There's a National Lasagne Day?

Last Friday was National Lasagna Day in the United States. You didn't know that? Well, it was.

This day is not something I usually recognize, because for one, how the heck am I supposed to make decorations for Lasagna Day? Secondly, I didn't actually know that it existed until last Friday when I was browsing the "Runner's World" website and this important morsel of information appeared in one of the articles. The only reason I'm mentioning this at all is because after I thought about how delicious lasagna was I couldn't get it off my mind and I proceeded to spend at least an hour paroozing lasagna recipes...then some cake recipes...then some soup recipes...and so on.

I had no idea food blogging was such a popular thing. I knew about recipe sites on line and a few food blogs, the good 'ol Food Network site and stuff like that; but I had no idea how many people were out there cooking and blogging AND taking mouth-watering photos. It's fascinating, really, how many of them exist.

If you like cooking, baking, or even just eating, you really should take a look at these. Get ready for your mouth to water:
Food Buzz
Food Gawker

1, 2, 3

First, due to several unfortunate misunderstandings and a poorly designed website my friends and I were not able to participate in the North Face race this past weekend. It was a bummer. Especially becuase I've been training for a few months, but... it's going to be fine because I signed up for the Tamarindo Beach Marathon on Sept. 17. I didn't want to waste all that training I had done, and hopefully I can rope a couple friends into coming to the beach. The race is Saturday morning at 5am (!) which means we would have the whole rest of the weekend to relax, doesn't sound too bad to me.

Second, things are really picking up around here. I'm teaching in my school, as always, but in addition to English I am doing a business program, gender equality talks, study skills seminars and teacher trainings. Whew! I'll admit I was really bored over my two week break, but I don't think Mr. Boredom with be back around anytime soon.

Third, I'm convinced it will never cool down around here. Rainy season has apparently started, but it is still warm. It doesn't appear to rain any more or any less, and I can still count on one hand the number of times I have recently worn pants... that count occupies only 3 fingers. Which leaves us at 75+ sunny degrees everyday, tropical sun and lots of humidity. I learned my lesson about assuming I could wear A: pants or B: Running tights when it's cloudy outside. The answer is: Don't do it! Just because the sky is darker doesn't mean it is cooler. The temperature might be less but the humidity is way higher. I know that this is really nothing to complain about, and this isn't a complaint, but I do dream about being cold. How do I feel about Idaho in winter? All I can say is...yes.

Smorgasbord

• I have been feeling terribly homesick lately. I think it's easing up, especially since school is back in as of today and I really do have a bunch going on in the next couple weeks, but even still this is the longest I've ever gone without seeing family or friends and it's hard. So... if you ever feel like e-mailing, calling, sending a card... none of that could ever hurt, and I promise I'll write back!
• I've been combating my homesickness by cooking. I cook quite a bit anyway, but I took it to new heights this weekend. I made veggie casserole, southwestern burritos, granola and caramel-filled chocolate cookies. On Saturday, I went to the store in morning and spent the entire rest of the day cooking. Everything turned out, and I have all kinds of stuff to eat now. I did give the most of the cookies away though; love to make them, would love to eat all of them, but that's not really a great idea. My veggie casserole recipe strangely grew to three casseroles as I chopped, and chopped, and chopped veggies. Therapeutic, but that was actually the point I started to wonder about my mental stability: as I looked around a disaster of a kitchen with enough food and dessert for at least 15 people. Oh well, I decided, a taste of home is always good for the soul.
• I came down with a no-good flu when I got back from Nicaragua and spent 3 days doing absolutely nothing, going only from my bed, to the couch, to the kitchen and back. I'm all better now, but I had time to watch many a rerun of Friends and begin a new obsession with allrecipes.com and joyofbaking.com...great sites, you should check them out.
• I'm considering retiring when I get back to the U.S. and just becoming a cook/baker. Man, I think I would love to spend all my time cooking. I spend hours looking at recipes, and if I do say so myself, I'm not too bad at preparing them. I even made marshmallows today. Who knew you could do that? You can, it's very simple and they are delicious, way better than store-bought. I found out you can also very easily make ketchup. I'm gonna give it a try, as I'm not a big fan of the ketchup here, it tastes quite different.
• My host family returned this Saturday night from a trip to New York. I'm glad to have them back and I honestly missed them. It's really ironic to me that they went on vacation in my country while I was here in theirs. They did invite me, which was even more ironic, but I didn't have a lot of interest in going to New York instead of say, Nicaragua or Panama. So, they made it back, with a whole bunch of new clothes, electronics, perfumes, jewelry, shoes and everything else. It's really common here that people who have the means travel to the U.S. just to shop, go relatively often because what they like (i.e.-latest fashions, newest electronics, etc.) is usually about half the price there. This was my host family's first time there and I was really interested to see what they thought of the U.S. I wondered what they would say about the distinct differences between here and there. It turns out that they really haven't had a lot to say about it. They said it was nice...they liked it...the houses and buildings were big...the ocean was really cold...and really that was about it. I'll keep my ears open, but I'm just surprised they didn't have much to say. I think it also has a lot to do with how much information exchange there is between the U.S. and here, through internet and T.V. so most of the things weren't that novel because they'd been seeing them for years in movies and on the internet.
• My host mom, Sandra, brought me a t-shirt, a nail polish and a pair of undies from the U.S. While it was weird getting souvenir gifts from my home country, underwear nonetheless, I have never been more excited about such gifts. First of all, my other undies are getting lots of holes in them because the little ants and other bugs eat my clothes. Second of all, the quality of nail polish here is not even close to that of nail polish there, unless you buy expensive imported stuff. Third, I have a favorite green v-neck t-shirt that also is getting holes in it and now I have a great new green v-neck hole-free replacement. Sandra is really thoughtful, and though I thanked her I don't know if she'll ever understand that these little things really meant a lot to me.

