¡R.U.M.B.O. al Cole!


For me there is no greater joy than working with young people. I spent last week in the high school with nearly 60 teenagers in what is by far my favorite project of all. It´s called ¡R.U.M.B.O. al Cole! "Rumbo" is slang for "let´s go" and the letters stand for "Recreando Unidos para Muy Buena Orientacion," which basically means "doing recreational activities for a good orientation" (this sounds lame in English but I´ve been told it sounds cool in Spanish). At the end of the school year in November I invited all of the graduating 6th graders (who will be entering high school next year) from 7 different elementary schools to participate in this week of recreational activities in the high school. I recruited a group of 25 eleventh graders, who will need to complete community service hours this year, and trained them in leadership skills and the facilitation of over 30 recreational activities. The 7th graders were the campers and the 11th graders were the counselors. I had the support of the high school principal, a P.E. teacher, and the school counselor, but we didn´t actually need any adults to run the camp (besides me, but whether or not I´m actually an adult is definitely debatable).

One goal of the camp was to provide 7th graders with a positive orientation to the high school environment and allow them to meet and form strong relationships with older students. A second goals was to provide the 11th grade students with an outlet to participate in a service learning project, gain leadership experience, and earn their required community service hours. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the project got all of these young people out of the house for the week, which is where they almost certainly would have spent the time otherwise.

Every day began with icebreakers and games done as one big group. A rotation of 3 different recreational/competitive activities followed, and each day ended with a teamwork challenge (kind of like low ropes course activities) and group discussion of their ability to work together to reach the intended goal of the challenge. The leaders were trained to encourage sportsmanship, teamwork and active participation in all activities, and groups that worked together well or were able to resolve problems in effective ways were rewarded though a point system that continued throughout the week.

My service provides me with countless opportunities to reflect upon and appreciate the many blessings I have been fortunate enough to receive in my life, and having constant access to camps over the summer as a kid is one of them. My summers in the States were always jam-packed with activities, summer classes, and camps galore. Here in my community the kids generally have nothing to do during vacation time, except maybe work to help their families. Both the 7th and 11th graders involved in this project took this opportunity to have a healthy, fun, energizing experience and ran with it. I could not have asked for a more positive group of campers and counselors. The best news is that the school counselor and principal want to make it a permanent project for incoming 7th graders, to be continued after I am gone. I´ll be spending the next couple months working with the 11th graders on a manual that will give a step-by-step of the planning and execution of the project and it´s over 30 recreational activities.

I´m so pumped and energized by this experience, I find myself missing it this week now that it´s all over. On the last day of camp one of the 7th graders said to me, "Why can´t we just do this every week?" and I´m starting to wonder the same thing....

Check out the video of the camp activities!!!! Be well, pura vida.

Peaceful Toy Exchange

Today was a good day. I woke up at the usual 5:00 am, ran sprints in the pineapple fields, strength training with my body weight and a medicine ball made of a rock-filled coconut, cold shower, banana-and-coffee smoothie...and that was all before 8:00 am. A little later I walked my 6-year-old host nephew over to a neighborhood Christmas celebration in a nearby park. There was music, dancing, relay races, soccer games, and best of all...a nonviolent toy exchange. Yes, the police department sponsored a huge toy drive that allowed them to bring a huge number of nonviolent toys to the party, and any kids who has violent toys at home could bring them in and exchange them for a shiny, new, nonviolent one. I loved it, and so did the kids. It was beautiful to watch all the kids run to their houses, come back with fake guns, knives, and other atrocious-looking things, throw them away and get a nice board game or soccer ball instead.

After the party my hsot nephew and I went on a long walk in the pineapple fields. As we walked we came upon en empty box that someone had thrown on the ground (very normal occurrence here). It was the box of a toy truck with pictures of the truck and others on it. Now, I don't talk about the economic situation of my host family very often, and you wouldn't know it by seeing the house that they rent, but they are actually quite poor. I nearly started crying as my host nephew RAN over to the box, squealed with excitement, and started hugging the empty box that he found on the ground. "Morgan, look! What a beautiful box! Can I take it home with us???" After checking to make sure it didn't have anything disgusting on it I told him we could (I mean, who's gonna say no to that request?) and we walked back to the house. We spent the rest of the walk talking about all the different things he could do with the box (cut out the individual pictures to make little playing cards, make a Christmas card for his Dad, make a poster to put on his wall....). Although part of this scenario made me sad, it's also one of those situations that happens to me every day here, that just makes me appreciate everything I've been blessed with so much more. It can be very hard not to take things for granted at times, but constant exposure to situations like this certainly makes it easier to appreciate everything. Here's a picture of him with the pictures he cut out of the box:



Getting back into the swing of things after going home has not been easy, but slowly things are coming together and seeming normal again. It definitely helped to have a day to just enjoy being in my community instead of working all day. Once the rush of camps in January is over and the school year starts again in February, time is going to FLY!!!!

