Week Six:
Casa Verde

September 7, 2015

We are almost ready to head out on the retreat! Today is Tuesday, July 28^th, and we leave for Ometepe in 3 days! The only real task I have left to complete before the retreat involves talking with my supervisor about the budget that I have drawn up for the outing, and collecting the funds that we have been allotted for the trip. Since my last entry last week, I have made a substantial amount of progress on the service learning packet, so I feel like I can explain a little more about that portion of my work.

As Casa Verde has grown, it has begun to develop a variety of operational patterns and habits. However, due in part to the fact that they get caught up in managing their everyday responsibilities, Casa Verde organizers are not always aware of these patterns. Therefore, in order to gain a greater awareness of how CV works, and how to help the organization operate more efficiently, CV leaders have expressed the desire for someone to create a packet for the organization that provides them with information on how CV organizes, and implements its service learning programs that it designs. My task involves writing a handbook that exclusively talks about the programs that Casa Verde designs to host international volunteers in Limon.  I have divided this packet into six sections. These sections talk about the following themes:

• Casa Verde’s mission/purpose.
• The types of service learning programs Casa Verde offers
• The program participant recruitment, admission, and orientation process.
• The homestay program
• The program implementation Process
• The program evaluation process

So far, I have only completed the first three sections of the handbook, so I am concerned about my ability to complete the packet before my departure in August. One of the biggest reasons behind my slow progress has to do with the unpredictability of electricity. I am using a laptop with a damaged battery that can’t hold a charge, so I need to have my laptop plugged in when I use it. Usually, this does not prove to be much of a problem, but when the power goes out, as it frequently does these days, I either have to shut my computer, and work on something else, or bike 4 kilometers to work in a restaurant on the beach where I can use power from a backup generator. Although quite stressful, electricity shortages, along with the occasional water shortages at my house have made it far more clear to me just how much of our lives revolve around utilities that we just assume will always work. After living without them, I have begun to attach far greater value to utilities like water and electricity. I feel like all too often, people like me who live in the United States forget just how much of our lives depend on electricity, and as a result, we forget just how lucky we are to live in places with such an abundance of energy that add so much efficiency and convenience to our everyday lives.

As I sit here on the verge of the culmination of the biggest project I have worked on over my internship, I am naturally more than a little apprehensive. I will hold the responsibility for the safety and enjoyment of over 20 people! Believe me when I say that this responsibility comes with a great deal of pressure! However, as I have previously mentioned, living, and working at Cornell has sort of allowed me to grow accustomed to pressure. When my grade in an important class depends on my performance on a test, or paper, I have felt like my entire future depends on the same assignment. My familiarity with these types of high stake situations also appear in my job as an RA, when my actions can mean the difference between whether one of my residents transfers, or stays and continues to grow at Cornell. Regardless of where the pressure is coming from, I know now that the only way to make sure that disaster does not strike is to focus on what task or responsibility I need to complete immediately, and then work my way down the list. When I run out of tasks to complete for a day, all I can really do is sit back, and think about something other than work. What’s the point of sitting in a chair and worrying for the sake of worrying? That’s all I have for now. Details about how the retreat went will be in the next entry.