Chepe Chronicles

As the school year rolls on and my close of service date inches closer and closer, my weeks seem to be getting increasingly busy in my Costa Rican community. I think this is for a couple of reasons. First, now that I've been in the community for almost 2 years, I have a greater sense of independence, and my counterparts in the schools trust me more to handle projects on my own. And then, because I haven't yet secured a job, lots of my free time is filled with trying to figure out my next steps, and that was a major theme this week as well. In the escuela , lots of students are beginning to contract World Cup fever and all they want to do is play soccer. I've tried to lean into that as much as possible without giving them total leeway to jump into a highly competitive soccer game. So, this week, I introduced a "Monkey in the Middle" version of soccer to continue promoting teamwork and to satiate their desire to do something related to soccer. Additionally, at the e...

One thing that really stands out to me about Costa Rica and Ticos is how clean and hygienic of a society it is, particularly compared to other countries I’ve traveled to around the world, including the US. One major difference between Costa Rica and the United States is that pretty much everyone here brings their toothbrush and toothpaste EVERYWHERE. They brush their teeth after every single meal, snack, and coffee. Every student at my escuela and my colegio also brings their toiletries to school. Although American dentists would probably recommend the same practice, I seldom see Americans following through with that like  Ticos do. Additionally, most Ticos I know are constantly cleaning their homes and workspaces to an almost pristine level. I generally think I do a decent job of keeping my living areas neat; however, I know that it wouldn’t be close to my host mom’s standards. At least once a week my host family does a deep clean of the house and it's always spotless. The sta...

After coming back in the middle of last week from El Salvador, it was great to have a full week back in Costa Rica and back in my community. This week was a busy one, but it was also an incredibly fulfilling one. At the elementary school, or escuela , I continued on with PE classes. My theme for all of my PE classes this year has been team work, so I try really hard to incorporate those ideals into everything I do. Several students had requested to play volleyball, so this week I had them play a game related to teamwork with a volleyball I recently purchased. If the students could keep the volleyball in the air for 20 straight touches between classmates, they'd get to choose the next activity. This gave them some positive incentive to work together on a common goal and to support one another. On Friday, I returned to the escuela to help out with FEA, or Festival Estudiantil de Las Artes . This is a government-sponsored competition for all kinds of art: visual, singing, dance, etc....

An interesting aspect of my service is that I have been my community’s first ever Peace Corps Volunteer. This isn’t the case for several of my peers. Many are the second, third, or another generation of volunteers at their sites. Generally, the plan is that each community will receive up to 3 Peace Corps volunteers, each serving 2-year terms, in succession. However, after each two years, communities can opt out of having a Peace Corps volunteer, or they can request another one. Eventually, after the third volunteer in succession, at an individual Peace Corps site, communities are expected to adopt some of the sustainable projects facilitated by volunteers, and thus become self-dependent. This is part of Peace Corps’ sustainable approach to development. Being a first time volunteer comes with a decent amount of pressure. Quite literally, my community’s perspective on the agency, and for some, the United States as a whole, could be shaped largely by my service. Yes, I want to facilitate ...

Sorry for the delay on the blog, it's been quite the busy last couple of weeks. Although a lot has happened spending it in two different countries, I'll try to be as brief as possible so that the blog doesn't turn into a novel.  My last two weeks in my community sandwiched a week-long trip to El Salvador. My activities at the schools weren't too different from the weeks prior. At the escuela, I facilitated several PE classes. A couple of weeks earlier, I'd gone in to San Jose to purchase some additional PE equipment for my students. I'd wanted to teach my students Dodgeball for a long time, so I'd been on the hunt to find some softer sports balls to play it. In Costa Rica, Dodgeball is known as " Quemados " or "Burned". (I guess someone who is hit by the ball is "burned"). In any sense, Dodgeball was a big hit with the students. Also at the escuela, I co-led an International Club session with my students about Nicaragua. This wa...

Without a doubt, Costa Rica has a burgeoning arts scene, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if we see more and more artists emerge from Costa Rica in the near future. It’s clear that this is a priority of the government. During the past month or so alone, I attended 2 major art festivals in San José, both of which features free concerts and markets. Furthermore, students participate in the FEA competition (Festival Estudiantil de las Artes) and a couple of Costa Rica’s most famous landmarks are theatres. ( Teatro Nacional and Teatro Melico Salazar ) There are a growing number of museums as well, particularly in  San José , dedicated to showing off Tico fine art.  As it relates to music, I read an article recently that stated that Costa Rica possesses one of the world’s lowest percentages of domestically-produced musicians. There isn’t really a Costa Rican “Bad Bunny”. For whatever reason, Ticos primarily listen to artists from other neighboring countries and territories lik...

Last week was so busy that I couldn’t even get a blog out on Sunday! I had a full week both in the classroom and outside it. As usual, last week was jamp-packed with PE classes at the escuela , but there were some other breakthroughs too. For PE, I continued rotating through classes with a new activity - handball (aka “balónmano” in Spanish). Although some had heard of it before, handball was a pretty foreign concept to most of my students. However, they quickly caught on and enjoyed it. Additionally, at the escuela , I kicked off two different clubs for students. The first one, Amigos sin Fronteras , is a repeat of a club I co-led with the librarian last year focused on learning about various countries and cultures. This week, we “traveled” to the United States and I more or less recycled the same lesson as last year. The other club, a reading club, was a first. When my Peace Corps boss visited my site a couple months ago, they encouraged the escuela to think about more projects a v...

A recent development from the Trump administration that may have flown under the radar due to other global events was the announcement of a “Tech Corps” within the Peace Corps. Details are still somewhat thin on what exactly a Tech Corps will entail; however, we do know that the agency will seek to matriculate volunteers with a background in STEM and/or technology to promote American AI interests.  There has been a varied response from the peace Corps community since the announcement. Some think that it’s a bold way to adapt to the times and to ensure that the Peace Corps stays relevant in the diplomatic and development spheres, particularly vis-a-vis a growing Chinese influence. Others think it strays too far from Peace Corps’ approach to development and doesn’t reflect how they perceive the agency. No doubt, it will be fascinating to observe how the introduction of a Tech Corps shapes the future and identity of the Peace Corps going forward. Personally, I don't know exactly how i...