IST

Melana and I have been in "In Service Training" for the last week and a half. I would love to go into what that is right now but we just got back from San Jose. I'm writing this because I know that if I promise to follow up with the blog, I will!

And, to all those who do....Thanks for reading!


....and here's Dilbert!

Peace Corps' Birthday

Peace corps recently celebrated 50 years of international development and citizen diplomacy! We had a celebration in San Jose where we has this wonderful cake and a presentation fair for PCV projects. Happy birthday employers!


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Clear day

Now that the rain takes a break in the afternoons, we have these crazy clear days. Here's a view from the main road in town. You can see all the way to he volcano! Gorgeous!


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Art for Peace

This past Saturday, the volunteers in the Zona Norte (Northern Zone) held an Art for Peace event for local kids in La Fortuna. Many PCVs brought an art activity to teach to the kids. There were many activity tables including poetry, theater, cupcake decorating, friendship bracelet making, origami and others! Melana and I hosted a table where we had kids make home made play-dough for them to bring home and rub into their parents' furniture.

We also had many ice breaker activities as well as a cultural dance presented by a children's dance group.

In this particular dance, the girls seem to harass and torment the "bull" as they simulate a bull fight.

Regarding Japan

I need to state to all my friends in Japan, Japanese friends and to the whole of the Japanese people that our thoughts are with you during this tragic time. I love Japan, it's a wonderful country full of wonderful people and it pains me to watch this unfold from afar. Also, if you haven't already, please let us know you are alright.

Questions from Sea Girt 7th Graders #2

First - oh geez, I am SO sorry for being so late. I actually wrote this about a week ago and just put off proofing it until today, so hopefully there are no mistakes and I got all of your questions! Things have been picking up lately as Melana and I have been preparing our research for a report on the community that we’re writing. I’ll write more about that later, but first! Questions from Sea Girt 7th graders!

HI peteman, 

I was just wondering if you knew if "Terror" was a Spanish word and if so do you know the meaning it would be great if you could reply.

As far as I can tell, the word “Terror” is roughly the same in both Spanish and English. I have no idea why a household good would be named that.

As a side note, however - you may find it funny that one of the bug killers we use on the larger roaches around here is called “la última cena.” Which means “the last supper.” Hilarious!

Dear Peteman,

Is the ginger tea a regular thing you drink, or is it a special occasion drink?

Unlike a whole bunch of other countries in the rest of the world, tea is not widely drank here in Costa Rica. Tea is replaced here with coffee. Furthermore “Tea Time” (a small snack time featuring tea served around 3:00 in the UK and a few other countries) is replace here with “Cafecito” (a coffee break around 3:00). Tea in Costa Rica is most often reserved for strange foreigners such as myself, a rare option with a meal or for sick people.

The ginger he is holding will most likely be used in cooking, soups or medicine.

Are the olingo critters some type of monkey? How populated are they in Costa Rica? 

I am SO glad someone asked about the olingo! Let me get my book…

…

OK!

Olingos come to us from the family Procyonidae. Strange name, but this means that they are closely related to raccoons. This particular family is ONLY found in the new world, which means that that raccoon going through your trash is a joy that no one living anywhere other than the Americas gets to experience (naturally anyway). 

The olingo is pretty nifty, but it’s not called an olingo here in Costa Rica. That’s because the locals do not distinguish it from the coati, another arboreal mammal from the same family. 

Olingos are located mostly in the north-eastern parts of the country and are common only in cloud forests. Like most other super-cool animals, their numbers are in decline due to deforestation - buy banana paper!

note: most information I get about Costa Rican Mammals comes from a book called The Mammals of Costa Rica: A Natural History and Field Guide by Mark Wainwright and published by Zona Tropical. ISBN: 978-0-8014-7375-3

Hey Peteman! The Olingo looks like a friendly monkey. Because of the Hummingbird Feeder is this outside someones house, or do the paeople hang them in the middle of the forest?
Thanks!!! 

This picture was actually taken off the internet, the camera photos didn't survive the rain for the most part. People do tend to hand feeders around their houses and in the middle of the forest, this is because many people have houses in the middle of the forest!

Ive been wondering about the olingos. When you are walking down the street do they just pop out of nowhere? If so, tell us about a personal experence of when you had an encounter with one. 

Well, I've only seen the one, but from what I've read they are pretty shy creatures. Like most wild animals they fear humans and, being arboreal they blend in fairly well in the treetops. The one time I did see one was when it ran out onto a branch that didn't have many leaves on it in a sparse area of a rainforest that I was hiking through. I very rarely see any animals by just walking down the street, save for birds. There are lots of birds here and many of them are very beautiful!

Do you eat exotic fruits like the Maracuya? Do you like them or are they just too different for you? Thanks! 

One of the best parts about living abroad is eating new fruits! I love fruit! 

