Chepe Chronicles

The week started off with my birthday on Monday. Since I celebrated on Sunday evening with my girlfriend, Keily, and her family, I didn't do too much to celebrate that day, although over the weekend we did celebrate some more. Rather, I just went to the colegio , wrote a reference for a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, and took it easy. On Tuesday, I had a busy day. I facilitated 6 PE classes and then met a friend in the Peace Corps for coffee in San Jose. Wednesday, I was back at the  colegio  to work on some community service projects, and then Thursday was a jam-packed day. I hosted my final youth clubs at the escuela where students celebrated with cake and a pizza party. Both of these clubs were new to the elementary club that accompanied my arrival, so I'm really proud of them. Later in the day, I went into San Jose to say good bye to a lot of my friends in the Peace Corps who officially closed their service on Friday. On Friday, I took off with Keily for a mini vacation to...

One of the unique things about the Peace Corps is how different the experience varies from community to community and country to country. No two Peace Corps services are the same, and that makes it particularly special. I'm very close to my fellow volunteers in Costa Rica and in many respects, I feel much more attached to Peace Corps Costa Rica rather than the organization as a whole. There just simply isn't any real contact or crossover with programs in other countries at the volunteer-level. However, that doesn't stop volunteers from joining online forums like Reddit where services are frequently compared. Because countries and communities vary so much within Peace Corps, sometimes volunteers in places that are more associated with being "hardships posts" feel as if their service was tougher and perhaps more authentic than others. Certainly, there are sites in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the South Pacific that are much more rugged and remote than mine. Oftentimes,...

My Peace Corps service comes to a close one month from today, but I'm remaining busier than ever. This week, in particularly, I was equally involved at both institutions. At the colegio, on Monday, I was invited to attend a 10th grade executive customer service English class where students presented on etiquette in different professional settings. The students did a great job with their English and were super receptive to feedback from the local gringo. And then, on Wednesday, I hunkered down in the administrative area of the high school to finalize a bunch of documentation for students related to their community service projects so that they have everything they need ready to turn in once I live the country. One of my community service groups finalized their project, which was related to connecting with senior leaders in the community and subsequently making a physical presentation to display in the high school My other group, a running club, hosted a running club session Saturday...

There are so many amazing things about living in Costa Rica: the nature, the weather, and the lifestyle are all second-to-none. In fact, Costa Rica is routinely named one of the happiest countries in the world. However, if there's one thing that Ticos and visitors alike are frustrated by in Costa Rica, it's the traffic. In Costa Rican dialect, " presa " (which generally translates to "dam") means traffic, although most Spanish-speaking countries say " trafico ". One of the great things about Costa Rica is that it puts a lot of its federal spending on things like education, health, and pensions. But there's only so much money to go around. As Costa Rica has undergone rapid urbanization, (2/3 of its population lives in the greater San Jose area) infrastructure hasn't caught up. San Jose relies on buses for public transport. There is a commuter railine to some suburbs, but its range and schedule is extremely limited. This causes pretty extrem...

"Roll with the punches" and "expect the unexpected" are pretty common mantras for Peace Corps volunteers, particularly those of us who work within the school setting. I cant't tell you how many times during my two years of service that classes have unexpectedly been canceled or students/teachers didn't show up to something without warning. This week had a little bit of all of that. I went to the high school on Monday to work on my community service; however, from Wednesday through Friday, no one was at the colegio due to teachers' union meetings. Simiilarly, at the escuela, students weren't in class on Tuesday because of a math workshop elsewhere, and on Thursday, students left early due to water shortages in the community. This meant that I was only able to host one PE class this week, on Wednesday. However, I was able to use the extra free time during the week to get ahead on some closing documentation for Peace Corps and also ran and went to the g...

The United States is a bit of an anamoly when it comes to texting. In the States, by and large, we rely on standatrd messaging services, whether that be iMessage or using the carrier's texting platform. Typically, we pay lots of money for messaging plans. The rest of the world is a little bit different, including Costa Rica. Here, everyone relies on WhatsApp to communicate. WhatsApp, is a social media app primarily used for messaging. But, through WhatsApp, you can text, call, or even videocall people around the world without a messaging plan. You simply must be connected to the internet (or have a data plan) to do so. WhatsApp is how I communicate with my counterparts here in Costa Rica, but also how I stay in touch with family back home. It's a lifesaver for communication across borders. Similarly, the texting and communication culture in Costa Rica is quite different from the United States. In the United States, oftentimes we as Americans are focused on efficiency. If we...

