Tapestry

The first week passed and we made seemingly little progress on our actual goal – delivering a comprehensive proposal to FuncaVida, a charitable organization focused on cancer survivorship due at the end of this second week.  We have to move quickly and thoroughly toward a Friday presentation. The transformation to "work mode" has begun with palpable intensity midway through the second week as this is written.

Have we still learned, though?  

Yes.  We learned about the culture and environment that is uniquely Costa Rica, which for these students is as important as the mission of serving an organization of need. We experienced "moments", a fleeting capture of images and experiences of the people, places, and things. Like a tapestry carefully woven, these moments help to frame the context, indeed the place, of our work here.  Following are pieces of those momentous threads woven into this experiential tapestry:

The visit to baho tejares never fails to have an impact on students.  Guided by a local resident, Pavel, we experience this impoverished community located in the 'low terrace' (baho) of the city.  Mostly, Nicaraguan immigrants that do not qualify for subsidized housing nearby, they have over the years merely constructed metal shacks with dirt floors.  As poor as it is (certainly by western and also local standards) it is still a community.  It lacks investment - the "park" is a wasteland.  There is one privately run, church-based community center that provides mostly childhood educational support.  Education is a ticket out of this barrio. But people still smile.

  

The fabric of the city is one of contrasts, even in the baho.  Buildings appear to fall apart, enclosed with whatever material could be salvaged, and present a mosaic of color and texture, especially against the new, sleek motorcycle, itself omnipresent and often very noisy and a critical means of cheap transportation.

In stark contrast, our visit to the center of bustling San Jose, the capital, seemed more familiar even if foreign, drawing comparisons to our own Twin Cities.  The brutality of the architecture, such as a government structure fronting one of the main plazas, stood in stark contrast to the old army barracks nearby, a colonial structure that now houses one of the national museums.  The army barracks were no longer necessary when President Jose Figueres Ferrer, a native son of San Ramon, abolished the army in 1948, favoring instead that the money saved be spent on education, as it remains so today.

In front of this colonial edifice stood a large glass sphere structure, within which was a hand-carved stone sphere - bolas de piedras -  believed to be of the Colombian period in coastal Costa Rica from 500 to 1500 BCE, and now recognized as a new national symbol of the country.

Whether in San Jose or San Ramon, the hard edges of steel walls and fences seem impenetrable except for the most delicate flowers along the sidewalks penetrating this toughness.  The proliferation of steel gates and all manner of secure barricades seems in stark contrast with the principle behind the abolition of the army, but nevertheless, crimes of theft are sadly still common.

Those hard edges of the city melt away when driving through the "cloud forest", the rain forest we must cross from San Ramon to get to more distant adventures. Often covered by a cloud cap, the famous Arenal volcano presented itself to us for a brief moment following a far different view of the lush countryside from a raft on the Rio Balsa river, perhaps what we should refer to as "damp bonding"!

Photo credit: Richlyn P

So much of this cultural tapestry is woven by the people of Costa Rica.  They are quick with a smile, and certainly take notice of us "gringo's", often calling out "good morning" in recognition.  They are warm of personality, at least so many I have met over these past eight trips.  Even the traffic, often chaotic, seems friendly, with many horn "beeps" used to communicate in a friendly way with other vehicles, something that would be taken quite differently in the US.

  

This woman, living what is thought to be a squatters subsistence farm adjacent the bajo took pride in her humble home, adorned with the flowers that are abundant everywhere. We heard the story of her lone young cow who lost its mother following an attack by a stray dog, followed by long, slow death.  The young cow seemed fine in its small pasture, where students discovered its tongue to be like sandpaper.

Picture credit: Karen M.

Not this cow, though.  This sweetheart was enjoying the grass and sugarcane at Magdalena's farm.  Magdalena was the host mother to Dustin Dresser (our local host/organizer and a former student)  during his study abroad. She prepares a typical Costa Rican meal for us on her farm every year.  She is in her 80's and a great-grandmother.  Her hands still have the power and the magic of massage and touch to ameliorate a bout of stomach issues for Dustin as she provided a demonstration to students of her skill, causing Dustin to visually writhe in pain.  Yet he swore by the remedy, followed by a cocktail of water, the juice of a lemon, a bit of salt and sugar to cure the revenge he was feeling.

Magdalena's husband passed away shortly after our last visit two years ago, which made me wistful.  Though there are family members living on the farm, they have jobs more lucrative than farming, and so the farm, at least to me, looked a bit worse for wear.  The former coffee plantation on the hillside adjacent the house was now down to one plant.  Climate change has affected where coffee grows best, and while formerly fertile, it is no longer as productive as it once was and is now a grass for the cow.

Yet coffee still abounds as a major export, even though the pandemic and in particular labor shortages have created challenges for coffee plantations.  Here Julio (orange shirt), uncle to our co-host Fernanda, shows students how to harvest and grind coffee, and describes the incredibly low value of their labor just to fill the bottom of a basket for what may become your rainforest certified coffee from a major chain at a much larger price.

Much as coffee dominates the export market, so does sugar cane.  While visiting a traditional "trapiche", or cane processing facility, we observed how sugar cane is crushed for the juice, boiled in three consecutive vats, and fired by dried cane stalks.  The Arias Family processes the cane the traditional way not often seen today, in a remote village, even stoking the fire by hand with a forked stick (in the following image by a student).

The 6:00 AM morning walks are routine, and takes those hardy students to the various neighborhoods and remote country roads around San Ramon.  Whether catching the morning sun from the hilltop above our hostel, or descending into the next valley to its lowest point to discover a massive grove of bamboo, the treks reward with a glimpse into the active morning life of San Ramon, and even the afterlife when touring the peaceful, starkly white cemetery.

Our walks awaken the neighborhood dogs that abound, making us feel even more exposed.  We are perhaps spied upon behind curtains from all the ruckus, but many local walkers and runners take to the streets early morning with a kind smile. 

We discovered this wondrous-looking beehive, a wasps nest, on one of our walks, reminding us of the many creatures we saw when visiting Manuel Antonio National Park, one of the most visited parks in the country located on the Pacific coast.  

It is safe to say that nearly all, if not all the students bore witness to the shenanigans of the Capucin monkeys ( aka 'cappucinio'), strangely personable, a bit haunting, and definitely cunning.  Higher up in the forest canopy, a rare sloth family was seen, as were Squirrel monkeys and the mighty Howler monkeys.  A night walk in the forest is interesting, as we searched for creatures large and tiny with flashlights, drawn by the night noises they make.  There seem to be many species of toads and frogs, and it is possible to come across a large spider on our morning hilltop, or be serenaded by the dance of butterflies in their enclosed gardens:

Have we learned from weaving this tapestry?  If you, dear reader, have learned anything about Costa Rica or our trip, seen something you have never seen before, marveled in the people, places and environment presented here,  then just imagine what the students absorbed during their first week.

What they have learned to guide them to finish the second week strong, is to work hard, play hard (sleep well . . . maybe), and to enjoy the moment as one team.  Perhaps this is the best lesson of all.

This, a Pura Vida tapestry!