La Carpio

One of the most important parts of my internship is when we go once a week to work with a group of women in La Carpio, a squatter community (the residents don't actually own the land) of about 30,000 people outside of San Jose. The community has many Nicaraguan immigrants because that was the group of people who originally founded it in the early '90's.

La Carpio is viewed by most people in San Jose as somewhere you don't want to go because it's dangerous. It's not. I haven't spent a lot of time in the community, but in general it doesn't seem less safe than most areas of San Jose, just poorer.

Most Ticos will also tell you that La Carpio is made up of all Nicaraguans. (For many Ticos, Nicaraguans=Violence.) They are wrong. Many Ticos live there, it's just that the general population would rather live in denial of the fact that living conditions can actually be that bad for Ticos in Costa Rica.

Rather than continue describing the relationship between Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans I'll just say that it's very similar to the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Nicaraguans immigrate. Nicaraguans work in a lot of jobs that Ticos don't want (like coffee picking). Violence occurs. Ticos blame Nicas for violence. Ticos notice the presence of drugs in the city. Ticos blame Nicas for drugs and drug violence in urban areas. Ticos pay a lot for good health care and see people that they assume to be Nicaraguans in clinics. Ticos blame Nicas for stealing their high quality health care which isn't available in Nicaragua. Nicas continue to immigrate to Costa Rica because, even in shacks like you can see in the pictures from La Carpio below, Nicaraguans have better lives here than they ever had in Nicaragua.

I happened to be inside the clinic where we hold rehearsals when I took these pictures so some of them are from behind a fence.

As you can see in the background here, as if the lives of the residents of La Carpio weren't tough enough already, they are lucky enough to have high-voltage wires running through the middle of their community which is pretty dangerous. But of course, as long as the wires are there, the residents will take advantage of their presence by stealing electricity from them, which is Extremely dangerous since it involves splitting the wires that are in the air and running them into your own house.

La Carpio is also lucky enough to be a neighbor to multiple landfills (and a cement factory - health problems?) and as such they constantly have garbage trucks driving through the community. How pleasant. Of course, the passing garbage trucks don't do anything about the piles of garbage lying on the sides of the streets in La Carpio, they just drive on by, just like the majority of Ticos who continue to ignore the community.

Me with some of the women that we are working with in La Carpio.

Volcan Arenal and more...

So, we went to Arenal Volcano last weekend. But the volcano wasn't the only exciting thing we saw.

The first interesting thing that happened was that we encountered one of those people who gets on the bus and tries to sell you something or does something in order to try to get you to give them money. This time it was a man about 70 years old, singing songs with sexual implications, one of them about celebrating Mother's Day (which is coming up on August 15). This probably doesn't sound that exciting, but watching this guy sing/shake his booty was hilarious.

Next, we went on a tour of the Trail of Silence near the volcano.

These mushrooms are poisonous.

It was pretty cloudy when we got to where we could see the volcano from. The volcano was really hard to take pictures of because it was getting dark at the time and the clouds in the sky make the picture look weird, but here it is. A couple times while we were looking at it some lava fell down the side in the form of rocks. That was exciting since it was the closest we would be able to get to seeing the lava coming out the top of the volcano, but it was impossible to take pictures of because the rocks disappeared after 1 to 2 seconds.

We took these pictures at the entrance to the hot springs where we went after seeing the volcano. We had a very relaxing time there but unfortunately couldn't take any pictures without risking getting our cameras wet, so you'll just have to go for yourself.

Before getting on the bus back to San Jose the last thing we had to do was track down an elderly woman named Elsie who ran the hostel next door to ours in the town where we stayed near the volcano. At our hostel in San Jose we met another woman named Ligia (pronounced Lee-he-ah) who suggested that we stay at Elsie's hostel. Unfortunately, Elsie's phone wasn't working when we called to make the reservations which was why we had to track her down ourselves for Ligia. When we found Elsie we discovered that she was very nice and invited us inside to chat and have refreshments (unfortunately we had already eaten breakfast).

We told her all about who we were and all the details of our trip to Costa Rica and Elsie was very pleased to hear everything about us and to tell us about her life. She also told us about her worldview, how natural disasters are occurring in many places because of "contamination" caused by certain people in the world. Unfortunately, I'm almost positive she wasn't talking about pollution or global warming. Before we left her house Elsie insisted that we not only stand with her while she recited a prayer, but that we repeat every line after she said it. Meeting people like Elsie isn't all that uncommon here, I've met others previously, but it's certainly an interesting experience. They're all very polite and accommodating, but the encounters are always an adventure.

When we got back to San Jose Ligia was no longer staying in the hostel so we have no way of getting her Elsie's phone number. Oh well.

Simon Bolivar Zoo

I went to the small zoo in San Jose a while ago with someone from the hostel. It wasn't like a zoo in the U.S.

For some reason it's just not the same seeing crocodiles where there's a bunch of them lying around.

The monkeys were okay but they weren't swinging around on trees.

