Goodbye Monkeys

And so, we said goodbye to the monkeys. If you click on the lower picture of Kaz, you can make out the white-faced capuchin monkey to the right of his hair. That is, what is left of his hair after a drunk chicken got hold of a pair of scissors last week and chopped it all off.

June 10, 2009
A beautiful hummingbird just fed on a red orchid in front of me. I will miss the hummingbirds, especially the mass of them that frequent the hummingbird garden at the school. They were truly spectacular on some days, and you could watch them from the lunch tables. I will also miss being outside all the time. Everything here- classrooms, offices, restaurants, etc. is open to the air because the temperature hovers between 55 (at night) and 85 (on a hot day) all year.
We visited Manuel Antonio Park yesterday, and it is true that the monkeys there will come right up to you. Kaz gave one a banana and another a piece of mango. I wonder if they are still able to find food on their own or if they are completely dependent on tourists at this point.
A friend in Monteverde helped us find lodging here in Manuel Antonio. Our room is really nice and perfectly located. There is a double bed, a trundle bed and bunk beds, cable TV, AC and beach access, and it is as close to the park entrance as you can get- all for $26 per night. Other places we considered run $189 a night for a double room without beach access.
The place is called Cabinas Hermanos Ramirez, and it caters to Costa Ricans, who typically pack five people into the room and split the cost. Others staying here are selling handmade bracelets along the beach or driving tour buses. I don’t believe the Ramirez brothers advertise the place at all, and we could not even find it listed in the phone book yesterday.
People are generally happy here in Costa Rica, even if they do not have much by American standards. They see people on the news on TV in other countries and pity them because they seem so stressed out and unfulfilled.
People here seem blissfully unaware of how the global economic crisis might affect them. “Oh, that will affect people in the United States more than us,” they say. What they fail to consider is that a large chunk of their tourism income comes from Americans who travel here. If the number of American tourists drops dramatically, as it has begun to already, being able to feed one’s family will become very difficult here. The school is already preparing for a drop in enrollment as families discover they cannot afford the tuition, though it seems a mere token by U.S. standards at about $90/month.

No shirt, no shoes, no problem!There do not appear to be any rules that require shirts or shoes at any establishments here. And you have a dog? Sure, bring him right in.
Kaz ate a coconut and heart of palm yesterday that he collected from the beach himself. It’s nice to be able to snag a free snack in between riding the waves.

I can’t believe today is our last day here. I really can’t imagine not being here, but tomorrow we will be traveling home. I am ready to brace myself for the re-entry everyone tells us is harder than the adjustment of coming to Costa Rica. This is not something I am looking forward to, I must admit. Neither of us wants to go home.

What a fantastic experience this has been!

Let it Snow?

June 9, 2009
I think every shirt in the world with horizontal stripes ends up here in Costa Rica, sent in huge boxes to be given away free or sold very cheaply to Costa Ricans. Last night and this morning, I noticed that our plates at a restaurant in Manuel Antonio were plastic Christmas plates. This morning, my plate smiled back at me with the cheery message, “Let it Snow.” These are obviously plate sets that did not sell in the U.S.

We departed from Monteverde yesterday with many tears but without any regrets about how we spent our time there. We are spending a few "transitional" days on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica before heading back to the U.S.

What's to Miss?

