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.