Teach for America & End of Year Wrap Up

I will officially be teaching science in Eastern North Carolina this fall for Teach for America :) I am very excited to working for such an exciting organization! What another amazing opportunity for me to give back to my wonderful home state and be within driving distance of my family and friends.

School is wrapping up quickly here in Costa Rica. I cannot believe the year is drawing to a close! We are in preparation for graduation which will be May 25th. Most of us will not be finished with our thesis for the ceremony and others will leave to do internships elsewhere but we want to have ceremony to celebrate before everyone departs for the next part in their journey for peace.

I recently came back from the Annual United Nations Central American Soccer Tournament, where our men’s soccer team won the tournament and the women’s team placed fourth. However, though we didn’t win our team was awarded the Best Team Spirit and we had a fabulous time. This was a truly memorable experience for representing Upeace in the soccer tournament.

I am very excited to be helping our host club of Belen, this coming weekend with a Tope, which is a horse parade that is very popular in Costa Rica. Maggie, JP, and I are also in process of organizing a 6k Run for Peace from Ciudad Colon to our university and we are hoping to raise money for the local Red Cross and Polio Plus.

Looking forward to an excellent end of the year!

Semana Santa and All

Time is literally flying by and I am quite sad to say we only have a short 6 weeks left. The weather is beautiful here in Costa Rica, sunshine and a mild breeze. We have recently returned from a week break for the Passover and Easter celebrations.

I traveled with my friend, Ori, to Nicaragua during this time and we visited the island in the middle of the lake called Ometope. This was quite an exciting trip and we were able to practice our Spanish and see a very different country from Costa Rica. The people were of course just a friendly but there was definitely a very present sense of poverty and struggle within the country.

This week I am starting a course on negotiations which will prove to be very interesting. We have a soccer tournament in Nicaragua for Upeace at the end of April to look forward to as well. I will be participating on the Women’s Soccer team.

Also, Maggie and I are organizing a Pura Vida Walk/Run from Ciudad Colon to the University for May in conjunction with our host Rotary club to raise money for the Red Cross. I am very excited about this event!

UPMUNC, Vagina Monologues, and other news

This semester has really kicked up. Last week we finished UPMUNC (University for Peace Model United Nations Conference) which went very well. I think all the participants felt that the experience was very educational and all of the councils passed at least one resolution. Unexpectedly, my boyfriend who was visiting extended his stay and participated in UPMUNC (I think he learned more than anyone else as he has absolutely no experience with the UN). As a board member, I was very pleased with the success of the event and also very happy for it to come to completion.

I have just had a 4 day break that was much needed.

Now I am back into the swing of things, practicing for the Vagina Monologues, I am performing “The Little Coochi Snorcher that Could” which is a very challenging piece about a Southern women who was sexually abused as a child but found salvation through her experiences with a woman when she was 16 years old. I feel deeply connected to this script with my Southern roots and I look forward to performing it next week.

In other news, I have been accepted to the final interview for Teach for America; this is such an amazing program that I only learned about recently. I previously thought you needed to be an education major to participate in the corps, but they are looking for individuals who are not education majors but fresh out of top undergraduate or graduate programs who are passionate about helping in low-income areas.

I will have the final interview at the end of this month and I hope to travel to Miami to attend it. I am very excited about this opportunity as it is a 2 year teaching job in a low-income area in the United States.

Good to be back

Hola, todos!

I know it has been awhile since I have written. I had a chaotic break but it was nice to be home for a weeks. I really enjoyed my time in North Carolina.

However, I am very happy to be back in Costa Rica and things are as crazy as ever. I am busy with UPMUNC, soccer practice, monologue practice, classes and I have just begun an internship.

I will be working with Fundacion Rahab, an organization dedicated to combating human trafficking in Costa Rica. I am very excited about this opportunity after being inspired by my gender and human trafficking class last month.

UPMUNC (University for Peace Model United Nations Conference) is a short 2 weeks away from March 1-3 and we are getting very excited about it. I’m going to try to keep my blogs this semester brief and more frequent hopefully.

Excitement and Stress

The last few weeks have been a blur. I have finished another class and I am almost finished with my last course for the semester. I’m leaving in a few short days and it still feels like there is so much to do: packing, papers, people to see, places to go.

But it will all come together.

At Upeace we have culture nights as part of our mandated curriculum. These cultural nights are a wonderful opportunity for us to learn about places and cultures which we might never get to experience otherwise.

