Tamarindo held a triathlon here this weekend and the sponsors paid to have the roads graded for the race. Mark was disappointed that we hadn’t learned about the race sooner (we’d spent a day on line looking for races in Costa Rica and didn’t find any). I learned that it is not a good thing to have a triathlete in the house when there is a race going by.
This weekend I also learned what happens to mud when it dries. It turns into dust that flies around when cars speed down the road. Our walks are less bumpy and pothole filled, but no less dirty.
While our brief respite from the rain brought different problems, I personally prefer dust with sun, to slipping in the mud and rain. The dust was annoying and especially difficult on my contact lenses. But I learned to close my eyes when the big trucks drove by. We were fortunate that there wasn't much wind off the beach. My teacher said that wind added to dry dirt equaled dust everywhere, all the time.
I have had the same teacher for the past two weeks and I have found her delightful. She is kind and usually smiling. This week, we practiced our interrogatives (Donde? Como? Que? Cual? And Por que?), and I used my new found skills to learn more about her. My first question was: if there's a wet and muddy season, and a dry and dusty season, when is the good season in Guanacaste province?
The answer was given with a laugh: November! :>
My teacher, Senora F, always finds the upside of things. She is 37 and the youngest of six children. She has a degree from the University of Santa Cruz in pre-school education. She is married and has been with her husband for 20 years. She began teaching at WAYRA two years ago, when the economy tanked and the preschool she ran closed.
There were looks of horror on a few of my classmates faces when she told us (proudly) that her husband was a sanitation worker. Sra. F considers herself lucky; she and her husband both have jobs in these tough times. Costa Rica has experienced a decline in tourism and a many of the new houses and condos that were being built for those tourists, now stand empty.
Sra. F's husband has a government job which, in Costa Rica, means job security.
Even though the school is somewhat dependent on the tourism industry, she and the other teachers at WAYRA have managed to keep working.
There are seven language intructors at the school. Because things are so expensive in Tamarindo, few of the teachers can afford to live here. Sra. F takes a fifty-minute bus ride from her home Santa Cruz to work in Tamarindo five days a week. She leaves her home around 6:30 am and she leaves the school around 6 pm. She has lived in Santa Cruz her whole life and much of her family lives there. In the evening, her children wait at her mother’s house until she arrives to take them home.
Sra. F has two children. Her oldest child (a boy) was born with a cleft lip and palate. She spent several months in San Jose while he underwent surgeries to repair the problem. He is 14 now and Sra. F is saving up for the final surgery that will put the cosmetic touches on the repair.
Her daughter is 8 and was born with an intact palate, but at 32 weeks gestation. Sra. F spent another extended time period at the hospital in San Jose. Both her children are currently healthy and Sra. F swears by the remedies her herbalist prepares.
Sra. F's house is large (3 bedrooms) and comfortable. She doesn’t have air conditioning (she doesn’t like it); she doesn’t have hot water (who needs hot water in Costa Rica?). She does have running water (and a back-up cistern), a nice kitchen, ceiling fans in every room and a large bathroom (just one) with a separate toilet.
Whenever Sra. F talks about her life, she speaks of the abundance of it. She is terminally cheerful and encouraging. Most importantly, she has a lot of patience with me and my bad Spanish.
While Sra. F is an excellent grammar teacher, I know that the best learning I had was from the particles of her life story that she shared with me. The bits and pieces of a life full of hardship, but overflowing with blessing have been a gift. I consider myself lucky to have met Sra. F. She has reminded me that even dust can be meaningful.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
la lluvia, las clases, y los monos
Tomorrow I begin my next unit of class. I signed up for the intensive course, and it is living up to its name. I spend four hours each morning in grammar class, learning basic vocabulary and verb conjugations. After lunch, I return to school for basic conversation. Exept in my case, my professor wants to talk about the hardest topics: a lunes- la iglesia (the church), a martes-fe y muerte (faith and death), a miercoles-la vida de Cristo, a jueves- los pecados (sin).
I consider myself fairly well versed in these topics. I am a priest after all. Nonetheless, trying to talk about these things in Spanish made me feel like an idiot. I don't know nearly enough words; the pluperfect tense is well past my learning level, and I don't know the subtle differences between words. It feels like I'm trying to paint china with a mop. The expereince is more than a little frustrating.
My teacher assures me that I will improve in the coming weeks. "You learn to speak by speaking," he says. I'm not so sure that learning to conjugate "to be" and "to go" and "to have" are going to take me very deep into theological territory. On Friday, I had to present a prayer I wrote. It was all wrong, but my teacher said he liked the way I prayed. LOL!
In addition to my learning frustrations, a dear member of my church died this week and because of the rain, I haven't had good phone lines and the internet has been down more often than up. This evening has been best internet time I've had all week. I feel so limited and so out of touch! (Not to mention that my blog's spell check only works in Spanish so I can't even be sure that my posts are correct.)
Oh, did I mention that it has been raining? August in Costa Rica is wet! Between rain showers, the humidty rolls in, and then it rains again. Everything is soggy and my hair is standing on end. The first thing I will do when I return, is put on a pair of dry shoes!
