Not quite yet US, Jumping land party, other stuff

So technically I should be back in the US right now however I am in really no hurry so I decided to postpone my flight to June. I just didn’t feel prepared to go back home yet and I found out the US will be playing Costa Rica in Costa Rica for world cup qualifiers on June 3rd. I probably won’t go to the stadium but it will be cool just to be in the country because I think it will be kind of a big deal. Also our construction has been delayed so much that I think if I stay till June I will actually see the end of it and be able to close out all of my management tasks and leave some kind of construction review for Habitat.

A few weeks ago was my Brincolandia party which like a lot of things here just cant be reproduced the same way in the United States. Like when I went to the roller coaster park here in Costa Rica there was nothing to see, only one roller coaster where you went upside down once and the rest were like carnival games, go karts, merry go round etc. Well Brincolandia was like that, they didn’t even have a ball pit and they had one mini obstacle course, a slide and an area to jump around. I was bored after five minutes because that is how long it took to try all the stuff out. The crazy thing is ppl will pay $4/hr for their kid to go play on these inflatable slides, obstacle course, jumping area etc. This is crazy to think people would pay that much when it is nothing to see really. I’m thinking though that might be a good little business to have because ppl will pay that much and it wouldn’t take much to make a better Brincolandia with more slides and stuff to do. One of my Aunt’s was half serious about it because she has a covered area by her house and she was telling me that the inflatable stuff you have to bring from the US so she would need me to get her the stuff. Anyways the birthday party at Brincolandia was for another Aunt’s 6 year old daughter and they invited probably about 70 ppl. There was a lot of ppl and the craziest thing about the party was they would serve you food it seemed like every 20 min. It started at 1 and we had like a lunch at 230, then they brought bread at 3pm, then cake, then pizza and it wasn’t just a small serving but rather platefuls of food. To think all these kids jumping around and then eating every thirty minutes might not be a good idea but nobody puked as far as I know.

Besides that party things have been pretty quiet. Last Friday we had Labor Day here in Costa Rica so took advantage and went and visited all of my Alajuela and San Carlos friends. Nothing really going on with them however with one of the families I know real well in San Carlos they had a surprise like wedding vow renewal mass for one of their friends which was interesting. They have a little farm and a little covered area with a kitchen so they made food and decorated like a wedding reception and they invited a priest to come and say mass and afterwards they ate food and chatted. The priest was interesting because I had had him before for mass in another town in San Carlos and he is very strict about his mass and will give a good lecture and mass will be at least an hour, hour and a half. So really professional but he is like any other Costa Rican when he is not giving mass. He was asking me about where I was from and chatting it up with everyone else which was took me by surprise because he has an entirely different character when giving mass.

We just found that there are seven cases of swine flu in Costa Rica. They all are in quarantine here so it shouldn’t spread like crazy or anything but people are being pretty cautious. In San Ramón I saw some ppl wearing masks but nothing too serious. Last Sunday they showed a movie about a flu outbreak and they had specialists discuss the movie and the flu before and after the movie which was a little over the top because the movie had a much bigger plot line than just the flu. I don’t know what it was called in English but the flu gets out and then the mob gets involved stealing vaccines to cure their members before anyone else. There weren’t any mob members on their expert panel so they couldn’t really compare the movie completely to real life (unless there are some secret underground things going on with this flu which might be the case depending on your news source).

Next weekend I might be traveling to a friends little resort town that he lives in so that might be fun. I guess it has a swimming pool and a place to grill out so we might make a group and go check it out. After that I hit a birthday barrage with about 3 in one week. I have two in San Carlos the 23rd and 25th, then my maternal mother’s birthday on June 1st and I think there is one other birthday that falls in between there somewhere. Shortly after that it will be all over and I will for sure have to go to the US. No more dicking around as my mom might say. “Time to face the music and start paying off those pesky loans.” Love ya mom and Happy Mother’s Day from Costa Rica…

Playa, Beach, Playa, Beach

SAMARA BEACH!!!!

