Kittens

Back home, I have a wonderful, large, gray cat that is the laziest and cutest, and I love him. He’s always lying somewhere around the house, often sleeping in the most adorable positions with his paws over his face or on his back, stomach exposed. He’s super friendly and great company. We also just got a puppy the week before I left for Costa Rica, which was awesome but sad since I only got to spend less than a week with this precious 11-week old black lab. I’m so excited to spend a month with her with I get back, because my family has wanted a dog for years. I have a soft spot for cute animals.

In Costa Rica, there are tons of stray dogs, as we observed pretty soon after we got here. You have to get used to not paying attention to the prettiest dogs when they come up to you, because as much as you may want to pet them, they will follow you relentlessly if you give them the smallest bit of attention. One of the first things we learned here is the quick, short, “Tshhh!” to get rid of stray dogs, which works surprisingly well on most of them. If that doesn’t work, all you have to do is bend down to get a rock to throw near them to scare them away, and usually the dog will recognize this motion before you can even grab a rock, and run away. They’re used to not being treated well, so they know when they aren’t wanted.

We have a cat in my host family, and my host-mom told me they only have her to catch and eat rats. She is not allowed in the house (a succinct Tsh! or Salga! will do), and is not paid any attention (but she is super affectionate, as I’ve discovered). About a month ago she had babies; I had no idea she was even pregnant! There are four cute, adorable kittens, which I’ve been watching grow older. When they were two days old, they were tiny and couldn’t open their eyes and had the highest pitched little mew. Two weeks ago, their eyes were beginning to open, and they were taking wobbly steps, but trying. Now, they can walk pretty well and improve everyday because they practice so much. They are playing with each other and yawning and stretching and doing all the typical cat things that are so adorable.

The other morning, the mom and a baby came to the back mudroom and were lying down outside the back door. Kevin and I were watching them in silence. Then, Daniela, (who has made clear her opinion of gatos, she doesn’t like them either), saw the mom and the baby and looks at me and ask, pretty accusatorily, “Por qué lo hiso?” (Why did you do that?) She knows that I’m in love with them. I said, “What? I didn’t.” The kittens can walk now; they don’t need my aid to get to the back room. She gives me a face and proceeds to kick the mom to shoo her away. The mom flees, and the baby is left there, not knowing what to do. Daniela starts to kick the baby too, and I say, “Daniela, no!” and Kevin is telling her the same thing, and grabs her shirt to try and pull her away. She keeps kicking the poor thing, and I try to pull her back, and she vehemently yells NO and continues, this time a little more committed. It was when the helpless kitten literally started rolling that I blocked her and grabbed the kitten to put him back in the shed where they sleep. I understand that the cat is only here to catch rats, that she (and her babies) aren’t allowed in the house, but this was crossing the line for me. I was so mad at Daniela, and I thought I was going to cry. When I picked him up and put him back, the little guy was cowering and shaking with his tail in between his legs. And I know of course that me telling her to stop only egged her on more. It was just an upsetting experience that I hope won’t happen again. These are the things I think I’ve learned from that: Younger children (like Kevin) are fascinated by these kinds of things, like baby animals. Children a bit older and smarter (like Daniela) like to test you and if you tell them not to do something, they will only be likely to do it more.

On a happier note, the constant rain has finally stopped and we had a beautiful day of no rain last week before returning to our regular sunny morning, rainy afternoon weather pattern. Yesterday we started with rain in the morning, and then ended with no rain and an incredible sunset. The prettiest and brightest colors spread across sky, constantly changing. It was beautiful. Today, I’m super excited for our semi Halloween celebration, we are making books and watching American football, doing Acro yoga, and ordering pizza, all at Fran’s tree house!

Fall trip!

So our long-awaited Panama trip has come and gone, and it was one of the most content and relaxing weeks I’ve had so far. We had to travel out of the country to renew our visas, which are legitimate for 90 days (our program is 97). It was nice to get out of the mountains and onto the coast, where the climate is much different. Being in a warm tropical place again reminded me a lot of Tahiti, with the palm trees and the smells and the water and the heat. Apparently the real rainy season started the day after we left, and it’s been raining cats and dogs since, all day and all night. Everyone kept telling us how lucky we were to have such good weather, but I don’t think I fully appreciated how little rain we were getting until now, when it rains literally all day. This morning was the first morning I woke up to rain.