This weekend provided a rare respite. We had almost two full days of sun! It rained around dinner time, but we had nice beach and pool time in the morning and afternoon. This morning we were further blessed to have a howler monkey serve as our alarm clock. The troop, which had about 12 members, took up residence in the trees in front of our condo. The loud calls of the male echoed all around. There were even a couple of little babies being carried on their mothers backs. My family, along with everybody else who happened to be out at 7 am on a Sunday, stopped to watch the group eat and play. I'm sure it was more relaxing for Mark than his average Sunday morning in church.
Since the closest church is about 30 minutes away by car, and since we don't have a car, we've been doing church at home. I'm also teaching my big kids to read Compline (even though they are less than thrilled)and they are making good progress.
There are many things here which, like Church, require a degree of ingenuity on our part. We have had to "make do" in many ways. Our kitchen needs about $100 worth of equipment (so we used a stockpot as the bowl for mixing pancakes, and Mark figured out how to flip an omlet with a spoon), but we've managed to make tasty meals anyway. The single bathroom is definitely a stumbling block, especially with two two-year olds ("Mommy, what are you doing?"). In addition, the kids have to share a bed, and bedtime gets challenging (with fights over who's hogging the blankets, the pillows, etc).
When I'm confronted with these issues my innner whiner somtimes kicks in. I then remind myself that the average Costa Rican family of four lives in 700 square feet, with one bathroom.
It is amazing how little a human being actually needs to have a good life. Yes, a blender, a set of mixing bowls, an English spell check, another bedroom and another toilet would make life easier. But I'm no longer convinced those things make life better. Mark and I are no more stressed here than in our house. We eat just as well and our kids spend more time outdoors (even in the rain).
I suspect that when I leave Costa Rica, my prayers in Spanish will still be error filled. But hopefully, they will orininate from a heart that has grown more grateful.
I consider myself fairly well versed in these topics. I am a priest after all. Nonetheless, trying to talk about these things in Spanish made me feel like an idiot. I don't know nearly enough words; the pluperfect tense is well past my learning level, and I don't know the subtle differences between words. It feels like I'm trying to paint china with a mop. The expereince is more than a little frustrating.
My teacher assures me that I will improve in the coming weeks. "You learn to speak by speaking," he says. I'm not so sure that learning to conjugate "to be" and "to go" and "to have" are going to take me very deep into theological territory. On Friday, I had to present a prayer I wrote. It was all wrong, but my teacher said he liked the way I prayed. LOL!
In addition to my learning frustrations, a dear member of my church died this week and because of the rain, I haven't had good phone lines and the internet has been down more often than up. This evening has been best internet time I've had all week. I feel so limited and so out of touch! (Not to mention that my blog's spell check only works in Spanish so I can't even be sure that my posts are correct.)
Oh, did I mention that it has been raining? August in Costa Rica is wet! Between rain showers, the humidty rolls in, and then it rains again. Everything is soggy and my hair is standing on end. The first thing I will do when I return, is put on a pair of dry shoes!
This weekend provided a rare respite. We had almost two full days of sun! It rained around dinner time, but we had nice beach and pool time in the morning and afternoon. This morning we were further blessed to have a howler monkey serve as our alarm clock. The troop, which had about 12 members, took up residence in the trees in front of our condo. The loud calls of the male echoed all around. There were even a couple of little babies being carried on their mothers backs. My family, along with everybody else who happened to be out at 7 am on a Sunday, stopped to watch the group eat and play. I'm sure it was more relaxing for Mark than his average Sunday morning in church.
Since the closest church is about 30 minutes away by car, and since we don't have a car, we've been doing church at home. I'm also teaching my big kids to read Compline (even though they are less than thrilled)and they are making good progress.
There are many things here which, like Church, require a degree of ingenuity on our part. We have had to "make do" in many ways. Our kitchen needs about $100 worth of equipment (so we used a stockpot as the bowl for mixing pancakes, and Mark figured out how to flip an omlet with a spoon), but we've managed to make tasty meals anyway. The single bathroom is definitely a stumbling block, especially with two two-year olds ("Mommy, what are you doing?"). In addition, the kids have to share a bed, and bedtime gets challenging (with fights over who's hogging the blankets, the pillows, etc).
When I'm confronted with these issues my innner whiner somtimes kicks in. I then remind myself that the average Costa Rican family of four lives in 700 square feet, with one bathroom.
It is amazing how little a human being actually needs to have a good life. Yes, a blender, a set of mixing bowls, an English spell check, another bedroom and another toilet would make life easier. But I'm no longer convinced those things make life better. Mark and I are no more stressed here than in our house. We eat just as well and our kids spend more time outdoors (even in the rain).
I suspect that when I leave Costa Rica, my prayers in Spanish will still be error filled. But hopefully, they will orininate from a heart that has grown more grateful.
Friday, August 6, 2010
hola
I arrived in Costa Rica a little over 48 hours ago. Getting our living situation in hand has taken us a little longer than I anticipated. On the other hand, it has taken me less than three days to realize how spoiled we are.
