The security guard at my building calls me Kabby... and some Wonk.

... and his nickname is Gato: The Cat. (He´s still the only feline I´ve met here. Which is still weird.)

So. Ok. I´m really really ready to be fluent in Spanish now.

That being said... here´s the Wonk.

Yesterday was a long day in the field: first to the town of Barva, where we met with the Mayor (who was wearing jeans and a tshirt), and a rep from the Police, the Oficina de la Mujer (the Office of Women, which has one employee), a rep from the Ministry of Health, & a rep from the Office of Transportation to go over the part of the program that is called the Observatorio. It is the piece that is trying to set up a system for tracking crime data. Currently, on a local level, there is no mechanism, so communities don´t know what´s happening in their town: they don´t know the rates of domestic violence, or home invasion robberies, or car theft, or even car accidents. As far as I can tell, murders and crime of that level is tracked by the Federal Govt, the OIJ (Dept of Justice), but, frankly, it´s all a bit confusing, and I don´t think it´s just my Spanish that makes it so. I think this country just doens´t have a comprehensive manner of tracking these things, so the Foundation is trying to help.

So, that went well, they were all really interested in the process. The Mayor actually stayed through the whole thing (way beyond the photo op!) and was asking questions, and it was very cool, because it was the first step to the program, all three parts, and I will be able to see the entire thing while I am here.

The program, that I keep referring to is this: Safe Schools/Safe Community, an is has its 3 parts:

1) The Observatory

2) The Community Component. This is a series of workshops where, ideally, the city, the police, Health services, the Red Cross, non profits, etc. all sit down together, and through a series of workshops, hammer out what the main problems are in the community, and, most importantly, what the roots of the problems are. So, it´s not just, "we have a lot of violent crime here, what should be done about it?", but rather "we have a lot of violent crime here as a result of lack of recreational spaces for kids, unemployment, etc.... and we are going to focus on those problems and concrete programs to address them." Rather, I suppose, like the Community Plans that are built in LA.

Barva, where I was in the morning, is the 6th community that they are trying this program in. And I'll get to the see the whole process, including the 3rd piece, The School Component, which I have yet to see, but I'm sure I'll tell you all about it when I do.

WONKY ENOUGH FOR YOU?

more to come.

love,

kabby

San Jose, you rascal

It's pouring in San Jose. This is not unusual, and it will stop soon. Each morning starts out sunny and hot, and then, almost every afternoon, the clouds that look so pretty hanging out on the mountains in the morning come rushing in and drop down, sideways generally, onto this fair city for an hour, or for a half hour and then again in an hour, or until next week.

So, that's me telling you about the weather. But it's a whole thing for one who has dwelled in the desert for the past 8 years. I forgot how wet seeps into bones, though old injuries make me remember. I forgot how awesome my hair looks in humid climates. I forgot to bring rain boots.


San Jose. Here I am in San Jose. I don't understand this city yet, though we're definitely dating, but I'm not completely sold. (Especially on the part called Los Yoses.) (I kid Yosi, I kid.) (Mostly.) (Love you.) I have yet to see the jaw dropping magic that everyone talks about when they coo over Costa Rica. Ok, I've only been here 3 weeks, how much can I learn? I'm proud that I've found yoga, and find 3 square meals every day, and know which buses to take, and only occasionally get laughed at when I ask someone for something. But the mysteries of San Jose... not so sure. I know they must be here somewhere.... somewhere the cool kids do the things that they do. There are some mysteries in the Foundation that I am finding slowly but surely. And my new neighborhood surely holds many, as do the towns where I will be traveling with the Safe Schools program, as do the beaches and jungles that I will be exploring with Teresa who comes next week and Miss Fuss who comes the week after that (bless their adventurous hearts), as does my Flamenco class which starts on Friday.

Olé.

It's gets dark at 6pm here. That makes exploring after work difficult. Wandering around at night as a Gringa is not advisable in this city. So I don't. There's a lot of taking cabs (which usually cost $2 and are Red) (the bus is 35 cents) and looking over my shoulder when I walk. There's a lot of dressing down and leaving the jewelry in the closet.

And, interestingly enough, I am here studying Human Security.

Work is slowly unfolding, as quickly, I suppose, as my Spanish will allow. Today, one of the other interns and I were plotting on how we can help the Program with quantifying and proving it's effectiveness, and we sort of pitched it to Ana Yancy (my boss) and Lizeth (my other boss) and they were so thrilled. Ana Yancy said, "thank you so much for coming to us. we never know with people who come here to work... it seems like most of them are just here to finish there time but don't really want to do much." Right. Well, now she knows more about Kabira.

