great is that their daughter Jacklyn has another PCT and lives literally right next door. We are in the same Spanish class and are able to walk to and from class everyday so it make the integration process a little easier on the both of us...also allows us to speak in English when we get fed up with talking in Spanish for the whole day.
Onto classes and training. The past two weeks has been non stop. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays have been Spanish class down the hill from my house in San Rafael. Class starts at 8 and goes until 12 with a small break in between and an hour break for lunch at 12 until 1. We come back at 1 and usually talk a little more about conversation tactics and then go out into the community to put the tactics into practice which usually ends up with a bunch of gringos asking really broad, open-ended questions to a bunch of confused ticos. Tuesdays and Thursdays are extremely long days. They involve waking up around 5, taking a 610 bus to San Jose, sitting in a crowded bus for an hour and a half for class at 8. Then we get to sit through dry "lectures" about various topics from diarrhea and diseases to safety concerns in our sites and San Jose. Most lectures last about an hour and a half with small ten minute breaks in between and thirty minutes for lunch. These days usually last until about 430 or 5 just in time for rush hour. So yup, another hour thirty minute bus ride back to San Rafael. By the time its 9, i'm struggling to stay awake. My family is usually in bed by 9 as well, as they get up at the same time if not earlier than me.
I did also had the fortune of already going on a trip to a pretty spectacular place called Tortugera in the province of Limon. Tortugerra is known for the semi anunal arrival of large sea turtles laying their eggs on the beaches. Unfortunately, we didn't arrive in season to see this but we did get to see a dead turtle right as we pulled into the hotel. I should clarify that we "pulled in" on a boat after an hour long boat ride from the bus to the hotel (the only way to access the hotels). The hotel was incredibly beautiful and full of strange plants native to that part of Costa Rica as well as all sorts of animals including howler monkeys, iguanas, lizards, all sorts of amazing looking birds and crocodiles (big and small). Katy (the volunteer with my host mom's daughter), and I were the only volunteers out of the 41 to be fortunate enough to be able to not only leave our training communities but visit a highly rated destination our first weekend. I have included the pictures of my visit here.
This weekend, all the PCTs will be visiting the current sites of volunteers that have been in country for at least a year to shadow and experience life in an actual site. Another PCT, Jon, and I will be visiting our mentor in Matambu, Guanacaste which is in the North of the country but also in a place very close to lots of nice beaches. Besides the opportunity to experience PC life, I am really excited to see a site and most of all (hopefully) sleep in and relax. We leave tomorrow and will spend the next three days and three nights in site and shadowing our mentor Derek.
Will try to take more pictures of the house and my new family and post when I have the chance. Feel free to contact me!
-Conor