Advice from a Youth Development Volunteer In Costa Rica

An interview with “Lizzy” Smith

In this interview, we have the opportunity to hear from Lizzy Smith. He is Peace Corps volunteer serving as a Youth Development volunteer in Costa Rica. Lizzy’s experience and perspective shed light on the impactful work being done by PCVs around the world. As we get into the interview, we gain a deeper understanding of the challenges, rewards, and personal growth. This comes with serving in a foreign country, working with local communities, and navigating unexpected situations. Join us as we share Lizzy’s journey and gain insights into the transformative power of volunteering with the Peace Corps.

Table of Contents

• An interview with “Lizzy” Smith
• Volunteer Experience and Motivation
• Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
• Surprises, Challenges, and Personal Growth
• Community Projects and Interactions
• Advice and Support
• Practical Tips and Language Learning
• Impact of Media and Final Thoughts
• We thank Lizzy for her service!

Volunteer Experience and Motivation

1. Can you tell us about your experience serving as a Youth Development volunteer in Costa Rica?

As a Peace Corps Costa Rica (PCCR) Youth Development (YD) volunteer, our projects relate to three goals:

1. youth wellbeing (which include life skills, mental health, leadership, arts, recreation, clubs, camps, etc)
2. community participation
3. strengthening service provider relationships with youth.

I work on my projects mainly through the two schools in my community. That includes a vocational high school and a small elementary school. When I say small, I mean small. The elementary school has three teachers and three classrooms, one for kinder, one for 1st – 4th grade, and one for 5th – 6th grade respectively.

The high school has the option of three specialties (electronics, logistics, and informatics). And students can graduate with their high school degree and a technical degree in one of these three specialties. I focus most of my energy in the high school, working on projects that align with our PCCR YD goals through programs that already exist in the Ministry of Public Education. These include things such as leadership with the student government and community service projects, which is a graduation requirement for public school students.

My community is a rural, residential, and agricultural area close to an urban town. So I feel as if I have the best of both worlds: the tranquil slower, country life and relatively close access to institutions such as banks, pharmacies, and stores.

2. What motivated you to join the Peace Corps and choose Costa Rica?

Peace Corps first came onto my radar as a college freshman (Go Tribe!) when I attended an info session. But it didn’t seem like the right fit post-college at the time. Senior year I revisited the idea, and the stars seemingly aligned for my Peace Corps journey.

Firstly, I have always wanted to be fluent in Spanish. I attended a Spanish Immersion program in high school and then studied abroad for a semester in my junior year in Argentina. But I never considered myself fluent. I had developed a pretty solid base, but I knew I needed more practice if I was going to reach the level I wanted.

Secondly, I was going to be unattached. I had just gotten out of a long-term relationship and I was graduating college; I couldn’t think of a better time to serve than now.

Thirdly, I wanted to stand out when I applied to graduate school for Physician’s Assistance. My grades were okay, but I needed something else to be competitive.

Finally, I wanted to do the Peace Corps. I wanted to do something meaningful, and what could be more meaningful than working with youth!

Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration

3. Can you tell us about living with your host family?

I’m over a year into service and I still live with my host family voluntarily. It’s a mom and dad with three daughters (15, 18, and 25) and a son (28) who lives in the capital. There also is a grandmother who spends the day in her own house but eats dinner and sleeps in our house. The two younger daughters attend the high school I work with, which is convenient. 

I’m lucky that they are a chill, caring, and reasonable family. They were very clear that if there was ever a food I didn’t like or if I needed more privacy, to just communicate with them. We have a mutual respect which is how we can cross the cultural divide.

Surprises, Challenges, and Personal Growth

4. What has surprised you most about Costa Rica?

There is an emphasis on manners here that often times ticos might offer something but not *really* intend on following through with it.

For example, upon first meeting me a popular question is where have I travelled in Costa Rica. After telling them, they usually invite me to their house or that they’ll take me on a trip or whatnot, but there is no follow up. When I’ve brought up the invitation in the past, I normally received a vague answer or they put it off so I stopped bringing them up. I’ve learned not to trust these invitations as real invitations and interpret them as polite conversations; if they really mean it, they usually bring it up once again and we’ll actually make plans.

