This past week in Costa Rica has been Semana Santa (Holy Week). In the states, Easter Sunday is the most important day, but here in CR kids are on vacation from school the entire week and many people take off work (we unfortauntely only got off Thursday and Friday, but it has been a really nice break!). So basically the last four days I have been eating a TON and also meetings lots of people—a great combination! A ver (let’s see)… my Semana Santa luncheon calendar:
Thursday-- Lunch at one of my host Mom’s sisters in a neighboring town about 5 km. away. It’s really cool because the sister and her husband live on kind of a little compound with one of their daughters and her family living in the house right behind them and other family members living nearby. All the food was amazing and the atmosphere reminded me of the big family dinners (ie Thanksgiving) that my family has. The cousins were all playing outside while the women were cooking and then all the adults ate together. It was a multi-hour lunch and then when everyone went to misa (mass) I ended up staying behind with one of the uncles who was watching after his 3 year old son (who is one of the cutest little boys I have ever met, ever!) and we just hung out and were talking for around 3 hours—another really awesome conversation all about cultural difference/life in the states and Costa Rica/ family/ etc etc. It was very nice!
Friday-- Lunch at another of my host Mom’s sisters, who lives up the street from me. This was a lot more informal, just being my host mom, host aunt, her sister, husband and 3 sons. It’s so interesting to see how family dynamics work here; the sister made all the food and then my host mom and I helped with the final food preparation, set the table, helped serve the food, and then cleared everything away. The men didn’t do anything. Although I haven’t experienced any super-machista men yet (some other PC volunteers definitely have, including fathers/grandfathers in their families, which I can imagine would make for a tough situation), it is interesting to note that women are indubitably the keeper of the household in every house that I have been in thus far and men do not really take part in household duties.
Saturday- - Last week at the dance class, we met this adorable girl who was there with her mom, aunt, and baby sister. The whole family was super nice and Jenny and I were talking with them and they were asking us what we were doing during Semana Santa and when we told them we were staying here, they were like, “Oh, well then you should come over for lunch one day!” I really love how friendly and inclusive Ticos are! So on Saturday we went with the dance teacher and his friend to their house for lunch. We met the grandma who was really sweet and ended up staying for 4 hours, having cafecito, playing Super Banco (the CR equivalent of Monopoly). It was interesting because after we were there a while and had already eaten, the grandma told us that she was really nervous when her daughters told her that two gringas were coming to eat, because she thought that we wouldn’t like any of the food she served. When she served the rice and beans, she had them separate and said that she knew we didn’t like them, so that’s why it was separate. We definitely broke the stereotype of the picky-eater gringo (which I didn’t know existed) by eating (and loving!) everything she made. It is even a small gesture like this that demonstrates what we do in PC in terms of PC being a forum for cultural exchange. Just the fact that we were able to dispel the idea that all Americans only like certain kind of food for this abuelita is an accomplishment. Even today I was talking to a family friend’s daughter and I was saying how much I enjoy the food here and she said, “Well yea, of course, because you guys only eat fast food in the US, right?” I was like, “Um, I don’t eat fast food, ever.” So yet again, another example of dispelling the fact that all Americans eat fast food all the time.
Sunday- - Yesterday my host mom was talking about how our giras (trips) to visit other current PC volunteers start next week and so she wanted to have the other volunteers over for lunch. Luckily everyone was free and then we also invited her sobrina (niece) and husband, who is the President of the Association of Development of our town (he’s super busy all the time and we had been wanting to meet him, so it worked out perfectly for him to come). We spent the entire morning cooking—I’m getting better and better and my host mom was so cute, saying that I made everything and she just helped (although I was sure to set the record straight that I’m learning poco a poco but I’m more like her helper, haha) but I am getting really good at tortillas, learning the whole process. We made arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) and all sorts of other yummy CR food. Then, for dessert I made pancakes with the pancake mix I’d brought from the states. All in all it was a major success, especially the pancakes because my PC friends were happy to have American food and my host mom’s family loved them, too! It was also really good to meet with the Association President because he told us a lot about these associations and how they work (we will be working with them in our communities in the next 2 years, too). He also gave us ideas for possible projects we can work on in the remaining time that we are here, such as having an environmental awareness day in which we would go around picking up trash (people just through it on the side of the road—it makes me so sad!) and raising awareness about environmental causes.
