Site Visit - Garabito de Aguas Zarcas -

11/02/10

My site visit was fun and relaxing.  I had to catch four buses to get to Garabito de Aguas Zarcas.  I met Daniela there who works with the Rural Community Development project.  As soon as I got there we went to an environmental fundraiser in which she and her friend dressed up as clowns and the three of us painted faces.  Later, we waited for the adult party to start and it was a full out Halloween party!  I was so excited to see everyone arriving was fully dressed for the occasion!  There were even 33 mineros de San Juan (which is the town we were in) with fresh statements on the backs of their shirts – so funny!

The next day we went to play soccer with Daniela’s neighborhood team the next barrio over.  We watched two men’s games and chatted with everyone who mostly knew everyone else and many of which are related as is very common in rural areas.  People watched drinking beers talking chiste, it was a great experience since I haven’t been out much with my family to events like this.  Then, their team didn’t have enough players so I played with them.  For it being my first time in about seven years playing I didn’t play all that badly, but of course hesitated when I had a chance to shoot and botched it.  I have a huge bruise a week later from these tough Tico women who are just as vicious as the men playing! 

We took a tour of her town the next day which is pretty rural.  It’s a tiny town but was cool to see where all the people I had met the day before lived and then we crossed the river on this huge tree laying from bank to bank.  She hopes that they can build a bridge there for cars to bring more opportunities to the town.  She also helped them create their own development organization within this last year and now they have to wait another year before they can get federal assistance which was great to see Peace Corps in action in a community, motivating a town to keep to it.  The trip back was long and rainy and when I got back to my area I could tell it had been raining tons with the river through Jerico flowing fast with muddy water.  It was so nice to get to relax this weekend!  And back to work tomorrow!

Excited to see my friends tomorrow!

Yenny