Hey there,
I've been back for two weeks, and I am getting settled in.
Well, my new job title is Assistant Project Director (APD) in Costa Rica. Additionally, I will be Program Director (PD) in Nicaragua when that project starts in early 2002 (although I have not yet signed a Nicaragua contract yet, but that is the idea anyway).
What does an APD do? Good question, not too sure of that myself yet - at least on the level of details that I need to perform my job well, not yet anyway. We are still discussing who is responsible for what areas of the management of the program. In general, we manage the volunteer program of Canadians and Australians that arrive in Costa Rica to work with local Costa Rican volunteers. This means we:
For the last two weeks, I have been mostly involved in preparing and giving sessions to our new leaders. Themes like the role of a group leader, equipment on project, project report forms, etc. Also, I went on a quick project identification visit for the project in December. We have six groups (maybe even 7) coming in December, so we are trying to get an early start on our project identification.
The community I visited was in the north of Costa Rica, about an hour from the Nicaraguan border in a place called Pocosol (Little sun). Contrary to its name, it was very sunny and very hot. The community is trying to launch a rainforest reserve, similar to the project in Quebrada Arroyo where I was a leader last year. It was a quick trip, but everything was very close together so I managed to gather all the information we needed in one day and came back to San Jose the same day. (I was up from 5am, to catch a 5:30am bus. Unfortunately, I misread my new clock at 2:10, thinking it was 4:20am and got up and showered and almost left at 3am. So I had a short nap before going - oops)
One "fun" thing was that we walked on the existing "trails" and it had been raining a lot so one part fo the trail was flooded. There was a bridge, but I couldn't see it. Then the community pointed it out to me - it was one foot under the water. Oops. Fortunately there was a branch (maybe 10cm diameter) that was mostly above water - maybe 10cm under in the middle. So we went across the 3m stretch on the branch. It wasn't dangerous, but I was nervous, I certainly didn't want to fall in the stream and have wet boots and clothes all day. I inched across, very nervously, much to the delight of the community. I made it, but it took me a while...
The RJI office has changed a lot since I started here a year ago. We have a new executive director, Lorenzo. Also, there is a new Project Director, Diego. Lorenzo is completely new to the organisation, but Diego has been around as long as I have, almost. Lorenzo was working previously with AFS, an exchange program and Diego was working with RJI a few years ago as APD, and recently with VIDA, another volunteer program in Costa Rica. So far, things are moving along smoothly with the new team.
The rest of my life as been fairly boring, simply settling back into life in San Jose, cleaning the house, and my room, which has been sorely neglected, etc. I'll have to think of some exciting activities to do in the near future to tell you.
One thing is that I am going to sign up for French classes in the university this week. There is a test to find out your level on Friday afternoon, so I am going to do that this week. Have to see how much French I remember. I want to sign up for guitar classes as well, but I am still looking for a not-too-expensive teacher.
That's all for now. Hope to hear from you soon,
Rob