Oh! So the reason for this post title “Que Rico” is because that is the phrase that EVERYONE uses ALL the time when eating. Que rico basically means “how rich,” but since we don’t say that in English I guess it’s more like, “how delicious.” But it’s funny because they literally say it to describe any kind of food. So basically whenever there is a lull in conversation, someone chimes in with “Que rico… la ensalada, la sopa, lo que sea!” It is the ultimate compliment and I’ve noticed that when I say that something is “super rico” it will be reiterated that I thought so, so I very consciously say it a lot, to make sure that it is apparent how much I appreciate everything!
And on this lovely food note, I’m off!
Ciao ciao!
Mil besos!
Tes/Tesa/Tessy/Tesandra (yes, I go by/answer to all of these names down here in costa rica!)
PS The reason that I posted 2 posts at once is that I haven't had internet access since I had written the first post, so now you get to read both at the same time =)
Monday, March 24, 2008
3/18
Hola a todos! I never know how to start my entries, I need to think of a good introduction, but anyways, things are going really well here in Costa Rica! I just got back from playing soccer in the cancha de fútbol in front of my house. We had training with all the RCD-ers this afternoon in our town and afterwards a bunch of us went to the cancha (which is only open for anyone to use on Tues/Thurs afternoon—they have a lot of pride in their cancha, and with good reason-- it’s super nice and lots of teams rent it out to use during the week. There’s even lights so there are lots of night games, too). But anyways, it was open, so we had a little impromptu game and when the bus came to take the volunteers back to their own communities, the other volunteers in my town and I asked some of the kids there if they wanted to play. It was so much fun and such a riot. Even though I’ve been running a lot, I felt SO out of shape--- the little kids were definitely kicking our butts, but it was awesome playing with them. In one of the essays I read for my Spanish class entitled “Costa Rica Desdibujada” which was basically a social commentary on a wide variety of themes, the author described soccer as a kind of religion here. The Ticos are very serious about their soccer and I love it—soccer is so much more fun than football and baseball, the typical American pastimes (Pats/Red Sox/Yankees/etc fans, please don’t take offense!).
Oh! So I realized I have mostly been taking about what I’ve been doing on the weekends and not too much about how PC training itself is going and what my schedule is like during the week. They are definitely keeping us quite busy! Two to three times a week, I have Spanish class from 9-12 in the closest city which is about 30 minutes away by bus (the advanced group is split in 2 so we meet every other day as opposed to the rest of the groups which meet most days. It’s nice to get a free day/morning every few days to catch up on reading and just relax). Then a few afternoons a week we have RCD-specific training which conveniently happens to be in my town, so all the other RCD volunteers comes here from their communities. In these sessions we go over community development skills. So far I am really impressed with the training—it utilizes an out of the box thinking that is really refreshing and I think will serve us very well during our 2 years of service. We practice what is called Non-Formal Education which is basically the “un-learning” of the way we are taught in the states (although I do feel like a lot of my small classes at Conn were kind of like this). Non-Formal Education focuses on teaching through facilitation of discussions, as opposed to purely lecturing. A very important part is making sure that you incorporate different learning styles (ie people can be visual, audio, or kinesthetic learners and it’s important to appeal to all 3 kinds of learners) so the focus is on making things interactive. At the conclusion of an activity, we are learning to go through what is called the “experiential learning cycle” which consists of defining and reflecting on what has been taught/discussed and then focusing on the possible concrete applications of the topic at hand. So for my first foray into Non Formal Education, I taught the yoga sun salutation as a form of meditation, exercise, and as something the volunteers could teach in their community.
