June 6 - June 10

6/6/2012 at 8:35pm

My room!  It's a lot cleaner now than the picture shows.

Day two of being in Santa Elena and so far pretty good!  I missed my Spanish class this morning because it got moved and no one told me, oops...but I did sit in the Symposium and listened to presentations about trichomes and mutualistic fungi and such...some of it was interesante, some kind of not, hehe.  I spent some time on the computer and went to the waterfall with my little Grace Groner family; it was pretty awesome!  And we saw so many creatures, too!  For example, caterpillars and a mot-mot bird and things like that.

Monteverde Institute from the outside.

After spending time at MVI and talking with Jenny, Ryan and Abby and I walked around and eventually ended up at my house.  We dropped stuff off and headed into town to get me an alarm clock and them boots.  I kind of met at the serpent house this guy who reminds me of Juanmar, a good friend of mine in Cartago.  He was doing some work or something with the clinic or hospital because he was in an emergency vehicle with a coworker, the first ambulance I've seen here.  Miss you, Juanmar, and everyone in Cartago!  Abby, Ryan, and I also went to look for Professor Westley and Kevin at the Rustic Lodge, but they weren't there.  However, we did meet someone who owns the hotel; his name is José according to my host dad, and his brother who also owns it is Marcello.  José stopped to look for frogs a lot while helping us, haha!  Ryan and Abby went back to their homes and I played with Luis and María and Austin and another boy for a while outside, just shooting hoops and playing soccer.  We had a great dinner, especially this awesome cream of spinach soup that was amazing.  Then there was a hysterical moment when my mamá was talking about feeding the cat through the window and about the girl who came last year who used to do it.  All of a sudden I'm offered part of a pancake, one of the amazingly-delicious ones I had for breakfast that you don't even need syrup or butter for, and I said, "Ah, gracias!" and took a bite out of it.  My mamá began laughing and said it was for the cat and handed me another, and so I began to feed the cat with it and she started laughing again even harder and explaining that it was for me!  We laughed so hard and for so long at the hilarity of the situation that I was practically on the ground in a fit of giggles.  I'm sure my tía thought I was quite strange.

Dear Lord, please bless not only my family here but also the one I left behind at home to come here.

6/7/2012 at 6:15am

I always get up and go to bed earlier here it seems.  Mi mamá is finishing making breakfast, and--

6:45am

It was delicious!  Gallo pinto, platanos maduros, and the best queso I may have ever had.

7:45am

Now I'm in the Macrobiotica waiting for Spanish class to start, after which I will head to the Institute.  I was supposed to bring a food to share but I forgot, so I have candy I bought at home.

Auri hates wearing socks.  I was playing with her earlier a bit and she's got personality.  If you cough, she'll mimic you.  It's pretty cute.

Eric, Auriana, and Andrea in their room.

My family has a wood stove, which is neat.  I have no clue how to use it.  And my mamá doesn't use recipes or measuring tools; it's always approximated.  This means it's super difficult for me to learn how to prepare any of this food.

9:35pm

I walked Luis to school with my mamá tica and eventually to the Macrobiotica after.  I had Spanish class there; it was pretty easy but I have homework to do.  I also have documents I need to translate for Justin, as part of my internship here, and no time tomorrow to do them.  After a long day and seeing a cool dobson fly here at the Institute and getting part of the documents done, we walked to our homes, had dinner, then fruitlessly tried to find Lynn and Kevin so we could say goodbye.

A katydid I found at the Institute!

I've been speaking tons of Spanish here but I still feel so inadequate.  I hope with more practice I get more fluent, because right now when I get tired it gets broken.  For my Spanish homework that was given today, I have reading to do from a book I picked out about globalization and capitalism, some vocab definitions from the book, and writing a poem or short story or song using some of the vocab.  The internship documents have to do with Traveler's Philanthropy initiatives and starting up some here specifically catered to Monteverde, and they're very business-oriented, which Professor Hanna would be proud that I am working on since he taught me a lot of necessary vocabulary!  :)

Though I am uncomfortable here in many ways, I also feel just fine.  I don't worry about food, or clothes, or any of that stuff...I can just live simply in my room or around the house or in town or at the Institute and be perfectly fine, which I think is how God intends us humans to live anyway.

Costa Rican Bellbird that we found in Curi Cancha.

6/8/2012 at 10:00pm

I woke up, had breakfast, walked to MVI after stopping to pick up Ryan and Abby, and then we all went through the Curi Cancha reserve.  We saw lots of neat things, some of which I took pictures of.  Then we went back to the Institute and Jenny talked to me about her project for my internship and the basic ideas behind the community health project.  I got some ice cream from the Cheese Factory, then we all went to Guillermo Vargas' farm to learn about coffee and sustainability.  We got to dig terraces for the coffee, plant trees, see and pet goats and other animals, and then eat maduros (mature plantains) and cheese with coffee.  We went to the field by my house for a bit to play frisbee, then Ryan and Abby left but I stayed to keep an eye on Luis who followed us, and then I tossed the frisbee around a bit with some random people.  I showered, had dinner, then went with Luis to Austin's house, and basically played with four kids and two adorable kittens for an hour.  Abby is so sick... When Ryan came over later to watch fútbol this evening I was thinking about how concerned I am for her.  She's so strong.  Also, I'm proud of Ryan's newfound Spanish.  :)

6/9/2012 at 7:05am

 Every now and then, I think about my family moving to Costa Rica instead of staying in the States after we sell the house and finish school.  Here's what my letter, a proposal of sorts, would kind of look like:

Dear Family,

Hercules beetle!

