06/29/2014 Mundane Things

When we lived in the United States, some of the everyday, mundane things we did were the same as what we do here.  We went to the store to shop for food, make breakfast, lunch, and dinner, do laundry, talk to our neighbors, clean the house, go on walks, take out the trash, and all of the other million things that you do every given day, every week, every month of your life.  No matter where you go, you fall into a routine, and that routine to you is somewhat boring.  Thinking about it, there are real differences in how we do those mundane things in the US and here. 

For example, in the US we walked 1 block to get to a County Market grocery store where we could pretty much find whatever we wanted to eat that day, from any type of ethnic food (Indian, Chinese, Italian, etc.), a refrigerated fruits and veggies section that wrapped around the store, a freezer section with hundreds of options of ice cream, a bakery with chocolate cake, and rows upon rows of cereal.  We brought bags with us and carried back whatever we bought for the day to our house.  You can find many of the same mega grocery stores here, but really only in larger cities.  In our site, we walk to get to two grocery stores both with limited veggie selections, dried goods, and one or two refrigerator sections, but we also have a few panaderias for breads or cake, a terrific heladeria for ice cream, or we take a bus to get to the store in the next bigger town, which also has a farmer's market.  Here producers offer their goods at your door.  For example, people sell eggs from the trunk of their car.  Those local vendors are sometimes the best quality, service, and price, but it's definitely not a one stop shop here!  If you are lucky enough to have fruit trees, which we don't, it's only a matter of exchanging with neighbors or asking owners if you can climb their trees!  Much of the time, due to limited availability increasing the prices of foods beyond our budget, our food variety is limited to pastas, beans, rice, breads, sauces, and canned vegetables.  We always buy as few ingredients as we can, and make them last as long as we can.  Much like in the States, we carry bags with us and carry all of our purchases back to our house, but this time those purchases need to last us for 8-15 days and we walk 2 kilometers uphill to get home!  Forget something?  Run next door or up or down the hill to a little pulperia or ask a neighbor for it, much like in the US.

Making food here is similar to the US.  There we cooked on the stovetop or used our oven.  Here cooking consists of our one pan on an individual electric burner here.  Or using the rice cooker or hot water pot in unique ways, like making bread in the rice cooker or cooking noodles in the hot water pot.  Through donations from our community, we have both a full-sized refigerator and microwave, which is highly unusual for volunteers here, and we use both daily.  With all of the similarities, cooking here is a time intensive process.  In our town, Moms stay home during the morning hours to cook breakfast for their families, while cleaning the house and doing the laundry...all by hand.  Everything takes a little more time than expected.  Immediately after breakfast is done, preparations for lunch start.  Everything needs cleaned, chopped, cooked, mixed, seasoned.  At times, pressure cookers are used to help with the workload.  We make simple meals to have more time to work with our community and sometimes use our few ingredients in interesting ways.  For example, breakfast most days consists of coffee and bread with sour cream (natilla).  We love it when our kind community members teach us how to make traditional dishes like empanadas, bring us food like banana bread, or invite us into their homes to share a meal.

Laundry is in and of itself one of the things that both of us hate doing here!  We are very lucky that the community once again provided us a washing machine.  In that sense, it's the same as the US.  The difference is that the machines here are semi-automatic, possibly due to the culture that housework is done by hand.  Instead of fully automatic system, that is probably more expensive and harder to fix when it breaks too, there is a washer section that spins the water slowly over the clothes and a separate centrifuge section that squeezes water out of the clothes.  You rinse and ring your clothes by hand in between those two steps.  If you need to wash out a stain, you use a bar soap and scrub!  If the washer breaks down, as ours has done, you wash everything by hand in a sink, scrubbing, rinsing, and wringing as much as you can, and missing the semi-automatic function of the washer!  If the centrifuge shocks you as you reach into it and breaks down, as ours has done, your clothes are all wrung by hand and take 2-3 days longer to dry.  We dry our clothes in the sun on clotheslines and clothespins, much like I did in the US growing up.  This system of a solar dryer works well in the dry season, but sometimes it is difficult to get anything dried in the rainy season or you're constantly putting your clothes back out and running if you think that it may rain to take your clothes in.  An invention is hanging clothes in your home from that crisscross the room or hanging bamboo poles horizontally, as we have done, which doubles as closet space and clothes drying racks!

