Spanish
Student, Megan Crimmins, Reviews the Costa Rica Program
Mujeres
Unidasy Cosas Aprendidas
Megan Crimmins
Courts Scholar Intern, Costa Rica, 2002
Working
with the organization MUSADE (Mujeres Unidas en Salud y Desarrollo)
this past summer was a great opportunity to see how a women’s
organization is run in Central America and what it takes to make
their programs function. My main goal when I left the United States
to go to Costa Rica was to contribute to the work of an organization
whose main objective is to improve the lives of women. Now that
I am back to class again and reflecting on my experience, I can
say with confidence that my pre-departure desire to work in this
capacity was sincere. However, I realize that my understanding
of the need for this type of work was not nearly as profound.
More than that, my initial expectations for what I would experience
in Costa Rica could never have predicted the many ways in which
I would learn and grow in such a short amount of time.
Apart from having the opportunity to fulfill my goal of aiding
a women’s organization, I obtained a more intense respect
for life and education, a greater appreciation for family, an
increased sense of adventure, and a better understanding of cultural
difference. I obtained these things from the variety of new experiences
I had in Costa Rica: seeing first-hand the pain of domestic violence,
sharing with groups of at-risk kids, working and expressing myself
in a foreign language, living life daily with my Costa Rican host-families,
and exploring and experiencing both the beauty and diversity of
this tropical country.
The
best way to describe the place where I worked this summer is to
say that MUSADE is a gem of an organization in a country where
machismo still pervades so many aspects of society. MUSADE is
a women’s organization that, like most others, has fought
to achieve the success as well as the solidarity that it now has
today. Their primary focus is helping survivors of domestic violence,
women as well as children. Such work involves holding support
groups for the women and children so that they may either begin
to escape the cycle of violence, or cope with the pain of having
lived through such atrocities. Both a lawyer and a social worker
are on site to give these women legal as well as emotional advice
about how to escape violent situations. MUSADE has countless volunteers,
many of which are from the universities of Costa Rica, as community
service is a requirement for all college graduates.
The work does not stop there. MUSADE also holds support groups
for adolescent mothers, with as many as three different groups
meeting in and around San Ramon (the central office) on any given
day. The sessions with these girls last four hours and are led
by a facilitator that works with MUSADE. Because the financial
situation for these girls is very difficult, one of the benefits
they have from attending these groups is payment by the government.
Within these sessions the workers from MUSADE try to teach the
young mothers many things, some of which include mother-child
relationships, avoiding violence in relationships, strong self-esteem,
and the importance of education.
While I was working with MUSADE, they were also beginning a project
to help local women to begin in small businesses. These are women
who have a talent that makes them skilled artisans. When these
women sell their crafts to local stores, they are often not given
a fair price for their goods. The intention of MUSADE has been
to create a web of workers that support each other. They also
hope to hold fairs where these women can have power over selling
their own goods and thus receive more financial benefit. Such
support will provide the women with an organized way to present
and sell their crafts. MUSADE thus holds a strong and active presence
within this community in a variety of ways. They have ten years
of experience working with their various projects and a lot of
knowledge of how to make the organization effective and functional.
To be quite honest, the level of their involvement was both intimidating
and overwhelming as a new intern. Obviously, there was a lot of
work to be done, but the question still remained as to how I would
integrate myself into that work. Luckily, my experience within
MUSADE was unique in that I was sent there with other interns
from the United States. This was different because MUSADE had
never received more than one intern at a time. At first I was
afraid that so many interns would detract from my internship experience
or make it more difficult to integrate myself into the workplace.
However, I found the exact opposite to be true. By being with
several other interns we 
were
able to take on a bigger project and accomplish a lot more with
the support we gave each other. In fact, it quickly became clear
to us what we wanted our work at MUSADE to be.
We
decided on our project the first week of the internship. This
week was spent visiting and attempting to share with the various
support groups of both adolescent mothers and the survivors of
domestic violence. It was a very intense week for me, as I had
never worked with either kind of group before. My memories of
this first week are and always will be very vivid in my mind.
Intellectually I knew that this type of work would be very challenging,
but nothing can really prepare a person for the reality of seeing
such young girls with children. Some of them had very little education
and could not even sign their name for attendance. Obviously,
this was not the case for all of the girls. However, each one
seemed to have their own challenges; husbands/boyfriends who were
abusive, little family support, low income, or doctors who showed
them little to no respect.