I decided to crank out at least one more journal entry before I embark on my journey back to the US. First really cool thing that happened is I went to the beach for Holy week. Holy week along with Christmas and New Years is when all the national tourism happens aka all the Costa Ricans head for the beach. That being the case I went with the family that I am currently staying with and had a blast. The greatest thing was that it was just really chill and nobody really cared to do anything. For four days all we did was sleep eat go in the ocean and repeat. I was really amazed because we could have gone horseback riding or rented inter tubes or a kayak but nobody did. The most we did was bring a soccer ball and play soccer when the tide was out. Really beautiful beach and we were a big group of about 15ppl so there was always plenty to talk about and do. The one thing that unfortunately will stick out in my mind the most will be the ride back to San Ramón. When we went to the beach it was only a three hour drive, however on the way back it took 7 hours. Everyone knew that coming back would be a lot of traffic and for that reason we came back a day early on Saturday but it didn’t matter as it was bumper to bumper traffic for a good 50 miles. I knew the roads in Costa Rica were bad, but I was once again amazed by how a country as advanced as it is neglects its highways so much. We were traveling on the main highway in Costa Rica and there are parts where the center line isn’t even marked and the majority of the road is only two lanes.

Other than that my time is winding up down here but I am a little concerned I am losing my mind. The town San Ramón is so laid back that I am usually in bed by 10pm and I am starting to take a lot of naps during the day on the weekends. I am really concerned I am turning into a grandpa. I have a friend who readily admits to being a grandma because she would sleep 15hrs a day if she could and would be fine by it. It is really starting to scare me though. The other night I went to bed and forgot to take my contacts out. I had never done that in my life before and it was the strangest thing. I think I might need to get out just to save my sanity. A running joke I have with the family I am with is that I am a big strong North American and never get sick and I don’t need anyone to look after me. Naturally though the Costa Ricans are always telling me to wear a jacket when I go out and are always offering to give me pills or take me to the hospital even when I have a little cough and I always tell them no, that they are crazy and that I am not sick and that these things always happen to me (asthma, allergies etc.). Well now they have been bugging me so much that subconsciously I think that I believe them.

Now sometimes if I have a little headache I will think about it more and because I start to believe that I am getting sick, the headache will get worse when before I could just forget about because nobody was telling me that I was sick. I don’t know I am probably just going crazy but I am at a weird point in my non-US life. Like for instance I got really sick the other day when travelling in another part of the country and I couldn’t pin point the reason for why I got sick until I realized that I hadn’t eaten rice and beans that day. I am sure that is had nothing to do with why I got sick but it just makes sense to me. Now I make sure to eat rice and beans each day and when I do start to feel a little sick with a headache I will make sure and eat rice and beans and I will feel better. I think I honestly have just a mental obsession and that I just believe that it will keep me from getting sick and that alone will trigger the hormones to cure me.

I am typing all of this half jokingly but the more I think about it I will probably need some psychiatric treatment at some point in my life if these weird things keep happening to me. Like when I forgot to take my contacts out, I hadn’t been drinking or doing anything out of the ordinary so I have no logical explanation for what happened other than I am losing my mind. Even the grandmas here are even saner than I am.

The family that I stay with goes and visits the dad’s mom every weekend and is probably the coolest grandma I never had. What basically makes her the coolest grandma is that she takes shots of liquor 3-4 times a day and when I come over sometimes she invites me to do a shot with her or she’ll offer me some drink she made with alcohol. And she is 84 years old! It is really funny because the family I live with doesn’t drink at all. They have half a bottle of baileys that has probably been in their fridge for three years and still have not finished it. Only the daughter drinks and she might drink one beer at a bar and that would be it. The last time I went to Panamá where the liquor is a lot cheaper, I brought back the grandma a bottle of rum and she had the bottle finished in like a week. Nice of her though to save the last shot of rum from the bottle. Really cool old lady though, she lives all alone so she sits all day and drinks and watches soap operas and is content as all can be. I hope someday my life will be that simple. Her kids chip in and buy her a ton of food each month and she cooks so whenever people come visit her they can not leave until they are stuffed. Every time I go there I have to eat a meal and if I don’t she’ll get upset. The food is really good though I am just glad I don’t live with her because I would probably be about fifty pounds heavier.