The first stop on our trip was a small, kinda touristy beach town on the east coast of Costa Rica, called Cahuita. As soon as we got there, we all immediately went to the beach after being in our ridiculously over-sized tourist bus for the entire day. The water was so warm and even though we were only there for about a half hour, it was enough to make me really happy. I haven’t been in the water since I left the States, and it was so relaxing and refreshing to be able to swim again, even just for a little. That night, after showering, a few of us wandering towards some drumming we heard before dinner. Just down the street from our hotel was a group of maybe 8 boys, ranging from really young to older teenager, playing the drums. There was a guy who was leading them with a whistle, and some younger girls dancing to the music behind them. I loved watching them and listening to them. I already love the drums; they are strong and dominant instruments that are the backbone to a lot of music. It was amazing to hear how talented these guys were, and how they felt the music and the rhythm. Their leader was awesome, he was teaching them about drum dynamics and how each different type of drum works with another, and then dancing while they were playing. It was really satisfying to see what I think it a traditional aspect of Afro-Caribbean culture being taught by an older man to a younger generation, so that it won’t be lost. I think that may be one of the scariest things these days, losing culture to globalization, and it was really incredible to see how engaged these drummers were in their activity, and made me believe just for a second that everything in the world is simple and good and happy.

The next day we did a hike through the Cahuita National Park, on a trail just inside the forest along the beach. It was really pretty, with much different vegetation than Monteverde. We saw white-faced capuchins, a type of monkey. It was insane how close we were able to get to this one guy that didn’t seem particularly scared of us. We were obsessed for a little bit, and took tons of pictures of him for about 20 minutes. We made our way all the way out to the point, swam for a little, and then continued to our destination beach. On that stretch, I was walking with a few of my professors, and we walked past these small orange fruits on the ground. Then all of a sudden a few fell from the sky, and we looked up and discovered more monkeys literally throwing these fruits down from real high up. We determined that the monkeys were eating like a bite and then throwing them, prompting my yoga teacher Cath to assume they were edible. She then picked one up and ate it. Cristina, my Spanish professor, also tried one, and said they were really good. I was hesitant of eating things off the ground and began to walk away, but Cath convinced me to try one. They were delicious! We never figured out what they were, but they are these small orange tangy fruits with big seeds. They were super juicy and sweet and acidic and I probably ate 10 more along the trail. We finally made it to this black sand beach, where we were brought lunch wrapped in banana leaves. Rice and beans are also big on the east coast, but they are flavored with coconut milk, making for a really different taste. It was only of the best meals I’ve had since being here. It was the same dish I eat all the time, but slightly different and delicious, eaten out of banana leaves on a black sand beach in a Costa Rican National Park. Tell me that doesn’t sound amazing.

We stayed our 2^nd night in Cahuita, and the next morning got on our silly huge bus and made our drive to Panama. We crossed the border, got our stamps, and I paid to use the bathroom for the first time (50 cents – Panama uses American money… weird). We drove through a bunch of huge banana plantations, which we’ve learned so much about, and got to a boat dock to go to Bocas del Toro, which is a huge tourist town on a set of islands off the northwestern coast of Panama. Super cute, very touristy town. We settled into our hotel, and then went downtown to look around and do some shopping. We all went out to dinner as a group to celebrate Eleanor’s birthday, who turned 22. I ordered a veggie thai curry dish that I was really excited for, only to be served and discover how spicy it was. I literally could not eat it, my eyes were watering and my nose was getting runny, so Cristina was nice enough to split her dinner with me, while she helped eat my dish, which was also difficult for her.

The next morning we went to the Instituto Smithsonian, a branch of the Smithsonian in DC. We got a lecture on wetlands, which was really interesting, and got to tour the facilities a bit. Looked really cool, I would love to work there if I was going into marine ecology. Then we went to lunch, and I got lobster, the first time in a long time. It was delicious. We had rented bikes for the day, so a few of us set out for a beach that we were all going to meet at, but we ended up going in a different direction and biked 13.5km across the island to Bocas del Drago. I am not a biker and have not done much biking, and I was not anticipating any inclines, but sure enough once we got off the shore it wasn’t completely flat road anymore. It was really hard and I didn’t really want to go on, but the three of us had separated a bit (I was behind), so I had to keep going. It was a really pretty ride though, through the forest and the more rural parts of the island. I kept thinking of all the downhills there were and therefore how many uphills would be on the way back, but somehow made it through and we finally reached the other side. There were some really pretty beaches and small restaurants, so we got drinks and hung out for a bit. It was really relaxing and rewarding. I was dreading the ride home, because I was already tired from before, but for some reason it went by much quicker and I felt strong and we reached the end and I was so proud of myself. So much for a beach day, but I’m glad for what the bike ride. That night we stayed at our hotel (which also has a restaurant) for dinner, and the owners are Italians that have been here for 20 years (after 40 years in Italy), and they made the best pizza. I think I ate more pizza that I ever have before: vegetarian, Hawaiian, pesto olive and goat cheese, and a piece of the vegan pizza that was made for our one vegan. So delicious.

