Looking back, looking ahead

Hello, once again. Not too many of these things left to write. The big news is I’m coming back May 9th – that is, this Saturday! But I’ll get to that later.

Since I’ve been back from Guatemala, I’ve been keeping fairly busy, but in all honesty it’s been a bit of an out-of-time experience. I think in my mind I was thinking of Guatemala as more or less the last significant thing I would do while down here, and while that carries a certain amount of truth, the fact is that in my always-inaccurate mental calendar, I sort of ignored the time period between the Guatemala trip and going back to the US. That having been said, the few weeks that have taken place between now and then were basically a progression from thinking “What am I still doing here?” to “Am I already leaving?” A lot has been going on, and I’m continually going back and forth between relishing my time here and looking towards going back.

Anyway, one of the first things I did after getting back from Guatemala was getting a haircut. Now, normally that’s obviously not significant news, but this was the first time I had cut it since late August. That’s eight months, which is a personal record. Most of the kids in the USAC program hardly recognized me before the double-take that every one of them did when seeing me after the fact. My host mom Eli said something to the effect of, “Wow….so that’s what you looked like when you got here in August? I had forgotten!” I’d like to note that my biological mother, who was one of the driving forces behind this epic cut, fully approves.

But on to more exciting things. A couple weeks ago a large amount of volunteers from USAC went to Vara Blanca, which was one of the communities hit hardest by January’s massive earthquake. There we spent the afternoon hanging out with children in the local school, which basically meant I played soccer for a few hours with seven- to twelve-year-olds. It was lots of fun, and I made a couple new friends who wanted to know all the names of my pretty blond gringa friends. After hours of soccer (others painted/colored with smaller children indoors, others played jump rope, etc) and a couple short breaks to catch our breaths or enjoy some juice and cookies, we bid farewell the kids.

That was on a Thursday. That same weekend, from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening, a group of six of us joined more than a hundred ticos from Universidad Nacional (where I am) and other colleges to go out to Vara Blanca and Poasito (another earthquake-hit community) to work for the volunteer project Un techo para mi país (“A Roof for my Country”). Techo is basically like a Habitat for Humanity-style organization based in various Latin American countries. It was started in Chile a few decades ago and has expanded to many other countries as far north as Guatemala, I think. Now, I have to say that this was probably one of the least organized projects I’ve ever been a part of, but it was certainly worth our time nonetheless.

The first work day (Saturday), Travis (a fellow USAC student) and I found little to do in the morning as our group was basically digging holes and taking measurements for our worksite. Eventually a small classroom would go up, but at the start it was basically a three or four person job. As such, we ended up abandoning our group – with permission from our group leader – and spending most of the day hauling lumber around on and off the trucks that were bringing materials to the various construction sites scattered about the communities where different groups were building houses and classrooms where needed. On Sunday Travis ended up painting/varnishing some houses that had been built months before, while I joined our group to get the classroom we had been assigned up. It was hard, hot work, but the ticos I was with were very friendly and the good company helped pass the day. We did not actually finish the structure (we got everything up but the roof panels, which was pretty ironic considering the name of the volunteer organization), but there are some permanent volunteers out there who assured us they would complete the thing in the next couple days.

The weather varied a great deal while we were out there, as it was fairly hot during the day (I got burned a bit on Sunday) and got pretty cold (by Costa Rica standards, anyway) during the evenings. Fortunately my host family let me borrow an array of items for the weekend to deal with the elements, including work boots and a sleeping bag. The food they served us was another adventure. Now, obviously a volunteer organization serving over a hundred people on an extremely low budget is not going to serve the world’s greatest food, and I didn’t really mind it all that much, but there were certainly plenty of complaints from others. Mostly from the ticos, but hey, who’s keeping score? Overall, though, it was a really rewarding experience. I felt as though spending a weekend helping the displaced was a small way in which I could give something back to a country that’s given me so much.

Classes are pretty much done. At the time of this was posted, I’ve finished all my tests and papers, and now I’m just waiting for grades to get in, and hopefully they’ll get back to Augie soon. Wasn’t too tough of a semester, but I am glad to be done with academics for a bit all the same. I signed up for a couple summer courses at Augie, so hopefully a capstone course will help me transition back into Augustana academic rigor. As far as learning Spanish in general, well….I’ve certainly learned a lot this year, but I’ve got more to do. There are just so many expressions and colloquialisms and regionalisms that take a much longer time and much more intense experience to nail down. No regrets, though. It just means I’ll have to come back some day! That won’t be happening anytime soon though…

Now, as far as me coming home on Saturday... Pretty much everybody I’ve talked to about this asks me basically one or more of the same questions with minor variations: “Are you ready to come home? Or do you want to stay longer? Do you miss your family back in the States? Are you going to miss your host family? Have you had an overall good experience? Do you think you’ll go back someday?”

The answer to all of those is a very big YES. Yes, I am more than ready to come home. I miss all my friends and family a great deal back home, and I’m very excited to see them once again. And yes, I do want to stay longer – I wish I could spend much more time here! But at the moment, I just want to see everyone at home again. Yes, I miss my family tons. Yes, I’m going to miss my host family the minute I get on the plane. Yes, my experience has been great and yes, because of that, I’ll probably be back some day. At least to visit my host family – Jessica, for example, has told me I’m invited to her wedding. I’m there!

This past Sunday, since it’s one of the few evenings that everybody’s at home at the same time, we celebrated both Luis’s birthday (May 5) and had a sort of symbolic goodbye party for me. My host family got me a card with very kind notes from all of them inside, and Eli, knowing I have spent this entire year here looking for a Costa Rica sweatshirt of some sort, bought me one. Now, it’s important to note that sweatshirts that simply say “Costa Rica” down here do not exist. Period. Trust me, I’ve looked, and so has Eli. Upon realizing this, she actually went out and had a sweatshirt custom made for me, a comfortable black one with “Costa Rica” stitched into it. She actually “borrowed” one of my sweatshirts I had left in the house while I was in Nicaragua. So nice! And I love it!

I’ll give you all some more closing thoughts in my next blog post, which will likely be the last in this blog. Until then, stay safe, God bless, and I’ll probably see you soon!!