Wishing you all a very safe, happy holiday, and hoping that everyone gets to do something to show their appreciation for all their blessings in life. Peace.

Just another conversation in the life....

Host Sister (to my 18 month old nephew): Huguito! Come here and have a piece of chocolate!

Host Mom (immediately after sharing her huge glass of coffee with him): No!!!!!! You can't give him chocolate, especially this late, it will make him hyperactive.

Morgan: Mami, are you serious??? You have been giving him coffee all this time, and you're worried about a tiny piece of chocolate?

Host Mom: You're right, go ahead Jaimie, give him the chocolate.

Morgan: No, I wasn't saying he should also eat the chocolate, I was just.....oh jesus, never mind.

Going Home: Is it Worth the Pain?

This title may seem a little harsh, but that is not my intention. I just got back from being the States for 2 weeks (OMG was it really 2 weeks????), and I must say that seeing so many people for such short periods of time was really tough emotionally. It was also wonderful, while it lasted, but it turns out there's a lot of people at home who I don't just like, but LOVE, a lot, and coming back to CR was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. It's not that I don't want to be here, because I do, but it isn't easy to leave everything behind all over again.

I am already much more settled in than I was, but I thought I would be in the States yearning to return, and that wasn't so much the case. I could have used another month there, easily, but then it probably would have been even more difficult to come back. I spent much of the time at home talking to people about my plans for next year, which were still undecided. I have thought for some time now about staying a third year and working in our country office in San Jose as a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader. The job entails supporting my program manager and training coordinator as they train and offer technical support to trainees and current volunteers. I have really good relationships with and so much respect for our staff, and the opportunity to work with them on a daily basis has always been appealing to me. Before I came to Costa Rica, I would have laughed in your face had you even mentioned the possibility of me staying away from home for more than 2 years. It seemed like an eternity at the beginning. Now I realize what a unique opportunity it is to work for Peace Corps, especially Peace Corps Costa Rica, and while I miss home very much I'm not yet ready for this journey of personal and professional growth (corny, but so very true) to end. Am I ready to be with all my family and friends in the States again? Of course! But what it comes down to is that this opportunity to stay won't present itself again, and I know that once I go back to the States I will be there for good.

Soooo, I turned in my letter of intent to stay another year just a few days ago. My bosses are looking for NGOs with whom I could explore my interests of community health and/or exercise science, and I'm looking forward to a complete change of pace in terms of working in a more scheduled, office environment, but with the variety and dynamic approach that is inherent in working for Peace Corps. Not only will I work in the office, but I will also travel to training sites to train new volunteers and do site visits to visit current volunteers and stake out new communities for future volunteer sites. I will also be in a bigger city, which I am beyond ready for. I have learned an incredible amount living in a small town, and I love my community with all my heart, but this girl just wasn't cut out to live in a little pueblo for extended period of time.

So that's my story for next year. Stay tuned for project updates, including an HIV/AIDS prevention soccer tournament, a recreational camp for kids making the transition from elementary to high school, and basketball camp. January is gonna be busy!!!!! Peace.

An Update: Long Overdue

Well, it's official...I am the worst blogger ever. I think about the blog off and on, but never seem to make the time to sit down and write any posts. This is sad because the times when I have the most to write about are exactly the times when it is hardest to make time to share them. Since AUGUST (when I last posted), a LOT has happened, and there is no way to share it all here. I went to Panama with a good Costa Rican friend of mine, and cannot wait to return. It is a beautiful country with very warm, friendly people. I ate the freshest seafood I have ever eaten, and made friends with an indigenous man named Salsa. The main thing that was missing...beans. They don't eat enough beans there. I only went for one full day, to Bocas del Toro, a relatively small group of islands. My next dream vacation - Panama City.

We finished Youth for Peace, the service learning project with several different youth community groups. I have a lot of photos up on facebook. Our final event included presentations by all of the groups and the training of about 20 new community members in the design and management of service learning projects. Thanks very much to everyone who supported my Peace Corps Partnership project to make that final event a huge success!

I also finished my adult English class, which will now become an open-to-all-ages-and-levels "English Club," which is probably the worst idea I've had during my service. It will basically be impossible for me to successfully teach a multi-level English class, when I question my ability to even teach one single level. But, oh well. This experience is all about doing stuff I am not prepared to do. Here's a picture of us celebrating finishing the text book:
















Two world map projects have been completed in one of my elementary schools and in the high school, both of which came out pretty beautifully. I'm currently working on a third in an elementary school that is a few kilometers away.





The chicken farm is completely self-sufficient and sustainable at this point, which is great. There are only about 4 people working there at the moment, but I know more people will get involved once they see the success of the brave pioneers currently running the show. The organization, World Connect, who provided the funds for the project are coming to visit in a couple of weeks, which is exciting because I feel like they will be really happy with what they see over there.

















