S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G Bee Part 2

The Santa Cruz 1^st Regional Spelling Bee was a huge success.  I have tried writing and speaking about the Spelling Bee project but I feel like I can’t adequately describe the experience.  Here is a description of the process.  But it is so much more than spelling words.   

As the high school students were arriving, a student from a rival school went up to another student he met at the circuito (district) level and said, “Hi!  How are you?” in English! 

A high school teacher would mouth the words along with the students.  She would do the “Yes” and hand in fist thing when she got the word correct.

Like the Hubs is doing here

The Hubs crossed his fingers and whispered words of encouragement from afar to his students as they spelled the secret challenge words that decided the winner.

A row of teachers were discussing the level of complexity for the secret challenge words and trying to spell them along with the students. 

Eighteen (Peace Corps) Volunteers and three (Accion Joven) team members took time out of the day to cheer, herd, sweat, judge, or announce words for the 51 participants.

All three age groups had to use the secret challenge words to determine the winner.  (That means the kids memorized 300 words from the general word list).    

Two fifth graders sang a song in English for an artistic presentation at the beginning.  

A high school senior conversed with me in English after the competition.
The Music Assessor stayed all day to help with the sound system.  Even having to get up every 5 to 10 minutes to walk the microphone to a young man who was on crutches.

The administrative staff from the office stood in the back because there were no seats and they wanted to watch the elementary competition. 

The elementary teachers presented me with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and a plaque and my Peace Corps boss gave me flowers as well.

A text after the competition from a teacher read, ”More students are looking forward to the next contest…they are excited and willing to get involved for next year.”

I don’t know how to put this day into words.  It was a fruition of months of preparation by 30+ teachers, my counterpart, and myself.  The dedication of my teachers is amazing.  They made this event the success it was.  They trained the students, they donated money, and they did the prep work.  My counterpart took this on as well.  Having the Spelling Bee in Santa Cruz was her dream.  I was her voice and feet, but she is ready for next year.

Our goal in Peace Corps is to create sustainable projects, and I worried.  I thought, this isn’t going to go beyond me.  But I was wrong.  So wrong.  This is something that not only the teachers and students saw it was worth it, but also the Ministry of Education (MEP), parents, and Accion Joven (a youth orientated program) saw worth striving for.  This project will be is sustainable and successful in my region.  

The top three winners in each age group will advance to the Inter-regional Spelling Bee in November!  

Vacationing-Part Dos

Three days after my family made it home, the Hubs and I went to Nicaragua with three other Volunteers. 

Our itinerary included three nights in Leon, three nights in Granada, and three nights in Ometepe. 

While in Leon we had many adventures.  We climbed Cerro Negro and then boarded down her other side.  Volcano boarding is like sledding, but on a rocky volcano and faster.  Yours truly got the fastest time of the day when we went with Bigfoot Volcano Boarding!  The next day we ventured to a beach that is close to the city.  We pretty much got dominated by its ever changing direction waves. 

The crew that went volcano boarding

The Hub's jumpsuit was a little too small (may have affected his boarding)

Don't look mom

I just love this man

They were painting the cathedral 

Granada was gorgeous!  It is an old city with still standing colonial churches and buildings.  I could have spent my whole time in Nicaragua exploring this beautiful city.  From there we toured the little islands in Lago Nicaragua, swam in the lagoon, and walked around taking pictures.

Looking smoking hot

Lago Nicaragua 

Granada from the bell tower

Ometepe was quite the experience.     We stayed on a farm that was labeled “Not for every tourist.”  Basically to get to this finca we had to hike like half way up one of the volcanoes on the island (I maybe stretching the truth but that’s what it felt like as we climbed with our backpacks).  While there we swam in a mineral water pool called El Ojo de Agua, some of us rode horses on the beach, and we just relaxed.  Finca Magdalena, where we stayed, was quite the adventure. No power, freezing cold showers, and the hike, need I say more?

Volcano photo:: check

P0etroglyphs  

The ferry...

Nicaragua is a beautiful country.  I enjoyed my time there with great company and fun times.  Maybe we will go back.

