BBQ at the pool

Just woke up. It is 8:10, the latest I have slept so far. Yesterday was sooooo much fun. I went outside at 7:20am, sat on a rock by the street and waited for the big yellow bus that was supposed to drive by. When it came I waved it down. There was no one on it. Apparently I was at the beginning of the route cause there were literally three other people on it. As we rode along through Alto and then Bajo San Luis, the bus began to fill up until it was full of people laughing and talking and joking. After the was sufficiently loaded down with people and food, we were on our way. It was about and hour and half long trip. I sat with Alex, but was surprised at the number of people I knew besides him on the bus. It was a little unreal being on that bus full of San Luis locals on their way to a celebratory pot-luck and we didn’t feel the least bit out of place. Alex and I probably talked to more people than anyone else on the bus. We knew Lelo and his various family members we knew several of the kids from playing soccer in Bajo, we knew people from the eco-lodge…and the thing is about San Luis, if you know one person, you will meet twenty more, either of their family or their friends or just because people will come start talking with you. Rancho La Fe, which is a little recreational spot kind of in the middle of nowhere is where we spent the whole day. It was quite a change from San Luis. It was hot, sunny and there were palm trees and mango trees. It was lie a vacation from San Luis, which is such a funny concept. There was a pool and a restaurant/bar area and a soccer field. We spent the day playing in the pool, playing soccer and eating BBQ. It was a ridiculously fun way to spend our day off. We arrived at about 9:30 and left at 6:30 (when it got dark). After 9 hours in the sun, eating, drinking and playing soccer, I was just as tired and beat up as if I had a hard day of work, but it was worth it. I got back to the house at around 8:15, Alicia fixed me a late dinner and after tending to my latest blister, I went to sleep.

Morning cup of coffee number 21

I love morning coffee conversations with Otoniel. We started talking about piggy banks this morning because there was one on the television or something. He told me that he liked piggy banks. He told me a story of when he was younger and he was very poor and had a lot of debt because he hardly made any money where he was working. He really wanted to buy a chain saw because he knew there was a lot of work that he could get with one. He started putting any money he could spare in his piggy bank. He finally decided he would “kill the pig” and if he had half of the money for the chain saw he would get the other half some how, through loans or something. When he counted the money, he was only missing 300 colones (~500 colones = $1). Alcia’s brother lent him the 300 colones and he bought the chain saw. He worked for from 6:00-2:00 every day and when he got off at 2:00 he and his brother would go work with the chain saw cutting down posts to make fences for people. He said that after a few months he had paid off his debts and eventually bought a plot of land to build a house. After work, Alicia would go with him to help build the house every day. He said they dug holes in the sides of the ground and put candle in the holes so that they could work at night and that is how they built their house. I laughed and said all of this from a chainsaw. He smiled and said “Tengo mucha fe en los chanchitos.” Almost as good of a quote as when we were talking about politics and farming and he told me what his grandfather had said about one day everybody would have pockets full of money and nothing to eat. I can’t get over that one. What a perfect, simple summary of everything I am studying and passionate about.

