Quiti...

Seriously though, Michael Jackson died? I cannot leave the country any
more.

Also did anyone happen to see the U.S. beat Spain in soccer? I did not
watch it. I didn't even know they were playing until I picked up the
newspaper the next day. The worst part is, I was home all day. Shows
how little television I watch. Frigg. I did not watch the Brasil-South
Africa game either, and I probably won't watch the final on Sunday.
Costa Ricans wonder how I survive like this.

I have more photos to send. This week was E-e-eventful. Highs and lows
and new unexplored lands.

First, maybe I should explain a little my life here. I'm here for 2
years. Obvious. But these first 3 months are supposed to be spent
integrating into the community, meeting folks, and doing a community
assessment. It totally fits my work style. Except it's hard because I
live a long walk from everything and it's rainy season.

The work I've done so far has shown that the major challenges here are
drugs, lack of water, lack of play spaces for kids or community spaces
for everyone (specifically, a soccer field,) infighting, landslides,
and trash management. Also, there is no work or anything for youth.
These problems are all more or less approachable and solvable.

So, knowing all of this already, I figure it's best to spend the next
2 months meeting people so I can find out who to work with on what.

The sweet part is that I live with a cool family. I've told you this
before maybe, but they're young, smart, and everyone in the community
respects them from a distance. I talk about my host mom and host dad
all the time but in reality, they're in their 30's. My host "brother"
is 6. This week, I went to a father's day dinner with them. They joked
that they were bringing me only because they couldn't find me a sitter.

I work here with a ton of organizations. The development association,
the ministry of health, the national youth protection agency (that's a
bad translation.) the anti-violence network, the local commission for
indigenous people, the board of education, and various community
groups. This place is drowning in organizations. It almost makes it
harder to start anything.

But I will start things. Soon.

Until then, I'm dealing with plenty.
Last week, a good friend and old volunteer from Boston passed away. He
was an older man who devoted the majority of his time toward working
with kids, like all of the amazing, generous volunteers at Generations
Incorporated. He was an artist and while I got to work with him, he
helped the kids paint a mural at the Mission Hill School in Boston. He
liked to be called Brother Chuck, and he was a cool guy.

Rebecca visited last week. We thought we lived close to each other
because we both live close to San Jose, but we don't. It took her 5
hours to get home! I think I'm afraid that she'll never visit again,
or no one will ever visit. You should, one day.

While she was here, we ate pb banana sandwiches (luxury!) and went on
a great hike through the coffee fields and high into what kind of look
like the Alps. Yeah! We didn't bring cameras. After hiking straight up
for over an hour, we didn't reach the top, but I think we were both
satisfied with where we stopped. This place is crazy.

This week I also went to Tabarcia, which is a small community that
rests visibly like a pearl in the valley below my house. I haven't
really wanted to go there because I haven't wanted to ruin my idea of
it. I also didn't know how to get there. I shadowed a health inspector
for a day, and he brought me. I didn't really take advantage of the
trip to look up and judge the distance up to my house from down below,
but I did discover an ice cream shop. So I will go back. Maybe I'll
bring a visitor.

Then, this week I got really sick. It wasn't as bad as anything I ever
got in Mexico, but I was in bed for 2 days. Not watching soccer. Which
really only added insult to injury. Frigg.

Thursday, I actually had contact with kids. Weird, right? I'm a Youth
volunteer. I got to travel around with a clown (a real one). We went
around to 4 schools and put on a show about the rights of children and
important values like friendliness, and honesty, and equality. It was
a pretty uplifting day, really.

And yesterday, I took me 3 hours to go buy a pineapple and 15 bananas.
It took five minutes to actually buy them, but with busses and
everything, I wasted 3 hours. I don't know how I get anything done.

Anyway, there hasn't been anything like a normal week here yet, but
this is how things have been going for me recently.

I'll share more when I have more to share.
Love you a lot.

Go eat a bunch of fruits and fresh vegetables for me, just because you
can, and your friends will think that's normal.

Have a great weekend.