My apologies on the lack of blogs but the past couple of months have been extremely relaxed and filled with mostly social activities. So what’s new?
December 1st, I moved into my own little house. Anyone that has talked to me via chat or email understands how important this was for me. Well, the house is tiny: 2 bedrooms and an open kitchen room / shower. The bathroom is pretty big and best of all, it has a ducha. What does that mean: hot / warm showers!!! It also means that my electricity bill will be a little higher every month, but its worth it. Water bills will also be higher now that I can shower at night as well as the mornings. My house is located between to great families! They are Pura Vida and I spend my evenings in their houses.
Question: So what is the housing prices in Costa Rica? Well, I live in a rural community, so housing is pretty cheap. I pay 25 mil per month ($50) for rent. 2 mil ($4) for water. 2 mil ($4)for electricity. The water and electricity prices are basic, so I’m extremely environmentally (or budget) conscious.
Above: My bedroom (with the lovely mosquito net) and living room/ kitchen.
Dec 15 was the last day of school and the kids were treated to a party. As an end of school year treat / my Christmas gifts to the community, I made candy apples with the help of my neighbors. Starting at 8pm, we did not finish until 1pm (I apparently did something wrong. But luckily my neighbor considers herself a professional cook and was able to fix the problem.) The kids absolutely loved the candy apples. Most left with red teeth and the mixture stuck to their faces while leaving school.
Above: The cook (Mari) and completed candy apples.
The graduating class also decided to make me one of the 3 “Dedicated” for the graduation. Their given reasoning: giving English classes and starting projects in the school. The real reason: They wanted to see me in a dress.
Dec. 20th-28th: Home for Christmas! It felt so good coming home for Christmas. However, Collette was 2 hours late picking me up from the airport. Next time, I need people to read the itinerary. I was so tempted to return to Costa Rica. jajaja.
Anyway, the luxuries of home (paved roads, diversity of restaurants, hot showers…etc) was refreshing. I won’t bore you with the details or photos. But sigh, miss it a little already. Wait, there is snow in DC right now…I don’t miss that.
NYE: After returning to Costa Rica, I raced back to my site to drop suitcases off and spent a couple of nights there. Then for the 30th, I went to Boruca to visit fellow volunteer Kelly. Boruca is an indigenous reservation and have one of the biggest NYE celebrations in Costa Rica. The 30th marked the start of the Juego de los Diablitos. (Game of the Devils.) It’s a 4 day celebration and represents the Borucans defeat of the Spaniards. It also meant a lot of tamales (made out of arroz…the BEST tamales in Costa Rica) and chicha (a smooth home-made alcohol.) Unfortunately, I couldn’t take photos of this event because it was sacred.
The rest of this month has been real tranquilo. Days at the river with community members. Beach trip with Peace Corps volunteers. Meetings….
I think that covers everything. Missing you all dearly and waiting for you to come visit!
-Q
Great to read about your experiences :) Love you!
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