Bowl number 54

A lot has happened in the last couple of days but I got behind on my blogging. Last night there was a little fiesta at the eco-lodge for the Literature group(the group I flew in with) because they left this morning. They had all been doing homestays for a few days so all of their home stay families came and there was a piñata and dancing. It was funny knowing several of the families that were there. After the fiesta the group went to a local restaurant/bar/music lounge in town. Alex and two of the naturalists and I went with them and then joined the other naturalists and some people who work at the eco-lodge at Bar Amigos. They have live music on Fridays so there are usually a fair amount of locals there. We all just hung out and danced. I got back home at about 1:30. I took a nap after breakfast before going to clear the debris that we had just chopped down. It was hard work, but the weather was beautiful. After finishing up, I drank a lot of water and headed down to the eco-lodge to catch the daily pick-up game. Turns out they were playing for about and hour and half today instead of a half an hour. By the time we finished, I had been exerting myself for almost five hours with not much of a break in between. I was beat. Luckily Hernán, one of the guys that we play soccer with, was going my direction, so I got a ride home. Nothing like a moto ride through the mountains to cool you off after a sweaty game of soccer. I was ready to collapse when I got home, only to find Eduardito hiding behind the door to my room. I ate a late lunch, took an amazing shower and told Eduardo I couldn’t even play hang man until I got a nap. After an evening of persistence, Eduardo some how had me playing soccer in the front yard with him by 5:00 or so (I am sure the afternoon coffee and tortillas had a little something to do with it). Tomorrow I am going to an all day hangout/ celebration for the San Luis team who recently won the local championship. I am not sure exactly how many people will be there, but I will at least know a bunch of the guys we play soccer with, Alex and surely a few others. All I know is I am meeting the bus in the street tomorrow at 7:30, it is about an hour and a half away, there are soccer fields, a pool, and it will be like a big pot-luck. I am pretty excited about it but I can’t imagine how my body is going to feel in the morning, I have exhausted just about every muscle I have over the last few days not to mention the bruises and blisters…

Bowl number 51

I got my wish. This morning, after rotating some compost, we started clearing a part of the farm that was completely over grown, with vines, shrubs, small trees, etc. The original plan was for me to haul away the chopped debris while Otoniel cleared it with a machete. He knew I really wanted to use the machete though so he finally relented. He reminded me one last time how careful I need to be and picked out one that he thought would be best for me to use. We walked to the field, he gave me a quick demonstration, watched me for a second and we chopped and chopped and chopped, all morning. It was pretty satisfying work. It was hard, but I was perfecting my technique as I worked and rejoiced in my increasing efficiency. As usual, Otoniel was super enthusiastic about my work ethic (even though I end up working like an average of two hours a day). He was very pleased with my novice machete abilities. We walked, sweaty and dirty back to the house to get something to drink before doing any more chores. He asked me if I had any blisters. I showed him my hands and there was a big piece of skin hanging off of my thumb and several other less severe blisters around my other thumb and index fingers. He looked at me, startled but kind of laughing and asked why I didn’t say anything. The truth was I didn’t really notice until they were all formed and popped anyway, so I just kept going. When we got back to the house, as we were pulling off our boots, Otoniel jokingly said how nice a cold beer would be. Lilian, however handed us two cold Imperials from the fridge. We looked at each other, raised our eyebrows and toasted our cold beers. After our break, we climed up on the roof of the storage shed and patched some little holes that we were gonna patch yesterday but couldn’t cuz it was raining. We are going to take a couple days off before finishing up the field. Tomorrow he has to use the machine weed whacker to clear the front yard, so I am going to haul away all of the debris that we chopped today while he is doing that.

Afternoon bread and coffee number who knows what

3:36pm and it is still raining as hard as ever. I spent the morning painting while Lilian was cleaning house. After lunch I laid down in my bed and ended up passing out for about two hours. I didn’t even think I was sleepy but it is amazing what a full stomach, a gloomy day and sound of rain can do. It is not looking like Working or Running s going to happen today so I guess I will just sip my coffee, eat my cake and finish my paining. I wanted to do something but I haven’t really had a day like this in ages.

I finished the paining right as Otoniel was getting back. I never get to just sit down and finish paintings any more. It was a lot of fun. When Otoniel got back, I was still a little anxious from sitting inside all day. I didn’t work at all, I didn’t end up going running with Eduardo aaand I took a long nap. In an attempt to be somewhat useful, I helped Otoniel bag the one eighth of a cow that he had just spent all day butchering. It was cool seeing all of the cuts of meat and realizing that they had been a cow that morning. You might think that would be gross, but it is so much more natural that way, knowing exactly where it came from, that those four men had labored all day to prepare it and that none of it was wasted. In fact, we got the tongue. Lilian looked up a recipe for tongue and salsa that we are going to make tomorrow and we had liver and onions in a tortilla last night and this morning in our rice and beans. mmmmm

