(no subject)
September 10, 2007
My Dear Ones,
I am writing this massive post to inform all of you lovely people -who don’t already know- all about my experiences in Costa Rica. So for your enjoyment, here they are. And hence forth I hope to be sending more personal letters and post cards from my new beloved home Costa Rica.
Starting from the beginning… The 40ish of us met at a hotel in NJ right outside of NYC. The two day orientation went as well as could be expected, nay, better! Obviously I was a tad bit nervous to meet all my new peers but that quickly faded and we quickly meshed together. We spent the first week in Costa Rica at this beautiful resort called La Catalina which is 20 minutes away from Barrio Jesus -I don’t remember the other names of locations but you get the idea. It was an unbelievably fun week. I jokingly say that we all started our college careers off on a vacation.
We did a lot of crazy cool activities at La Catalina; for example, we were divided into groups and then given a stack of news papers in Spanish, tape and some markers. We were told to create something that represented how we were feeling. Can you imagine!?! Every group came up with something different, unique and meaningful. One group made a collage of images, one group made a free standing tree out of news papers and related it to how we will grow from our common roots reaching for the sky. One group did a Spanish super hero skit, one group made different news paper things (i.e. sailboat, hat, airplane) and then called upon the audience members to verbalize the significance. One of the groups made “musical instruments” out of the newspapers and held a drumming circle talking about the Latin American rhythm. My group decided to make news paper clothing (skirts, shirts, head pieces, ties, pants, crowns and capes.) My friend Free (that’s his name) wore a mask that had a picture of the musical super star Enriqu Iglesies (no clue how to spell that) and hosted our little Latin American fashion show. We said we wanted to wrap ourselves in the Latin American and Costa Rican culture -which we did literally. It was a big hit. We had everyone rolling on the floor with laughter.
Every night at La Catalina we had a cultural experience. The second night we were there a DJ came and we had a huge dance party as well as karaoke. I am lucky to be a part of such an out going and free for all group of people. Everyone danced and sang and we all cheered for each other in support which is uncommon for a group of our size and our age. There were basically no reservations or judgments. I was gloriously impressed and pleased with how the night went. After that we all jumped in the pool because we were really hot. Then about a third of the people came to the cabin that I was sharing with 13 other girls and we had a movie fest.
The days at La Catalina were filled with seminars, information and introductions to the staff, courses and program. One of the days we went on a hike to a waterfall. When we got there we picked up all the trash we could and hiked out of there with 10 trash bags. This particular waterfall was in disarray because the neighbors who live up hill from the waterfall are uneducated about the importance of environmental awareness and so aren’t careful about how they discard their trash and dirty water. The solution for this situation is education and the town is working on that.
One night for the cultural experience we sat in this big semi circle in the dark in the main seminar room. No one had any idea what to expect…and then a woman came dancing into the room with two lit torches. Then there were three other dancers who joined in and one of them was Lorna, a faculty member here. Lorna happens to be an amazing person just like everyone else I’ve met here. After they performed the leader of the dance troop taught all of us how to do some of the moves they were doing. It is called Afro-Caribbean dance and everyone enjoyed themselves so much that there is going to be an Afro-Caribbean dance class offerend at the school wed nights. It is going to cost about $4 per class. (I’m going to the first class on the 12th.) I’m very excited.
The second to last day we were at La Catalina we went to Barrio Jesus for a service learning project. We were split in to two groups. One group was to pick up trash and the other was to paint the recycling building. I was pleased to be in the trash group. We walked around the streets with bags for recycling and bags for trash. Luckily this time we were give rubber gloves which was greatly appreciated considering some of the things we picked up. We walked by the elementary school and all the kids out at recess came up to the fence and watched us and talked to us. The current mentality about discarding trash on the street stems from the negative impacts of the introduction of plastic. In the olden days everything that was eaten was organic. You would eat a fruit and through the peal on the floor and it would decompose. So there are cultural roots for the whole throwing things on the ground outside. Well now, things are thrown on to the floor but don’t disappear because they are made of plastic. Again the solution is education which is exactly one of the benefits of our presence in the small town. The children saw us picking up trash, us, foreigners, gringos in their land picking up trash. It is a statement that will stick.
We ate lunch that day at the church. The food was amazing! That is one thing I don’t miss about the states…the food. Everything feels fresh here. The standards for food are higher (well that’s how it feels to me atleast) and food is REALLY REALLY inexpensive. A full blown delicious lunch with some friends costs maybe $4 per person. Anyway, after lunch that day there was a celebration to welcome us and as a demonstration of their customs which obviously the people are very proud of. The whole town came out for the festivities. The celebrations started with a couple really loud explosions and two giant (and I mean giant) paper mache masked puppets (with a man inside each) dancing in. Next there were maybe 20 school boys that came in wearing paper mache mask heads. I wrote a short paper on the experience a reflection essay for writing class. Once I get it back with critiques I’ll consider sending it out as well. Basically it was an amazing day that I will never ever ever forget full of dancing, cross-cultural learning and a parade through the streets with the live band (and yes, we were all dancing then too.) We danced with all the children for hours and hours and hours.
