Chepe Chronicles

I’m writing this sidebar with Thanksgiving on my mind. A question one may have about Peace Corps service is whether or not we, as volunteers, are obligated to work on holidays. Peace Corps likes to say that volunteers are 24/7 - that we are always on the clock. However, particularly as a Youth Development volunteer, my work schedule follows the Costa Rican academic calendar. That means, by and large, I will have Costa Rican federal holidays off but not American holidays. Thus, I will work on Thanksgiving since it falls on a Thursday and is just another workday here in Costa Rica. Similarly, if days like the 4th of July and Labor day aren’t during weekends, I would be obligated to attend the schools on those days as well. On the other hand, Peace Corps staff receive US federal holidays off because they are considered federal employees. As “volunteers”, we are technically not employees of the government and do not receive those benefits. Fortunately, many Costa Rican and American holiday...

As the school year winds down in Costa Rica, the academic schedule gets weirder and weirder. I’ve mentioned this phenomenon on occasion in previous blogs, but in Costa Rica, many teachers belong to Congresos , which are akin to teachers’ unions in the United States. A couple times a year, teachers receive days off of school as part of union days. Because of this, from Tuesday to Thursday, almost all of the classes were canceled by nature of being union days. Additionally, Friday was Día de la Cofraternidad. T hat doesn’t translate neatly to English, but is pretty much a co-workers’ day. This day is designed to promote team bonding and friendship between coworkers, so if I’m being honest, it strikes me a little strange that this day takes place at the end of the school year rather than the beginning. Some of my counterparts spent the day at a beach resort, while others got massages. I’ve been spending a lot of money lately, so I decided to pass on paying to lounge at a resort and inst...

Much like military service or other government roles, there are some nice post-service perks of being a Peace Corps volunteer too. Upon finishing service, volunteers receive a readjustment allowance to move back to the US. Volunteers garner about $300/month for this, so anyone who completes the full 27-month service receives a post-service parachute of roughly $10,000. Many Peace Corps Volunteers also choose to go to graduate school after finishing their service. Several graduate institutions offer Coverdell Fellowships for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) which offer significant financial aid (and some full rides) to RPCVs. Finally, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers possess one year of non-competitive eligibility for jobs in the federal government. However, in the current context, many of those federal positions no longer exist under the Trump Administration following cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Thus, NCE is becoming less of a post-service perk than it...

The week kicked off with a bang on Monday. Monday marked the deadline for Servicio Comunal Estudiantil , a mandatory community service program for students at the colegio required for graduation. Students graduate in 12th grade, but because many start working that year, Servicio Comunal is typically completed in 11th grade unless students fail to achieve the requisite 30 hours. My primary counterpart at the colegio heads the high school’s community service program, and thus many students came by her office on Monday to solicit our help turning in all of the appropriate documents for the deadline. After the bureaucratic chaos finishing that up, I quickly rushed home for lunch before meeting the Director of Peace Corps Costa Rica at my colegio . He, on occasion, visits volunteers in their communities. During our last training as a cohort, I’d invited him to mine, since I’m so close to the capital, and he was nice enough to take me up on the offer. I had a great time taking him to my sc...

Like most other Latin American countries, Costa Rica is a predominantly Catholic country. Religion plays a significant role in public life to this day. Culturally, most Costa Ricans celebrate Catholic holidays. Students are off all week for Semana Santa during Easter, and Christmas is a big deal here as well. Even in public schools, most institutions have a patron saint, and students take regular classes in religion. However, just because the Catholic Church plays a large role in Costa Rican society doesn’t mean that Costa Rica is super conservative. In 2020, Costa Rica became the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage. Additionally, other religions, particularly Evangelical sects of Christianity, are on the rise in Costa Rica too. Out of my 3 living situations in Costa Rica, 2 of those host families belong to the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Pentecostalism, respectively. I’ve heard, on occasion, Islamic “Call to Prayers” being played in San Jose city center as well. ...

Although generally I seem to spend more time at the escuela than at the colegio , this was a week that felt quite a bit more skewed towards my work at the colegio . This was mainly because my primary project at the colegio , Servicio Comunal Estudiantil , is set to close Monday, November 10th. By this date, students must have completed 30 community service hours, they have to turn in all of the appropriate forms, and must write a short written report as well. Naturally, as high school students do, many of my students procrastinated a bit on these tasks. So, in many ways, this week was a scramble to help them out. Some students still lacked community service hours going into the week while others simply lacked a signature on a particular form. Either way, I tried to make myself available as much as possible to help close this process out and ensure successful projects. This included scheduling some last minute running sessions with my community run club, including practices on Tuesday,...

Costa Rica has a number of cable television networks. (I’m particularly fortunate to have access to the Spanish-language version of ESPN where I can watch everything from baseball to American football.) However, there is one channel which dominates the Costa Rican airwaves: Teletica . Teletica is pretty much the national station, and despite several competing networks every Tico I know tunes into Teletica for news, entertainment, etc. Daily news is received from Teletica , and the whole country watches its programs ranging from the Costa Rican edition of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” to a talent show, “ Nace una Estrella ”, to “ El Heredero ”, a Turkish telenovela they broadcast. Watching the same shows as everyone else in Costa Rica is cool because it results in an easy conversation starter between both Ticos and Peace Corps Volunteers who are scattered across the country.

Fortunately, because my illness struck during a Peace Corps training, I did not miss any commitments at site. I’d recovered enough by Monday that I was able to return to the colegio and jump in where I’d left off prior to Mid-Service Training. On Monday, I was looped into a couple different English-related activities at the high school in which I helped co-teach a technical class for 11th graders and then hosted an English chat for a couple of English teachers there. Later in the week there, I also helped observe other English classes while they took oral exams and held a meeting with one of my Servicio Comunal Estudiantil groups where they presented the report to me about senior citizens and leaders in the community. Meanwhile, at the escuela , I continued with my PE sessions with American football. On Friday, I took off for one of the few remaining destinations on my Costa Rica travel bucket list: Tortuguero. Tortuguero is a small fishing village located in the province of Limon on ...