A busy weekend update...

They’re here!!!

It’s early Saturday morning and Marilyn and Eugene are here. They arrived three hours later due to airport foolishness. It was funny cause we were kinda getting worried but there is no way to call each other here. We were pretty sure they’d show up, but if it got too late and they decided to go to a hotel, there’s no way we’d know. At home we’re very connected to each other through cell phones. Even small children seem to carry them now a day, but not here. Here news travels slowly. It got me thinking of times gone past. How many people have asked God to care for their loved ones during journeys wondering if the ship had made a successful crossing.

They are sleeping now, exhausted after a day of travel. We’re sitting on the porch sipping our coffee, waiting to show them our little town. The last hour of their journey was along the coast, but they wouldn’t know it because it was dark. They are sleeping in the jungle, but across the road is a cool black sand beach. Charles and I are like little kids. Is it Christmas yet? Can we start opening presents? Not until morning kids! Sigh!





Today’s Program

We’re up, had breakfast, and are almost ready to go. Today we’re gonna hike up to the point with Marilyn and Eugene. We took yesterday a bit easy so they could recover from a day of traveling. Yesterday Marilyn and I found ourselves staring at a leaf of a young banana tree watching 2 different kinds of ants working busily. We were staring for a while when we started to laugh realizing that we’d been entertained by ants for about five minutes. It’s like that here. So many fascinating things to check out. The locals must think we’re loco!

This afternoon we’re going to get down to some serious business, however. After lunch I’m going to take everyone to my office. It’ll be a grueling day, but I think they’re ready. It’s really fun showing our friends this wonderful place. Gotta go though. Lots of nothin’ to do.

Charlie's rainy night thoughts

A cloudy morning after

***Sigh***

I hate it when this happens. I get thinking about a problem, and my brain churns it night and day until I see a solution. So here I am, at 3:00 AM, trying to organize my thoughts as part of the process.

I’ve been here a month now, trying to get my head around why I inherently know this is important beyond the obvious, and trying to decide how committed I want to be to an ongoing relationship with this organization. I’m also learning (slowly) about this place and these people, because the tough problems are never technical.

Observations so far:

Despite what they might tell you for a coin, nobody goes hungry here. Food is everywhere – just go into the jungle or go fishing.
Shelter is simple – you only need to get out of the rain. It is never cold enough to need a window that closes, although a fan is nice sometimes.
Things are cheap – we’ve lived comfortably for a month on less than I would have spent on gas at home, including doing some touristy things
If you want something, you can trade, or sell fish or fruit, or spend a couple hours with a machete beating back the constant growth.

Those exposed to philosophy 101 will remember the hierarchy of needs. If you do not need to focus on survival, (and you don’t – see above) you focus on the next level, then the one after that, all the way to self-actualization. In this environment, beyond survival is where money starts to come in, beginning with a few luxuries and a feeling of self-worth.

This is also where the problem lies.

With little industry beyond plantations here in paradise, what does the potential next Einstein or Schweitzer do for a living? Where are the patent clerk positions, or a corporate ladder to climb, or other competition beyond soccer to hone skills, or even to simply stimulate the thirst for knowledge?

By way of example, there are literally thousands of species of plants here that are not even catalogued, let alone investigated for their medicinal value. The cure for cancer could be right over there – and the person with the natural talent to discover it is too busy chopping bananas because his/her curiosity was never nurtured in that direction, and if it were, it would be tough to find a job in that field here. No wonder folks feel frustrated and boxed in.

So where do we start? Playing a couple games on a computer lets a child get comfortable with the machine. An encyclopedia on that computer, and the internet to explore the world’s libraries stimulates curiosity, and awareness of the rest of the world. A generation of computer literate young adults in a low cost center can attract knowledge-based industry, including software development and the fastest growing industry of all is a natural fit here – biomedicine. With today’s environmental awareness, maybe even the jungle can stay intact… we really have plenty of bananas. (one less now – they are excellent at 3:00 AM )

So I think I’ve talked myself into a deeper personal commitment. The next question will be what form it takes. The 38 computers I’ve brought back to life so far can support maybe 4 schools – there are 10 times as many that need machines. Not to mention transporting them, and the guys that repair and support them can easily fix them without me. However, they have not been paid for some time. Neither has the rent.