Talking to our neighbors is much easier here because we live so close to so many wonderful people!  Leaving your door open allows you to say hi to everyone who passes by on the sidewalk in front of our house, which is also the main road in town.  Often our neighbors and friends invite us in for cafecito (afternoon coffee) or to spend time with them.  In the States, we would wave at neighbors or say hi to those that you knew well, but for the most part you live separately, coming home from a long day of work or school to your spouse or your family, cook dinner, and fall asleep.  Communicating with the rest of our family (parents, sisters, or brothers) was almost always over the phone and on holidays in person.  Lunch was always eaten apart from your family at work or school.  Cleaning the house is much easier here too, because we live in a much smaller apartment and all of the surfaces are concrete or tile, so it's a simple matter of dusting, sweeping, or mopping.  However, cleaning supplies are much more limited and all of the water is cold, so there is no sterilizing surfaces or dishes.  Here, trash and recycling pickup is on two different days and consists of one truck for the whole town, so it's interesting to see how big the pile gets as the truck rolls through.  Men stand on top of the pile to help it get under all of the power lines.  In the US, a truck drives through on one day and you have two different garbage cans, one for trash and the other for recycling.  The truck compresses the trash as the drivers pick it up and its usually one truck for a neighborhood, which gives you an idea of how much trash we generated in the US from all of our food packaging.  Some people also still burn their trash here, one practice we would love to stop.  Some people also burn their trash in the US.  Another difference is the lack of a ceiling in some homes here, including ours, or walls that fully meet the ceiling to seal the home.  We also have a mesh covering over a metal grating where windows would be, so our home is very hope to the environment.  Most days we see beautiful butterflies, interesting insects, and mountains of geckos without ever leaving our room!  We are also constantly walking here, so we don't feel the need to go out of our way to take walks like we did in the States.  Living in a mountainous area is also unique for us and beautiful, but we do miss sunsets!

So as you can see, the mundane things of life here are different and the same in so many ways.

04/01/2014 Sport, sports, sports...

Four teams ready to play games 1 & 2 of the summer tourney!

Are you ready for some more fútbol?????  Now that students and teachers are back in the swing of school, I have been helping get some of our proposed convivir projects going in both the High school and grade schools.  At times in Youth Development, the events are new, existing because of good conversations, shared vision, friendship, motivation, and hardwork in collaborations with adult and youth counterparts, and other times my role is more supportive by working with existing events.  A real need in this community and many others in Costa Rica is the extra-curricular activities we take for granted as students in the US.  In the high school, we have worked to start a new sports competition between small teams of students from different grades.  Our first official tournament was last year, with the winners now serving as a part of the planning committee.  This year we have expanded to two tournaments (summer and fall) with more teams participating and even two ladies teams!  The high school has also installed lights in the gym for night games, its first ever trophy case, and a newly redesigned entryway which looks amazing.  Each winning team will have a trophy with their team photo next to it in the case.  We are hoping events like this help build school spirit and offer the community at large an opportunity to enjoy attending the finals and watching their young athletes.  In the future, we hope to have inter-instituional competitions and branch out into other sports.  To read more about it (in Spanish) and see more official photos (de Don Esteben), goto: http://colpejibaye.blogspot.com/

Lines at the Gates Before the Competition

In support of a grade school level inter-institutional fútbol event hosted by the Ministerio de Educación (MEP),  CJ participated as the tournament photographer and I as the assistant coach for the Plaza Vieja team.  Teams from all of the grade schools I work with in Pejibaye, El Humo, and Plaza Vieja, and a nearby grade school in Oriente sent male and female teams to compete in soccer games in the center of Pejibaye.  We were excited at the turnout of teams (groups of male or female 6th graders) and the parental support.  I even learned a new cheer...vamos (clap clap clap) vamos (clap clap clap).  Everyone was excited to play and the best part was seeing a team go over and shake hands with the winning team unprompted.  Good sportsmanship is a beautiful thing! 

Last Minute Coaching

2014 MEP Pejibaye Soccer Tournament

And that's not all...another MEP event this year is the Day of Sports in celebration of atheletics.  All of the grade schools and high school plan different activities for their students to participate in during that day.  CJ and I attended the grade school in Pejibaye's celebration of sports, where we saw sack races between each of the grades 1 through 6 students and the teachers.  That was followed by a race where students had a spoon in their mouths with a lime on it and they had to run to the finish line without dropping their lime on the ground.  We were thinking the limes would be put to good use as fresco (juice) after the game was over because it is hot hot hot here during summer!  I was also incredibly proud that many of the students recognized me from the days where we planted trees and the MEP sporting competition, and one of the grade school student's I have been tutoring in English told me that she passed her exam!!!  [A funny non-sports story related to tutoring is the day that I introduced her to flash cards as a way to memorize new vocabulary (words about weather conditions) and we put Aunt Linda's markers to good use to make the drawings to go on the other side of the flash card.  She even drew a snowman to represent snow because she correctly pointed out I did not bring a white marker :)] 

I hope you are enjoying school sports now as much as I do!

02/16/2014 Happy Happy Birthday CJ!