Perhaps
even more vividly imprinted upon my mind was the first support
group I attended for older women who had lived through domestic
violence. I was asked by the facilitator to draw an outline of
one of the women on a large piece of paper. I did not know what
the activity’s main focus was going to be, but nothing could
have prepared me to watch these women as they followed the facilitator’s
instructions. Each one had to mark on the woman’s body where
they had been abused not only physically, but mentally and sexually.
My heart broke as they drew lines through the heart and head of
the outlined figure, and then one woman ran her line through the
whole figure. She shrugged her shoulders explaining to the group
that her abuse had been everywhere.
It
was pretty easy to see after this first week that we wanted to
be more than just passive attendants at these support group meetings.
We wanted to actually share something valuable with the groups
that could be left behind to be used again by the organization.
As the number of adolescent mom groups indicates, a project to
teach about things such as contraception, sexually transmitted
diseases, and self-respect was obviously in need. While Costa
Rica may be advancing in many ways, the machismo that exists here
makes discussions about sex and protection taboo and difficult.
For example, some of the adolescent mothers told us that their
boyfriends thought that using a condom represented a lack of trust
in the relationship. Our hope was that we would be able to do
an entire workshop on sexuality with not only the adolescent mother
groups, but also the groups of at-risk kids that MUSADE supports.
We hoped that by being young and by being non-native Spanish speakers,
we might offer a less intimidating environment in which these
kids felt they could ask more questions than normal. In this way
they might seek out the information that they needed to make better
and more informed decisions.
I
cannot stress enough how impressed I was about the flexibility
of the women at MUSADE and the encouragement they gave us for
our project. All of the facilitators emphasized the need they
had for such workshops for their groups. To help us prepare for
the project they each explained some of the common misconceptions
surrounding sexuality within Costa Rica. Our goal then became
to make the presentation four hours long in order to fill the
entire length of time for the support groups. I can say that this
seemed like a very daunting task at the beginning. However, once
we got started, we found so much information and so many activities
that presenting for four hours no longer seemed like one of our
bigger challenges.
The
support we received from, not only the people at MUSADE, but also
in the local community made our job much easier. It also proved
to me the desire many people have for greater educational resources
on this topic. We utilized both the local hospital and the local
pharmacies to get information. The director of gynecology was
eager to speak to us and to share with us some of his research
about sexually transmitted diseases within Costa Rica. He also
directed us to another department of the hospital where we were
able to get all of the statistics on sexually transmitted diseases
for Costa Rica that we needed. Such statistics were important
to show the kids the realities that exist in Costa Rica. The pharmacies
we visited were also nice enough to take the time to show us all
of the contraception they had available and the prices for everything,
so that we could accurately inform the kids of their options.
Our investigations showed us that we couldn’t be afraid
to ask people for information and really search for what we needed.
In the end, I feel like we found open doors many more times than
closed ones.
The
project itself was broken down into three major categories. These
included discussions of contraception, sexually transmitted diseases,
and finally, respecting the body. We put all of this information
into the form of a brochure to leave behind with the groups. We
felt that kids too embarrassed to ask about certain things, at
least could go home and read over the brochure in privacy. The
creation of this brochure took a lot of our time since 
computer and printer resources were limited. However, I hope the
end result will be a resource that MUSADE can use over again in
the future.
The
most important part about the internship, of course, was our actual
interaction with the groups themselves. Over the weeks that we
presented we were able to visit twelve groups. We visited six
adolescent mother groups (Grecia, San Ramón, Poás, Palmares, Naranjo,
and Sarchí) and two adolescent groups (San Ramón and Palmares),
in addition to doing four presentations at the high school Colegio
Agropecuario de Piedades del Sur. We had some intense days of
travel, as some groups were over two hours away, but each group
offered us a new adventure.
We
were lucky enough to be able to do the first presentation with a
group we had been able to visit every week. This was a group of
adolescents that met weekly in a marginalized neighborhood of the
town Palmares. They were really an amazing group and I will never
forget the sadness I felt when I first saw them. The first week
that we met with them I didn’t really know what the group
was. After arriving, I asked the facilitator and she said that they
were a group of kids that suffered from, or were still suffering
from, the effects of domestic violence. It was hard for me to imagine
what they must go through in their everyday lives. We met with them
every week after that first meeting. What was so amazing is that
they were content participating in even the simplest activities.
