Sunday, January 30, 2011

Highlights from the first month!!

Family and Friends,

It has been an exciting and busy first month in Agua Buena!  I have had the opportunity to get to know many people in my community, attend many community organizational meetings, be a special guest at an english class, help the micro-finance (ECC) organization with bookkeeping and do an extraordinary amount of  mountain bike riding!  I am also happy to say that my spanish has been greatly improving and I feel more comfortable everyday reading, writing and speaking.  Without further a due, I am going to write about a few of the highlights from my past month:

1. Preparing the traditional Costa Rican christmas food, Tamales.  This step-by-step process has been perfected by my host mother, Yolanda, who is quite a skilled chef.  Basically, a tamale is a dish made of Masa (starchy dough, corn-based) which is steamed or boiled in a plantain leaf wrapper.  It can be filled with many different meats, veggies, rice or beans.  We filled ours with rice, green pepper, yellow squash, onion and a piece of chicken.  Once who have put all the ingredients on the leaf, you have to tightly wrap it so the contents do not fall out.  After that, place the tamale in boiling water or steam it in order to cook it.  Then, Enjoy!  Just a side note (bc i am a hypochondriac), I dont know how healthy these delicious snacks are, I saw my host mom put two sticks of butter in the Masa mix!

Preparing, back-breaking work

2. A new pleasure of mine is mountain bike riding.  There is really nothing like riding your bike through fresh mountain air to clear your head.  At times, all the spanish can give me "information overload" and it is nice to have a physical outlet.  I started riding the bike shop owner where I bought my bike.  His name is Danny and he has a group of friends that he goes out with 3 to 4 times a week.  Danny is an expert and can ride on the most difficult paths.  Being the quixotic person that I am, I told Danny the first time we rode that I want to start with the most difficult trail.  Well, that was a mistake.  This trail had potholes, loose gravel, wet mud and  thick grass; it was not the trail for a beginner to start.  I fell off the bike a few times but was not seriously injured.  Now, I have been riding the more novice trails and have been building up my endurance and stamina.  Some day I will return to that trail and conquer it.
My new mountain bike
3. I have been working hard on my diagnostic of Agua Buena.  This report needs to include the history, economy, jobs, youth activities, etc. of the community.  It is a very helpful way of integrating into the community.  Thus far, my favorite interview has been with a gentleman named Gabriel.  He gave me the complete history of Agua Buena.  Being the history lover that I am, we had a great conversation that lasted 2 hours.  I will not bore you with the details.

4. While going to Neilly on a bus to meet a fellow PCV, I met a english teacher from Neilly that invited me to be a special guest in his class.  Being that I do not have very much experience in the teaching field, I accepted his offer without hesitation.  I said I would prepare the lesson plan and that is what i did.  The class was mostly a younger crowd and their spanish level was novice low or medium.  I wanted them have a little taste of American culture so I wrote a simple biography on Barack Obama.  In class, they read it out-loud and then we discussed Obama and how he was viewed around the world.  My plan finished a bit early, so for the future I always need to be prepared with extra material.

5. I have also been fortunate to be able to travel around my region (south zone or Puntarenas) and see much of the natural beauty of Costa Rica.  Only about a 10 min walk from my residence, there is a beautiful, cliff waterfall; I call it the "Miniature Niagara."  This past weekend I traveled with a friend to the Osa Peninsula on the Pacific side of Costa Rica.  It was nice to get away for a few days and to also see a lot of flora and fauna.  We were taking a hike by a river and all of a sudden we saw a scaly, green head pop out of the water.  We jumped back a little bit and took a closer look at the river; there were about 5 to 6 pairs of sinister eyes looking at us.  These were all fresh water crocodiles (cocodrilos) and they looked hungary, so we got the hell out of there!!!
Miniature Niagara

Crocodile infested river, proceed with caution


6. I am looking forward to next weekend because there is a big PC get together in San Jose for the Super Bowl.  In the morning, there is a flag football game and I am hoping my team comes ready to play.  Tico 21 must represent its athletic superiority!!  In the evening, we are all going to the local hotspot, Hooters, for some overpriced American food and fun!  It will be nice to see all my buddies and see how there journey is going thus far.

Well, that is all I have for you right now.  I am going to try to keep this thing updated more regularly, but honestly there wasn't too much to report on.  I want to make a shout out to both my grandmas, Arlue Thomas and Elaire Dykins, they both had birthdays this month.  They are very special ladies in my life, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!  

For the rest of you that have actually read this far, I hope this note finds you well!

Pura Vida,

Elliot Nix