Nov 10-16: Country Director Site Visit, English Fest, and More

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 schools and introducing him to some of my counterparts before we grabbed a cafecito and he imparted some great advice for the remainder of my service and for a future career in international relations.

The other big day at my site this week was on Thursday. As I’ve referenced in a couple prior blogs, I recently have been assisting with a Plan Nacional special education English class at the colegio. On Thursday, they presented a skit at an English festival in Desamparados, the regional capital city nearby. It was a brief presentation in which, as scientists, they taught the audience about basic color mixing (red and blue make purple, etc). We had been practicing their lines for over a month, so it was fun to accompany them at their performance and see it live. I’m proud of the hard work they put in learning English to make the performance possible.




There were some fun moments outside of the classroom too last week. Some highlights included attending my girlfriend’s dance performance at the historic Teatro Popular Melico Salazar on Wednesday night and going to the Peace Corps office on Friday for a social event. The performance on Wednesday touched on themes related to the “fast fashion” industry. I don’t pretend to know a ton about dancing, but it was a beautiful show in a gorgeous venue. The event on Friday was a Dia de Juegos game day at the Peace Corps office, with the idea of bringing different Peace Corps cohorts and staff together for a day of fun. Lots of times we never cross paths with volunteers from other cohorts, or with certain staff members who aren’t part of our program, so it was a great idea by some other volunteers and admin to make that happen.



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