As Peace Corps volunteers we enter our communities for two years equipped with an entire flash drive full of resources (ideas, pre-made programs, previously used programs, workshops, talks, etc.), most of them tried and true by generations of previous Peace Corps volunteers.

Though many of these programs are excellent resources, and I have used my fair share of them, I have found that one of the more successful, sustainable ways of getting things done is not to look to what you know, but who you know.  That old adage always stands true.

To offer an example, my story goes a little bit like this. I was working with a group of high schoolers in an Art for Peace group.  One of our final projects was a very large community mural. Around the time that we were discussing ways to raise funds for paint, I coincidentally met the director of a children’s art nonprofit in the capital of San José (two hours from my community).  In talking with her about my reasons for being in Costa Rica and my responsibilities, she immediately offered to help out, and more specifically with the mural.  My goals were right in line with hers, and a little collaboration was what we were both looking for.

On location in front of our mural

The non-profit, ASART (Associación Artística para los Niños), donated all the paint for the mural, and rounded up 15 adult volunteers to work with the six youth to spend a day painting the mural on the theme of peace.  To top it all off, they arrived on the day of the mural painting with a national morning news show, Buen Día, to do a report on the collaboration between rural youth and a large city non-profit.  The youth were interviewed and filmed painting, surely something that they had not previously done in their young lives in this rural pueblo.  It was a huge success, and in the end we didn’t have to rummage up funds for paint.

Moral of the story?  Don’t just look at what you know, look at who is around you.  They know a lot more.

1.  The rooster.  The nearby neighbor’s rooster seems to think that everyone should wake up even before the sun rises.

2. The hounds. The same nearby neighbor’s two hound dogs love to test their vocal skills at 6 a.m.

3. The cow. The same nearby neighbor’s one cow loves to make a series of short moos every ten seconds for nearly an hour between 6 and 7 a.m. every day.

4.  The mower.  Those incredibly loud hand-held little chopping sticks make sooooooo much noise, and why must the people using them start work so early?

But today was different.  Today was Monday morning and I awoke to the phone ringing just outside my bedroom door.  I rolled over to see the clock, fearing I had slept later than normal, and it blinked 6:31 a.m. 6:31 am!?   Really?   Who on earth is calling me before the sun is barely up and what must they need at that hour of the day, I wondered.  I put in my ear plugs and rolled over, anticipating the hounds, the rooster, the cow and the mower to start soon. This isn’t the first time it has happened. Though I may have been frustrated at 6:31 a.m. this morning, I reminded myself, it’s just cultural, so I can’t blame ‘em. Whoever “em’” is.

If there is one thing I have learned living in this country, it’s that the hours of operation of Latin American households begin much, much earlier than those in the U.S.  I’m pretty sure Latin American households open around 6 a.m. for business, open to phone calls, people popping over unexpectedly, milk deliveries with friendly chats, and so on. And they close much earlier than U.S. households, typically around 8:30 or 9 p.m. I don’t dare make phone calls after 9 p.m. — surely everyone would be fast asleep.

Over a year of living in this country and I’m still getting used to these earlier hours.  Though most in my community know that I don’t open for business until after 8:30 a.m., there’s still those select few that call me before 7 a.m.  Maybe by the time I leave in eight more months, I will be a very early morning person just like the Ticos, open for business at 6 a.m.

Rebecca Stumpf is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Copey de Dota, Costa Rica. To read more about her experiences and see more of her photography, check out her website and photography blog. For some delicious recipes, check out her food blog.

After having lived in this community over a year now, I am feeling comfortable.  I am learning the pace of this culture and the ins and outs of working in it.  And it is nothing beyond easy.  And so when I found myself filled to the brim with frustration in front of the board of directors, I learned a big lesson.

Long-term international development work is a unique experience.  It’s quite different than just moving to a new city in your own culture to start a job.  Not only do you know no one, but you also don’t know the culture and how they work.  Can they work as a team?  Can they not?  Are they efficient?  Are they organized?  You learn all that by trial and error.  As I have found out, there are many important lessons to learn when beginning to work in another culture.

First, the biggest lesson I have learned, is to not to get too stressed about anything.  Coming from a fast paced culture, we are used to deadlines and efficiency.  Upon my first few times of experiencing extreme inefficiency in my community work here in Costa Rica, I saw that no one else but ME was worried or stressed about it.  I quickly let that go.   It’s just a cultural difference.

Second, know that the pace of life is different.  Life moves slower in Latin America.  In Costa Rica, the official country slogan is pura vida, or pure life, which basically means everything is all right and no worries abound.  Life is slow, simple, lovely, worry-free.  Another one of those cultural differences.

Third and finally, as in any culture, communication is key!  Lack of communication will contribute to frustration and to being what the Costa Ricans call “brava” or bossy/fiery/snappy, oftentimes in inappropriate situations (like in front of a board of directors)!  Also, remember, what may seem as a lack of communication to us, could also just be chalked up to another one of those cultural differences.