***Sigh***
I’ve always hated fund raising.
***Sigh***

We do have some opportunity to earn some income to meet ongoing needs, so maybe clearing the backlog will be sufficient. I hope so. Because, well… read between the sighs.

Dianne and the crazy man

I have met many flavors of people in this place, tourists and locals.

There are many tourists in Cahuita and they range from the doe eyed naive type who are amazed by everything and who will touch anything, to the loud mouth jerk whose rude little world revolves around themselves, even in this place of beauty. Today I had a bit of a run in with the latter.

I was sitting at a table at the Sol y Mar talking with a Mr. Walter Ferguson. He is known as the king of calypso music. I had wandered down there to get a few of his cd’s as souvenirs for the kids and myself. I asked the lady in the shop which one of his cd’s to get since I had never really heard his stuff, and she showed me which was her favorite. She also told me that Walter was sitting in the restaurant today and I bet he’d love to sign them for me. She even handed me her pen. So I found myself sitting with this quiet, gentle man, 89 years young, listening to him tell me stories about his music, and failing eyesight.

All of a sudden some woman walks by, stops, sees him signing my cd’s and yells, “Is that, that guy?” I never know how to respond to such a wall of rudeness, so I quietly said “Yes it is.”, and turn back to Mr. Ferguson. “Is his stuff any good?” –sigh- “Why, yes it is.” I stated. “How did you find out about him? Have you heard his music before?” she yells at me completely ignoring the poor man sitting right there. “Well” I started, “We listen to him at home all the time and when we landed in Cahuita and realized who he was I just had to get a pile of cd’s and have him autograph them for the boys.” “Well where can I find them” she bellows. “In the shop next door.” Says I and off she goes.

I visit for a minute or two more and then I leave. I stop at the shop to return the pen and yelling lady is there, sees me and yells “Which one of these is the best.” “Oh that one there, it’s our favorite. We listen to it all the time. You should get a couple!” and she does. I smile and wink at the shopkeeper and thank her for her pen. She smiles at me from ear to ear and wishes me a good day.

The local people vary as well. I have found some wonderful people that I just love, most people fall into this category actually, but then there are the truly unique. There’s the bug guy. He amuses me. He wanders around with a really big bug in a really big jar and shows it to you and then explains how it is customary for him to show people his giant bug and then people give him money. I loved him. There are many who beg for money. I had decided that I wasn’t going to give money to those who beg, but if someone was selling something that I could use I’d buy stuff from them. That seems reasonable to me. I don’t like it when someone pretends to be my friend and chats me up and then wants money or a drink or something. I know it sounds crazy but it hurts my feelings that someone would pretend to be interested in me caring only for my money.

The whole begging thing is such a moral dilemma for me. I am not rich but surely, I can give my bits of change to help someone out, can’t I? Yet what that person wants to do with his money and what I think he should do with his money are very different. Back home in Ottawa I try to have granola bars so that I can give those to street people instead of money that would be spent on alcohol. Here if I give them some food they will turn around and sell it on the street. I’d be happy to help feed someone but I don’t want to support someone’s drug habit. Oh it’s so hard.

Well today I had a bit of an experience. I was carrying a bag of souvenirs, and Charles’ lunch that I had just bought and one of the kinda scary people wanted to talk to me. The man yelled “Hey lady I wanna talk to you for a minute” I said “Sorry I don’t have time today.” That’s usually the end of things. People are happy to move on to someone else because they usually realize that arguing with someone isn’t going to get them anything. This guy really wasn’t gonna give up though. He called again and again I told him I had no time today, maybe some other time, another time, another day. He just kept following me and yelling, and I was starting to walk a little faster. He followed me around a corner and then called me some really impressive, nasty names, at quite a loud volume I might add. I was really close to the computer center so I wasn’t terribly worried, but it was still uncomfortable.

