Chepe Chronicles

I will normally post blogs on Sunday with weekly updates, but figure on occasion I'll write separate blogs for unique cultural tidbits or experiences. Today is one of those opportunities for a cultural soapbox. I certainly try to always have an open mind when traveling, so full disclosure: this is a grievance I'd have stateside too. I'm writing this on the evening of October 29th. 2 days before Halloween. Costa Rica is already in full Christmas swing. The house I'm living in? Decorated for Christmas. Our neighbors' homes? Christmas lights are up. The choir performance at my school today? Christmas carols. Growing up in the heart of the Bible Belt, Christmas is always a staple back home and is easily one of my favorite holidays. I'm honestly really looking forward to celebrating it here and seeing what unique traditions Costa Rica has for Navidad . However, it is far too early to be getting into Christmas mode for my comfort zone. Costa Rica is deeply religious, ...

Week 4 marked a month at my site. Things are definitely falling more into place as I figure out my day-to-day routine as a Peace Corps Volunteer in my community. Monday and Tuesday were pretty standard days for me. I spent each day at the elementary school. On Monday I observed 4th grade classes and on Tuesday I sat in on some sixth-grade classes. It is fascinating to see the difference in the curriculum and behavior of students in each grade. Sixth graders will head to the colegio , or high school, starting in February, and this age gap is noticeable. Most afternoons I spent working on my diagnostic report and reaching out to community members to make further connections. On Wednesday, I went to the biggest city in my canton, Desamparados, with a couple other volunteers serving at nearby institutions. There, we met with two regional directors who help administer our schools on behalf of Costa Rica’s Ministry of Education. After that, we spent the morning exploring the city. Because De...

After the excitement of Limon, I went back to my site near San Jose for a more typical week. On Monday and Tuesday, I spent time at the elementary schools in my community doing more classroom observations. My observations focused primarily on younger children, taking place in 2nd grade and preschool classes. These kids are full of energy and curiosity. I’m excited to work with them and for them to keep me on my toes. On Monday afternoon, I also had the opportunity to interview the town’s local expert on everything related to soccer and sports. As a huge sports fan, this was a special treat for me. He recounted to me the history of sports in the town. His stories ranged from the creation of the community’s Third Division soccer club (which he previously managed) to providing a background on Jupas, a variation of soccer unique to the town. This interview was a blast and allowed me to further ponder potential sports and recreation projects I can help facilitate in my community. The remain...

In some ways, my second week at my site felt like my first, because it was the first time that I was fully healthy and able to conduct a full schedule. My site has never had a Peace Corps volunteer before, but I’m really lucky that my presence here has not only been welcomed, but that there are several people here ready to help me.  On Monday, my counterparts at both the elementary and high schools helped me organize a joint meeting between leaders from each school. There, because I’m a first-time volunteer for my community, I gave a brief introductory presentation about myself, the organization, and my responsibilities as a volunteer to make sure we were all on the same page. After that, we had an extremely productive brainstorming session about future projects that we can collaborate on. On Tuesday, I spent the morning at the elementary school. I need to conduct several class observations as part of my three-month diagnostic process to assess the needs and strengths of the commun...

In my introduction, I promised transparency, and I’ll absolutely stick to that. I hope this blog can shed the good, the bad, and the neutral of being a Peace Corps volunteer.  I’ll start with something very positive - my living conditions outside of San Jose are the nicest I’ve seen for someone serving with the Peace Corps. I’m extremely grateful that I’m going to be living in a comfortable space that should allow me to serve most effectively. My host mom at site is super nice, intelligent, and well-traveled and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know her thus far. For a less positive update… As many of my friends hit the ground running upon arrival at their sites, I began to feel pretty under the weather as soon as I got to mine. I didn’t really sleep at all that first night, and knew something wasn’t quite right. Fortunately, being located near San Jose and having access to the Peace Corps’ terrific medical staff, I was able to take a short Uber ride over to the hospital to see what ...

Following our site visits, we all regrouped in Escazu as a cohort for one final week and a half. Honestly, this felt a little bit like the final weeks of school: a lot of the hay was in the barn and everything felt like a blur. However, it was fun cherishing some final moments with the cohort before we headed our separate ways throughout the country. As many of you probably know, one of my favorite subjects is sports diplomacy. One of the highlights of PST was playing the Municipalidad de Escazu team in soccer. We’d lost a previous rendition of the “Escazu Derby” earlier in training, but fortunately we were able to leave Escazu with a win in our final week there. On September 25th, we said our goodbyes to our host families in Escazu. From Escazu, we made the short trek to San Jose for a quick two night stay at the Holiday Inn La Sabana. There, we spent a jam-packed couple days alongside counterparts from our prospective sites. As part of the Counterpart Workshop, we addressed things li...

The week following our site assignment, I had the opportunity to visit my site for the first time. Whereas many of my peers in the Peace Corps cohort had to trek across the country via buses to go to their sites, mine was so close that Uber provided the most direct means of transportation.  This was quite the week to visit our communities. The 15th of September is Costa Rican independence day, and the four-day weekend we spent at sites overlapped with the holiday. Unlike the United States, Costa Rica uses its public schools as a major vehicle to celebrate the day. Thursday through Sunday, these schools were actively involved in their community’s celebrations. These included patriotic assemblies (acto cívico), a lantern parade (faroles), and the running of a torch (entorcha). In many of these assemblies, I was asked to give a few words about myself and about Peace Corps, which was an unexpected surprise. I think my site is a good fit for me. My preference would’ve been to serve in l...

