Life Update

Hello all,

It has been a long time since I've written, in part because I have been extremely busy, and in part because I was literally seeing spots this week and in bed with a fever.This nicely coincided with the visit of our Academic program dean, and due to my position as student executive I had to drag myself to school everyday anyway to participate in meetings etc.

This week I have felt a breakthrough in my Spanish. It's interesting how I can notice the changes from one day to the next. I have been gauging my progress by 1) how well I can understand my abuelita and 2) how quickly I respond and am able to participate in conversation. When I first arrived, I spent a lot of time smiling and nodding while my abuelita spoke to me, although I processed very little of the information. This morning I sat with her at breakfast and we carried on a conversation. I suppose I really feel the improvement in my understanding. I don't have to work as hard, or translate back to English as much. I still make a lot of mistakes in my speech, but that is becoming more fluid as well.

Tomorrow I am going to the Friends Peace Center in San Jose in the morning for a workshop of conflict resolution through theater, facilitated by my advisor. It should be interesting. Besides this, the weekend should be devoted to catching up somewhat on lost time. I need to work on translating the interviews that I have recorded with the Nicaraguan immigrant women. Sunday will probably be devoted to family, which means, as in many cultures, lots of eating. Bon Apetit, and have a good weekend.

Me and Brittany

Thought you all might like to see a picture of me and a friend. This is Brittany, one of my good friends. Another who I don't have a picture of is named Susana, and she is from Colorado! She actually works at the center as a translator, but she graduated from CU.

Monteverde

These pictures are from a sustainable farm we visited where they grew bananas, coffee and sugar cane. I have gotten a couple of pics. of the family, their gardens and the cane growing process. When planting sugar cane, they dig a trench lay lay big stalks of cane into them which produce new stalks.

Windows into Daily life

Here are a few photos from around my house. The people are all members of my family, including Vicky my host mom, sitting by the basket of nail polish. We live right down the street from the stadium and on game days I came hear the roaring of the ceowd, all dressed in red and yellow.

A breath of fresh air and La Carpio

After dashing off such a fast note last Friday, I piled onto the unfortunately marked ¨turismo¨for the long ride to Monteverde. It took us about five hours o arrive, even though the actual distance is less than 200km. Half of the road there is unpaved and full of potholes, intentionally not maintained to keep a total inundation of tourist traffic at bay. As it is, the economy of Monteverde is based almost entirely in the tourist industry, and the $ prices on menus everywhere prove it. Despite that fact, it is truly a marvelous place, and in our three short days there we were exposed to quite a bit of what goes on there. The first afternoon we visited a family farm. It is working toward sustainability in banana, coffee and dairy production. We learned about the interconnectedness of environment, economic and social issues as they manifest on the farm. Most interesting to me was their project to engage in a fair coffee trade with a company in the United States and use some of the extra profite for educational initiatives. From a social interest, they now have difficulty hiring local people, who are all tied up in tourism, to pick coffee and must now depend a lot on Micaraguan immigrants. In turn the Nicaraguans often want to work seven days a week for long hours because they can make as much in a single day in Costa Rica as they can in a month in Nicaragua. Considering that even with the fair trade price they are still making only $1/lb on coffee, this daily rate cannot be very much.

The next day we went to a biodiversity lecture to learn about the unique nature of the cloud forest and Monteverde region. This region runs along the continental divide, one side is in the high rain zone, the other in the rain shadow. The climate and vegetation changes happen in a very small distance, thus in a day a person could potentially walk through five different life zones. These areas are home to thousands of trees and animals, with hardly any overlap, making them unique, biodiverse zones. It was fascinating. One important conservation tactic that I learned about was the cultivation of bio-corridors, strips of land that connect different preserved regions, providing a place for animals to migrate through, thus improving animals chances of survival, particularly those who must have a large roaming area for survival.