(Photo: Coolest Grandma and grandaughter)

I am really a sucker though for grandmas, the family’s other grandma I bought a box of cookies for her birthday. I really wanted to bring her a hamburger or pizza because that is what she really likes but is not supposed to have because of a medical condition but still sneaks that food into her diet when nobody is watching. Not just the grandmas I get along with but also my aunts (or the sisters of the mother of the family who I am staying with). There are four of them and they are all a little off their rockers but in a good way so it is always a good time conversing with them. When we went to the beach three of them went and you could totally tell they were sisters in the jokes that they made and just the way they got along. A lot of them are pretty strict with their kids and raise them a certain way always the straight and narrow and the kids never revolt or challenge their ideas so I am usually the one who will speak up for them and defend and at least put up a fight for them. I never win but at least I generate some conversation and a lot of times I feel I make a point but they never agree with me. There is one aunt who has a son who wants internet at the house but the mother says no because she does not want him to get on chats and make internet girlfriends and waste away his life online. She says nothing online will ever replace handholding or talking to the person face to face. I however argue though that he is really interested in a computer career and the internet is a resource he could use to learn about jobs and learn more about the computer in general. I also argue that someday there will be a program where you can stick your hand through the screen and touch the other person on the other side. She thinks I am crazy but I least try to get a little charge out of her even though it is probably better to keep the internet out of house until the kids are at least 18. I saw what the internet did to my house when it arrived and I see what it is doing to the kids who are getting it at their homes now in Costa Rica and they are obsessed with just like I was when I first got it. Anyways I get along so well with the Aunts that one of them invited me to go to her six year old daughter’s birthday party this weekend. She is having it at Brincolandia (Jumping Land) which I think is like a kid’s playground where you climb all around tubes and have a ball pit. I think in the US it is called jumping jacks or discovery zone. I don’t know they told me to wear socks, I can’t wait.

Housing Project, excursions, final plans...

Dear friends and family,
A lot has been going on in Costa Rica, so much that I have pretty much left my blog to die. However I am pledging to do a really in depth update as this may be the last post I make while in Costa Rica as my return to the US is scheduled for May 7th (I think).

My work with Habitat has been going well, we have now completed four (new home owners to the right!!) of the seven houses that we are scheduled to build in San Ramón. Needless to say we have had to deal with a fair amount of problems related to the houses. The project we are doing right now of seven houses is a second phase to complement a first phase of seventeen houses. Right now we are doing a lot of warranty repair work on the first phase and we have had to deal with recurring problems. Probably the biggest problem that we have had with the homes has been water leaks. A lot of the sinks are not strong enough to hold back the water pressure and leak even when shut off all the way. To fix this problem we could have specified stronger sinks but we didn’t know just how strong the water pressure was in this area. It is really pressurized though. We had international volunteers helping us and they bought us garden hoses and the water pressure was so strong that we would kink the hose and it would burst somewhere along the line due to the pressure. Another problem we have been having is that the ground is so hard that the water from the septic tanks doesn’t filter out well enough through the drain fields. It has gotten so bad that now we are routing out all of the water used for laundry out into the city drainage, which is not good at all. Supposedly it is illegal, but everyone does it, they just wait till after the final inspection and then re route the drainage on there own. Not very happy with doing that but all we can do now is learn from it. They should study the soil better next time and make drainage fields that can adequately handle the grey water.

There has been a fair amount of drama associated with this project as far as what the people thought they were going to get versus what they actually got in the end. Biggest difference so far has been that we changed constructors from the first phase to the second phase and the new constructor we have is a lot better than the first one. He is slower and has a smaller crew, but he does a lot better paying attention to details and really takes time to get to know the families that he is building for and the volunteers that come to help him. A lot of the families in the first phase have commented to me that they would have waited longer for their house if they could have had this second constructor build it. He is a lot better with the details and he even throws in little extras for the families, such as painting the interior walls, which was not included in the families estimate. Another big drama with some of the families has been that they thought they were going to get a retaining wall in the back of their lots because there is a steep grade and they worry about landslides in the rainy season. Basically what happened was someone “said” they were going to get a retaining wall, but nobody knows or remembers who that person was because it was not included in any of the families’ estimates. It is kind of turning into a big deal, but Habitat is doing a good job of handling the situation. Our Project Engineer has been really good about explaining to the families that they do not need a retaining wall and that it was never part of the estimate etc etc. I am really astonished at the patience he has had with some of the families because I have seen him explain sometimes up to thirty minutes as to why the wall is not needed.