Ever since applying to the Peace Corps over a year ago, I’ve been constantly asked where exactly I’ll be in Costa Rica. I’ve always had to be coy in my responses, because we don’t receive our host sites until after 9 weeks of training on the ground in-country. Naturally, particularly in a country as diverse as Costa Rica, speculation about where we might end up ran rampant in the group. As for me, I’m moving to…. Right around the corner! I’m not permitted to give away many specifics about my new community, but I am now in a town just outside of San Jose. My new house is just a 30-minute drive from Escazu and is located in the canton of Desamparados. I’m not going to lie - this was pretty surprising to me. The image I always had of the Peace Corps was volunteers serving in remote, rural, and exotic communities. In Costa Rica that could range from the mountains to the jungle to the beach. However, I’m staying here in the Central Valley and in the San Jose province. Ticos affectionately r...

Part of why I wanted to write this blog is to be as transparent as possible for anyone who’s ever had interest in Peace Corps, so I feel that it’s only fair to outline some of the challenges or frustrations I’ve had in the process, while also recognizing that these are simply my individual thoughts, not anyone else’s in the organization.  I mentioned that this experience feels a bit like a restrained study abroad experience, and I stand by that description. We are here learning a bunch of interesting things, but we do not have unlimited liberty to travel around the country or do whatever we want. This is reasonable - we are here to do a job and integrate into our communities. However, I still believe it’s important to present the reality of our living situation. For example, during PST, we had various restrictions related to travel, safety, and security. We could not leave our town for the first five weeks in Escazu but were permitted one overnight trip during the remainder of trai...

  This may sound a little corny, but the people have been the number one highlight of my time in Costa Rica thus far and were part of what made PST so great. I’m not sure what I expected, but my Peace Corps cohort of over 30 people is one of the most impressive groups of people I’ve been a part of. Everyone has really thrown themselves into this process wholeheartedly. The cohort is also the most well-traveled group I’ve ever been with, and brings a plethora of fascinating personal and professional experiences together. Not only is each individual extremely impressive and interesting, but they are all also super likable and grounded. I don’t think there’s a single person in this group I wouldn’t want to hang out with 1 on 1, and that’s a testament to the amazing personalities serving with Peace Corps Costa Rica. Shocker, but sports have also been a fun part of my service. As I mentioned, this is an active group. The daily sports activities were the perfect stress reliever and socia...

We departed Philly at the crack of dawn to bus to the Newark Airport for our direct flight to  Juan Santamaria International Airport in Costa Rica. Upon landing, we were met by several Peace Corps staff who helped us load our luggage before heading to a beautiful Doubletree hotel in Cariari. This hotel, - luxe by Peace Corps standards, was where we’d spend our first four nights in Costa Rica training and bonding together as a cohort. This experience was a great way to get to know the program in Costa Rica as well as our fellow volunteers and staff. As bliss as life was at the hotel, that is ultimately not what any of us in the cohort came to Costa Rica to do. At the end of our first week, we moved across Costa Rica’s Central Valley - from our relaxing respite in Cariari into the homes of host families in Escazu. There were 4 primary members of my host family - A grandma, grandpa, their daughter, and their grandson. They took great care of me, fed me well and included me in family e...

My journey with the Peace Corps officially began in Philly on July 6, 2024 for what the organization calls “staging”. To be honest, there isn’t too much information to divulge here. This was not a tourist trip in the City of Brotherly Love; rather, our cohort spent about 36 hours in total at a hotel downtown, mainly in classroom sessions hashing out logistics related to the Peace Corps. Fortunately, I was able to sneak in a walk to the Rocky statue with a couple of other prospective volunteers. Staging, in reality, provided an opportunity to meet the other 30+ volunteers in our “Tico 44” cohort and for us all to travel to Costa Rica together as a group.

My last two years were spent completing my Master’s degree in International Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. These years were incredibly formative: living in one of the world’s most important and international cities was eye-opening for me and provided tremendous policy experience. When I committed to studying at GW, I accepted what is known as the Wolcott Fellowship. This distinction included a merit-based scholarship and a commitment to a minimum of two years of public service following the conferral of my degree. My work experience in DC was enriching, but I knew that I wanted further field experience abroad before beginning my career in international affairs. Becoming a Peace Corps volunteer seemed like the perfect opportunity to serve my country, fulfill my commitment for the Wolcott Fellowship, and to gain practical professional experience internationally. So why Costa Rica? Well… Who wouldn’t want to live here? I feel particularly lucky to be servin...

Thank you for checking out my blog! There are a few goals behind doing this. First, selfishly, I would love to have a record of sorts years from now to look back upon my service. Secondly, the third goal of the Peace Corps is to foster a greater understanding of the host country on the part of the American people. If I can shed greater light on the real Costa Rica to friends and family back home, I’ll consider that a success. And finally, I hope that this blog can help anyone interested in the Peace Corps learn more about its work - whether that is prospective volunteers or those who have simply heard about the organization but never served themselves. P.S. - "Chepe" is how Costa Ricans refer to their capital city, San Jose.

The views reflected in this blog are solely my own and should not be attributed to the Peace Corps or the U.S. Government.