Tomorrow I'm taking some teens to a leadership camp about an hour and a half away from our community, where they will learn how to facilitate recreational activities with young children. This is all part of my plan to then recruit them to help me with a recreational camp during summer vacation, which runs from Christmas until the beginning of February. I am looking forward to working a little less and enjoying my community a little more during the break, but want to at least do a week-long camp with the kids here.

Well, there's a VERY abbreviated version of some of the stuff going on around here...there is no way to talk about the millions of things going through my head right now as I face the last part of my service, but just know that it's a whole lot of craziness. I am not quite sure what is in store for me after May 2011, and am a little overwhelmed by the fact that I need to be making some big decisions to make that clearer in the next month or so.

Time to get back to the "real" world now, feel free to send me an email if you want more details on anything, I'd love to hear from you!

Pura Vida!

This Picture Has Nothing to do with This Post....


This post has nothing to do with my host nephew, I just think he's really cute, especially when he puts watermelon in the dirt and then eats it (as shown here). My initial inclination is to start this post by saying that the past few weeks have been difficult, but after being here and working in places like a shantytown I always stop myself as soon as that thought crosses my mind. Life here may present its challenges, but to say that it is difficult seems a completely ridiculous as soon as I remind myself that there are millions of other people who lead lives that are actually difficult. So, instead of saying that things have been difficult I’ll share with you a recent challenge that has presented itself, as well as the positives that keep me motivated and energized to keep working hard and learning more from such challenges.

Jovenes por la Paz, my long-term service learning project, has been quite the adventure. I don’t know why I continue to make up my own projects when there are millions already written and prepared, step by step, but I am definitely learning a lot by making everything I do up as I go along. I won’t re-explain the project because I talk about it all the time on this blog, but I am currently trying to plan the closing event that is meant to celebrate the successful completion of the six different service learning projects. The problem is that I still have 2 groups who have yet to get their projects off the ground, so planning the celebratory event feels strange at the moment. They still have about 2 months, which is ample time, but it still makes me a lil nervous.

Last weekend I met with the leaders of each group, which was both disheartening and motivating. The disheartening part was that the two groups who need the most help were the only groups who did not send a representative to the meeting (this was a BIG disappointment). The motivating part, however, is that the young leaders from the others groups, without any prompt from me, spent the majority of the meeting talking about how they could help encourage the other two groups and get them organized. After making a plan to help the other groups and reflecting upon their experiences from their own projects (what they learned, what were the challenges, how they can improve future efforts, etc.), I had all the group leaders write words of encouragement and congratulations on cards on each other’s backs. They got really into the activity and left feeling good about their efforts to improve their communities, and ready to help make an even greater difference. I had a meeting with one of the groups later than day and the group leader showed me that she had pasted her words of encouragement on the inside of her agenda to have it with her all the time.



Hopefully we can get these last two groups going so that all 60 youth involved can celebrate their successes at the closing event. I’ll keep everyone posted on how it all turns out, and I’m looking forward to seeing all the groups come together in order to help each other finish their projects. The fact that some of the groups are struggling just makes the experience more real, and hopefully everyone involved will learn even more as a result of the hard times. I know I sure will!

More to come soon on a project I just started with sixth graders in my smaller elementary school called Junior Achievement, and an Art for Peace workshop I did using art as a medium to discuss intra-familial violence with a group of kids who are finalists in an community-wide anti-violence art competition. In other news, check out the photos of the chicken farm on Facebook. The women are working their butts off and have already built everything. We should have chickens in less than 2 weeks. I agreed to learn how to kill them, so I probably won’t be eating chicken again for a REALLY long time after that happens.

Hope everyone is well, send me an email if you have questions about anything that is going on here, or if there’s anything particular you’d like me to write about. My head is often so flooded with ideas that I end up writing none of them, so it would be nice to get feedback from others. Email me at pleasant.morgan@gmail.com. Peace!

Wilson Service Learning Trip: Cultural Exchange at it's Finest!



Last Sunday morning, while most people were either sleeping or at church, I was anxiously and excitedly preparing to begin one of the busiest and most fruitful weeks of my service. As I boarded don Marvin’s private mini bus, I was both relieved to be traveling in something other than the crowded public bus, and pleased that this trip was supporting the independent transportation company of someone in my town. This wasn’t just any drive to San Jose. Don Marvin and I would soon greet 12 high school students and two teachers from my beloved Woodrow Wilson High School. Unlike many of the young people who travel to Costa Rica, these kids weren’t coming for the beautiful beaches or the big volcanoes. They (or their parents, rather) had actually paid money to travel to my hot, land-locked community to work with at-risk youth (which constitutes essentially all youth in my town). The teachers and I had worked together to plan a week filled with service learning, which is only my favorite thing in this world (along with TCBY blueberry soft-serve ice cream with chocolate chips). I didn't even know most of these kids yet and I already loved them all.


