March 27th, 2009

The crowds at the Motocross Race.

As of today I have four days left in Zapotal and I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by! I leave here on Tuesday (bright & early) and head towards the pacific coast to a town called Matapalo, where I will visit a beach for the first time since arriving in Costa Rica! I will be working at a project located just across from the Matapalo beach, the project is both a community and environmental one so we will be doing a mixture of work there.
This time though, I will not be making my trip alone; my roommate here Ursula is also going to Matapalo, so we will be making the day long bus trip together.

These girls were so excited- They screamed their heads off!

This week involved a lot of work to do with the up-and-coming Motocross race this weekend. I am anticipating the craziness of this event; our little town of 3o will be flooded with nearly 1000 Motocross enthusiasts from all over Costa Rica. The first rider takes off.

Earlier this week I made cheese with Frankie which is always fun, and tasty because I always eat every single piece of cheese that Frankie offers me. I also attended the funeral of a friend of Betty & Chichi's , which I won't lie was kind of an awkward experience for me. However, it was over very quickly, and was really just a burial, there was no church service or anything. Afterwards, we went to eat at a little cantina which makes my favourite Tico dish called Picadillos, which is basically a tortilla with fried potatoes and spices as the filling. Trust me, it's delicious!

This is the sign that we painted for Betty.

The past few days I been doing a lot of painting because Ursula and I are making a sign for Betty's house, so when volunteers arrive to the town they know which house to go to. Today we are almost finished the sign, so by tomorrow it should be complete. Once again, I am pretty pressed for time here in Miramar, because there has been so much work to do before the Motocross race on Sunday.

Cowboys watching the race.

It might be a while before I am able to post again, because I really have no idea what the internet access will be like (if any) in Matapalo. So I promise to write as soon as I possibly can.
-'Til next time,
Amira

Earthquakes, tunnels, and bruises.

The river in Unión.

The days are going by so quickly these days, and soo0n enough I will be leaving Zapotal and going on to a new placement. I will really miss Zapotal, the people hbere are great and incredibley hospitible. However, I still have a few weeks left here so I will try and make the most of it!

This week included making cheese, scowering through tunnels, another fiesta, two earthquakes, and a bad bruise. Sufice it to say it's been a busy week!

Betty and Chichi swimming in the river.

This past Sunday I went to Unión once again, this time for a little girls 4th birthday party. The party was in the early afternoon, so after filling up on food and cake Chichi and I went to ¨La Mina¨, which is a gold mine that is currently not in operation. Chichi showed me a few of the tunnels at the mine, and we inside a couple of them- and met a few bats along the way. The tunnels were pretty interesting, although I sort of expecfted to see a lot of exposed gold, which was not the case. Forgot to mention: before we went to the party we stopped at a river nearby, that had a nice little waterfall, and Betty and Chichi went for a swim in the river. I didn't get to swim becayse I didn't get the ¨wear your swim suit¨ note, luckily I was wearing shorts, so I at least got to stand in the water (which actually wasn't that warm).

Stepping inside the entrance of the tunnel.


Chichi pointing out some different formations.

On Monday I worked with Frankie making cheese, which was fun. The best part was actually earting the cheese, which was very tasty! One bad thing about Monday was that I slipped on some slippery stairs, and now I have a pretty ugly bruise, you can take a look at the photos and judge for yourself. I showed Betty my bruise, and she tried to ¨help¨ me by rubbing some strange smelling lotion on my leg, and when I say rub I mean the way you would rub coarse seasing into a piece of meat, roughly. Not that I am complaining or anything, it was very nice of her to try and make it better.

Right after slipping...

A few hours later.

The other day when we were all eating lunch we had a little earthquake, it lasted for about 30 seconds and was not very strong (here in Zapotal anyway). Later on in the afternoon we had another little earthquake, and it was pretty similar to the first one. Apparrently the earthquakes originated in the ocean on the pacific side of the country, but it was not felt very strongly where I am up in the mountains.

