Town Meeting

Jan 18, 2011

My first town meeting, a little intimidating, but I got through it.

 In preperation for the reunion; I made invitations, walked door to door and stood up at the end of Sunday Mass announcing, in Spanish, all the details. Most people in town knew there was a gringa living there now, some people knew why, but most people didn't have a clue. Having me arrive at their front door with invitations was a little strange for them, they weren't sure how to react.

After all that work I wasn't sure if the curiosity of meeting the new girl in town would be enough to draw in a big crowd. Other Peace Corps Volunteers warned me that many people will say they are coming and in the end you have 5 participants. So I was shooting for 5. I ended up getting around 35 people, success!

The twon meeting was split into 2 time slots; 4pm for women and 7pm for men. I did this on the advice of my host mom, firstly because of the differing schedules between men and women and secondly to encourage mens participation instead of sending their wives to find out whats going on.

Of course both meeting were running on "Tico Time" and started 15-20 minutes late. I began with and introduction of who I am, why I am here and some history of the Peace Corps. I also explain that the meetings are part of a town diognostic I have to complete before community developmnt projects can begin. By gathering information and gaining a better understanding of everything Coope, as well as the people, I can help organize and creat; effective, sustainable and meaningful community activities.

The Community Assessment Tool or CAT that I used for the first meeting was a maping activity. Each group of men and women were given news print paper, markers, crayons ect to draw a basic outline of Coope. Once that was completed each group was handed colored construction paper; red squares, green circles and yellow triangles. On the red squares the group were to write things they thought were dangerous in town and place the square in the that area of the map. The circles represented items the wanted but did not have and the triangles things then need. During the presentation of the maps I was able to ask quastions, see the different perspective between men and women and understand my community better.

At the mens' meeting some Nicaraguan men living in the town decided to drop in and see what was going on. This was a pleasant surprise, because in general, Nicaraguan immigrants are not well integrated into the town and are faced with widespread racism throughout Costa Rica. It was nice to have a population that doesn't normally participate, interested. Unfortunately, this event wasn't above the social problems of today, a few Ticos decided to give me an example of the racism and sour feelings between Ticos and Nicaraguans. It was the one bad note to an otherwise productive and fun first town meeting.