Ok, hopefully that wasn’t too boring and gives a bit of an idea of what I’m learning! The last aspect of training occurs every Friday (and sometimes Thursdays) in San Jose with all of the volunteers. We go over health and safety information (let’s just say it was less than appealing to learn about some of the lovely illnesses that one can get here like dengue fever and malaria—I’m just going to hope for the best on that front and keep taking my malaria medicine!). We also go over general information that relates to all PC Costa Rica Volunteers. For example, last week we had a professor from a university in Costa Rica talk about Costa Rican history and the political situation here. He was incredibly passionate and made the issues come alive for us, illuminating a need for a change in the political system here that would move towards providing education, health care, and other needs for all. I feel like I have a lot more to learn about Costa Rican history and politics, but poco a poco in the next 2 years, I imagine that I will learn a lot.
Hmm, what else is going on here… this weekend we had another dance class on Saturday night and yet again it was a total blast. There was a quinceañera in the salon comunal, so we had the class at the teacher’s house and then afterwards had a little dinner party. We brought the tortillas that I made with my host aunt (quite delicious, I must say!) and there was tons of other food. It’s funny because Jenny was asking me before if she should tell her host mom not to make dinner for her because last week they told everyone to just bring a little something to have after the class, but I told her, “no se preocupe” (don’t worry), I’m sure there will be plenty of food and there absolutely was. One of the PC trainers equates Costa Rican mothers to Jewish mothers in terms of their love of cooking and need to feed people to the max. Fortunately, my host mom totally gets that I eat “poco” (little), even though it really is a lot, and doesn’t heap on the rice. On that note, I am absolutely loving the food here. I think it helps that my host mom is an amazing cook and she loves to keep things varied, so although gallo pinto (rice and beans) is definitely a staple, it is by no means the only thing I’m eating. The best is the dessert—arroz con leche with miel de chivere (honey of chivere, a fruit I’ve only seen in CR, kind of looks like a cross between a watermelon and a pumpkin) is my favorite, we made corn bread the other day that was really good, tamal which is kind of cheesecake-esque and really good, I just had some coco (coconut) ice cream that my mom made this afternoon…. I could go on and on!
Ah! I can’t believe I almost forgot-- I went hiking with some friends to the arbol hueco (hollow tree) that is about a 45 minute hike into the mountains. What, might you ask, is an arbol hueco? Apparently it is caused (sadly!) by a parasite that attacks the tree. However it has rendered this very large tree completely hollow with branches all around, making it super easy to climb through the center of the tree to the top. It’s really hard to explain but was seriously one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen and the view from the top of the tree was amazing with beautiful mountains all around and then a spread of San Jose and the central valley. I will definitely go and again and take my camera and then get the pictures online (one of these days!).
Alright, it’s getting late (and by late I mean 9pm, haha!) so I’m off to bed!
Pura Vida!
PS Thanks to all who have left messages on my blog—I love getting them and knowing that people are reading this, so please feel free to leave a message! I miss everyone lots and it means a lot to hear from family and friends!
Hola a todos! I never know how to start my entries, I need to think of a good introduction, but anyways, things are going really well here in Costa Rica! I just got back from playing soccer in the cancha de fútbol in front of my house. We had training with all the RCD-ers this afternoon in our town and afterwards a bunch of us went to the cancha (which is only open for anyone to use on Tues/Thurs afternoon—they have a lot of pride in their cancha, and with good reason-- it’s super nice and lots of teams rent it out to use during the week. There’s even lights so there are lots of night games, too). But anyways, it was open, so we had a little impromptu game and when the bus came to take the volunteers back to their own communities, the other volunteers in my town and I asked some of the kids there if they wanted to play. It was so much fun and such a riot. Even though I’ve been running a lot, I felt SO out of shape--- the little kids were definitely kicking our butts, but it was awesome playing with them. In one of the essays I read for my Spanish class entitled “Costa Rica Desdibujada” which was basically a social commentary on a wide variety of themes, the author described soccer as a kind of religion here. The Ticos are very serious about their soccer and I love it—soccer is so much more fun than football and baseball, the typical American pastimes (Pats/Red Sox/Yankees/etc fans, please don’t take offense!).
