Quebradas

Quite a lot has happened in the past week. I feel that it would be somewhat unprofessional of me to go into too much detail, but for certain finacial reasons my host family found themselves unable to have me stay with them any longer. I found this out after returning to Coronado on Sunday, and Wednesday morning got on a bus and went to San Jose to meet with ACI and find a new location.

My new project  is called FUDEBIOL, and is a biological center located in the mountains near San Isidro del General in a town called Quebradas (the website is www.fudebiol.org). And I love my new host family. I moved in with them last night, and they are so much fun! There is a mom and dad, a daughter who is 16, two sons who are in their mid twenties, and also a grandmother all living in the house. As of right now, I will be working with three other girls at the center. One, Jackie, is from England, she has been here for around a month and will be staying until after I leave. Another, Jeannette, is also 18 and from the United States, she got here the day before I did and is staying for six weeks. The third I have not met yet, but I know that her name is Katie and she is here with the Peace Corps, so she's been around for a while. There will probably be several more short-term volunteers who come and go during my time here. The town is very volunteer-friendly, and there are 18 families who take turns hosting exchangees as the FUDEBIOL protects the town's water supply and therefore is very important to the community.

Other than that, I've spent most of the last week hanging out with my friends from the program in San Jose. ACI is having a Halloween party this weekend, so we're making plans to get on a bus right after work on Saturday and hopefully be there in time. Costa Rica doesn't really celebrate Halloween and costumes are hard to come by, but I managed to find a tiara and some silver fabric and will be going as a princess.

Should be spending the rest of the day with the other volunteers in San Isidro, and then going back to Quebradas and having dinner with my host family!