Audios everyone, (in CR adios means hello and good-bye)
4/15/01
I’m composing this letter while sitting outside of the Sarapiqui Learning Center where I will be teaching. The school is spacious with hardwood floors and large windows that open up to the lush fronds and violet flowers of the rainforest. The Sarapiqui River rushes through our backyard.
As I write, a metallic teal-colored hummingbird circles around violet, yellow, and pink flowers gathering nectar. They zip through here constantly. Red ants a quarter of an inch long march past carrying leaves 6x’s their size. I sit with my feet up off the ground because a bite from an ant will fester and puss up. There are so many species of trees, flowers, ferns, etc…. They form a thick multicolored wall of green.
The rainforest hums and even screams with activity. At night the insects get louder and louder; they form a sound similar to sitting under a high-voltage electricity wire.
Poisonous frogs of neon green and red hop past the doorway of the school. They are only poisonous to you if you touch them with an open wound.
Butterflies as big as a spread out hand land in the surrounding trees. My favorite creatures here so far are the little lizards. They’re everywhere you least expect them. I opened a door and one scurried away. I picked up a book and a little head peered up at me. When I go to wash my hands, a resident lizard always peeks its head out from behind the sink. Some lizards are as little as one inch long and as thin as a strand of spaghetti. So cute! However, I recently spotted its intimidating older brother, a three-foot snake with four legs and a Mohawk, the iguana. It had perfect camouflage and at first I didn’t see it. When I did spot it, my jaw dropped and a tingling sensation ran up my spine.
Last night two bats flew towards me and veered away from my head at the last minute. They were large enough for me to feel a breeze in the wind as they whizzed by.
Recently, a volunteer discovered a poisonous Coral Snake underneath a stack of books in the school. Screaming was heard from afar, and a Costa Rican man came and lassoed the snake and put it outside. One snake I don’t wan to run into is called the Jumping Pit-viper. How far does it jump is my question. There was a Boa around but I didn’t get a chance to see it.
What’s truly amazing is that I observed all of these things while sitting in front of the school. I haven’t even entered the reserve, which will require another 10 pages of description.
It’s cloudy most of the day and downpours come and last for twenty minutes, then recede. I can sit outside and the insects don’t bother me.
I’ve seen very few mosquitoes, thank God. Also, the humidity is tolerable. Snakes, and malaria don’t scare me here, but what does scare me is the road. I walk along the road to get to town or to go home to my host family and people drive fast and recklessly. Also, snakes gather on the road at night to suck the heat off the pavement.
My host family is wonderful. I live with a married couple in their late twenties, Xinia and Roberto. They have a seven-year-old son named Joseph who kisses me goodnight and gives me blessings. I tried to tell her that my mom was a fisher-woman, but it came out, as “my mom is a fish.” It’s an endless battle with the language and it keeps me laughing hysterically at times. Although I can barely communicate with them, they remain patient and kind. We watch American movies dubbed in Spanish and this is a big help in picking up Spanish.
Today I had the courage to use by baby Spanish to try to demand a fair price for a taxi ride. I’m always getting over-charged for being a Gringa. When the taxi driver dropped me off I did as another volunteer told me to do. Instead of discussing the price I simply handed him 100 colones. He looked at me and shook his head saying “ no, no, 800 colones. “ I replied by saying “no, un otro voluntario dijo 100 colones.” “No, 800 colones,” he insisted. I gave in and gave him the money feeling like I’d been had. Later when I told the other volunteer, she said that under special circumstances it can cost 800 colones and he was in the right. OOPs. It appears that the fastest way to make an ass of yourself is to travel to another country and not speak the language.
This week I may try traveling to Puerto Limon, which is on the Caribbean. It’s my last chance to travel before switching gears from tourist to teacher. Teaching is going to be a big challenge. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Take care everyone, and feel free to email me at: lrngcntr@sol.racso.co.cr
I’d love to hear how everyone is doing, and to keep in touch with what is going on in the states. There are no American papers and I’ll have no idea what’s happening there.
Love Laura
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