SYNOPSIS: You, in Costa Rica; Volunteering at the Vet Clinic, walking through the real Costa Rica, Juxtaposition --- the Happiest Place with extreme poverty on Earth; White Water Rafting, Poverty, Prisons, drought; S.C.U.B.A, snorkeling, rumors. Things are better. Kassidy is adjusting. We’re trying new things. We’re started volunteering. The creamy filling inside of the real Costa Rica seems to be both happiness and also severe poverty.
YOU, IN COSTA RICA
When you come to Costa Rica I will wake you up in the morning and we will walk 9 minutes down the hill to wait for the school bus. We will walk away as it approaches to avoid embarrassing Kassidy as she boards. We will walk 10 more minutes to the beach and we will walk on the beach and look at the footprints in the sand while we walk. Some with sneaker patterns, some with toes, some with paws. We will walk and watch the wave patterns in the sand.
We will joke about Match.com descriptions of ourselves enjoying “long walks on the beach.” We will hop away from the waves if they lap too closely. We will come to the realization that if a person can’t be happy here, it might not be within his or her grasp anywhere. We will walk from one far end of the small beach to the other and back again and then we will climb on the rocks and then we will strip down to our bathing suits, set our towels on the furthest possible ledge and we will jump in and swim to the beach that is inaccessible on foot. 
We will swim in the still, clear ocean water and we will wish we knew how to order room service to the hidden cove so that we could have a cup of coffee on the beach.
We will swim out of the cove and wrap up in our towels so that we don’t get our clothes wet and we will walk back down the beach to Diving Safari’s where we’ll pick up our S.C.U.B.A. gear and go to the boat. We will sail out around Monkey Rock and head to Catalina Island where we will dive. We’ll get back in time to meet the bus and we will watch the sun set over the ocean while we drink cocktails by the pool and do 6th grade math homework.
We will put on our Costa Rican perfume and we will eat ceviche and arroz con pollo for dinner.
We will go to Tamarindo and take surfing lessons.
We will go to the Playa Panama and body surf. We will take the kayaks around the peninsula and watch the sun set. We will learn to snorkel. We will go to the National Park and see monkeys and birds and snakes and take pictures. You will make fun of me for ogling the pool boy, not because he is so young, but because we are so, so old. We will play pool. We will go hiking. We will see a volcano spurt fire and ash. We will fish from a boat in the middle of the ocean and joke about the suicidal flying fish that are jumping near the boat and seem like they want to jump in. We will watch for dolphins and whales. We will play in a waterfall and wonder at how any one place can be so utterly perfect and not be heaven. We will decide maybe it is. We will decide Heaven needs calorie-free cheese cake. And we will be gluttonous, not content to enjoy just these moments alone, but will instead fantasize about moving here and being beach bums and never going home.
And when you ask me what I do when I walk the beach alone, I will tell you that I think about how fun it will be when you’re here and I plan imaginary days in which I get to show you the things I think you’ll like. And you’ll laugh and say, “Yeah, right.”
But it will be true.
Volunteering at the Vet Clinic, walking through the real Costa Rica, Juxtaposition --- the Happiest Place with extreme poverty on Earth
We are over the hump. We have been here for 5 weeks and will be in Denver to work in 3. Kassidy is happy about that, but she’s also happy here. I’m not allowed to go into detail. But there is a boy. And he talked to her. Living here feels mostly normal now and I am relieved of the stress of being told every morning and every evening that she wants to go home. For that, the boy is on my daily gratitude list.
Yesterday, Kassidy volunteered at the spay and neuter clinic that comes into Playa del Coco once a month. I walked to the gym from there. Gross stuff is really not my thing. They put all the dogs under on the floor of the school at the same time and while the vet goes around neutering and spaying them, the volunteers follow cleaning their ears, removing ticks, spraying flea and tick treatment on them, spraying and cleaning their wounds and comforting them as they come out from anesthetic. Kassidy said she felt like a real vet. Most of the volunteers speak English, but most of the people who bring their dogs to the clinic speak only Spanish, so Kassidy became the translator. Seriously. Adult volunteers would bring her over to use her limited Spanish to explain how long the wait would be and what they would need to do to take care of the dogs when they took them home. She called me at the gym asking to take one of the puppies home.
Someone found one on the beach this morning and brought it in. It’s something crossed with a Chihuahua, so it’s very small. She can fit it in her carry on. She can take it home. It can live with her dad!
We returned the rental car and are now on foot. The gym is approximately 20 kilometers from here. Not walk-able. Not bike-able. But, I have found a couple of work-out buddies and car pool in with them until I solve the problem. I am quickly learning that while it is possible to live without a car in Playa del Coco, it is not possible when you live in Hermosa. There is a 7-11 size market, but no grocery store. There is a gym, but it has 3 machines and 2 of them don’t work. Right now, I’m not terribly concerned because I can walk to the beach from here. 9 minutes down the driveway. 10 more minutes to the beach. Once I get there, finding milk doesn’t seem too terribly urgent. Janet is checking on some rental car companies that she says won’t rip us off. She will call “ahorita.” Mmhmm.
Friday night we had some neighbors over for dinner. Faith and John. I can feel myself being drawn in, like water rises to its own level. There is a school in Playa Panama that they help support. They want to send 25 additional children to school next year, so they need to raise $5000.00 to build an additional room onto the school house and then they need to raise money for uniforms, shoes and textbooks for each of those children.
I just can’t… I can’t clean ear wax out of a stray dog’s ear. I can’t remove ticks and soak them in alcohol. I so admire Kassidy for having so much compassion for animals that she wants to take them home and that working on them makes her “feel like a vet.” But I have an over-active gag reflex. =) But I can do schools.
