Counterpart Meeting and Swear-in Ceremony Speech

 Howdy!

CED - TICO 26

Sorry I didn't post an entry in the last two weeks. It has been a busy month due to the holidays coming up. Things somewhat slowdown here in Costa Rica in the Christmas month of December, many things were set up (meetings, projects, last-minute work) for the last few weeks of November. But alas I will finally talk about our swear-in ceremony.


After knowing were we would serve for the next two years. We had one more week to go. We would meet our counterpart (our point of contact for knowing our community, leaders and potential projects) from our site assignment for the first time and hold sessions on several subjects. The place we all met was in the original place were we came in when we first arrived in Costa Rica, "The Retreat". It was quite exciting because no one knew what to expect. These sessions were extremely helpful because Peace Corps talks specifically of the many questions other future volunteers have: "How much will be my allowance?", "How much do I pay my host family?", "What happens if...?". Many of your questions are answered in these training sessions. We started on a Tuesday and left the retreat on an early Friday morning, we then stayed for a weekend with our counterpart to see were we would live, know community leaders and important things we needed to know about before coming permanently, we returned on Sunday and had one more day of Spanish classes on Monday. The next day the Swear-in Ceremony would be at the Ambassadors Residency in San José, Costa Rica.

TICO 26

We woke up first thing in the morning and we were all ready in San Isidro de Heredia ready to be picked up by PC to be taken to the ceremony. Something I hadn't mentioned is that I was given the honor by my fellow PCV's of giving the Swearing-in Speech. There were two speeches that would be given, one by YD and one by CED. For time purposes we decided to make our speech together.It was a live streamed through the internet so our family and friends could see it on the web. I won't say much of the event itself. I will let future PCV's experience it for themselves. I leave you with the speech given in the ceremony:

Swear-in Speech

Discurso para el Día de Juramentación

        Señor Gonzalo Gallegos, Encargado de Negocios de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos de América, Señor Mario Fung, Asesor Nacional del Departamento de Orientación del Ministerio de Educación Pública, Señora Ana Lourdes Golcha Directora Ejecutiva del Programa Junior Achievement, Señora Carol Barrick, Directora del Cuerpo de Paz Costa Rica, invitados especiales, funcionarios de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos y del Cuerpo de Paz, queridas familias anfitrionas y aspirantes de TICO 26.  
Es un honor estar frente a ustedes hoy en esta ceremonia donde  en pocos minutos, los 30 voluntarios aquí presentes tendremos el honor de dejar de ser aspirantes y llamarnos voluntarios en una de las mejores organizaciones voluntarias del mundo – el Cuerpo de Paz de los Estados Unidos de América – con el privilegio de dar 2 a!os de nuestro servicio en el gran país de  Costa Rica.

Han sido exactamente 89 días desde que nos conocimos. Hemos reído, aprendido, fallado, batallado, entre muchas cosas. Pero hemos llegado a estar aquí por el gran esfuerzo y motivación que nos dimos entre nosotros y que nos dieron nuestros facilitadores. 89 días de entrenamiento intenso donde nos levantamos temprano y dormíamos tarde, donde éramos desconocidos y nos convertimos en una familia. 

Queremos agradecer a todos los que nos entrenaron, sabemos que su esfuerzo fue igual o mayor al que 
nosotros hicimos. Se levantaron temprano, llegaron primero que nosotros, nos entrenaron y finalmente se quedaron planeando nuestro siguiente entrenamiento. Un trabajo largo, difícil y continuo. Gracias por todo el amor y esfuerzo que le pusieron ha nuestros entrenamientos. Queremos agradecer Carol, Maru, Carolina, Natalia, Don Luis, Vinyela, nuestros facilitadores de español y todo el equipo de Cuerpo de Paz que merecen mención pero si los mencionamos a todos nos quedamos sin tiempo de hacer el discurso. Queremos también agradecer a nuestras familias anfitrionas sin su amor, cariño y apoyo no hubiéramos podido llenar el gran vacío que dejamos con nuestras familias en Estados Unidos.Finalmente un ultimo agradecimiento a nuestras familias y amigos que están en casa viéndonos en este momento, gracias por su apoyo y comprensión en nuestra decisión de servir en el Cuerpo de Paz.
Estamos comprometidos a representar a nuestro gran País, a Cuerpo de Paz y Costa Rica.

