La Pura Vida

May the rain wash away your worries...

As I look out the window and see the heavens opening up, reminded of this line in the Apache blessing written on my journal.

Realizing that for now this blog is taking the place of my journal - by the time I get home and eat, all I want to do is eat, talk with my family, read...not recount my experiences for a second time. I suppose this is a (faster for one thing) kind of journaling, and I do like how people can share in this time with me... also, starting June 24th when I move probably won´t have any kind of reliable access to the internet (will take adjusting for sure!) so might as well embrace these virtual connection opportunities as much as I can for now.

Wonderful day. Woke up at 6 (surprisingly, though I went to bed early last night) - hadn´t planned to get up til closer to 7. Considered running but as Mary was still laying in bed, and I didn´t have quite that much energy, I stayed in my room... it was so peaceful. At first the light wasn´t working so I laid in the semi-dark, stretching and enjoy that new day feel. Opened up my book of Emily Dickinson poems and read parts of a couple sections (Life and Love - big themes) until I read a couple that especially touched me. Maybe I´ll post some later. Showered a little after 7 and then joined Mary at the table for breakfast: bowl of cut up fresh pineapple, pineapple juice (quite a constant presence in my life lately), and then an egg concoction with cheese and spinach on top of tortillas. Ate while talking with Mary about my experiences yesterday... she was supportive of my choice to try the campo - she pointed out that while it would be difficult for her to try a completely different life now, at the point of my life I´m in it´s very easy and therefore no reason not to explore.

Soon the little boy that Mary babysits during the day arrived-can´t remember his name- can´t wait to post pictures of him!! He is so adorable, with his glasses, spiked hair, and inquisitive stare. He doesn´t seem to like eating, smiling, or talking. So far we hadn´t really bonded (lack of smiling and talking kind of a barrier in relationship-building) but this morning he followed me into my room. I took a couple pictures which he enjoyed, especially when I showed him his own pictures. After brushing my teeth to head out the door, a precious moment ensued... He took my hand and walked with me to the door, and when Mary interceded to grab him, he started crying! The neighbor in the room kept exclaiming, ¨Que linda!¨Little kids just grab the heart (right along with the hand)...because of him, walked with warm fuzzies (ha) to ICADS.

--Coldplay just came on. How exciting! Have started trying to recreate my songs in my head, note by note.

Enjoyed class again with Rolando--often feel more secure/comfortable during a day´s beginning when I have such a peaceful and early start. Lunch again at the college of engineers/architects - what a great deal! Got my plate of vegetables, rice, beans, eggs, and a fried plantain-this time with cranberry juice- for the grand total of $2.80.

Bus ride again after that - went to visit a small community called Familia Sagrada, known locally as a very dangerous and ruined place. 15,000 people live there. Saw the most poverty that I´ve seen so far. In this area exists an amazing organization called Vecinos: after a tour of some of their current projects (biological development, butterfly gardens, an art and community center), we talked with some staff. Vecinos´goal is community development, specifically for the children of the area (of which there are many - 30 some percent of Costa Rica´s entire population are youth) so that they don´t drop out of school, engage in illegal activities - can hopefully develop a skill they´ll feel proud of and therefore up their self esteem... One way they work on such goals is through providing artistic outlets for the kids of the community. An example we saw was a mural painted over a wall: when a group of people built a new neighborhood nearby, they put up this wall to separate themselves from the degradation and danger. Vecinos helped residents of Familia Sagrada paint a mural that depicted hands breaking through the wall under the word ¨Igualdad¨- and the backs of a diverse line of people (those dressed for church, Rastafarians, a gov´t official slipping money to a little girl and a policeman silently watching, soccer players, students...) Neat to see. I was very impressed with the mission of this organization, and am becoming more and more interested in different tactics of community development. (glad to be exposed to all this-realizing why the D and S in ICADS stand for Development Studies)

That was it for the day- just now in ICADS worked with others to try to find a local theater for tonight that plays Spanish movies. Sadly, no such luck -- very interesting, cultural imperialism... pretty much all of the movies are Hollywood hits in English. Only dubbed option was X-Men. I had seen a supposedly hip little theater in my Lonely Planet book that showed independent classics from Latin America and so we wanted to go there, but when we asked an ICADS staffer he told us ¨Se quemó!¨It burned down! We found another online that looked promising: Cinema Treasures. The goal of this nonprofit was preserving classic Latin American movies and making them available to this area -- however, when we again asked Denny (the knowledgeable ICADS travel planner) he told us that this organization did exist 35 years ago, but has since become a KFC!! Ahh. Tomorrow planning to go into San Jose with friends for museums etc - and then we´ll explore the nightlife options anew.

I´m going to try to post some pictures! A friend Emily posted some to Facebook so I can borrow from hers - can´t wait til I get a chance to post a few of my own. I think I have around 250 right now. :)

Enjoying the moonlit beach with Erika and Laura! What a carefree time... (Are we really here?)










Can´t get the others to post now so that´ll have to do. Until next time mis amigos!

posted by Colleen @ 5:22 PM