Rural Stay Pt. 1

One week ago today I was stepping off the bus in a strange town to spend the following 3 weeks with a strange family in a strange house. I was met at the bus stop by my host mom Faynier and her granddaughter Lucia. We took a taxi back to the house, and Doña Faynier showed me some of the sights of my new neighborhood as we drove. Of course, I can’t remember any of what she said now. We spent the rest of the day at the house so that I could get to know my new surroundings and my new family. Doña Faynier lives here with her husband Victor (who works in the fields), her son Cristian (who owns the market at the top of the hill – he technically lives at the market, but is at the house a lot), her son Jeffrey (who works as an appliance repairman), her daughter Jenny, and Jenny’s 3-year-old daughter Lucia. The family has a tiny French poodle named Nani, a parakeet, a dozen or so chickens, and another small dog chained to the tree outside. I still haven’t figured out what’s different about that dog and Nani.

Back row L-R: Jeffery, Jenny, Cristian
Front row L-R: Doña Faynier, Lucia, Nani, Victor

The front of our house (with Nani - I couldn't get many good pictures of her since she was always moving)

The back of the house (garden, clotheslines, Lucia)

The inside of our gate - I don't have any idea how all those plants stayed in place

The kitchen/eating area/family room

I don't have any good pictures of my room, but the fabric on the pillow was one of the highlights (it's Winnie the Pooh if you can't tell)

The view from the shower - Sorry I can't get these photos to line up quite right

Hallway/other kitchen/laundry room

The bird living in the hallway/kitchen/laundry room

Living room (where I taught English classes)

On Sunday, the whole family drove to Grecia to go to mass. It was a particularly special Sunday because the church was celebrating the feast day of whichever saint the church is named after (I didn’t catch the name). There was a big procession full of music and flowers, and a big party outside the church afterward. We skipped out on the party and instead headed to Doña Faynier’s mother’s house to spend the afternoon. It seemed like the whole family was there (uncles and cousins included), but apparently that was only a small part of the extended family. We at lunch and dinner with the family and filled the time in between with dozens of rounds of bingo and plenty of conversation. The family was really interested in talking about US politics and the upcoming election. Since I’ve been in Costa Rica, I’ve been pretty out of the loop regarding current news. It was pretty strange to realize that the people in this tiny community in Costa Rica know more about US politics than I do at the moment! I’ll have to catch up once I get back to San Jose and can use the internet.

On Monday, we generally hung out at the house and I helped Doña Faynier with some of the cooking and cleaning. I also watched the first 10 minutes of at least 15 different movies with Lucia. She’s precious, but she can be quite a handful, especially when we’re trying to talk. It’s hard enough speaking and understanding Spanish, and it’s hard enough trying to communicate with a 3 year old. Put them together and I’m practically doomed. Luckily we’ve figured out how to communicate without as many words, and my Spanish is improving every day. In the afternoon we went to Jeffery’s girlfriend’s mom’s house (I think – I’m generally just guessing who I’m talking with at any given moment). We spent several hours their eating and talking. A guy from the US was there (I guess he’s a family friend), so the two of us enjoyed each other’s company. It was a nice change to be able to use a word in English if I couldn’t figure it out in Spanish. It gets really tiring trying to work your way around a word you don’t know. Before I left San Jose I was trying to talk to my host mom about geckos, but of course I didn’t know the word for gecko. I took a deep breath and jumped right in, trying to describe something like a tiny snake with legs that climbs on the walls and chirps at night. It took several minutes to get my idea across, and by then my host mom and I were laughing so hard we forgot why I was talking about geckos. So, like I said, it was nice to avoid that situation for once. We made our way over to a nearby soccer field that night to watch a game between two teams made up of the local priests (again, I could be confused, but that’s what it sounded like). The game was pretty funny, since all of the players were clearly out of shape and out of practice. The field was a muddy mess, which only added to the ridiculousness of the night. The game ended with a fireworks display in honor of Sunday’s feast day of whichever saint it was.