Sharing your birthday with your host Dad is amazing because it's cake all day, but sharing your birthday week with your host Grandmother is incredible because it's cake ALL weekend long!

We are blessed to live with this family.  Mariachi, great singing, great food, and delicious cake served with Happy Birthday in three languages, sung three times or more.

¡¡¡Feliz Cumpleaños Don Freddy, Happy Birthday CJ, y Feliz 97 Años Doña Carlota!!!


 

02/10/2014 First Day of School

My Mom used to walk us to school when I lived in the "big city".  I would take a ride in our red flyer wagon, while my brother walked beside and held Mom's hand on our way to where I attended Kindergarten.  My best friend was named Sunshine.  We would play hop scotch and kickball during recess.  The trip to school was half the fun and spending time with all of my friends (more than 30 in our class!) led to many happy memories of school days.

But then we moved to a small town.  My first days of First Grade involved riding on the bus which was new, making new friends, not knowing what's going on or understanding references to "last year's material", not knowing what the heck letter people were, and feeling alone because in my class of around 5 boys and 3 girls, I was the only "new kid."

Today I saw many of these same emotions in the faces of the 7th graders at our high school.  Here in Costa Rica, there is no middle school.  So, 10-13 year olds are placed in high school together with older kids.  That said it's not suprising to me that today the students were very very apprehensive about parading in front of all of the other students in the high school during the acto civico.  They didn't want to move in front of all of the other students until I walked with them.  All of these aprehensions they will get over quickly and be just as loud and boisterous as their older counterparts, but for now it's good to remember how difficult a transition it can be for students to move from grade school to high school and help them along the way.

I also saw most of the shyness quickly melt away once they were split into three groups and lead to their classrooms.  Seated with their friends in desks with brand new pens, pencils, erasers, and the latest notebook complete with stickers, they were at ease with their new surroundings and started getting to know each other more, learning the system of high school which involves transitioning from one classroom to another and having different teachers for every subject.

The first day of school is never easy.  But the friends you make, and what you learn in the end is worth it.  Today I'm happy I had the opportunity to share this experience, and use my actions of standing with them to help other new kids not feel so alone.

02/02/2014 Are You Ready for Some Football!?!?!

Are You Ready for Some Football!?!?!  We were!  We decided to take a few days to take some time to send Jonas, our fearless PCVL, off in Playa Hermosa style.  The Super Bowl also fell on the same day at the Presidential election in Costa Rica.  In the Peace Corps we do not involve ourselves AT ALL in elections and generally try to stay out of anything political, so taking a few days off during this time for some fun in the sun with friends, chicken wings, pool time, and football was just what this doctor ordered.   We had two big screen TVs tuned to English for the big game, in a spot right off the beach, and only missed the commercials.  The food was tasty & the guac was AMAZING!

Paradise during the Day

Can we just live here?

Our Favorites

Shiny Happy People

CJ's natural habitat

¡Amigas!

Don't wake me if I'm dreamin.

Going...

going...

gone.

01/01/2014 New Year's in Ostional

It's been a while since we've written.  We admit it.  Before we jumped into this adventure we read many blogs by other volunteers from earlier times to try to get a feel for what we were diving into.  Often we noticed they only posted once a month or even less than that and we said we would be posting ALL THE TIME.  And then we came and discovered we'd have to pay in internet cafes for every hour and photos took a long time to upload and then we stopped writing.  But, now we're going to start writing again, so if you're keeping up with us through this blog, sorry...keep reading...we now have WIFI :)

During the time we haven't been writing and for our New Year's 2013 trip, we visited another volunteer in his turtle haven, Ostional.  This was my first experience being up close and personal to turtles, and I will never forget it.  The beaches are part of the Ostional Wildlife Refuge in the Nicoya peninsula on the Pacific coast.  There are two tour guide groups staffed with locals who know their stuff!  We highly suggest taking a tour while you're there as you'll get to understand how the turtle eggs are being harvested and protected.  Ostional is known for olive-ridley and kemp's sea turtles.  Every month around the full moon there are "arribadas" or turtle arrivals where turtles swim from all over the world back to Ostional to lay eggs on the beach.  You can watch this whole process at night (using a red flashlight of course) or early in the morning.  We decided to opt for the morning arrivals because it's easier to take pictures.

    Oh I love the sunsets here... to bad this is a sunrise. UGH!

Ah...here's the sunset I was looking for!

One of us is hard at work.

One is happy to arrive, the other is happy to be leaving.

My money's on the one in the back.

You will see a bunch of these turd birds on the left just waiting for momma to leave in order to eat the eggs.

It's a eight hour round trip to and from the water for these gals. An incredible effort of strength and some do not survive.

