It's official!!!

This our CYF group before swear-in at the Plaza de la Democracia en San Jose
This is my host mom, Ana, at the swear-in ceremony.
My good friend Patty, our Program Manager Dan Baker, and I at the Ambassador's house.
Posing for the camera, after swear in.
Peace Corps Director, Donna, US Ambassador, and CYF Program Manager


It’s been almost a month since I blogged so here are the bullet points!

-- On April 30th, we had Site Assignment Day. I was assigned to a town just on the Costa Rican/Panamanian border.

-- A week later, I met my counterpart (main contact person for our assigned community). He is awesome! We did our counterpart workshop an then took the 8 hour bus ride down to my site. It was a great experience. The community was great! However, there was an issue: recent violence is plaguing the barrio.

-- Sooooo, long story short: Peace Corps decided to move me to another site due to the security issue. (By the way, Peace Corps did a great job of handling the situation).

-- I was siteless for a week or so, but now I know my new site will be the community of Bribri, Costa Rica.

-- We experienced an earthquake on May 20th... tremble for us in the San Jose area, 6.1 for the epicenter south of us in Costa Rica.

-- Our swearing in ceremony was yesterday, May 21st. It was a wonderful day! Yes! Finally, I am now an official volunteer of the United States Peace Corps! I actually teared up when we had to do the national anthems for Costa Rica and the U.S. We took our oath with the United States Ambassador to Costa Rica. AND I was chosen by my peers of CYF (my program Children Youth & Families) to represent our training class (Tico 20) and give one of the three speeches given by the trainees. What an honor! And I did it all in Spanish. Later, I even got interviewed by the local news!!!!!!! It was such a special day. All the hard work, tears, waiting, and nerves paid off!

--I am truly honored to have the opportunity to serve. I am looking forward to making connections, friendships, and learning while I am here.

-- I’ve gotten a bit better at navigating my way around San Jose....

-- My Spanish has improved a lot. I even advanced a level during my Spanish evaluation.

-- My host family for the last 11 weeks has become like family. I will miss them so much when I head to Bribri.

-- What I know so far about Bribri is that it is the oldest indigenous population in Costa Rica. The town of Bribri is now the gateway to the indigenous reserves of Talamanca. I’ll be living and working in Bribri but not necessarily exclusively with the indigenous population. It’s pretty urban, but about 30-45 minutes from the beach!!! The county of Talamanca is the poorest in the country. Sexual exploitation of children, drugs, and child abuse are among some of the issues around the community. There seem to be a lot of strengths in the community too. I am looking forward to observing and learning for myself what I think and feel about Bribri.
-- I got a cell phone! I can receive calls for free, but it’s pricey for me to call out. Just email me if you want my cell phone number.

-- I had to say goodbye to all of my fellow Tico 20ers as we’re all headed in 52 different communities across the country. I won’t see them again until In Service Training...

And that’s about it... I had been super busy with training and getting ready for swearing in. Now it’s all done and I’m on my way to the province of Limon!

I miss you all friends and family! Thanks for keeping in touch and sending me emails or messages of encouragement. I appreciate that!

Love ya!