Thursday, Jan. 21st, 2010

So a little over a week has passed since I last wrote and I feel like I could write a book. One exciting part of my life here that I forgot to mention in my last blog is that I’m slowly growing accustomed to sharing my room with cockroaches…. So a little background for those of you who don’t know, I’m not a big fan of bugs, especially large ugly ones that are fast and blend in well with anything dark. Therefore, my goal here in Costa Rica is to learn to appreciate all animals for what they are and “to be one with nature.” ☺ Anyways, my first encounter with a cockroach in my room occurred last Sunday night as I was getting ready for bed. I spotted the “beautiful creature” on my wall, shrieked, and ran to my host mom’s room to tell her that there was a cockroach on my wall! She laughs and slowly saunters over to my room with a can of Off bugspray and starts to spray it. It just sits there like “yeah right, as if that’s going to do something,” so she just keeps spraying until it moves enough for her to reach it to hit it to the floor, and then she steps on it. She just kept looking at me as I sat horrified on my bed like “what is wrong with you?” I just found two more in my room tonight, for a total of probably about 15 now. I killed one this morning and let it sit on the floor for about 15 minutes, and when I went to clean it up it was already surrounded by ants. So yes, slowly becoming one with nature….

Side note—my host brother just walked by my bedroom door and whispered, “I hope a ‘montón de cucarachas’—a LOT of cockroaches—fall on you tonight while you’re sleeping.” Sweet dreams bro.

Where to begin since last Tuesday? They keep us extremely busy here in Orosi, with Spanish classes in the morning, teacher training in the afternoons/practicum, and family activities in the evenings. Oh yes… so last Wednesday was my dad’s birthday and I really wanted to call him (I had yet to talk to my parents at this point). I had class until 4:30, called Robby for the first time, and then went home with the intention of eating dinner, doing homework, calling my dad, and going to bed early. I get home and my host mom is telling me to hurry up because we’re leaving for a rezo in 5 minutes (blessing-the-nativity-scene party so that this house can put away the nativity scene for the year—every house has to have a party for this purpose). I for some reason am extremely agitated by this, but just tell myself to calm down and go anyways. I told my host mom, too, that I needed to be back early to call my dad because it’s his birthday, and she says we’ll be home before 9. Not ideal but okay. We jump in the car and drive to my host mom’s sister’s house for the rezo, and when we get there they tell us it doesn’t start until 7 (it’s now 6). So now we won’t be home until around 10, and this just puts me over the edge for some reason…. I cannot hold in the tears, and yep, start crying. I just turn and walk away from the house, and my mom sends my youngest host brother after me so that I don’t go alone. She thinks I’m going to call my dad from a pay phone, which I originally intended to do but also refused to call him while I was bawling. I ask Osvaldo to just let me go alone, so being the 12-year-old that he is, he complies. I walk for a few minutes, trying to calm down, and then go back to the house because I know my host mom is probably freaking out that I’m walking alone (although it really is pretty safe in Orosi and I was in a very populated part of town). So I return to the house and am standing outside contemplating how to open the gate without drawing a lot of attention to myself when my host mom walks up behind me. She had gone out looking for me! So we go into the house and I seriously cannot stop crying. I met my host mom’s entire side of the family absolutely bawling, to the point where I couldn’t form words to explain to them that it was nothing to do with them, that I was just sad because I missed my family and friends. And just to give you a picture, my host mom has 8 brothers and sisters, so it was a lot of people! Costa Rican culture is a very warm and friendly culture, and they don’t value personal space the way we do in the US. All I needed was a little time by myself to gain composure, but they would not leave me alone, so I eventually just decided to go with it and let them sit with me, hug me, give me tea, stare at me, laugh at me, whatever. They were actually extremely nice to the crazy American girl crying in the other room, and my host brother sat with my for a long time and cracked jokes until I forgot why I was so sad in the first place. I was able to eventually explain to my host mom that I loved living in her house and with her family, and that I did want to come here, but that at the same time it’s really hard to leave my friends and family for a year. I’m not entirely sure she understands this part because most of her extended family lives within a 5-block radius, but I’m sure she can imagine. As embarrassing as that night was, though, I think it made me closer with my family here in Orosi and I think they understand a little bit more now. My host brother Ury still always makes fun of me saying “Don’t cry!” whenever something happens….