June 7, 2009
What a final week in Monteverde we had. There were goodbye parties nearly every day and night. These parties were organized by the school, local residents, students, school staff, international families, neighbors, etc. Some parties included dancing; all had good food and good cheer. Friends also invited just Kaz and me to their homes or out for dinner to say goodbye.
I will miss so many things about this place. Everything from the amazing bird songs I hear every day to the door of George’s car popping open three times while driving from Monteverde to Cerro Plano, a trip of a mere one and a half miles.
Several people told me Kaz and I will be missed, too, as we apparently brought “so much” to the community. One person called me “rock solid” and told me my objectivity and consistent and caring nature will be missed. Another told me she doesn’t think she would have survived the semester without me.
Several people have specifically told me they will never forget Kaz and that they will miss his energy, talent, creativity, and friendship. He made quite a strong impression on everyone here, from little children to his teachers to the cashier at the local grocery (by always chatting with her and sometimes dancing to the music when he walked into the store) to some of the oldest members of the community. His maturity especially showed through when he rose at Quaker Meeting two days ago to say he was holding Wolf Guindon in the light with the hope that Wolf would be strong so as to recover quickly from his recent hospitalization. Kaz went on the praise Wolf for his many contributions to the community, including being one of the Founders of Monteverde. In doing so, Kaz addressed the pink elephant in the room, as no one else had mentioned Wolf’s hospitalization despite the fact that it was on everyone’s mind.
Many people have registered disappointment when they discover we will not be returning after the school break, especially my students and members of the larger community. Most have just said they appreciated our friendship and that we will be missed.

Gatherings

I will miss the gatherings in Monteverde. These pictures show two gatherings at our house, one where the kids played charades, and another where we played Skip-Bo. The third picture shows the preschool class performing on the last day of school.

As they say, community is where community happens. We will really miss this community.

Deb and Friends

Some of the many people I will really miss when I leave Monteverde: the song circle I sang with every Sunday afternoon, the Secretary at the school, Cristina Villalobos, and my wonderful soul mate, Deb Ostergren.

You Can Give a Kid a Drill

Well, we finished making our signs without any of the kids losing a limb or even being injured slightly. Hard to believe with all the power tools being used at the same time. The painting and polyurethaning was a far less dangerous process, but just as important.

Recycling Paper

First, you rip up old magazines and newspapers. Then you soak the pieces for 3 days. After that, you run a screen through the slop and peel off the piece of new paper. Squeeze all the water out with a manual press, then stick the new piece of paper on the wall to dry thoroughly. If automated, this process would be so much more efficient, but this place does it the old fashioned way because they do not have sophisticated equipment. We spent about an hour helping them rip up old papers and books.

Costa Rican Umbrellas

Costa Rican umbrellas are these huge leaves people pick when they get caught in the rain without a man-made umbrella.

The second picture shows Kaz and Luis Eladio being DJs at a party at a local bar. There is no DJ- anyone can just pick songs or plug in their own iPod and play whatever they want.

I think Monteverde must be one of the most adaptable places on earth. The “zone” as they call it has short-term visitors constantly moving through, and each visitor has some effect on the place. Tourists come for just a few days, of course, but they have at least an economic impact on the community. Volunteers at the school stay for just a week or two while interns stay for at least two months. Groups of American university students come for 5 weeks to an entire semester, and this year, many attended Quaker meeting every week and became very involved with the community due to the nature of their academic programs and the projects they completed. For example, some of the university students spent lots of time hanging out with, learning from, and interviewing local residents- farmers, garbage collectors, children, local scientists, etc.
The locals tell me they are keenly aware of the constant turnover of people in Monteverde. Some admit they are unlikely to invest themselves in people who will be leaving after a short stay. At the same time, others have told me how grateful the community is for the energy and perspective temporary visitors bring, and that yes, their community has changed dramatically over the past ten years partly due to influences from the outside. I expect the locals have become expert at making friends quickly as well as being able to quickly process and mourn the loss of new friends when they leave the zone.
Everyone wants to know when we will be coming back. At this point, I cannot say. Our plan was to be here for a semester and we have obligations back home, but we certainly have been bitten by the Monteverde bug as it were, and would welcome the chance to return for a longer period of time. Stay tuned.

Kaz at Graduation

School's Out!

Kaz sang at two different venues in the past week. He sang "Sweet Child of Mine" at the "Capuchin Cabaret" at Paseo de Stella last Friday. Six days later, he sang a Beatles song at a concert at the covered outdoor ampitheather Bromelia's. See the less-than-wonderful picture at bottom.

