What do Peace Corps Volunteers Really Do?

So now that they’re approaching our 1 year anniversary as volunteers (March 1, 2012), you’re probably thinking – well, I know that Melinda and Stephen are Peace Corps volunteers, but what do they really do?  Below is a summary of some of their projects to give you an idea what they’ve been up this past year.

March 1 – May 15^th – Training in Central Valley

May 15^th – Present – Working in site

When they first arrived in site, Stephen & Melinda were tasked with writing a community diagnostic detailing what they learned about during training regarding the strengths, resources, weaknesses and opportunities that exist within the community.  Generally, Peace Corps volunteers do not start many, if any, projects during the first three months in site and focus their efforts on getting to know people in their community, drinking coffee with neighbors and community leaders, interviewing community members, getting to know the institutions and organizations that work within our pueblos and the people and power structures which make it tick (or not).   After the first three months, volunteers are supposed to deliver a first draft (which usually winds up being a minimum of 30 pages).  Between months 3-9 the fine-tuning and revisions are done and finally a final draft is printed to be presented to the counterpart organizations and community as a whole.  As this report was to be returned all in Spanish it presented a major challenge for both Melinda and Stephen.  They are happy to report (no pun intended) that their finally copy was finally printed (87 pages!) and they will be presenting it shortly to their counterparts and other interested local citizens and organizations.

Melinda and Stephen started two projects during our first three months, both of which they are still currently working on: Guías y Scouts (the Costa Rican version of Boy & Girl Scouts, Guías being “chicas” and Scouts being “chicos”) and a basic English class for 7-12 year olds.  The Guías y Scouts group represents the entire canton of Talamanca (roughly the size of a couple large counties in the US) and they currently have 40 members between the “manada” (herd) group, which are between 7- 10 years old, and the “tropa” (troop) ages 11-15.  Melinda and Stephen work with the tropa group.  One highlight during last year was that the tropa group was able to locally raise enough funds to participate in the first regional Guías y Scouts camp to be held in the southern part of the province of Limón.

Limón Campamento in Octobrer 2011

In addition to attending the camp, they have organized workshops with the local Cruz Roja (Red Cross) teaching the Tropa group about First Aid, taken trips to entertain the elderly in the community of Bambú during the holidays in the Talamanca Indigenous Reserve at the “Hogar de Ancianos” and went out into the community to raise funds for a children’s hospital in San Jose during the annual “Teletón”.  Below are a few pictures of both the Guías y Scouts group and our English class.

Our first students - we taught in both houses and a neighborhood church

Guías y Scouts learning first aid at the local Red Cross

As Stephen may have mentioned in a previous blog, Melinda and he are also working together in the elementary school doing environmental education, oftentimes in conjunction with his counterpart NGO organization, the Corredor Biológico Talamanca-Caribe (The Talamanca-Caribbean Biological Corridor).  Melinda and he have also worked with them in the field of solid waste management with a focus on recycling, but also getting people to be able to separate their organic and non-organic waste correctly as this lack of separation attracts bugs and disease and invites stray dogs to tear open and scatter trash in the streets as they look for something to eat.  They have performed numerous community-wide clean-ups in many towns across Talamanca and this month we are starting our first domestic recycling initiative in our own barrio.  This is a unique project and will be the first time in any town in Talamanca to have a domestic recycling pick-up system.  As they perfect their pilot plan, they will then extend the program to include the entire community.  This is a huge goal in a region where a large portion of the community still burns their trash and where the Municipality still does not have a consistent garbage collection system.

Recycling campaign in Shiroles/Suretka - two communities in the Talamanca Indigenous Reserve

Separately, Melinda has worked in the elementary school with a counterpart from the Health Ministry providing recreational activities and hosting “charlas” or talks around such important issues as self-esteem and stereotyping.  She also has had a young women’s support group in a nearby community which also dealt with similar subjects until the high school in which it was being held was closed for health concerns.  Note: The high school was being held in a community center which did not have proper walls (plastic), ventilation or a proper sanitation system and Melinda had to facilitate the charlas on the basketball court for lack of sufficient space.

Melinda and local counterpart faciliating an activity about stereotypes at the local elementary school

Stephen continues to use his IT skills as a member of the ICT Committee supporting other Peace Corps volunteers in all things technological, including writing up documentation to help volunteers navigate the online banking, internet and telephone networks here in Costa Rica.  Melinda and Stephen are also both active in their regional Limón volunteer support network.  They also

They have worked with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer in a neighboring community on a Community Map mural painted on the wall of the elementary school to teach kids about geography, history and current events, worked on a dengue prevention campaign with the local clinic and hosted online presentations and exchanges between youth in their site and 5^th grade students in Howell, New Jersey in coordination with a program called World Wise Schools, helping to fulfill both the second and third goals of the Peace Corps which are concerned with cultural exchange and understanding.