First of all, let me just say that this is one brave group of gringo teenagers. Not only were they traveling abroad to a marginalized community that spoke a different language from their own, but they were going to stay with host families. While there is no doubt that this makes the entire experience more enriching for both the host community and the students, it is not an easy or comfortable situation to be thrown into. I remember how nervous I felt at age 25 when I was first dropped off at my host family’s house in San Jose, so I definitely felt for these youngsters as we took them immediately from the airport to their home stays in Buenos Aires. I had no doubt that the kids would adore the host families I had selected, and that the families would love having them in their homes, but I also knew that the situation could present its challenges. The kids and their families could not have responded better to the challenges, and I think everyone’s expectations were exceeded in their host family experience. Throughout the week, the kids from the U.S. frequently debated who had the best host family, everyone arguing that theirs was superior to the others.

I decided to break in my new troops early on, with a hike to a nearby mountain on the very first morning. This is a hike I often take with groups of youth or members of my exercise class, and the peak provides an excellent view of Buenos Aires and the surrounding area. At the top we played a game that I learned while waiting for them at the airport (another camp-like group was playing it). It involves everyone chopping each other down like trees and making ninja-karate-chop noises, so obviously that went pretty well. I won’t lie and pretend like the entire hike went without complaints of being hot, tired, and thirsty, but I think everyone felt a sense of accomplishment upon reaching the top of the mountain, and it was a nice way to bond the group before they began a week filled with working as a team to reach their service learning objectives.

That evening the real work began when we all went to my English class. My English students had prepared short presentations about Costa Rican culture, in English, while the kids from the U.S. had prepared cultural presentations about Washington DC, in Spanish. Everyone learned a lot about Obama, coffee, go-go music, cumbia and meringue, Frisbee, jacks and elastics, and much more. The fact that both groups were presenting in their second language made for a very comfortable, pressure-free environment which allowed everyone to relax and have fun learning about different aspects of each other’s cultures. The U.S. kids had brought a DC/CR banner and everyone took pictures in front of it at the end.

The second day began with a trip to the indigenous town of Boruca, which is the largest indigenous group in Costa Rica. We received 5 brief workshops about how the people make their extraordinary and elaborate masks and textiles. I was in awe of the work of these strong, patient women, who spend days and months carving and painting masks and creating textiles from scratch. I was inspired by their firm belief that nature does not exist to serve them, but that they exist in order to serve nature. The trees in the community provide wood for their masks, drums and weapons, and leaves to dye their textiles. We learned about the process of turning the cotton plant into the yarn made to make clothes and bags, and then the different plants used to dye the yarn different colors. I felt like the most spoiled brat ever after those workshops. When I want a shirt, I just go to a store and buy one. Or in the States I would just order it on Amazon and it would arrive at my door. Omg. So embarrassing. We ended the trip with a short hike to the community’s beautiful waterfalls. We were ready to cool off after walking around the steep hills of the community, so the cool river water was a perfect way to end the trip.



Upon our return to Buenos Aires, the kids spent quality time with their host families and enjoyed their delicious home-cooked meals. They couldn’t stop talking about how good the food was, which made me very happy. My host mother was hosting two of the girls, and she nearly died of joy when they told her she should open a restaurant in the States. She still brings up the compliment on a regular basis (and she SHOULD…that lady can cook!). Unfortunately we were supposed to paint a park in the afternoon, but the rainy season put a damper on those plans. Instead of painting the park, the students came to the field across the street from my house to climb trees and play soccer in the rain with the neighborhood kids. I have never seen so many people fit in one tree before!




At night the entire group came to my exercise class, which for me was fun because we filled the entire room (or shack) where I teach. All but one of the boys tired out after about 5 minutes, but most of the girls hung in there for the entire class (I had coached a few of them in soccer back in the States, so they were a little more used to the torture). Those who tired out quickly played jump rope and rode bikes with kids for the remainder of class. Perhaps one of my favorite quotes from the week came from the one guy who hung in for the entire class. He later told me, in the most genuine way possible, “Yeah, I actually really hated you the whole time you were teaching that class.” Made me a little teary eyed (not in a sad way of course).




The nonstop movement was only enhanced on the third day of the trip. This was one of our full days at the small, crowded, resource-deprived elementary school in my town. My junior Peace Corps troupe could not have been more helpful, getting a lot done in a short period of time. While the majority went to the field to play Frisbee, soccer, duck-duck-goose, tag, and Indian chief with over 100 kids, a couple of the girls came with me to my hyperactive kindergarten class. We tried our best to wear them out and then sent them off so we could help the Kindergarten teacher to fix up her deteriorated classroom. All day long kids from the school helped the group from the U.S. to wash toys and paint the classroom.







So many local kids wanted to help that I needed to start turning people away and telling them to go play outside with the other volunteers. The director of the school had about 40 tree seedlings that he wanted to see planted, so in addition to the kindergarten work and recreational activities, a couple other volunteers planted trees with the sixth graders in the blaring sun.



