People have been asking, and rightfully so, what exactly it is I'm doing down here. I feel that now after being here a full week and then some I'm more able to explain this, so here goes!
By the time 9 rolls around, there are a various number of things that could be happening depending on the day. On Monday we'll go on a walkthrough in the precario, which is a bunch of squatter's settlements all squashed together. This is one of the poorest of the poor areas in the city, as most of them are Nicaraguans who have come to find better work in Costa Rica. The per capita income in Nicaragua is about $1,000 a year, while in Costa Rica the per capita is around $5,800. Quite a difference, you'll notice. And of course...this doesn't account for the poor being poor, with more than half the population in Nicaragua living on less than a dollar a day.
The team here has already formed many relationships with people in the precario over the past few years, so it's neat to see the friendships that have come about as a result of this. The people living there see a couple of the people on the Boy With a Ball (BWAB) team as their pastors, which is another interesting thing to think about. While some people are going on the walkthrough there is also a tutoring center for the children of the precario. Yesterday we had 55 kids come to get tutoring! Thankfully we had about 10 or so tutors, but even this wasn't enough to get things finished in the time frame allotted. I'll have to post some pictures soon - I had taken quite a few but for some reason my memory card on my camera decided to go berserk and deleted all the pictures I had taken. Try try again I say.
After the walkthrough we'll have time for lunch and any other team activities that might be happening. Lately we've been getting school supplies organized to give to the children in school there, and have filled backpacks with notebooks, pens and pencils, paper and folders, scissors and glue, etc. My teammate Joy has done a great job in organizing and getting everything prepared for this. She was a special needs middle-school teacher for quite a while and is now helping the team full time. One thing I'll mention is the amazingness of the different traits and abilities our team has.
On Monday afternoons a few of us will go over to the Lincoln School on the other side of town. Lincoln is a pre-school through 12th grade institution that essentially instructs the future leaders of Costa Rica. It's an expensive private school that uses English as the primary language of instruction. One small thing to mention: I've been told it has a 100% graduation rate!
So during the Monday afternoons we'll help out the Community Service Club (CSC) that was formed by some of the high schoolers. They are working on an education proposal right now that would focus on tutoring children from other schools once a week. Some of the students are already helping out in the precario during the tutoring session, and have been very helpful.
After working with the CSC we'll go back to have a mentoring class led by Jamie from 5-6pm. After that it's dinner time and usually that's it for the night.
Tuesdays are somewhat the same, except that during the time that we would be doing the walkthrough there is a women's group going on and a kids craft and game time. It's fun to hang out with the kids and spend time with them, all of them are adorable and are always willing to give hugs and kisses. Oh yes, Costa Ricans, upon entering a room and/or saying goodbye they'll give cheek to cheek kisses, something that takes getting used to but shows the politeness and care that they have for one another.
On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons I'll help out Anna with the Lincoln school's girls basketball team. For my time here I'm now officially the assistant coach, hooray for having my amazing basketball skills be put to use. Right... Every other Tuesday night we play mejanga, which translates roughly as a pick-up game, usually futbol in this instance. We'll play on a small soccer field, fake turf and all, for about two hours. It's quite fun and believe it or not I actually scored a goal last week! I'll intentionally forget to mention that I also allowed the soccer ball to roll right under my legs when I was playing goalie...
Wednesdays is our day off. It takes a bit getting used to to have it in the middle of the week, but it certainly is a nice break with everything that's going on. Thursdays and Fridays don't have much going on officially, but as I've come to find out, there is always work to be done - which is a good thing. There is a home group on Thursday nights that switches places every now and then. This past week it was in the precario, although I know it's usually at our home. Things pick up again on Saturdays with more precario visits and other things, with the day culminating in church at night, which is usually from about 6-9pm.
Sundays is our second day off, and it's nice to relax and not do much after such a long week. Although this past Sunday a couple of us went to el Parque de Diversiones, which is a small amusement park with one roller coaster ride and a few other attractions. I'd say the most fun thing was going tubing down the river ride, which could be compared to Big River Rapids at California Adventure...just much much smaller.
That's my week in a nutshell. A very large nutshell actually. I live in a home with six other people; James, Ben, Chicky, Christine, Melody and Anna. Ben is the other intern who arrived a few days before I did, and our job responsibilities primarily include doing anything that is asked of us. It's quite exciting going day by day not knowing exactly what will be required of us, but that's part of the mystery in knowing that God will use you in any way possible. The others are, for the most part, "staff". I say that in quotations because I'm not sure of who is getting paid, etc., and am really not too concerned about it. We each have separate laundry days during the week, and we all do our best to keep everywhere else clean. Our living room is also the BWAB office, so in a way it's nice to wake up and already be at "work". We each buy our own food, which for us is mainly food we'd buy in the states. I've begun making my own cheese "empanadas" by throwing a corn tortilla filled with cheese into hot oil on a stove. YUM! The Costa Rican food here is good too - I've had my chance to try quite a bit, but it's easiest to save money by going to the grocery store to stock up on eggs and milk and bread and peanut butter. (Don't worry mom, I'm eating well!)
My Spanish skills are getting a bit better....it's certainly been a while since I had to use any of them. It makes it easy with everyone in the house speaking English, but at the same time I think it'd be more of a challenge if no one around me spoke it. YET I'm forever thankful for it still...A few of the Costa Ricans around here do speak English, especially the students at the Lincoln School. I'm learning a few more vocabulary words through them as well. Also, most of the 15 or so "official" BWAB team members speak English.
That's about all I have for now, pardon me about the length but I thought it best to write it all down in my gloriously extravagant nutshell. Be prepared next week for a description of the camps we get to help run every other week. Tomorrow is the first one for me, so I'll wait to experience it before I write anything about it. I will let you know that it is for the Lincoln students and we do play games, and there WILL be a dodgeball tournament. Enough said.
Oh, and I made a mistake on my mailing address. I pray you'll all find it in your heart to forgive me. It's officially this:
James Pierce
Box 955-2150
Moravia, San Jose, Costa Rica
Centro America
Sorry for any inconvenience that may have caused. And if you did send me mail I'm sure it'll get to me...or at least I hope it will.
Thanks for your time and thanks for reading!
Godspeed.