After our lecture we were set free into the cloud forest for over two hours. My friend Brittany and I took full advantage and enjoyed every minute of it. We breathed in the air, floated through clouds, spotted orchids and kept our eyes open for overly large spiders and other interesting wild life. I wish I could take a walk like that every day.

finally in the afternoon we met with a representative from the Quaker community that has taken root in Monteverde since the 1950s. they have established a school, and a meeting. I learned wuite a bit about the foundations of Quakerism, and was able to recognize a lot of my own beliefs within their system. I like that they at least claim to allow each person to have their own relationship without God without the imposition of indoctrination. On Sunday we went to the actual meeting. Brittany, Susana, Courtney and I decided to walk the three km uphill. The morning was fresh and cool, and we were able to see all the way to the Bay of Nicoya in the Pacific Ocean. What a vista. I imagined that as my gift from the heavens during the hour of silence following half n hour of singing at the meeting. For once I enjoyed church, because it allowed me the space to reflect without inspiring any guilt.

This morning I woke at 6 so that I could catch the bus to La Carpio, the Nicaraguan neighborhood in San Jose. this was my second visit to the clinic there, and today I interviewed two women. The first broke down crying as she poured her heart and pain onto the table between us. I recorded her speaking for over 45 minutes without my asking anything. If only I were truly fluent in Spanish! I understood most of what she said, but I have a lot of work ahead of me relistening and tranlating/transcribing these interviews. What an amazing opportunity I have been given. Today I felt the stirring of desire to help people who have been disempowered for one reason or another. I´ll be returning again on Friday for the next experience.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL WHO HAVE LATE TEEN SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAYS. I know that Virgos number many in this extensive family.

Eva

A trip to the cloud forest

It's Friday morning and we are leaving for a three day trip to Monteverde. We will be meeting with representatives from the Quaker community that left the United States to settle in a more peaceful country. They are cheesemakers, so we might have a lot in common. We will also have a lecture on biodiversity and visit a farm that practices sustainable agriculture. This is all part of the environmental portion of our global issues class.

My friend Adrien just came into the computer room and announced that everyone should do everything that they want to do in their lives now. He just read an article about peak oil last night and is feeling fatalistic. We won't be able to recognize our world in 20 years. Hey, maybe that will be a good thing?

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

A photo album

This morning Dona Magda, mi nueva abuelita, called me into Vicky’s room. “Cierra la puerta,” she said to me. She stood in the doorway of the closet, stretching to reach some far back on the top shelf. Whatever she was getting, she did not want Jordy to see. After a few moments of renegotiating the positions of a few things, her arms emerged with a dark brown, gold trimmed photo album.
We had been talking about families, and family members that live far away. She showed me her daughter who lives in Florida. I thought these were pictures of a trip she and her husband had taken to visit her daughter. After a few pages of breezy seaside pictures, with cream sand, frothed water and brilliant sky, she turned the page to reveal her husband, resting peacefully in a coffin. These weren’t pictures of any trip, but the last they ever took together. Several other pictures followed: of Magda caressing his face, her daughter weeping next to the coffin. Moments of grief and tenderness captured like a wedding photographer captures moments of joy, excitement and surprise. I had never seen anything like it. Again I felt reminded that some other cultures don’t have such a morbid obsession with death. My initial (culturally instilled) gut reaction was to ask myself, “Why would anyone want pictures of their dead husband? Isn’t it better to remember his living being?” But in our culture, we like to ignore death; not keep it close by so that we can take it out and look at it every once and awhile. I looked at his face for a long while, and didn’t feel scared or disgusted. His expression was muy tranquilo. Perhaps if we had the opportunity to see the faces of our loved ones again, not only in the days directly after death when the grief is so intense it blurs our ability to see clearly, we would recognize this tranquility and accept it into our hearts as a sign that death is nothing to fear.

Funny Things Happen in Heredia...

Okay, so here's the number one thing that is bound to throw off a North American tourist travelling in Costa Rica. There are no such thing as addresses here. There are no street names, there are no numbers, and one only knows where things are in relation to other things. For example, when I get into a taxi and I want to go home, I ask him to take 500 meters west of the fire station and then turn right. Strange isn't it? And how on earth does the mail work?