The soccer game (before they started playing and were covered in mud)

On Tuesday I spent my first day at a local school. The plan had been for me to help in some of the English classes, but in the end it didn’t quite work out. The teacher didn’t need my help, and no one else in the school seemed to need anything either. I think I needed more help (especially with communication) than I was able to give. I went back to the school on Wednesday, but we all agreed that I could be more useful elsewhere in the community. For example, I’m going to be working with the Association of Agroindustrial Women of San Luis. Supposedly they have a facebook page under the name “Asomag,” but I haven’t been able to look for it yet. I have only spent a couple of hours there so far, but it’s a really interesting group. A handful of women work there to make natural products like shampoo, soap, and skin products. They have a huge garden/farm in the back with every type of medicinal plant imaginable. The group sells their products in the community as well as in some of the natural product stores in the bigger cities (if there’s a better word for natural product store in English, I can’t think of it – thinking in English is getting harder and harder). So far I’ve only been able to observe some of the production and learn about their plants and products, but I’m going to spending more time with them later on.

On Wednesday, after I officially quit my work at the school, I tried to take the bus back to my house, which should have been a very simple task. However, the bus was really crowded and I couldn’t see out the front to figure out where we were. Somehow I missed my stop. I was starting to panic, trying to figure out how I was going to switch buses and get on a bus going back uphill (buses only run every hour or two, so it can be tricky). Luckily, I think at least half of the people on the bus knew I was staying with Doña Faynier, and one woman explained that I should get off and another bus would come in a few minutes to take me back up. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to get back to where I needed to be. I was really lucky that the other people on the bus knew who I was. Otherwise I think I would have ended up about 40 minutes away from the house. Once I got home, Doña Faynier taught me how to make sweet empanadas with jelly. They were really easy and delicious. Of course you can also make empanadas with meat, cheese, and vegetables, but I think I like the sweet ones best. In the afternoon, Doña Faynier asked me to do her a favor. Unfortunately, when people talk to me in Spanish, sometimes it takes a few seconds before I realize I didn’t understand, and by then it’s too late. This was no exception. She said something to me, handed me a mop, pointed at the door, and walked away. I guess I looked like I understood. I probably should have asked for clarification, but I decided I could figure it out. With as much confidence as I could muster, I walked out the front door carrying the mop. Since I didn’t know what was downhill, I walked uphill. Eventually it started to come together in my head that the mop was probably for the market, so I made my way there. Without saying anything, I handed the mop to Cristian, hoping he knew why I was there. Apparently I did everything right, because he seemed to be expecting me. That night, we went to an activity in someone’s house. It was some sort of religious gathering, but I’m not sure how to describe it. If anyone from the CC Catholic community is reading this, it was basically like Lectio Divina in Worner. For those who don’t know what Lectio Divina is, it was more or less like a bible study. Everyone was really welcoming and we spent a while talking after about my work in the community. A few kids were there and said they really want to learn English, but their English classes at school aren’t very good. Before I could catch up with the conversation, Doña Faynier had organized an English class in our house for Friday night! The plan was for a few local kids to come to the house at 5, and I would teach them whatever they wanted to know.

On Thursday, Judy and Iveth (both from ACM) came to visit. They are visiting each student sometime in the next 3 weeks to check in and make sure the family and the work are going well. We spent some time in the house before going to the Association so they could see where I’m working. When we came back to the house, we talked a bit more and enjoyed the empanadas I had made the day before. In the afternoon, we went to Grecia for a meeting. I wasn’t able to understand all of it, but from what I gathered, there are a few important agricultural groups in the area that meet every week or two. I’m not sure what the average meeting entails, but at this one there was presentation on climate change. It was a very basic presentation, but I was surprised how informative everyone found it. It sounds like no one really talks about climate change here, at least not in the more rural areas. All in all a good day.