Oh! So I realized I have mostly been taking about what I’ve been doing on the weekends and not too much about how PC training itself is going and what my schedule is like during the week. They are definitely keeping us quite busy! Two to three times a week, I have Spanish class from 9-12 in the closest city which is about 30 minutes away by bus (the advanced group is split in 2 so we meet every other day as opposed to the rest of the groups which meet most days. It’s nice to get a free day/morning every few days to catch up on reading and just relax). Then a few afternoons a week we have RCD-specific training which conveniently happens to be in my town, so all the other RCD volunteers comes here from their communities. In these sessions we go over community development skills. So far I am really impressed with the training—it utilizes an out of the box thinking that is really refreshing and I think will serve us very well during our 2 years of service. We practice what is called Non-Formal Education which is basically the “un-learning” of the way we are taught in the states (although I do feel like a lot of my small classes at Conn were kind of like this). Non-Formal Education focuses on teaching through facilitation of discussions, as opposed to purely lecturing. A very important part is making sure that you incorporate different learning styles (ie people can be visual, audio, or kinesthetic learners and it’s important to appeal to all 3 kinds of learners) so the focus is on making things interactive. At the conclusion of an activity, we are learning to go through what is called the “experiential learning cycle” which consists of defining and reflecting on what has been taught/discussed and then focusing on the possible concrete applications of the topic at hand. So for my first foray into Non Formal Education, I taught the yoga sun salutation as a form of meditation, exercise, and as something the volunteers could teach in their community.
Ok, hopefully that wasn’t too boring and gives a bit of an idea of what I’m learning! The last aspect of training occurs every Friday (and sometimes Thursdays) in San Jose with all of the volunteers. We go over health and safety information (let’s just say it was less than appealing to learn about some of the lovely illnesses that one can get here like dengue fever and malaria—I’m just going to hope for the best on that front and keep taking my malaria medicine!). We also go over general information that relates to all PC Costa Rica Volunteers. For example, last week we had a professor from a university in Costa Rica talk about Costa Rican history and the political situation here. He was incredibly passionate and made the issues come alive for us, illuminating a need for a change in the political system here that would move towards providing education, health care, and other needs for all. I feel like I have a lot more to learn about Costa Rican history and politics, but poco a poco in the next 2 years, I imagine that I will learn a lot.
Hmm, what else is going on here… this weekend we had another dance class on Saturday night and yet again it was a total blast. There was a quinceañera in the salon comunal, so we had the class at the teacher’s house and then afterwards had a little dinner party. We brought the tortillas that I made with my host aunt (quite delicious, I must say!) and there was tons of other food. It’s funny because Jenny was asking me before if she should tell her host mom not to make dinner for her because last week they told everyone to just bring a little something to have after the class, but I told her, “no se preocupe” (don’t worry), I’m sure there will be plenty of food and there absolutely was. One of the PC trainers equates Costa Rican mothers to Jewish mothers in terms of their love of cooking and need to feed people to the max. Fortunately, my host mom totally gets that I eat “poco” (little), even though it really is a lot, and doesn’t heap on the rice. On that note, I am absolutely loving the food here. I think it helps that my host mom is an amazing cook and she loves to keep things varied, so although gallo pinto (rice and beans) is definitely a staple, it is by no means the only thing I’m eating. The best is the dessert—arroz con leche with miel de chivere (honey of chivere, a fruit I’ve only seen in CR, kind of looks like a cross between a watermelon and a pumpkin) is my favorite, we made corn bread the other day that was really good, tamal which is kind of cheesecake-esque and really good, I just had some coco (coconut) ice cream that my mom made this afternoon…. I could go on and on!