Bowl number 45

The idea was that I was gonna make up for sitting around all day yesterday, by being really active today. I was going to make a point to working for a long time this morning even if it just meant weeding and stuff while Otoniel continued working on the fence. It has been raining all morning though. It is only 8:30 but I am not sure when Otoniel will be back. He usually is home by about 8:00 or 8:30 but he had to go kill a cow this morning at Alicia’s brothers’ farm. If it clears up, I may still just go out and find something useful to do. I may just spend the morning reading or maybe I will start paining something. It is weird because I both have lots of free time and also don’t have a lot of free time. I spend the day running, working on the farm, hanging out with Eduardito, playing soccer etc… there is a lot of “dead” time spent at the house where I am just sitting around. It seems like a waste of time to just sit around the living room while the T.V is on, the radio is on, and everyone is talking, but that is life. I could easily “accomplish” a lot more if I used all of this time that I spend sitting around the house “doing” something but I wouldn’t really be living here. I sit around with them, watching goofy Spanish T.V., talking with them about the day’s events and joking with them about who knows what. Costa Rican have the funniest sense of humor, or at least the people in San Luis do. Everyone, whether it is the kitchen ladies, Geovanny and Liliam, or my sixty-something year-old parents, everybody gets a kick out of dirty humor. I am not really sure how they do it, but some how it is such a joke that it isn’t even vulgar. I mean we talk about things at the dinner table that would make you blush and we all die laughing. Usually one person says something kind of inappropriate then someone else makes and even bigger joke out of it, then someone else takes it a little further until no one can say anything else because we are all laughing so hard. It is especially funny because I used to not understand most of it but now there is not much that I miss and of course every time I chime in it is that much funnier. They always joke about how much I am learning here. The truth is learning to understand humor has sharpened my Spanish skills a great deal. You have to understand the different meanings of things, you have to apply what you know about the context of the conversation and you have to be quick. When Alex and I were at Lelo’s last week for instance, we were all joking around at dinner (surprise) and Lelo and his wife commented on how surprised they were that I understood them when they were talking so fast because even Lindsay a lot of the time doesn’t catch everything when they are speaking that quickly. I am not nearly as good at Spanish as Lindsay but I spend my days with a family that is constantly chatting away and making jokes all day long. When they are talking only to me they usually slow things down, but amongst themselves they are a mile a minute so it is either get used to it, or not be a part of daily conversation.

Bowl number 39

So Alex, Scott, Kate and I decided we were going to try and get in shape for la Carrera Reserva Monteverde, a 12 kilometer trail/road race through Santa Elena and the Monteverde reserve. I highly doubt that it I will be able to run it even if we do train everyday for a month, which is the plan. It will still be nice to try and push myself to get in shape for something and if we do it that would be awesome. I watched a video of a 10k that Eduardito did here in February and it looked absolutely brutal. The hills are insane and practically the whole thing is hills, not to mention the fact that I couldn’t even do a flat 12k right now. Today was only the second day of “training” it wears me out but I like it so far. I think I will start to enjoy it more once I get used to running here.
Today has been pretty lazy, besides waking up and running, I have just hung out with Eduardito doing random things around the house. Otoniel is building a fence, which I helped with yesterday by helping haul the posts out of the woods as he cut them and I helped him dig some of them in. There wasn’t much for me to do today though, so Eduardo and I just walked around playing with the camera.