Vactioning- Part Uno

My High School Teachers group

The past two months have been a whirlwind of great things.  June was a trying yet fantastic month.  In June, we finished up the 5^th and 6^th conversation clubs of my service.  Conversation clubs bring teachers from all over the district together to speak English as well as share ideas they use their classroom. 

My Elementary Teacher Group

June also brought the end to all institutional and circuito spelling bees.  You can read about the spelling bees here.  All that is left for spelling bees is our 1^st Annual Regional Spelling Bee which will be August 6^th. 

The reason for the title---My family visited at the end of June!  I had been looking forward to and planning this trip for ages.  It was my brothers’ first times out of the country and my dad’s first trip to Costa Rica (you can read about my mom’s surprise visit here).

They were great troopers and experienced live as we do.  They stayed in our house (see photos of mi casa here) and took buses.  I loved hearing their thoughts and seeing their expressions as they saw things that have become normal to me (throwing away used toilet paper, chickens running around, no a/c, walking everywhere). 

The first day was filled with eating local food, sweating, and walking.

The second day was my family’s first time to snorkel and they baby brother’s first time in an ocean that he can remember.  The baby brother was the first of us to jump into the ocean with his snorkeling gear on.  He has no fear. 

While snorkeling, we saw an octopus, a shark, eel, and really colorful fish.  My brothers dove down with the guide to see some of these cool things.  Seeing them come up after diving down and high fiving the guide (from Pacific Coast Dive Center*) out of pure excitement was enough for me.   While two of us got sea sick, the siblings survived (the siblings have a HUGE distrust of throwing up so it was an accomplishment to not throw up), we still had a great day.  After that, the boys basically dragged the rest of us to the beach so they can play in the ocean.  We had to strike a deal with them to get out before the torrential downpour ensued. 

Day three was filled with hiking and meeting new people.  One of my parents’ requests was to meet (and feed) some of our Peace Corps friends.  So we met up with three other volunteers and two of their friends to hike Rincón de la Vieja Volcano (the old women’s corner) and then eat pizza.  It was a 3-kilometer hike around a volcano.  Everyone was a trooper. 

The Peace Corps Volunteers

The Fam Bam

Day four was the much-anticipated day at the beach for the brothers.  We brought our boogie boards and dominated the water.  Again, I loved seeing my brothers search for sea shells, “punch” the waves, boogie board, and basically smile the whole time. 

The next day (day 5) was zip lining with Pura Adventura* (great company).  We came a way with some war wounds (a “baby brother vacation”-aptly named because he got hurt almost every other day).  Another first for my brothers and dad.  While it wasn’t a favorite for some, it still was a successful day.  Later that night we feed 6 of the 8 volunteers who live in our cluster (Volunteers are placed near each other Costa Rica) and it was a HUGE success.  The PCVs have labeled it Taco Night and legend. 

We are ready to conquer some fears! 

Some of the wonderful Volunteers who live near us

Their last full day in Costa Rica (day 6) was another beach day and then off to see a momma sea turtle lay eggs thanks.  This was another awe inducing activity.  It didn’t come without its hiccups.  It is the beginning of sea turtle season here in Guanacaste and we were only ensured an 80% of seeing one turtle. 

We got to the beach and waited.  And waited.  And some even fell asleep.  Finally, our guide from Samara Adventure Company* said, “No turtles tonight, I am sorry.” We marched ourselves back up to the reserve station.  As we were getting ready to leave our guide's telephone rings.  He says, “Verdad? En serio?  Ok, vamos.” He turned to us to announce with a smile on his face, “There is a turtle!”  We rushed back to the beach to see this one lonely momma sea turtle make a home for her babies. 

Day 7 was a tough day.  It was the day the family had to go back home.  It wasn’t a terrible sad good bye because we were going to see them again later this year and then be back in the States in 8 ½ short months for good. 

I cannot believe that their time here has already come and gone (even though I am trying to convince the baby brother to come back for his spring break or something).  It was a joy and treat, to see my family, show off where we live, and bring some of our stories to life for them. 

Stay tuned for Vacation-Part 2!