Ah! I can’t believe I almost forgot-- I went hiking with some friends to the arbol hueco (hollow tree) that is about a 45 minute hike into the mountains. What, might you ask, is an arbol hueco? Apparently it is caused (sadly!) by a parasite that attacks the tree. However it has rendered this very large tree completely hollow with branches all around, making it super easy to climb through the center of the tree to the top. It’s really hard to explain but was seriously one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen and the view from the top of the tree was amazing with beautiful mountains all around and then a spread of San Jose and the central valley. I will definitely go and again and take my camera and then get the pictures online (one of these days!).
Alright, it’s getting late (and by late I mean 9pm, haha!) so I’m off to bed!
Pura Vida!
PS Thanks to all who have left messages on my blog—I love getting them and knowing that people are reading this, so please feel free to leave a message! I miss everyone lots and it means a lot to hear from family and friends!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Bailamos!
Hola! I don’t even know where to begin… well, some exciting news is that I have a tica friend who is my age! My host mom has tons of hermanas and sobrinas (sisters and nieces, among many other family member visitors) who come over to chat or have lunch or a snack of arroz con leche. Yesterday I heard an unfamiliar voice in the kitchen and went in to meet Pilar, the daughter of my house mom’s niece (we’ve been learning names of family members in Spanish, but I don’t even know what that relationship would be in English, let’s just say cousin). Anyway, Pilar is super sweet and came over to visit my host mom because she hadn’t seen her in a while—she is working at a bank and going to college at night, so needless to say, she is super busy. We were all working on making our almuerzo (lunch—in Costa Rica they have a more European eating schedule of a big lunch and small dinner which I am a big fan of because it is so much healthier to eat more at lunch than at dinner) and my host mom was saying how I like to run and do stuff outside and I was planning on going running before lunch and Pilar offered to come with me. I had been planning on going with one of my PCT friends, Jenny, who lives in my town, so I invited her along too and it was great! Pilar took us through the mountains on these little paths and the views from the mountains are breathtakingly beautiful. It’s so amazing that we’re so close to San Jose (from the top of the mountains in my town which I can hike up in about 10 minutes you can see an amazing spread of the central valley of San Jose) but we’re totally in el campo (the country). So Pilar has started planning all of the many things she wants to do with us to show us Costa Rica—go camping, go to the beach, etc. It’s just really great to have a tica friend who is super sweet and wants to take us under her wing. I can’t wait to have lots of adventures with her!
Backtracking, last week my house mom told me that on Saturday nights there is a dance class in the salon communal (the community hall). I thought, genial! (pronounced he-nee-al en espanol, it’s one of my favorite phases in Spanish because we’d never say “genius!” in English, but they say it all the time here and in Spain, too) and told the other PCT’s in my town. The class began with a warm-up that was reminiscent of an aerobics class (complete with random 80’s music) and I was wondering what I had gotten myself into, especially because Jenny, Heath (another PCT in my town) and I had spent the afternoon running/hiking and then doing all kinds of pushups, situps, etc. (Heath does body building and is going to get us into shape in the next 3 months!). But then the dance class began and it was SO much fun—we did salsa and chachacha and all kinds of other dances whose names I don’t remember at the moment, but all great Latin dances from the Dominican Republic and Colombia and more. The cutest thing was watching my host mom who is in her early 60’s breaking it down on the dance floor—she was totally adorable! The class was great and at the end the teacher announced that next week he was holding it at his house with a little fiesta afterwards which sounds like so much fun! So after the class my host mom and I went home and were eating sandwiches when the teacher called and invited us to his house right then and then to comer algo (eat something), see his house, etc. So my host mom and I went up to his house and there was a mini-fiesta and he showed me around his beautiful house (amazing architecture, tons of orchids and other plants, and paintings, many of which he had done himself). There were 2 soccer games going on, one with Saprissa, the most popular team down here, so we were watching fútbol, eating, and chatting. All in all, a really great night!
