Jan 21-Feb 2: Return to Costa Rica and Peace Corps Reconnect

Apologies for failing to post a weekly update last Sunday. I was at a Peace Corps event and was pretty busy. My schedule will return to normalcy in the coming weeks, so expect regular programming featuring a weekly recap on Sundays and a sidebar blog during the middle of the week.

After returning from Colombia on Tuesday the 21st, I had a few days to recoup some much-needed sleep and to pack up my things before moving in with a host family. And although I'd had it ready to go before my trip, I also officially turned in my community diagnostic report that I'd been working on for my first three months at site after receiving some revisions from my counterpart at the escuela. This is considered a living document, however, so I'll continue to make updates to it throughout my service.

On that Saturday, I moved out of my initial living situation and met my new host family. (Nothing bad happened with my first living arrangement, my host mom was simply too busy to commit to hosting a volunteer for up to 2 years.) We didn't spend that much time together, but I was able to see the house, meet my new host sister, and drop off my stuff there before heading into San Jose for a week-long Peace Corps conference called Reconnect. 

Since my room in the new house wasn't 100 hundred percent ready yet, Peace Corps was nice enough to put me up in a hotel in the city that night even though other volunteers weren't arriving until the next day. (Huge shoutout to everyone at Peace Corps Costa Rica who worked hard to help me find a new home.) Getting to San Jose a little bit early meant that I could run to meet my running club the next morning. I got there, and was tasked to help pace the fastest group on their run. As the gringo, I didn't know the route, so I had to keep my phone out and follow the directions on a map. (I seldom run with my phone out). Of course, looking at my phone while running was a bad idea. With my eyes off the road, I took a hard fall. My phone got a tad bit cracked, and my knees got pretty scraped up, but more than anything, my ego as a runner was bruised. Fortunately, I avoided a significant injury, but this was a frustrating start to a week I was really looking forward to. The rest of the day, volunteers trickled into our hotel sporadically in preparation for a week of workshops starting Monday. Several of us camped out at a sports-themed bar and restaurant at the hotel to watch the NFL Conference Championship games which was fun.

Our workshops began on Monday. Peace Corps training days are jam-packed: we had classes from 8-5 every day. Monday's classes consisted of general Peace Corps administrative information. The rest of the week's trainings were more sector-specific, so for me, that meant technical training in Youth Development. We each had counterparts from academic institutions in our community at the trainings for a few days as well.

The main goal of Reconnect was to provide volunteers with further training, but for volunteers who may be pretty isolated in their communities, this was a great opportunity to bring our cohort together again. Our group took advantage this and had some really fun social events. Poolside games and chats were ubiquitous throughout the week. On Wednesday, more than a dozen of us attended a Saprissa soccer game, Costa Rica's most popular club. I'm a fan of the rival club (Liga), but I went undercover with some friends in their ultras section (La Cueva) which was quite an atmosphere to observe. On Friday night, volunteers played a "friendly" soccer match against the municipalidad of Escazu. Because I'm racing a 10k next week and haven't played any soccer in 4 months, I sat out and "coached" the squad. I'm sad to report we lost 4-1, so my coaching days may be numbered. Throughout the week, I also got to run with one of my friends in the cohort, so that was a big boost for my training. For the first time since arriving in Costa Rica, I tallied a 40-mile week. The time spent hanging out and training with the other volunteers in my cohort was the perfect recharge.

On Sunday, we parted ways. I officially moved to my new home at site. My first impressions of the new living situation are really positive, and I'm bullish that this family will be a good fit for me. The new year of classes in Costa Rica start back on Wednesday. I'm excited to finally start implementing some projects in my schools and continuing to integrate into the community. 


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