Happy Belated Easter! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Mine was very nice because we had off Thursday and Friday for Semana Santa (Holy Week). It was really nice to hang out with my family and relax. And I got to play a lot of Uno. My youngest brother found my cards and Uno cards and now the first thing he asks me when I come home is “Can we play?” and then he asks when we can play and if I have to do something else first he asks why we cant play first and then I go do what I have to. But its been really fun and its been a good way to integrate (integrate is another big thing for PC - to integrate into your family and community).

Easter Sunday I went to church with my family and afterwards there was a procession – complete with a band and a giant “float” of the risen Jesus (it was actually a statue on the back of a truck). There are a lot of processions here…on Friday I went to 2 and I’m sure there was one in almost every nearby town. The procession on Friday for Good Friday in San Antonio was really elaborate. There was at least 100 people taking part in the procession and several hundred more lining Calle Principal to watch. There was a large band, lots of girls dressed up as angels and other related characters, and two giant floats of the crucified Jesus and Mary. The procession went all the way from the Catholic church to the cemetery to “bury” Jesus…it was really interesting. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera so I don’t have any pictures L

After church, I went with my family to a large park in the next town over and then we went out for pizza! Which was awesome because I had been really craving pizza the past couple of days! I think my host mom must have read my mind lol. And it was really good pizza too! It was a really good that unfortunately ended with a cockroach in my room hahah, but we won’t talk about that…

Also, on Saturday, a couple of us went to the house of another trainee and hung out with her family. We ended up teaching her parents how to play “Spoons” and everyone had a blast!

Training is going well….and good news…we’re already ½ way through! AND in just 3 weeks, I will know where my final site will be! So soon, I’ll know where I’ll be living for the next 2 years! Woohoo! Also, on Tuesday, we had our second Spanish language exam and I am happy to report that I have reached the level required to swear-in! I wasn’t really worried but it’s still nice to know I’m at the level I need to be. And, this Saturday is a dinner for all the volunteers in Costa Rica to say good bye to the out-going group and to welcome my group (Tico 19). It’s supposed to be a really good time and it will be nice to meet more current volunteers and get their stories and advice. And then, the next week, we go in groups to our tech visit, where we have to give a lesson/workshop to a group of youth or adults whom the volunteer there is working with. This will be really good to get an idea of how the work we will supposed to do in our future sites might actually go.

I know I have been slacking with the pictures and I will try to post more (especially from my site visit) really soon! I will also try to take pictures of San Antonio because I just realized that I haven’t taken any pictures of where I’m living lol. Hope everyone is well, post comments and send emails! Or real mail is great too…it only costs 90 cents! My address is:

PCT Nicole Noecker

Cuerpo de Paz

Apartado Postal 1266

1000 San Jose, Costa Rica

So What Does a Volunteer REALLY Do???

So this weekend I finally got to see a real volunteer!!!! Very exciting cause up till now, what we actually are going to be doing (and how we´re supposed to it) has been very vague. So,I went to visit a volunteer at a very rural site in northern Costa Rica, very close to the Nicaraguan border. Santa Cecilia is a small-medium sized down with all dirt roads and is very spread out....very campo (country). It was so awesome to see what a volunteer does, and get to see some more of this beautiful country!

So I arrived at Angela´s house (the volunteer I was visiting) in the afternoon after a beautiful but looong (6hrs) trip. She showed me around town, introduced me to a ton of people, and then we walked to the neighboring barrio (neighborhood) to go to a women´s group meeting. Very cookl, cause this was something that some of the women in the town had always wanted to do, they just lacked someone to help them get organized and guide them. That´s been pretty much Angela´s role so now the group is it´s own entity and they meet without her, want to start their own projects, etc. Basically, what Peace Corps work is all about: you help people get mobilized and then step back and they take over....sustainability is a BIG buzzword in PC.

I also got to visit a finca (farm where they grow fruits, etc) and an animal farm!! Very awesome, there´s so much beauty out there. And Santa Cecilia is home to the second largest orange juice plant in Costa Rica, so there are orange groves for miles around the town. I promise I will post pics soon. The farm was really cool....trying not to sound like a little kid (lol) but I got to see chickens (and hold baby chicks!), horses, and cows!!! The cows are a good story. So the family we visited that had the farm asked if we wanted to see the baby cows that were just born a few days ago, so of course we said yes!! So we went to the pen where the cows are kept, got to see the babies, and just hung out with the cows for a while. Haha, seriously....we were just chillin with the cows. We even petted them.....AND, one LICKED me!!! It was sooo hilarious cause I wasn´t expecting it and wasn´t even looking...and then out of nowhere, this cow just licked my arm!!! Totally startled me haha. Just an FYI, cow tongues are very rough.

I also got to see some real work that Angela does....we went to a meeting at the school in Santa Cecilia (she works really closely with the school). I met a lot of the students and teachers and we talked about some of the challenges she has encountered in the school (for example, a good amount of the teachers, etc aren´t from the town and so aren´t as invested/interested in doing different projects). I also got to sit in on one of Angela´s english classes...even though I really don´t want to teach english, it´s a pretty big thing here and almost every town that has a volunteer asks for them to have english classes in some way so I think I have to resign myself to the fact I will have to teach in some capacity during my two years.

We also stopped in Liberia, the small-medium city about 2hrs south of Santa Cecilia to see another volunteer. She works closely with an albergue (basically, a foster home for children taken away from their families for various reasons). That was really great because I am really hoping to be able to work with an albergue once I get to my site.

So that pretty much sums up my weekend...Oh, I also could see Lake Nicaragua from some points in Santa Cecilia so that was pretty awesome. Angela is a really great, hard-working volunteer and I learned a lot about being patient and persistent...and that real volunteer life is nothing like training! Thank God...cause, its good, but very intense and I´ve definitely been missing downtime lately. But this coming weekend I will get some cause we don´t have to do ANYTHING and I´m not going anywhere so it´ll be really nice to relax a bit.

I hope all is well with everyone...I miss you all!!! Post comments or send emails..I´d love to hear what people are up to!