Thursday, March 12, 2009

Goooooood Morning!!!!

So I have landed safe and sound in Costa Rica and I have to say, so far it’s as beautiful as everyone has said. On the 45 minute drive from the San Jose airport to our mountain retreat center on the east side of the city, we saw brilliantly colored houses, palm trees, coffee plantations, lots of US fast food chains, and of course the mountains. The retreat center is a bright yellow compound filled with palm trees, birds of paradise and other flowers, neon green parakeets that seem to never stop squawking- but since they’re parakeets I guess it’s pretty cool- and perhaps most wonderful of all, free WiFi!!! We’re all feeling pretty spoiled because of that, since our internet access will probably be scarce after our four days of orientation here end and we head out to our training sites and host families.

All the volunteers are nice and full of energy, but I have to say so far my favorite person is Carmen, the only volunteer in our group who is a bit older. She’s a 60 year old retired massage therapist who has run 57 triathlons and has the best sense of humor. She joined Peace Corps because she was Sgt. Shriver’s massage therapist and he yelled at her to get her citizenship (she’s from Lima, Peru) and join up! At our staging event in Georgetown, she was my roommate, and when we had to wake up at 12:30 am (that’s right…we got about 2 hours of sleep) she made me coffee and managed to get a bell boy to take our luggage down to the lobby in a matter of seconds when she’d been told earlier it would take at least 45 minutes because they were so busy.

The past two days have mostly been “welcome to Peace Corps” and “what are you excited or nervous about” type exercises. We also felt earthquake tremors- but don’t worry because apparently the epicenter was somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean. Also, it was so light that I didn’t even know what it was. I felt my bunk bed shake a bit and one of my roommates from California asked, “Was that an earthquake?” and I was like, “No waaaaay!” Shows what I know… Earthquakes are a problem in Costa Rica, and we’ll probably be getting a lot of training about what to do in a more severe one. A few months ago the country was hit by a pretty bad one, although the infrastructure here is built to withstand the impact and people have said that if it had happened in neighboring Nicaragua, it would have been much worse. Today, after finally getting a good night’s rest, I was up with the sun at 6. This is our first serious day of training. We have our language assessment, the introduction to our assignments (mine is Rural Community development), and our medical session- where I think we’ll be getting all our shots and our malaria pills- joy!!

That’s all for now, but keep those e-mails coming since I’ll be able to write you regularly until Sunday. Lots of love to all!!!

4 comments:

  1. Magnifico! You made it! Have fun, try to get them to space out the shots a little for the sake of your immune system, don't eat anything with identifiable parakeet feet in it, and stay close to doorways whenever possible.

    Whatever happens next, you have now officially achieved a remarkably difficult goal. I am a proud aunt.

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  2. You know the drill... be safe, blah blah blah. Is it anything like Honduras? You're crazy... i hate earthquakes and you barely acknowledge them. Sounds about right. Stay outta trouble mulher!

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  3. ¡Qué bueno, Ashley! Espero que tengas una gran experiencia. Te leeré con mucho interés.

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  4. I'm so excited to read about your experiences! This is still something I'd like to do, I think. Perhaps I'll teach while I still have the energy, then dramatically announce my retirement one day and pull a "Carmen" at 60! Hmm...

    Good luck getting settled! I'll be looking forward to your updates!

    -Amanda

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