I feel like I’m going all over the place in this entry, but another great thing that happened this weekend was on Sunday afternoon. After lunch I was relaxing on our porch watching a soccer game (I LOVE being right next to the soccer field and having a perfect view from my house) when I saw one of my house mom’s sobrinos who was teaching his daughter to ride a bicycle (she is 5 years old and absolutely adorable). I had met the whole family (mom and 8 year old son, too) the day before because the dad came to my host mom’s house to get his hair cut—she has a room in the back that is a little peluqueria (hair salon). A little while later, the dad and daughter returned to my house to say hello and we ended up talking for over 2 hours! Along the way, the mom came over, too and the two kids were playing and we were just chatting about anything and everything—learning languages, the Peace Corps (it’s harder than you would think explaining the PC in Spanish!), life in Costa Rica, life in the US. It was really great because it was my first conversation that really felt like a conversation (in Spanish) since I’ve gotten here. That may sound weird—of course I’ve had plenty of conversations in Spanish since I’ve gotten here, but this was more in depth and meaningful. It is definitely a confidence boost that I can actually have this kind of conversation in Spanish. But it was just really nice because the parents are really sweet and I can definitely see getting closer to them and I think the feeling is mutual. Three highlights of the conversation:
1. The dad was saying that at least once in his life he wants to experience snow and right before I left CT, there was that big snowstorm and I went outside and took some pictures so that I could show people in Costa Rica. So, I got to show them and they were so excited to see snow and my house so I was really glad I had thought to take those pictures!
2. We ended up talking for a while about the fact that in the US, children don’t take the mother’s last name (here, and in Spain, too the children have two last names, both the mother and the father’s). The dad thought it was incredibly machisto that it is the mother who gives birth and raises the children, but that her last name is not carried on through them. But then the thing is that when their children get married and have children, it is indeed the father’s last name of both the mother and father that the children receive, so the mother’s last name is indeed dropped, eventually (hope that wasn’t too confusing!).
3. At one point, the mother says to me, “OK, I have a question about this Halloween. What is the significance?!” I explained how everyone gets dressed up, etc etc and she said, yes I know, but where does it come from, why do you do it? She told me about Day of the Dead in CR which is a day to honor deceased loved ones. I told her that Halloween definitely does not carry the same significance, but that I wasn’t really sure of it’s origin. So, if anyone can help me out on that one, it would be much appreciated. I know I’ve learned about it before—All Hollow’s Eve, etc etc, but I don’t remember the whole story. No easy access to “just google it!” here!
And on that note, I’m off to the porch for some more reading!
Until next time!
Ciao,
Tes
Backtracking, last week my house mom told me that on Saturday nights there is a dance class in the salon communal (the community hall). I thought, genial! (pronounced he-nee-al en espanol, it’s one of my favorite phases in Spanish because we’d never say “genius!” in English, but they say it all the time here and in Spain, too) and told the other PCT’s in my town. The class began with a warm-up that was reminiscent of an aerobics class (complete with random 80’s music) and I was wondering what I had gotten myself into, especially because Jenny, Heath (another PCT in my town) and I had spent the afternoon running/hiking and then doing all kinds of pushups, situps, etc. (Heath does body building and is going to get us into shape in the next 3 months!). But then the dance class began and it was SO much fun—we did salsa and chachacha and all kinds of other dances whose names I don’t remember at the moment, but all great Latin dances from the Dominican Republic and Colombia and more. The cutest thing was watching my host mom who is in her early 60’s breaking it down on the dance floor—she was totally adorable! The class was great and at the end the teacher announced that next week he was holding it at his house with a little fiesta afterwards which sounds like so much fun! So after the class my host mom and I went home and were eating sandwiches when the teacher called and invited us to his house right then and then to comer algo (eat something), see his house, etc. So my host mom and I went up to his house and there was a mini-fiesta and he showed me around his beautiful house (amazing architecture, tons of orchids and other plants, and paintings, many of which he had done himself). There were 2 soccer games going on, one with Saprissa, the most popular team down here, so we were watching fútbol, eating, and chatting. All in all, a really great night!