Once we finished painting the kindergarten and putting the toys away, we moved on to the fifth grade classroom, which was also in need of a paint job. We finally finished after all the kids and teachers had been long gone, and everyone hobbled their tired bodies home to rest up for the party with my English class which was to happen that night.



My English class had planned a party to celebrate the successful completion of their presentations and enhance the intercultural exchange between the groups. The Tico students provided Latin dance lessons and traditional Costa Rican party food (chicken and rice, pejibayes, tortilla chips with refried beans), while I brought a big gringo batch of chopped raw vegetables and taught a hip hop line dance to everyone. People had so much fun that it didn’t even matter that we couldn’t fit in the house and had to stand outside in the mud. Most importantly everyone got lots of food, language practice and got their dance on, so overall the event was a success.

The kids received a well-deserved break on their fourth day when they traveled to Manuel Antonio national park for their day full of sight-seeing and beach time. I stayed in Buenos Aires to prepare for the next day’s events, but heard that the trip was a blast, filled with monkey-sightings, bird watching, wave-riding, and sun-burning. They came back stinky, dirty and tired, but totally ready for whatever was to come their way the next day.

Day five of the trip was similar to day 3 in that it was spent all day at the elementary school. The volunteers got a taste of the difference between U.S. and Costa Rican elementary schools as they participated in the fiestas the day before the kids went on their 2 week vacation. While kids in the States often have parties before vacation, there is often some structure and organization to these parties. The party at my elementary school included a little less structure, and a little more blasting music, screaming children running everywhere, wrestling for piñata candy, crying, and bruises. In spite of the injuries the kids LOVE this madness. The volunteers did a GREAT job entertaining the kids – helping me teach dances, leading cheers, playing group games, and helping the teachers with the piñatas (which is quite possibly my least favorite activity ever, but apparently I’m just weird in that I don’t like greed, crying, punching, or high fructose corn syrup). In addition to entertaining the kids ALL DAY the group also finished painting the second classroom and the kitchen, which made the teachers very happy.



The final full day of service happened at the high school. While the volunteers were at the beach some of my students and I had drawn and painted the humongous rectangle that was to serve as the background for one of the largest Peace Corps world maps ever (I actually have no idea if it’s one of the largest ever, but it’s ridiculously big). Before putting the two groups together, the teachers had a long reflection meeting with the students from the U.S. while my Tico group and I prepared the activities for the day. Relfection is critical to the process of service learning in that it allows students to share what they have gained from the experience. It is important to discuss not only how the work affects the people being served, but also how the participants have grown both personally and as a group.

After reflecting upon their week of service, the students from the States joined my group of 13 Tico youth and worked diligently all day to draw a world map mural. And I mean the WHOLE world. Like, every country, drawn to scale. This is no joke. And it's big. Really big. Because there were too many of them to all fit in front of the map at once, those who were not drawing were busy playing games like Jenga, Gran Banco (Tico Monopoly), Uno, and soccer. While both groups were a little tentative at the beginning to mix and test out their language skills with people their own age, I basically had to tear them away from each other by the end of the day.








We eventually left the Tico kids to finish up the map drawing and walked in the pouring rain about 30 minutes uphill to spend the rest of the afternoon in the shantytown. We arrived soaked, tired and muddy, but again this didn’t stop these energetic teens from giving it their all as we approached our last service project of the week. Half of the group played soccer with kids in the muddy, slick road, while the other half headed over to the “salon” (a.k.a. shack in front of someone’s house) to teach community members how to make friendship bracelets. Within 10 minutes the entire space was filled with women, men and children making knots with the colorful string brought from the States. Several community members decided they could use this in the future to sell the bracelets in order to help their families and give themselves and their families something productive to do in their free time. Everyone was sad but satisfied when the last of the string was used up and it was time to go.

The young volunteers spent their last night with their host families, and shared teary eyes early the next morning as they said their goodbyes and boarded the bus for San Jose. You’d have never known they'd only been living with these families for a week if you’d seen the attachments that were made and the relationships that had been formed. I was sad to see everyone go, but very proud of the courage they had shown in coming here and the hard work they put in to bringing positive change and LOTS of smiles and happiness to the people in my town. I learned more from this experience than I ever could have predicted, both personally and professionally. The most powerful impact came from simply watching the students from the U.S. interact with members of my community. When I first arrived to my site and did not have projects in progress, I spent lots of time just playing, or talking about nothing, or sitting and observing. Now that I have many projects in progress, I am constantly "doing" instead of just "being," which is just as important. While it is my job to do all that I can do work with community members and promote community development, I can be a much more effective volunteer if I take time away from working to just play or spend time drinking a cafecito with people here. A goal of mine for this second year of service will be to take time each week to engage in some activity as though I was a volunteer coming in for just a week. Writing work plans, holding meetings, and engaging in long-term activities is all fine and good, and creates sustainable development, but relationships are made stronger and batteries are recharged when we step back from all the long-term stuff and play a game of pick-up soccer or sit on the porch and drink a good cup of Tico coffee. So, I thank the kids from the U.S. for giving me this insight.