I think culturally the people here are just so used to seeing certain things that they just assume they will get it. The retaining wall has been one thing that they just won’t put to rest for one reason or another. The septic tanks have also been an issue because the first phase families got a prefabricated septic tank while the second phase families got a masonry block tank. No matter how many times we explain that the prefabricated tank is designed to work just as well as the mason block tank, the families still always bring it up because I think culturally they have always seen tanks with masonry blocks and don’t trust prefabricated at all. It is kind of frustrating for me because Habitat took steps to prevent misunderstandings like this from happening. They had a meeting with all of the families before the project started explaining what the houses were all going to look like and everyone was able to ask questions beforehand. Besides these little hiccups things have gone real well and it has been really enjoyable for me to get to know the families. The best day for me so far was the day I was able to go tell one of the families that there house was complete and they could begin moving into it.

I am really disappointed that my time (aka money) is running out because I am really involved in this project now. Habitat let go one of the employees in our San Ramón office so I have had to get a lot more involved with getting construction permits and getting the proper documentation prepared and signed to give to the bank so we can get the housing voucher money for the families. It has been fun learning how to do all of this because it is just me and one other gal from the office and she was working in a different department and had no idea what to do either, so we are both learning on the fly. So far it has gone really well, we both work well together and even though we might not know what were doing, we haven’t screwed up too bad yet, at least that we are aware of. It is interesting because a lot of stuff with Habitat just revolves around people following procedures in getting paperwork together. The funny thing is you would think they would have a guide because stuff is pretty standard but they don’t. Everyone has their own guide, except it is in their head and they never take the time to write it out. It is easy for them to keep track of stuff, but impossible to teach somebody new all the procedures. I have been keeping track of the procedures that I have been doing and I hope to leave something in writing to help the next person that has to learn it.

Outside of work I have been staying pretty busy too. I had to do my last tourist leave in February and I took advantage by going to Panama when they had their carnaval. Carnaval is like Mardi Gras, except people take their kids to these things, and they are rowdier than the New Orleans parties. Imagine just a huge street party except it is 95 degrees out and they bring in big tanker trucks and hook up fire hoses to hose down all the people that are in the street drinking and dancing. They also had concerts in the street. I was really excited because I was able to see a fairly popular reggaeton artist Macano. He has few tracks that they play pretty regularly on the radio in Central America and I had no idea he was going to be there so I was pretty surprised when I was able to see him. Another thing that also went well for me on this trip to Panama was that I was lucky enough to be able to play an instrument in a Salsa orchestra. The family that I stay with when I go to Panama had a neighbor that was having a birthday party and he decided to get a Salsa orchestra to play at his party. Well I was there and towards the end there wasn’t a lot of people so they were letting people play the instruments so I asked if I could play the bell. It was really fun because from my dance classes I remember them teaching me to listen for the bell to be able to keep my place in dancing, so I already had an idea of how I was supposed to play it. Overall pretty good time in Panama but I probably have had enough carnaval for awhile. Fun to see once, but not as enjoyable as one would think because once a lot of ppl get drunk, it is bound to get a little dangerous, not that it did but after a certain point you worry a little more about yourself amongst the other drunks. One thing that didn’t sit well with me was that one of the sponsors of the carnaval was for stomach aches and they were giving out free samples of their stuff, which conveniently came in plastic bottles. So at the end one of two things were happening with the bottles: either they were dumping the syrup on themselves to cool off, or they were throwing the bottles at people.

After I went to carnaval in Panama my sister and her friend came to visit me for ten days which was really fun. We went and toured around meeting all my friends and family in Costa Rica and I introduced her to all of my guy friends with the hopes that she would once again fall in love with Costa Rica. I don’t know if I succeeded but I at least hope I got her mind thinking more about a future in Costa Rica ;) A couple things I noticed with them is that they had trouble getting used to the slower pace and that they weren’t getting any sun at all in Minnesota. When I got them at the airport they looked like ghosts. Good thing I got them to the beach for a few days because they really needed it.

My last excursion will be going to the beach for Easter. I am looking forward to it because I am going with all Costa Ricans so ill get accustomed to their beach going styles. I am glad that I am going to be at the beach though because last time I was in Costa Rica for Easter I was in the country and all day Thursday and Friday all they show on tv are 4hr long bible movies. Everything in the whole country pretty much shuts down from Thursday till Sunday. Needless to say the country is still pretty Catholic. Last Sunday I participated in my first Palm Sunday Procession. They had a Jesus ride a donkey from one church in town to the other to reinact how he came into town and everyone had palms for him.