The birds and the...

Haha, you thought I was going to say bees. The correct answer is butterflies. I went looking for pictures because wanted to share pictures of a few of my favorite local birds and butterflies. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I went to search Google for the pictures, I realized when I got to doing it that you can't just type in "blue butterfly Costa Rica" and get the right one, or "black bird with red". Then I thought I could just glance at a list of common Costa Rican birds... turns our there are 893 species of birds on the list. So, since I really do have all the time in the world (since it's school vacation) to look for them I clicked around and found them. I don't think the pictures really do them justice, as they are much brighter in person, but it gives you an idea anyway.

Red winged Blackbird- Apparently native to Cuba, not sure how it made it here

Blue Morpho Butterfly

 

 

 

Urania Butterfly

Take the best and leave the rest

After a great trip to Niacragua with two wonderful volunteer friends, I made it safely back to Costa Rica...although I brought home a souvenir flu.

The week we spent away was fun, relaxing and much needed. After almost 10 months here it was really nice to have a vacation. We go away for weekends here and there and we have Peace Corps events, but to really being on vacation not thinking about work or the Peace Corps was refreshing. There is a tendency among Peace Corps volunteers to only talk about the Peace Corps. You live and breath the experience every minute of every day, since it's your life and your work, and it's such a rich and consuming experience that it's hard to remember sometimes there is more  to you and your life. While it's helpful to be able to share the experiences with others who are going through the same, it gets tiring to only think, live and talk about that. Which is exactly why our vacation was so nice. In addition to seeing the sights in Nicaragua, we were able to really enjoy each other's company; laugh and reminisce about travel, college, the U.S., our friends and families, and remember who we are outside of this experience.

This trip fell at an significant time in our Peace Corps service, and getting away got me really thinking about things. I've been in my town for almost 8 months and in Costa Rica for about 10 months. That's the better part of a year, and even though it's a long time, I'm still going to be here for another 17 months. When I look back, I know it will all look short and feel like it flew by, but when you're in the thick of it, looking 17 more months in the eye really gets you thinking. After finishing up one semester of school I started taking a critical look at what I'm really doing here. If I'm going to be here 17 more months I really need to have a clear picture of what I'm doing and why. Without a focus it's hard to justify my work and living and refute the argument that I could be more useful somewhere else.