Yesterday we had our first global issues class, in which we all had to identify a place, religion or language we are familiar with to share with the rest of the class. The three groups who presented were representing the monotheistic religions : Islam, Judaism and Christianity. All were attempting to dispel minsconceptions about the religions, and their doctrines. One of the girls in our class is strongly Christian (her father is a pastor), and she really wants to convey that not all Christians are "bible thumping whackos". Fair enough. However she was challenged to defend why, if as she says Jesus is the "clause" that negates a lot of what is said in the Old Testament, why are contemporary Christians anti-homosexuality. She made it clear she was against the act, not the people, and just as it was getting very contentious and controversial, Nochi, a student from Japan piped up and said,

"Wait, wasn't Jesus Christ gay?"

What else could we do but disolve into laughter. Well... most of us disolved into laughter, and a few people fumed.

Dona Magda

This beautiful woman is Dona Magda, my new abuelita. She's posing with the plate of pancakes she made forme this morning. (I didn't eat all of them).

phone number and address

Home telephone: between before 8:30 am and after 6 most days
011-506-261-6543
All family membersspeak Spanish so you'll have to ask,"esta Eva?"

School during day: 260-6672

Address:c/o Latin America Center
Apartado 8496-1000
San Jose, Costa Rica
Central America

A Tica Birthday

9/6/05

I’ve gotten used to having birthdays away from home, and today I had an enjoyable day, however I can’t help feeling a tinge of sadness. For just a day I’d like to be home with my family. Everyone here tried to make the day as celebratory as possible. I woke to the sound of the telephone ringing, and my mother’s warm and welcome voice on the other end of the line. We haven’t spoken since I arrived, and so it did make the beginning of the day feel special. While I was on the phone, Jordy brought me a little gift from the family, a really sweet gesture of welcome. During my breakfast another call came from Kyle all the way from Japan. I couldn’t have asked for a better surprise. I talked as long as I could, until I had to leave so as not to be too late for school.
At lunch my new friend Brittany took me to the Mercado in the middle of town where there are lots of ‘sodas’ that sell large and authentic ‘platos del dia’. We both ordered ours con pescado (fish), and were served HUMONGOUS plates of food: rice, beans, fish, and vegetables with mora (blackberry) juice on the side. A few others joined us on a hunt for a cake to take back and share with everyone at the center. Susana, a girl who is from Colorado and works at the center, pointed out all the places where I might find my favorite special treats like tres leches cake and arroz con leche (a kind of rice pudding), Apparently this is the land for rich creamy desserts, my very favorite kind, and so I have to be a little careful not to go overboard.
At the center everyone sang and wished me well, so I was able to feel my day was recognized. I still wish that I could take my dad up on that date at Jax, but instead I’ll be going out with a few newfound friends here in Heredia. Thanks for all the best birthday wishes, and I have a feeling 22 will turn out to be a good year.