I feel like I’m going all over the place in this entry, but another great thing that happened this weekend was on Sunday afternoon. After lunch I was relaxing on our porch watching a soccer game (I LOVE being right next to the soccer field and having a perfect view from my house) when I saw one of my house mom’s sobrinos who was teaching his daughter to ride a bicycle (she is 5 years old and absolutely adorable). I had met the whole family (mom and 8 year old son, too) the day before because the dad came to my host mom’s house to get his hair cut—she has a room in the back that is a little peluqueria (hair salon). A little while later, the dad and daughter returned to my house to say hello and we ended up talking for over 2 hours! Along the way, the mom came over, too and the two kids were playing and we were just chatting about anything and everything—learning languages, the Peace Corps (it’s harder than you would think explaining the PC in Spanish!), life in Costa Rica, life in the US. It was really great because it was my first conversation that really felt like a conversation (in Spanish) since I’ve gotten here. That may sound weird—of course I’ve had plenty of conversations in Spanish since I’ve gotten here, but this was more in depth and meaningful. It is definitely a confidence boost that I can actually have this kind of conversation in Spanish. But it was just really nice because the parents are really sweet and I can definitely see getting closer to them and I think the feeling is mutual. Three highlights of the conversation:
1. The dad was saying that at least once in his life he wants to experience snow and right before I left CT, there was that big snowstorm and I went outside and took some pictures so that I could show people in Costa Rica. So, I got to show them and they were so excited to see snow and my house so I was really glad I had thought to take those pictures!
2. We ended up talking for a while about the fact that in the US, children don’t take the mother’s last name (here, and in Spain, too the children have two last names, both the mother and the father’s). The dad thought it was incredibly machisto that it is the mother who gives birth and raises the children, but that her last name is not carried on through them. But then the thing is that when their children get married and have children, it is indeed the father’s last name of both the mother and father that the children receive, so the mother’s last name is indeed dropped, eventually (hope that wasn’t too confusing!).
3. At one point, the mother says to me, “OK, I have a question about this Halloween. What is the significance?!” I explained how everyone gets dressed up, etc etc and she said, yes I know, but where does it come from, why do you do it? She told me about Day of the Dead in CR which is a day to honor deceased loved ones. I told her that Halloween definitely does not carry the same significance, but that I wasn’t really sure of it’s origin. So, if anyone can help me out on that one, it would be much appreciated. I know I’ve learned about it before—All Hollow’s Eve, etc etc, but I don’t remember the whole story. No easy access to “just google it!” here!
And on that note, I’m off to the porch for some more reading!
Until next time!
Ciao,
Tes
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
I am officially in the place where I will be spending the next 3 months for PC Training. On Sunday morning we packed up all our things and got into buses according to group (RCD) and were on our way. The RCD-ers are split into 4 communities according to language level. Normally, everyone has their language classes in their town, but because I’m in the advanced class(!), we meet with people from the other groups (since there aren’t too many of us) in a larger city that is kind of a meeting point between where everyone is living. Therefore, I’m in the RCD community that is closest to San Jose (16km)—not too bad! Apparently it takes about an hour to get into San Jose and just half an hour to get to the smaller city where I have my class. My little group of 4 was the first group to arrive and I kind of freaked out when I was the first of the 4 to leave for my family. We’ve been together for the past week and it was really scary realizing that we are getting thrown into a completely different environment than staging in DC and the retreat—we are actually entering the Costa Rica of the Ticos! But the coolest thing is that the reason I was the first to get off is because my house is right in the center of town (though I’ve later come to find out that everyone is pretty much in the center of “town”) right next to the soccer field. From our porch I had a perfect view of the Sunday soccer games and can also see the church and school. It’s about a 2 minute walk to the parada for the bus, so really a perfect location!
