A Long Time Coming….

 

Ok, so I know an update has been long overdue but in my defense I didn’t have much to write during the holidays and then all of a sudden I got so busy I didn’t have time to write.  Sad excuse but here I am full of news.

Since my last entry ended with the arrival my mother I will start there.  My mom came to visit me in November and I was so excited to see her and made sure we had plenty to do for the week she was here.  She was a real trooper and took the 4 hr bus rides to Manuel Antonio, where we visited the National Park.  The park is filled with many animals and reptiles including white face monkeys, raccoons, frogs, and snakes that live in Costa Rica and also has 3 beaches which we took advantage of.   I was also able to show her my site here in Matina, Limon so she got a first hand view of my daily life in Costa Rica.  Afterwards we both headed to out to the states and visited the West Coast.  It was my first time on the West Coast and I had a ball.  But like all things in life my wonderful vacation had come to an end and it was time to head back to CR.

When I first got back after vacation I found it very difficult to readjust.  Since December & January is “summertime”, school was about to be finished for the year, which meant not a lot of work for me to do.  Plus most of teachers that work in the school, who also became my friends, don’t live in my town I began to feel a little lonely.  Most of my fellow PCV were starting their vacation and were out of the country so the holiday season became a little depressing but dark clouds do pass and I found the bright side of all that free time; playing dominoes with my neighbors!  This was very helpful to my integration and really gave me a chance to learn about my community as well as giving them the opportunity to learn more about me. 

With the new  year beginning I felt motivated and ready to start on projects so I hit the ground running and it paid off.  I started working with the president of my local Community Development Association and put together a proposal to fix the recreational area located within the local high school.  While working with the kids in my English class I discovered their interest in learning and playing other sports other than soccer but due to the lack of recreational areas, youth within my community were left with minimal options.  So I decided to start with the local learning institutions by create a basketball and volleyball team for students.  Since the high school already had the basic infrastructure of a court that was previously built, but in very bad condition due to damages from a flood several years ago, I chose to start there .   So in February I applied for a grant from a organization called World Connect to pay for the materials needed to reconstruct the court and turn it into a multiuse court for basketball, volleyball & soccer.  Last week I found out my project was fully funded!  I am very excited about this project and working with my community to get the manual labor to begin reconstructing the court. 

As part of my project I am working with the Physical Ed teachers to create a basketball and volleyball team.  Initially I was seeking more of a partnership with the teachers but quickly found out they expected me to do the lessons on my own and would support me by providing equipment and a group of students to work with.  Thank god for Youtube which I have been using a guide to learn and teach volleyball.   My goal is to have a semi-official team by August/Sept. of this year.  I am also working with a group of girls at the local elementary school since I plan to have a court built there as well. Unlike the high school the elementary school does not have a current court and it would need to be built from scratch.  I have already put together a grant proposal from a program called Courts 4 Kids and I am working on finding other financial resources to aid in building an Olympic size multiuse court.  If would like to support my project please check out the Courts 4 Kids  website.

This month also marks my one year anniversary in my site and I cant believe time has passed so quickly.  I can truly say that I am enjoying my time here and really enthusiastic about the work I am doing.  Having the opportunity to create my own programs and watch them come to life is a very gratifying experience.  I will put up a separate blog with some photos.  I promise to update again soon and not wait such a long time between blogs.  Thanks for following me & all the support .