Where in the world is Megan Humphreys?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Training Community

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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!


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