O, another really awesome part (I forgot to mention) was the spontaneous soccer game in a field across the street after lunch. It was 12 of us gringos against 25 tico boys. Those ticos sure know how to run. Some of my team mates jokingly believe that they start playing soccer in the womb. They were beating us for about ½ an hour before we finally scored a goal. By the end of the game the gringo team was claiming a tie but I think we were still behind. My favorite part of the game was when one of the tico boys had the ball and was racing across the field to our goal when (again, my friend) Free (who is a giant black man) charged a few steps forward at the kid yelling. It was hilarious. The kid stopped dead in his tracks and the ball was stolen by one of the gringos. It was a dirty trick I admit but it was sooooooooooooooooooo funny!!!! And don’t worry, after the growl Free went up to the boy who was laughing and gave him a high five and all was well. In fact, all the kids thought it was hilarious. Laughter is a universal language.
That night after the service learning project when we got back to La Catalina a couple of the guys wanted to play some more soccer but it was raining. Loving nature as I do I said ‘so what, play anyway.’ And they did. Actually we did. It was (again) an amazing time. The field was flooded from the rain making a massive soggy mud puddle. It was Chris, Conrad and I against Jim, Jack and Adam. It was a blast. Every time you went to give the ball a big kick it would hydroplane. Our innocent little game of soccer quickly turned into tackle soccer. We all got soaked from head to toe! It was so much fun that I can’t even remember who won. Just kidding, my team totally won and I tackled everyone!
Fast forward to Heredia. The school is a learning haven. There are hammocks in the patio area. The building is incredibly open. There are maybe 10 small class rooms where our daily Spanish classes are held and one large seminar room. There is a computer lab, a kitchen, 2 large community rooms, a small library and several faculty offices. I am really happy with my classes as well. I have Spanish Mon-Thur from 8:30am-10am. I also have a three hour Latin American Studies course that meets once a week, a three hour writing class, and a three hour Freshman Semina/Cross-Cultrual Analysis. I’m also taking a Peace and Conflict Resolution course and a Living Latin American course which is all experiential full of field trips and essay writting/reading assignments. I am saving my independent study for next semester for when I have a better grasp of Spanish. I plan on doing a theater production with a local orphanage for my project. There are several other people here who might be interested in doing this project with me so we shall have to wait to see how this develops. I would love to make a documentary about the experience as well. There is just so much potential here.
One of the amazing things about the Global College program is that it becomes what you make of it. There are so many places (literally and metaphorically) that you can go with this. I also want to mention what I’ll be doing for my service learning project this semester because I think it is pretty cool. Each semester we have one week of service learning project some where in Costa Rica. This semester we were presented with maybe ten or so different options and I’m sure the one I have chosen will come as no surprise to any of you. I have chosen to spend a week volunteering in a free day care center for impoverished (mostly Nicaraguan immigrant) families located in a small city (that I forget the name of…but I’ll write of later.) I’ll be playing and taking care of children ages 2 months old to 6 or so years old. It will be a beautiful experience and I feel honored to have this opportunity.
What else…hmmm. My Host Family! I’ll talk about them next. I really like them. I live about a 30 minute walk away from the school. My host parents are in their early 60’s and I have 5 older siblings who are much much older. The youngest older sibling is 26 years old and only he and the next youngest (who is 31) live at home still. The rest are off married. I have a host nephew who I see maybe 3 times a week and he is 4 years old and very rambunctious. I have two other host nephew/neice who live in panama and I’ll be meeting them at the end of October because….Allejandro (the 31 year old) is getting married!!! Yay! His fiancé is really nice. I like her quite a bit. Jose Miguel (the 26 year old) has a girlfriend who is quite beautiful and nice as well but not as warm as Allejandro’s soon to be wife. My host mom, Zulay makes really delicious food and she has offered to teach me how. The only bumber is that the food that I like best and want to learn how to make back home is only native to L.A. My favorite dishes are made with vegetables that aren’t found in the State’s grocery stores. RATS!
My host dad, Jorge, is really encouraging and generous. He tells me at least twice a day that I “speak Spanish a very well.” He has picked me up every day after school thus far because of the rain. If it isn’t raining and I want to leave school before 6pm then I’ll take the bus. To get home after going dancing or out in the evening I take a taxi which costs about $2-3. The bus costs about 50 cents or so. My room is small but sweet. I like where I am living quite a bit.
My friends and I go out every weekend. Most of them go out every week night as well but I stay home and use that time for school work and eating dinner with my family. I absolutely love going out to clubs with my friends here. We have such a blast dancing all night!
I have yet to be home sick. If I think about people then I can acknowledge that I do miss them however I am never not 100% fully satisfied and positive that this is the right place for me to be. I am learning so much about myself and about the world that I live in and about people. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything!
Well my darlings, I think I have covered all the bases now. I hope you have enjoyed my really long update. I would love to hear from you all if you have the time and desire.
My school address is…
Catherine Rehberg
Global College - Costa Rica Center
Apartado 8496-1000
San Jose, Costa Rica
Central America
My email is joyofcolor@dovesoft.com
And my skype phone number is…603-397-0332…you can call that and leave a message and I’ll get back to you when I can.
My access to the internet is limited so I’ll do what I can when I can.
It takes 5-7 days for a letter to go to or fro and 3 weeks to 1 month for a package to. Also, packages are opened at the post office and I am charged for what ever the contents is in Costa Rican money - so it is perfectly fine with me to NOT receive any packages.
I love you all very very very very very very very very very very very very very much!
<3333333
Catherine Rehberg