For those that do survive there is protection as well as a sanctuary for the 2000 pound leatherback eggs. The turtle's 2000 pounds not the eggs. 

Man, I love this place.

12/25/2013 Christmas in Pejibaye

Hello Family and Friends in Los Estados Unidos--

This post is to tell you that we're happy, healthy, and well fed this Christmas in Costa Rica!  Recently, we experienced the more than one day long process of making tamalesthat people here eat for a month or more.  We made 600 tamales, the kind typical in Costa Rica.  Tamales are a traditional food around Christmas time where a pig is turned into porky masa deliciousness.  There are preparations that occur in the days preceeding tamale making day:  banana plant leaves are collected and loving washed by hand, parted into squares and dried for at least a day before use; masa is prepared with consume (broth) and other seasonings; rice is prepared with achiote (a thick, deep-red seasoning), consume (broth), and salt; and zanhoria (carrots) and bingreen beans are steamed.  Then, the pork is cooked and chunked.  Finally an assembly line is formed with two banana leaf sheets, one big scoop of masa with a well for the rice, rice is added, topped with carrots and green beans. We'll post pictures of this here soon!

We also enjoyed dinner with a large part of our extended family.  Nativity scenes are very important here.  Most people have at least one in their living room and it's not just a small plastic or wood table decoration.  Instead, it takes up the same amount of space or more that a Christmas tree does in the States.  And, many are very elaborate with lights and large figurines that are passed down between family members.  Our host Mom loves the smell of cyprus, so we enjoyed a tree of cyrpus branches and many homemade decorations around the house.  Very beautiful!  We'll post pictures of this soon!














We also enjoyed the decorations at our Grandmother Tica's home, including the traditional Christmas tree shown here and a smaller nativity scene.  Similar to caroling, townspeople go door to door throughout December walking through each home to sing Christmas songs and pray near the nativity scene.  Many Christmas carols are the same tunes with different lyrics.  For example, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" is "Blanca Navidad Suenos"  Families also get together to pray the rosary and we participated in at least three of these ceremonies in the homes of our family and neighbors.  After many hours of prayer and singing, we were treated to CJ's favorite...arroz con siempre and chips and beans and my favorite, ice cream.  The prayers are to bless the house and the family in the next year and celebrate the birth of Jesus.  It's was difficult to keep up with for us because everything is in Spanish of course.  Our neighbors said we have a whole year to practice now for the next round of Christmas ceremonies.

Another tradition that was new to us and a blast to participate in was a human nativity.  Each member of the family drew a scrap of paper and dressed to match their part.  Similar to my host sister, I drew Angel and CJ drew drummer boy.  We made due with what we had in the house...I used my white jacket and head lamp as a halo, and CJ used a wrapped box as a drum and two mallets from a lyra.  But really you could draw anything--livestock, kings, queens, etc.  Our host nephew was one of three kings.

Our family also enjoyed the Festival of Lights parade in Tucurrique.  Many student groups formed bands and practiced for months for this performance.  Our school has a band, but was not able to attend this celebration because it happened after the end of school.  Currently, the students are on their "summer" break, which happens in December until February and gives families a chance to go to the beach together or enjoy festivals for navidad.

 

The lights and floats and clowns walking on stilts were spectacular.  The fireworks were incredible in that they were lit directly overhead...maybe not the safest, but really pretty.

Happiest Kid at the Parade

Cultural Exchange...We had to explain what the heck Alice and Wonderland was because our host family had never read this book.  Reading for fun isn't really big here, because books are expensive.

Pejibaye even had light displays in the center of town.  For example, our fountain was dressed like a Christmas tree.  And, we heard there was a beautiful service very (early) each morning in December in the Church.  In fact, we heard the Father even asked our host family about us..."where are those gringos?"  Just like an advent calendar, a candle is lit in this wreath to signify one day closer to Christmas.  At the Christmas Eve service we attended, we saw the final red (pink) candle lit.

Church Christmas Decorations

Nativity Advent Wreath

No CJ...they're not all for you

Our Special Christmas guest...Vaca...the stray dog from the Escuela must have followed us home or been scared inside by the fireworks.

Some of our terrific Tico host family enjoying Christmas dinner together.

Okay this one IS for you CJ...our host family gave us everything we needed to start a coffee farm, including the plant for CJ and chocolate coated coffee candy for me!

What we learned during our first Tico Christmas is that the importance of family, tradition, sharing, taking time to create special memories with those you love, a love of caroling, decorations, and food is felt the world over.  Although they've never seen snow except in movies and most of the houses with decorations also have palm plants, our whole town is dreaming of a white Christmas and sending their best wishes and thanks to our family, whom they've never met hundreds of miles away in the US.  Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!