Queridos Voluntarios:             

Se que va ver  momentos buenos como malos, apartir de mañana estaremos en nuestro sitio  731 días. Por lo mismo queremos pedirles que cuando tengan un momento de pensar, escriban en un papelito por que decidieron unirse al Cuerpo de Paz y guardenlo. Cuando estén en sitio y se sientan solos y sin motivación, lean ese papelito y verán que todo tendrá sentido de nuevo. Cuando vayan a su sitio serán los 3 meses mas difíciles y por lo mismo les dejamos esta frase de motivación:

“Empieza haciendo lo necesario, después lo posible, y de repente te encontrarás haciendo lo imposible.” 
– San Francisco de Asís 

Viva Costa Rica, Viva el Cuerpo de Paz y que VIVA TICO 26! Pura Vida! Gracias.

At the end of the event, our country director took us to her private residence and made a luncheon for us. That was something were told had never been done by any country director in Costa Rica (She just started working in Costa Rica, when we first arrived in country; we were her first batch of volunteers). Which we as Peace Corps Volunteers really appreciated. We always like to be fed. Thanks Carol!

Delish 4

Before Swearing-in

Volunteers waiting to know where were going?!

Howdy!

I know I mentioned in my last post I would talk about my swear-in ceremony, but before that I want to talk about our site assignments. Before I start, I want to thank all PC staff for the time and effort on developing our whole PC training. People don't notice little things like the logistics and the hours of preparation to get things done. From little things as getting your name on an envelope with your allowance to transported from one place to another. It's takes a lot of effort, thus I want to thank everyone who made all of our training possible.

           

Waiting...but happy :)

 A few days before our last training sessions...

Enjoying the pool at country club

As training was in its ending period, every single volunteer was curious from the moment they stepped out of the plane in Costa Rica. "Where will we serve?". After almost three months of training, PC setup a day out in a country club. There volunteers, staff and friends gathered for a day of good food, sports, pool and most importantly knowing where will we be for the next two years. After much anticipation, a whole event evolved in the process of knowing. I won't talk about it, so other future PCV can experience it. But it was full of happiness and joy. I was very happy with my site: Barranca, Puntarenas. A very big site with a population of over 40,000 people and a high index of unemployment and high welfare enrollment. This meant that there was a lot of work to be done and was very happy and scared as the same time. After knowing where we would spend the next two years, we enjoyed our day and spend our free night out of site in a hostel with other volunteers from other regions in an event called VACtail. Basically a welcoming party from other volunteers for the newbies "us". Next post I will talk about the process of the Swear-in ceremony. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Chilling @ VACtail or as we renamed it...Backsnail

Pre-Service Training - Part II

Howdy!

In my last post we were dropped off in our community, were we would live for the next 2 months 3 weeks of our lives.

San Rafael de Heredia Church

I was assigned to the Fonseca Family, they live in San Rafael de Heredia, I met my new family at the church. An interesting fact about Costa Rican towns is that the center of the town lays a church and a soccer field in front of it. San Rafael is about a 1.5 hour bus to San Jose. (Not because of distance, but because of the twenty plus stops it takes all around the area to pickup and drop people).

When I saw my host mom and sister for the first time I didn't know what to do. So I happily greeted them and kiss them on the cheek. Then we took a taxi to their house with my 150 pounds of luggage. We arrived and was showed around the house, and lastly to my room. I told them I would freshen up and unpack. Some hours passed and they told me to go down for lunch; I was super hungry from the long trip. We talked a bit about the living arrangements (what time they eat there meals, when do they do laundry, etc). I told them if it was ok to go upstairs and keep unpacking, I literally went to sleep around 4-5 PM and didn't wake up until the next day. I was extremely tired from everything, meaning an accumulation from to Staging until Now. It was the first time I could sleep and didn't have to worry about waking up to an activity first thing in the morning. It felt so good.