Next morning we took a boat to another island, parked in a cove and snorkeled and kayaked for the morning. The coral was a lot different than the coral I saw in Tahiti, if I dove down close to the coral it was super colorful and brilliant, and I saw some fish I hadn’t seen before. I kayaked out a little bit and laid out in the sun, which was awesome because I love the sun and haven’t been able to lay out in it since the summer. For lunch we took the boat to a restaurant on another island, and rode up right to a dock attached to the restaurant and had lunch there. For the afternoon we went around the back of the island, which is mostly a national park, and hung out on this huge expanse of beach for an hour and a half or so. It was beautiful. The sand was really cool, it didn’t look like sand I’ve seen before. Super small granules, of different shapes and colors, not like the grains of sand on the east coast of Maryland. That night we were rationed out money and got to eat out where we wanted. A group of 4 of us found this awesome sushi place and had the best meal. Miso soup with shitake, salad with dried pineapple, avocado, almond, fried tofu, bamboo and ginger dressing, and a shrimp tempura roll with cream cheese, avocado, shitake and almonds. It was so satisfying and we were all excited to have something that we haven’t eaten since we’ve been here.

The next morning we had to leave to get back to Monteverde. It was an awesome vacation, but I think we were all pretty ready to head back to the mountains. Our journey took two days, and so many things happened that we didn’t expect. When we got back to the mainland, we discovered a window of our bus had been accidently broken by the fire department that we had parked it at, and if we wanted to leave that day (for insurance reasons) we had to agree to pay for half of it, so we waited 3 and a half hours at the boat station for the paperwork to get done. When we crossed the border, one of the bumpers of our bus fell off on the bridge between borders. It was put back on, and we made it to Turrialba where we stayed the night. The next morning we got on the road and visited some ruins near San Jose, an old basilica from the 1500s. It was awesome, I love visiting things like that, that have been abandoned for some reason. It makes me think about what it was like when it was in it’s prime, and the people that went there and used the church and who built it and how low it took. After lunch, we were on the road for about 15 minutes when we tried to go through this muddy ditch, which we got stuck in. A broken down car was blocking the other side of the road, so we caused a traffic jam in both directions! Some people nearby had a tractor to try and pull the bus out, but on the first try the chain connecting the two broke. The second try was successful, so we got on the road again. We ran into bad traffic, one stretch of which was due to a landslide that blocked one direction. We were all pretty antsy by then, having been on a bus for two days. We got to the point going into Monteverde where paved turns to unpaved, and discovered that we couldn’t go further because the roads were so bad from all the rain during the week. Our bus driver didn’t want to risk it, especially because there would be no way for him to turn the bus around if we reached an impassable point. So we waited there for an hour for some taxis to take us into Monteverde, deciding that we wouldn’t risk going into San Luis and instead sleep at the Institute. We ate some dinner and then got in our taxis when they got there, and we ended getting stuck in the exact spot that was a worry, so we all had to pile out and push the taxi out. We finally got to the Institute about 45 minutes later, all tired but relieved to finally be somewhere. What a long day. Now we’re finally back in San Luis and ready to get back to school, in the real rainy season. Seven more weeks here!

Ahora tengo una computadora!