A lot of the animals were clearly underfed but I don't actually think it's the fault of the zoo - I think they would have fed them enough if they had the money.

Also, the side of the river that ran through the zoo was strewn with trash.

Technical Difficulties

You might have noticed that the post Road Rules ends with "you will also need to:" For some reason blogspot refuses to display the rest of the post. I'll get it up as soon as possible.
TPD

Update: The whole post Road Rules is now readable. I'm still working on fixing the expandable post function.

2 million?

Translated from a news report I saw on tv recently:

"Only 22 days from (August 2) the procession to Cartago, ecclesiastical authorities and aid organizations are preparing themselves for the 2 million parishoners that will come to see the altar of the Virgin of Los Angeles this year." (The report was only about a minute long and it doesn't have that much else that is interesting to say so I won't translate the rest of it, but you can read it in Spanish here.)

2 million. That's more than twice as large as any group of people that I've ever been in, and I thought those were pretty big. Since she is the patron saint of Costa Rica, the Virgin of Los Angeles, commonly called La Negrita (the little black girl), is really important to Ticos. Additionally, people travel from all over Central America to see her because she also supposedly heals people of all kinds of illnesses and injuries.

I previously posted some pictures of the church where the Virgin lives here.

If you want to learn how she became so highly revered, read on.



Around 1635, there was a segregated community in Cartago where only Mestizos lived. On the morning of August 2, a poor and simple woman from the woods nearby this community went out to collect firewood from the forest where she lived and she found on a rock a small figure that looked like the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus in her arms. The woman carved the figure out of the stone, took it home, and stowed it in a small wooden box.

As midday arrived, the woman went back into the forest to fetch more wood, and saw the same figure once again on the same rock. The woman believed that it was a different figure and so she again took it home to her house. When she opened the wooden box to put the second figure inside with the first, she was astounded to find that the first one was gone. Her astonishment grew to the extent that she was almost horrified when, for the third time, returning to the forest, she found the same figure on top of the rock. Without hesitation she took it home with her to see if it really did escape from the box again, and she found the box empty.

The good and humble woman was very alarmed and ran to the house of the priest in town where she recounted to him the strange series of events that she had just experienced. The priest, who is said to have been Father Alonso Sandoval, took the small figure and put it in a chest for further examination. When the priest decided to examine the figure the following day, he realized that it was no longer in the place where he had put it. When the poor woman who had previously discovered the figure returned to the forest to get her firewood the next morning, she discovered the figure once again on top of the same rock where she had found it each of the previous times.

When the woman ran to tell the priest, he and other people from the town came to the woods, and in a solemn procession carried the figure to the church, putting it in the tabernacle. The following day, when someone asked to examine the figure, it was no longer there and everyone ran to the same rock in the woods, and there it was once again. It was the fifth time that the figure had manifest itself as the Virgin Mary. Understanding that she wanted to live on that same spot, the people immediately built a hermitage there where she could live while they built an honorable temple to her, the heavenly Virgin of Los Angeles.

If you're interested, I translated the legend from this version.

Rules of the Road

Driving is crazy in Costa Rica. Just to give you an idea, I've written up a list of the 5 basic rules that I've noticed it's imperative to be aware of when driving here, especially in San Jose.

1. Stop signs and red lights are optional - you only need to stop at them if a car is approaching from the opposite direction.

2. As you will remember from physics class, "an object in motion will remain in motion until stopped by an opposing force." This law of science is obeyed in various instances.

Since this is true, a car approaching an intersection with a red light has the right of way to go through that intersection, rather than a car stopped at the intersection with a green light. This will work out better for everyone involved than if the car waiting at the intersection had attempted to act as the "opposing force" that stops the vehicle approaching the red light.

3. Never fail to follow Rule #1 by not going through stop signs and red lights, or you will become the enemy of everyone behind you. Similarly, assuming that you have the right of way just because you have a green light or have been waiting at a stop sign, and therefore disregarding Rule #2, can have disastrous consequences for your health.

4. As a pedestrian it is even more important that you try to avoid becoming the "opposing force" in Rule #2.

5. Although Rule #4 is true, you will never succeed in crossing a street unless you run (or walk, once you're experienced enough) in front of oncoming traffic that's not slowing down.

In order to arrive at the beach at some time during the same day you left, you will also need to: scare cows off the road by honking at them or lurching at them with your car, use the left side of the road to pass someone while you're going around a curve, and not drive off the side of the mountain on the way there.

On the other hand, maybe you shouldn't take suggestions from me on how to drive here because I've never been crazy enough to try it.

People

Living in a hostel is amazing because we meet so many amazing new people every week and day. For example, so far we have had a lot of fun hanging out with:

Molly and Jenny - two girls I went to high school with
Jennifer - organizes volunteers to work with a small Tico community
Shannon - writing her dissertation on violence against women here
Paulina - an Indigenous (Bri-Bri) woman from Costa Rica
Adrianna, Vlad and Meghan - vet students, with Vets Without Borders
Maria - getting dental work because it's cheaper than in the U.S.
Katherine - a Tica who has lived in the US and recently returned

This is by no means everybody we have met, just the ones who have made an impression on me. Also, these are only the people we've met who are also staying in the hostel. This doesn't even include the people I meet through my work, from the peace center next door to the hostel, the people who work at the hostel, through the Quaker meeting or through our travels.