Graduation was held at Bromelia's, too, and the school graduates its Kindergarten, sixth grade, ninth grade, and 11th grade every year. Since Kaz is in ninth grade here, he got to graduate (see picture at top).

The middle picture was taken as Kaz (in tie-dye shirt) and his friends ran to catch the bus on the last day of school, four days after graduation. They spent the four days after graduation cleaning and painting classrooms, repairing furniture, and hanging out with their teachers and friends. They were so busy hugging each other and their teachers before I took this picture, the bus nearly left without them. The bus is actually moving in the picture, but of course stopped to let them jump aboard.

What an amazing adventure this has been for us!

Students

The students at the school are wonderful on the whole. Kaz has made some absolutely wonderful friends here. I am sure he will keep in touch with them for a very long time.

Remember the little chicks we bought awhile back? Look at them now. My understanding is that they have now been returned to the farm from which their eggs came.

One picture here shows Dolly, Milton, and me. Milton, the Land Stewardship Coordinator, has been Dolly's and my most important colleague and source of information about the campus and the rainforest. Sadly, although it has improved greatly, Dolly's Spanish is at a beginning level and Milton's English is for all intents and purposes nonexistent. That is, he has never spoken any English in our presence. I am sure that more could have been accomplished this year if Milton and Dolly shared fluency in one language or the other. Having said that, they were remarkably creative in their communications and a great deal of progress was made in the area of Environmental Education here this year.

The third picture shows Antonio displaying a guitar he constructed from discarded glass. Antonio has been teaching students all over the world (Paris, Mexico, here) to produce art pieces by recycling discarded materials. The kids really enjoyed working with him. They made mirrors using discarded glass and a cement made using egg cartons.

The bus

The buses always back into the entrance of the school. If they did not, they would not be able to leave at the end of the day because there simply isn't enough space for them to turn around in.

The boys on the bus had a salamander one day. Crazy kids.

Everyone rides the bus- students, teachers, and anyone else who needs a ride to or from the school. Although there are seatbelts and the kids have to put them on, I really wonder about the safety of these buses on these roads. I feel as though everyone is taking their life in their hands with every trip up or down the hill.

Stunning Beauty

Just a few examples of the stunning beauty of Costa Rica. The two coastline shots were taken at Samara; the other was taken in Monteverde.

Winding Down

The school year is winding down here. In these pictures, Alvaro is showing off his cast, I am helping a student (notice the raincoat), and the sixth graders are having their graduation pictures taken. All pictures are taken a couple of weeks before graduation by a professional photographer. It is quite a big deal, and the expense for a package of pictures is pretty steep for parents here, but I think they all buy the photos, frame them and display them proudly in their homes.

Horse, Bus, Bus, Horse

How many of you leave work in the mid-afternoon and mount your horse to meet the bus carrying your child home from school?

And how many kids get up in the morning, ride their horse 20 minutes to reach the school bus stop, ride the bus to school, and then reverse the process in the afternoon? The pictures above show one of our students getting off the bus in the afternoon and riding home on her horse with her Dad.

There is also a picture of the aforementioned opposum.

Infidelity, Opposum and the Clinic

May 26, 2009

Lots of Weather

We are having lots of weather these days. It rains for several hours every day, usually on and off, and there have been many violent thunderstorms. Notice the mist in the first picture with this post. One day last week, we thought someone had dropped a bomb when a huge clap of thunder hit the school. It stopped me cold, and scared the bejeebers out of the kids. Today, I spent half and hour watching lightning bolts light up the sky like fireworks. Strangely, none were aimed at the earth; rather, all bolts ran parallel to the ground.

I took over the sixth grade today while their teacher was on a field trip with the fifth grade. We got a lot done in the morning and had a good time in the afternoon. I later realized this was essentially their last day of school since they have a class trip for the next two days and then they graduate on Friday.

