from my front porch

This city is rooted in the mountains of the central valley, just west of San Jose.

This barrio has layers of life and cement and paint, with abrupt sidewalks made of weathered pavement, mud and rushing water.

This is my barrio, its people will know me and my bright green rain jacket, one day.

Once a day, the main street of this barrio fills like a river with the green and celeste uniforms of students going and coming, with in no particular pattern and in no hurry to figure it out.

This city is covered in tin roofs; amplifying the sound of rain to a deafening level, and deflecting the sound of my footsteps crackling pebbles beneath my feet as I run into the quiet morning.

This city is full of colour; beige and greens, pink and yellows, blues and reds. And just like others, it is a guarded city; with bars on windows and gates that tuck in their respective families at night.

This barrio is wet; with muddy streets and muddier rivers and try as they might umbrellas can’t keep the water out.

My barrio sits in clouds. On a walk one day, I wasn’t sure if I was walking into the hanging droplets of water in the air or if they had gathered enough gravity to fall towards me.

My barrio is quiet; except during a futbol game where you can hear cheers and yells from all the neighbors, or when Friday night energy spills over into Saturday mornings.

My barrio has a quiet beauty, seen from my front porch at any hour or in the faces of people who live happily and simply in the midst of a shanty town where sidewalks equal thru roads that exist as front yards and where very few things exist for just one persons use, these things just belong here.

This is my home and it is growing on me.

my first week of many

I don’t feel bad for waking up late 7:45, working out and taking my time at this breakfast nook… nope. And I'm not even sure I have a right to feel this way. But I'll justify it by explaining that I have had 4 relatively productive days, in a row! I met with all counterparts; devised a temporary work schedule for myself at least at the high school, and I have a date with most of the faculty in the high school in two weeks to deliver my not yet finished surveys. I have a tutor that has agreed to help me continue my Spanish learning and I initiated email correspondence with Hazel (best teacher ever) to further help me with my Spanish. I've been to the escuela everyday and the high school almost every day, been to the EBAIS and PANI and met with Laura, half for funzies and half cause we had our meeting with Enid at MUSADE. Every day I have had at least one meeting, one good conversation, or mini goal achieved.  My host mom and sister seem to think I'll have lots of friends in no time. Social, professional, personal development, check check check for this week. Again, I'm not sure I have the right to feel this way, I may just be justifying laziness and underachievement, but right now I'm enjoying it. I know other volunteers have given charlas, taught classes, are already famous in their towns! Ill get there, I have two neighborhood kids that call my name when they see me walking up the street. Poco a poco is how it goes. There are over 400 kids in the escuela, and over 800 in the high school, and I have two years to get in with them. So, basically I’m happy with where I ended up. All things considered, I feel accomplished. One bad thing, I totally forgot that I have objectives that I can fall back on to explain myself. When my new work partners at the high school look at me and ask what I need help with or what projects I'm interested in, I was too busy worrying if they realized I still have the post of my piercing in my lip. Note to self, I should start working my actual objectives into their (and my) understanding of why I'm really here. Tomorrow is an acto civico, at 7 am. First off who celebrates things this early. A 3AM march in Los Angeles? 7 AM community get-together at escuelas around the country for Dia de Cultura? Anyway, I have that tomorrow, should be fun, then an afternoon hanging out with Laura, maybe a mountain to climb? Vamos a ver que va a pasar!