I thought the United States was bad....Christmas stuff has already hit the stores full-force here!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Autumnal Whisperings
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. - John Muir
Today I went for a short hike at dusk. I cannot even begin to describe the beauty Copey holds at this time of night. But I will try.
First, imagine a quaint little town tucked in a tiny, tiny valley high in the Costa Rican mountains surrounded on all sides by various shapes and sizes of lush, emerald hills. Now imagine being able to walk up any of those roads/trails to see what's tucked around/in/between/beyond and below them. Now, imagine dusk - that warm golden glow of the sun casting it's light and long shadows upon which it falls. The big dome above still half blue from the day with small, puffy clouds turning mixed hues of pink and orange, and the other half to the west - a flat, white gray where the fog takes shape. It's that very fog that begins to gently cascade lower and lower amongst the hills and into the valley as the sun sets deeper far beyond them, only casting remaining slivers of brilliance here and there. It hangs just below the mountain tops, leaving a vast opening behind the tops themselves, creating a magical illusion of floating peaks. That's why they call this mystical place a cloud forest- where billowy clouds marry the lush, succulent flora. Looking down, the dirt is wet, the rocks in the road are smooth and glassy yet jagged, puddles of water left over from the afternoon's rains look like chocolate milk, and leaves are scattered about...those oversized, polished leaves that evolve with the seasons into new shades of pigment.
On the way back down, as the light dwindled, I stopped to notice these leaves. Something was strange. One, there were leaves on the ground in the first place. Two, these leaves weren't green. They had turned to a golden shade of autumn with black spots, as if just past their prime. And three, Fall doesn't happen in Costa Rica! I took a deep breath, a cool breath of the fresh air and re-evaluted. Where was I? This surely felt like Fall as my scarf engulfed me and my thin jacket didn't stop the chills from occurring. Surely, this did not feel like Costa Rica, as in Costa Rica only two season exist - rainy and dry (also known as humid and hot). As autumn being my favorite season, I didn't care where I was, it just felt amazing to feel the world ripe with autumn, if only for one short walk.
Like the leaves and trees and winds of autumn, I too, experience change during this time of year....even where autumn doesn't exist. Things are a-changin'. How so, you may ask. Well, mostly work-wise, life-wise, all around just -wise. I'm getting into the groove of things. I'm learning that this really is pura vida, as they say, and no one is really too concerned about things. It's okay that meetings go four hours and nothing gets accomplished; it's okay that when it rains no one leaves their houses, its okay that everything closes for lunch, it's okay that it takes 5 months to paint a world map on a wall, it's O. K. Everything here is OKAY. PURA VIDA.
This land of pura vida is becoming not so foreign like it once was. Things are becoming commonplace: I'm no longer annoyed at how much rice and beans everyone eats. I'm no longer bothered that no one here has carpet in their houses. I'm no longer frustrated that I spend half the days doing very little. I'm no longer sickened that I have to share my room with probably 20 different species of spiders. I'm no longer frustrated by my spanish ability. I'm no longer bothered that every bakery in the country has the exact same thing (okay, that's a lie, I'm a baked good snob). I'm no longer wishing I was somewhere else a lot of the time (just some times, but hey, the grass is always greener...). I'm no longer bothered by the fact that bugs like me, and they will eat my legs to pieces. I'm no longer angry that I have to sleep on pieces of foam and wooden slats. I have just learned to deal. Call it cultural adjustment. Call it complacency. Call it what you may. But ch-ch-ch-changes are occurring, and I couldn't be happier with that fact.
I realize I haven't talked much about work. Well, to be honest, that's because there hasn't been a ton. As stated above, things take TIME to get accomplished here. If it isn't the rain, it's another thing. And trust is important - trusting to do work with a white person who just moves into your community for two years. Today, though however, marked day one of my girls empowerment group, Chicas Podersosas. Out of 12 girls, I was very pleased that 9 showed up to the first meeting. I fear that when I listed the themes for the three-month program on a permission slip to the parents including one as "sexuality and dating," I scared off a number of extremely Catholic mothers trying to protect their innocent 5th and 6th grade daughters from the "sexually-liberal" American who is probably going to shove condoms in their daughters' faces and tell them to go have sex. Well, not the case, and I assured the mothers who expressed concern over this topic that I would do none of the sorts. Anyway, day one went well, and things are moving along. Slowly but surely. Now I just have to figure out how to teach a group of sixth graders about the concept of 'ecological footprint'...in spanish on Friday. All sorts of other mini-projects are up my sleeve and currently in the works too. More on those in the future...
So, as I head to bed tonight, I am tucked under two blankets and my down sleeping bag, as I am every night. Every night here in my bedroom, my little cave tucked aside from my host-family's house, it feels like Fall. And today, out in the world, felt exceptionally like Fall. I don't know if it was the dusk, the cool, crisp feeling in the air, the feeling of normalcy being in this culture or the feeling that I am actually being needed here now, but I do know every year when this time rolls around, I too, become rich like the colors of the leaves.