Yesterday, I went back to San Jose! Doña Faynier needed to buy some supplies for the Association, so we made several stops along the way. We ended up driving right past the ACM building and some of my favorite lunch spots. It was pretty weird to be back in familiar territory. The trip to San Jose took most of the day, so when we got back it was almost time for my new students to arrive. I ended up having a group of 10 incredibly enthusiastic kids. When I was spending time in the school, it became clear pretty quickly that the classroom is run differently here than in the US. The idea of raising hands is practically nonexistent. Instead, the kids shout “teacher teacher teacher!” over and over until the teacher responds. It’s not too bad, until 10 kids all start doing it at the same time. The kids were great, but I had a hard time understanding each one when all of them were shouting at once. It was pretty disorganized, but I think they all had fun. Hopefully they learned something!

My incredibly enthusiastic students

I have no clue what’s going on today. I thought we were going to Sarchi (a small nearby town), but so far we haven’t made any moves toward the car. Instead, a woman came over to make biscoche (a cornmeal cheese thing – really yummy), Lucia brushed and rebrushed my hair, we watched some cartoon about aliens, and Nani (the dog) started bringing meat into the house. I couldn’t tell what it was at first, until Doña Faynier told me to follow her outside. Yesterday, her husband excitedly brought me outside with my camera to take a picture of a giant pig in their pen. I thought it was weird that I was just now seeing this pig, but didn’t question it. Turns out that the pig was a brand new purchase. The meat that Nani keeps bringing into the house is the giant pig from yesterday afternoon. I really hope we end up going to Sarchi soon so her husband can deal with the pig while we’re gone. Dodging bits of pig on the floor all over the house isn’t quite my ideal afternoon.

Lucia was excited to see the pig

He was HUGE!! I really was shocked that I hadn't noticed this earlier. Until I realized he wasn't a family pet...

Lucia loved the pig - she sang to it all morning

She also fed it carrots - by fed I mean threw bits of carrots at its face

Stay tuned! Parts 2 and 3 are on their way!

Almost Ready for the Rural Stay!

We just finished the 5th week of our program! 

Today was a pretty long day overall. First thing in the morning, we filled out the last of our course evaluations, and we took our Spanish Grammar mid-term, which actually went a lot better than we were all expecting. We won't know our grades until mid-October, but I feel pretty confident about it. After the test, we all split into our Conversation groups to prepare for our dramatizations. Each group has been preparing a short skit to present to the class encompassing some aspect of Costa Rican culture or our experience thus far. One group did a hilarious skit about how to interact with ticos (people from Costa Rica) by following the advice of several members of the ACM staff (the impersonations were truly incredible). Another group did 3 short skits about 3 field trips we have taken: Finmac (the cacao plantation), Arenal Volcano, and a particularly long and hot trip to a cemetery in San Jose (part of our architectural tour of the city). Again, the impersonations were spot on. Since Carly and I are in a two person Conversation class, we teamed up with our teacher Maynor to put together a reenactment of the first day of classes at ACM in which we all attempted to buy cheap cell phones. The process was difficult to say the least, and Maynor did a great job acting the part of a crazy cell phone salesman.

We had a delicious lunch at ACM to celebrate the end of the first part of our program. A few last minute things had to be taken care of, like getting money from Alejandra for our bus tickets and gathering all the supplies we'll need for our rural stay (for me that means rubber boots, a mosquito net, and some teaching supplies like markers and flashcards). We all made hesitant phone calls to our new host moms to confirm our travel plans for tomorrow. I can't imagine having called my San Jose host mom before I got here, but calling my rural host mom was surprisingly easy. Just goes to show how much my Spanish has improved without my realizing it! I came home a little earlier than usual today to get some of my packing out of the way. I'm mostly done, except for a few last minute things like my towel and pillow.

Sooooooooo... without further ado, here are all of the details for my rural homestay during the next three weeks:

I will be taking a taxi tomorrow morning to the bus stop in San Jose and taking a bus (by myself!!) all the way to Grecia. It's south of the Poas Volcano and north of the cities of Heredia and Alajuela - generally northwest of San Jose. In Grecia, I will meet my host mom Faynier (President of the Association of Agricultural/Industrial Women) and we will take a taxi together to San Luis de Grecia where the family lives. I will also be living with a host dad Victor, host brothers Jeffrey (31 years old) and Cristian (32 years old), host sister Jenny (35 years old), and Jenny's daughter Lucia (3 years old). There is (yet another) french poodle living in the house, a dog with puppies outside, and chickens in the backyard.

