Sidebar #30 - Serving in an Urban Site

If you’re anything like me, the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a Peace Corps Volunteer is probably someone doing manual labor in a remote and exotic location. I do think that was the reality of service for a long time. Images of Peace Corps Volunteers helping build schools and wells and wielding machetes were fairly prominent early on in the organization’s history. However, the agency has changed a lot, and I think my service is a reflection of some of those changes.

As I’ve alluded to before, I serve in a community just outside of San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital. And although my town officially only has 12,000 people, the boundaries between cities and neighborhoods in this area are somewhat blurry, so it feels much more urban than that. Depending on the mode of transportation and traffic, it takes me anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour to arrive in downtown San Jose, or Chepe.


I think serving in a more urban area has both perks and drawbacks. First and foremost, I live a very comfortable life and I'm grateful for that. I have running water, electricity, wifi, and even get hot showers. My town has a grocery store and if I was really in a pinch, I could get food delivered to my house via UberEats or another delivery app. Volunteers in other parts of the world may even label my experience as “Posh Corps”. On the weekends, I can go into the city if I need to purchase any specialty items, attend soccer matches or events, and I can run with a running club. However, perhaps the biggest advantage is that San Jose is the transit hub of the country. I can get anywhere in Costa Rica via bus the same day without a lot of hassle. This travel convenience has allowed me to see more of the country than the vast majority of my peers.


Not everything about living in the city is glamorous, however. Perhaps the biggest selling point to travel to Costa Rica is its nature. Costa Rica is quite literally paradise, and many areas of the country reflect this. Some volunteers’ sites are naturally gorgeous. Mine is not. My town doesn’t look too dissimilar from any other Latin American urban or suburban area and has many of the same issues that come with that territory. Traffic and pollution are pretty bad in my community and sadly youth are often caught up with drugs and violence. I also spend much more money than other volunteers in my cohort by nature of being in the city with higher prices and more temptations. 


It’s important to note that my reality is not the same for all volunteers. For example, one of my Peace Corps friends lives in a community with a population of just a couple hundred people. He regularly gets roped into helping with manual labor and farming and has no regular bus service in and out of his site. Peace Corps places volunteers in all kinds of sites; my experience is just one of many. But, in all, I think being in an urban site has been a net positive for me. I feel very comfortable in my day-to-day life, and if I really need to get away, it’s not hard to find a bus out of town. I value having access to amenities, being able to travel with ease, and it has been fun to get to know San Jose more as a city.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Home for the Holidays: Christmas in MO, New Year's in CR

Image
It's been a busy couple of weeks! Normally I try to post my weekly recaps on Sundays, but I figured it may make more sense to lump everything related to the holidays together in one blog.  On Dec 23, I flew back to Southwest Missouri to be home for Christmas with my family. This was the first time I'd been back in the Ozarks since I began my Peace Corps Service a year and a half ago (roughly 18 months). I was really excited to spend time with family, get some comfort food, and enjoy some colder weather. All three of those things occurred eventually, thankfully, although the latter wasn't until the end of my trip due to a record-breaking warm Christmas Day.  My time at home, was fun and much-needed, although it wasn't particularly relaxing. We had a number of Christmas celebrations and activities, so my time back home went by pretty fast. Some highlights of the trip included celebrating my Dad's birthday sharing a tomahawk steak, eating some Springfield-style Cashew ...
Read more

Sidebar #58 - 2026 Costa Rican Presidential Election

Image
Note: These are my objective observations of Costa Rica’s upcoming election as a foreigner living here, not my personal opinions. Additionally, these observations are my own and don’t reflect those of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps. This is a big week for Costa Rica. On Sunday, February 1, Costa Ricans will cast ballots for their next President. There are other elections, namely legislative, that are also happening on Sunday, but for the purpose of this blog, I’ll keep it simple and focus on the Presidential election taking place. There are several differences between the Costa Rican presidential process and our elections in the US. One of these distinctions is the sheer number of political parties, and therefore, presidential candidates. The election is Sunday (I’m writing this on Thursday) and there are still roughly 20 candidates in the race (with varying degrees of viability). In Costa Rica, the President cannot serve consecutive terms, meaning that there will be a new Pres...
Read more

Feb 17-23: Settling in at School + a Weekend in Puerto Viejo

Image
My first three or four months at site were a bit chaotic as I finished my diagnostic report, or “CASA” report, about the community. Fortunately, counterparts at my respective academic institutions were in frequent contact and communicated to me on the onset of each week how I should divide my time between the schools. However, since classes resumed in February, a more formal schedule has begun to crystallize for me. I’ll spend Mondays and Wednesdays at the high school, or colegio , and Tuesdays and Thursdays at the escuela , or elementary school. Fridays will alternate between them so that I can ensure I split my time evenly at each institution. Although having that schedule seems like a small development, it feels like a bit of a breakthrough in my service to establish more day-to-day consistency. Being the first Peace Corps volunteer in my town’s history, all of this is still relatively new for everyone involved, so getting all parties on the same page feels like a win. And not only...
Read more