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