Well as I am writing this, I currently have dozens of bug bites including one on my eyelid that has caused it to swell up and close halfway. (updated: turns out it was an allergic reaction to some sort of cake I ate the night before, so not bug bites!) Summer has officially arrived.  All the warnings about mosquitoes turned out to be turn but last night was one of the longest nights I have had in site yet, just itching and itching and chickens "conversing" at all hours.  It still rains almost everyday, mainly in the morning but the afternoons are now usually fairly clear and hot and still somehow humid.  The times that it is raining are still humid but a lot more fresh, some wind and even "chilly" at times.  But the constant rain then hot sun means there are plenty of spots for the mosquitoes to lay eggs which means now is the time they all begin to come out.  Up until this point I have been really lucky and have only had to deal with one or two bites here and there but last night felt like I was sleeping on a mosquito hive (if those exist), just relentless bites.

But that was really the only bad part of the past two-three weeks.  From August 21st-August 31st I was out of site in a regional meeting in Siquires, IST (in service training) in San Jose and then visited a volunteer in her site in La Cruz, Guanacaste (amazing sunsets and views).  IST was mainly a time to work with staff and other volunteers to talk about our experiences, problems and successes and try to work out solutions to other common problems of other volunteers.  During the 4 days stay in luxury (they put us up in the Tennis Club complete with a pool, gym, huge soft beds, AC, etc), we presented our CASA (community and sector analysis) about our communities, learned more about grant writing, more about other organizations that can support projects in Costa Rica and most importantly gripped about all the problems of our communities; people not coming to classes, not showing up to meetings, expecting handouts of cash, thinking we're only English teachers, etc.  I was also fortunate enough to celebrate my birthday with all the other volunteers on the last day of training on the 27th complete with a cake from the project staff and finishing the training day early.  On the 28th, myself and another volunteer from the Limon region, Francisco, went to visit a fellow Tico 29er in her site of La Cruz, Guanacaste.  Since it was a straight shot from San Jose on the InterAmerican highway, it only took 6 hours to get to the community (city!) of 11,000.  Upon arriving, there is no way you would ever expect this place to be a Peace Corps site but such is Costa Rica and their needs.  La Cruz is located about 20 kilometers from the boarder with Nicaragua and located high on a cliff that over looks a bay and the Pacific ocean with incredible views, a beautiful wind that you will not find anywhere else in hot Guanacaste and a desire to promote this to the tourists that pass through on the way to the beautiful beaches only 15 kilometers down the cliff.  The volunteer, Airon, has a background in working as hotel, bar and restaurant management and has worked for hotels in Hawaii and Costa Rica and has a great management of understanding tourism and how to cater to the type of tourist the Guanacaste region usually receives.  However, even in a site that sounds so amazing, it has its difficulties and challenges and much of here potential projects are described to her by Peace Corps as "big leagues" and little support is available to her on many of these projects.

After all that and 10 days out of site, as hard as it was to leave all the amenities of San Jose, the food and great beds, I was surprisingly ready to get back to site.  The first two days were a little tough because attendance in the classes Tuesday and Wednesday dropped of drastically.  In the computer classes Tuesday that normally had about 10-12, only 5 showed up (one without a computer...) and the Wednesday English class for colegio students that also had about 8-12 students, had zero and the Wednesday English class for adults that had a constant 4 also had no one show up.  However, the cooperativa suddenly got a new life and is working hard to complete an application for a new line of financing from an organization called MAOCO that works with organic farmers and producers in Costa Rica.  In order to be considered, they must fill out an application that includes more or less a business plan and the objectives of the project.  For the first time since I have been here, they seem somewhat focused on a completing something (even though they still require a lot to keep them on topic).  We are soliciting 4 million colones from the organization (equal to about $8,000) in order to complete construction of the cooperativa, buy new equipment and office supplies and most importantly, create a new network of relationships with organic farmers in the area and include youth and women in a new initiative to get them involved in organic farming.  The idea of the project is that we focus on a group of 10-15 youth and women that have an interest in securing a new source of income for their family.  With this group of new producers, we will hold training in the coop with experienced producers leading the lessons about best practices and techniques of farming the certain crops we need.  After they are capable, we will help them plant the seeds of the crops necessary for the production of the chips of the coop.  Through a written agreement, the coop with guarantee the price and quantity of the product thereby negating the risks on the side of the producer but also guaranteeing a price that is beneficial to the cooperativa.  Whats great about the project is that it requires the cooperativa to spread at a minimum 30% of the donation to other individuals in the community and the cooperativa seems ready to invest nearly 3 million of these funds in new producers, youth engagement and new sources of income for the community all the while securing a new, secure source of inputs for the coop.  As you can tell, I am pretty excited to be at least working on something business oriented and a project that could have a huge effect on the youth and gender dynamics of the community.

For now, that is all.  The other classes have gone well enough and ended up having about a total of 40 students this week (down from 80 a week at the beginning..,) but still better than I had feared at the beginning of the week.  Classes will continue, tutoring of a student in a community over will continue, helping Henry study for the Spelling Bee in two weeks will continue and hopefully, the project with the cooperativa will at least continue to the planning phase.

Thanks for reading!

-Conor

Update 9/7/2015:

Had my first real safety concern tonight.  I was working with two members of the cooperativa in the colegio until about 9 at night when I received a pretty frantic phone call from my host mom saying there was a group of "asaltantes" near the colegio and that I should come home quickly.  Unsure exactly what she meant, I started the 30 minute walk home when about 2 minutes later 2 motorcycles pulled up behind me with 4 men armed with machetes.  Thankfully they were all men from the community that were out searching for these "asaltantes" but looked very concerned.  One group offered to escort me home but since I still didn't fully understand exactly who these people were or why it was such a big deal I declined.  Once I got home, my host mom said she received no less than 4 phone calls and texts saying "Conor should go home immediately" but she too was unsure exactly what the reason was for such a response.  None the less, a pretty serious situation but at the same time, it shows that the community is concerned for my safety and is certainly aware of what I am doing and where I am so really the biggest take away from this is that I feel safer than ever!  Hopefully no more "asaltantes" but if there are, I feel pretty confident the community will be there to have my back.