I am really starting to get the hang of things here in the jungle and some things really don´t bother me as much as they used to. Usually I am not that upset that my host family goes out of their way to ignore me but this past Sunday they took it a little bit too far. The end result was a big birthday bash in the house that I LIVE IN and I was not invited to it nor was I told that they would even be having a party. I found this to be not only rude but a lack or respect on their part. It been hard for me in the house because there is a big lack of communication but I am not feeling like I am part of the family at all.
So here is the play by play. Earlier in the week I was told by the cleaning lady that on Sunday there would be a big party for the son of my host parents who had just turned one year old. I was pretty excited and thought that it could even be a way to connect with my host mom and help her out with the planning. I thought wrong. The whole week I waited for her to mention something to me but nothing....nothing...nothing...nothing. The weekend quickly came and I decided that I could not keep running away from my site and that I needed to stay and try to mingle with the Sarapiqueños. Saturday was not so bad but then Saturday quickly turned into Sunday and I was faced with the ¨What do I do? Do I stay? Do I ask about this party? Why haven´t they told me about??¨
The end result?? My day turned out to be pretty nice. I went to a Bingo that the school was throwing to raise some money for their classrooms and this event was not like ay other bingo that I have been to in the States. So what does a rice cooker, electric frying pan, pressure cooker, a fan, a iron, and a coffee maker have in common? Well two things...they were all prizes for the winners of bingo and they are all objects that you can find in EVERY Costa Rican home. This was kind of funny because the bingo was for the kids in the school and one would think that there would be prizes for kids but that wasn´t the case. What is a 10 year old going to do with a rice maker and an iron?! Ha!!!
In bingo luck was not on my side but it was really nice to mingle with the people in my community and to support the school. It turns out that unfortunately I came home just in time to be at the party that I tried so hard not to attend. It was nice to see the people that I had been gradually meeting since I have been here but at the same time it was VERY awkward. I left about thirty minutes in and went to my future host family´s house which turned out to be such a nice way to end my weekend. The english teacher came back the same day and he lives in the apartment behind my hopefully new house so I was finally able to speak in english with someone after only speaking in spanish the whole day. I usually don´t mind it but sometimes it is hard to express myself really well just like I would in english. The new family is very fun just like me and I think that I will finally be able to be the real fun and silly Alicia that has been locked up inside of me since I moved to my new site.
If everything goes as planned I will be moving to Cristo Rey by the end of the week just in time for the 2 week long vacation that the students receive every July. Things have been pretty good and so far I am keeping busy with little work projects and meeting people. The Peace Corps is something that I am still proud to be a part of and each day I am still finding myself having moments that tell me how happy I am to be here and Sunday was a day that was full of those moments.
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