I told Charles my story and Ernesto, who runs the center, was very annoyed. He said we should find him and tell him that that is not acceptable behavior. Now I was pretty sure the man who had yelled at me was not the picture of mental health and I wasn’t sure it was a good idea that we should find him and tell him not to be rude, but Ernesto said that people should not go around town behaving like that, so off we went. I told Ernesto I had his back but as it turned out when the shouting started I ran like a girl. The guy started running and shouting and Ernesto followed. He told him calmly and firmly that he couldn’t disrespect people like that and no, he hadn’t come to kill him.

Meanwhile I was back at the center worrying that poor Ernesto was being killed. I stood by the fence waiting to see him. I was never so glad to see someone come around a corner. “Ernesto” I yelled, “You dead man?” He laughed at me and teased me a bit for running away.

This is a warning to all of my friends. If I say I have your back, the chances are very good that when trouble starts, I will run away. Dear Ernesto, I’m so glad you are not dead!

And on the third day...

“Docta ain’t dey notin’ I could take?
I say Dooooocta to relieve de belly ache.
You put de lime in da coconut and drink’em bote up.
You put de lime in de coconut and call me in da mornin’.”

...(Lime in de coconut song by that guy)

Hi everyone.

I was gone for a few days with a flu bug or something. Maybe it was something that I ate, who knows, but I’m much better now, thanks to wonderful nursing from Charles here and some great doctoring from my friend at home. You see I have this dear friend/daughter who showed up one day to baby sit the boys and never went away. She calls me MD (momma Di) and we call her Spedley. Dr. Spedley, as it turns out.

Well when Charles thought I had been sick long enough he filled me full of gravol, made sure I was on my side, (recovery position, always the scouter) and went in search of advise. He found Pamela on line and asked when to start the antibiotics that we have with us. She said give her 24 more hours, pump her full of liquids, water mixed with a bit of Gatorade is good because it’ll help replenish her electrolytes, and it looks pretty when you throw it up.
So here I sit alive.
Alive!!!

Somebody’s getting schnitzel when I get home…..

It’s gonna be a busy day for me. I have to get some more groceries, have a Spanish lesson, and head of to the office, see what’s changed since I was gone. Lots to do but I’m still getting back my energy.

Bits and Bites

First the bits (as in pieces of eight)

You’ll note the ads are missing from the old blog. It seems our account has been suspended. We are not sure why, but we suspect that some folks keen to help out have spent some time clicking the ads repeatedly, to help financially. It’s a nice thought, but since most of these ads are for small businesses that should get to decide on their own which organizations they support, please don’t do that unless you truly are interested in their product. Besides, Google has detectors. We still get a bit of money just having the ads there, even if nobody follows the links.

Getting a charity number in Canada is proving as slow as getting DSL in Costa Rica. Several people still want to help with or without a tax break, so shortly on the blog there should appear a donate button, that will allow you to put something in the coffers. I can’t guarantee you’ll ever see a tax receipt for it, but I can guarantee it will be put to good use.

Now for the bites (the tasty kind).

Most people eat the same dozen or so things over and over again their whole life. If you doubt this, keep track of your personal diet for a month and see for yourself where you fit. At home, we have a winter set with pasta, stews, roasts, chili, cooked vegetables, etc., for large meals and breads, preserved fruits, and cheese for smaller meals. Our summer set has lots of barbeque and salads, breads, and fruits in season.

Here in Cahuita, we’ve been determined to experience a new diet. Breakfast is fruit – pineapple, mango, avacado, occasionally papaya or cantaloupe, and Dianne’s weird thing of the day. The weird thing is something she buys from the fruit and vegetable truck because she has never seen one before. First we guess if it’s a fruit or vegetable, since it is not always obvious, then we figure out which bits to eat and which not to. We are never sure if it should be cooked or not and suspect the locals would find humor in us eating the equivalent of raw potatoes or boiled pears. Lunch is a restaurant meal, eat in or take out, usually casada – a marriage of rice and beans, salad, meat, and fried yucca or potato. Supper is usually corn chips and Dianne’s amazing salsa, or fried corn tortillas stuffed with salsa and smoked cheddar cheese, washed down with Canadian heresy – beer with lots of ice.