My volunteer work is a little up in the air right now. It sounds like I will be doing a little bit of everything, which will be great. I will spend some time working with my host mom and her group of women. They work with medicinal plants and make and sell natural products (like shampoo). I think I will get to work with each part of this process. Apparently their products are really good. One of the women from ACM orders from them all the time, and I'll be bringing back her next order when I return to San Jose in October. I will also be spending some time working with children who need extra help in their English class. I might even have the opportunity to incorporate some environmental science into my time in the classroom.

I'm really excited for the rural stay, but it's hard to believe I'll be on my own tomorrow! I'll have to settle into a new house and a new routine. That would be hard in the US (and in English), but it gets so much harder when you're trying to figure out how to work the finicky toilet, how the laundry works, or even just how to offer to do the dishes in Spanish. I've already done this all once before, so I'm hoping it'll be easier the second time around. And, worst case scenario, I'll be back in San Jose in 3 weeks, which is becoming pleasantly familiar.

I won't have internet in my house, but I think my host brother Cristian has internet access in the small market he owns, so I might be able to update a few times here and check my email/facebook once or twice. On the off chance that I can't get internet while I'm gone, I'll post as soon as I get back on Saturday, October 13th!

Independence Day!!!

This past weekend (Saturday, September 15 to be exact) was Independence Day in Costa Rica! On Friday, we had a class on all things Independence Day. We covered the national flag, anthem, and flower, as well as some of the most popular foods. 

The flag (horizontal stripes of blue, white, red, white, blue) is full of symbolism. The blue represents the sky as well as liberty and hope; white represents peace (because Costa Rica doesn't have an army), rest, and freedom; and red represents passion for work. 

The national anthem includes many of the same values represented in the flag. The music was written in 1852, but the lyrics weren't added until 50 years later when a contest was held to find the best lyrics for a national anthem.

The national seal is made of up 7 stars (representing 7 provinces), 3 volcanoes (Arenal and 2 others, representing the mountains), 2 boats (representing two coasts, both extremely important in trading), a sun (representing a new day and hope for the future), leaves (representing peace), and gold orbs (representing coffee grains). 

The national flower is a small purple orchid (Guaria morada), but everyone is so in love with their national flower that it's becoming extinct! Some of the wealthier families fill their houses with these flowers every day!

After our Independence Day class, we enjoyed a delicious Independence Day feast cooked by Iveth. We had everything from tortillas and picadillo (diced, cooked vegetables) to aqua dulce (sweet water, it tastes a little like molasses) and arroz con leche (rice with milk, basically rice pudding). As Friday was Mateo's birthday, we also got to finally experience one of Iveth's famous cakes. Mateo's was a chocolate, coffee, coconut cake! SOOOO good, although I'm not sure if it beats my snow day cake (chocolate and coffee - mom, I'm adding that to my list of food we need to make when I get home... maybe a late birthday cake?).

On Saturday, we headed into town for the Independence Day parades. Each school puts together some sort of performance (a band, a march, a dance) to repeat over and over as they head down the street. I'm pretty sure this parade lasted at least as long as the Macy's parade. Everyone in town seemed to either be performing or watching from the sidewalk, and every kid we passed had on clothes in the national colors, face paint, or adorable Costa Rican hats.

Here are a few photos from the day:

After the parades, we all went home to sleep for a few hours, but met up again at a nearby mall for dinner and... wait for it... Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. For those of you who have not seen or heard anything about this movie, PLEEEASE go look up a trailer (or better yet, go see it). It's something that cannot be fully explained in words. Actually, I'm just going to post a trailer here, just to make sure everyone sees it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Eo766iZZ0c SERIOUSLY GO WATCH IT

On Sunday, a few of us went to a big park in San Jose for the morning. The day included watching Adam play baseball with a Costa Rican team, pedal-boating around a small lake, and trying to find food. Apparently EVERYTHING closes on Sundays, except for this place called El Tostador (all they sell are peanuts and coffee, but we passed at least 3 of them, all open, while looking for real food. All in all, a very good day.