If anyone out there is planning on or interested in doing an exchange like this, my primary piece of advice is…DO IT! Here are some things that I did (and others that I didn’t do but wish I had done) to make the most out of this experience:

- Plan for groups to teach a skill or craft that the community can use (crafts that result in useful items made from recyclable materials are the best)

- Ask school principals, teachers and other community leaders for specific projects that they would like to see and help them get organized to ensure that the project is ready when the group arrives. Have the volunteer group raise money and/or become trained to execute the project while they are still in the States.

- If groups bring donations for the community, have them sell some of the products with members of a group that is trying to raise funds for a particular project that can benefit the entire community.

- Have brief reflections at the end of each activity.

- Have reflection with host country group (e.g. map group) after the exchange.

- Use fun ice-breakers that make everyone feel comfortable with each other at the beginning of inter-group activities.

Write on Your Blog When You're Stuck on a Plane

I hate to fly. Except for the shorter travel time, there is nothing about the process that I enjoy. They don’t even give out peanuts anymore. I am writing this post 30,000 feet in the air, after going to bed at 1:00 am and waking up a 3:00 am to get to the airport, trying not to freak out about the bumpy air we are currently experiencing. A stupid movie is playing on the TVs, and I’m watching first class passengers get served hot towels and champagne. While I realize that millions of people can only dream of ever having the opportunity to fly on an airplane, so I should really just be grateful to have the opportunity, I must admit that I think this sucks. That aside, I am trying to be a more positive thinker, so I will say that being trapped in this germ tube of an aircraft does provide me with the perfect opportunity to post on my poor little neglected blog. I haven’t written in a while ironically because there has been too much to write about, and therefore too little time. So, it’s good to be stuck for a few hours in order to reflect upon the last couple months of work and share that with you all.

First of all, I’m on this plane because I just visited the States for the first time, after being away for a year and three months. It was wonderful to see lots of family and friends, to sleep in my own bed, and to eat a million different foods that I don’t have access to in Costa Rica. The time went by too fast, and even though it’s hard to leave again I am ready to return to Costa Rica because my life and my focus are there now, and I know there will be plenty of time to be in the States in the near future.

Now, going back in time before my trip to the States, a lot of projects are really taking flight in my community. Several months ago I received a $500 grant from Kids to Kids, and wonderful organization founded by two young girls, and powered by young Americans who raise money to help children in other countries. The money will be used as part of a program I started called Jovenes para la Paz (Youth for Peace). The project began by training leaders from 6 different community youth groups in the concept of service learning and the design and management of service learning projects. Following the training the group leaders were to pass the information from the training onto the rest of their group members. In total, there are about 100 young people involved in the 6 groups combined.

The participants recently turned in their work plans and project timelines, and each group was provided with an equal share of the grant money in order to get their projects started. I could not have been more pleased with the project plans. Two groups are working on cleaning up the environment, but they are going about it in different ways. One group is launching a dengue-awareness/prevention campaign, getting members involved in cleaning up the trash that breeds the disease-ridden mosquitoes, and making them aware of preventative techniques. The other trash clean-up group has already completed a trash collection at the local soccer field, and is now soliciting help from the municipality to install permanent trash cans and city clean-up at the field. In addition, they are planning a community-wide pick-up which includes activities that foster environmental education to participants. Two groups from the high school are planning very different, and dynamic projects. One groups is going to use recyclable materials to make exercise equipment for the physical education department at the high school. To add an additional educational component to their project they will also plan and execute a recreational camp for elementary-school aged children during their July vacation. The other high school group is painting a world map mural in the high school. They will work with a group of students from my high school in the U.S. to paint the mural, and will plan several activities which promote intercultural exchange between the two groups. This project combines a number of learning objectives that deal with art, geography, foreign language, and intercultural studies. Another group of young people are planning to start a monthly family movie night in the center of town. They will use the funds to purchase some very basic materials such as a large cloth to serve as a movie screen, and black materials which will block out light and convert the large community center into a movie theater. They plan to show a family-appropriate movie and prepare discussion questions for a forum afterwards. The entrance fee for the movie will go towards a different cause each month, and they will also be able to sell goods to support their own group at the event. This month they chose to invite families to bring a food or clothing item instead of charging an entrance fee, and these items will be donated to a very poor family with 5 children and a father who recently lost their mother/wife to an illness. The final project comes from a group of youth who live in the housing project near my house. They have two playgrounds that the government built along with the houses, but the community has not cared for these spaces properly, leaving them in need of several repairs. They will use the grant money to put on a fundraiser in order to earn money for the more expensive materials that they need to fix the park.