Tomorrow I am heading to a town called Desamparados, north of San Jose, to observe how they track their crime data and present how the Program does it. Today, and for the past 4 days I have been translating, from Spanish to English, a 32 page document on the legal details of each Latin American country and the Arms Trade Treaty. It is fascinating and grueling work, though my vocab is getting a serious boost, as is my knowledge of the Latin American arms trade and laws. I have a lot more respect for translators now, I gotta say. It's amazing how you can translate all of the words in a sentence and still not convey the meaning of the sentence.

The past 4 days have also been a roller coaster of wicked homesickness that has led me to believe that 6 months is really long time, and that I am truly one of the luckiest people on the planet for having so many outstandingly amazing loving beautiful people in my life. Nice work, all of you.

Ok, I'm off to yoga. Gracias a Dios.

Love you.

-Kabira

2 weeks in

Right... so I was worried that this would happen- I'm a little behind on this whole blogging thing. But, as my wise Aunt Stef said, I'm not behind, I'm right where I'm at.

So, here I am. It's been 2 weeks now. I've gone to the beach (Manuel Antonio) and I've gone into the field for work (Miramar) and currently I have a slight fever which I am banishing from my body with rest and tea and noodle soup and You Tube episodes of "So You Think You Can Dance." I want to be better for tomorrow because I'm scheduled to go to the American Embassy for their 4th o July BBQ to meet the head of the Democrats Abroad, Obama shirt on body, Obama stickers in hand, Democracy in my heart. (Yes, I just wrote that.)

I uploaded pix of the beach and of Miramar on Facebook... you can look here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27820&l=134c3&id=780253228

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27667&l=334c1&id=780253228


Ok, back to resting. Wanted you to know that I am alive and safe and acclimating.


Peace,
kabira

Villa Lakshmi

Well. I live here now. I work. I put a deposit down on an apartment. I did yoga, finally. And, I have some pals and we're going to the beach this weekend.

So, yes, I live here. This fact completely freaked me out yesterday.... today, I'm ok. The yoga and the apartment help.

So, the apartment: Owned by hindu couple, gorgeous garden, pic of Nelson Mandela in the office. Check it out: http://www.villalakshmi.com/

The view from my bedroom is ok, but the view from just outside my door is spectacular, and it's safe and pretty and close to work, and close to 2 vegetarian restaurants, and it's $425 a month, everything included: internet, cable (not that I have nor desire a tv), a phone in the courtyard where I can make free international calls (no limit), water, power, etc.

So, that's cool.

It's also the only apartment that I looked at. Yesterday two of my work mates (Alejandra and Melissa) decided that they were going to help me find an a place to live. (Everyone here is so so nice. It's kind of nuts.) The way you do that here is that you walk around neighborhood where you want to reside and ask people if there is anything to rent. We walked around for about 2 hours, this was the only building that had anything for rent... and it's the only one I needed.

So, that's done.

Yoga, by the way, for those who are interested, was absolutely anusara, and absolutely challenging and great and thank god, it's right near work, and, really, i mean, thank god that it's here. Yes, this is me, thanking god for Yoga. I also profusely thanked the instructor afterwards, and she said, "You're really good at Yoga, huh? Are you an instructor?" THAT was pretty neat.


I'm pooped. I have more to write, but I'm pooped. Starting the work day at 8am, and then processing Spanish all day is totally exhausting. (I'm reading all those pages in Spanish, and I'm pretty sure I'm reading at a rate of 17 pages per hour or something loco like that. )

love love,
write me emails please.

Kabira

Ps. Below are pix of Alejandra, Melissa, and above is the approximate view from my apt. Enjoy.

My office.

These are pix of the view from my desk, my desk (complete with homemade Obama mug and Spanish vocab words), and me, at my desk (where I drink from said mug, and learn said Spanish vocab words).

This is the scene...

The Costa Rican Workday

It ends at 5pm. Not in the way that a day, say, in Council Member Garcetti's office "ends at 5"- I mean that at 4:55, one of the higher ups in the office came by my desk and said, "you know we all leave at 5 right?" And she meant it. She meant that at 5, they turn off the lights, turn on the alarm, and kick you out.

My Gringa self barely knows how to process this.

But, in a way, it makes sense. Because it gets dark at 6 here. All year long. So, the sun, even, is on a Tica work schedule. That's cool. I think this journey will be an early to bed, early to rise one... Pappa Hochberg will be so proud.