But don’t get me wrong, I know that working in another culture can also be extremely rewarding.  It’s these important lessons we learn through cultural differences that make us more well-rounded people, ready to face any challenge that comes our way, in our own culture or in another.

Rebecca Stumpf is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Copey de Dota, Costa Rica. To read more about her experiences and see more of her photography, check out her website and photography blog. For some delicious recipes, check out her food blog.

I’ve noticed a handful of random acts of kindness lately.  Either they’re happening more frequently or I’m just more observant lately.

A number of them occur on buses.  I never see anyone hesitate to get up for a woman with a child or for a senior citizen.   People instantly jump up the second they get on the buses to offer their seat, without a second of hesitation.

Yesterday, I saw a middle-aged woman with long gray hair carrying a canvas bag filled with fruits and vegetables getting off the bus, and the man that was waiting to get on just nonchalantly put out his hand to help her step down off the bus.  It all appeared so natural and smooth as if they were old friends.  But they weren’t – they were most likely strangers, and they both merrily went on their ways.

A couple weeks ago one happened to me.  I was traveling in the capital city and realized, after I had tucked into my hotel that I forgot toothpaste.  It was past 10 o’clock at night and I went to reception to ask the attendant where the closest place I could get toothpaste was.  He told me where it was (far) and offered instead, some of his personal toothpaste he had with him for the night.

Additionally, lately I’ve been getting lost a lot.  Or maybe just venturing into new areas that are unknown.  And whenever I ask anyone for directions, they drop whatever they are doing to help me, walk me to the corner or the place, or offer up any other sort of advice/help to get me where I am going.

Though I’ve been living in this culture for over a year now, lately, I feel as though I have become an observer, a wallflower.  I’ve made somewhat of a conscious effort to step back and really see this culture, as I know it, not as a newcomer, but as someone who has lived and worked in it.  When I stepped back and observed, I saw something great – the kindness of strangers, and it was lovely.

Rebecca Stumpf is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Copey de Dota, Costa Rica. To read more about her experiences and see more of her photography, check out her website and photography blog. For some delicious recipes, check out her food blog.

1. Life goes at a different pace here – slower, calmer. Here, I very rarely feel rushed or stressed or pressed for time. It’s the pura vida mindset that Ticos use to infiltrate their lives and their way of being; it’s that everything-is-okay, no-worries sort of mindset that has really become part of me.

2. Here, we are not responsible for our actions – God is. Everything here is “Si Dios quiere” (If  God Wills.) It’s funny how the answer to everything is, Si Dios quiere to phrases such as: “See you tomorrow”; “Let’s have a meeting next Monday at 4 p.m.”; “I’m flying to Panama tomorrow.”  Si Dios quiere is always the right answer.

3. Hot water is a commodity, so you really grow to appreciate it.

4. I have over a hundred avocados ripening on three trees 50 feet from my back door.

5. The typical greeting when passing in the street is not, hola, but adios, which literally means “to God.”

6. How I can walk down the street and say hi to someone sitting out front of their house, and before I know it I will be inside drinking cafecito and eating bizcocho – mere strangers five minutes earlier.

7. I am getting more physical and mental rest here than ever before, not to mention, probably adding 10 years on to my life.

8. Horseback riding is a common form of transportation.  No one looks twice at the man and his horse trotting down the highway.

9. I love how coffee here brings you to stop and slow down, not grab and go. I love how afternoon cafecito is a time come together and converse. I love how most places don’t have “to-go” cups. I love how coffees are small here. I love how the coffee culture here, where it is grown and cultivated and valued, is the exact opposite of what it is in the United States.

10. I love how here you can spend an entire day on the sofa reading, while the rain tap, tap, taps on the tin roof, for six months, and not feel guilty. I love that.

Thank you, Costa Rica, for being you.

Rebecca Stumpf is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Copey de Dota, Costa Rica. To read more about her experiences and see more of her photography, check out her website and photography blog. For some delicious recipes, check out her food blog.

I have officially been self-diagnosed with hypochondria.  Is that a word?  Surely it must be a disease?  And surely, I have it.

I think I first became a hypochondriac when I moved to a village of 700 in the mountains of Costa Rica just over a year ago.  A village far away from any sort of emergency medical facility.  A village full of flora and fauna that most people haven’t even heard of that could cause a-never-experienced-before-sort-of-emergency reaction.  A village where the water could cause parasites,  and the food botulism.  A village where the sun could cause heat stroke.  A village where the dusty roads could cause lung problems.  A village where every malady is something big.  Yes, that’s where I live….faaaaaar away from the comforts we know as medicine and science.

