May 25-31: Getting Busier and Busier

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 escuela, I also co-hosted a reading club and my international club with the school's librarian. In the reading club, they read Little Red Riding Hood and subsequently had to debate the innocence of the wolf in the story. Meanwhile, in Club Amigos sin Fronteras, students virtually "traveled" to Panama where they explored the Panama Canal via Google Earth and drew their own version of it. Afterwards, they played a trivia game comparing Panama and Costa Rica. On Friday, the escuela held student government elections, and for that day normal classes were suspended. Instead, students participated in PE-type games throughout the day, so I was in charge of a station for that.



At the colegio, it was also a productive week but a bit less busy than the escuela. I helped out with a Special Education English class and also a 10th grade English class. I also met with one of the English teachers to help him plan some activities for an upcoming English festival at the high school. And then, on Saturday, I woke up early and attended the student-led run club that I help sponsor. In total, there were about 15-20 attendees, and I feel pretty happy about that despite having 30 the week prior. 

When I wasn't fulfilling my duties as a Youth Development volunteer, I was also pretty occupied. On Wednesday, I had a second job interview for a position based in the United States. And then on Friday, I went into San Jose to take a government test as part of the application to serve in the State Department. Over the weekend, I spent as much time as possible with my girlfriend, Keily. On Saturday, we ate some delicious lasagna and gelato together. On Sunday, we went for a nice run through Desamparados together. We've started running together on Sundays as much as possible, and that's been some great motivation for me to keep running despite my increasingly busy schedule. 



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