In Costa Rica, it is very, VERY common to have fruit juice with your meal. In fact, water is considered somewhat strange. As such, I’ve sampled many different kinds of fruit in drink form. By far, the most common are different types of citrus which are, irritatingly, all called “limón.” They tend to look like a crosses between lemons, limes and oranges. 

Many of these fruits grow right outside our house so I will go out with a machete or hook and cut some down if I feel like eating or cooking with them.

I may need to do a couple different posts about the different fruits I’ve eaten, but I’ll list some of them here. 

Guanabana (Soursop)

Mango

Mamón Chino (Rambutan)

Mamón Verde

Passion Fruit

Malay or Water Apple

Avacado

Banana 

Tamarind

Cassava

Chayote

Papaya

Guava

Two of my favorite fruits I can’t seem to find here: dates and mangosteens. I used to gorge myself on both when I lived in Asia. I may try to grow them here.

What do you do on a day to day basis?

This is SUCH a good question! I don’t know!!

I haven’t really settled into a routine yet but I can tell you that every day so far has been different. Often I’ll wake up around 7 or 8 and hide in my room and work until around 10 or 11. This is because these are the only hours that the internet is working. This also mean that I spend a depressing amount of time inside. This is changing though, I am trying to get up earlier (5 or so) to help milk the cow and do other farm tasks. Also, Melana wants to start running in the morning, so I may need to get up for that as well. I think things will settle down after next month. 

After that, I usually have some form of meeting in the afternoon, or some project that I’m working on, so after a cold shower (showers are cold here, by the way) I head into town to either shop or interview or attend a meeting. By mid afternoon the house is asleep, so if i return in time I’ll hang out with my host family and practice Spanish and talk about upcoming project. By evening, if I’m not in the middle of baking something, I either read or hop on my computer for a bit. Sometimes I’ll get some stuff done online if the internet decides to come back.

And that’s kind of it. It’s pretty dull, but I enjoy it. Sorry I can’t be more specific, I’ve had a lot of meetings in San Jose recently so it feels as if I’ve spent as many days on the bus as I have had “normal” days at my site.

Feel free to ask me follow up questions about any of this because this blog is about helping you understand the answer to your question!

That looks good ! What kind of cake is most common to eat or cook there? Did you discover any new kinds of cake that you never knew before? 

Commonly the cake here is the same as the cake in the states although we make most of the cakes here from scratch - no boxed cakes (they’re expensive!) Other than that… the REAL difference, and the one that’s most bothersome is the frosting. To me it tastes just…. wrong! I’d say my frosting tastes weird to them to, but everyone goes crazy over the frosting that Melana and I make to put on our cakes and cookies.

A true Costa Rican cake, however is Tres Leches. Tres Leches is a kind of white cake that’s had wholes poked in it. Then, three types of milk are added on top and allowed to soak in, hence the name (“three milks”). 

It’s actually easy and fun to make! You can try to make it at home, just be sure to ask a parent so I don’t get blamed for a kitchen fire! You can find the recipe by following the link here.

This may not refer to any of your blogs, but now that you live in Costa Rica, do you live more eco-friendly? 

Ahhh! Great question!

I am trying so hard to be more eco friendly. It’s true, we do live more eco-friendly in Costa Rica because Melana and I don’t drive cars and we don’t have the money to waste like in the US. Also, we are actively pursuing ways of reducing our trash through natural means. For example, I have started a composting project and want to start a garden. I make a lot of food that I would normally buy packaged (cookies, bread and, recently, bagels!) We also use less electricity as we don’t heat either our home or our water and the lights are off most of the day because sun lights the house. There is, however no recycling, and it kills me! One of the projects I want to do is start a class at the local high school about recycling and get the next generation (your generation) excited about it. There’s just plastic waste everywhere!

Interestingly, however, there is nothing that I am doing here that can’t be done in any home in the US as well. For example, composting projects are fun, easy and provide you with great soil for gardening. I recommend considering starting one of your own either at your house or organize with a teacher at school! 

If you are interested in starting an Eco-friendly project, please follow up and I’ll give you a whole bunch of information!

Hey Peteman,

Do you buy the worms to eat or to fish? 

The worms are for composting and fishing. We have a few ponds on the land here that have tilapia to fish for. The majority of the worms, however, are for converting a large amount of organic garbage into usable soil. Right now, they are all living and reproducing very, very happily in a big mound of poop. In about three months I will put them on the compost pile.

How is the worm compost going hopefully well? Back home in the states I once saw a worm compost. It was very interesting write back soon! 

Well, as I said above, the worms are currently happily multiplying in a pile of cow poop that we’ve set up for them. The biggest challenge with composting here is getting the locals to recognize what is compostable and what is not compostable. I’ll find whole pineapples or sugar cane stalks in the regular trash and gum wrappers in my organic trash. I’m thinking of making a series of signs that explain this in Spanish. 

I hope that if I can get kids doing this at the school, then I can get the adults to do it in their homes.




Whew! I hope I got all those answered satisfactorily. I asked a couple of you for follow up questions and I hope you guys keep asking!