Tremors Part 1

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or Peace Corps.

October 13, 2010

I forgot to mention the earth tremor we had last Friday, the last night of our orientation. I had a head cold and so went to bed early while everyone else went to a dinner/barbeque. It was around 7:30 or 8 and I was half asleep, alone in the room, when all of the sudden the bunk bed started to shake. It took me a couple seconds to wake up and realize what it was. It lasted maybe 10 or 12 seconds. The first half I waited out in bed and it started to ebb, but then it started to get stronger so I got up to get in the doorway. By the time I reached the doorway, however, it had stopped.

I wasn't nearly as scared as I thought I would be, I guess because I thought it would be a lot stronger than it was. Nothing really even moved or fell, just shook. I found out later that it was actually pretty strong, 5.6 on the Richter scale (at 6.0 it is deemed an earthquake), but it wasn't very strong because it was very deep in the earth, about 100 kilometers.

My Spanish/culture trainer talked about it with us today and said that the amount of damage done depends not only on how strong the tremor was, but how close to the surface it is. For example, a tremor in Costa Rica in 1991 that caused a lot of damage and killed 52 people was only 5.5 but was 15 kilometers from the surface.

These tremors/earthquakes are quite common here, so I'm sure this won't be the only experience.

Training Community

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or Peace Corps.

October 12, 2010

Tonight is my fourth night with my host family during pre-service training. Tico 21 (the name of my Peace Corps group) finished our 5 days of orientation and were placed into training communities based on our language level.

My language group (intermediate low) is in a mid-size town about 25 kilometers (about 15 miles) outside of San Jose, the capital. Even though it is not very far from San Jose, a trip into the capital by bus takes an hour or more because of the steep and winding roads. The views are amazing! The hills go so high that there are still clouds surrounding the tops of them by midday. I'll have to take pictures soon.

My host family consists of a mother, father, two sisters and a brother. They are very warm, welcoming, patient and helpful, and have made me feel right at home. In less than a week, I can already tell that my Spanish is improving! For example, tonight I had a discussion with my host mother and father about Abraham Lincoln and the American civil war and also about the American clothing companies that have factories in Costa Rica and how they treat their employees.

My program group, CED, had our first day of technical training today which was interesting. When looking at the wide variety of projects that we could potentially be doing, I feel under-educated, but it seems that they will give us a good overview of a lot of the more specific skills we will need, such as how to put together a lesson plan for an English class.

We also had a really good guest speaker today about the geography of Costa Rica. She was very knowledgeable about a lot of other topics too so we branched off a bit during the question and answer session. For example, she told a story about a local community this year that agreed to do the catering for a white water rafting competition in their town. At the end of it, they ended up making a profit. However, she was saying how there were a lot of things they could have done differently to be more efficient and make a larger profit, such as putting together a menu, setting prices, finding out how many people they would need to provide food for, etc. This is an example of a project where I really feel I could make a difference because that is where my background is. She was also saying how, for the first time, the community was proud of the river in their town where the competition took place.

I know how important these next weeks of training are, and I am really enjoying living with my current host family, but when I hear a story like that, I just want to get to my site because that is exactly what I imagined myself doing. Tourism and hospitality is where my interests and my experience lies, although I am really excited for the other aspects of my service as well, such as teaching computer skills and English.

I can't wait for the next two years!

Peace Corps/Costa Rica

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or Peace Corps.

October 6, 2010

I am now in day 2 of life in Costa Rica. Peace Corps is something I've wanted to do since I don't know when, and my senior year of college I decided to make it real and apply. This summer, I was invited to Peace Corps/Costa Rica in the Community Economic Development (CED) program.
My background: I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a bachelor's degree in management and an international business minor. I chose Eau Claire because of in-state tuition, their strong business school, and their outstanding study abroad program which I took advantage of.

I studied abroad the summer after my freshman year of college with the Central European Travel Seminar (the reflections of which are on this blog) and then stayed in Riga, Latvia for the fall semester of my sophomore year. During that time, I took a class called "Leisure and Tourism Management" and realized I had a passion for the hospitality industry.

I came back to Eau Claire and got a job at a local hotel at the front desk. I worked there for just over a year, at which point I decided to do an internship abroad through the campus group AIESEC, and moved to New Delhi, India for five months to work at a hotel. My blog for that time is at www.uwec-india.blogspot.com.

I worked at a hotel in Eau Claire upon my arrival back in the States, and eventually took over as the front office manager there. I graduated in December of 2009, and was invited to the Peace Corps in July of 2010.

My time in Costa Rica will consist of five days of orientation (which I am in right now), then 10 weeks in training which will take place in different communities where I will live with my first host family. During the 10 weeks, I will have Spanish lessons three times a week, technical training, safety and security training, etc. as well as go on short trips to Peace Corps volunteers' communities, including five days at my future site!

I've heard the training time is the hardest, but it is necessary to make me a successful volunteer. Today, I learned some more specifics about being a CED trainee/volunteer. (I will not technically be a volunteer until I am sworn in on December 17th.) The three goals of my program are: basic business planning and management, internet communication and technology, and English as a foreign language. One of the industries we're supposed to focus on is eco-tourism. I am so excited right now I can't put it into words. If I could have handpicked a program, it would be this program. I can utilize my Spanish knowledge, I can work with businesses, and I can be involved in developing the tourism industry. It's going to be an amazing 2 years!