I've been really careful about expressing doubts or concerns about my work as a volunteer on my blog. I don't want anyone to get the idea that I don't like what I'm doing, or to come to the wrong conclusions about the work or the Peace Corps as an organization. That being said, please take anything I say for what it is: personal feelings and opinions about my job and life in the Peace Corps. I feel that now, after a fair bit of time here, I can more fairly express many of the thoughts/doubts/frustrations that I've had about my work since I arrived here.

My position here is defined as a "Teaching English as a Foreign Language Volunteer". I am working to improve English skills and English teaching skills in the school and community in which I work, and furthermore work on any projects that will improve quality of life and development standards in my community. So, what I'm trying to say is that I'm here to teach English and I can do other stuff if I want. I came in to the Peace Corps very dubious of being an English teaching volunteer. Everyone is entitled to how they feel about volunteers teaching English abroad, but I feel that there is an element of imperialism inherent in a rich country sending volunteers to a poorer country and saying: "I'm here to make your lives better, I will teach you my language." I know that's not an accurate description of how Peace Corps works, but I maintain that it's a point that should be considered. I also had many doubts about the development situation in Costa Rica. When I can cross the border into Nicaragua and see visible poverty, I question if I'm really being best used helping "develop" my Costa Rican town where virtually everyone has their basic needs met, and then some.

All of this can sound very critical, of the Peace Corps, of English teaching, of what so many volunteers are doing in Costa Rica. Like I said earlier, don't take this as criticism of the Peace Corps,  I am not in any way saying the work being done with my project is not important or good, because it is certainly both of those things. This really is about my work, and whether my job and I match up. My questions are, "Are my skills and experience being best used here?" and "Does the work I'm doing here match my motivations, interests and goals?" These are important questions and there is certainly an argument that crosses my mind now and then, that says I should have thought about this before I committed to this job, but you never know anything until you're in it and that's all I can really say to that. As far as answering those questions, I may not ever have concrete answers, but what I've determined so far is: A: My experience and knowledge is being well used, I'm trained in teaching, I'm a native English speaker and I have language teaching experience. The fit is pretty good on that front. Any job I ever have is going to draw on a certain set of my experiences, and it's up to me which direction I take. B: My motivations and goals are very much aligned with what I'm doing here. I want to help those who don't have as much as I do, and I need more experience doing this so I can continue to be more effective at it as I move into a career. So, what's the problem then?

The "problem", or better put the crux of this whole thing, is that I'm not passionate about teaching English. I've come to the conclusion that that's it, plain and simple. It's not that I don't like teaching, or being a volunteer, or working in Costa Rica, it's just that teaching English doesn't excite me. It's an important thing and necessary thing in Costa Rica, but I believe that if someone is going to be a teacher, of anything, they need to be passionate about teaching and what they teach. I'm passionate about education and teaching, but not about English as a second language. I know there are teachers out there that are passionate about it, and I feel they are more fit for this than I am, but at this point what should I do?

That's actually not even really a question. I know what I should do, I should keep doing what I'm doing. I care about the people I teach, even the teenagers who give me lots of eye-rolls and dirty looks. I really do believe that education, of any type, is important and opens doors, and I know that me being willing to be here and share what I know with people here is valuable. Plus, if I don't do it who else will? There aren't really people tearing down the door to improve the English situation in the country. I might not be thrilled to be teaching English, but how often is it that people are thrilled by every aspect of their job?  I can and will do what I'm here to do, I'm just glad I pinpointed part of why I question this whole thing.

And we're off!

You know how the days right before a vacation either fly or drag by? Well, these last few days have been of the dragging variety. But the day has finally come, I'm off tomorrow for a trip to Nicaragua! I'm pretty excited and feeling like I can use the vacation. School is out for two weeks for mid-year vacation, so this is a perfect time for a trip. I'm going with two other volunteers for 5 days to 4 different cities. We're starting our trip in San Jose for a 4th of July celebration and then we'll spend the rest of the week traveling coming back for summer camps two of us are putting on the next week. Look for pictures soon.

As for goings on around here, there wasn't much happening because at school there were mid-semester exams and everyone was just counting down the minutes until vacation. This past week my host dad celebrated his birthday, so our project one day was his cake. I didn't have to go to school and neither did my 15 year old host brother so we worked together to make this car cake. It turned out really cool, and though it's about all we have to show for our week, it was way more fun than school!