The weeks are starting to fly by now as I close in on my final months of service, but I'm staying busy as ever. At the colegio , I helped out a couple of English classes this week alongside one of my counterparts. I'm not an English teacher, but it was fun to step in and help students with some conversation and pronunciation practice, particularly with words related to environmental issues. Meanwhile, at the escuela , I didn't have any youth clubs this weeks, I was singlehandedly focused on PE classes there. I stole an idea I'd seen at the high school earlier in the year in which students had a massive team-based rock, paper, scissors competition. Although they were hesistant to play it at first, they ended up having a blast. Over the weekend, on Friday night, I went to my girlfriend Keily's house. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and some orange chicken for dinner before she had to teach an online class. On Saturday morning, I hosted a community run club with my high ...

As I wrote about in my weekly recap blog on Sunday, last week I accompanied my girlfriend Keily and her family for an event called " La Romeria ". La Romeria is one of Costa Rica's most famous cultural traditions. Each year it's estimated that between 1 and 2 million Ticos make the pilgramage on foot to the city of Cartago, which lies about 15 miles east of San Jose. 1 to 2 million is a TON of people considering Costa Rica only has around 5 million citizens total. Ticos make the pilgramage to the country's most iconic church called La Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles . In the church lies a small black sculpture known as " La Negrita " or " Virgencita " which depicts the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus. The legend states that a young girl discovered the statue during Costa Rica's early colonial history, and it's become a national symbol ever since. The most common pilgramage path starts in San Jose and then pilgrims continue on...

The end of July and the beginning of August brought a really busy and fun week in my community. At the escuela , we had better weather this week, so fortunately, I was able to have all of my classes outside as scheduled. My students played Capture the Flag. It’s something I introduced to them earlier in the year, and as they’ve gotten more familiar with it, they’ve gotten much better at it. I also co-hosted the Amigos sin Fronteras International Club this week at the escuela . Students virtually traveled to East Asia where they learned about China, Japan, and South Korea. They learned their Chinese Zodiac animals and subsequently made paper lanterns. At the colegio , I was much more involved with English this week. After helping with a couple of English classes this week, I also assisted with the high school’s annual English Festival, which was on Friday. This year, English teachers paired up and transformed their rooms into Escape Rooms. Students had to use their English skills to re...

Unsurprisingly, Tico families have household pets just like we do in the United States. And similarly, the most common pets I see in Costa Rica are dogs and cats. In my homestay, my host family has 3 dogs: Kira, Lana, and Fili. They are quite loud and cause a scene every time someone enters the property or there’s a car nearby; however, it has been a fun part of my service having dogs at home. Meanwhile, my girlfriend, Keily, has 3 cats: Benito, Kitty, and Yolanda, and a dog, Thor. It’s always fun to hang out with them too. So without having the responsibility of caring for pets on my own, I’ve been surrounded by pets throughout my service. Peace Corps volunteers are permitted to have pets, and several volunteers in my cohort have formally or informally adopted pets at their sites. However, it is the responsibility of these volunteers, on their limited stipend, to care for these pets and to have a plan in place for the pets once service comes to a close. (One friend of mine is taking ...

With “winter break” over, this week was a pretty standard one at site. As my service comes to a close in around 2 months, I’m trying to cram in as many classes and clubs as I can, as my students likely won’t have any type of PE or extracurricular spaces for the remainder of the year once I depart Costa Rica. In total, I facilitated 9 PE classes this week and 2 youth clubs: my reading club and the Amigos sin Fronteras international club. In PE, I had my students play handball once again. To me, this has been one of the most successful activities they’ve done to promote teamwork. I made a rule that they can only run with the ball for 3 steps at a time which has forced them to share the ball and work together. Unfortunately, a handful of outdoor classes were suspended for the rain, but fortunately I had dodgeball as a backup indoor activity ready to go in that case. My international club students “virtually” traveled to Colombia, a lesson I’d repeated from the previous year. Meanwhile, m...

Throughout my service, you’ve read about my work as a Youth Development volunteer. Youth Development is one of 3 sectors in Costa Rica along with English Education and Community Economic Development. As a YD volunteer, my role is pretty open-ended; however, my projects all revolve around strengthening life skills (soft skills) in youth. English Education volunteers have a less malleable role. Primarily, they work alongside one specific, designated counterpart - an English teacher. They are assigned to an elementary or a high school and just work there. Conversely, I have a small army of different counterparts and I work at both the elementary and the high schools. I think there are advantages to both: I have more creative liberty in my work and have the opportunity to work with more students and teachers, but English Education volunteers likely make more of an impact on specific students, teachers, and classes, and have more streamlined, defined tasks. Whereas YD and English Education ...