The week that we did our workshop with them they had to come two
hours early so that we would have enough time. Right at three o’clock
all of them were there, and many of them had brought friends. We
were so scared about how that first presentation would go, but with
this group, it was no problem. They were patient with our Spanish
and willing to participate in all of the activities. It really showed
us that any amount of effort put towards sharing with them was really
appreciated.
This
appreciation was demonstrated once again at a full-day Saturday
event that was planned by MUSADE. When I showed up that day with
one other intern, we expected a full day of planned activities
that would keep every minute for the kids organized. However,
this was not the case. Only the first few hours were planned and
the rest of the day had to be improvised. We did everything from
freeze tag to musical chairs. Despite the simple nature of these
activities the kids stayed and never complained once. The reality
was that it didn’t matter what was planned for them; they
were happy to get some attention and to have something to do.
The
Saturday event helped me understand how needy these kids are for
structured things to do with their time. This need may explain
why we had such success with our presentations. They were glad
to have people sharing with them! All in all, most of our presentations
went well. Of course there were some groups that were more willing
to participate than others. However, there was never a time when
I felt that it was not worth being there. The adolescent mom groups
were probably our biggest challenge. This difficulty was at least
partly due to the fact that they would often need to bring their
babies with them, which was an un-preventable distraction of their
attention. This demonstrated how difficult life must be on so
many different levels. Also, some of these girls struggled with
reading and writing, making some of our activities harder to execute.
To be perfectly honest, at first we felt a little intrusive telling
these girls, who are already mothers, about sexuality. However,
we quickly realized the importance of it. For example, many of
them still believed in myths about contraception. One girl told
us that you could avoid pregnancy by drinking a glass of water
before and after having sex.
The
most important thing that I learned at the end of the presentations
is that what ends up being the most valuable part of a project
is not always readily obvious right at the beginning. Our project
about sexuality was implemented in the hopes of increasing the
understanding of how and why people should both protect and respect
themselves. In the end, the project ended up being a way to integrate
ourselves into the work at MUSADE. The project also enabled us
to show kids we cared and wanted to be there with them. We also
hoped that our project would be a tool that MUSADE would use again
in the future. We may not have reached everyone, but if even one
person walked away with the ability to think about things differently,
then the project was worth it.
As I mentioned before, my opportunity to work with a women’s
organization was not the only enriching experience that I encountered
this summer. Having the opportunity to live with host families taught
me more than I could ever have anticipated. I lived with two different
host families, each one providing me with a unique look into Costa
Rican family life. In each case I was accepted and treated as a
member of the family. My first home-stay experience was with a woman
named Elizabeth Durán and her ten year old daughter Monserrat. I
lived with them during the first part of my summer program in Costa
Rica, which began with three weeks of Spanish classes in San José.
I would attend four hours of Spanish in the morning at ICADS (the
Institute for the Central American Development Studies) and also
attend their daily lectures on such topics as Costa Rican Indigenous
peoples and banana plantations.
The
institute was a great help in making the transition into living
in Costa Rica and it also gave me the opportunity to meet students
from all over the United States with similar interests. Because
I became close to many of my fellow students, it was difficult
when our first three weeks ended. Even so, we still managed to
stay in contact, meet up for travel, and share the varied experiences
we were having in Costa Rica. My experiences while in San José
were incredible largely because of my host family. They welcomed
me as I never imagined that they would, sharing stories, their
home and advice, as well as their friendship.
Elizabeth,
my host mother, had lost her husband only one year before my arrival
in Costa Rica. Prior to this, she had been a host-mom for thirteen
years, and is continuing to do so as her main source of income
now that her husband has passed. I have to admit that I expected
to find a conservative and reserved typical Costa Rican host-mother.
I expected a host-mom who would be caring but not someone with
whom I would feel comfortable joking around, or in whom I thought
I would confide. She demonstrated almost immediately though, through
her stories and sense of humor, that she was a strong person with
an extensive knowledge of the world. Her working with students
from so many different places has given her a profound intuition
and an appreciation for difference that I have known in few people.
