Juramentación... It´s Official!

I am officially a volunteer! Friday marked our graduation and swear-in to the two year service. Our program directors shared some heartfelt stories about the group and some compelling words of inspiration. Then the US Ambassador to Costa Rica distributed our certificates and finalized our training. He joined us for some group photos after the ceremony (by some I mean the paparazzi of pictures that followed the event!) Our host families were present to share the special day and it was a chance to further extend our thanks to them for all the support they have provided. (The good and the bad: I learned yesterday that two pairs of pants, my favorite skirt, and most comfy shirt - a sizeable part of my wardrobe! - were destroyed in the wash due to a bleach incident!) It´s a bittersweet goodbye. I am sorry to leave my training family, but am ready to embark on my mission and adventure in Guanacaste. I know that I always have a home in Bustamante and should I need suppport, I can find it there. Pictured: me with my host sister Andrea and host mother Dilsia.

Today I travel to Jabillo to stay. It will be so different from having to come into San José every few days for training. I mean, once we´re out there, that´s it. No more gringos, no more English, no more modern-world luxuries. Not that we've had such luxuries for the last 3 months. But now the real fun begins. I´m looking forward to it, though I know life will be quite slow. One great advantage about my site: when I feel like I need a break, the beach is within biking distance. Major stress relief. So if nothing else - if I can´t get anything going, I don´t know how to start, I can´t do anything sustainable, I don't have enough community support, etc. - I can take a break and sit in the sun and the surf. I can´t complain! I mean, I will have a toilet in my house, a shower and a telephone. Not to mention a TV and most exciting, a actual mattress! (Most mattresses here are these foam pads, but in my house in Jabillo, I will have an real one!) Everything is tranquilo out there and the people demonstrate the typical generous Tico hospitality. Cafecíto galore!
AghhHHH! Ready or not, Jabillo, here I come! Keep in touch, send fun trinkets, visit! Pura vida...

Fiesta!

Craziness... we are living up the last week all together as Tico 14. Graduation is tomorrow, May 19th, and Sunday we will ship off to our sites for good. No more returning to San Jose every few days! A relief on one hand, but somewhat nerve-wracking at the same time...

Party 1. After a party held by our lovely volunteer coordinator, Angela (thanks for your hospitality and your floor...), we went out on the town, or city rather, for a night of dancing in San Jose. My love of dancing is rejuvenate, demonstrated by the bruises on my shins from the table that was always seemed to be in the way!

Party 2. Feliz Cumpleaños! Here´s fellow trainee Nate at his birthday party, fighting for confites. Piñatas are a really popular party activity here and people go nuts diving for the prizes!

Party 3. Closing out the weekend (on Sunday, which happened to be Mother´s Day in the States - Happy Mother´s Day, Mom!) was our big Thank You bar-b-que for all the families that have hosted my group here during training. I'm in the picture with my host sister Dunia and our parents. It´s been a great three months and we were glad to share some good old American hamburgers and hot dogs with our Tico friends. We had some piñatas for the kids and some more for the adults - more of the crazy! Festivities for the families wound down after the presentation of certificates, but Tico 14 kept the party rolling. We just took it to a different location for dancing and reggaeton!

Not a Party... We number one less. Tico 14 went from seventeen trainees to sixteen a little while back. Steven Campas has left the country to join the ranks of those enjoying constant air-conditioning and finding whatever kind of food you want exactly when you want it. I'll miss you and wish you all the best.

How It´s Gonna Be...

On the first full day in my home of the next two years, I believe I passed a majority of the time sitting. Now before you start thinking I was bored, let´s process a bit. Costa Rican culture calls for the following situation: a group of people sit around, whether inside at cafecito, outside in the most random grouping of chairs, on benches at the pulpería, or what have you. After all necessary salutations and inquiries about family, everyone simply sits for some indefinite length of time. Then someone makes a comment, "¡Qué calor!" (And he means, it´s HOT!) Another person responds, "Sí, ¿verdad?!" (Meaning, it´s SUPER HOT!) A long pause follows. Later, I discover that the heat was extreme enough that my soap melted!
So my town boasts a plaza (soccer field),

half a salón comunal (funds are slow to come and slower to produce anything),

a pulpería, a health center (which the doctor visits twice a month),

a school with 20 kids (there is also a kinder with 6 kids),

a church (of course, it would not be a true community without the Catholic church),

and the PanAmerican Wood Company (which exports teca, a type of wood). Everything but the factory lies not more than 100 meters apart, in what my family jokingly refers to as “Downtown Jabillo.”
Inhabitants of my new house include: the parents Don Luis and Doña Luz (Luz is really tall compared to most women down here and Luis is chiquitito – it’s funny to see them together because she towers over him!), Juan, who’s 20 and works at the factory, Cristina, 17, who just quit high school, and Kayna, 8, who is utterly adorable (she finds everything I do fascinating, it’s sort of like having a shadow). Other residents are the two parakeets and two parrots, two turtles, numerous chickens and roosters, and congos, or howler monkeys that hang out in the trees outside. Though none of these animals technically live IN the house, you would never know for all the sound they make! (A picture of the loud parrots is displayed for your viewing pleasure.)
Other observations on my trip:

• Ticos eat rice & beans. (It's the staple diet and you cannot claim to have eaten a meal unless it contained the comida típica.) So do dogs, cats, chickens, parrots, etc...
• Insects are only cause for alarm if they flap & flutter in your face - while you're trying to sleep. All other territory is considered neutral. Bugs are expected, but spiders are even welcome as they eat the bugs. These insects likely thrive on rice and beans as well... consider it a local evolutionary adaptation.
• If you don't say "¡Qué calor!" at least 10 times an hour, it can't possibly be hot outside.
• If you haven't 1) picked it off a tree, 2) smothered it with sugar, or 3) drowned it in manteca (like butter, but worse for you), then it's probably not edible.