A few weeks ago, Africa Night set the bar with a week of events leading up to the night and a fantastic exhibition of African dance, food, and incredible culture.

This past Friday was North America Night and as part of the planning committee I had my hands full with dancing, organizing, and food preparing.

The night was a tremendous success as we shared Native American heritage, dances from many decades, curling, and French Canada. In prior years, NA Night has been about Thanksgiving but the staff and faculty appreciated our novel approach and BBQ in substitute of turkey.

This week is M.A.P. Night- Middle East, Asia, and Pacific- I’m very excited! I’m dancing in a Bollywood production for those of you who don’t know, Bollywood is basically the Hollywood of India.

Google: “Chammak Challo.” This is a popular Bollywood song, what’s neat about Bollywood films is that they always feature elaborate dance scenes throughout the movie.

In other news, I have been busy with Rotary as well. I teamed up with my fellow scholar, JP and the San Jose Rotaract Club to help collect and distribute Christmas presents to two low-income schools; one near Ciudad Colόn and another far back in the mountains which serves an indigenous population.

This was such a fun event because we were able to meet with the kids and their parents on a Saturday to play games with them and then give them early Christmas presents.

As a Catholic country, Christmas is a very big celebration in Costa Rica and they have even incorporated some traditions such as lights and Christmas trees! (And even Black Friday, which I actually find to be a bit disturbing.)

However, Christmas music is everywhere and even though there is no snow, I am ready for the Christmas season when I go home.

Looking forward to the holidays and a well-deserved break!

So Thankful

Just had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Costa Rica!

The American students put together a fantastic celebration with U.S. favorites such as stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and chicken as a substitute for turkey.

About 30 of us came to the meal and helped prepare the food and then before we ate, we all shared what we were thankful for. It was so special to share this American tradition with my fellow classmates many of whom had never celebrated Thanksgiving.

Just as homesickness set in, I realized that I have a new family here at Upeace and I would not trade this experience for the world; I have learned so much in the short time I have been here and I am so grateful for all the wonderful people who have come into my life.

When I arrived at Upeace, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. To be honest, I was terrified- I was without a doubt the youngest student here and I felt like I had so little experience and knowledge in comparison with my peers. But as the months quickly passed, I now realize that I have much to offer and also that my simple willingness to be open to others and new experiences has all ready greatly shaped my time here.

I am in love with this place and these people and I am beyond thankful for this once in a lifetime opportunity to be here. I am so indebted to the Rotary club for their faith and confidence in my scholarship here and I am certain this has been nothing less than an incredible, life-changing experience for me.

To one and all, I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your time with your family and friends, please don’t take it for granted.

I know I won't.

"It is by being more personal that we can then be more universal." -Oscar Torres

Today was one of the most intense experiences I have had thus far in my education at Upeace.  We watched the film “Innocent Voices,” which is about the civil war that occurred in El Salvador (1980-1992) as seen through the eyes of an 11 year-old boy.

What made this film so powerful was the presence of the writer, Oscar Torres, who presented the film and then participated in a discussion afterwards.  The film is based on his life as he experienced the war during his childhood.  Oscar said that the process of writing and filming this movie was like a 3 year therapy session for him and that not a day went by when he did not struggle with his desire to drop the project and run away from the memories.

He was very candid and honest with the audience as he described his experiences and another concept that struck a chord with me was that he was very adamant that he did this project not for others- to spread awareness about civil war and the impact especially on children- but that the project was for him.

He said it was in his own selfish interest that he wrote the story of “Innocent Voices” because at the time he was still very angry and he needed to “get it out.”  His journey to heal from a psychological perspective is a fascinating process to hear about; Oscar said that he watched the film over 100 times and every time he cried until one day he realized that he was no longer crying for himself but for the others who were still experiencing this.  He recognized this moment as a turning point in which his own wounds had become healed scars and he was then able to move on to help others.

Because if we don’t take care of ourselves as we so often neglect to do so, then how can we possibly take care of others?

This has caused me to reflect on my own motivations as to why I do what I do and why it is I want to spend my life in the service of others.  On the outset I want to say that this is because of selfless reasons that have to do with my belief in social justice and equality-these are the reasons I want to say this is why I am where I am, but this is not entirely true.

I do what I do for me.

I think we all have our own personal demons though many of our experiences may not be as tragic as that of a child growing up in civil war, nonetheless, we all have our own wounds and we are all searching for a way to heal that pain.

I long for the day when I can wake up and honestly say that I am no longer doing what I do for myself but I am helping others for their sake and not my own.