As I alluded to in last week’s blog, Costa Rican students continued their 2-week “winter” break this week. Last week was spent at the beach, whereas this week I was entirely at site in the Valle Central . If this blog is on the shorter side, it’s because this week wasn’t too jampacked, and honestly, I was grateful for that. I mainly focused on relaxing and enjoying my final extended time off in Costa Rica while also preparing some documentation and other items for the final months of my service.  However, I didn’t use all of my time off simply sequestered in my house. Throughout the week I tried to go to the gym and run a bit more than the weeks prior. I also went into town a few times. On Thursday, I bussed into Desamparados to buy some shoes and to meet my girlfriend, Keily, for some pizza. On Saturday, Keily and I met up in San Jose to go to the independent theater, Cine Magaly, where we watched The Odyssey. It was incredible and absolutely lived up to the hype. Then, on Sunday,...

There are many ways in which the US iand other countries nfluence daily life in Costa Rica. One of these influences is through the labor market. Many US-based companies have their regional headquarters or operations based in Costa Rica due to the country's strong economy and stability. Others simply hire Ticos for tasks related to work in the US. This is a practice commonly referred to as outsourcing. Transnational companies turn to outsourcing in order to reduce labor costs. Despite a relatively similar cost of living to the US, (maybe slightly less) Costa Ricans perform the same jobs as US Americans (think accounting, customer service, etc.) for a fraction of the salary. Outsourcing becomes an increasingly big political issue stateside when unemployment is low. These Ticos  who are employed transnational companies work in areas known as “ Zona Francas ”. Zona Francas are usually buildings, compounds, or designated areas in which transnational companies receive special tax, cust...

Starting on Monday, public school students and teachers in Costa Rica began a two-week long break from classes in-between semesters. For Peace Corps Volunteers in my cohort, this is the last time in our service that we’re permitted to take our annual leave vacation. That means that most volunteers (including me) took this opportunity to squeeze in one more domestic or international trip while we’re here. I didn’t do much Monday-Wednesday. I mainly just took the opportunity to catch up on some computer work, went to the gym, and did some running. And then on Thursday morning, I took off for the western, coastal province of Guanacaste, which was the lone province of the 7 in Costa Rica that my girlfriend, Keily, hadn’t been to prior. Because of this, visiting Guanacaste with her has been a priority for us, and we settled on the charming beach town of Sámara to make that happen. Although there are direct buses from San José to Sámara, the timing didn’t work out great for Keily and I, so w...

My week started off still in the suburb of Escazu, where I checked out of the Peace Corps hotel and said goodbye to my friends. The rest of the day was a busy one, with 3 different stops scattered across San Jose: a physical at the Peace Corps office, a trip to the hospital to get some lab work done, and a visit to the dentist's office. Fortunately, I could get all of my appointments taken care of, had nothing come up on my medical tests, and I was able to arrive back at my house fairly early in the evening, whereas many other volunteers had to trek across the country to return to their communties.  On Tuesday morning, it was back to reality. I had six PE classes that day, which was the perfect way to be thrown back into the fire. The rest of the week, I tackled a fairly normal work schedule at my institutions. I continued with community service projects at the colegio and focused on my PE classes and clubs at the escuela. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the reading club and interna...

Unlike most positions, Peace Corps is a little bit unique in that there is a ticking clock - it's not a career for most volunteers. Service is a 27-month stint, meaning that upon finishing service, it is important for volunteers to have an idea for what's next. For a lot of volunteers, grad school is an extremely viable option. In fact, many grad schools offer what's known as a "Coverdell Fellowship" which gives certain financial benefits to students who are Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs). Other volunteers pursue the job market. Since I've already completed my graduate degree, I fall into this bucket. Although the job search has been a little bit difficult to navigate from Costa Rica, I'm hoping to announce my next steps soon. Finally, some other volunteers may look into Peace Corps response positions or may use their readjustment allowance to travel before reintegrating to life in the US once again. There isn't one single path that volunteers...

This week started in my community but really revolved around my cohort's final gathering as Peace Corps Volunteers, known as the Close of Service conference. On Monday and Tuesday, I was at the colegio and escuela , respecitively. At the colegio, I did some administrative work related to my community service projects and also met with the principal and vice principal. On Tuesday, I facilitated 6 PE classes at the escuela before taking off in the afternoon for the suburb of Escazu, where Peace Corps Costa Rica hosts its trainings. The conference itself took place from Wednesday through Friday. We received trainings on topics including saying goodbye to our communities, readjusting to life in the US, job searches, and reflecting upon 2 years of service. Lots of the Peace Corps trainings can be pretty technical, and thus exhausting, but this week's sessions were much more relaxing and reflective, which was a great way to end our chapter in Costa Rica, although most of us still ...