As they head into the New Year, Stephen is working on a grant to get solar panels installed at his counterpart organization in an attempt to bring more consciousness about energy conservation and Melinda is contemplating starting a girl’s empowerment group here in our own pueblo.  Melinda and Stephen will also be looking to raise funds to help support the Bandera Azul program at the local elementary school which works toward improving the school environment (building a small recycling “warehouse”, replacing damaged ceiling tiles and fixing broken fans, improving/replacing the poorly maintained restrooms (see future blogs as we ask for your support!) and will also include a community map mural project of their own.

They’ve also participated in countless other activities and projects too numerous to be named, but just wanted to let you know that they’re not spending every day at the beach although when they need to take a day or two to get away from the stress, Costa Rica is not a bad place to be :-).

Living with the 'Rents

One of the challenges that Melinda and I faced when we joined the Peace Corps is that we knew we would have to live with host families during our first 3 months of training and then for our first 6 months in site.  There were many advantages to this scenario: we didn’t have to worry about cooking (an advantage and a disadvantage as you will discover), had our laundry washed and ironed, being able to practice our Spanish and generally not having to worry about cleaning anything except our rooms.  However, after leaving for college more than 15 years ago and being used to manage our own schedule without having to check in with anyone, there were more than a few tough adjustments we had to make.

The first adjustment we had to make was living apart as Melinda’s and my training programs were different and thus required us to live in different communities which turned out to be a little more than an hour bus ride away on a journey that took you from a rural, tranquil, mountain coffee growing community to a busy, congested and polluted suburb of the capital, San Jose.  Melinda’s host family lived conveniently closer to where we would have a number of our group core trainings, representing one of advantages she had over my training location.

We’ve gotten used to taking the bus…

Serving guests enormous amounts of food is one of the cornerstones of pride of the typical Costa Rican mother or housewife (known in Spanish as “ama de casa”).  Living in a Costa Rican home is like the proverbial visit to grandma’s house where you are served a gigantic heaping of food, and then when you’re done, you are always asked for seconds.  It is generally considered good manners to say yes to as much food as possible and a compliment to both the food and the “cocinera”.  Turning down a second helping could send a message to the chef that you didn’t like the food, potentially hurting the pride of your hosts.  If you do turn down food, it should be done so diplomatically, complimenting the food while giving an excuse like: “A mi me gustaría comer más de la sopa tan deliciosa, pero tengo que caber en mis pantelones!” (translation: I would like to eat more of your delicious soup, but I have to fit in my pants!) – gesturing dramatically toward your distended belly and pulling on your pants’ waistline.

Olla de carne (one of our favorite Costa Rican dishes)

Side Note: Comments about your weight or others at the table are not taboo here, you could be called skinny (delgadito(a) or flaco(a)) or even called fat or a little chunky (gordo(a) or gordito(a)).  In fact, such a comment could even be considered an endearment (like: Ah, here comes my little “gordito”!)

Another difficulty with not being able to cook for yourself is that you cannot control the manner in which the food is cooked, or the nutritional content of the meal in its entirety.  Frying food with copious amounts of oil is a very common practice here.  Also, the fat on meat is considered to be one of the most flavorful parts (see chicharones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicharr%C3%B3n).

chicharrones

Melinda once noticed our former housemother at our current site pouring a bottle of oil into the rice cooker and at their family party during training, Melinda and another volunteer had to impede an invitee from pouring oil into their freshly made mango salsa that they had made for their host families.

Another major inconvenience that we experienced living with host families was the lack of privacy.  Our rooms were small, walls were thin and the curtains appeared to be diaphanous (from the inside although from an outside test they appeared to be sufficient).  Not only every conversation on the other side of the wall could be heard, but you could hear snoring, breathing and the multitude of cacophonous sounds of everyday life.  And surely, if we could hear these sounds on our side of the wall, the same could be heard on the other, leading us to live our lives on tiptoes and in whispers.  Another cultural difference which Melinda touched on this on her recent post, is that people will also show up at your door unannounced.

While I joke about the challenges that we faced in our initial living situations, we actually have had mostly positive experiences at all our host families’ houses.  In fact, the majority of our house parents have since turned into good friends and collaborators and we recently spent a couple of days around Christmas with Stephen’s host family in the Central Valley.  The host families that the Peace Corps generally pick out take their assignment seriously, which is to share their family, space and culture with us as volunteers and to help us adjust and integrate into our new lives as Peace Corps volunteers.  Many of them feel that the generosity of their service to us as volunteers allows them to feel connected to the work we do as volunteers in our sites, thus connecting them to their large community as members of the Costa Rican family.  And through their selflessness and patience as hosts, Melinda and I feel more connected to our Costa Rican communities and see ourselves in the perspective as one global family, with an urgency to care for one another should we be able to confront the challenges of our increasingly interconnected and threatened "home" (Earth).