We are staying in a condo in the town of Tamarindo. True to its ad, our condo is “walking distance to everything.” WAYRA, our spanish school, is right around the corner; the small market is 100 yards away; the bank and larger market are 10 minutes away; and the beach is a 5 minute walk out the front door. Since a car was not in our budget,we wanted to live where we could walk easily with the kids.
Another reason we wanted a convenient location was because we are visiting during the “green” (meaning rainy) season. At this time of year, it rains every day, sometimes up to 3 hours. Having this central location makes life easier overall, but walking is not as easy as we had hoped.
Walking on the roads is the first reminder of how spoiled I am. I am used to roads being paved, and having sidewalks. All of the roads through Tamarindo are dirt and pothole-filled. There are hardly any sidewalks to speak of. After the rain fills the holes, the mud is slippery and unavoidable. Slipping and sliding from the market with my backpack filled with groceries was quite an adventure. The road sometimes dries out by 2 pm; drying just in time for the afternoon showers.
The water-filled potholes also make it difficult to move around with the twins. It is nearly impossible to convince a two-year old to resist the tempting invitation of so many mud puddles. I have already had to do laundry thanks to the mud and my twins’ lack of will power.
Feeding all of us is also challenging. We have committed ourselves to eating locally for two reasons: taking a party of six out to eat frequently is cost prohibitive, and Mark and I value eating local cuisine. Unfortunately, the grocery stores here are a lot smaller than the ones at home and they have limited supplies. The farmer's market is only open on Tues, Thrus and Fri mornings and we still haven't found the fish market. This has made for a few "interesting" meals. We figure as long as we have a protein and a starch, we will be ok (and mangos make up for a lot).
We have learned that there is an AUTO MERCADO about 3 miles down the main road (also dirt), just past the blind curve of death. Most everyone agrees that this is the “most American” grocery in town. Mark is planning to bike down there this afternoon. We shall see how it goes.
Other things that take getting used to: the need to boil our drinking water and the periodic power outages. The landlord told us to expect the power to go off and stay off for a few hours, 2-3 days a week. The resorts have backup generators, but the locals just keep going in the dark. We are living more like the locals, much to the kids dismay. We have already experienced our first afternoon of darkness. We also endure sporadic internet availability, and sharing our space with the massive iguanas that hang out by the pool.
Nonetheless, we are priviledged and blessed. By the standards of most families in this area, we are living large! We have a dishwasher!!
Whatever adjustments or challenges I face, I am certainly blessed to be here. If nothing else,the challenges remind me how much I have back home.
We are staying in a condo in the town of Tamarindo. True to its ad, our condo is “walking distance to everything.” WAYRA, our spanish school, is right around the corner; the small market is 100 yards away; the bank and larger market are 10 minutes away; and the beach is a 5 minute walk out the front door. Since a car was not in our budget,we wanted to live where we could walk easily with the kids.
Another reason we wanted a convenient location was because we are visiting during the “green” (meaning rainy) season. At this time of year, it rains every day, sometimes up to 3 hours. Having this central location makes life easier overall, but walking is not as easy as we had hoped.
Walking on the roads is the first reminder of how spoiled I am. I am used to roads being paved, and having sidewalks. All of the roads through Tamarindo are dirt and pothole-filled. There are hardly any sidewalks to speak of. After the rain fills the holes, the mud is slippery and unavoidable. Slipping and sliding from the market with my backpack filled with groceries was quite an adventure. The road sometimes dries out by 2 pm; drying just in time for the afternoon showers.
The water-filled potholes also make it difficult to move around with the twins. It is nearly impossible to convince a two-year old to resist the tempting invitation of so many mud puddles. I have already had to do laundry thanks to the mud and my twins’ lack of will power.
Feeding all of us is also challenging. We have committed ourselves to eating locally for two reasons: taking a party of six out to eat frequently is cost prohibitive, and Mark and I value eating local cuisine. Unfortunately, the grocery stores here are a lot smaller than the ones at home and they have limited supplies. The farmer's market is only open on Tues, Thrus and Fri mornings and we still haven't found the fish market. This has made for a few "interesting" meals. We figure as long as we have a protein and a starch, we will be ok (and mangos make up for a lot).
We have learned that there is an AUTO MERCADO about 3 miles down the main road (also dirt), just past the blind curve of death. Most everyone agrees that this is the “most American” grocery in town. Mark is planning to bike down there this afternoon. We shall see how it goes.
Other things that take getting used to: the need to boil our drinking water and the periodic power outages. The landlord told us to expect the power to go off and stay off for a few hours, 2-3 days a week. The resorts have backup generators, but the locals just keep going in the dark. We are living more like the locals, much to the kids dismay. We have already experienced our first afternoon of darkness. We also endure sporadic internet availability, and sharing our space with the massive iguanas that hang out by the pool.
Nonetheless, we are priviledged and blessed. By the standards of most families in this area, we are living large! We have a dishwasher!!
Whatever adjustments or challenges I face, I am certainly blessed to be here. If nothing else,the challenges remind me how much I have back home.
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