Nov 25-Dec 1: Site Visit, Tico Thanksgiving, and a Half Marathon

During PST, or Pre-Service Training, Peace Corps staff preached the importance of adaptability, flexibility, and resilience during service. Thus far in my time in Costa Rica, I’ve had pretty smooth sailing all things considered. I’m near the capital city, I have very nice living accommodations, and my counterparts at site are excellent partners and advocates for me in the community. However, for the first time in my service, I’ve been thrown a bit of a curveball.

On Monday, Peace Corps staff came to my site for a routine check-in visit. These visits are actually quite a lot for the volunteer to plan. A member of Peace Corps staff has to meet with counterparts at each institution both with and without the volunteer present, has to visit the home and talk with the host family both with and without the volunteer, and must observe the volunteer completing some kind of facilitation. All of this must be conducted in a four-hour span. It’s great administrative practice for any relevant careers in the future. 

My site visit started out well. It was great to reconnect with a member of my Youth Development program team. We received positive feedback on my service at both institutions and discussed plans for future projects with my counterparts. The day concluded with the home visit. Almost immediately, my host mom revealed that although she’d previously been semi-retired, she’d accepted a new role. This new position would make it difficult for her to host a volunteer due to an increased travel schedule away from the community. 

Each Peace Corps country has different rules and regulations, but in Costa Rica, it is standard that a volunteer stays with their host family at site for at least six months. After six months, the volunteer may explore independent living or may reach an agreement to remain with the host family. In my case, my current host mom needs me to move out at about the three-month mark of my service. This update certainly came as a surprise and threw a bit of a wrench in our plans. However, the good news is that we have a month or two to find new living arrangements for me. In reality, I’m grateful to her for being willing to host me as long as she has, and for the heads up to start looking for a new family. I’m confident that the Peace Corps team and members of my community will help me locate a great host family.  

After a bit of an atypical day on Monday, I was back to a somewhat normal schedule during the rest of the week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I went to the colegio, or high school. Students and teachers are finishing up the school year right now, so things are a little bit chaotic and there isn’t a ton to do, but I still want to be there to continue familiarizing myself with the institution and the students. This week, I received some guides for lesson planning from the counselors, or orientadores, and assisted a class whose teacher was on medical leave. 

Thursday was a surprisingly nice Thanksgiving considering I was thousands of miles away from home. I went to the elementary school, or escuela, l that morning. As I see it, one of my most important roles as a Peace Corps volunteer is to be an agent of cultural exchange. So, I took the opportunity to plan a presentation about Thanksgiving and a related activity since most students had never heard of the holiday before. Thankfully, teachers were incredibly open to this idea, and I was able to facilitate this activity in 5 or 6 different classes. In my activity, I asked students to share at least one thing in their community that they are grateful for. So, not only was I hoping to have students reflect on the things that they are thankful for, but this also helps me further understand my students and my community. 

That evening, I also got to celebrate Thanksgiving in a more traditional manner. One of my primary counterparts at the school is actually married to a Costa Rican with some American roots. Because of that, their family just happens to cook a Thanksgiving dinner annually. She invited me to their family celebration which was really special because I was expecting to skip out on a Thanksgiving meal this year. I’m not gonna lie, I set my expectations low for a Tico Thanksgiving, (Mom’s cooking is hard to beat) but the food was quite traditional and really good. We had several classics: turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, pecan pie, and more. I certainly missed being with my American family for Thanksgiving, but it meant a lot to me that members of my community invited me to partake in the holiday with them.

Friday morning was back at the elementary school. I spent some time working on my diagnostic report alongside my counterpart, and I got added to the teacher’s group chat, which was a big win for me. Hopefully this will help with furthering integration into the community. On Saturday morning, I day tripped into San Jose to grab a coffee with a friend who was in town and picked up my race packet for the following day’s half marathon. A huge advantage of my town is its location to San Jose - I’m just a quick bus or Uber ride away from the nation’s capital city which makes short trips like that really feasible.

Sunday morning was race day. The race started at 6:00, and I really wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of race setup and road closures, so I left my house at 4:30 after setting a 3:45 alarm. I ran half of the race with one of my Peace Corps friends before I hit a wall, and she left me in the dust. I didn’t take my pre-race fueling or training as seriously as I should have, and I paid the price big time. Fortunately, I was able to finish the 13.1 miles, but it wasn’t without puke, bathroom, and electrolyte breaks along the way. Certainly, this wasn’t the best race I’ve ever run, but I’m still glad I got to experience a little bit of the running culture here in Costa Rica.