May...just May

So you'll forgive me, won't you if I start with things that happened at the end of the month and move backwards? After all, in the grand scheme of things, i'm working backwards right now anyway, so you don't have much of a base to argue on, and besides, if you do wanna argue, you can't get at me all the way out here.

On the 21st of May I was finally sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer. In a lot of ways it wasn't that much different from my college graduation since I didn't feel any more professional and certainly not any more mature than I had when I woke up that morning, and just like in college, I had checked out a long time before so the magnitude of it kinda passed me by since in my head I had finished with training the day I went on my site visit.

That being said, I did get tripped up by one thing at swearing in. Maybe it was the solemnity of the occasion or the fact that we were kinda on US soil but I found myself crying during the National Anthem. Now i'm not unpatriotic, but I don't like saying the pledge or in fact pledging to anything except when drunk when I pledge any number of things. I had walked without emotion by the Declaration of Independence, Abe Lincoln's hat and the flag that the same National Anthem was based on but this time without reason I got tears in my eyes and looking around, I saw several other people in the same position.

That afternoon was bittersweet as I was celebrating with and concurrently saying goodbye to a lot of the people I had spent nearly all my time outside of my house with in the last few months. Granted we'll all be seeing each other in three months where we'll probably all be so changed with our individual experiences in our sites we'll probably be spending our time getting to know each other all over, but when I found myself that afternoon playing pool with the two biggest ladies men of Tico 20 and Joe (in his ladykiller shoes), I couldn't help wishing training had been organized with a whole week rather than one day at the end to hang out free of classes. Later that evening after after having to endure myself singing Abba in a karaoke bar, Abby's far too excited exposition on Hobbit wrestling, and having the bus that we waited for 45 minutes for in the rain break down twice, finally dumping us on some unknown corner that I knew that I would gladly trade both pairs of shoes I paid 2,000 colones for (especially the ones that fell apart about 100 feet from the house my first time out, just as Judith predicted) to have that extra week.

Ever since Technical week, my host family has been building a Panaderia (bakery) in our house. I say since tech week even though they first came up with the idea nearly three weeks before then because I arrived back home after a week away to find the entire house rearranged and most of the extraneous furniture heaped up in a pile in the front entry. In fact, the only rooms spared from the carnage of remodeling were my room and the kitchen (which I suspect was only saved after I spent the better part of an afternoon trying to convince Judith and Ritchie that uprooting all their appliances and moving the kitchen to another room just for the heck of it was going to be expensive and probably a lot of work besides). My last week in my site the hard work and the having to eat, hang out and live in the roughly 5 square feet not filled with piles of whatnots finally began to prove its worth with the beginning of the real work on the Panaderia. My last few days in my house were full of moving shelves and displays into the space (their old bedroom), installing a sink for who knows what and painting the whole thing. We didn't finish the entire construction by Saturday as they headily announced on Tuesday when we started the first bit of moving. (I know Kevin, I owe you a beer) Even though I knew it wasn't going to be finished however, I found myself working in all my spare time at home on getting it as close to completion as I could before I left. My last night in my house I spent hours painting grey onto the wall and around the unexplained sink. At the time I couldn't understand my dedication or the need I felt to finish it against all odds, but in retrospect I think every bit of grey I painted on the wall was almost a therapy for me, helping me move on and move out by ensuring that in a way my presence was still there in every drop of grey paint I had put on the wall.

So that was the end of the month. You might say--(well you can't say cause this is all written and besides you're all far away) "but Kari, you said yourself that started on the 21st of May and in this year of our lord 2010 i'm pretty sure May has 31 days." This is true, but I don't count my time in site as part of this month but rather the next one. Now that's cleared up, here are some other things that happened to me this month:

-I had a really awesome time grocery shopping for the family party with Harold and accomplices. In a few selected anecdotes, we made an illegal u-turn since after all we were in a diplomatic vehicle, we made that illegal u-turn to go to McDonalds for a McPinto that once we got there noone actually ordered and then we followed that up by eating nonstop for the rest of the day since every place we went afterwards had samples

-I had a really awesome time hanging out with Sophie my host aunt as we painted the Panaderia, and was honored by her trust in telling me that she's agnostic

-I had a really awesome time with the host kids learning both about their deepest fears (Noe's is pinatas and Josue's is clowns) and about their favorite pastimes (Memory, paper-airplanes and dunking the basketball in my dirty clothes hamper)

-I had a really bemused time imagining Alex making cheese in a well

-I had a really awesome time hanging out on the bench outside of my house w/ Kevin till untold hours while being harassed by one of my jealous security husbands on his security bicycle

-I had a not very awesome time at all fending off Pato's increasing flirting w/ me my last weeks in Chepe

-I had a really awesome time meeting the US Ambassador to Costa Rica in a dress I had fished out of the ocean not a month before

-I had a really delicious time eating pizza with the family as a last meal

and finally

-I had a really awesome time sharing with Nate some of the best music every written

Until next time, and remember… Jesus es verbo, no substantivo