bowl number 37

Sundays we don’t have to work so after breakfast, Otoniel and I were even less in a hurry than usual to finish our coffee. We somehow got started talking about politics. It was awesome. I got such a great perspective from him. We talked all about agriculture and land ownership and government regulation and his childhood and the differences between how things were then and how they are now. We had both very similar opinions and also very different perspectives. When you are studying all of these things from a book, everything seems pretty straight-forward. I go the opportunity to here complaints and questions from the actual people that are living these lives and depending on these resources and being affected by these policies. I got to ask genuine questions, bring up points that countered his points and also got a lot of really good answers to some of the objections that I raised. We both have respect for the other person. Neither one of us viewed it as an argument because neither one of us was out to “win.” We were just having a good time venting our own frustrations about a common problem and enjoying bouncing our ideas off of each other to see what the other had to say.
I spent most of the morning killing time down at the eco-lodge. Alex and all of the naturalists and I just sat around and hung out, played Frisbee for a little while. It is fun getting to know al of them. Alex and Scott and I decided to go on a short run, so I went back to the house to change clothes. Marlen (Otoniel and Alicia’s oldest daughter) and her daughter Catalina were at the house when I arrived. I was excited to see them but they thought they would be leaving by about three which was right around when I would be getting back fro my run. I had lunch with them and got to visit for a little while before leaving. Our run was pretty short but really hilly and it was raining the whole time, which actually felt really nice. I did all right considering I was running with two guys that were in good shape but I had to stop at the lodge when we turned around and they kept going for a little longer. By the time I got back to the lodge, Geovanny was getting off of work and asked me if I wanted a ride back. I told him Marlen and Catalina had been there and might still be there when we got back. When we pulled up to the house it was fuuuull of people. Celimo (Marlen’s husband) and the rest of their children were there, plus Otoniel, Alicia, Lilian, and Julio. Including Geovanny and me, there were 13 people at the little house. It was a lot of fun to get to see all of them. I wasn’t sure when I was going to make it up to their house. I am never really sure if I will have anything to do on Sundays, but I got to talk politics, get to know the naturalists better, go on a run and visit with “family.”

Bowl number 31

The rains came. It has been cloudy and thundering off and on for the lat few days and it has even rained a little but yesterday the sky finally opened up. It had started raining while I was at the eco-lodge. When it calmed down a little bit, I decided I should head back since I didn’t have a rain jacket or anything with me. I my computer and camera in a trash bag that I got from the kitchen ladies. Seconds after I started up the trail I heard a roar. I practically ran un the hill, knowing that it didn’t matter anyway, I was gonna get soaked and I was. I walked up to the house, pulled off my sopping tennis shoes and socks tried to ring out my hair and clothes as much as possible before entering the house. Geovanny had just gotten back and both laughed when I came in dripping and panting. I changed out of my clothes and changed into a sweatshirt and shorts (nothing feels better than changing out of wet clothes into soft dry ones, and joined them in the living room. We all had our afternoon snack and coffee. After a short while Eduardito walked up with his rain jacket and umbrella. I hadn’t seen Eduardo since last year but had talked to him on Geovanny’s skype a couple of times. Eduardito is a 14-year-old neighbor that is always ready to go have fun doing random things with me. Last year, we built pools in the river, threw rocks at guavas, played soccer with his cousins, had a guayaba war, etc.. He is in classes right now but his vacation starts in a couple of weeks. It rained pretty hard for a lot of the afternoon so we all(Lilian, Eduardito, Geovanny and I) just messed around the house. We had pillow fights, watched a little T.V. danced a little. After Geovanny left to work Lilian, Eduardito and I played Frisbee for a little while. We played in the front yard and we were literally inside of the clouds. Everywhere you looked was white. You could only see vague outlines of the mountains and the trees. After dinner, Eduardo and I played hang man, and drew pictures but eventually ran out of things to do. He said we should go hike around in the dark. I said ok and he said no really and I said ok and he said no really I’m serious and I said ok let’s go and he said let’s go, so I got up and we went. We didn’t really know where to go so we hiked down the trail to the eco-lodge. It was really cool looking at night. It was pitch black except for the distant lightning that you could see through the trees. At one point an owl flew right over our heads. It landed on a low branch right above us and stayed there for a while, while we looked at it before flying away. A few moments after we got back home it started POURING down rain again. Pretty good timing. The rest of the night consisted of hanging out with Geovanny and Eduardito. Edurdito even gave me a brief History lesson about a famous Costa Rican battle that he had studied in school.

