Playing nurse, interviews, masks and fleas.

We have just returned to Las Cruces, our quasi-jungle-home-base, after a long week of adventures.  We left here early Monday morning and went to Las Alturas, which is a huge, private farm in the southwest corner of Costa Rica.  A wealthy American bought the farm (literally) and pays a bunch of people (46, to be exact) to keep things running smoothly, which includes maintaining forest trails, and caring for a couple hundred dairy cows, some chickens, organic vegetables, composting and bee harvesting.  The weird thing is that all these people live within the private land, with their families, so there's a complete town.  There's a store, a clinic (more on that soon), a school, a church (duh) and private garbage pick-up.  We got a tour and settled into our lodge and took really cold showers.  Over the next day and a half, our group divided into three and rotated between helping our professor/doctor in the clinic, walking through the jungle with our ethnobotanist professor or interviewing local families.  The clinic was really cool; many of the people there are Ngobe (an indigenous group) and their interactions with our Tico (non-indigenous), male doctor were very interesting.  I got to shadow Jorge (the doc), takes weights, heights and blood pressure and hold screaming babies.  It was a really great experience.  The last afternoon, I took the toughest hike of my life, but ended up in a place where there is only primary forest as far as the eye can see.  It was a pretty incredible feeling, despite the sweat.

On Thursday morning we moved to Boruca, which is a territory in the southeast corner of Costa Rica inhabited by the Brunka people, another indigenous group.  We stayed in homestays there, which were not so different from our homestays in San Pedro, except that my house didn't have a toilet seat or sink.  Everyone had TVs, though, and the requisite creche left over from Christmas.  During our time there, I was in a small group charged with interviewing women about midwifery and childbirth and we learned a ton about the transition from traditional birth to a more westernized version.  Besides the research and accompanying report, we learned about the traditions of mask-making and spinning, dying and weaving and how to make empanadas.  I even got to paint a mask myself!  (It looks nothing like these, I can assure you.  It's a Holstein jaguar.)

We returned to Las Cruces today and had a busy afternoon of analyzing and presenting the results of our research.  The other important news is that I am covered (covered) in bites.  Some are chiggers, which are awful, invisible-to-the-naked-eye little guys that burrow into your skin and snack in there, then die.  It is incredibly itchy and I've got a bunch right around my waistline.  Some of the girls have them much worse, though, so I can't complain about those.  I also have some other kind of bite, which is either smallpox or fleas.  My global health professor seems to think it's fleas, since smallpox is, you know, eradicated.  But they're everywhere and yucky and I hate them.  I'm happy to be back in a bed I know is clean, with warm water too.
Speaking of beds, I won't be here long!  We head to Panama on Tuesday, with more trips to indigenous groups, midterms and a Spring Break trip to Colombia with Gabe coming right after that!  I miss you all and I'll be in touch soon!

A Weekend of Hebrew, Clouds and Waterfalls.

I am taking a deserved, but ill-advised break from my mountains of homework to write a quick update about the last week.  We finished our classes at the Costa Rican Language Academy on Friday, after a 3-hour exam on Wednesday and a 30 minute oral presentation earlier in the week.  On Friday, we went the University of Costa Rica and visited the bug museum.  My crazy profesora Mariela was eager to hold the tarantula that someone had caught in their kitchen and brought to the museum that morning.


After class ended on Friday (woohoo!), some friends and I went to Avenida Central, which is a long, pedestrian-only street with tons of stores and vendors.  As many of you know, I am not into shopping, but I am into not getting hit by cars and I am into cows, so I was excited to find this cow statue in the middle of the street.

