Religious Tolerance

Just as most all of Latin America, the people here in La Guacima, Costa Rica are pretty Catholic. Last Monday I went to some sort of service with my host mother and her daughter where there was lots of singing and clapping about Senor Jesus, and then the man leading everything came by and put a red cape on me and he and this women spoke over me for a while while a lot of people were praying to music.

On Tuesday, my host mother invited me to attend a meeting of Tierra Fertil, a group that she and many women she knows including her eldest daughter attend. There was a lot of praying and singing about Senor Jesus again, and my host sister had us sing a song called Paz en la Tormenta. It's a group only for women, and they were all very hospitable and hugged me as a new comer. At the end, we all stood in small circles and everyone in each circle took a turn praying. I was a little anxious about what to thank Senor Jesus for, so just said ''Senor Jesus, thank you for this night, and the hospitality these women have shown me. Thank you for my health, that of my family back home, and...all the miracles in the world''. I hope it wasn't too Unitarian for them.

Work at Casa Luz is great. Every morning I play with the little kids, and in the afternoon either teach English to the women or continue playing. So far we've had 2 English classes, but the most recent desintigrated into just a conversation- in Spanish of course- but was still fun because I think they like me well enough. I don't know the exact stories of any of them, but know that they have had it pretty bad so some days they are open and amiable while others they are pretty solemn. In any case, they invited me to go to church with them tomorrow and then eat lunch, so that's a good sign.

One of my favorite little kids is a 3 year old boy named Isaac. He has a husky little voice and is so cute. He's bigger than most of the other kids, though, so often gets reprimanded for playing too hard or hitting or not listening or climbing on the cabinets or painting on his face or whatever.

Last night, the family and I went to this huge farmer's market that comes every Friday and Saturday. Families come to shop for the week more or less, and it was packed with people. Rows and rows of vendors have papayas, potatoes, bananas, tomatoes, cucumbers, pineapples, watermelon, beans, and many fruits and vegetables I hadn't had before. One, zapote, has a very strong flavor. It's a deep orange and creamy texture. Another that I'm not sure how to spell- peripayo- is crumbly and kind of tasted like cat food or something, but it wasn't too bad.

One thing I really like here is the community. Lots of the women just yell over to each other and come over to one another's houses. My host family's house seems to be a center for this. Yesterday the neighbor came over to give me a pedicure, dye my host mom's hair, and wax the armpits of her, her niece, and another friend that was there.

First few days

Hello!

I am here in La Guacima, Costa Rica. My host family gave me my own room in the house where the younger daughter and the parents sleep. Out back above the garage area are a few apartment rooms I think (I haven"t seen them) where the older daughter and son live, as well as the family of the niece of my host mother.

My plan in coming was to volunteer at a young women"s home, Casa Luz. It is literally right down the street from my house. Eight young women, all 16 to 18 years old, live and study there, along with 9 children (one has 2 little girls, all the rest have one child each). The eldest child is only 4, so they are very little kids. The schedule they"ve decided on for me is to play with the children from 9 until lunch, when i eat there along with everyone else, including the faculty of la directora and the psychologists who hold sessions with the women during the day. Then in the afternoon until 3pm, I teach English to the muchachas. This will vary, for example today they had a meeting so I just played with the kids all day. But yesterday we had our first class, and we went over the alphabet, the verb "to be", the numbers up to one hundred, and colors. I plan on starting on small phrases, like "My name is..." and greetings in our next class, which should be tomorrow.

The program I coordinated with in the US set me up with a local program called Rancho Espanol. It is like a spanish school for English speaking tourists who want to take classes but also just visit Costa Rica. Even though I am not a student with them, I guess I am working for them as a volunteer and so can use their pool and internet.

The best news I have heard while being here is that the water is potable! Brushing your teeth with bottled water isnt all that bad, but I wasnt too excited to do it for another 3 months after Bolivia.

We"ll see how well I keep up with this, but for now, hasta luego!
chloe