Schools are free here, but uniforms, shoes and texts are required. Many of the kids here don’t go to school because that stands in the way every year. I’m going down this week. I’ll take pictures.
Being on foot has given me the opportunity to SEE more than I did before. There are monkeys in the trees on our driveway. There are more houses and businesses on each street than I noticed before. There are people walking on the street who wave and say, “¿Como amaneció?”
I translate this in my head every time because it seems so funny and I have no idea what the response SHOULD be. How did you wake up? The answer is “bien” – (well). I think it might be something along the lines of “How did you sleep?” but if you think about it, “How did you wake up?” is more important. As opposed to, say, not waking up.
I generally stammer through my answer to this question because it always catches me off guard and I get distracted by trying to remember exactly how I did wake up this morning.
Anyway… back to the point. While walking from the elementary school (escuela) in Playa del Coco (a very, very hot connection of outdoor classrooms made of brick with holes in it to keep it cooler, but not real walls) to the gym about 15 minutes away, I passed fruit stands and a panaderia (bakery) and a rooster just hanging out at the side of the road.
I walked past the gym to the beach, about 10 minutes further because… I don’t know if you knew this… but there’s a beach here. And I like it. Walked a little on the beach before going to the gym and tried to go to the massage place to make an appointment. $29 massages if you buy 10. I had spoken with the owner only last week. The office is closed. The phone number is disconnected. I called the second number on the door. A woman answers and says the business has been closed down by the police. Nice. Moments away from giving away $290 to a business that immigration shut down. Let this be a lesson to you, Americans. You can not run a business in Costa Rica on a passport.
On our way home we see a man carrying two Dorado (Mahi Mahi). He holds them in large plastic bags by the tails, holding them aloft so they don’t hit the ground. They stretch from his shoulder to the ground, easily. I can buy one for probably 5000 colones (double it to make $10 and then reduce by 15%, so about $8.50), and I would… if I knew how to clean a fish.
This level of poverty has a normality to it, too. There is an article in a local magazine that says that there was a survey done all over the world assessing where the “Happiest Place on Earth” is, and it’s Costa Rica. They are mostly on bikes. If I lived in Coco, I would definitely use one for all transportation. But in Hermosa, we are in an enormous valley and I only see the mountain bikers in spandex riding them. Anyone else on a bike walks the bike up the hills. The pace of this place is slow and happy. There is music coming from some of the houses. There are roosters crowing from multiple houses. I feel out of place, but still, no one really seems to notice me or care that I am walking through their neighborhood. There is no obvious need for help as there is in Mexico. No one is begging. No one looks miserable or hungry (except the stray dogs). No one appears to need anything. This is where I want to shop. There is a fish market around the corner, a bakery, a farmer’s market. I buy a banana for 30 colones and receive change from my 100 colones that is no longer valid in Costa Rica. The government is asking that all of the small silver coins be returned to the banks. I imagine this will happen with pennies someday, too.
Funny thing, too. We went to the beach at Ocotal a couple of weeks ago and even took pictures and posted them. Turns out… that wasn’t Ocotal. We turned right instead of left and came back to the far end of Playa del Coco. We went to Ocotal yesterday. Nice beach. We’ll go back and re-publicize for it when we have a car again.
I LIKE it here. I try to have a daily rhythm and build habits, but each day is different and unpredictable because no one does what they say they will do when they say they will do it, so we are beholden to some external rhythm instead.
White Water Rafting, Poverty, Prisons, drought
Since I last wrote, I went White Water Rafting. I’m going to let the Facebook photo album and narration tell that story.
What I learned on the way, though, is that we were between two volcanoes and that each was in a separate biosphere. We were on the edge of a rain forest. As we drove from Liberia toward San Jose, we passed taxis that were waiting for the arrival of busses from San Jose. It was a Sunday and Sunday is visiting day at the prison in Liberia. There are 600 prisoners there.
On this Sunday (last Sunday) there is an article in the paper about starvation in Guatemala. We talk about the difference between Guatemala and Costa Rica. There is poverty here, but not misery. The government feeds the poor people. I learn later that this is a myth and there are plenty of homes here with absolutely no food in them. Guanacaste is the poorest region in Costa Rica, but also usually has the most tourists. Tourism is THE industry in Costa Rica. The paper this week also said that tourism is down 40% from this time last year. The lack of rain in this rainy season is killing the crops. This will be a very bad year for Costa Rica. I cannot spend this year oblivious on my veranda over-looking the ocean, and I know that. I will find a balance between using this opportunity to overcome my fears and live a life I never thought was possible when I was a little girl and also finding out if there is any knowledge or skill I have accumulated so far in my life that can be helpful here.
S.C.U.B.A, snorkeling, rumors
I also walked across the street to Diving Safaris and got in the pool with all of the scuba diving equipment on. I have the certification materials and after 3 more hours in the pool, taking a number of tests and doing 4 ocean dives, I will be certified and will be ready to go again. If you’ve done this or snorkeling before, you know that the biggest obstacle to overcome is the feeling that you are not supposed to be able to breathe underwater and will breathe in water and die. If it weren’t for the people who said they were coming and want to go scuba diving, I don’t think I’d be doing this… but…. I’ll be ready for you.
We are going down to Diving Safaris today to rent snorkeling equipment. I may need to add an underwater camera to my list of things to bring back from the U.S.
The woman who has given us a couple of rides into Playa del Coco to go to the gym and volunteer at the clinic told us yesterday that it’s a very small community here and everyone knows everyone else’s business. The only way to really get bad rumors started about you, though, is if you start hanging out with the Ticos. I am horrified. Seriously? Why? Why? Why would you COME here and then only hang out with other ex-pats????? To work on your English?
Let the rumor mill start grinding.
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