Another quirk of the culture is the indirectness. To give another example, once I was at sitting at the teacher’s table for a graduation dinner and the waiter put a pitcher of water on the table. One of the teacher’s tried to lift it and commented to the waiter that it was heavy, the waiter acknowledged the comment with a smile, and continued on placing waters on the different tables. She (the teacher) then commented how rude he was and that he should have offered to pour the water for her. This surprised me because she never *asked* for that. 

I’ve had to learn to read between the lines a lot more here than in the US.

5. What challenges did you face while working in Costa Rica?

I think the biggest challenge was learning the education system. I truthfully don’t do much work in the community, I prefer to focus my work within the school system. I try to ask questions so I more or less know what I’m getting myself into, but I usually just go with the flow and am flexible.

6. How have you grown as a Peace Corps volunteer?

I’m definitely more tolerant of creepy crawlies. But in all seriousness, I also believe that I’ve become more empathetic and more expressive of my care for others. I like to think my kids can sense how much I love them, even if I don’t have the most eloquent Spanish. I also would say that I’ve become better at setting and maintaining boundaries, not only with work/social commitments but also with personal relationships.

Community Projects and Interactions

7. Could you share some of the secondary projects you have been involved in?

I will help out the English department with their activities, like the English Festival, or I’ll sometimes present in their classes about American holidays. I was a Science Fair judge for a local bilingual private school as well. I also just generally pitch in where I can, collaborating with important school events like Costa Rican Independence Day or whatnot.

8. Can you tell us about any memorable experiences you’ve had?

As I mentioned above, I work a lot with student community service projects.

One such project was a mural made out of recycled plastic caps. This was one of the bigger projects with 10 students, and it was hard to organize them based on their differing class schedules and social/work commitments. A lot of the project was the tedious prep work like cleaning, drying, and sorting the caps based on color, so it quite honestly didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm on the part of the students as they couldn’t see the vision. I admit that I was having some trouble as well; I wasn’t sure if we were going to finish in time or if it was going to turn out well.

However, once we started screwing the bottle caps in place, it really started coming together. One kid even commented to me that he wasn’t there the day of the project sign-ups (students signed up on a first serve for which project they were most interested in) so he got stuck on this project and thought it was the worst one, but now he thinks it’s the coolest and most creative. Other students not involved in the project came and asked if they could help screw in the bottle caps. The mural turned out really neat and is definitely a sense of pride for the students.

The best part is that some members of the group asked me if they could help out next year with community service projects and if we could do other projects. This was really beautiful because that’s the point of the graduation requirement, that the participants feel a sense of ownership and pride over their particular project but also that they keep that community service spirit and participate in projects in their communities.

Advice and Support

9. What advice would you give to someone considering serving as a Youth Development volunteer in Costa Rica?

I’d say be flexible but also remember to care for yourself. PST was very stressful for me, I like to say that I’m a different person in site from PST because I’m so much more relaxed. 

PCCR YD has a LOT of content they have to pack into three months before you enter service, and we’ve had 4 in-service trainings (IST 1, IST 2, PDM, MST). 

Have grace not only for yourself but others, including staff – everyone is doing the best they can.

I’d read the Reddit forum a lot and search out PCCR PCV blogs. I got a lot of helpful information from RPCVs and current volunteers, plus you can usually connect ahead of time with some of your future cohort once they receive an invitation.

10. What skills or qualities do you think are most important for a Youth Development volunteer in Costa Rica?

You gotta love kids first of all. But I’d say flexibility, resilience, tolerance and assume good intentions. The culture is different, and it’ll take some getting used to. Did I like being told by one of my counterparts that I’m looking a little “llenita” (full) and that I must really like the food here or that by celebrating Halloween I’m celebrating the devil — absolutely not. But hey, there are equally as many people or more that reassured me and supported me. You’ll have a wonderful opportunity to challenge these perspectives, however, it’s okay if they don’t change. Poco a poco.