Saturday morning I went to Palo Verde—the little town where I’ll be teaching this year—for the first time just to visit for the night. And by “little,” I mean 15 families! They had originally told me 40 families, but my host mom said nope, 15. But it is so gorgeous. It is literally up high on the side of a mountain, and it overlooks the valley below and the other mountains. I took a bus with three other girls from Orosi Saturday morning to Cartago, and then from Cartago two of us took the bus to Palo Verde. The other girl will be in La Estrella, a bigger town about a 40 minute walk from Palo Verde. On the bus ride to Palo Verde, I literally thought we were going to fall off the mountain, it was so steep! My “new” host mom, Silbana, brother, Justin (9 years old), and sister, Abigail (5 years old), were waiting for me at the bus stop. The bus driver helps me get my massive rolling suitcase off the bus and then I greet my new family. The kids are absolutely adorable, and both give me a kiss on the cheek (how people greet each other here). My host mom helps me carry my suitcase down the mountain to the house. We try to roll it at times, but it’s all gravel and extremely steep so we had to carry it most of the way. Unfortunately they have no idea that this is only like half of my stuff…hehe. The other half is back in Orosi for me to bring when I come for good. We pass two other houses on our way, and then come to a little house next to a field of skinny brown cows and she says “this is our house!” It’s very small and simple, but definitely better than I had imagined! The staff person who had gone out to the house to meet with the family and to set everything up told me that the walls of the house don’t touch the roof, which is very possible as many of the houses here are like that. I, not yet being one with nature, was extremely uncomfortable with the thought of cucarachas having free reign over coming and going from my room. So good news, the outside walls of my house do touch the roof, it’s just the inside ones that don’t. So there is absolutely no sound barrier between any of the rooms, including the bathroom, but at least I’m not basically living outdoors like I had pictured. There are three bedrooms, one bathroom—with WARM water!! Ah heaven—a kitchen, and a small living area. The walls and floor are cement/wood, and the roof is metal, and there is no drywall. It’s kind of as though they just didn’t finish off the house. But really, it’s much better than I had pictured! And I’ll just have to get used to the lack of sound barriers, which I’d much prefer over sharing my room with cockroaches.

We sat on the couch and talked for a while. My host mom asked me about my food preferences, and I told her I pretty much eat all fruits and vegetables, and rice and beans (given), and the only thing I don’t eat much of is meat. She said that’s perfect because they don’t eat much meat. I also told her I love eggs which made her incredibly happy. She seemed really worried that I wouldn’t like the food they eat. It’s really pretty simple—rice, beans, eggs, and the occasional fruit or vegetable—which I’d prefer anyways over lots of meat or seafood. They told me a little about the town and that an English teacher came two times a week last year to teach the kids, but that they didn’t know very much. She said she and her husband had debated for a while whether or not to host a volunteer, but that they decided to as it would be a good experience both for her kids and for the town. I told her I’d like to speak English with the kids as much as possible so that they can learn a lot of English this year, especially since they’re at such ideal ages to learn a new language. We ate lunch—rice, beans, a little meat (from an ox? Is that the same as a cow? Lol), and a little salad. It was good except very salty, even for me! Oh well. After lunch the kids and I went out back and they picked some fruit off of their trees and had me try it. One of them was really sour but good, and the other was kind of weird. I don’t think these fruits exist in the US so I’m not sure how to translate the names, which I don’t remember right now anyways. They also showed me their chickens—they have two—and the old house next to their present one that they used to live in. Then we took a walk around the town. And by around the town, I mean straight down and straight up the side of a mountain, lol, passing the school, church, soccer field, and about three houses. I slipped on the gravel walking down from my house to the school literally at least 5 times. The kids thought it was hilarious, and my Justin told me that he and his friends run down the mountain to school each day. It will be very interesting walking down the dirt road while it’s raining, which it apparently does a lot!