What I found was one of the most open-minded women that I have
ever known in my life as well as one of the most fun-loving. She
demonstrated this in so many ways, but I will never forget the
day that she told me, “Megan, if you had known me thirty
years ago, you wouldn’t even recognize me as being the same
person.” This was because her husband, upon marriage, had
imposed many restrictions for her, about dress, make-up, her hair,
etc. She rebelled and bought a colorful dress instead of wearing
the required colors of brown, black or grey. Not only did she
shock her husband, but her in-laws never talked to her again until
the day that her husband died. I saw this strong will and liberal
spirit in everything that she did. Her encouragement, her stories,
and her friendship helped give me the confidence to make the most
of my experience in Costa Rica. Elizabeth also taught me so much
about appreciating life and family, two things that this woman
did not take for granted.
When
I moved to San Ramón to work, I lived with Cristina Santamaria and
her two children, Jorge and Dayana. Making that move was much harder
than I ever imagined that it would be. Adjusting to a new family
was less the issue than it was to leave my new friends. Elizabeth
even said that although we had only known each other for a few weeks,
it felt as if we had known each other for years. However, as I would
soon find out, Cristina and her family would also give me a sense
of family and friendship as well as another important lesson in
life.
The
difficulty that I found with this family in the beginning turned
out to be an important and valuable lesson. Upon arrival at their
house, I was asked to share a room with the daughter who was eighteen
years old. I had been promised a room of my own and valued the
sense of privacy that came with it. I agreed to share though,
not knowing what else to do, and began my stay with them feeling
a lack of personal privacy. This loss of privacy was especially
hard at the beginning because work was emotionally intense and
I needed a place to escape and be alone. The director of the program
said that I could switch families, because, after all, they had
not lived up to their part of the contract. However, somehow in
the back of my mind, I knew that if I moved, I would be making
a big mistake.
It turned out that it would have been a big mistake to leave. After
only one week I was already beginning to feel like a part of the
family. The grandmother would greet me everyday for lunch with a
big hug and a kiss on the cheek. My host mother and I were the first
to get up everyday, so we began the day with a cup of coffee and
stories from work (she was on the staff at MUSADE as well). My host
brother gave me advice about my project at MUSADE and was always
encouraging me to improve my Spanish. One of the best parts was
the friendship that I made with my host-sister and roommate. Dayana
and I would share clothes, visit her friend’s houses to hang
out and meet new people, and we would talk about everything.
Thinking
about this, I realize that it’s not that I didn’t know
how to share before I got to Costa Rica. However, I did have the
mind-set that I needed my own room to feel comfortable and at ease
in my new surroundings. What at first I saw as a loss of privacy,
ended up being a chance to share in the life and experiences of
this family, a family that was selfless enough to take the time
to be my host. As the weeks went by, all I could do was think what
a loss it would have been not to have these experiences, a loss
that I never would have even realized. They gave me such a greater
appreciation for everything that I have in my life. The depth of
this realization came one night when we were celebrating my host-mom’s
birthday. We were sitting in the kitchen eating birthday cake when
all of a sudden my host mom started talking about the day that she
had walked into her house for the first time. It had been a house
built for them by Habitat for Humanity, an organization for which
my host-mom is also a volunteer. I learned that night that she has
this job, in addition to her job at MUSADE, because she wants to
give other families the chance to feel what she did when she walked
into her own house for the first time. I will never look at what
I have in my life the same way again.
Other
new perspectives and appreciations for life also came from the
traveling I was able to do while in Costa Rica. The biodiversity
of this country is striking and I had the chance to visit active
volcanoes, flowing waterfalls, lush rainforests, and 
beautiful
beaches. The way the natural beauty of the country juxtaposed
the harsh realities I saw at MUSADE created a surreal experience.
One could find it hard to believe that there is so much pain in
a country of such natural beauty. This chance to explore and see
the beauty of Costa Rica on my weekends provided an eye-opening
experience to the natural wonders that exist in this world. Not
only was my appreciation for nature heightened, but my sense of
adventure was renewed. There is nothing quite like the feeling
of getting on a bus to meet up with friends for a tour of a volcano
or zipping through the rainforest on a wire between the tree tops.
Each
part of my experience this summer was an adventure. I learned
to be more adventurous with work, as well as life and travel.
There are many things that I will take away with me from this
experience, but importantly I learned that while efforts by one
organization may seem hardly enough to change the way things are,
there are changes that can occur everyday. Many of the women in
MUSADE are success stories themselves. They have overcome great
odds and are now working to help other people achieve the same
freedoms in life. It doesn’t take much to make a difference
and even a little effort is appreciated. I know that what I gave
this summer was returned to me many times over, and I experienced
things that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
