April 21-27: MEP Meeting, El Clásico, and a Trip to Frailes

After a week off from school, it was a bit difficult to get back in the swing of things. On Monday, I didn’t actually go to class. Rather, I traveled with 2 other Peace Corps volunteers in my area to the city of Desamparados to meet with the regional director for the Ministry of Public Education (MEP). We’d met with her previously to explain more about the Peace Corps since this is the first time Peace Corps Costa Rica has had Youth Development volunteers in this particular region. This time, we presented our CASA diagnostic reports and talked about the projects we’d started in the community. Considering we were all busy during Semana Santa, we hadn’t really had time to prepare together for the meeting, but I think it went really well all things considered. Afterwards, I went into San José to hang out with my friend Ben in Barrio Escalante before we boarded a train to Alajuela for a soccer game. We went to El Clásico Nacional, which I’ve written about before. The match is contested between Costa Rica’s 2 biggest clubs: Alajuelense (Liga) and Saprissa. Despite a raucous home crowd in La Catedral, Liga stumbled to just a tie against Saprissa.


After a late night in Alajuela at the soccer match and after saying my goodbyes to Ben, it was more of a typical schedule the rest of the week. On limited sleep, I was back at the escuela on Tuesday, bright and early, to resume my PE classes and team building workshops. On Wednesday and Friday, I continued my work with 11th graders and met with a few of the groups I’m tutoring for their Servicio Comunal Estudiantil service projects. Unfortunately, on Thursday, I was a bit under the weather with some sort of sinus or respiratory infection, so I canceled my workshops at the escuela as a precaution.


Over the weekend, I was still battling some lingering cold-like symptoms, so I didn’t do anything too crazy. A group of volunteers in my cohort from the community economic sector were in San Jose for training, so I met up with several of them at a bowling alley to chat and grab dinner. When I got back home to site from San Jose, I walked in on a surprise party for my host mom (who I hadn't previously met) who had just moved back to Costa Rica from Puerto Rico. Then on Sunday, after running with Club Secreto with a fellow volunteer, I traveled about an hour south to a town in the mountains called Frailes to grab lunch with my host family. There, I enjoyed some cooler temps and aire fresco while we were served a traditional Costa Rican dish, olla de carne, alongside a cafecito.

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