Observations on Urban (United States) vs. Rural (Costa Rican) Life

*Disclaimer: The urban areas I have lived in include: San Francisco, CA, Berkeley, CA, &, in New York, Harlem, The East Village, The West Village, & Brooklyn.  The rural areas I have lived in include only my small town – of around 1,400-1,500 people – in Costa Rica.*

Walking Down the Street

Urban life: People often avoiding eye contact, talking on their cell phones/iPhones/etcetera, listening to iPods, wearing sunglasses, walking quickly to their destination.  NOTE: New Yorkers often get a bad rap…my experience was if you smile at others, they will frequently smile back, as long as they are not at a near gallop in their pace.

Rural life: Almost everyone trying to make eye contact/giving a smile or a simple greeting, almost unheard of to wear sunglasses while walking (despite the crazy sun/heat), hardly anyone wearing headphones, everyone walking/biking/driving slowly to their destination (regardless of being early/late).  Cell phone usage is common, but it does not usually stop the person from greeting you (unless maybe they are a teen).

Shut the Front Door!

Urban life: People mainly keep their front doors closed (unless it is an excruciatingly hot day/they are having a house party).  Closed doors do not signal that no one is home.  In order to see if anyone is home, one would knock on the door a few times/ring the bell (usually not more than twice, though).  If there is no answer, they would leave.

Rural life: Almost everyone leaves their front doors open, regardless of weather.  This signals to others that someone is home.  If the front door is closed, it almost always means no one is home/everyone is asleep.  In order to see if anyone is home, a person walking by on the street will loudly yell “Upe!!”  Depending on the person, they will yell this repeatedly until they get an answer.  Most people will stop after a handful of “Upes,” though.  If you’re having a rough day/don’t want to be social, it’s best to keep your front door closed…this often prevents “Upe-ing.” (NOTE: some people will walk right in if the front door is open).

More on Doors

Urban life: Bedroom doors & bathroom doors, as well as front doors, when they are closed, are almost never opened by a person on the outside of the door, unless they knock first & get a response that it is okay to enter (or unless it’s a significant other or something).

Rural life: Closed bedroom doors, bathroom doors, & front doors are not always a signal to not enter.  Children in particular are known to just walk in, especially into bedrooms.  I learned early on in my host family’s home (that I no longer live in) to LOCK the bedroom door.  I entertained a way to make sure no one would enter our bedroom without knocking, but did not think it was a good idea to traumatize others just to make a point.

Let’s Get Together!

Urban life: When people want to meet with others for coffee/dinner/whatever, they often set up a time in which to do so.  If they say “We should get together!” & leave it at that, they often are only doing this as a nicety, & don’t really intend to see the other person again, unless they run into them.  However, if it’s a “Let’s get together,” followed by taking out one’s blackberry/other electronic device (in order to set a time/date), it’s on.  That all said, if the intention is to get together, a time/date is set, & generally adhered to.  One might show up at 7:10/15 (to a restaurant, say, for a dinner date), when the time agreed upon had been 7:00, but later than that would be pushing it (unless they were in rush hour traffic/had a medical emergency/etcetera).

Rural life: When people meet up with others, it is almost always by chance/informal.  It is not common to set up a time & date for coffee, especially.  If you want to have coffee with a friend in the community, it’s usually best to just “drop by” during cafécito time (in the afternoon, usually between 2 & 5pm), & often the other person will welcome you with coffee & maybe a snack (and a 1-2 hour chat).  People are not usually put off by someone just dropping by (in urban life, the drop by is not common, unless it’s a super close friend/there is an emergency/it’s a, um, “special friend” dropping by late at night).  NOTE: People will hardly ever say “no” if you say “we should get together.”  They may agree, generally, to a possible date/time, or say “that should be fine,” even when they have a legitimate other engagement.  No one likes to say “no,” to anything, ever, even when they really mean “no.”  It’s best to avoid saying “no” at all costs.  “Maybe” works well.  Oh, one other very important thing.  If you do have a legitimate meeting (like for an organization), it is customary to show up anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour+ late.  People who show up late will not apologize/advise others in advance (as it is, again, customary to be late).  If you show up 15 minutes late, you will almost always be the first person there.  The first staff meeting I attended for one (very legitimate) organization started 1 ½ hours late!

Keep it real,

The Lannings (btw this is Melinda writing, and it’s my first blog post.  Exciting stuff!  Lol).