Peace Corps has a rule that we aren’t supposed to publicly reveal the exact name of our community until after our service ends. Although lots of volunteers break this rule, I’ve tried to follow it as much as possible. When describing where I serve, I describe my location as “Desamparados”. Desamparados is the canton (which is one step below the province) my community is located in. Desamparados is also a city and serves as the namesake of the canton. I served, alongside 2 other volunteers in my cohort, as one of the first Peace Corps volunteers in this part of the country. Although Desamparados (affectionately known as “Desampa”) is much more urban than other Peace Corps sites, there is undoubtedly a need for development here. For right or for wrong, Desamparados has long had a reputation as one of Costa Rica’s most high-risk and violent zones. In fact, when I mention I live in Desamparados to other Ticos , oftentimes they will make a retort that I live in “DesamPakistan”. (They intend...

This was another week split between countries… and a quite exhausting one at that. I began the week at home in Missouri for the World Cup. After going to the Wonders of Wildlife aquarium with my cousin and getting a haircut on Monday, Tuesday was the big day for the World Cup. My parents and I took off at about lunchtime from SWMO to Kansas City. Despite arriving 3 hours before kick off, (as soon as gates were scheduled to open) lines were so bad that we didn’t make it to our seats until a couple hours later. However, despite the chaos getting in, we were blessed to witness a historic game. Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 in a game in which the GOAT, Lionel Messi, scored a hat trick. It was a dream come true to attend a World Cup game, and those are memories with my parents that I’ll carry forever. On Wednesday, it was time to head back to Costa Rica. After a very sleep deprived night following the World Cup game, I left Springfield for Dallas. However, due to unexplained mechanical issues ...

I nspired by my recent trip to the States to attend a World Cup match, I wanted to talk about the World Cup experience in Costa Rica. Although the US is hosting the 2026 version of the Men's tournament, along with Canada and Mexico, and the US Men’s National Team is in the field (Costa Rica is not), the World Cup is a FAR bigger deal in Costa Rica than it is in the US. Last week, the class schedule was modified so students could celebrate the “inauguration” of the tournament. I couldn’t ever see that happening in the States. Additionally, almost every student of mine has a photo trading card-like album of all of the international rosters in the tournament.   Whereas soccer competes against many other sports in the US, soccer is King in Costa Rica, meaning that the quadrennial World Cup is quite literally the Super Bowl here.  I n 2014, Costa Rica made the quaterfinals of the World Cup. Despite none of my elementary school kids being alive in 2014, it's something that they...

This was certainly a week which was dominated by sports. The World Cup kicked off on Thursday and it set the tone for my entire schedule. In fact, I’m writing this blog from home in Missouri as I prepare to attend a World Cup match in Kansas City on Tuesday. At both the escuela and colegio , I similarly leaned into sports. For PE classes, I continued with soccer (because of the World Cup) and at the colegio, I continued to organize and track community service hours and activities for my students. (I also attended a couple of basketball games at the colegio as they are in the midst of a tournament).  On Thursday, as I mentioned, the 2026 World Cup started in Mexico. The Ministry of Public Education (MEP) actually encouraged Costa Rican academic institutions to lean into this. So, the entire day, normal classes were suspended in lieu of games and activities related to the World Cup (think trivia, juggling competitions, and watching the game itself). It was a fun day, but unfortunat...

Last week I offered some recommendations for my favorite places to visit in Costa Rica. This week I’ll do the opposite - I’ll write about some places that perhaps aren’t as high on my list. With that being said, it’s truly hard to go wrong anywhere in Costa Rica - the entire country is absolutely beautiful. More often than not, the destinations listed below are really touristy and overcrowded, and that’s why they aren’t my personal favorites.  Jaco Jaco is the closest major beach and surfing town to San Jose. Because of that, it receives lots of foreign and domestic visitors. There’s lots of great tourist infrastructure, but it’s almost too much. The traffic to arrive in Jaco is some of the worst in Costa Rica (where the traffic is already notoriously bad nationwide). There’s construction everywhere, the area is incredibly commercialized, and there’s a reputation for alcohol, drugs, and prostitution in Jaco. It still has some beautiful beaches and waves, but Jaco wouldn’t be my fir...