The schedule of PST goes as follows:

Spanish Training - Gain and/or improve Spanish skills, culture and ethics in Costa Rican culture.
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
8 AM - 3:30 PM with an hour lunch.

Peace Corps Training - Theory, Methodologies, Ethics, Safety, Medical, etc...when move to site.
Tuesdays and Thursdays
8 AM - 4:30 PM (sometimes we would leave early or later) with an hour lunch.

This schedule would be for the rest of training. Some days you will do activities in other places, Saturday training (rare), travel to other PCV's sites, Trips to San Jose, etc...Weekends are usually free, 9 times out of 10 you spend them with your host family and go places and enjoy the real Costa Rican way of life.

On my next post I will talk a bit more in depth about what I did while living in San Rafael and a bit about what to expect from training. Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

My Packing List

                       

Howdy!

Well here is my packing list, I hope it helps anyone in there packing endeavors. I will also include tips, brands of some of the things I took; for durability and quality reasons and things I wish I would of brought. If you have questions please post them I will gladly help your packing mayhem. Enjoy!

Packing List:

CLOTHES & ACCESSORIES:

1 Black suit (Good for swearing-in and any important meetings that may come through, presentation is of an essence)
2 Grey suit jackets (Casual meetings or just whenever you go out in the city)
3 Dress shirts
1 Dress pants
2 Jeans (Use them for everything)
1 Khakis
15 Polo Shirts (Use them for everything)
20 T-Shirts (Use them for everything)
12 Casual shirts (Use them for everything)
1 Windbreaker jacket (Adidas)
1 Fleece jacket (North Face) [Good for chilly places]
1 School sweatshirt (Represent!)
3 Bathing suits (Ralph Lauren and Zara) [you will swim a lot; to make your suits last, alternate and also you can use them as shorts]
2 Training pants (Adidas)
3 Dry fit t-shirts (Adidas)
1 Running short (Nike)
4 Shorts (Adidas & Nike) [Chilling and exercising]
12 Underwear (Good idea to bring as much as you can)
2 Pairs of cuff links
5 Handkerchiefs
3 Ties (Swearing-in brought to many, but better safe than sorry)
2 Bow ties (Thought I would use them)
2 Scarves (Haven't used them yet, but  in mountainous areas it gets chilly)
2 Shemagh's (Use them a couple a items, perfect for hot or cold weather)
2 Dress belts (Bring at least one)
2 Casual belts (Bring at least one)
2 Dress socks
5 Running socks
6 Sunglasses (Rayban's)
2 Watches
2 Eyeglasses
Towel
Hand towel
Face towel

ELECTRONICS:

Laptop (Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13)
External Hard Drive (Passport) [Bring music, movies, tv series anything to watch on your computer, you will enjoy having something to do in your down time. A lot of PCV's have many things to share so it's essential to have this item on your list]
2 Earphones
Speaker (Jawbone)
Digital Camera (Sony [I honestly don't use it at all, use my Iphone mainly for all pictures])
SD Card (16GB)
Ipod Nano
Iphone 4S Unlocked with Sim Slot (Highly recommend it, it doesn't have to be an Iphone, just make sure its unlocked and has a sim slot. You will definitely need a phone while in service; many volunteers buy a cheap or moderately priced phone in country through a prepaid service (Kolbi [most used service], Claro, Movistar). In my case I just bought the prepaid sim card for my phone very inexpensive). Prepaid phone service in Costa Rica is relatively inexpensive.
External CD Drive
USB flash drive (64 GB)
AA and AAA Rechargeable batteries with charger (Brought 4 of each, I only recommend it, if you actually have things that use batteries, or bring them if you think you might need them in the future for items you will purchase that require batteries.