Infidelity

One day, the Spanish teacher here told us that most Costa Rican men are known for cheating on their wives. It is just expected, she said.

Conversation between a preschooler and his teacher:
P: I want to be just like my Dad when I grow up.
T: That’s nice- what is it that you especially like about your Dad?
P: He has 85 girlfriends.
T: Oh, goodness. I hope you are NOT like your father in that way. It is not right for a man to have so many girlfriends, especially when he has a wife. It really isn’t fair to your mother.
P: It’s okay, because she is his favorite.

Traditional Transportation

Another conversation between a teacher and a student who lives extremely far from the school:
T: So, how do you get to school?
S: I ride my horse 20 minutes to the bus stop, then take the bus.

Dogs

I have heard this conversation several times now:
Person 1: Is that your dog over there?
Person 2: Sort of.
Dogs sort of belong to everyone here. Case in point- Baxter followed her owners to school again today and, when they took the bus home, she was left behind. I saw her at 4:30 sitting next to one of her owners’ backpacks which also had been left behind. I grabbed the backpack and coaxed her to follow me. She stayed with me partway down the school hill, then disappeared. Now, Kaz and her owner have gone on a Baxter-finding mission. It is dark and raining. I hope they find her.

May 25, 2009

Opposum

The fourth graders found an animal in one of the “traps” on campus today. Unfortunately, they had not un-set the traps for the weekend, and the animal had been trapped in a bucket for awhile. Dolly and I went to investigate and found an opossum in the bucket. It looked dead, so Dolly took a couple of sticks and fished it out. In doing so, the opossum moved and opened its mouth. Well, duh, we said, it’s an opossum- it’s probably playing dead. However, s/he looked pretty slow, so we put it back in the bucket and brought it back to our office to attempt to revive it. Dolly gave up part of her chicken lunch, and I sacrificed a piece of carrot bread I’d just bought from some kids. We also fashioned a water “bowl” from a plastic cup and lowered it down into the bucket. The opossum didn’t seem interested in any of it. After a few hours, Dolly took the animal back into the woods and left it there. Regrettably, we don’t expect s/he survived.

May 24, 2009

We joined the school staff and families end-of-year trip to Samara for the weekend. Samara is a town on the Pacific Ocean with a lovely bay surrounded by coconut trees. At least an hour of the 3+ hour drive was on unpaved mountain roads, which are unavoidable no matter which direction you take out of Monteverde.

May 21, 2009

The Emergency Clinic

It still surprises me that no one has an address here. All addresses are given as directions from landmarks. I had to take Alvaro to the emergency clinic yesterday, and the business card of the clinic has its address as, “Across from the Cerro Plano School.” And, of course, the intake forms at the clinic do not ask for the patient's address. Just a name, age, and nationality will do.

So, the kids had rigged up several intersecting ropes attached to trees and had a burlap sack with straw tied on somehow so they could hang onto the sack and “fly” when the others pulled the ropes in a certain coordinated way. Unfortunately, Alvaro had his hand on the rope when three big guys jerked the rope from the other direction. Alvaro’s wrist was ripped back and he said he thought his fingers were going to rip off. His wrist and hand swelled up, he could not move his fingers, and he was in tremendous pain. He went to Dolly, not because she is the school nurse or anything (the school secretary sort of doubles as the school nurse), but probably because he has a good relationship with Dolly and because he knows she gets things done. We both felt he needed to go to the clinic, so I took him.

The doctor, Johnnie Wong (see photo), who speaks fluent Spanish and passable English, was wearing what most doctors wear to work- a T-shirt and jeans. He gave Alvaro a shot of pain killers, thoroughly examined him, and eventually strapped a piece of wood to his hand and arm to stabilize them. He prescribed some pain killers and told Alvaro to get an xray today if the pain did not subside. Postscript: the pain did not subside and Alvaro had to hire a driver to take him the two hours to the nearest xray machine. Turns outs, he broke a couple of bones in his hand, so he came back with a nice cast.