After that I will only have like three weeks left before I go home and it is all going to fly by. Last week at work we had a going away party for the other long term volunteer who is going back to Arizona. She got here in July at the same time I did so we have been like our own local support team when we need someone to talk to who understands our culture. It is starting to hit me now though that my time is running out and I will have to start planning all my going away parties because once again I don’t know when I will be coming back. I do know however that I will come back…

Presidential sighting, family visita, fiesta, oh f#$""&k what's next?

I’ve done a lot of cool things in my life and met a lot of really influential people but I am debating right now if I have just met the most famous person in my life up to this point. His name would be Oscar Arias and he would be the current President of Costa Rica. He is on his second term as being President, but he might be better known for winning the Nobel Peace Prize by helping resolve the Central American wars in the 80’s and 90’s. Unfortunately the majority of people are not in accordance with some of his decisions as President and has converted himself into a President of George W Bush stature. The people here say he used to be a good person, but now he is old and all that interests him is money. For instance the congress had rejected a mining project because it would involve destroying a rainforest in order to get the minerals out. He reversed the decision and the people protested all over Costa Rica and the project is back in the courts right now. Also he has been in favor of a Free Trade Agreement which the people are strongly against because it will raise the costs of cell phones, health insurance and other things that are currently controlled by the government and are cheap. So we’ll see, in the end probably a bittersweet photo but nonetheless pretty cool to be that close to a President.

The only reason I was able to see him was because Habitat had an infamous project of about 60 houses that we finished about three months ago but have had problems finding families to live in them (see journal entries from Aug/Sept). Due to the earthquake and 500 homes being destroyed the government made a deal with Habitat and the victims to allow families to move into these new homes and do the paperwork later. So last Saturday they had the inauguration for the 25 families that decided to move to this new area, about two hours from earthquake zone. They had a nice brief ceremony, the President spoke for a bit, went and saw a house, took off and then we had lunch and came back in the afternoon. I’m really glad Habitat is on the ball with this stuff and really helping these families out. This should be a good year for Habitat as there is now a definite demand for houses and the government is going to be helping fund a lot of homes to get people back on their feet.

My project is going well so far. We have had two work groups come and help us from the US and Canada and we have two more coming this week to help us start the fourth house of our five house project. Things have gone pretty well so far and I have noticed a lot of differences in how projects operate here in Costa Rica in comparison to the US. Probably the biggest difference is how nobody really risks any money. Habitat won’t give the constructor any money until the bank gives them money and the constructor won’t do anything until Habitat gives him the money because the risk is big and he doesn’t have the capital to fund the project for a week. It is also interesting to note that the constructor gets 40% of the contract value upon signing the contract: a pretty big for Habitat I would say. Fortunately we are working with a very well known constructor who is true to his word.

I probably had the best Costa Rica week of my life when my parents and brother came to visit me. Mom, Dad and Bro all shoveled dirt for a few days and really enjoyed their time there. After that I took them on a tour to meet all my old families and friends from when I lived in San Carlos. It was really a good time meeting all the families, and even though the language barrier was tough at times hospitality always had a universal translation. Now that I have them hooked on Costa Rica I just have to get my sis back on board which I will have that opportunity when she comes to visit in March.

Besides work and family visits I was able to go to arguably the biggest party in Costa Rica. It happens every year for two weeks in Palmares, a town about 2 miles from San Ramón. It is pretty impressive, they have carnival rides and games, a bull riding ring, all the typical food stands and a ton of bars that they set up under tents and charged $10-$15 to get in. Also they had free concerts on Sundays. I went the first weekend and saw Pee Wee from the Kumbia Kings. He was ok (might be a young Justin Timberlake of Latin America), I however enjoyed the cover bands more because they played a variety of Latin music. I also went another night when they had carnaval. Carnaval in Costa Rica is when they have a huge parade down main street and have a bunch of marching bands playing carnaval music and a bunch of exotic belly dancers. It was kind of my preview for the carnavales in Panama, which start in about a week.

Arguably having the best time of my life and I feel like my life might end when I go back to the US in May. Right now I am in the stage of planning my what’s next part of my life. I used to be able to forget about it and just enjoy the fact that I was here and not worry about the economy and jobs and all that. Now that is starting to get to me so maybe because of that I feel like I have been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease and have only been given two and a half months to live. I know that I’ll never say good bye to Costa Rica just that I’ll probably need to take a time out to devise my next plan to get to Costa Rica for the long term. So for now I’m looking forward to my last tourist visa renewal trip to Panama for three days (where they celebrate carnaval like no other) and my sister's visit in March and before I know it, I will have used up my last 80 days in Costa Rica.

