Greetings!
I think I now have a bit to update. I’m moving at the end of this month into the little casita I had been hoping for! That is the good news. The last few weeks I haven’t had too much to do besides get the house in order and by that I mean dealing with the landlord (I’ll explain that in a second) and making furniture for the house since they are leaving it completely barren. When I say completely barren I mean it – like they were even thinking about taking the electrical wiring, sockets, and outlets - because apparently it is the current tenant’s personal property. We worked it out where I’ll reimburse them to keep it but yea? Yeah!
I personally think the house is great and that I got really lucky! The pros– it has a tamarindo, guayaba, limon, platano, coco, café, cacao, peppers, beans, and even a little pineapple (called Ahnana in Kreole by the way) already there! I am stoked about that. There is also enough room for a larger garden and a side herb garden. There is a great view from the backside of the house you can walk 20 feet to get to. There is also cell phone signal from the top of one of the windows so that is amazing. The two closest neighbors are Donas Fuertes so if anyone messes with me I just yell out to them - and one of the even has an oven. There is also a good rainwater collection system and the house is hooked up to the electrical grid so when there is light I can aprovechar (take advantage of it). I think that I will be able to make the house very comfortable and I have an extra bedroom for visitors so I am really happy!
The cons – the only real con besides a small leak in the roof and rustic bathroom is that the landlord, Juan, is one of my least favorite dudes in the community. He is comparable to a small Dominican snake – real shifty like. I quickly fell into bad terms with him during the first week I was here with him tirando piropos (flirting) infront on his wife who is very nice– her name is Meeka and she’s a jolly large woman. I am feeling slightly more comfortable with my ability to communicate effectively and last week I was a bit fuerte with him finally. I went into his colmado and explained to him that if he was going to be my landlord he needs to stop talking to me like that because I am a professional that is trying to help his community and it is completely inappropriate. Also, I said strongly that I have absolutely no interest in him - none. I told him that I only have interest in my novio (the fake Dominican one I made up to ease tigueres) – and that I don’t think it’s appropriate to have interest in more than one person. I made sure to say this infront of his wife and there were also a lot of people in the colmado and IT WAS GREAT – the people were like, oooohhhh….burn Juan. I’m so glad the burn is a universal thing. Then Juan covered his heart like he was shot – pretending to be playing around – but I never laughed and I am fairly sure he got the message I won’t take anymore of his BS.
That being said, David, my PC emergency coordinator came by to talk to him today and he was really in top snake form arguing with David that it is my responsibility to fix the leak in the roof and mentioning that he should raise the rent. That worried me and David left telling me that I’ve got a dirtbag on my hands which I already knew but there really isn’t any other housing options in the community. If all falls apart Mata told me that I could live with them for 2 years and it is always nice to know I won’t be put out. Tomorrow I’m going to go talk to Clide, our town animador/priest, to explain to him the situation with the basic house repairs and see if he can convince Juan to stop being a bastardo and help out the voluntaria in the community so she can try to help the community. If that doesn’t work –ie he doesn’t fix the small leak in the roof – over time I’ll have to save money for my plan to build a side hut for a nicer place to bathe along with a counter and other small house improvements - and then show it to Juan after two years when I am going to leave and then tear it down and sell the materials to other people in the community. Sounds a little spiteful I know. Yet why in the world would I want to improve the house of a guy like Juan – especially when other community members seem to want to help me. So I think it is justified. The thing that sucks is that if Juan doesn’t help me, the Peace Corps won’t help me with house improvements really either so it is all from my monthly allowance – ie definitely not giving any freebies to una culebra como el.
I did have a big blow this last Sunday – my little kitty Mauricio died. It was really quite sad how it happened too. I went to Milagro’s house to finish up sewing this rug I’m working on after saying goodbye to the kitty in the morning. Then I came back to Mata’s for lunch and the cat and I always eat meals together – he sat at my side and I would put some of the excessive quantity of food that Mata serves me in the little food bowl I made him. I had finally gotten people in the community to stop saying that if I eat a cat hair I will die or won’t be able to become pregnant…believe me it got really annoying. Anyways, I walked back home and start calling Miso, Miso (kitty kitty) and the cat didn’t appear so I sat down and started eating. I couldn’t find the cat dish either which was weird but I thought I’d just ask Mata after we talked about renting a stove from another neighbor and in the meantime I was putting Mauricio’s food on one of the extra plates I had. Mata and I talked about the stove and I called the cat again with no response. Then Mata sat down and looked at me and said, “Sarah, I need to tell you something” and then didn’t say anything for 10 seconds while her eyes welled up with tears and she told me Mauricio died. After bawling for about 10 minutes she finally told me that he ate some of the bountiful rat poison that they put all over the house. I sat and consoled her, which she probably thought was odd because I think she was really crying for me although the family did start to treat the cat much better when they realized I loved him and that he wasn’t going to kill anyone. Then I went into my room and didn’t let anyone see me because I really dislike crying in front of people. Mauricio was a wonderful, loving little kitty cat who was basically my best friend in the community due to his similar lack of Spanish skills and cuddleable nature. I told my community that I was in Luto (mourning) for him and while they were joking about that, I didn’t let them see that I was completely serious. I will really miss him.