*I highly recommend any of these companies for tours while staying in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.  They are bi-lingual and are very accommodating.  They do not know I am writing about them.  

Where My Heart Is

Oklahoma.  What comes to mind when you hear that?  Tornados?  Country and farmland?  The musical?  NBA Thunder?

For me it means home.  It means family and friends.  It means comfort.  It means strength.

Credit to the Little Brother

The past few weeks, Oklahoma has been hit HARD by storms.  There has been multiple days of tornados and storms.  There has been days (even after the BIG one in Moore) where people were forced into their storm shelters praying that today is not the day they have to rebuild.

While I have lived away from this state for over a year, when the storms hit many other Peace Corps volunteers, other friends, and Ticos reached out to the Hubs and me making sure our family and friends were safe.  It was beautiful.  It reminded me that my "family" now extends states and countries.

Thankfully, our families and friends were not in harms way (but had a scare).  But unfortunately, many others were not as lucky.  Many are now without their homes, places of business, cars, and basic day to day things like a place to do laundry, cook their dinners, and beds to sleep in.

Many people have asked how can they help those devastated by the tornados in May.  Here are a few links to websites that will directly assist those that need it most.

You can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to The Red Cross Diaster Relief Fund.

You can also donate to The Salvation Army by clicking this link.

You can donate to United Way of Central Oklahoma by clicking the link or by calling: 405-236-8441 as well.  

To donate to the The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma you can text FOOD to 32333 to give $10.


This post was inspired by my friend's post over at Emily is running in heels.  

I do not know the source, if you do please let me know

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G Bees

Since April, my life has been taken over by conversation clubs and Spelling Bees.

Spelling Bees were first introduced last year by a small group of Peace Corps Volunteers and it was so successful that more regions of Costa Rica are participating!  This is the first year that my region is participating.  Last year, spelling bees were done in schools that only had volunteers, but this year we are encouraging more schools to participate.

In my region there are 24 schools participating and only four have volunteers currently working there in some capacity.  Since I work at the central office for my area, I am in charge of coordinating the different competitions as well as be an honored guest to as many competitions as I can.

While this is a huge (and sometimes frustrating) project, I have enjoyed seeing the students have success in spelling words in their second language.  That is correct, students are competing in a spelling bee in their second language.

I have seen students spell words correctly that they had not studied, students talk to me in English, and teachers present the whole competition in English.  This is the first time, that I have gotten to go to many of these schools and it is so cool to see how the teachers work and interact with their students.

This is a great project.

I will leave you with pictures from each spelling bee that I have been lucky enough to be a part of.

Telling them they all advanced to the next level

A friend, who is not participating, is helping him study for the bee 

Meeting the President

So a few weeks ago, President Obama was visiting Costa Rica for 22 hours to be part of a meeting with many of the Central American presidents.  He made time from his busy schedule to have a "meet and greet" with the Embassy workers and Peace Corps Volunteers/staff.

The Hubs and I promptly decided that we cannot let this opportunity pass us.  We rearranged our schedule and jumped on an early bus with another Volunteer the day he was to appear.  We got to our PC office and changed into our uniforms with our credentials.

Then we hopped in a van to take us to see the President!  The buses were unable to go directly to his hotel, safety reasons, so we walked and chatted about who is going to get a handshake, high five, or fist bump.

We had to wait a little bit once we were in the hotel because Air Force One had not landed yet.

We watched Air Force One land on a giant screen and him drive through the closed down streets of San Jose.

Then he was there!

The Ambassador of Costa Rica introducing him

Telling us what a great job we are doing

Once he got there, he gave a short thank you speech for the work the Embassy and Peace Corps Volunteers where doing.  It was nice to hear thank you from this great man.

Then he did a quick hand shaking, photo taking walk and ran to his next meeting.

Do you notice that there is an advantage to being tall?

The Hubs ended up getting a handshake.

After he ran to his meeting with the Costa Rican president we took pictures of course!

That's the Presidential Seal behind us

Almost all of surviving Tico 23

While his meeting was short, it was very neat to hear President Obama say, "thank you" and be that close to the current president of the US.  That will never happen again in my life time.