Winter break, new town/year...

Um it has been about a month since I last wrote, sorry but no one has complained yet. Anyways the holidays here were pretty good and I have a bunch of pictures however they are on other people´s camaras in different parts of the country so slowly but surely the images will come together.

To kick off my vacations I went with Habitat on their year end employee outing to hot springs in La Fortuna. It was really relaxing and the best part was that I was doing tourist stuff with the locals. I don´t think I would have enjoyed it as much had it been a group of foreigners. There were about 15 of us and we all had a good time. After the hot springs I got dropped off where I used to live three years ago to spend Christmas. The big thing here is to make a whole bunch of tamales and give them out as food gifts. The Costa Rican tamale is different from the Mexican tamale because they use banana leaves to wrap them and they put pork and pepper and other ingredients into them. I made tamales with different families for three days (the process takes the whole day) leading up to Christmas. The actual day of Christmas Eve was pretty laid back for being in the country. I was with my original host family and at night the whole family got together and we opened gifts and had a family dinner. It wasn´t anything over the top but I was really glad that I was able to spend Christmas with my families in Costa Rica for once.

Christmas Day I went back to Alajuela to spend time with my Alajuela family. There I was able to call and talk to my family in the US for which was really great to catch up with them. Alajuela didn´t have a whole lot going on and I don´t know how I did it but I managed to spend a whole week there without going crazy. I thought for sure I would go back and stay with my old families for a bit, but I managed to get hooked on computer games and running to help pass the time in Alajuela. One day was super exciting as I was able to watch the final week of the NFL all day in my room with a TV that my family borrowed from the neighbor. They made me pizza too, so I had a pretty North American day. Maybe not super exciting for most, but it is fun to have a day like that once in a while.

On Dec. 31st I said goodbye to my Alajuela host family and got on the bus to head to my new town of San Ramón. My current living arrangement is me watching a house for a family who is currently vacationing in Peru and they invited me to come on the 31st to get acquainted for a few days before they left. The cool thing about being in San Ramón for New Years is they have a really good dance club. I was there at midnight and they had a balloon drop and a mini-carnaval. All I know is that ill have to practice a little more for the real carnaval in February in Panama. The music is really fast and a lot more tiring than the other Latin dances that I am familiar with. On the New Years day I went to the family’s farm and ¨adopted¨ some cattle. I hadn´t planned on it but some of the young bulls were so friendly that I now call them mine (the pictures will explain this a lot better). The next day I went to the Costa Rica equivalent of Six Flags. I have to say if you have ever been to Six Flags, don´t get your hopes up for Costa Rica. They had one decent rollercoaster where you went upside down twice, but you only went around once and it was like a quarter of the size of the average US roller coaster. The place had more carnival games than actual roller coasters. Go-karts, bumper cars, Ferris wheel, spinning apples etc. They had giant drop which was about half as high as a typical giant drop and they had two pretty un-exciting water rides. It was a lot cheaper than in the US, but I wouldn’t get my hopes for any rides that might make you puke. The family left the 4th so since then I have been land locked in San Ramón watching their house and work started again the 5th.

San Ramón is only about 45min from Alajuela and I will probably be here until the end in May. We have a housing project going on right now so I am onsite tracking the daily progress and I am hosting brigades when they come to the site. We have one right now, 14 people all Canadians. I have to say Canadian brigades are my favorite. They are all laid back and chill and when things don’t always go as planned they don’t panic as much as the US brigades and go with the flow a lot better. They are funny too, most are at least fifty years old but there has been probably a group of 5-6 that are always asking me where to go out at night. Asking me questions like what time do people go out at to eat or party and where the party spots are. Kind of baffling for me because San Ramón has there own bar zone, but every night I walk around there it is a ghost town so I don’t know what to tell them. I´m fairly new to the town but am miffed as to why things are so quiet most nights. San Ramón gives the impression as being a bigger town but in reality is still a town with a lot of farming families. They have a nice shopping and market area but farming I think is still the majority of the occupations.