We are finishing up this part of the semester, with a meeting about our rural stays tomorrow, an exam and presentation on Friday, and picking our electives for the rest of the semester. My future host mom will actually be in San Jose tomorrow, and I think she is going to stop by tomorrow to meet me! I hope that'll make Saturday a little less scary when I show up to my new house!

A Few (Relatively) Calm Days

It's hard to believe that we're nearing the end of our fourth week in Costa Rica! I think we all are starting to feel like we've got the hang of this, for the most part. Interactions with my host mom aren't quite as awkward or forced as they once were, and I've finally started to settle into my daily routine:

Mondays - Grammar, Conversation, Introduction to Costa Rica, free afternoon, UCR Choir
Tuesdays - Grammar, Conversation, lunch, Biodiversity
Wednesdays - Grammar, Conversation, Introduction to Costa Rica, free afternoon
Thursdays - Grammar, Conversation, lunch, Biodiversity, UCR Choir
Fridays - still haven't figured this out yet... so far it's always been a field trip, but I think they're generally free days

Of course this is all theoretical... The national motto here is "pura vida," which literally translates to pure life. Basically it just means to go with the flow and not worry about sticking to schedules. I had to remind myself of pura vida several times this week when our schedule kept getting flipped around. On Monday our  teachers cancelled academic classes to let us sleep in and recover from our trip to the Arenal Volcano. I'm not sure how much we recovered though, since we had our second dance class that morning. It was a lot of fun, and our teachers helped us dress up in traditional costumes: long, flowing skirts for the girls and hats with bandanas for the boys. We learned El Torito (where the boys are bulls and the girls are bullfighters), El Punto Guanacasteco (it might as well be the national dance), and Swing Criollo (a fun twist on American swing dancing).

After our dance class we were given our assignments for the upcoming 3-week rural stay portion of the program. I will be living in San Luis de Grecia, near the Poas Volcano, with a completely new host family (I think it's mom, dad, sister, and the sister's 3 year old daughter). I will be working with a group of women who work with medicinal plants and natural products and helping them sell their products in the market. There might also be an opportunity to teach English while I'm there, but I'm not sure yet. My family has (yet another) French Poodle in the house, a dog with puppies outside, and several chickens. I think we're all pretty nervous about starting at square one again with a new family in a new town, but I'm really excited to get started! It's funny to think that, after 3 weeks away from our families and friends in San Jose, everything here will seem so familiar and comfortable!

On Tuesday we all went to Immigration to have our fingerprints taken. Our current visas are good for 90 days, but we need to have them extended to stay until the end of the program, which means fingerprints. I think this was the first time any of us have had our fingerprints taken, so it was pretty exciting, and the fact that it all happened in Spanish made it all the more entertaining. The whole process took about 2 hours, so the rest of our day was pretty crazy.

Yesterday we only had about an hour of regular classes. Instead of our conversation class, Carly and I cooked gallo pinto (a really popular dish of rice and beans), while a few other students made fried plantains, picadillo (this can basically mean any type of warm diced combination of foods), and lime tea. It turns out that gallo pinto is extremely quick and easy to make, so we had a lot of time to goof around in the kitchen. The food was all extremely delicious. Mario cancelled our Introduction to Costa Rica because we will be doing some extra stuff for that class tomorrow. We all needed the free afternoon to crank out our first essay for Mario's class. I ended up writing mine on some of the different types of dances in Costa Rica and the importance of storytelling in the more traditional dances.

I thought today was going to be a fairly normal day, but I was wrong again! Instead of our conversation class, we had a short acting workshop. We are all preparing short skits for next week, and I guess our teachers thought we could use the extra help. We had a few spare minutes after the workshop, so our conversation class played "conversation Jenga" where each time you move a block you have to answer a question about yourself. For lunch, we ventured out to a nearby pizzeria. It ended up being a little more expensive than we anticipated, but the food was SO GOOD. I paid about $8 for a delicious pasta dish, but was able to keep some for lunch tomorrow, so it's really only $4 per lunch. I'd say that's fairly decent price considering I've been eating the same loaf of bread and cream cheese for lunch several days in a row (it's unbelievably cheap and surprisingly delicious). Hopefully by the time I get back from the rural stay I'll have a few more ideas of what I can cook at ACM between classes.