I think it all started with bed bugs.  I was convinced I had bed bugs.  But then that was confirmed.  So my hypochondriacism doesn’t apply there.  Then these weird spots appeared on my hands and feet, and vomiting and fever, and that was confirmed – Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease – not to be confused with Hoof and Mouth disease which livestock get.  Then, I got stung on the chin by some mystery insect, my whole body swelled up and I was rushed down the mountain to the public health clinic where they gave me multiple shots in the butt, oxygen and an IV.  Of course, I couldn’t help but think I was going to die of anaphylactic shock on the way.

Then, I got parasites.  But that was medically confirmed too.  Lately it’s been that I am developing Multiple Sclerosis or have Botulism because of some weird weakness in my arms.  I’ve also toyed with the idea of Leishmaniasis.  Surely I got bit by a sand fly on my most recent trip to the Caribbean Coast.  Or maybe it was the fleas I brought back home with me from the hotel.  Could I have Lyme’s disease?  Any dizzy moment, headache or short of breath moment most definitely means I have a brain tumor or a collapsed lung.   Surely, I have something.

When did this all happen?  I never used to be a worrier.  Why did Latin America give me hypochondriacism? Am I alone in having this?  Please say no.  Until I hear “No, I’m not alone” I will continue to think I am getting some disease that science hasn’t even discovered yet and is incurable.  Perhaps it’s just that I have too much time to sit and think here.  Or perhaps it’s just that this this is all a bit unknown.

Rebecca Stumpf is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Copey de Dota, Costa Rica. To read more about her experiences and see more of her photography, check out her website and photography blog. For some delicious recipes, check out her food blog.

Though, I’m not gonna lie.  I’m quite fortunate when it comes to laundry.  I don’t have to do it by hand.  But I do have to do it semi-automatically by hand…in my Westinghouse Semi-Automatic Washer. The same one my mother probably had back in graduate school in the 1970s.  I can’t complain – I do have a washer.

I’ve given up my exercise for Sundays because laundry has become my exercise.  It is the best arm work out.  I also find that I tend to get a bit of an ab workout as well.  I have to put my whole upper body into pulling the heavy, wet, tangled mess out of the water to unknot it so the washer can actually do its job – clean the clothes.

Now drying is another story.  Dryers are as uncommon here as water in the desert, for obvious reasons which I will state anyway – sun.

I hang my clothes up in hopes that they will be nice and sun-dried and fresh.  Instead, I end up with crunchy underwear, stiff jeans and stretched out shirts.  Six months out of the year when it’s the rainy season, they remain damp for a few days.  Then they just feel dirty again by the time I take them off the line.

I once read in a somewhat-unreputable-for-this-sort-of-fact magazine that line-drying two loads of laundry in the sun per week saves as much energy as it takes to run your fridge for four months.  So, just think how much energy I am saving….(though I’m only saving it so people with dryers back in the US can use it).  Well, I guess you win some and lose some.  But on the bright side of things, even if my clothes don’t have the fresh, outta-the-dryer feel, I can at least tell my biceps are getting stronger.

Rebecca Stumpf is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Copey de Dota, Costa Rica. To read more about her experiences and see more of her photography, check out her website and photography blog. For some delicious recipes, check out her food blog.

This June marks one year of living in Costa Rica as a Children, Youth, and Family Development volunteer. My town is a small agriculture town of about 600 inhabitants in the central-valley mountains where there have been ups, there have been downs, and there have been in-betweens. Life is simple, life is unpredictable, and life is….challenging. This, I have discovered first hand over the past year in a country that struggles to get its footing over a vast crevasse of a rocky cliff between a land of poverty and a land beaming full of tourism.

When I got my Peace Corps placement of Costa Rica, most people couldn’t believe it. “There’s Peace Corps in Costa Rica?” “Oh, tough break,” or “It’ll be like you’re on vacation for two years!” But there is a face of Costa Rica – a face that most people don’t know.

This face of Costa Rica, it’s hidden well. It’s hidden deep in my village where Nicaraguan mothers struggle to afford milk for their children. It’s hidden in broken benches that surround the soccer field and in the tin walls that make up the houses here. It’s hidden in the discrimination between Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans. It’s hidden in the lack of resources in the school. It’s hidden in the lack of productive activities for youth. It’s hidden. Everywhere.

That’s, I guess, where my job comes in- two years working in the youth development sector of this community. And due to the slow process of international development work, I am finally beginning to feel like I am making a difference here, one year later. As a firm believer in the power of images, photography and creative expression to create change, I have used that as a way to empower children and give them an outlet for their hidden voices as the basis of many of my projects. And will continue to do so over the next year.

My time here is long. But my time here is also short. It’s simple; but, it’s challenging. It’s planned; but it’s also incredibly unpredictable. There are barriers of all sorts, and there are rocks in the way. But it’s real, and it’s extraordinary, and I am immersed in it – this lovely country balancing between “developed” and “developing.” This country has stories to tell.

Rebecca Stumpf is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Copey de Dota, Costa Rica. To read more about her experiences and see more of her photography, check out her website and photography blog. For some delicious recipes, check out her food blog.