The groups will spend June and July executing their work plans, and in August we will have a closing event during which each group will do presentations about their experiences, sharing what they did, what they learned, challenges faced, and their plans to make the projects sustainable or to continue providing service to their communities in the future. I have been very pleased with the work of these young people and admire their commitment to service learning, which is a relatively new and unfamiliar concept in Costa Rica.

In addition to Jovenes para la Paz, I have also been busy training the 98 11th graders in the high school in the concept of service learning, and in the same methodology for designing and managing their own service learning projects. I’m sure as the school year goes on I’ll have plenty of interesting projects to report on from this work as well. Eleventh graders in Costa Rica are required to complete 30 hours of community service, so my goal with these trainings is not really getting them to participate in service, but to structure their projects in a way that they are gaining as much from the experience as the people they are helping. We work together so that their projects are meaningful to them, and to ensure that they are reflecting on their experience, and monitoring and evaluating their progress in order to be as successful as possible.

I love working with service learning, especially with adolescents because it it the most sustainable way to go about helping communities to help themselves. If young people are instilled with a value for service and solidarity, they will grow to be adults that can incorporate these values into their daily lives and work, and can pass on that same value to their children. I see so many examples of the cycle of violence in my town, it is really refreshing to see these young people so energized to do work that works to break that vicious cycle and I am convinced that they can ultimately change the world!

I’ll post more soon about my other projects, including a grant to build a chicken farm run by women in the shantytown, and a computer lab/office space for the development association in my town. I hope all is well with everyone, thanks for taking the time to read this post! Paz!

Just another social interaction in another culture...

Here's a little recap of a typical moment in my life here, which happened the other morning:

Host Mom (yelling, in the shower): Ahhh! Morgan, come here, quick!!!
Me: Whats wrong?
Host Mom: Turn off this light for me...blah blah blah blah (I didn't understand this part)
Me (as I turn off the light, and get electrocuted): Oooouch!!!!
Host mom: Be careful! The switch is all wet and it's giving off an electric shock! That's why I didn't want to do it!

Oh Mami...gotta love her.

Global Youth Service Day (April 23-25)



Happy Global Youth Service Day everyone! I haven't found time to post recently because lots of things are happening at a VERY rapid pace, most of them having to do with service learning. While I still don't have time to share all that's going on here with service learning, I at least want to inform everyone that April 23-25 is Global Youth Service Day (or days), and that you might want to take a minute to check out some of the fantastic projects going on around the world to celebrate this extremely important movement at http://gysd.org. My project should be up there soon (I was a little late getting the submission in) under Costa Rica (it should be easy to find because there aren't any others registered in the country at the moment). Anyway, I encourage you all to do something out of the goodness of your heart with some young people this weekend. Even if it's as simple as picking up trash in a park, take a minute to reflect on what you did, why it was important, what you learned, and how you can provide follow-up to make what you did more sustainable in the future. Here's a few quotes that have inspired a lot of my service learning efforts here, I hope you find some inspiration in them as well...peace!

"I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." ~Chinese Proverb

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ~Margaret Mead

Fresh Mountain Air and the Power of Poop



Ah, Semana Santa (Holy Week) – Apart from going to Mass, basically a week during which no one does anything…seriously. My original plan for the week was to stay at home at plan, organize, clean, plan, and plan. This worked relatively well until about Wednesday, when I started to get restless and the extreme heat began to make me want to cry.

So, I decided to head up to the mountains for a few days, with the hopes of still being productive and working on workshop planning and grant proposals while at the same time being in a place where no one knows me, eating nothing but fresh, raw fruits, veggies and eggs, and occasionally needing a sweatshirt to keep warm (keep warm – I don’t even know what that means anymore). My destination of choice…Ecojoya Organic Farm, located in the mountains outside of San Isidro (about 2 hours from my town).


My first morning on the farm began with a run at sunrise, which is a beautiful thing anywhere, but even more so when you’re at the top of a mountain in one of the most beautiful counties in the world. As if this wasn’t good enough, I was also accompanied by Osito (“Little Bear), the farm owner’s adorable golden retriever/spaniel mix. The rest of the morning was spent learning about the various chores on the farm (feeding the free-range chickens; milking the goat, Betty, and giving leaves to her husband, Billy, and her baby girl, Bambi; watering the wide variety of plants in the garden, etc.). Ben, the farmer (for real that’s his name), is very clever in his attempts to make the farm as self-sufficient as possible. All food compost that doesn’t go to the chickens goes into a big, covered bin which attracts all of fruit flies to come and set up tent. They stick around long enough to morph into worms, which then walk up a ramp Ben built on the inside (knowing they would want to get out at this stage) and fall right into a bucket (or as like to call it, “death bin”) which then gets taken out to the chickens for their dining pleasure. Other self-sustaining projects that are in progress include tilapia pond and aquaponic garden which will provide each other with everything they need to make delicious organic produce and fish, as well as a system that will turn all the poop in the house to electricity (mmm…yummy). I was fascinated by every inch of the farm really, from the miracle plant (of which every part can be used for something different), the solar powered water heater, the sloths and tucans in the trees, and the presence of delicacies such as kale and sweet potatoes which I hadn’t seen since leaving the States over a year ago.