OFFICE SUPPLIES:

2 Journals
Pens (Bring a nice one)
Pencils
Pouch  (TUMI)
Duct tape
Masking tape
Clear tape
Pins (Recommend them for notes and reminders)
Mini Stapler
Scissors
Folders
Large Envelopes (For important documents)
Large Ziploc Bags

GENERAL TRAVELING & MISCELLANEOUS:

Swiss Army knife
Hunting knife
Gerber Multi-tool
Nalgene Bottle (Lost it!)
Sigg Bottle (I think I left it at Peace Corps Office, hopefully I will find it)
MagLite Flashlight
Book (favorite one)
Deck of Cards
Resistance bands
Chess set
Umbrella (good quality one, not to small but not to big)

TOILETRIES:

Electric Toothbrush and replacements (Oral B)
Toothbrush
Container for toothbrush
Toothpaste (Unless you use a specific brand, buy as many as you can back home, otherwise you can buy many typical brands here for around the same price)
Burt's Bees Lip Balm
6 Deodorants (Highly recommend it if you have a specific brand you like, they sell many brands here; but for twice the price or more)
Aloe Vera (Very good for burns, price is way less expensive at home)
Sunscreen (Even though you get some in your medical packet 30 spf, if need something stronger buy it home, sunscreen here is ridiculously expensive)
Cologne (You gots to smell good)
Soap (Bring your favorite, or you can purchase many American brands in CR, very specif brands are  pricey)
Dental Floss
Disposable Razors
Shampoo (Not a lot just for a few days, you can get any shampoo here for around the same price back home)
6 Hair Paste Tins (Waste because I'm letting my hair grow, which I just decided so don't really need them, will donate them to other PCV's)
Beard Trimmer (Norelco) [I highly recommend it; saves time, money on razors and you can also trim up your hair when you don't feel like spending money on a haircut; even though haircuts are really inexpensive]





BAGS

North Face Router Backpack (Great for laptop, and anything expensive you want to hold on, also works great for 1-3 day trips)
North Face Terra 65 Pack (Great for trips over 3+ days, easy on your back and shoulders  for backpacking trips)
North Face Base Camp Duffel X-Large (Excellent medium to transport anything you can imagine, you can use it for very long trips. Bag has shoulder straps so you can turn it into a backpack).

SHOES 

6 Pairs of loafers (TOMS, Sperry, Cole Hann and Johnston and Murphy)
Dress shoes (Johnston and Murphy)
2 Pairs of sandals (Rainbow & Birkenstocks)
Running Shoes (New Balance)
Boat shoes (Sperry)
Trekking shoes  (Vibrams)
2 Pairs of Slides (Crocs & Adidas)

TIPS:

- Roll your clothes, it will give you more space in your bags and prevent them from wrinkling.
- Be sure your around the baggage weight limit, to avoid hefty baggage fees. Here is a tip from a fellow volunteer to know the weight of your bag: weigh yourself first, then with your bag on and subtract your weight and simple as pie. Another option is to buy a hanging scale you will use it when you depart, come back home or do any traveling, highly recommend it.
-Use large Ziploc bags to organize your items.

THINGS I WISH I WOULD OF BROUGHT

Beef Jerky (Haven't found any)
Peanut Butter (Price is twice as of much)
Bed, pillow and fitted sheets (There extremely expensive and very bad quality)
Jeans (Even though I brought jeans, I wish I would of brought more; they will wear off in a few months, it's good to alternate if you like to wear jeans most of the time)
Bicycle lock (Most likely you will decide to have a bike at site, so you will end up buying a bike, thus you need to protect your investment. Bicycle belts here [good quality ones] are expensive)
Earl of Grey Tea (They have it here, but more expensive)
Water goggles (I actually didn't know I would be using them, but I have a pool in my site, they will send them too me though)
Rubber flip flops (Even though I brought sandals and brought every shoe possible, I forgot normal flip flops)
Tabasco Sauce (They have it here, but more expensive)
Hanging scale  (To weigh your bags when traveling)

I hope this list helps anyone in there packing and if you have questions please feel free to post your questions or email me. I honestly packed to much clothes and shoes, but I don't regret it, I do use 95% of them. If you can carry it and don't mind the weight bring as much as you can.