So, yesterday, I finally got my new computer, after a month without one. I’ve had people ask me if it felt liberating to not be connected all the time, and I have to say that I felt more stressed out about it than anything. Not having a computer didn’t especially affect my schoolwork; we’ve had mostly reading assignments so far, and I actually handwrote our first essay of the school year that was due last Thursday. Last week we also had a project proposal due for our biology class, and I couldn’t do any online research, which was frustrating, but I was able to look up past projects about my area of interests in the Institute library (which also actually has computers, but the librarian isn’t always there to sign me in, and they shut down the computer during thunderstorms which are frequent, and I can’t save articles I could use onto the computer because it’s not my personal computer). I think the most frustrating thing about not have a computer was not being able to connect with my friends and family as often as I wanted to. A few friends in my program let me use their computers to Skype, but that was limited because they of course want to use their computers. I couldn’t upload photos to share, because I didn’t have a place to put my photos directly from my camera. I had to constantly ask others to plug in my iTouch to their computers to charge, since the only cord I have to charge it is one that plugs into a computer. I wasn’t able to update my blog. Needless to say, I am so happy to have a computer again. I think I shocked my host mom yesterday when I told her my parents got and sent me another computer. Sometimes I feel a little ridiculous with all my electronics and cords and plugs that I have.

A week ago, on the Friday before last, we had a tour of the cheese factory located directly next to the Institute. The factory was started the Monteverde economy when the Quakers moved here in the 1950s. The factory gets 45,000 liters of milk a day from 250 different farms. There is one local farm that still brings its milk to the factory in an ox cart (we’ve seen him a few times while walking to Institute). All the farmers that bring milk have to own stock in the company, and you can’t own more than 5% of the shares. The company seems really good about keeping the money local (you can’t own shares if you’re not in the community). About 90% of their factory production is cheese, but they also produce ice cream and yogurt and other things. I didn’t know much about the cheese making process before, but one by-product of cheese making is whey, which the factory used to dump into the river (noooo bueno!). Whey, unfortunately, creates a lot of contamination and destruction of the environment (like changing the temperature of the water and creating algae blooms), so they needed to stop doing that real quick. They created a waste-management facility a little ways down, and we also went and had a tour there (which they don’t offer to everyone anymore... only for “specialized” groups now). I have to say that that tour was one of the most unsettling experiences I’ve ever had. It so happens that hogs can digest whey, so they created a hog farm to dispose of the whey they produce in cheese production. The pigs are kept in a space so small they can only stand up and sit down, and move 2 feet forwards or backwards. Our tour lady “justified” this with the fact that pigs get too tired and overheated if they are allowed to run about, so this confined space it actually good for them. She also said that because of their body structure, they break legs really easily if they’re overworked (apparently they tried having open ranges for the pigs before, and they caused a lot of destruction in the forests). So, we happened to go to this first barn have around lunchtime for the pigs. It was mostly quiet when we were first looking at them… and then one started to make noise. It was amazing how quickly it went from quiet to terrifying. Once one started making noise, others caught on, and soon enough, all the pigs had stood up and were squealing. It was incredible how loud they got. They sounded so unnatural, like nails on a chalkboard. Have you ever heard one pig squeal? Try imagining hundreds of pigs making that sound. We could barely hear the tour lady, and the whole thing was just really unsettling and unreal. I quickly got really uncomfortable. We went to the second barn, which had all the piglets. The mothers give birth in that barn and stay with their litter for a few weeks. The piglets stay in that barn until they’re about 6-8 weeks old, and then transferred to another barn (there are 3 pig barns total). I asked our tour lady what they do with the waste from the pigs. Well apparently, in addition to whey, they feed the pigs corn too. They “clean” out the manure from the pigs, and feed the undigested corn to cows that are kept in another barn. I hated seeing the cows. I forget how many cows there have, but in each compartment, there are about 6-8 cows, in an extremely small space, they are never allowed out to graze, and they sit in their own shit all day. I asked one of my compañeros if she was feeling the same way I was feeling about seeing all of this. She answered, “Well, I’ve kind of accepted that animals are treated like shit. But this hog farm is an example of commercial farming at its best, they are way worse in the US.” I suppose I knew that commercial farms are terrible, but I think it hits you more when you actually visit one. I’m not sure that I can support low quality, commercially farm beef again, which is where most if not all of meat served in fast food chains comes from. I’ve never been a big fan of red meat anyway.

That afternoon, we watched Fight Club for Ernesto’s class, which I had never seen before. It kind of blew my mind, and was especially interesting because of the themes in the movie that parallel Marxist thought on work, which we had just read extensively for Ernesto’s class. So it was interesting to watch the movie with that framework in my mind. I want to watch it again with subtitles, this time knowing the ending.