Love,
Eva

Como Un Abrazo

9/5/05

Emilio approached me as I sat at the computer.
“Can I tell you something?” He asked me, his eyes looking into mine with a directness that had intrigued since the first time he had spoken; which happened to be the first time I had really noticed his presence. During our introductions he told us about his experiences as an exchange student in the United States when he was 17, “many years ago”. At that time he knew almost no English, and his family no Spanish. Some days he was moved to come home and exclaim loudly to his family, either in joyful excitement or frustration, in Spanish. They couldn’t understand these outbursts and therefore couldn’t really respond, and yet he needed to burst anyway. His best friends became a little neighbor boy from up the street, and an older man of 60 who loved table tennis. These companions sought him out and he accepted their friendship gratefully.
At dinner I sat between Emilio and Oscar, and we had our first conversation. “Puede hablar Espanol, Eva?” He asked.
“Yo intiendo mas que lo hablo,” I replied, to which he said, “Ah, but you said it correctly, pues si esta bien.” And then he asked me about my work. How do I like to study, and how do I present myself in my portfolio? I told him that I enjoy writing. I think research is important, but I am also constantly looking for the balance between the academic and the creative sides of my personality. He looked at me, directly in the eye, paused for a moment to see what was there and said,
“If you have a passion, a romance with the words, it is enough.” I felt that in just a few moments he had seen my tendency to expect more than enough from myself. He uses words with eloquence, when he speaks in Spanish and English. I don’t sense that he speaks merely out of necessity or survival, but rather so that beauty and symbolism can enter the ear and materialize in the vision of the mind. If I can love the words, that is enough.
Today he approached as I sat, with furrowed brow, trying to remember how to post pictures onto my blog.
“Can I tell you something?” He asked.
“Por su puesto,” I said, of course.
“Yesterday you said that the symbol you held in your mind of your experience of Costa Rica is an image of yourself cradled in the base of the Tamarind tree. I wanted to tell you that the people of the forest say that the base of the tree es como un abrazo, like an embrace. Your thoughts are like those. That is what I was thinking yesterday.”

See what I see...

Most of these photos are from our visit to a cooperative farming community, El Coope San Juan. However the little boy is Jordy, mi hermanito. Enjoy.

Getting Adopted

I spent my first day getting to know my new family. I know there must have been some reservations on both our parts, after all it is quite a commitment to offer a home – your home- to a total stranger. I think that they have made a good match. There are two matriarchs in the family, la abuela Magda and la mama Vicky, as well as two boys, Efrain and Jordy. Efrain is 13, Jordy 4. No one in the family speaks English, and so it is up to me to struggle to understand what is going on. I have almost no problem understanding Vicky, and am able to hold up my end of the conversation. However it is much more difficult for me to understand Magda, who speaks quickly and not as clearly. She is a goodhearted grandmother though, and is looking forward to feeding me her home cooking. After lunch this afternoon, she and I sat in rocking chairs under the awning on the front porch. She told me about her hobby of growing orchids and roses (as well as a few other things I didn’t quite understand), and occasionally fell asleep mid-sentence. Eventually we both went in for little naps. I was also feeling the exhaustion that apparently comes with entering a new life in a new place even if there isn’t a time change. My brain feels tired, I’ve been giving it a good workout, willing all of my years of Spanish to come back to me in a hurry.
Jordy is the smallest and most curious about who I am, and what I am doing here. At 4 years old, one would wonder where a strange looking woman had come from and what that place was like; and more importantly whether she planned to play with him while she lived there or not. We sat in the kitchen together eating dinner, and he pointed to everything he saw and asked if I had the same in my house. Tienes platos? (plates), Cucharas? (spoons), Comer sopa? (soup). Si, nos tenemos los todos.
He was very close to his grandfather who died seven months ago. It is a wound that still gapes inside both Jordy and his grandmother. Vicky told me that since the death of his grandfather, Jordy has been carrying around crosses that he makes out of sticks. He also constructed a large one out of rubbery jigsaw pieces, which he placed in the middle of the floor and lay on as if he were Jesus on the cross.
His brother is much more quiet and reserved, though one might anticipate that in a 13 year old. He tries to help me when I don’t understand what Jordy is saying (which is often). When I told him I had a 15 year old brother he wanted to know whether we had a playstation and what kind of games my brother likes to play. Ah, the things that bind us across cultures.
Vicky is a feminist of sorts. She’s been married and divorced twice, and believes in the power of the woman. In fact she even went so far as to say that women are stronger than men. God may have created man first, but he perfected human beings with the creation of woman. She is small, lovely, and works as a seamstress for a living. Tonight I watched her make a dress pattern from an old newspaper. She drew and cut with confidence. I’m sure that her creations are beautiful. They have welcomed me warmly, and I can only hope that I bring some warmth of my own as their guest. I think the time will pass quickly and comfortably in my new home.