Comida y Tiempo

I was thinking of topics to write about and it came to me to write about two of the most obvious topics there are: food and weather. So here goes!

Comida:
As a preface, let me say that as a result of informal polling among PCV friends it appears that I have one of the best food situations around, for which I say “Gracias a dios,” as everyone here says in relation to any give situation. In addition there is “Sí dios quiere.” “See you at the meeting tomorrow?” “Yes, if God wants.” ¨I hope to do well in that math test.¨ “If God wants.” And then, yes, there is the “thank goodness” which I suppose we say a lot in English, too. Enough on that tangent. Anyway, the point being that I am extremely thankful for the fact that my host Mom is quite the good cook and I am learning tons of good recipes which I can’t wait to make for everyone which I come back, but I will now give you a sneak peak into the Tico diet. Two words: rice and beans. Really, Ticos can absolutely have rice and beans for breakfast (gallo pinto which consists of fried rice and beans with a side of cheese or sour cream called natilla), lunch (which could also include fried plaintains and luckily for me includes chicken, salad, and a picadillo which is a kind of vegetable side dish) and dinner (similar to lunch). Every day. The other key word of the Tico diet is carbohydrates. It never ceases to amaze me that one can eat spaghetti WITH rice and beans. A PC friend was telling me the other day that he could not believe it when lunch came out one day with pasta, rice, potatoes, and yucca (a starchy potatoe-esque that I am actually a really big fan of beause it has a better taste than potatoe). I don’t understand how the plates don’t break under the weight of such ridiculous amounts of starches, really! I definitely maintain that the fact that I haven’t gained a PC “first-year 15” á la the freshman 15 of college is that I run and walk everywhere all the time--- gracias a dios, verdad?!

Another integral aspect of the Tico diet is cafecito. Every morning upon walking up we have coffee. Then, in the afternoon around 1 or 2pm, more coffee (and apparently my family does not drink that much, relatively speaking). But if my host parents don’t have their afternoon coffee it’s as if something is off-kilter for the day and a topic of conversation. “I cannot believe I didn’t have afternoon cafecito!” For me, it’s more a matter of not liking the idea of “having” to have any kind of food or drink every single solitary day and for that reason I usually just have 1/2 cup upon waking up and then only in the afternoon if I’m visiting someone and they offer it to me or at a meeting, as most meetings here end with a friendly cafecito break. The craziest thing is that people are accustomed to drinking coffee basically as soon as they start drinking milk. My little host niece who isn’t even 2 years old drinks coffee and it’s totally the norm! I guess it really is just a matter of what’s normal is normal, but maybe there is some truth to the fact that coffee stunts your growth, seing as there are few members of my town, men or women, who are taller than me… hmmm!

Tiempo:
As you probably know, in tropical areas like Costa Rica there are two seasons, the rainy season and the dry season. As you may not know, the term rainy season, which I currently have the pleasure of considering a part of my everyday life these days, is an understatement. It should be more aptly termed the “torrential downpour season.” It cracks me up because I’ve read in CR guidebooks that as a way to make it sound better, they call the rainy season the “green season” which is certainly good PR work. Luckily in my town it’s green and beautiful all year round, but now it’s just really really rainy! The crazy part is that almost every single day when I wake up, it is gorgeous and sunny outside. I go milk the cows, go for my run, etc etc, then in the afternoon right after lunchtime the clouds fill the blue sky and it begins to downpour and any remnant of the sunny morning seems like a distant memory. I guess being from New England, I should be used to weather changing at the drop of a hat as the saying goes, “if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes” but here in CR I just can’t get over the regularity of beautiful mornings and not-so-beautiful afternoons.

However there always are exceptions, like a few weeks ago when I had a packed day of visiting the town next door for a meeting with a women’s group that is working on a project of producing vanilla and then in the afternoon going to the high school for a meeting with the kids who are working on the rabbit project (see previous post). Well, when I woke up to torrential downpour, the idea of walking an hour in the rain to the neighboring town was less than appealing so I called and rescheduled for the following week (which I did indeed have on a very nice morning, gracias a dios, the week after and it was quite successful—we had a discussion about the goals, resources, opportunities, and challenges facing the group and how to overcome the challenges and use the resources to take advantage of the opportunities) . Then, as soon as I got off the phone, a neighbor from the high school passed by to say that class was cancelled due to the rain. I couldn’t believe it—instead of having a snow day, it was a rain day! In the end, it was nice to hang around the house and get some reading done (by the way, I would highly recommend “The Last Lecture” to anyone who has not read it, as well as “Colors of the Mountain” which I am just finishing up), but it really cracked me up to have school cancelled due to heavy rains—it at least gives you an idea of the severity of the rainy season.

Alright, so in looking over this post, I feel like I am ranting a bit, but it’s really meant to give a peek into life here, so I hope it was successful in doing so. If you have any suggestions for blog subjects or questions about my PC experience, feel free to comment or email me and I will get right on it for the next post!

¡Ciao!
Tes