With 4 months under my belt...

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect

any position of the U.S. government or Peace Corps.

I've now completed 4 months of service at site. I've heard people say that training is the hardest part, and that felt true during training. I've heard others say the first three months of service are the hardest, and that felt true during the first three months. Others have said that the first six months of service are the hardest, and that feels true now. The truth is, service is a continual process of highs and lows, the same as life I suppose.

Pre-service training is behind me, as is mid-service training (9 days of training after the first three months of service). Now comes the part where I actually need to start projects, provide results, and report successes.

I never realized how hard it is to work without an office, without a boss looking over your shoulder, without set deadlines and structures of what projects to do and when they need to be done by. To be sure, Peace Corps has reporting deadlines, projects that are strongly recommended, and monitoring processes in place; but day in and day out, you feel alone in your site, like what you accomplish today and tomorrow and the day after is entirely on your shoulders.

I thought I would find that sense of autonomy liberating. And I do. But I didn't expect that feeling of responsibility, that feeling of success or failure being entirely your triumph or your fault. I didn't realize how hard it would be some days to get things going, how hard it could be to motivate your community, and how some days you feel like you'll never accomplish anything.

I love my community, I love my project, and I love the ideas and opportunities that are available to me as a volunteer. But service is a lot more difficult than I gave it credit for. It's much more about incremental steps than big successes, which makes it hard to see what you are actually accomplishing.

This is the most challenging experience I've ever had. There are a lot of days when I feel like things are going so slowly, that I'll never see any results. But that only makes the small successes that much more valuable. Having a 4th grader telling me my English class is his favorite class, having my host mother ask me for advice on an idea or project she has, having the PTA committee listen to my ideas for the future with respect and attention. I'm not sure those things would mean as much to me in a faster-paced, performance-driven world.

I look forward to the future; to the next milestone in my service, to the end of service, to the time after-service (as I believe I will classify the rest of my life). But right now, no matter how frustratingly slow the process some days, I wouldn't rather be anywhere else.

The Wildlife Chronicles

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect

any position of the U.S. government or Peace Corps.

February 15, 2011

I walked into my bedroom and saw a lizard on my bed. It was a brownish color and less than 2 inches long - just a tiny thing. It moved too quickly for me to get a picture.

February 18, 2011

A frog jumped into my room late at night. I spent several minutes coaxing it out from under my bed and out the door.

February 28, 2011

My host mom found a GIANT spider on the wall in the kitchen. It was black and about the size of my hand. I didn't even attempt to take a picture of it as I went running in the opposite direction as soon as I saw it. My host mother (who picks up bugs with her bare hands) cringed and sprayed it with insect poison before running out the door. It climbed back up into the roof. We're assuming it died.

March 4, 2011

A poisonous snake was hiding out in my neighbor's (aka my host sister-in-law) laundry in her house. Both my host parents went running and after an anxious 10 minutes with 2 machetes and a grill fork, came out with the snake on the end of one of the machetes. Then they cut its head off and went back to watching their soap opera.

March 10, 2011

There was a cockroach on the wall of the kitchen which my host mom sprayed with insect poison. As we were looking around to make sure there weren't any others, a cockroach crawled out from under the cabinets and crawled across my foot. I'll never forget that feeling.

Later that night, I woke up late to go to the bathroom and I saw a cockroach on the floor next to my flip-flops. I tried to step on it, but due to my delayed reaction and fear that it would crawl toward me when it saw the shoe coming, it got away and ran under my bed. I sprayed insect poison under my bed, went to the bathroom, and came back and laid down. About 10 minutes later, I see something crawling on the mosquito net that I sleep under. I wake up and turn the lights on, and the cockroach had crawled up the INSIDE of the mosquito net. As I waited for it to crawl to a place where I could squish it, determined to kill it this time, it crawls across my bed and sheets. It took a good 5 minutes of standing next to my bed and consoling myself that this wouldn't happen twice in one night before I could lay down again.

March 23, 2011

This was a Wednesday. I was in San Jose at a hotel with other volunteers to attend training. It was 5:30 in the morning. First, I will give some background information.

I had packed my bag Sunday night. Before I packed my tennis shoes, I threw them on the ground and kicked them around a few times (common practice to ensure there is nothing living inside). Nothing came out, so I stuffed socks inside and packed up. Left early Monday morning, spent Monday night with my training host family outside of San Jose. I arrived in San Jose Tuesday and unpacked everything (including socks from inside tennis shoes) Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I woke up early to use the hotel's fitness center. I put my socks on, and then my right sneaker on. Then I put my left sneaker on, and felt something in the front near my toes. I stuck my hand in, thinking it was part of the laces or one of the socks didn't come out...and pulled out a scorpion. I dropped it on the ground immediately and stared at it in shock for about 10 seconds. Then I proceeded to smash it with the same tennis shoe, at which point my roommates woke up and started saying "Oh my god". I remembered to take a picture of this one, after it was dead and in the garbage.

Someone told me I'm not a real Costa Rican until I've been bit by a scorpion. It was dumb luck it didn't bite me the two times I touched it. I think that should count.

Needless to say, my tennis shoes are now kept inside plastic bags.

April 6, 2011

Mom and Dad were visiting. For this special occasion, my host mom decided to kill one of her chickens for lunch.

I watched this time, because I wanted to see how she did it. She ties the legs together, flips it upside down, puts a broom handle over the neck, steps on it and pushes the body forward. It was surprisingly quick, although it continued to flap its wings for about 20 seconds afterwards.

It tasted good.

April 12, 2011

So, I walk out of my bedroom and see another giant spider on the wall. Luckily, my host parents were up late that night (otherwise I would've had to wake them because I sure wasn't capable of killing it).

The last time, my host mom said they don't come in the house very often. I wonder if she just said that to comfort me.