I think you would like it here in Santa Elena.  We have perfect weather right now: perfectly sunny and a nice cool breeze, although it usually is rainy and colder in the winter season here, which I am in the midst of.  Either I've gotten used to the humidity or it has disappeared.  Sure, it's a walking sort of town with far too many steep hills, and sure, people here drive crazy and some roads are unpaved, and sure shower water doesn't get much hotter than lukewarm, but one adapts.  I have.  You would have to get used to doing dishes by hand and drying clothes on a line outside (but don't worry, washing machines exist for washing).  You would have to get used to bugs being around, and the fact that the cockroaches are enormous if you let them in the house.  You would have to get used to sharing one, maybe two, bathrooms, and having people come over often (sometimes without prior announcement).  And you would have to get used to colones in addition to the dollar, as well as that only maybe a third of Santa Elena knows English.  But it's easy to start a business, and it's pretty good owning land, and the town is super friendly.  It gets light early and dark early...daylight is probably from 5am to 5pm, maybe 6pm, each day.  People are hardly ever in a hurry here unless they are driving, and sometimes people show up late.  It's definitely an adaptation, but a possible one. We'd all have to finish college first, but after... Who knows?  Also, friendly stray animals are very common, as are kittens as gifts.    

Me with Ryan's family's cat, which was a gift.

Each part of Costa Rica is different, from houses to people.  Some are rich, some poor.  But all live pura vida: that one can live peacefully, calmly, and without rushing or worrying, even in the face of stress.  Certainly, you won't know for sure what it feels like unless you visit someday.  But I can guarantee that once you do, you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Love, Ashley

4:30pm

 Instead of going to Luis's soccer game like I thought, we ended up going all over the place, starting with a huge finca where we got tons of fruit and I got my first mosquito and ant bites here.  We went to a couple of other different fincas and homes actually, and all somehow-related to papi or mamá and their families.  So much excitement and walking, including a gold/crystal mine, that I fell asleep at papi's brother's house!  Then Austin gave me a leaf and told me to chew it; I had sugarcane earlier in the finca and it was awesome, so I was open to chewing on random plants I guess that other people were also chewing on.  I was assuming it was mint or something; as it turns out, it was hoja de coca.  If you don't know what coca is, wiki it.  It was weird/gross/oddly good at the same time.  And I woke up pretty immediately, because of the taste.

Mi familia tica!

We're finally back home and it's raining hard, and I called Abby and she's still sick, so no dancing tonight, but I'll grab Ryan around 8pm to visit her.  I don't want to catch what she has but I want to visit for sure.  And I feel bad about ditching them earlier when they went to the game.

Me with my family.  :)  Left to right: María, Coco (Oscar Jr.),
Coca (Oscar Sr.), Luis, Mamá (Haydeé).

Also earlier today I helped Austin, Andrés, and Luis throw and catch a frisbee, and I caught a butterfly with my bare hands.  It's amazing though how quickly that sunny morning turned into this torrential downpour.

To conclude, my mom would find it funny that the same "problem" that exists with illegal Mexican immigration into the United States also exists here in Costa Rica, but with Nicaraguans instead of Mexicans.

6/10/2012 at 3:00pm?

 I woke up this morning, visited Abby, then we grabbed Ryan and all went to the evangelical church by Abby's hosue, and it was...wow, awesome is the only word I have.  It reminded me of the Centro in Cartago mixed with Sign of the Dove in Waukegan.  I nearly cried when the band played "Creo en Ti", as it's not only one of my favorite songs but it also brought back awesome memories and a great message.  It was a long service, two hours, but a speaker from Panama with a gift of prophecy was there and he was a good teacher.  He taught on never losing your dream, and pointed towards Joseph's story in Genesis in the Bible, how God gave him dreams to follow and his brothers hated him and made fun of him for it and his placement in the family and tried to kill him, but eventually his dreams came true because he never lost sight of them.  I met the sound op, who looks a little like Juanmar as well oddly (do all sound ops here in Costa Rica look like each other?); his name is Gabriel and he attends university in Puntarenas, so he's only out here on the weekends.  I hope to see him again Saturday to get to know him better.

Ryan and Abby at church with me.

Be still, my soul.  I need to remember what Brooke told me and why I have that lovely blue bracelet from her.  God put me here to be His servant and give with what I can in any way I can.  I am so grateful to the Grace Groner foundation for this opportunity, grateful beyond believe in general.  It has been amazing so far.

I played Ultimate Frisbee today too with Luis, Austin, Josúe, Brandon, and two other kids whose names I forget.  It was so much fun!

9:25pm

I went to mass, which lasted for 1.5 hours, with mamá, Luis, and Josúe, and when my family asked I said it was nice.  Honestly, though it was a good experience, I much prefer the evangelical church.  I learn and gain so much more there.  In mass it was all just ritual, which is important, but it seemed like half the time people were just going through the motions, including myself, not really believing in what the rituals mean.  But I shouldn't judge, so I'm stopping now.  I was feeling a bit ill earlier, like the start of a cold plus a sore back, but after some yummy food from mamá and a few tablets of advil and a hot pack and a shower, I am feeling better and almost normal.

I'm about ready to sleep.  I keep thinking about how much I want to get to know all those people in the church more, including Gabriel the sound op, and maybe I can sing or do sound too one of these days in order to help.  I would love that so much!