In addition to enjoying the lovely weather, running company, breathtaking views and heath/environmental wake-up call, I was also able to get a lot of work done for my projects. I was definitely inspired to find as many ways as possible to utilize all the materials mother earth has given me, base my diet on local food sources, and overall just try to do a little less damage to this planet while I am on it, so that it can be around for more people, plants and animals after me. Coincitentally, I am also currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, which is another great reminder to buy from local food sources and how everyone can make the world a better place by becoming a little bit more aware of their consequences of their everyday actions. I highly recommend this book to anyone who eats or needs food in order to survive.


Things back here in Buenos Aires are good (besides the hot, dry weather), and I feel a new, positive energy which will hopefully get me through the next couple months of hard work which are ahead of me. I hope everyone at home is well, having now been in country over a year the homesickness which was really only heavy in the beginning is starting to creep in every now and then. While I miss home I never for a second doubt my decision to be here, and couldn’t be more content having the opportunity to do this work. Peace and love, and keep sending me emails so I know how everyone is doing (mom, I know you’re the only one reading this…so email me please, thanks).


Ok, so as you can see I still have not mastered putting pics up on Blogger, so the disorganized array you find here shows (from top left to bottom) the view in front of the farm house before my run at sunrise, the 80 foot waterfall I walked to (there are 4 on the property), the farm house, and me sitting on the basement stairs after tangerine picking (I couldn't wait before getting up the stairs to start eating...soooo good!).

All the Cool Kids are Doing It: Service Learning

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead


April 22 marks Global Youth Service Day. Here in Buenos Aires, we be gettin' our volunteerism on early this year....


Today was one of those days when I felt genuinely proud to be a Peace Corps volunteer, and reassured me that perhaps something impactful and sustainable can come from a collaboration between myself and my community. This job provides me with countless opportunities to share meaningful and dynamic experiences with young people, and I am truly thankful to be able to observe and learn from their creativity and fresh perspective. For the past few months I have been working on a service learning training program which combines several of the resources being used by Peace Corps today, but in what I hope to be a more comprehensive, user-friendly manner. My ultimate goal is to have a document (or set of documents) that can be given to any other peace corps volunteer, community leader, teacher, or young adult, and allow him/her to train others in the design and management of service learning projects. Service learning is different from community service in a number of ways, namely that it involves a much more involved process of assessment, research, analysis and follow-up than simply completing an act of community service. As a result, participants are able to achieve more profound learning objectives and gain much more, both personally and intelectually, from the experience.


The materials I've been working on were put into use for the first time today. Along with the help of my friend and fellow volunteer Chamisa, we trained 19 leaders from 6 different community youth groups in the concept of service learning and the design and management of service learning projects. The idea is that they will go back and train the rest of their respective youth groups in the methodology, complete a project action plan, execute their projects, analyze the results, and come together in July to share what they did and what they learned with all participants from all of the other groups by means of creative presentations. The final event will also be a way to celebrate their successes and discuss follow-up plans for the projects.


The training today went extremely well, and even though it lasted for 5 hours, the most commoon feedback I received from the participants was that they wished it had been longer! It was inspiring to wacth these young people working so diligently and in such a collaborative manner as they made plans to improve their communities. So often society tries to take power away from them, and with so few opportunities to do something positive with their time it's almost no wonder they seek refuge in drugs, violence and unsafe sex. It pains me to hear adults complaining about the negative behaviors displayed by young people here, as if those same young people are completely at fault. In most cases, it is the adults who are at fault for neglecting to provide these youth with opportunities to make positive contributions to society. If young people are not given this power they are not likely to become aware that it exists on their own (and in this adult-run society I cannot blame them). Okay but before I get too off topic, what I loved most about this workshop was that the young participants were so participative, articulate and creative with their ideas, excited about the potential to make positive changes in their communities, and enthusiastic about sharing the information with their peers. I am definitely looking forward to providing support to all of the groups as they train their other members and design and execute their projects, and I expect the closing activity in July to be something quite memorable for all. Together the 6 groups cover every different part of my own community, plus Chamisa's neighboring community, so the hope is that the projects cover a lot of ground.

I have several more trainings to do (including all 98 11th graders from the technical high school and all of the teachers from three different elementary school), and getting the first one over with has been an extremely beneficial experience (the stress nearly killed me, but I'm a firm believer that what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger). I hope to write soon with updates on my other projects. It looks like water and definitely a bridge will be coming soon to the shantytown (fingers crossed! Knock on wood! wear your pajamas backwards!…..), and my 150 kindergarteners are probably going to be fluent in English by the end of this year (that was a lie but the stuff about the shantytown was true). Lots going on as usual, but I plan to make service learning my focus in this second half of my service. Pura vida!