Breakfast at Lelo's

The game was a lot of fun. I pulled something earlier yesterday when I was playing at 12:00 so I could hardly run or kick the ball. That was really frustrating because we were playing with new people and I was pretty useless. I did tell them when we were playing a shooting game at the beginning that I couldn’t shoot because I had pulled something earlier. They said it doesn’t matter, that I could use my left foot. I rolled my eyes and took my three shots. They were actually pretty good and I made one of the goals. We played from about 4:30 ‘til it got dark at about 6:00. The field is amazing. We were playing soccer surrounded by misty mountains on all sides and there were flocks of little emerald parrots squawking and flying back and forth over us the whole time. Alex and I walked back to Lelo’s ranch and sat and chatted with his wife and him and drank a couple of cold beers. Dinner was delicious. Lelo wouldn’t let us pay. I tried to insist since he was already giving us a place to bathe and sleep but he refused. By 9:30 or so we were all wiped out. I had no trouble falling asleep, but I woke up in the middle of the night and had trouble going back to sleep. It was a particularly hot night and super humid. At one point it started to pour rain. The roof of the house is tin and it was incredible how loud the roar of the rain was. By the early morning it had cooled off and I slipped in and out of sleep. At about 6:00 I heard “Laura, hay café ya si quiere” So I got up, folded my blanket and had coffee and empanadas with everyone before Lindsay cam to pick Alex and I up and take us to the eco-lodge.

Bowl number 23

First meal at the eco-lodge so far. This morning Alex and I went to Santa Elena again with Lelos. It was a lot of fun. Lelos is so great. He knows everyone and is always inviting us to to fun things in the community. There is a soccer game in Santa Elena on Sunday for example. He and some other people are going to go dance at Bar Amigos on Friday because there will be a good live group playing and he told me I should come to the pig killing, which Otoniel and Julio had told me they had to do. I told him no thanks because it sounds awful but he told me yea the killing part is ugly but sitting around with everyone, eating and drinking is great. We will see… So Alex and I are going to walk down to where Lelos’ ranch is in Bajo San Luis. There is a really nice soccer field there and he has invited a bunch of people to come play a big pick-up game. It should be pretty crazy. I am going to be soooo tired. It is about an hour walk down there and would be about an hour and half back, so he told us we could just hang out there afterward, eat Tilapia, dance and stuff at his place with everyone, spend the night and he would drive us back in the morning when he goes to work. Should be pretty fun.

Bowl number 20

Otoniel and I spent the morning shoveling rotten food and worms yesterday. A group from last year came and funded the building of this nice, shaded bodega area with closed mesh walls and everything. The purpose o fit was to be a vermiculture (worm raising) house. They put all of the tubs and worms and everything in it, but they left and Otoniel hasn’t known what to do with it for the past nine months. After checking out what the setup was like and talking to Otoniel about what he was doing and what wasn’t working, I e-mailed one of my professors and looked up some stuff online. I told him what I though we should do and he was happy to try it out as soon as possible. We will see what happens. After work, I went to the eco-lodge to use the internet and to play soccer at 12:00. Alex and I are now expected to come play with them. It is so great. After soccer I went back home because Francini, the ten-year-old daughter of one of the kitchen ladies, was at our house for the afternoon and I told her I would be there to see her. We watched “The Aristogatos” hahah (The Aristocats) and played around in the yard until about 3:00. Lilian and I were alone yesterday because Otoniel and Alicia had to go to town. After dinner we took my ipod player out, put it on full blast and danced around the house. The dancing lasted about and hour and ended in Lilian getting tired and me continuing alone, pretending to dance regaeton and acting like an idiot.

Tilapia!