Both of the kids melted my heart, they were so sweet! Abigail, the 5-year-old, kept laughing at me and they she’d say “oy Estacey.” So cute! I can’t wait to show you all pictures! And when she smiles her whole face crinkles up. And the little boy is so good with her! They both showed me their toys when we got home, and after playing Barbies and kitchen, we watched Strawberry Shortcake (Rosita Frescita). I also took out my electronic Spanish-English dictionary to look up a word, and they LOVED it. We literally played with that for over an hour. Abi doesn’t know how to spell or read yet though, so she’d just make up words if we didn’t tell her which letters to press. For dinner later that night we had eggs with green beans cooked into them and rice and beans. I played with the kids for a little while longer, and then we put the kids to bed and I literally went to bed at 8!

At 5 the next morning I woke up to my host parents whispering and laughing in bed (remember, no sound barriers…), and then a few minutes later Abigail woke up and right away asked if she could come get me. Her parents said no, and then she called to Justin (sleeping in her room with her since I was in his room), until he woke up, lol. After a few minutes of silence, Abi says “Papi, te quiero.” (Daddy, I love you). And then a few minutes later, “Daddy, aren’t you proud of me for not calling for mommy last night?” ☺ I decided to actually get up around 5:30 or so. I showered and then we had breakfast, and the whole time Abi was asking if we could play some more. My bus left Palo Verde at 7:30 am, so we played kitchen for a few minutes and then I had to go! It was a good trip and it’s really nice to know now where I’m going to be for the next year. And my family seems very sweet.

Just to give you all a little perspective as to where I am in the country, Palo Verde is about 30 minutes south of Cartago (pop. I think around 200,000?), almost right in the middle of the country. The weather is pretty much the same year-round, with a few months getting more rainfall than others. The temperature averages around 74 degrees, and it rains almost every day in the afternoon, or if not rains becomes very overcast.

Unfortunately later on Sunday I started to feel nauseous, and Sunday night I was up a good portion of the night throwing up. ☹ Not fun. My host brother and niece in Orosi both had the flu the week before, so I apparently caught whatever they had. I was sick from Sunday until Wednesday afternoon this week. It’s now Thursday and I just ate my first actual meal since Saturday night. I didn’t eat anything at all for three days, and then I just drank yogurt and ate a few mashed potatoes on Wednesday. Even now food tastes really rich and I can’t eat a lot at one sitting. This week we began practicum. World Teach offers free English classes for a week in Orosi to 1st-5th graders who are on summer vacation right now, which is our time to get some experience teaching. Monday and Tuesday I taught second graders, who were so cute and of course full of energy! Then today (Thursday) I taught 5th graders, which for me was harder because I’m used to working with younger kids. I really wanted to challenge the fifth graders, and my lesson today ended up being a little over their heads. Oh well, I guess that’s how I’ll learn! It was a really busy and stressful week, especially being sick, but it was fun, too. This weekend we have a “free” weekend, so our whole group of volunteers is heading to the beach! We’re going to the Caribbean side near Puerto Viejo. A few people in Orosi have told us not to drink the water there, but also not to shower! And to be very careful of what we eat. I’m PRAYING I don’t get sick again! But I’m so excited to have a relaxing weekend!

I just got back from my host mom’s sister’s birthday party—so much fun! They hired a mariachi singer to come, and they sang and danced until 11 pm, kids and elderly included! They forced me to dance, probably so they could laugh at the “gringa” attempting to dance, but nevertheless, it was lots of fun! Their family is huge and crazy but I really like them. They are extremely welcoming and warm, and they are always looking out for me. I’m so lucky to have such a great family here in Orosi!