The view from the farm.

Yesterday was very nice and sunny, and in the afternoon I went with Chichi and a few another to a farm that Chichi own about 20 mins away. It was very pretty there, with a nice view of Miramar below, and you could even see all the way to the pacific ocean. I spent the few hours we were there enjoying the sun, and taking pictures.

Today as usual we have all come down to Miramar, so once I am finished up here I will head over to Margie's (Betty & Chichi's daughter) and speak english for a little while, which I always look forward to since no one in Zapotal speaks english.

-Til next time!

Amira xo

2 Weeks

Here is the road leading up to Betty's house.

Well it has been two weeks since I have arrived in Costa Rica, and things are going really well. This week was pretty busy: I went to my first Costa Rican fiesta, which was a birthday party for one of Chichi´s sisters. The party was pretty fun, there were TONS of people there (at least 50 of Chichi's family or more), lots of foods, and of course dancing. The first good 30 minutes of my time at the party was spent following Betty around and being introduced to everyone, it was slightly overwhelming at first, but everyone was so nice and really excited to speak with me that I felt fine afterwards. There were even a few people at the party who spoke english, so they were eager to practice with me.

This is my bedroom... forgive the mess.

A few days ago I went with Betty&Chichi to a town nearby called Cedral, where we picked up a truck load of tree seedlings to plant on the farm. Cedral is slightly colder than Zapotal, and also gets a lot more rain. So of course as soon as we got out of the truck to start loading the trees it began pouring, and we were all soaked by the time we finished. However, it was all worth it in the end, because afterwards we went to a little cantina and enjoyed a great cup of coffee and delicious empanadas. Yum!

This is in Unión, the pueblo where Betty's family lives.

Yesterday I spent most of the day with Chichi and Estevie (another guy that works on the farm and lives with at Betty's) painting the Cheese factory. We painted the whole interior and exterior of the factory (luckily it's small), and then retired for the day.

I am really enjoying my time here in Zapotal, and I can't believe it has been 2 weeks already! I am getting know everyone in town a lot more, and everyone here is so friendly and very eager to get to know me. I am getting pretty good at farm work (if I do say so myself) and I particularily enjoy helping Chichi herd the cows to their grazing pasture a few minutes away which is a very nice walk, but does occassionally involve some hiking through knee deep mud. Chichi is apparently very impressed by my hikind abilities (no idea why, I just walk?) and says that I am a "chica muy valiente". Most evenings I spend playing cards with Chichi after dinner, or watching TV with Chichi and Estevie while trying to understand what Estevie is saying when he talks to me (I have never met someone who talks so fast in my life).

This weekend I am going to another fiesta, this time it is for a niece of Chichi's, so hopefully that'll be fun! I am also going to start going to the elementary school nearby to help teach the kids english, and play with them at lunch break, which I am really looking forward to. In the next few days Chichi said he is going to take me to the mine nearby, which is a small gold mine that apparently has a nice river, waterfalls, and tunnels. So hopefully next time I am back here in Miramar for an afternoon I will have lots more to blog about!

'Til next time!

Amira xo

Side note: I added a picture to my last post of what I ate for lunch. Enjoy.

¡Pura Vida!

As of tomorrow I will have been in Zapotal for 1 week, and things are going really well. I am starting to get into the routine of getting up early and having breakfast with the family, then feeding and milking the cows, then returning to the house for a morning snack. After the snack I basically have the afternoon to myself and I spend it differently everyday; a few days ago Chichi and I went ot the nature reserve near by, which is actually a cloud rainforest! It was really cool to see all the different trees and plants, and boy they

weren't kidding when they said "Cloud

Rainforest" it is so thick with clouds that at some points you can hardly see what is in front of you! We hiked around for a while until we reached a lagoon, and then turned back. I was hoping to see some animals but unfortunately I didn't. The time went by so fast I didn't realise how long we had been gone (3 and half hours!).