Independence Day is on Saturday, so tomorrow and Saturday will be filled with some cultural activities and plenty of food. I think I'll have a lot of time to get some work done this weekend too. I guess it couldn't hurt to start studying for our Spanish midterm next Friday!

Arenal Volcano Field Trip pt. 2

...After Eco Centro Danaus, we drove on toward the Arenal Volcano, which is AMAZING.

Before going to our hotel, we stopped to get some good views of the volcano and see some of the damage from the recent earthquake (there's a big trench to the right of the road that formed in the earthquake).

Our hotel was SO CLOSE to the volcano. This is the view from the front door of our house - the restaurant, lobby, and pools are in front, even closer to the volcano.

We spent one day out on the volcano with a volcanologist from the University of Costa Rica. He's practically famous in the town near the volcano, and he was able to share a lot of information with us about the volcano's history.

We also got to take a walk through the forest below the volcano to see some great wildlife, including toucans!! There were at least a dozen flying around us, but getting a picture was tough.

THEN... we saw the biggest tree I have ever seen in my life. I had no idea trees could ever be this big.

A lot of trees in Costa Rica form buttresses near the ground for added stability - some trees can even decide on an individual basis whether or not they need to form buttresses or not, depending on the soil, wind, etc.

I wasn't even able to see where the tree ended!

Arenal Volcano

Our private houses at the Arenal Springs Resort and Spa - absolutely gorgeous (www.arenal.net/hotel/arenal-springs-resort.htm)

The hotel even had hammocks!

And several different natural hot springs, complete with a wet bar and a sushi bar - we hardly deserved any of this, but our famous volcanologist was able to get us a great deal on the hotel and food.

One of the beautiful hot springs

We stopped at a gorgeous waterfall for a quick swim before the drive back to our houses in San Jose - to get to the pool at the bottom, we had to walk straight down a set of stairs for about 20 minutes...

But it was well worth it for a swim in the cold water!

Arenal Volcano Field Trip pt. 1

This past weekend, we took our second big field trip to the Arenal Volcano. The volcano actually ended up being only a small part of the field trip. Before we even got to the volcano we stopped at Eco Centro Danaus (danaus refers to the scientific name for a butterfly - www.ecocentrodanaus.com). At Eco Centro Danaus we took a short tour of the property and got to see tons of animals in their natural environments.

Butterflies in a small butterfly house

Red-eyed tree frog!

Our guide said this is called a basilisk (yes, like in Harry Potter), but according to Wikipedia they are mythical creatures... not sure what to make of that. **According to a different wikipedia page, The Common Basilisk (Basiliscus basiliscus) is a lizard found in Central and South American rainforests near rivers and streams. Thanks for the help, Grandpa!** It's also sometimes called a Jesus Christ lizard because it can run across water.

A mama and baby caiman sunbathing

Some sensi-plant! Caitlin, I hope you're reading this!!! There is an UNBELIEVABLE amount of sensi-plant in Costa Rica. Thankfully I've shared the joy of sensi-plants with some of my classmates, so now I'm not the only one getting excited. For those of you who have not yet experienced the joy of sensi-plants, please click here and prepare to be amazed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLTcVNyOhUc

Upside down sloth munching on some tree

There are also Heliconias all over Costa Rica! They collect water and attract hummingbirds.

I forget what this was called, but it was adorable. When it stands up it sort of looks like a teeny tiny pig. Possibly a relative of the tapir?

After lunch we went to the nearby Maleku House to learn about the religious ceremonies of the Maleku people (an indigenous group in Costa Rica).

Megan even got to be a part of the ceremony!

The house was full of beautiful wooden masks, rain sticks, and drums.

After our time at Eco Centro Danaus and the Maleku House, we headed on toward the Arenal Volcano...