Well it has been a while since the last update and I was really waiting for a bigger event to write an update but now I have almost too much to write about...so it goes.  Since my last update, much of my time has been spent planning to starting planning, mainly waiting and finding ways to kill time.  Its definitely a lot harder now that I have things to look forward to and be excited about but also helps to make the days fly by and somehow its already the middle of November and coming up on my 10th month abroad.  I have tried to condense a lot of the information and am likely leaving a lot of information out but hopefully you can get the general picture of how my life is slowly coming together.

Business Planning

I'll start with the project I am most excited about, the rural tourism business.  Once again, our idea is to utilize the natural beauty of the community and the abundance of wildlife, farms and cattle to begin a business that at the beginning will offer tourists the options of tours of the river right behind our houses, horseback tours of the mountains and hiking trails already created and a small soda that will operate out of a members kitchen (mighttt have some health department concerns).  The business is made up of 8 members with the majority being my immediate neighbors and 5 of the 8 houses that line up against Rio Jimenez.  Needless to say, it got started pretty poorly; our first meeting was scheduled for Sunday November 15th.  I looked forward to that date for weeks, excited to bring the idea forward and hear everyone's reactions....2 people showed up (one of them being Jorge, my project partner) so that meeting was scraped.  So Jorge and I decided that we would need to visit the member's individually and talk about the idea and gauge their interest which we did on Monday the 16th and then planned another meeting for Tuesday the 17th and actually had 6 of the 8 members show up (and the other 2 wanted to but had prior engagements).  Andddd the meeting went...kind of well.  I was able to hear other people's doubts about the business and try to address their concerns.  Luckily enough we have a fairly vocal group which means opinions are openly shared...but in Costa Rica that also means problems.  Some opinions may be in direct contrast of what someone else said and instead of talking it through some members prefer to take it to the next level and argue about it.  Naturally, it was only the first meeting but we were able to agree on some of the organizational aspects of the business and (I think) decide on a common vision of the business.  Jorge and I are going into San Jose on Sunday for a Peace Corps held workshop on Project Design Management during which we will receive training on the process of designing a project, learn more about planning a business and hopefully get more information about how Peace Corps can lend a hand during the process. We also scheduled our next meeting for Sunday November 29th just 3 days before the visit from the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism!!

Recycling Committee/Event

Probably the biggest event I have seen in the community since the huge "Cabalgata" when I first arrived here in June.  4 different schools, a professional dance group, the Red Cross, SINAC (a government agency), a magician and probably near 200 people.  The event itself was planned by SINAC and the colegio (I sat in on a couple meetings and therefore had my name mentioned) as a Cultural and Environmental Conservation Event.  While much of the information was about recycling and conservation, people didn't seem to be very interested in listening to the lectures from SINAC and Rafa and continued to speak through every single presentation.  However, the cultural part was really incredible; traditional dance groups from each school and ended with almost 30 minutes of dances from a professional dance group which was incredible.  We also gave tours of the hiking trails behind the high school and I was nominated to be a guide which turned into babysitting a group of 10 elementary aged kids running though a jungle, not too fun.  But really the event was amazing and hopefully we can now capitalize on the momentum in the coming weeks and get the community more involved in recycling which is, unfortunately, a lot more difficult than I expected.  I also turned in my first "grant" for the recycling center which is part of a "grant competition" that allows PCVs in 12 countries to write a very brief version of a grant for an amount not to exceed $500 which will be used in a specific type of business or initiative (environment projects, woman-led businesses, health projects or projects focused on helping young females in the community).  Fingers crossed on that, we should hear back by early December apparently.

Other Projects

Water Project: Unfortunately nothing has materialized from all the countless emails I have sent to organizations about our water situation but I will continue to reach out where I can and hope for the best.

Courts for Kids: Still where it was a few weeks back, still not 100% but 95%.  I spoke with the high school director about raising money (we need to raise $3000) and he said "it wouldn't be a problem"...we'll see.  But we will need to start organizing an event soon so I can know whether we need a grant or not.  Other committees don't seem to be too interested in supporting the project but instead are just waiting for me to build it.  Like they want the court but don't want to commit to support constructing it.

Google Maps: Henry and I have continued to tweak parts of the map, adding the community to our East, La Morenita, all the roads etc and now are hoping to add some photos taken from a drone as a satellite photo since when you search for our community on Google Maps, you can only see a very general image of the landscape from about the height of a low flying airplane; no details no houses or infrastructure.  So if anyone knows someone who works at Google, I would love to know what it takes to get these images added to our community!  The images have already been taken and we would just need to send them on to the contact.

Classes:  Nothing really new to report on this end.  I did start a new set of classes in the town to the north of us, San Gerardo, on Thursdays.  The school has only 2 classrooms and 14 students but almost all of them seem really interested in learning and seem to be a really focused, really polite group of students.  Computer classes have unfortunately taken a break because of schedule conflicts but we are only about 2 classes away from finishing the program and "graduating" the 4 participants.

High School Tourism Idea: Unfortunately not a whole lot to report on this project either.  The idea is to work with an organization called "Vayando" which works to promote small tourism projects at an individual level.  The organization operates a website where interested tourists can browse by country to see what type of projects are available.  Most of the projects are simply tours or visits to small businesses in communities that receive little to no tourism.  For example, a woman who grows and harvests cacao and then makes organic chocolate could write a small description of her business and send it to Vayando who would them put her description on their website for no charge.  She would continue to go about her normal day to day life and every once in a while receive a visit from tourists who would pay to be part of the process for the day and learn what it takes to make organic chocolate.  The idea here is to advertise the hiking trails with Vayando providing the high school with an opportunity to train students as guides and potentially receive a small source of income from the tours.  Still have yet to hear anything concrete from them but a small "we're interested and will get back to you soon."

I think that's about it...a lot and I definitely will be busy in the coming months but I hope that will be a good thing.  I still have days where I have to make myself leave the house even for just an hour because there is nothing else to do but with all the planning to plan going on, its getting busy. 

As always, thanks for reading and if you know of anyone at Google, I would love to get in contact with them!  Thanks!

-Conor