Hi there,
As I sit here and sniffle with a cold, I figure I might as well make myself useful and write to you. In the last three weeks, we have been working hard, trying to get projects for the December groups that are coming. In the last week, I have hardly been in the office, it feels and next week is the same. I could say the same for home, as it feels like I am never home, nor do I eat at home these days.
On the job, things are never dull. I did my first order of food for the second half of the Sep-Nov group and promptly discovered that our main food supplier had gone out of business. Oops. After calling around a bit, I finally got a few different quotes and places going and in the end, ordered some of the food from three different places.
That was all fine and dandy, but I asked for a cheque to pay for the food and went to the bank that morning to cash it, and discovered from the teller that it was missing the all important "thousand" in the denomination. Oops. So, after much running around and getting a new cheque signed, I got the money, but we still had to tell two of the suppliers to come back later.
In the afternoon, the two suppliers came, but at the same time! Oops - they seemed to know each other - naturally, since they are competitors, I suppose. Oh well, it is a learning experience.
Another part of my job is looking for donations. So far, I have gotten the run around a lot, but I still have hope. I even went to the Canadian embassy to see if they could donate photocopies to us. (They have in the past, at least a few years ago)
Lately I have gone on two visits to find projects - one with the UNDP and another with a local politician. Both were less than successful. I went to eight communities in total, but came away with no projects (so far). However, the visit with the politician was the most promising (surprisingly!) as I had three good leads and two other possibilities came out of it. Just have to wait to see if the communities actually send us an application.
We hope to finalise the projects by November 5. I think we about half arranged so far. I have two more visits with the UNDP with week, so hopefully we'll get something concrete this time...
Also, I spent four days visiting a project group in the Isla de Venado (Deer Island). The purpose was to bring them food for the second half, give the group leaders a short vacation, check-in with the group to see if all was ok and various other little tasks.
So, on Saturday, I got up at 2:15am and so I could catch a 3am bus to Heredia to catch a ride with the food. The mini-bus came at 4am and I helped load up the stuff. The mini-bus picked up a load of students from the UNA at 4:30am and off we went to Puntarenas to catch the ferry.
We got there early for the 7am ferry, which promptly left at 7:30am. After a quick bite to eat, we were off - 2 hours later in Playa Naranjo. We bumped into Michelle, one of the group leaders, who was off to San Jose for her vacation. Next, the bus continued to a private farm where we were to meet the boat for the island. The tide was out, so the usual loading spot for the food was no longer a stream, but mud. So, I wearing my one pair of jeans for the weekend, and some students, started carrying the boxes and sacks of food through 400 meters of mud to the boat.
Miraculously, my pants were only minimally dirty. However, this did not last. When we got to the boat, it was stuck in the mud because of all the weight. Oops. So, some of us had to get out and push. So we did, until we sank in mud and water up to our thighs. So much for my clean pants.
Finally, at 10:30am we arrived and the group announced that we were taking a field trip to the other side of the island. One hour later, I was probably even more sunburnt and tired and we arrived to find out we had missed the bulk of the activities. Oh well.
The group was happy to see me, and I don't think it had too much to do with the fact that I was bringing them their mail and some fudge. :) That night, after checking in with Wanda that everything was going ok with her, I collapsed in bed. Sunday morning, Wanda took her vacation and left me alone with the group. I played soccer with some kids, read my book and generally relaxed until lunch. After lunch, we had an excursion to one family's farm and then we had a group feedback session on how they thought things were going. It went pretty well.
Monday morning arrived, but Michelle did not. Oops. Eventually she arrived in the evening, but it was worrisome for a bit.
So with Monday, arrived work. I pitched in and helped carry cement blocks, sand and gravel from the beach to the worksites (A high school and the youth centre). The local high school took the morning off to pitch in and we finished carrying it all to the high school worksite by 10am. After a 5 minute jog back to the youth centre, we were ready to carry some more. Did I mention how hot is it in this place? Must have been 35+!
After a well-deserved lunch, I helped out with the primary school project - building a new wall around it. Much easier work, and I appreciated that.
After giving the group leaders some pointers for the rest of the 5 weeks, on Tuesday morning I returned to San Jose.
In my social life, have been going out a fair bit - movies, one play and many glasses of wine. Andrea's birthday was on Tuesday, and thankfully I was back in time for that. We went out for a drink with the officemates and I gave her the Guiness cans I have been hiding in my room since my trip to Canada.
I was also a Canada prop in a presentation in the UCR. Some friends of Tomas needed a Canadian for their presentation urgently and grabbed me last week to be a representative of civil society in a Public Administration class. It was interesting, but went way longer than they had told me, so I was continually worried about the time. It all worked out though... I doubt I am a typical rep of Canada, but at least I am bilingual!
Not much else to blab on about so take care,
Rob