Work was good. The day began with me meeting Ana Yancy and Lizeth ( I think that's her name... good lord I'm bad with names), and they proceeded, for an hour, in incredibly quick Spanish, to explain the Safe School/Safe Community program, and some of the successes and challenges, and I can't quite believe it, but I actually understood about 95% of what they were saying. I was VERY happy to learn that I will be doing field work. They have the Safe School/Safe Community program in 4 districts, and around 30 schools all together, and I'm gonna get to visit a good portion of them.

They sent me out of their office with around 200 pages of more detailed aspects of the program, which meant that I spent the rest of the day reading, slowly, and looking up words in the dictionary, and then reading some more. At lunch, I went out with some new colleagues to a traditional Costa Rican lunch spot (they call them "sodas") and had some rice and beans and really delicious fish. Then, back to the reading.

It's interesting: like Garcetti's, this office is mainly made up of women. Probably 15 women and 5 men. Ahhh, how the ladies like the social justice.



Right now I'm in my hotel room, which I've grown quite fond of, jesus and mary candles blazing, resting, watching "so you think you can dance" on You Tube (thank god for Claudia, who I met today and showed me where I can find it). (The internet, by the way, is really a very incredible thing. I've never been so appreciative.)

Buenas Noches,
I miss you people,
K

Weekend in San Jose

Well, San Jose is not what I would call "the prettiest city," nor the "most quaint." Nor would I use the phrase "especially easy to navigate," seeing as how streets don't really have street signs and most places have addresses such as "on the road off of Main Street, next to the white house." However, everyone is very nice and helpful, and, in the end, I had an exploratory and lovely little weekend.

Saturday I went off exploring a neighborhood called Barrio Escalante, where, perhaps, I might find an apartment. My goal here is a view, as I like to be perched, to be able to, at the beginning and end of every day, view the city where I work. It gives me perspective. And a feeling of being able get out of the urban mess, to some quiet. So, I wandered about a neighborhood looking for something that looked safe and pretty and high up. (I have yet to find anything.) (I will.)

My new friend Niamh (remember, that is pronounced Neive, those wacky Irish) is really rather a god send (thanks God)- I was on my way into town after my apt. hunting and she was at a local spot called "Bagelmans" (they, um, have bagels there, and wireless internet) and she called me name as I passed. THAT is a nice feeling in a foreign city.

We made plans to meet up later, and then I went off to explore downtown San Jose. I found a map in a bookstore (I have to say, I've been in 2 bookstores now, and it's pretty hilarious, but most of the books that they have in English are classics, particularly Shakespeare. Like most English speaking travelers want to unwind on their vacation by kicking back with a one of the Shakespeare's histories or something) and tried really hard to find this one modern art museum, but the whole streets having no names thing foiled me, and I got tired of walking and went home.

Niamh met me at the hotel that night, and we went to her Brazilian friend Mariana's apt, and we were picked up by Mariana's two friends, older women, one Brazilian and on Tica (Costa Rican) and we drove out to the western part of the city to go to this Brazilian party. I am SO sad I left my camera at home for this one). It was some celebration of Brazilian country folk, or farmers I guess, and it was in a tennis club community room/dance hall and everyone was dressed in sombreros and farm wear- the girls had fake freckles and braids, and the dudes all had jeans with strange patches sewn on- and it was a strange scene. Food, and traditional drinks and these massive group dances, like line dances, but I guess Brazilian too, and then came out the traditional dancer, all in loin cloth and this amazing feather headdress, and he worked it out on the dance floor.

And then we danced. It only took me 3 days to go dancing in San Jose, and that makes me HAPPY. It was fun, me trying my best to find the beat (hip hop this was not) with my new friend and these Latin Amerian ladies, with strobe lights and smoke (oh, yes) and latinas doing things with their hips that us gringas may never ever master. But we will try. We certainly will try.


Today I relaxed, and then had the most lovely afternoon- I went to see a Flamenco show at one of the theaters downtown. It turned out to be a dance school, so some of the dancers were, um, really bad, and some were really young, which was just weird, and a few of them were so so good that they got me to yelp a couple of "Olé!"s. I then successfully found one of San Jose's asian restaurants, which was gorgeous inside, and had a full vegetarian menu, and I had hot and sour soup, and green curry and it was so peaceful in there and I finished, finally, reading "Jitterbug Perfume" which is just, lordy, such an amazing book. I mean... yes.

My waiter kept calling me princess, and then offered to help me find an apartment. That's how the Ticos are: nice and helpful. Even the men, when they give you attention in the street- it's more of a helpful attention, if that makes any sense. Like, they're not being lecherous, they're just trying to brighten your day. Ecuador, this is not. Gracias a Dios.

Tomorrow I start work. I am READY. Have been for years.


xo,
Kabira