Mercado Central

Mercado Central is where Ticos in San Jose typically shop for their food. It is a pretty standard Latin American market as far as I am concerned. They sell anything and everything. There are restaurants, ice cream, vegetables, manufactured goods (duffel bags, backpacks), t-shirts, souvenirs, meat, fish, poultry, flowers, spices, hair products, toiletries, rice/beans, tortillas, macaroni, spaghetti, cheese, etc...

40 years of making you feel pops.

Training at Colegio Mexico

Okay well, I just discovered that I think I can only show one slideshow at a time, so I'm going to post some other pictures for you here. In the meantime, look at that slideshow real good before I do something else exciting and I decide to take it away.

I posted previously about training teachers in using non-violence to solve problems. In the past two weeks I have attended two trainings at another school in San Jose called Colegio Mexico. With about 900 students, I've heard that Colegio Mexico is a medium sized K-12 school for the capital city.

A few interesting things happened during the two workshops that I attended. (The full training included four workshops, one each week.) The first thing was that during snack break in the middle of the the first workshop I went to they celebrated Father's Day. At first, this idea didn't phase me.

Somewhere around the time when they got out the pinata I realized, this would never happen in the US. Sure people celebrate father's day but they're mostly young kids and families. I've never heard of an American workplace celebrating anything besides a holiday party. Maybe this is all just a coincidence and the Costa Ricans are just looking for an occasion to break out the pinata (who doesn't?) but I'd like to believe that maybe they're onto something that we haven't picked up on in the US yet. Not only did they break open a pinata, but the gave a gift bag (coffee mug, coffee and chocolates) to each of the teachers in the room who was a father. So, if Ticos have picked up on a good habit that Americans have neglected to adopt, where did we go wrong?

As is clear from this picture, the fun of the pinata doesn't just come from watching a blindfolded person swing wildly at an object full of candy, but from deceiving them into thinking that they actually have a chance in hell of hitting it.

The other odd thing that happened in the training occurred during the second workshop that I went to, when small groups were presenting their dramatizations of conflicts that they have resolved nonviolently. One group, pictured above, presented a skit about two boys who were about to fight before they were stopped by the woman in the center. (The skit was a portrayal of a conflict that the woman in the center actually witnessed. She is playing her mother and the boys were her brothers.) Just when the boys were about to start fighting, the woman jumped in and said that they couldn't fight unless they went all out and actually killed each other. She handed them each a broomstick handle and said, ok go, I want to see two dead bodies on the floor. Fight. The boys dropped the broomsticks and didn't hurt eachother.

The first disturbing thing about this story is that the groups were presenting examples of conflicts that were resolved non-violently. Apparently, handing two boys broomsticks and telling them to kill each other is someone's version of nonviolent. I think it's a creative idea, but the majority of the 40-50 teachers seemed to agree that, if this approach was followed in their school today, the story might not have ended the same way. Also, during the skit when the fight was escalating, and during another similar skit, all of the teachers were hooting and hollering, cheering for a real bruiser. During a workshop on alternatives to violence. And these are the people who are supposed to be able to keep the violence from happening. I guess there's a lot of work to be done.

On the other hand, at the end of the first workshop a man said that during the training he resolved a conflict with a coworker that he had been at odds with for the past 12 years.

Pictures

As you can see, I have decided to add a slideshow feature to the blog. It makes it possible for me to post a hell of a lot more pictures which is cool, although I don't like that it's so small and I can't really add comments for the photos.

In this first slideshow are the pictures from our trip to Doka Estate Coffee Plantation, Volcan Poas, La Paz waterfall gardens (and the animals there), and the Sarapiqui River.

I think I'll still post some pictures like I have been so that I can force you to look at them. Like this one:

This type of oxcart and the design are traditionally Costa Rican and was used in the olden days. It is still used some by farmers, like this one, in the countryside.

Either we plant trees, or we're fucked. I'm contacting these people to get this bumper sticker for myself. If I succeed I'll tell you so that you can get one too.

Whales and Dolphins...or the lack of...

We went on a whale and dolphin watch. If you look really closely at the pictures maybe you'll be able to see dolphins. If so, you should get a new pair of glasses because there actually are no whales OR dolphins in any of the pictures. At the end of the tour the guide told us that they see dolphins only a minority of the time. Well, it was a nice boat ride anyway.

These birds eat tuna. Where there is tuna, there are dolphins. See the dolphins? Me neither.

Took this from a sandbar. Or whateveryoucallit. It disappears during high tide you can walk across when it's low tide.

The little red dots are crabs. Apparently they don't like having their picture taken and so they ran away from me really fast.

Las tres hermanas (The three sisters).