27 Months of La Pura Vida

This update is really close to in time to the last update but I think enough has happened to merit a new blog update.  In the past week, I have started on a project to get a basketball court built in the community working with an organization called "Courts for Kids" based in the United States.  With this organization, we as a community must show that this project is not just a want but a need and that the community supports the project.  Although the process is fairly simple from an application standpoint, it usually takes 6-8 months from adoption to implementation and for part of this time, the project is not certain still because they have to ensure that the community will fulfill it's part of the obligation.  Once the project is seen as viable, the organization begin raising $5,000 in funds to pay for plane tickets, transportation and materials to assist in the construction of the court.  The plane tickets are for the group of 10-20 students that will accompany a group of officials from the organization and will stay in the community for about a week.  While everyone I have spoken to about the project seems interested in supporting it, the biggest challenge PCV's have encountered with in this county is the very indirect way many Costa Ricans tend to speak, meaning they don't feel comfortable saying "no" to your face, rather they see being polite to your face but then not following through as the more polite way to go about things.  So really in the long run, while I may have "support" now, who knows what will really happen when it comes time for the implementation.

To gauge whether there is actual interest in this project, I created a community survey that asks participates  about their perception of their community, what the biggest challenges and needs are of the community in their opinion and their opinions on the basketball court project.  Today was the first day that I attempted to use the survey in the community and was less than impressed with the reception of some community members.  While I understand my direct way of coming to their houses and asking them to fill out an 11 question survey was likely culturally inappropriate and uncomfortable, some members seemed completely uninterested in answering the survey and even had a family say to my face that they were not going to fill out the survey.  While I tried my best to explain that it was to get a better understanding of the needs of the community based on the responses of the community members themselves, they still seemed uninterested and almost insulted that I would ask them to fill it out. However, others seemed happy to fill it out and interested in learning more about the project and learning how I planned to work in the community.  

The best thing to come out of the survey today was that I finally met the president of the asociacion de desarrollo integral which is more or less the community government and the association that I have to get approval from to do any community projects.  To my surprise, the president is an older woman who was one of the first members in the community and one that has a lot of investment in seeing the community grow.  For the first time, someone said directly to me, "these are the three biggest needs of the community".  The three needs she spoke about were potable water, finishing the salon and plaza area, and the general health of the community.  All three are potential projects and projects that have been completed by PCVs in other sites so there are resources available but each has a host of potentially serious challenges.  I had intended to make just a 5 minute visit to talk about the courts for kids project but ended up talking for almost a half hour about other possible projects, her experience in the community and of course a little "chisme" (gossip).  But a really productive half hour and really turned my day around knowing that this lady was in the community and really seems to want the best for the community.  

The next few weeks will be spent talking with the community members and hopefully hopefully hopefully getting some useful results from the survey.  I have already spoken with the directors of the two schools about the project and they both seem to be supportive so the next step will be trying to get the two directors and the ADI lady, Luzmilda, to meet together to decide on a central location that allows all the community access when needed.

The cooperativa work is still challenging because the two members I am meeting with cannot stay on topic so our 2 hours meetings never really accomplish anything solid, just a little here and a little there.  Plus, they have canceled on me 3 times this week...naturally.  However, I will say we have made progress and seem to be close to finishing the business plan but still need some pretty important financial information that they don't seem to be any closer to getting.  We are meeting tomorrow (hopefully) from 3 until 8 or 9 and am really hoping that we can finish the rest of the plan by the end of the week (has to be completed by 9/30 at the latest).

The regional spelling bee is in Guapiles on the 25th and I have been invited to attend along with the English teacher and school director so that should be a cool experience and an opportunity to see some other PCVs.  

Finally, classes are slowly getting back on track.  Computer classes seem to have completely fizzled out (only 2 people this past week) but along with the community survey, I included a separate document with the schedules of all the English and computer classes I am offering in hopes that maybe, someone will finally know when the classes are and actually show up.  English classes are hit and miss, some days no one then other days 15 so just really hard to gauge the interest of the community but they will continue until no one shows up (I guess).

That is all for this week!  Hopefully getting into Guapiles Monday and buying a new USB cord so that I can upload some more photos.  Until then!

Thanks for reading.

-Conor