As evening approached, I left my friends and headed off in search of the only reformed synagogue in Costa Rica.  I had been in touch with the Rabbi earlier in the week and had sent a bunch of information to prove I'm not a terrorist and they gave me permission to come to Friday night services.  After buying a map, walking for two hours and taking an 800 meter cab ride, I made it!  I pulled on some nice pants over my shorts in the middle of the sidewalk, then spoke with the security guard and got clearance.  Services were really nice; I recognized some of the tunes and was amazed at how much of the Hebrew I remembered.  I met some nice people, almost all Americans, and was given a ride home by one of the few Costa Ricans.  It was a really nice night, but it made me miss Shabbat at Tufts and the people I normally spent it with.

Saturday began at 4:30am and ended around 10:30pm.  Some friends and I went on an organized, educational trip to a waterfall/volcano/bright blue river about 5 hours north of San Jose.  It rained most of the day, so the river was brown instead of blue and it was too cloudy to see the volcano, but the waterfall was really powerful from the rain.  It was a fun day, but pretty exhausting.

On Sunday, I went to visit a volcano that's very close to San Jose, which is called Irazu.  It is active, but you can go all the way to the top and walk around the crater.  No one warned me that it would be absolutely freezing cold on top, so I was shocked to get out of the bus into the middle of an icy-cold cloud in my shorts and t-shirt.  Because it was so cloudy, we couldn't see into the crater, though I believe it was deep because all I could see was.... cloud.  We walked around for 15 minutes, then spent 2 hours sitting in lodge, warming up and chatting.

The coolest part of the volcano was the white-nosed coati that we saw standing next to the lodge when we walked up.  Cute little guy, considering it's a relative of the racoon.

Our group spent Valentine's Day taking the 6-hour bus ride back to the jungle (YAY) and learning about diarrhea and female circumcision.  Not the most romantic Valentine's Day I've ever had, but I did get to talk to Gabe while I did my pages and pages of reading later in the evening, which cheered me up.  This week brings tons and tons of class, and we're starting a month-long period of moving locations every week so I have a feeling the days are going to fly by.  Until next time, pura vida!

Another Week in the City (and the BEACH!)

We've spent the last week in San Jose, taking intensive Spanish classes and trying to get to know the city a little.  It's been really busy though; 4 days of week we have 5 hours of Spanish and the other 2 days, we have 10 hours of class (5 of Spanish and 5 of Global Health/Medicine).  It's been fun to be in the city and I think I'm getting better at crossing the road, though I still sprint.  Trust me, I blend in so well with my blond hair, bookbag and sprints across the Pan-American Highway.  This weekend, we went to the beach in Jaco, which is on the Pacific side, just west of San Jose.  We arrived Saturday night after class, and stayed in a (kind of gross) hostel, then spent Sunday on the beach.  The water was very, very warm, but so was the tropical sun.  I reapplied sunscreen a few times, but I still managed to miss a few tiny spots, so I have some bright red splotches in various places.  The waves were huge, and I spent more time than I've ever spent in the water.  Unfortunately, the bus we took home had standing-room only, so I stood for the two hour bus ride home and I was pretty tired and roasted when we finally got back to San Jose.  This week holds a lot more Spanish, including a paper and a 30-minute oral presentation about a comparison of the dairy industries in the U.S. and in Costa Rica, and then a final exam.  We've also got some field trips to visit local health care centers and a hospital.  I hope all is well elsewhere in the world.

Out of the Jungle

Time for another update, this time from San Jose.  We’ve been in San Pedro, a city right next to the capital city of San Jose, since Wednesday.  I’ve been living with my host mother, Mayra, her daughter, Christina, and her son, David since we arrived and attending intensive Spanish classes at the Costa Rican Language Institute for five hours each day.  My host family is really nice and helpful, especially David.  He is 18 and speaks very good English, though he only speaks Spanish with me, in order to help me practice.  I’ve learned (not without some adventures) how to walk to school, how to take the buses and how to cross the Pan-American Highway where there are no crosswalks and people drive like maniacs.  It’s hard to tell is my Spanish is improving at all, but I’m certainly getting more comfortable and things I learned long ago are coming back, albeit slowly. 