That is basically the last month for me in Costa Rica. I did get to go to a wedding over Christmas which was pretty fun as I was able to get a lot of dancing practice. Other super exciting news is my parents and brother are coming to visit in less than two weeks! Should be a good month… PS Go Cardinals! PPS stay warm Midwest. I know I will.

Birthday in the bus, more rain, holiday plans, '09 planes

So I lived to tell about my birthday. Barely. Overall one the most boring birthdays ever, spent on a bus watching dubbed Hollywood Chihuahua or whatever they call it in English. Only exciting part was when we brushed up against a mini-van and had to sit for 2hrs for the police and insurance ppl to show up and take pics and document the damage. Was more annoying than anything because then we had to rush just to get into Panamá before the border closed.

Panamá was about just as much underwater as Sarapiquí was (where I was the previous week). Not to hurt the tourism industry but nov-dec travel in Central America can be pretty hit and miss and would be better off avoided. I met a friend in Panamá who had been there the previous month and it rained the whole time he was there. I guess the rain was kind of out of control their too because they had a bunch of mudslides and even the best road in the country had two lanes wash away down the mountain. Basically there are two ways to enter Panamá and both are by bridge. One bridge was closed because of the rain and the other one we had to sit in traffic for 90min to get around the washed out portion of the road. Overall a big clusterf*ck if you ask me trying to get around all the detours that had about half the signage that a typical US detour would have.

So I made it to the city and got stuck shopping for a day with some of my aunt’s family while waiting for my bus to leave at 11pm that night. Here is the most messed up part about Panamá: they celebrate mother’s day 16 days before Christmas. So imagine the malls. I was there on the Sunday before Mothers day when they had Monday off to recognize their independence from Spain. So the mall was a zoo. I’d never seen that many ppl in my life in a mall. Apparently the crisis hasn’t hit Panamá yet.

Since Panamá life has been pretty normal however tomorrow I start my end of year vacation. Habitat has an employee outing tomorrow where we are going to hot springs in la Fortuna by Volcano Arenal. Then this weekend I have a wedding to attend and then after that I will be eating tamales pretty much everyday up until Christmas because it is the cultural custom here to make them. The big idea though is to get the whole family together to help make them and chat at the same time. I have between 10-15 families from which to make tamales with so I’ll be pretty busy. I come back to work on Jan. 4th. Might be a little awkward not being at home for the holidays but I’m looking forward to being able to spend them with my more or less adopted families. Ppl always ask if I get homesick and the truth is I really don’t that often. I only get homesick a little for holidays and birthdays. Missing the leaves change colors and fall also bugs me too. It’s not like I get lonely here though because I have everyone I met when I came to Costa Rica two years ago to visit when I get lonely or bored.

Things will get exciting then in January because we are starting a 4 house project in San Ramon and I’ll be involved a lot in that. We actually have an office in San Ramon so I’m going to relocate there and will be able to work in the office and on site. This will be really interesting because I’ll be able to help Habitat manage the construction and we will be able to track our costs better by having someone on site. Also we have two volunteer brigades coming in January so I will be there helping them get situated with the construction.

Don’t know when my next chance will be to write on this so to all my loyal readers: Happy holidays and Happy New Year ’09.

My week in Sarapiqui

Last week I was with a brigade in Sarapiqui in Northeast Costa Rica to work on 4 houses that were in various stages of completion. This group has donated a lot of money to Habitat so they requested to have four houses to work on in different stages so they could see all the activities involved in the construction. I don’t typically work with brigades but I was invited to help out the coordinator in everything construction related and to help with translating. It was pretty fun but at the same time challenging.

To start out with it rained the whole week. We didn’t see the sun at all. The region is typically a hot and humid jungle climate, but not this week. Just in order to walk around on the site we had to put down gravel and rock because it was very muddy. I had a schedule all worked for dry conditions which basically became useless due to the weather. The brigade ended up being 22ppl from Oregon plus we had between 10-15 local family members helping us work each day plus 10-15 Costa Ricans that Habitat had invited from the Central Valley. So each day we had between 40-50ppl working on site who needed jobs. Due to the weather we were limited to what we could do and spent a lot of time filling drainage ditches for septic tanks and shoveling mud. That kept about half of the ppl busy and the other half would come to me in English and Spanish asking what they could do to help. At times it was pretty chaotic but in the end we managed. The brigade had some really good workers and the contractor was really good with them. He helped me out by recognizing that some of the brigade members were capable of doing things that typical volunteers wouldn’t do and that really helped. We had some ppl that were cutting ceiling trim with a table saw and others who were up on the roof helping install the roof sheeting. Despite all the work we got done the week wouldn’t have been complete without some drama.