I usually sit around in my pajamas and read and/or talk to Alicia before Otoniel gets back and then change into working clothes after we finish breakfast. Yesterday however, I got dressed first because every time I go out in the morning, Otoniel has already watered the seeds, which I keep saying that I will do. I’m sure he doesn’t care at all but I decided I would beat him to it. So after breakfast, two people stop by and by the time they are both gone it is almost 10:00 and we still hadn’t gone out to work. I asked him if we were working today and he said it’ s Sunday. It is our free day. Anxious to do something, I went down to the eco-lodge. I hung out around there talking to the staff and reading my book. A short time after I got back, Lindsay called to see if I wanted to go down to Lelo’s ranch. She was taking Matt, the new assistant director, and Alex. We left at 4:00 and stayed till 7:00. It was so great. Lindsay gave us a tour of all of san Luis on our way there because Lelo’s is in Lower San Luis and we are in Alto San Luis. It was pretty much just us four and Lelo’s family. It was a lot of fun Alex and Matt are so nice I get along with both of them really well. Lindsay treated us to a drink and fresh caught, fried tilapia. We ate and drank and talked and walked around Lelo’s ranch and then went back to the eco-lodge for dance lessons! I was amazed and delighted that everything came back to me really fast. I danced with Elisha, one of the naturalists who knew what he was doing. We had a great time. The classes last almost two hours and we danced the whole time.

Bowl number 13

Yesterday after breakfast I worked on the farm with Otoniel. We finished pretty early so I went down to the ecolodge before lunch to send e-mails and stuff. While I was down there Miguel, one of the guys that I had played soccer with the day before, asked me if I was going to play again today. I told him I wanted to but I was going to “un te de canasta” (a baby shower) with Alicia and Lilian later. A little later Alex walked by and asked if I was going to play and I told him I didn’t think I could. Then Geovanny came and said hello and asked if I was going to play and I told him about the “te.” He told me I would have time anyway so I ended up playing with them. It was just as fun as the first time and just as exhausting. At one point I asked what time it was and they told me it was 12:45. I ran off the field right up to the trail to go home. I was already panting and sore from soccer, then I walked (very very slowly) straight up a small mountain. I arrived home red and sweaty but I showered and gulped down some water with plenty of time before we left for baby shower. It was held in the Gymnasium of the school right down the street so it didn’t take long to get there. It was pretty much all women and a ton of little kids. They played all sorts of games and always had one round for kids and another for adults. I got to meet a few more neighbors and stuff and I got to say hello to some of the people I knew from last year. It was a pretty weird feeling to be somewhere where I should have felt so out of place, In the middle of the mountains of Costa Rica in a tin-roofed school gym at some ones baby shower where no one speaks English, but I had people coming up and greeting me and asking how I have been.

Bowl number ten + pizza

Ok scratch that last one. I came back to the house around 1:30 and Alicia asked me if I had eaten. I told her no but I wasn’t hungry, that I had eaten ice cream at la fabrica and then played soccer. However while I was sitting in the living room she brought out a bowl of rice and a bowl of beans and some sausage. So…Bowl number nine. Then tonight Lilian made a pizza and a calzone. It is so funny eating rural Costa Rica version of pizza and calzone haha or as Lilian jokingly called it, empanada de pizza☺ It was really good. It had homemade pizza crust that was good but uniquely latin american and ham and onions and peppers and cheese and whatever else was on it. I thought I might not have rice and beans for one meal today after all but when Alicia asked if we were to have rice too. Otoniel responded with “Si no hay arroz, no hay comida. Si no hay frijoles, no hay comida.” I couldn’t have come up with a more perfect quote for this blog. So even though I thought for sure I would not be eating rice and beans with my pizza, when the bowl of rice and the bowl of beans were sitting right in front of me, I succumbed to them. What can I say?

