Friday, August 28, 2009

Promoting Global Peace and Friendship


I feel like I am too comfortable here in my site. Like it’s too easy. I went running yesterday with two women my age at the plaza. I make myself breakfast every morning- an American breakfast, really, of cereal and coffee. I can ride my bike at my leisure. I can laugh and cry with different members of my community. I can have girl talk. I can go to sweaty dance parties (sober). I could put on black pumps, a dress from Forever 21, do my hair, do my make up, and put on perfume and leave my house on a Saturday night without question. I can watch a movie, listen to the radio, read a book, play a board game, paint my nails, draw, write, nap; I can even spend the night at the school English teacher’s house…

In order to feel like I’m too comfortable or that life is too easy, I would have to be comparing my experience to someone else’s. I really did come into the Peace Corps with no expectations, so I was neither disappointed nor excited when I first arrived at my site. I had nothing to compare it to. Now, however, getting together with other RCD volunteers, it is hard not to think about what it might be like or could be like if my site were smaller, more rural, rainier, less developed, less organized, less fiestera (fiesta = party, fiestera = one who likes to party). In this regard, I actually think it is more a matter of being in Guanacaste than of being in Ortega.

Is it a bad thing to be comfortable in the Peace Corps? I guess it would be one’s ideal situation. But do people join the Peace Corps to be comfortable, or because they want a personal challenge; they want to test their limits. It really is a mind game. We came to Costa Rica, already a little befuddled, honestly, but certain that there must be a reason why Peace Corps has been in Costa Rica on and off (off once due to analysis of the Human Development Indicator, which was thought to be high) since 1963. But, again, what was the reason we were looking for- something out of a Peace Corps television advertisement like hunger, poverty, education, health.

I have just made the deposit for the Centro Cultural books I will request for my two English classes of 10 and 6 students, which begin on September 7th. The majority of the students who paid the $15 for the student workbook and textbook are involved in the tourist industry and have high hopes of being able to better serve their American customers. Two of the students are high school aged, one student is in his twenties and works on a farm, 13/16 are women, two students received scholarships from a business owner in town, and at least 10 students were not able to register- the majority of whom were not able to pay the $15.

I will be giving two Centro Cultural classes twice a week for two hours a day. In addition, I will continue giving my test prep class one night a week for 1 ½ hours for two dedicated high school students. Finally, I hope to give an advanced conversation class one afternoon a week for six students who are either currently studying English at the university level, or who have had considerable English in the past and want to brush up on their pronunciation and build confidence. In addition to English, I hope to continue with bi-weekly FODAs (strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, threats)- one would be exclusively for members of the Development Association, while the other would be open to committee members and community members.
In writing this blog, I am reminding myself that I am here to work, want to work, and am working despite the fact that I also happen to be enjoying myself.


That brings me to the other reason I wanted to write this blog. I wanted to tell you about the surprise birthday party that my community threw for me on Sunday. The funny thing is, while it wasn’t really a surprise, I was extremely confused when I walked into the Salon Comunal with my host mother and was not greeted with a “Happy Birthday”, “Surprise”, or any other expression that one would expect to receive on their birthday. At the same time, there were balloons, tables, chairs, cake, presents, people… If you remember a previous blog entry I wrote about some confusion around a birthday party the aerobics group was planning to throw on August 23rd, you will understand that that was their intention. I had told myself all along that there must be another member of the group who was born on August 23rd and, when I found out she was turning 26, I knew it must be Frania. Anyway, long story longer, I later found out that Frania celebrated had already celebrated her birthday earlier that month. Hence the confusion.

Anyway, the ladies asked me to stand next to Frania in front of the cake when they sang her “Happy Birthday” and when they got to “Happy Birthday to…” they said “KATHRYN” and threw confetti and said “SURPRISE!” Again, while I had had suspicions, they still managed to surprise me and threw me a beautiful birthday party. As one woman told me after, “although it was humble, we put a lot of love into it.” I told her I felt it, which I really did. The aerobics women had collaborated with the women’s group, of which my host mother is a member, and made pasteles, sausage, chips and dip, and rice pudding. They tried to set up karaoke which, unfortunately, did not happen; but, what did happen was a whole lot of dancing. It was a blast! They kept asking me if I was tired, but I told them that it was imperative for the birthday girl to dance on her birthday. We even did the Middle School thing, where we got in a circle and each person had to dance in the middle. My favorite person to dance with is undoubtedly my Aunt, whose nickname is “Tita”. As she said yesterday, “I kept Kathryn company all night dancing because we’re friends. And friends stick together.” (Or something like that.) The funniest part is probably the fact that my host mother had decided she would drink for me on my birthday “since I don’t drink.” (I decided on day one, by the way, that it was a sticky situation to mix drinking with work, even though my personal life and social life are wrapped up in my work. )

Finally, when my host mother told me that I was probably going to receive quite a few articles of clothing for my birthday, I felt extremely uncomfortable. I talked about it with my host mother beforehand, who assured me that this was customary; that people loved giving gifts; that it came straight from the heart; and that it had nothing to do with the fact that I was an American or a volunteer. There is a feeling of solidarity in the community of Ortega, which was actually expressed several times as a strength of the community in the FODA that I held several weeks ago. More than that, I think the women here with whom I have developed a relationship want nothing more than for me to feel loved and supported while I am away from my family. Several weeks ago when we had a Mother’s Day party with the aerobics women, they said a prayer specifically for my mom “wherever she may be.”

Mom, while I know it was hard for me and probably hard for you to talk on the phone for a mere five minutes on my birthday; and while I know you were upset that I didn’t have anything to open from you when I woke up; I also know that you would have been so happy to have seen the love that the women put into my birthday party on Sunday. As I told the women in my thank you notes, I know that I’m not alone in Ortega. I am among friends. It is always helpful to step back and remember that one of the primary goals of the Peace Corps is to promote peace and friendship. Being too comfortable or feeling like life is too easy is a result of having made real friends in my community. This is what I came here for.

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