First Half of February: Turrialba PE Camp, Valentine's Day, and Prepping For the New School Year

The Costa Rican School Year will start back up after one more week, on Monday, Feb 23. This means the prior month or so has still been a little less busy as it will be in the coming months. Because of that (and the fact that I didn’t have my computer last week) I decided to lump the last 2 weeks’ worth of updates into one blog.

The most significant development in my Peace Corps service during February occurred last week. Last Monday, I ventured out to a small village of around 200 in the cantón of Turrialba. There, in the cloud forest, I co-facilitated a Peace Corps project at a fellow volunteer’s site. Since the beginning of our service, he and I have discussed collaborating on a cross-sector project. He’s a community economic volunteer and I’m a youth development volunteer, but his community has requested more volunteerism within the school system. Working together on a kids’ camp in his community seemed like a really natural fit. Last week, we made that vision a reality. Over the course of 4 days, we hosted a physical education camp for the town’s elementary students. These students attend a “unidocente” school, meaning there is only one teacher for first through sixth grades. We wanted to provide these students with an opportunity to learn some new things and stay active while on summer break. During the camp, students played sports ranging from fútbol to American football. Through these activities, they also learned about “soft skills” such as communication, teamwork, and respect. We were really pleased with the participation of the students and the results of the camp. We will leave all the sports materials and lessons plans in the community with the hope that some of the activities we led will be repeated there in the future, whether that is by my friend in the Peace Corps, future Peace Corps volunteers, and/or the elementary teacher.





The camp was the main service-related highlight from the first half of February, although I’ve stayed pretty busy during “vacation”. I’ve taken advantage of a lot of this extra free time to spend time with my girlfriend Keily and her family. This weekend was Valentine’s Day, and we had a really nice date at an Italian restaurant in downtown San Jose called “Sapore”. Sapore was, without a doubt, the best Italian food I’ve had in Costa Rica during my 2 years here. The week prior, we took a guided tour at Teatro Nacional and enjoyed a cafecito at the theater’s beautiful cafe. On Super Bowl Sunday, we went to the town of Cartago and competed in a rainy 10k race called “La Candelaria”. After doing this race 2 years in a row, I can confidently say that it is my favorite race in Costa Rica. Later that evening, we watched the Super Bowl while dining on some classic American food (delivery pizza). That same week, I attended an in-person meeting with Peace Corps Costa Rica admin as part of my role on the Volunteer Staff Collaborative (VSC). Sadly, that some week, I joined several other Peace Corps Volunteers in San Jose for a send-off event for a volunteer in our cohort who was medically-separated from service.



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