We visited the national museum, where I found these balls of rock and I’ve spent a little time exploring San Pedro and my hometown, Lourdes, but I decided that I wanted to spend my free Sunday checking out some churches.  Not only are there churches every where in Costa Rica, but they are absolutely beautiful.  They certainly don’t have that Puritan-influenced, New England look that I’m used to.  I asked my host family what time services are held on Sundays for the church on the corner, but they told me I should take the bus to Cartago to see the National Church, which is essentially the basilica of Costa Rica.  Cartago is the old capital of Costa Rica and is about a 30 minute bus ride from the center of San Pedro.  So I set off from my house this morning and spent about 4 hours walking around Cartago.  I got off the bus in front of an incredibly beautiful church and sat inside for services.  I don’t think I’d ever seen so many people in a church.  I walked around and saw the ruins of an old fort, a road race with tons of entertainment, three other gorgeous churches, plus some impressive government buildings.  I thought I was pretty much ready to go, so I spent the next 2 ½ hours looking for the bus stop to go home.  In my wanderings (and I mean wanderings,) I turned a corner and saw what was quite literally a breath-taking sight.  Right in front of me was the basilica.

The other church I had seen was beautiful, but had nothing on the real thing; the basilica stretched on and on and the sheer whiteness of the structure seemed so majestic among the red and orange buildings.  I ventured inside and caught the end of services, then looked around for a while before continuing my quest for the bus, which I eventually found and took home.  I certainly found some churches! The project for next weekend is to find one of the three synagogues in San Jose and check that out as well.  This week also holds (a lot) more Spanish, a trip to visit the Cabecar indigenous group, and more exploring San Jose.

Week One

I'm sitting outside my cabin at the Las Cruces Biological Station, and it's about 65*F and sunny.  Not only is the weather perfect, but the plants and animals in the Botanical Gardens make it all smell and sound wonderful.  To give a quick update on what's been going on over the past few days:  We've been at the field station, taking classes every day but Sunday with field trips interspersed.  We took a tour of the botanical gardens and visited a local health clinic (basically a primary care physician's office).  Yesterday, on our free day, we woke up at 6 like every other day and took a 5-hour hike through the rain forest.  It was the first time I'd been in real, untamed jungle and it was incredible. The coolest thing, besides eating lunch on rocks in a river, was the strangler fig in this photo.

 
The seeds of these trees land at the base of a tree, then it grows up along the tree.  When it reaches a certain height, it's roots begin to grow from the top of the tree down to the ground.  When they reach the ground, they thicken and meld together to form the trunk, ultimately encasing the original tree and cutting off its sunlight (aka strangling the tree).  The original tree dies and you end up with this amazing hollow structure that will eventually fill in and look like a normal tree, but hollow.  The picture was taken inside the strangler fig, looking up.  Besides that great hike, we've spent a lot of time bonding and getting to know our great professors, plus doing more homework than I imagined for a study-abroad experience.  The homework is ok though, because the classes are really interesting.  Tomorrow will hold a visit to a nearby indigenous territory and more class, then back to San Jose Wednesday for our home-stays and intensive Spanish, plus more class and visits to some sights in the capital city.  Hasta luego!

Into the Field!

I'm writing this blog post from my top bunk in the Las Cruces field station.  Las Cruces is near San Vito, CR, in the south.  We are about a stones throw from Panama and everything is absolutely beautiful.  We spent the day making the trek from San Jose, then walking around the beautiful botanical gardens and being introduced to the station.  We (the 12 other students and I) will have our first classes tomorrow.  Now for a few photos:

The Countdown!

I just completed my Spanish placement exam, so I guess it's true.  I'll be in San Jose, Costa Rica a week from today, being oriented and meeting my new classmates!  I've had a great break, seeing friends and spending time with family, but I'm getting antsy and can't wait to be on the plane.  Though I'm not sure how reliable my internet access will be, I'm going to try to update this blog as often as I can, especially with pictures.  I'm hoping to be even better with email, so please keep in touch!  Hasta la vista!