So the thing is, the advanced class is split in 2 so there are about 5 people in each small group and we only have class every other day. So! Today I had no class and therefore not all that much to do… I ended up reading a LOT (one of the PCV’s who was at the retreat said she had read 80 books so far). I started “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” and also did some reading for our PC training. The weather here is absolutely beautiful, so I spent most of the day reading on the porch. I definitely cannot complain!
Which brings me back to my host house! I am living with 2 sisters who are in their 60’s. My host “aunt” is deaf, so it is mostly my host “mom” and I who do the conversing, etc etc. I was kind of upset not to have any children in my host family, but when I arrived yesterday I realized there was nothing to worry about—my house mom has 12 brothers and sisters and they all have between 3 and 10 children each and the children have children and so on! When I arrived yesterday, I had lunch with a few of her nieces, one of her brothers, and the adorable children of one of the nieces. So, one of the kids has—get this—a horse! Just to ride around the town on! How cool is that?! The mother of the 2 kids took me for a walk around the neighborhood and showed me her house. On the way, we stopped at her next door neighbor’s because she wanted to show me the two little vacas (cows) that had been born 7 days ago. They were SO cute! Then she went to get a little bottle to feed them some water because it was really hot and she let me feed them. I seriously couldn’t believe that here I was, my first day in my community, and I’m feeding a baby cow— que chiva (how cool!).
It’s almost 9:30 (I’m writing on my laptop at home) and about to head to sleep because I have to wake up early tomorrow for my first class. I am loving this much more natural schedule of going to sleep early and getting up early (substantially earlier than I was before getting the Costa Rica to say the at least!)—I don’t think it’ll take too much getting used to, as it doesn’t seem like there is too much that would keep me up super late, unless it is the novelas that my house mom enjoys. Her favorite is “Hija de una Mariachi” (Daughter of a Mariachi), so hopefully I’ll get into it, too. The novelas crack me up because the acting is so soap opera-y, but people love them, so maybe I will too!
Bueno, me voy a la cama!
Mil besos!
So the thing is, the advanced class is split in 2 so there are about 5 people in each small group and we only have class every other day. So! Today I had no class and therefore not all that much to do… I ended up reading a LOT (one of the PCV’s who was at the retreat said she had read 80 books so far). I started “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” and also did some reading for our PC training. The weather here is absolutely beautiful, so I spent most of the day reading on the porch. I definitely cannot complain!
Which brings me back to my host house! I am living with 2 sisters who are in their 60’s. My host “aunt” is deaf, so it is mostly my host “mom” and I who do the conversing, etc etc. I was kind of upset not to have any children in my host family, but when I arrived yesterday I realized there was nothing to worry about—my house mom has 12 brothers and sisters and they all have between 3 and 10 children each and the children have children and so on! When I arrived yesterday, I had lunch with a few of her nieces, one of her brothers, and the adorable children of one of the nieces. So, one of the kids has—get this—a horse! Just to ride around the town on! How cool is that?! The mother of the 2 kids took me for a walk around the neighborhood and showed me her house. On the way, we stopped at her next door neighbor’s because she wanted to show me the two little vacas (cows) that had been born 7 days ago. They were SO cute! Then she went to get a little bottle to feed them some water because it was really hot and she let me feed them. I seriously couldn’t believe that here I was, my first day in my community, and I’m feeding a baby cow— que chiva (how cool!).
It’s almost 9:30 (I’m writing on my laptop at home) and about to head to sleep because I have to wake up early tomorrow for my first class. I am loving this much more natural schedule of going to sleep early and getting up early (substantially earlier than I was before getting the Costa Rica to say the at least!)—I don’t think it’ll take too much getting used to, as it doesn’t seem like there is too much that would keep me up super late, unless it is the novelas that my house mom enjoys. Her favorite is “Hija de una Mariachi” (Daughter of a Mariachi), so hopefully I’ll get into it, too. The novelas crack me up because the acting is so soap opera-y, but people love them, so maybe I will too!
Bueno, me voy a la cama!
Mil besos!
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