The people here are so kind. I FINALLY got to get my hands dirty today :) They´ve been too clean for too long. I spent the morning working with William the owner of one of the farms that I´ll be working on for the next few weeks. One of the main projects there is setting up hyrdropontic lettuce, but today we started out picking tomatoes and eating really delicious oranges. I had a really great time with him and thankfully understood almost everything he said.
We visited the other farm that I´ll be working on yesterday and they are also a really sweet family. Francisco the owner is growing a lot of lettuce and celery, as well as lots and lots of coffee, but the lettuce has developed a blight that is destroying it and the celery is showing signs of a blight as well. My job is to find a cure - hopefully organic, but Francisco just wants to be able to sell his product and feed his family.
A week here has passed so fast. I love learning about the people. I´m really glad that the farmers are happy to work with me and teach me. I have chosen to do ´trabajo de hombres´ (men´s work) as my homestay mother calls it, but I suppose that the people here have become accustomed to the Gringas.
Some important vocab words - Americans are Gringos. Costa Ricans are Ticos. Ojo de Gallo is the fungus that is destroying coffee in Coopabuena. Costa Rica is where the best coffee in the world is grown. Coopabuena is where the best coffee in Costa Rica is grown. Mai is dude. Catholic is the only true religion.
So I learn...
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Broken Camera
My camera broke. When I woke up that morning the clouds were heavy on the hills. The sun broke through the mist and illuminated the landscape - demanding a picture. So, I snapped a few shots and turned off my camera, but the lens wouldn´t shut... that remains the last time that it functioned.
Merlin the intern coordinator and I planned to go to Conoas to get a new camera the following day. Although that night I faced my first round of the infamous TD (traveler´s diarrhea), I knew that I had to pull myself together because I really wanted a camera. So, I skipped breakfast, which is equivalent to telling my homestay family that I´m not going to breathe this morning and I walked down to the coopertiva to meet Merlin. My stomache was not happy. Fortunately Merlin found a friend that would take us on the crazy windy drive to the boarder town with Panama. The car climbed up steep hills and wrapped and wrapped and wrapped around the mountain and now began the downward spiral... it occured to me - I´m going to throw up. The car stopped fast, I threw up a lot, and we proceded on our journey. Canoas was a crazy boarder town with lots of people and stores, something like Chinatown, but different. I successfully found a camera for a reasonable price and some shoes for indoor soccer and we were off. I slept the entire ride home and the rest of the day. That evening I sat with my homestay parents in the living room discussing remedies to my diarrhea - aiy. I woke up better the next day.
Merlin the intern coordinator and I planned to go to Conoas to get a new camera the following day. Although that night I faced my first round of the infamous TD (traveler´s diarrhea), I knew that I had to pull myself together because I really wanted a camera. So, I skipped breakfast, which is equivalent to telling my homestay family that I´m not going to breathe this morning and I walked down to the coopertiva to meet Merlin. My stomache was not happy. Fortunately Merlin found a friend that would take us on the crazy windy drive to the boarder town with Panama. The car climbed up steep hills and wrapped and wrapped and wrapped around the mountain and now began the downward spiral... it occured to me - I´m going to throw up. The car stopped fast, I threw up a lot, and we proceded on our journey. Canoas was a crazy boarder town with lots of people and stores, something like Chinatown, but different. I successfully found a camera for a reasonable price and some shoes for indoor soccer and we were off. I slept the entire ride home and the rest of the day. That evening I sat with my homestay parents in the living room discussing remedies to my diarrhea - aiy. I woke up better the next day.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Familia
"I need someone to wash my clothes, to cook for me, to take care of me. I need my mother." When my 32 year-old, male co-worker said these words I could not help but think: pathetic and wash your own clothes. The great difference between himself and me was our culture; he is Brazilian and I am very American.
Here in the small village of Coopabuena this characteristic of a family-centered culture is even further enforced. My mother is so kind to... everyone. Since I arrived yesterday she has been so attentive to any hunger pain that I might experience, as well as those of every person that enters the house from her son´s friends to the man who came to take pictures in order for them to consolidate their loans. She añready alerted me to the fact that she will wash any dirty laundry that I have. Her fulfillment is in caring for those around her.
The concept of family and responsibility is so broad in this world. In America the idea of being constrained to such a role for many women is a complete nightmare. For most here it is natural and a dream to have a family to care for. Children will remain in their parents houses until they marry and start a family of their own, if this hasn´t happened before they are thirty, forty, etc. this is not a problem. One culture that puts great emphasis on individuality and personal achievement and another whose most important accomplishment is family.
Here in the small village of Coopabuena this characteristic of a family-centered culture is even further enforced. My mother is so kind to... everyone. Since I arrived yesterday she has been so attentive to any hunger pain that I might experience, as well as those of every person that enters the house from her son´s friends to the man who came to take pictures in order for them to consolidate their loans. She añready alerted me to the fact that she will wash any dirty laundry that I have. Her fulfillment is in caring for those around her.
The concept of family and responsibility is so broad in this world. In America the idea of being constrained to such a role for many women is a complete nightmare. For most here it is natural and a dream to have a family to care for. Children will remain in their parents houses until they marry and start a family of their own, if this hasn´t happened before they are thirty, forty, etc. this is not a problem. One culture that puts great emphasis on individuality and personal achievement and another whose most important accomplishment is family.
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