Yesterday, Betty and Chichi took me to a near by pueblo (town) where Betty's mom lives. I met lots of her family, and then we went to Chichi's brothers house where we spent most of the afternoon, while all the men left to go and slaughter a cow. They brought the cow back and slaughtered it under a tree near the house (no I didn't watch, although they kept asking me to.) I could see enough of the action from where I was sitting far away, and as beef is my favourite meat I chose to stay away. It took 4 or 5 men and several hours to portion out the cow, and then they cooked some for us to eat for lunch. I must say it was very tasty, in fact it was almost kobe-beef-tasty. It was really nice weather in this town so I spent most of the afternoon enjoying the sun near the river.

Today I am in Miramar again, because Betty and Chichi needed to do some arrands. So I am using the computer at Chichi's younger brothers house. It is pretty hot here in Miramar, however in Zapotal the weather is still pretty cold. Hopefully I will be able to blog again next week, so until then adios!

xoxo Amira

Zapotal

Hello! I have finally reached my first placement in Zapotal, which is small agricultural village in the "Montes de Oro" which translates as Mountain of Gold. I have been here for two nights, and I started my first day this past Sunday. The family I am staying with, the Chavez family, are very nice and have been very kind to me. The family is: Betty (the project coordinator), and Chichi (Betty's husband). They have two kids, one who I met for the first time today but I sadly cannot remember his name, and a daughter Margie who lives in Miramar (about 1 hour away, where I am currently writing from).

The trip up to Zapotal was a very interesting one to put it mildly, it took a total of 9 1/2 hours to get here, 5 of which were spent waiting for my second bus here in Miramar. The buses here are pretty old, and they get very hot, very fast. However, that is not the worst part. The worst part is the roads here, which are very narrow and twisty turny because we are in the mountains here. The drive from San Jose to Miramar was nothing compared to the second bus ride, which was like riding on a rusty old roller coaster that never ceases to stop bumping up and down. Luckily, I am not prone to car sickness, or else I would have been in big trouble. Waiting in Miramar was pretty boring, because I had to much stuff to carry to really be able to venture around town much. So the majority of the 5 hours here I spent sitting in the shade (which didn't prevent me from getting a bad sun burn on the back on my arms), reading, and writing in my journal.

Once I made it to my stop at the entrance to Zapotal, Chichi was there waiting for me, and we drove for about 20 minutes until we reached the Chavez house. Zapotal is quite high up in the mountains so it is not very warm here, and for the past few days has been cloudy and very windy. The wind is so strong here I wear ear plugs at night to block out the sound (and the dogs barking at it), and once and a while you get a huge gust and it shakes the entire house. I live in a nice sized room above the garage which is just beside the main house. It is bright and clean, and the bonus is I have my own bathroom.

My first day of work mostly consisted of feeding the animals (cows, pigs, and chickens), helping to spray down the animal pens, and cutting down sugar cane and alfalfa which is ground into feed for the cows and pigs. I also stopped by the community cheese factory (although calling it a factory is a bit of a stretch), where I worked with a man named Frankie who runs it. They use the milk from the cows to make the cheese, and it is a pretty tasty soft cheese that they eat at breakfast and dinner in grilled sandwhiches, or just on its own. Everyone here is very nice, and tries to converse with me as much as possible.

I eat all of my meals with Betty and Chichi, which are pretty tasty. In the morning they usually eat fruit (melon, pinapple, and papaya), and for lunch a salad with tomato and cucumber, and dinner is usually chicken, potatoes, and salad. There is always rice and beans served with every meal, which is a Costa Rican staple.

Overall things are going really well, and I am starting to adjust to it here. I will probably be here for about two weeks, and then head back to San Jose and go on to another project from there. I will try to post some pictures this weekend if I come back to Miramar.

Hopefully I will write again soon!
xoxo Amira.