Bowl number ten + pizza

Ok scratch that last one. I came back to the house around 1:30 and Alicia asked me if I had eaten. I told her no but I wasn’t hungry, that I had eaten ice cream at la fabrica and then played soccer. However while I was sitting in the living room she brought out a bowl of rice and a bowl of beans and some sausage. So…Bowl number nine. Then tonight Lilian made a pizza and a calzone. It is so funny eating rural Costa Rica version of pizza and calzone haha or as Lilian jokingly called it, empanada de pizza☺ It was really good. It had homemade pizza crust that was good but uniquely latin american and ham and onions and peppers and cheese and whatever else was on it. I thought I might not have rice and beans for one meal today after all but when Alicia asked if we were to have rice too. Otoniel responded with “Si no hay arroz, no hay comida. Si no hay frijoles, no hay comida.” I couldn’t have come up with a more perfect quote for this blog. So even though I thought for sure I would not be eating rice and beans with my pizza, when the bowl of rice and the bowl of beans were sitting right in front of me, I succumbed to them. What can I say?

First bowl of rice and beans skipped

After we got back I hung out on the porch for a little while and sent some e-mails. Alex asked me if I wanted to kick around the soccer ball for a little while cuz we had been talking with Lelo earlier about playing. We were out on the little field for a bout 15 minutes and a bunch of the guys who work at the lodge, including Lelo and Julio walked up. They play at 12:00 every day for about a half an hour. We split up into teams and played until 12:30. It was a lot of fun. It was really laid back but competitive at the same time. We were shirts and the other team was skins by virtue of the fact that I am a girl. I managed to not embarrass myself but was pretty exhausted by the end. We finished panting and red and sweaty. When we walked into the dining hall, all I really wanted was some water and to enjoy the shade and the cross breeze. I suppose we are down to two hundred and fifty one total bowls of rice and beans.

Ice cream number one

So this morning I went to Santa Elena with Lelo and another student here, Alex. Lelo was so nice about taking us with him. He took me everywhere I needed to go to look for my materials. We talked a lot the whole time. He kept telling us about different things we could do and places we could go. He showed us some restaurants where he had friends and family that worked there and told us if we went with him it would be very cheap. After we all finished running the errands we needed, he invited us to have ice cream at the cheese factory on the way back because Alex had never tried it. He ended up treating us both to our cups of ice cream and bought us a packet of the homemade caramel that they make there. Again, big surprise, everyone is incredibly nice here.

Bowl number eight

Yesterday I talked to Fabricio about getting the materials for my project. He is really really nice (surprise). We talked about what all I needed and what he though would be easiest to get and where to get it. This morning Lelo, one of the workers here and the same guy that has the tilapia bar in Bajo San Luis that we went to last year, is going into Santa Elena so I am going to go with him and he is going to help me find my materials. Because we are leaving at 7:30, I told Alicia that I could eat breakfast at the ecolodge with a group that was eating early, but of course when I woke up this morning at 6:30 she was already making breakfast: chicharon, platanos fritos, y pinto. I ate quickly and chugged some coffee and here I am at the eco-lodge waiting to go to town.

Bowl number six

This morning I chopped up the cilantro and the onion. I’m working my way up. This morning was also my first morning of work. After breakfast I accompanied Otoniel to harvest a bag of lettuce and bring it down to the eco-lodge. I always feel a little embarrassed tagging along behind Otoniel when we go down to campus, but the kitchen ladies smiled and waved and Julio came up behind me and gave me a hug. I continue to under estimate how welcoming everyone is. After we dropped off the lettuce, Otoniel took me by the pens where the new baby cows (terneros) are. When we got back we worked on the farm until lunch. It was great. It was sunny but there is always a strong breeze. We prepared some land with the compost that I had helped him make the year before. After preparing the areas we wanted, we planted lettuce, cabbage, carrots and cilantro. We always talk a lot about the farm while we are working. We talk about what he tries, what works, what doesn’t work; We talk about why things work the way they do etc… It is the most practical, most laid-back, hands on learning experience. It is rewarding to wake up and do manual labor every morning and as far a farm-work goes it is pretty nice. After our first round of hauling compost and preparation and planting, we took a water break and Lilian had made fresca de papaya, which is fresh papaya in a blender with water and a little sugar. After finishing up the rest of the planting for the day we went inside and ate lunch: rice, beans, some sort of mashed potatoes with spices, some ground beef with onions and peppers, and chimichuri, which is pretty much the same thing as salsa fresca.