Next week I will talk about what happened once I arrived in Costa Rica "PST" Pre-Service Training.

Pura Vida!

Part Deux - INVITATION!!!

Good evening!

February 2013

Well the story goes on....now that Part I was finished, Part II came into being. After being medically cleared, that same day I received an email from the Volunteer Placement Office from my program, Community Economic Development. They mentioned due the fact that my medical clearance was delayed, I had missed my original nomination, but would look for an alternative. I called and email them as soon as I read the email. To my luck...voice mail; the next day I got a reply back and asked me for an updated Resume; asking specifically for my volunteer experience, detailing the following: name of organizations, months worked, hours per week, activities/duties...blah blah blah. Note: Anyone applying, Volunteer...Volunteer....Volunteer! I thankfully had some very good volunteer experiences, so I think that helped a lot.  They also asked me to fill out an attachment called Placement Questions. It basically asks why you want to go to the Peace Corps and if you are willing to commit to the harshness and fruits of the becoming a volunteer. These questions are a concentration of what you did in the initial application. I believe they do that to make sure you are willing to still go through the process, now that you experience the longevity and commitment needed to become a volunteer.

After sending my resume and the questions, I receive an email back mentioning that they would send me an another email in the upcoming weeks to let me know were I might be placed. More time to wait, but I was happy that they were looking for a program for me. I really wanted to leave ASAP. So I started to google about how long it took to get placement, but didn't get a correlation of an exact time, every case was different. I didn't really worry, I just waited...

Ten days later on March 10, 2013, I was chilling at home on a Sunday afternoon, when suddenly I got an email with an official INVITATION to serve in Costa Rica, July 8, 2013!!! I couldn't believe it, I can't explain the feeling, I'm a tough guy, but I was so happy and full of joy, I honestly wanted to cry (Fuck you! So what!). My dream had finally come true. Seconds later I told my parents and a couple of friends, I then accepted my invitation and Part III of the process began....

Peace Corps Timeline: Medical Kit

June 2012 - July 2012
After receiving the medical kit I started to arrange appointments and researching were I could get everything at the best price, this was very tedious and the most expensive part of the application, lucky for me I was working a part time minimal wage job and no health insurance...hurrayyy for me!!! The medical kit asks for the following:

Difficult
Medical Exam
Attached are several forms that need to be answered and signed by a MD or DO. About your health and current medical history. Had to go twice. ($135)

Lab Tests
You need to take a blood, urine and tuberculosis. ($340)

Shots
You need to get Tetanus, Polio, MMR and Varicella shots. ($59)

Easy
Dental Exam
DDS must complete evaluation form and x rays must be provided. In case you die and your teeth are the only thing left, that way they can identify you...just kidding. There are some DDS that offer everything for free on certain cities, unfortunately my city didn't have any of those DDS, cheap bastards! ($80)

Eye Exam
Basically get your prescription if you are blind like me, or just get a note you have 20/20 Superman vision. ($60)

Grand Total
-$674

But good news you do get reimburse for all of this, how much!! Not a whole lot...but it's better than nothing!

Medical Exam
Reimbursement $70
Lab Tests & Shots
Reimbursement $55
Dental Exam
Reimbursement $60
Eye Exam
Reimbursement $12 

Giving the grand negative total of:
-$477

This was hard work though, I had to call many many offices to get the best prices and negotiate. As you can see the most expensive part of the medical kit are the lab tests, so my recommendation is to shop around and try to negotiate. I didn't want to throw the "I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer" line, but fuck it your doing this to help out people; it helped me in some situations to get a better deal, I also offered to recommend them to other Volunteers that may need these services.

After a stressful month of getting everything accordingly, I made copies of every single document. They recommend it in case it gets lost in the mail. They mention to use a courier such as FedEx or UPS when you send the documents, its funny because USPS is obviously less expensive and they are government funded, Peace Corps is government funded, the irony. So I went and shipped it off to the nearest FedEx Kinkos and made some copies. ($30)

Giving the grand negative total of:
$497+$15 (fingerprints) = -$512 

Peace Corps Timeline: Application Process

Afternoon!

