One and a Half Weeks and Counting

I´ve finally moved to my training site, Jerico (there is an accent in there but I haven´t figured out Spanish keyboards yet). Jerico is a small community, about 500-800 people. There isn´t too much in it. I would compare it to Dennison, MN for all that know that area. There are 2 pulperias, which are basically corner store. They have the basics such as snacks, bread, some tolietries, some household products, candy, and pop. There are two churches, Catholic and Protestant, and a primary school. Oh and a futbol field, of course. ¨m going to be here until May when I get my permenant site. My family is really great. I have a mom, a dad, and a brother and sister. My siblings are both around 30. My sister works at a bank and is super nice and helpful with me. My brother is in a punk band, which is exciting because that is one of my favorite genres of music. I also have his room which is covered in articles and pictures of punk artists, so I´ve been reading up. My whole family is so patient with my Spanish, I still have a lot to learn, but I finally sat down with my dad and had a real conversation. There was some help from the dictionary, but overall I was able to communicate with him, although it was probably broken Spanish.

Other than my new town and my wonderful family, oh and the homemade meals I have 3 times a day, there are my classes whch consist of Spanish (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday), Technical training on Wednesdays (which we so far have learned about having successful meetings and leadership), other core training course on Friday (for example, country briefings, sexual assault awareness, and diseases), and once in a while on Saturdays we have extra classes (today it was about EFL classes). Its a lot of work and a lot of going out into the community to humilate ourselves with our broken Spanish. But its all in the spirit of it being better to do it with each other first so when we have to do it alone its a lot easier and less painful, perhaps even enjoyable.

Of course the most important thing in Costa Rica, at least for us hardworking Peace Corps trainees, is coffee breaks. My mom makes my coffee the real way (which will make it hard to go back to coffee maker coffee). The real way of course is boiling the water in a teapot and pouring it over a filter full of coffee, letting it drip into another serving teapot. Its strong, dark, and most importantly never burnt. Plus I have coffee three times a day, morning, noon and before dinner after my school/work. I don´t think I´m addicted yet, but of course that´s what all addicts say.

I miss you all... and think about you (in Spanish of course). My access to the internet is still a little shaky, I can only use it if I take the bus to San Jose which is only on Fridays and some Saturdays, but thats if I have someone to go with or nothing to do after class. Well thats about all I can think about right now... again any questions, post them and I´ll try to answer them to the best of my ability. Also I apologize about any grammer/spelling mistakes I¨ve made. Like I said before I´m still learning to use this Spanish keyboard. Hasta Luego!