"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." ~George Eliot
Today I went for a short hike at dusk. I cannot even begin to describe the beauty Copey holds at this time of night. But I will try.
First, imagine a quaint little town tucked in a tiny, tiny valley high in the Costa Rican mountains surrounded on all sides by various shapes and sizes of lush, emerald hills. Now imagine being able to walk up any of those roads/trails to see what's tucked around/in/between/beyond and below them. Now, imagine dusk - that warm golden glow of the sun casting it's light and long shadows upon which it falls. The big dome above still half blue from the day with small, puffy clouds turning mixed hues of pink and orange, and the other half to the west - a flat, white gray where the fog takes shape. It's that very fog that begins to gently cascade lower and lower amongst the hills and into the valley as the sun sets deeper far beyond them, only casting remaining slivers of brilliance here and there. It hangs just below the mountain tops, leaving a vast opening behind the tops themselves, creating a magical illusion of floating peaks. That's why they call this mystical place a cloud forest- where billowy clouds marry the lush, succulent flora. Looking down, the dirt is wet, the rocks in the road are smooth and glassy yet jagged, puddles of water left over from the afternoon's rains look like chocolate milk, and leaves are scattered about...those oversized, polished leaves that evolve with the seasons into new shades of pigment.
On the way back down, as the light dwindled, I stopped to notice these leaves. Something was strange. One, there were leaves on the ground in the first place. Two, these leaves weren't green. They had turned to a golden shade of autumn with black spots, as if just past their prime. And three, Fall doesn't happen in Costa Rica! I took a deep breath, a cool breath of the fresh air and re-evaluted. Where was I? This surely felt like Fall as my scarf engulfed me and my thin jacket didn't stop the chills from occurring. Surely, this did not feel like Costa Rica, as in Costa Rica only two season exist - rainy and dry (also known as humid and hot). As autumn being my favorite season, I didn't care where I was, it just felt amazing to feel the world ripe with autumn, if only for one short walk.Like the leaves and trees and winds of autumn, I too, experience change during this time of year....even where autumn doesn't exist. Things are a-changin'. How so, you may ask. Well, mostly work-wise, life-wise, all around just -wise. I'm getting into the groove of things. I'm learning that this really is pura vida, as they say, and no one is really too concerned about things. It's okay that meetings go four hours and nothing gets accomplished; it's okay that when it rains no one leaves their houses, its okay that everything closes for lunch, it's okay that it takes 5 months to paint a world map on a wall, it's O. K. Everything here is OKAY. PURA VIDA.
This land of pura vida is becoming not so foreign like it once was. Things are becoming commonplace: I'm no longer annoyed at how much rice and beans everyone eats. I'm no longer bothered that no one here has carpet in their houses. I'm no longer frustrated that I spend half the days doing very little. I'm no longer sickened that I have to share my room with probably 20 different species of spiders. I'm no longer frustrated by my spanish ability. I'm no longer bothered that every bakery in the country has the exact same thing (okay, that's a lie, I'm a baked good snob). I'm no longer wishing I was somewhere else a lot of the time (just some times, but hey, the grass is always greener...). I'm no longer bothered by the fact that bugs like me, and they will eat my legs to pieces. I'm no longer angry that I have to sleep on pieces of foam and wooden slats. I have just learned to deal. Call it cultural adjustment. Call it complacency. Call it what you may. But ch-ch-ch-changes are occurring, and I couldn't be happier with that fact.
I realize I haven't talked much about work. Well, to be honest, that's because there hasn't been a ton. As stated above, things take TIME to get accomplished here. If it isn't the rain, it's another thing. And trust is important - trusting to do work with a white person who just moves into your community for two years. Today, though however, marked day one of my girls empowerment group, Chicas Podersosas. Out of 12 girls, I was very pleased that 9 showed up to the first meeting. I fear that when I listed the themes for the three-month program on a permission slip to the parents including one as "sexuality and dating," I scared off a number of extremely Catholic mothers trying to protect their innocent 5th and 6th grade daughters from the "sexually-liberal" American who is probably going to shove condoms in their daughters' faces and tell them to go have sex. Well, not the case, and I assured the mothers who expressed concern over this topic that I would do none of the sorts. Anyway, day one went well, and things are moving along. Slowly but surely. Now I just have to figure out how to teach a group of sixth graders about the concept of 'ecological footprint'...in spanish on Friday. All sorts of other mini-projects are up my sleeve and currently in the works too. More on those in the future...
So, as I head to bed tonight, I am tucked under two blankets and my down sleeping bag, as I am every night. Every night here in my bedroom, my little cave tucked aside from my host-family's house, it feels like Fall. And today, out in the world, felt exceptionally like Fall. I don't know if it was the dusk, the cool, crisp feeling in the air, the feeling of normalcy being in this culture or the feeling that I am actually being needed here now, but I do know every year when this time rolls around, I too, become rich like the colors of the leaves.
"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." ~George Eliot
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