Los Personnes de Santa Rosa

Tuesday, Dec. 8. 2009

Jaxon and I have worked at the La Marina Zoo and Wildlife Rescue Center for 2 days now. I must say, it is extremely satisfying work. We arrive around 8:30 after taking the bus up the hill, work until about 10 and then go have café with the others who work there. Then we go out for a while more, came back and have a communal lunch at noon and then out again till 3 pm and then we’re done! Today we took the bus to Aguas Zarcas and spent some time in the internet café.

The zoo is not very modern and every animal eats either bananas, plantains, yuca or papaya, so we spent a lot of time preparing fruit. I will give a more specific journal of each day at the zoo for those who are interested. I will try to post a new one each day.

Here’s a little more about our host family. They are all very sweet:



The Mother is the matriarch and the one that we interact with the most. She cooks us all of our meals and sits with us when we eat. She is very attentive and tries very hard to understand my fractured Spanish. She washes our clothes without asking and prepares meals specifically to our taste as best as she can with what she has. I know it is not common for Costa Ricans to have French toast, raw celery and spaghetti, but she has made those for us and more. She is also the person I go to if I have any problems. Like one morning I woke up and there were 20 pieces of rice on our bathroom floor. Only they were moving. And next to my dirty laundry bag. I about blanked my pants at that moment and ran screaming out of the room. Rosa assured me “es normale” and it is from ants. And usually the piles of rice are much greater than 20. (Still not sure I buy that this is normal, but she has a way about her that I find reassuring, so I believed her.) She is very gracious and likeable.

The Father works very hard and goes to university also, so we do not see much of him. He is very social and friendly and he seemed to like us a lot. At first. However, I afraid I may have insulted him by insisting that Jaxon have a seatbelt on the way home from a party. He had a few beers and although he was not drunk and I know he is a capable driver, Costa Rican drivers tend to fall on the “are you kidding me?” side of crazy drivers. They do INSANE things on the road, like pass a bus with a truck full of chickens while going uphill on a blind corner, with 50 dogs and kids - mas or menos - dangerously close to the street. So, as we were leaving I said, wait Jaxon’s seatbelt is broken. He and the kids screamed at me as I fumbled for 5 minutes to fix it, “No es necisito! No es necisto!” Well, I had had just enough beers to be persistent and I wasn’t giving up with the seatbelt. I ended up pulling the whole thing out until it was about 8 feet long and tying it around Jaxon and then hanging on to him - just in case. Yeah - that would help.) I could see the steam rising out of his ears. And his kids slumped in their seats a little lower. Overall though, he is a good man and still says "Buenas Dias" to me each morning, though not much more.

The Oldest Daughter does not live here at home. She is old enough (though can’t remember how old) to be out on her own and we have not met her. Although her parents are Catholic, she is an evangelical Christian. I thought this was interesting. Her parents do not have a problem with this, which I found refreshing.

The Only Son we have met once. I do not think he lives here all the time, but does spend a lot of time here. He is 19ish and works in a store in Ciudad Quesada. An extremely nice boy – quiet and God fearing. He has a very kind way about him, and although I do not know him well, his mannerisms remind me of the Mother.

The Teen Queen is the 16-year-old daughter who is very much like a 16-year-old anywhere. She dresses hip and spends a lot of time texting her friends. She is cute as button, a little bit broody, but offers a smile whenever she sees us. She (like all the girls and women here) seems to have a fondness for Jaxon. They all find him to be “muy guapo” (handsome) and his infrequent attempts at Spanish make her giggle and bat her eyelashes.

The Baby is definitely the dramatic one! She is a cherubic 6-year-old, who when we first arrived was trying to squeeze her way into a cheerful orange party dress that was obviously from last year’s closet. She was crushed when the zipper would barely crest her bottom, but seemed to forget all about it whence donning her hot pink shirt, denim mini, black boots and matching tiara. She is a sweetie, and loves to sit near by and chat with me. She speaks very fast and often likes to whisper secrets in my ear. Oh – I only wish I knew what she was sharing with me so confidentially! Of course I have no idea, but it doesn’t seem to bother her one bit. She keeps on flitting away like the mariposas she loves so much. Jaxon drew her one and at the party, and she asked me to rip off the jagged edges so it would be smooth. Well, apparently no one taught me how to rip a damn piece of paper properly (use a smear of water to rip a clean edge – do ya’ll know this?!?) and anyway I ripped it almost immediately. Oops. She gave me the ojo malo (evil eye) and took it from my hands and gave it to her mother to fix. Well, the damage was irreparable and she was not happy. The next day at breakfast, she gingerly took it out of her pocket, unfolded it precisely and with great care, paused dramatically with pursed lips and sighed when she unfolded the tear. Apparently, not all was forgiven and forgotten. Oh well. Time heals all wounds. Tomorrow I bet she will be whispering in my ear again.

A Small Chihuaua is the family dog. He is a chickytito (not sure of spelling, but means really small. If it is really, really, really small it becomes chick ti ti tito) He runs around with a with a dangling damaged leg. All of the dogs here (and there are TONS) have some kind of physical or mental deformity. The people here seem to love their dogs and yet not care about them at the same time. At any given moment there are 3 dogs in the house all being chased out in variables with a harsh word, a clap or possibly a foot. Man, our dogs don’t know how friggin’ lucky they are! I would never want to be a pero in Central America. None of the dogs are fixed. I mean NONE! There are a million skinny streetwise dogs in the street, but I digress. More on that another day.

Millions of Friends and Family come in and out throughout the day and night. The door is always open and people are always passing through There is very little to do here, so I guess people visit with one another frequently. I can only imagine what kind of gossip must happen here daily. If only I could understand what they were saying, I might not miss “Desperate Housewives” so much! People come and drop off kids, bring food, sit down and eat, play cards, call their friends, whatever! all day long. And often in to the night! I bet if I took a real count, more than 50 people on average pass through the door each day. Can you imagine!?

Well, I as going to write about the animals and the zoo, but gosh, the people are just so interesting! I will save animal speak for tomorrow. Buenas noches mis amigos!! Hasta manaña!