The first day of construction one of the brigade members had gotten something in their eye and by night it had gotten really red and painful and we had to take her to the hospital. I was freaking out. At first it was thought that she may have something very severe and if we didn’t get her to a major hospital in San José she might lose her vision. So needless to say I thought we were on our way to San José, 2hrs away, pitch dark, not having eaten dinner, wearing athletic shorts, sandals and a t-shirt, and having no money on me at all. Why was I involved? Translate. The brigade coordinator stayed at the hotel with the brigade and our regional coordinator who didn’t speak English drove while I went along to translate. I took a medical Spanish class in college but that was two years ago and we were talking about technical eye stuff. Yikes.

We decided that first we would stop at the regional hospital in Puerto Viejo that was on our way to San José first to see if we could treat it there. Puerto Viejo is not that big of a town and I had been there before and by chance we had to stop by the hospital for something. Well it being dark and ppl stressing in the back seat the last thing I wanted to be doing was asking people on the street where the hospital was. Luckily my memory served me right and we got there on the first try. I remember helping them get checked with the other Habitat employee I was with and I was showing him how my hand wouldn’t stop shaking from the nerves. After that though everything began to calm down little by little. Turns out whatever she had gotten in her eye was gone and it was just inflammation from having rubbed it so much. So the doctor gave her a patch and a prescription for generic eye drops. After all was said and done I was really impressed with the public health system. In the guide books they always say go to a private clinic, but for what we needed this worked out swell. We didn’t have to wait long to see the doctor, she understood a lot of English so it made my job easier and the whole time we were there they never asked us to pay anything or to see any insurance papers!

Only other iffy part of the week was trying to leave Sarapiqui and get back to Alajuela. Since it had been raining the whole week there was a lot of flooding and mudslides going on so we decided to wait it out an extra day and try to come back on Sunday. We really didn’t have too much of a problem, except we crossed a road that had about a foot of water running over it. Maybe not the best idea looking back on it but it was set up so we just followed a line of cars that were crossing all at the same time which was good because the water was dirty enough that at times you couldn’t see where you were on the road. They had ambulances and transit police there too keeping an eye on it all. We lucked out leaving when we did as the water was still rising and I think they closed it shortly after we crossed it. Kind of funny though shortly after we crossed it we had to pull over to let a bicycle race pass us and they were headed right for the flooded part of the road. Only in Costa Rica. The other really cool part about the week was how active the local families were.

The leaders of this brigade had previously donated to help construct a housing community located really close to where we were building and the beneficiary families of that first build really did all they could to show their appreciation. They organized throughout the week to provide us with snacks and serve us lunch at the construction site. One afternoon they organized a tortilla cooking lesson and then we taught them how to make hamburgers. They are all really great with me. They had been asking me about hamburgers for about a month so it was great to watch them savor the long awaited burger as they can’t afford that kind of food. Really cool though how motivated the working poor can be. They already have a plan in place to develop the community, they have put in a proposal for funds to improve the roads in their community and have dreams of building a mini mall in the area that faces the main road. Having visited a few times before and then spending the week with the brigade I feel like a part of their community.

I have a running joke with the other volunteer who lives in her own community up in the mountains. She teaches English and works on other community development projects so basically the whole town knows her by name. I always kid her that I am super jealous of her popularity and wish I had my own town. Living in the city you just don’t build that kind of small town atmosphere. Well I think I found my neighborhood in Sarapiqui. The little kids there saw me and literally latched on to me and wouldn’t let me go. They would call me “Juice” or “Toasty” for Dustin or Dusty. I dn they have trouble with the D in my name and Toasty is a brand name for chips so it is easier for them to remember. Really cool neighborhood though I have to add it now to my list of places to visit every time I come to Costa Rica.

Tomorrow is my birthday, for which I’ll be going to Panamá to celebrate. Yesterday I invited the Alajuela office over to my house for lunch and cake. Pretty low key, I’m not overly excited about 23. Honestly the only good thing that I can think of is that 23 was Michael Jordan’s number. Tomorrow is also Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t exist here, just like Halloween.