Day 3, 09/08/09, 8am

Day 3, 09/08/09, 8am

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. – Carl Bard

Synopsis: Tuesday morning. We ended up on a boat Monday with the Tico family of the ex-pat from Michigan who built this house. There are pictures in Facebook and FamDing. Kassidy smiled again. Appointment with the school Thursday morning at 10 to be tested, but we’re going to visit and tour the school today. Internet connection is still weak. I’ll call people once I’m sure they won’t have to put up with garble. This blog lacks literary excellence. I am unhappy with its style, but yesterday’s was as mundane. Finding my voice…




Monday morning the Spanish speakers began to arrive. One to paint the house. One to unlock the padlock where the paint was stored. The builder stopped by with his Tica wife and their two children.

By 3:00 we were on a boat with the builder, his wife, her three sisters, two of her three brothers, her brother-in-law and the 5 children fishing for dinner. Kassidy helped reel in el Dorado (Mahi Mahi) and later that evening we ate the best fish I’ve ever had. The builder, an American from Minnesota, said “you’re in.” We had been accepted as part of the family.

This morning Scott and Clara Rosa and their children Quiana and Kevin are waking up downstairs and preparing to use the pool. We have been invited to their ranch, as well.

I am as magnetically drawn toward people as I am to the ocean. Can’t help myself.

The monkeys here are howler monkeys. Congas Aulladas is what I think they’re calling them. I can’t describe it. I have paragraphs of words attempting to bring to life what it would sound like to hear a dog scream and a mother gorilla mourn simultaneously, but that does not exactly explain it unless you add some other sound… like the sound a plunger would make if what was being plunged was a toilet the size of Wisconsin. Plus… I think there’s a sound like heavy machinery, which is what I assumed the noise was in the beginning. I assumed that there were workers sucking a septic tank with a large truck or drilling into the ground.

When the Spanish speakers arrived they told me it was the monkeys, so it would rain that afternoon.

The monkeys lied.

On our second full day in the rainy season (“¿Como se dice “rainy season” en español?” “Invierno.” Gheesh, I feel stupid.) and there is no rain.


Sitting on the boat, Kassidy’s grin spreading wide across her face, she says, “Let’s do this every day.” The fish appeared to be attempting to commit suicide. They were jumping above the surface of the water, swimming near the boat. I was reminded of the Sarah Sample song about knowing a boy who caught a fish with his bare hands. There was a water snake that is only found here. We saw the heads of turtles popping above the water. We were told to watch for dolphins because they like to swim in front of the boat. We watched the sunset while the children walked up to us and asked for cookies in English. Even though dad speaks English, they generally speak Spanish at home.

We brainstormed new classes we need to put on line. Spanish for tourists in Costa Rica, Costa Rican Spanish. (We teach “gracias” and “de nada” for thank you and you’re welcome, but here they say, “gracias” and “con mucho gusto.”), and English classes. His mother lives in Minnesota and wants to be able to travel hear and speak to the grandkids.

I love this new routine in which I wake up first and Sit by the ocean, read a little and then write, but it will end shortly and I’ll likely write later in the day. Kassidy has an appointment Thursday morning to be tested at ICS Ciudad Blanca, which is a private school in Liberia that all of the students here in Playa Hermosa are bussed to. There is an elementary school (escuela) in Playa Hermosa, but not a junior high / high school (colegio). The escuela here has 14 students in a one room school house. ICS, however, has a reputation for being academically rigorous and when Tico children enter it from the public school system they are often held back. We will go today and purchase books so that she can get a head start and start studying for the test. While the classes are given in Spanish and English, the homework is assigned in English and the materials are in English. Kassidy is monumentally relieved.

Once she starts school, she will leave here about 7 in the morning, be in school all day and return on the bus in the afternoon. I think she’s trepidacious about the idea of a new school, but eager for the lazy days of summer to give way to the pace of school. It is possible to get tired of summer vacation.

The ink is almost completely gone and yesterday we lay on the bed together and day dreamed about what bedrooms our guests would stay in when they come. She has assigned bedrooms to everyone who has said they are coming already.

Esteban, one of the brothers, wasn’t catching any fish and then his line broke. “Who did you get pregnant, Esteban?” his sisters teased. I was reminded of lizards outside the door and Alexandra’s mother.

There is a new law in Costa Rica that there can nothing built within 50 yards of the beach, as that property belongs to Costa Rica, is public and is for tourists. Clara Rosa’s grandmother raised 15 children in a house within that 50 yard mark and ran a restaurant, also within that 50 yard mark. No structures were grandfathered except those that still had the original documents from the government of Spain. The houses are supposed to be torn down today. The Aunts and Uncles still live there. There were three ex-pats sitting outside drinking their last beer and saying that this was the last good place in Playa Hermosa. The grandmother had owned most of Playa Hermosa once upon a time.

Clara Rosa’s part of the family lives in a stretch of an alley. Scott has built houses for the family one after another. Her mother raised 8 kids on her own and Scott built her a 3 bedroom house that she can rent out to vacationers. It’s a small house, but totally reasonably priced. I think he said something like $350 a week. When tourists come, she moves in with one of the kids, who all live one, two or three houses away. They will build more houses on this lot as the boys marry.