Also for Ernesto’s class, we’ve started reading a book called Sweetness and Power, a book about the history of sugar and its relevance to our lives, capitalism, and the relationship between the consumer and a commodity. I’m kind of intrigued by the fact that sugar is only a phenomenon of the last millennium, yet we as human beings seem to have innate ability to taste it, despite our evolution without the cultivation of sugar. There have been other things that are sweet, like fruits, and honey, but otherwise, most sweet things today are sweet because of sugarcane production and refining. I’m not sure that I could manage it here in Costa Rica, but I kind of want to try eliminating sugar from my diet. It would be difficult, but sugar is something that you crave more the more you eat it. So if you don’t eat it for a few days, your body will adjust and you won’t crave it anymore. I want to try it when I get back to the US. I think I could manage more easily when I’m more in control of my food. I think I could make do with honey as a sweetener; the hardest adjustments would be no desserts, and sugarless coffee. I’m still considering it though! I have an insane sweet tooth, and I don’t know if have the willpower to give it up.

This past week we went in the field twice for Ernesto’s community service learning class. On Tuesday, we worked with a farmer, Chepe, and helped him clear out tree debris. During rainy season, the coffee plants don’t get much sun, so they need as much as they can get. He had a bunch of really tall citrus trees that were blocking the sun from the coffee, so he chain sawed all of them and we help clear all the branches to the side of his property. The trees had random spikes all over, so we had to be careful. I got poked a few times and it stung like a bug bite. Thursday was one of the best days I’ve had here so far. We met near the school in San Luis at 7 am, and went up to Christine’s (a girl in my program) host-abuela’s property, which is where the San Luis waterfall (la catarata) is. Christine’s host dad (Giovanny) works the land there, so we worked with him for the morning. First, we helped milk his three cows, a first for me. It was amazing how well an experienced person can milk a cow. Some of us were pretty good, because a few actually milk cows on their respective farms each morning, but it was difficult for me. Then we went to patch of cleared land in the middle of a sugar cane field. There, we turned up the soil, which was harder this time because there was a lot of grass and plants growing, with their roots holding the soil together. Then we had to go through all the soil and smooth out the clumps and clear out plant debris by hand, which I like for some reason. It’s taken me 4 days to get my nails clean again, but the soil felt so smooth and awesome because it was completely organic material; Giovanny uses no pesticides or herbicides or fungicides on his land. It took us probably 3 hours to finish it, even with 11 of us (8 students, Ernesto, Giovanny, and Stuart’s host-brother, who for some reason doesn’t go to school?), imagine if Giovanny had to do it all by himself! He picked oranges from his trees to give to us, I ate 3 and they were the best oranges I’ve had. I don’t know if it was the variety or what, but they were better than the oranges grown at my house. Giovanny also cut and peeled sugarcane for us to chew on, which is absolutely delicious. I had bought a small piece from someone a few days before, so I was really excited! It’s almost like celery, except you can’t chew swallow the fiber. You chew all the sugary water out of it, and then spit out the leftover fiber. We loved it! Terminamos trabajar a las once y media, y la abuela de Christine tuvó tortillas y queso y fresca naranja para nosotros. (We finished our work around 11:30, and Christine’s grandmother had tortillas and cheese and orange juice for all of us!) It was the perfect snack after a morning of working, and everything was homemade. I already mentioned how good the oranges were, so can you imagine the orange juice? Take that Tropicana! Best orange juice I’ve ever had. Since we were there and it was still sunny and beautiful out, we all hiked up to the waterfall. It was so beautiful! We all went for a swim, and it was freezing but refreshing. It was the prettest to just look up and see all the mist, and feel the wind created by the sheer force of the waterfall. It was a perfect moment, and it put me in a really good mood. On the walk back, I passed by some guava trees, and there were like 6 blue morpho butterflies feeding on the rotting fruit. I found one butterfly that was dead, so I brought it back with me, I might try to make earrings out of it cause Morphos are seriously the prettiest butterflies I’ve seen.

I know this is really long, so I won’t make it any longer; in the future I will update more frequently with shorter posts so I don’t bore anybody! At least I can supplement this one with pictures now. If you got through this, thank you for reading!

Kendall

PS – this is a part of a series of videos I had to watch before I came to Costa Rica… I didn’t realize til a few days ago that this video is my host dad, Milton!