Come watch us swear in on Wednesday October 2 at 9am Costa Rica time (same as mountain time I think)
https://conx.state.gov/costarica
If it doesn't work try it with http instead of https. I'd also like to thank all the staff at Peace Corps who are staying on duty to support us despite the government shutdown.
See you there!
Friday, September 27, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
09/08/2013 Site Assignment Day
Hi Everyone, I thought I would help my husband CJ by posting to tell you about our experience with site assignment. We traveled with all of our Tico 26 group to a Country Club in Heredia. Iphones were pumping 00s and 90s music in the bus, people were laughing, talking, dreaming, and everyone was smiling like it was Christmas Eve. How exciting to find out where we would be living for two years!
When we walked past tennis, foosball, and other sport courts to an area with (my favorite) three pools!! We entered a little cabana meeting area and there was a giant map of Costa Rica in front. Our project staff set to work putting little tags on the side of the map and getting folders ready with all of the information we would need to know about our communities. Since it was Manuel's birthday, he went first, being blindfolded, spun in a circle and then we as audience had to scream left, right, up, or down, until he found where his marker was. Next was Marlee. And then they asked for one of their married couples and we volunteered. My husband was blindfolded and I closed my eyes. We held hands and listened intently to what our friends were telling us...are they saying right? left? We don't understand! And then all of the sudden, I felt the tag and told my husband to stop, we have it. He took his blindfold off and we discovered we're heading to....
When we walked past tennis, foosball, and other sport courts to an area with (my favorite) three pools!! We entered a little cabana meeting area and there was a giant map of Costa Rica in front. Our project staff set to work putting little tags on the side of the map and getting folders ready with all of the information we would need to know about our communities. Since it was Manuel's birthday, he went first, being blindfolded, spun in a circle and then we as audience had to scream left, right, up, or down, until he found where his marker was. Next was Marlee. And then they asked for one of their married couples and we volunteered. My husband was blindfolded and I closed my eyes. We held hands and listened intently to what our friends were telling us...are they saying right? left? We don't understand! And then all of the sudden, I felt the tag and told my husband to stop, we have it. He took his blindfold off and we discovered we're heading to....
Pejibaye!!
Our location is in the mountains, south of volcanoes, famous for a fruit with the same name. Many of our friends are heading out to beaches, mountains, farming communities, and a few are heading to the outskirts far north and far south in border communities. We're joining a group of professionals that have already established themselves in many communities in Costa Rica, working hard to improve the lives of individuals by enabling others to see the inherent skills, assets, and abilities present in these small communities. We hope to do the same!
Much more to come on our site after we visit it, but we were able to enjoy the pools, meet some of the amazing volunteers in Tico 24 and 25, eat hamburgers at a BBQ, and share an evening of fun with our friends in San Jose. We had even more fun sharing our site assignment with friends, family, and of course, our Tico host family. It has been a truly magical experience!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
08/26/2013 Tech Week
Just finished tech week. It was a blast! I went with a few of my Community Economic Development friends to San Francisco de Palmera, San Carlos Costa Rica. Don´t bother trying to find it on google earth. It´s small enough to not be on there. For those who know the geography of Costa Rica it´s about 4 hours north of San Jose by bus, one of which is down a gravel road.
Once there we met with Isa, one of the volunteers from Tico 24. They have been in site a year but Isa has only been in this site a few months due to a transfer. I was lucky enough to stay with the President of the local Empresa de Credito or EC.(Think of it as a bank for the poor or community bank) It was a special treat for me because I´ve been considering the posibility of working with or creating a similar EC when we get to our permanent site. If you have read ¨world without poverty¨ by Muhammed Yunis you get the idea. She´s a wonderful woman and a great local entrepreneur who has set up an American clothing store in the front of her house and funds a lot of the local businesses in the area. She has three boys in high school to boot and her husband works in another city.
Gabe and I taught Shirley, the treasurer of the EC how to use microsoft excel to do her book keeping. She had been using it for years but someone had set it up for her and not taught her how to use the equation functions so we showed her how she could use the program to auto update all cells when she creates an input. I thought she was going to kiss Gabe when she figured out how much time she would save. Gabe is going to be a rockstar in my opinion. Like most of the other volunteers he is young, in his early twenties but he already has fortune 500 experience and has pretty fluent Spanish. He can also run a 4 and a half minute mile.
We also conducted a DICE tool with another local business. We interviewed one of the local sodas (restaurants) using this business analysis tool. We were working with another volunteer James and the owners. James has 20 years experience with sales and when Gabe started into the questions James immediately picked up on their body language and could tell they were uncomfortable. I thought it was great that he pointed that out to Gabe and I and we settled down into a series of icebreaker questions.
I think the happiest moment of the week was working with a micro entrepreneur who had her own cake business. Two other volunteers, Chris, and Andrew and I guided her through the process of a SWOT analysis. She listed as one of her weaknesses 'fear' and we took it upon ourselves to explore the sources of that fear which led through failure, lack of money and lack of customers to the idea that more advertising would be advantageous for her business. We told her that fear is a normal part of starting a new business and that it is usually a good motivator to get entrepreneurs to adapt to their environment. Hopefully she takes that to heart and stays on the move.
Site assignments are next Friday! Wish us luck!
Once there we met with Isa, one of the volunteers from Tico 24. They have been in site a year but Isa has only been in this site a few months due to a transfer. I was lucky enough to stay with the President of the local Empresa de Credito or EC.(Think of it as a bank for the poor or community bank) It was a special treat for me because I´ve been considering the posibility of working with or creating a similar EC when we get to our permanent site. If you have read ¨world without poverty¨ by Muhammed Yunis you get the idea. She´s a wonderful woman and a great local entrepreneur who has set up an American clothing store in the front of her house and funds a lot of the local businesses in the area. She has three boys in high school to boot and her husband works in another city.
Gabe and I taught Shirley, the treasurer of the EC how to use microsoft excel to do her book keeping. She had been using it for years but someone had set it up for her and not taught her how to use the equation functions so we showed her how she could use the program to auto update all cells when she creates an input. I thought she was going to kiss Gabe when she figured out how much time she would save. Gabe is going to be a rockstar in my opinion. Like most of the other volunteers he is young, in his early twenties but he already has fortune 500 experience and has pretty fluent Spanish. He can also run a 4 and a half minute mile.
We also conducted a DICE tool with another local business. We interviewed one of the local sodas (restaurants) using this business analysis tool. We were working with another volunteer James and the owners. James has 20 years experience with sales and when Gabe started into the questions James immediately picked up on their body language and could tell they were uncomfortable. I thought it was great that he pointed that out to Gabe and I and we settled down into a series of icebreaker questions.
I think the happiest moment of the week was working with a micro entrepreneur who had her own cake business. Two other volunteers, Chris, and Andrew and I guided her through the process of a SWOT analysis. She listed as one of her weaknesses 'fear' and we took it upon ourselves to explore the sources of that fear which led through failure, lack of money and lack of customers to the idea that more advertising would be advantageous for her business. We told her that fear is a normal part of starting a new business and that it is usually a good motivator to get entrepreneurs to adapt to their environment. Hopefully she takes that to heart and stays on the move.
Site assignments are next Friday! Wish us luck!
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