Back from visiting two volunteers in action

Alright I´ll have to make this fast...I´m waiting for the bus back to San Jose (3 hours) and then from San Jose to Vuelta de Jorco (1 hour 30 minutes). Saturday we left for a town near Rivas (SW Costa Rica) that is in the mountains. There were 50 houses in this town, and half were family. It was a cozy town and I got some good pictures! We stayed there until Monday morning. We met a volunteer who has lived there for two years and is almost done with her service. We learned about some of her projects there and what she has been doing with peace corps. My family I stayed with was super nice and had a kid of 18 months who was so awesome! He reminded me of Lily and how much I miss that little babay.

Monday we got on a couple more buses, and a few hours later we were near Uvitas (should be on a map--it´s a beach town in SW Costa Rica). There was another current volunteer who had also been there two years. We learned about micro credit and how they work small loans for community development. It´s basically a small bank run by the townspeople. They use their own money and therefore get to keep the internet on loans rather than paying that to banks. It´s really cool but I still don´t understand it all. The volunteer there helped somebody start a surf shop also. He did a lot of things there! Both these towns will have another volunteer filling their shoes when they leave in September, so we´ll see. There are also a lot of towns that don´t have a PC volunteer that I could go to. It would be hard to live in someone else´s shadow.

Near Uvitas we hiked up a mountain and got a great view of the ocean. Then we hiked down and went to the beach! I got my first taste of Costa Rican beach and it was pretty great. How could it not be? It rained and rained and we played in the water. Then, still in the downpour, we returned to town and had a 5 on 5 soccer game in the pouring rain. It was fun!

My health has been pretty good but for some reason I´m still struggling with some crankiness. It can get a little depressing, somehow, admist all the awesomeness that is here. I still havent found somebody to really connect with, somebody with the same passions as me. All 35 other trainees are really awesome--it´s overwhelming! But I long to connect. I guess it´s only been 3 weeks or so, so I can´t expect to connect after barely knowing somebody.

Sorry I can´t write more but I have to catch the bus accross town soon. I will try and update next when I can! Also gmail wasn´t working so I couldn´t check my email. I want to get busy writing some letters and Ill be looking forward to keeping in touch! I really am looking forward to hearing from lots of you about what´s going on in your lives. Hope to talk to you soon!