bueno.: thanks estelí. thanks casa. chira love.

here.goes.nothing.
sorry to get a late start but i have always marched to the beat of my own drum. first anyone who decides to read this needs to thank estelí, who is a friend and otra volunteer that nags at me daily to start a blog. "thanks estelí". secondly they need to thank the casa, which is a presentation i will be delivering on monday about chira but have yet to start. we all know i'm the definition of procrastination, hence starting a blog six months tarde, so why not start a blog when i should really be starting my casa. "thanks casa". settled.
entonces my name is whitney or as people here say witnei and i live on a rural little island that goes by the name of chira. it is located in the gulf of nicoya, costa rica. i get to call this place my home for the next now twenty-one months and think i'm pretty lucky to do so. i am a tefl(teaching english as a foreign language) volunteer w/cuerpo de paz. don't let the fact that i just said i was an english teacher lead you to believe i won't have plenty of grammatical errors/i will start typing with capitalized letters(i don't like them).

anywho introductions to my island are in order. i fell in love with chira at first sight entonces i hope you do after first read. it is extremely rural, hotter than ever, infested with mosquitos and i appreciate all it comes with. with a population of 1,774, and 5 main towns, chira is a place where everyone knows everyone and everyone knows everything. it wouldn't really feel like an island if it weren't for the 40min boat ride i have to take at 6 o'clock in the morning to leave the island and catch by 2 o'clock in the afternoon to return to the island. it has mountains, jungle, and beach. kind of has all of costa rica on one little island. it has iguanas, cows, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, fish, frogs, scorpions, crabs, snakes, monkeys, all sorts of tropical birds, way too many insects and it even has crocodiles. which i have supposedly swam with a few times now. don't worry the people here say as long as you swim in groups, they are more scared of you. i say as long as i'm not the furthest one out or the worst swimmer i am safe. it has some little convenient stores, a few hostels, a couple restaurants, a bar, 3 primary schools, 1 high school, 1 bus that comes 3 times a day(starts at 5 o'clock in the morning and done by 3 o'clock in the afternoon), 10 cars, no taxis, and a whole lot of motorcycles(the one and only thing that i will get sent home for, no questions asked). so my options are bike, bike, and walking. as for now i walk the 20min to the one school i work at, and take the school bus for free with the ninos to the hour walking school i work at. except on thursdays when i have to walk the hour. majority of the people are fisherman or sell fish and the rest are into tourism, farming, or running the few family businesses. even the teachers don't live on the island minus 2 or 3. lastly it has water i can drink and power half the time. although lately not so much the case between 6pm-12pm the next day. also talk of the town this issue may need to be fixed, which will lead to three weeks without power...one more integration opportunity?
well that's my island. life here isn't always the easiest but it really gives me a chance to go back and really think about why the heck i would ever choose to live here for the next 2 years?! then i think about the thirty plus drawings i have from students that say i love you witnei, the funny crabs & mosquito's i hang with twice a day underneath the down pour of the hose spicket, coming through the window that they like to call a shower, how when getting on that expensive bus i am greeted by a group of people that all know me by name, the beans & rice i eat 3 times a day that has now become my comfort food(also get fish or shrimp sometimes for lunch or dinner), the support group i have both back home & here rooting me on, all the ideas i have running wild through my head about what i want to do here, how sometimes i literally start thinking in spanish instead of english, and how much i really do love it here and the people i work with daily in the schools, my community class, and the community in general. i think it's literally the perfect place for me to call home for the next 2 years. when i'm done thinking about all that, those little thing's that bother me really seem like nothing.
ok. it's official. i have a blog. some of this may have been repetitive to those who have gotten my emails but i had to start somewhere so why not be where i introduced chira. now maybe i will go work on that casa or maybe i will keep up my pattern and wait another night. maybe y'all will even get to read another blog post before i get around to that casa.