11. How has the Peace Corps provided support and resources?

I’ve reached out to the PCMOs (Peace Corps Medical Officer) before regarding some personal difficulties and they were VERY supportive. At one point I was feeling kinda burnt out and I had a call with my Program Manager and she told me that it’s okay if I don’t take on more projects. I’ve personally found the Costa Rican PC staff to be very understanding, validating, and supportive. Now in Costa Rica, we are starting up the Peer Support Network so we are hoping that will be a resource for our PCVs as well.

Practical Tips and Language Learning

12. Anything yet that you packed or didn’t pack that you’d like to tell future volunteers?

Do not buy stuff thinking that you’ll wear it. I don’t wear Chaco’s but I bought some thinking that I would and they sat in my room and started to grow mold. If you don’t wear it now, you won’t want to wear it there. Speaking of mold, I would bring a reusable humidifier or buy some silica beads ahead of time to bring, mold growing on your stuff is a universal problem here. 

Also, bring some luxuries if they are important or useful to you; it is not uncommon to see a smartwatch and if you want to bring the gua sha because you love skincare, do it! Depriving yourself of some small luxuries isn’t going to undermine your Peace Corps experience. 

Also because Costa Rica is so close to the US, it’s pretty globalized and you can usually find what you want in San José, get it shipped here, or have a fellow PCV bring it back while on a visit to the States.

13. How has learning the language been?

I came in as Intermediate-Mid (fluency level) having forgotten a lot of my Spanish, so personally it wasn’t that hard to reach the minimal language level of Intermediate-High required to go to site. All of our cohorts since I’ve been here have been mixed language level-wise, there are beginner, intermediate, and advanced speakers.

I’d take advantage of conversing with your PST host family, they are the most likely non-staff members to correct your Spanish. Also, listen to music in Spanish (and look up the lyrics and read along) and watch movies and shows in Spanish. It might not be the most relaxing activity because you have to concentrate more, but it’s a good way to hear sentence structures.

Impact of Media and Final Thoughts

14. What advice would you give to volunteers who are considering starting a blog during their service?

OOF so I have not written a blog post in almost a year. My intention in starting the blog was to keep my loved ones at home updated, however, I just talk on the phone with them, and to be quite honest, it’s exhausting crafting posts. With each post I pushed back the timeline on when I would post again, first weekly, then every two weeks, then monthly, then every two months, and finally I just never went back to it.

My advice in starting a blog would be to have realistic posting expectations and question if your motivation is sufficient for the effort you’ll be putting in. Also, you have to read the Peace Corps social media and blog policy before starting it.

15. Any last comments or observations?

Approach from a place of kindness and try everything once. People are usually pretty understanding if you don’t like something and are willing to learn US culture too.

Putting in the integration work during your first three months at site will allow you to have more grace extended to you in your service, example: go to the “rezos” (prayer gatherings) during January to check it out and participate, that will earn you credibility in the community. Even if you aren’t catholic, treat it as a cultural experience because it is.

Along the same line of thinking, help out in projects outside of your preview like cutting out letters for the Arts Festival, making copies of a worksheet for another teacher, etc. It will earn you goodwill and support for your projects.

We thank Lizzy for her service!

Lizzy’s time as a Youth Development volunteer in Costa Rica gives us valuable understanding into what it’s like. Going through the challenges and rewards, we see the deep personal growth that happens when you dive into a new culture with openness, flexibility, and care for others. Lizzy’s work to empower Costa Rican youth is having a real impact and is inspirational.

We appreciate Lizzy taking the time to share this look into the life-changing experience of serving in the Peace Corps. Her advice and views encourage us to approach new cultures and situations with compassion. We wish Lizzy the best as he keeps doing his meaningful work to strengthen communities in Costa Rica.

Let Lizzy’s interview inspire you to get out of your comfort zone. Consider how your skills and passion could empower communities in need around the world.

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