The first thing I was interested to know while researching, is what the heck did volunteers go through to get invited. Some blogs explain in detail (sorta), some don't. This post is for everyone who wants to know exactly what you have to go through in my own personal experience.

August - September 2011

Started application process online, this includes essays, personal information, references and so on, took me a around 6 weeks to finish it. I was very close to be disregarded as a potential candidate after I submitted my application online. The main office for my recruiting region asked why in my application I preferred to go to certain regions in my application, in the application it states that you can't be guaranteed that certain region, but you can choose any of those regions and if possible they would try to send you there, depending on availability. So I "naively" put the regions that interested me to work in: Eastern Europe and Central Asia, The Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, South America. Basically they thought (I think)...I wanted to go on vacation. So I had to convince them that the reason I choose most of those regions was because of my language skills (fluent in Spanish). So after almost having my dream destroyed of going to the Peace Corps, everything worked out. So note to everyone out there applying, don't be "naive" and choose all of them.

October 2011 - November 2011

After having my dream almost destroyed, the regional recruiter contacted me for my academic transcripts and mentioned I would get a Legal Packet including:  fingerprint cards, National Agency Check (NAC) and so on. We shooted emails back and forth, and asked me for an interview. I was going to end up driving three hours away from home to be interviewed. Luckily after a few days, he mentioned that he was going to come to my home university for a job fair and he would be able to interview me in campus. The interview was around 1-2 hours, he asked me questions he would read in his laptop and recorded my answers by typing them and via a digital recorder. I went in a black suit and tie (professional). I did my homework, like any good interviewee and researched for potential interview questions, expectations, etc. Everything I found out was in the interview; which made me Ace it, Like a BOSS! This impressed my recruiter and at the end of the interview he formally nominated me for the Business and Information & Communication Technology program. I was like fuck yeah! He said that this is just the beginning of the process and it will take some months in order to get vacancy on the program he nominated me for. He mentioned that volunteering in other areas such as: health, education, youth and community development, etc. This would broaden my opportunities to get shipped off sooner. In other words even though I was nominated it didn't mean anything, unless a position opened, which would take months.

December 2011 - March 2012

In the recurring months I finished my legal packet. Getting my fingerprints at $15, was the most hassle of them all, the office working hours were short, they conflicted with my work schedule and the location was about 30 minutes away from home/work. After sending my packet, my recruiter and I keep in touch and asked me to email him every two weeks with updates on my volunteering experience. I honestly tried looking for volunteering opportunities, but they all conflicted with my work schedule, in February 2012 I was laid off my job and decided to put my application on hold. After a month of thinking and struggling, I decided to pursue my dream and asked my recruiter to keep the process going in my application. By mid-March my recruiter called to me to officially nominate me for an Business advising in a French speaking country; unknown at the moment, I figured out it might be in Africa. I was thrilled and excited that I had to learn basic French before my departure date; I would be tested to make sure I know basic French. I started looking for schools and ways to start learning a new language.

April 2012 - May 2012

After one month and half, I received an email from my recruiter telling me the program I was nominated for was cancelled due to program changes. I was sad, but I was patient enough and in May 2012 I was nominated once again to another program in Business Development for the Central/South America Region for early departure in March 2013 to an unknown Spanish speaking country. My recruiter mentioned I would be getting my medical kit through the mail and that I would need to complete it by July 2012. From there the most extensive and difficult part of my application started: "Medical Kit".

68 Days and counting...

Morning!

Well today I've decided I will start a blog about my experience in getting into the Peace Corps and how I'm preparing for the process. I will be leaving in July 2013, honestly I was like "WTF should I waste my time writing one". Excuse my French, but I'm a real person who swears like everyone else and that is something real about this blog, you will see a true person writing what he thinks and just being honest. Hopefully I won't get bored and stop doing it, but what da heck! I'm not the best writer, but if my advice helps any prospective or new volunteers trying to find questions or answers this will be the place. See ya when I see ya. Adios!