In other news, there hasn’t been much going on in my community. I made the volleyball net and just finally got them to get two poles to put in the ground, but they still haven’t done it. It is really frustrating when you have to, for everything, take them by the hand. I haven’t started up the next English class because I want to get the housing stuff in order so I told all the kids it’ll be about a month. I am looking forward to the advanced class of serious kids and that is about it because having all those kids running around was definitely not easy. It makes me hesitant to start the Environmental Ed classes, especially talking about technical things in Spanish. With the water project – I am currently working on a grant to get my community out of debt for the materials they already have. This totals to over $7,000 and I am constantly amazed as to how this could have happened. There must have been no budget whatsoever and people must have backed out from every corner paying their shares. The grant, if I got it, would maximum only give me $5000 and it’s a slim chance. I was optimistic about this at first because the person I initially talked to about the sum forgot to put in a zero and I thought it was only 700 dollars. Funny how those zeros work. The jam project is at a standstill right now because I need to find sealable jars in order for the jam to store and not get anyone sick. The mango jam is delicious but unfortunately it is quite an acidic fruit I think and goes bad really fast. The chinola stores for more time, but I’m still looking into better jars. I also emailed my contacts with project DIG to see if we can start community hortalizas in El Firme and also contacted a few people about Fair Trade but nothing has come yet. Therefore there has been a lot of waiting and in the meantime I’ve been making stuff!
I am actually getting pretty good with my carpentry skills, along with bowstaff skills, clearly. I therefore am confident given the materials I could make the side bathroom I’ve designed without needing to pay for someone to help. Hurricane proof? We’ll see haha. Most recently I’ve finished a sofa minus the cushions, little boxes, coasters, a quilted rug which I might embroider with a mountain scene, and also I’m proud of my estante (book shelf) which I’m going to paint and think it will be a nice addition to the house. Plus a place to put all the wonderful books my Nana has sent me. Speaking of which:
I HAVE THE BEST NANA IN THE WHOLE WORLD. SHE IS AMAZING. I LOVE HER VERY MUCH.
My Nana is making the other volunteers question the awesomeness of their grandmothers in the quality and quantity of carepackages she sends me. Thank you so much Nana!
Mark took off to the states. He told me he’d bring me back seeds and turkey jerky from Trader Joes. I highly anticipate our next meeting haha. I’m really glad he made it out ok because there was supposed to be a tropical storm on the day of his flight which quite luckily dissipated. This country seems to be working out pretty well for him. I am also a fan of his mom who likes my blog!
My other volunteer friends Ben and Kiri have moved into their houses already! Leeann and I are in about the same stage with our houses and have been talking a lot about latrines, colmado noise, and housing issues. Her current host family sounds noisy and sort of mean, while mine is really funny and warm but noisy. Therefore we are all excited to have our own space for the first time in 5 months. For me---first time ever besides sophomore year of college when I had my own room. My brother Jim’s idiosyncrasies at times can be comparable to blasting bachatta at 7am. Needless to say I’ve waited for this move for a while.
I watched Across the Universe last night on my laptop and I thought it was interesting and a couple of the pieces really struck me. My favorite song was how they redid Let it Be. There is something about Gospel music that just utterly rocks. In another life I hope I can be a large black woman that can belt it. Clearly Patty Griffin was. I also really liked the football players running slowmo as Prudence sung I want to hold your hand. You should watch it if you have a chance.
I’m going to try and post some pics of the new casita, but you should just come out and visit. This especially means you Costa Rica kids because you would love it here. Shoot me a line anytime and I’ll answer when I have internet!
Miss you all and hope everything is going well
Also thanks to all of you who are sending me texts! It is GREAT! I am getting them and do a little dance with each one. A little bachatta here, a little merengue there.
All my lovin,
Sarah
P.S. I just remembered a really funny story that you shouldn’t read if you are easily freaked out ie Aunt Jenna. Hahah. Mata was trying to point out this ENORMOUS cockroach to me that was near the water bucket and I freaked out and jumped on the chair because I thought she said cacata (tarantula) but while she was saying it her false teeth dropped out of her mouth and she chased after them, I’m still on the chair wondering what’s going on and where the tarantula is, and the cockroach runs away and disappears. Se fue la sana! We had a good chuckle with that.
We also were sitting one night and there hadn’t been any electricity for like the whole day – and we were talking when suddenly Mata shushes us all and listens intently to the fridge that had just switched on. Then he jumps up and does a fist pump elatedly saying ‘POR FIN! LLEGO LA LUZ!’ (At last! The electricity/light is here). That is actually how the light situation can be summed up here and I am in for a nasty surprise when I get to the new house without an inversor (large rechargeable battery). Anyways I laughed really hard about that too. Mata is really fun, you’ve got to meet her.
Greetings!