But wait – we’ve simply swapped for a different dozen! (weird thing not withstanding). “Can’t have that” says the girl with the bandaged finger, and she proceeds to buy a cookbook of local recipes for foods she’s never seen, written in a language she doesn’t speak. “No opportunity for things to go wrong here”, I say as I pick up an extra couple bottles of beer, figuring they can be used to soothe bruised egos, put out fires, or just get the taste out of my mouth. After a couple false translating starts that she’s already written about, which based on her interpretation of what had to be done to the vegetables had me worried we’d be buying a leather apron or adding whips and chains to the utensil drawer, yesterday was the moment of truth.

“Need help?” says I, while reading my book on the porch. “It’s under control”, says she, accompanied by the sounds of hot oil and running water, and tantalizing smells wafting their way through the cabana. After a bit, I could no longer contain my curiosity, and made my way to the kitchen on pretense of getting a beer. Mounds of dishes, pots and pans, flour on the floor, counter, and even the tip of her nose, she grins and asks me if I think the bowl of mashed yucca weighs 2 kilos or not. I estimate it at a little over 1, and leave with my beer, hoping this is as good as it smells, because the quantity I saw could feed a small army and Costa Rica doesn’t have one.

Another hour, the moment of truth, and it was – excellent, needing only a red wine (unfortunately still behind the police seals) to complement it. It will be very good tomorrow, too I hope. And maybe the next day.

We spent an hour eating, discussing minor tweaks to make the recipe our own, (including cutting it in thirds), whether or not we were the only people in Costa Rica eating pork on Good Friday, and then we realized we’ve only added item thirteen. Well, it’s a start, and there are lots more pages in the book. And beer in the store.

Note for the friends of Di that usually meet on MSN

She won´t be here today. Something her tongue touched in a restaurant has made her under the weather for the past day or so. She is much better today, so no need to worry, and I´m sure she´ll be back online tomorrow. (It wasn´t her cooking, honest!)

The Easter Party

Cahuita's downtown core in full party mode

Let's get together and

feel all right

-Bob Marley

It's Easter week as we've mentioned and this is a serious celebration time. This morning the police sealed the beer coolers in the grocery stores - sale of alcohol is prohibited between midnight Wednesday and midnight Friday. It's lucky we have pina colada ingredients in the fridge in case of emergency.



Cahuita has swollen to at least double it's population, and street vendors are coming out of the jungle. A bandstand has been set up near the bus terminal, and we can't wait to see what sort of tunes will be played - and when. (O.K. we're pretty sure it will be Bob Marley the local hero, or calypso, the other local hero, but who knows?) There is even a first aid station, complete with ambulance at the national park entrance, and bug guy has macheted his field and set up a parking lot. Given the influx so far has resulted in nearly 10 cars since most folks travel by bus, he is either wildly optimistic, or there's way more going on this weekend.



Given we mastered the bus system with our road trip to Puerto Viejo, yesterday we decided to do a road trip to Limon. I had 3 reasons for the journey.


1) Limon is a fair sized city now on the stopping list for Carnival Cruise Lines, so we could do some shopping. I'm the only person in Cahuita without sandals, and I own all the socks in town.


2) There is a sloth sanctuary about half way to Limon and I wanted to see which stop to get off the bus so we can visit it on a future excursion.


3) I have to go there on my way to a school on Monday. The instructions are that I'll be met by Ernesto when he gets on the bus at the crossroads before the last stop. Hence it would be good to know where the last stop is.



After a bit of a false start, we had an excellent ride and saw amazing country that we missed when we came through on our way to Cahuita after dark. It also seems the concept of a bus terminal is unique to Cahuita. The bus stopped and everyone got off, so we did too. Then the bus drove away, and we saw no place to get on a bus to go home. Oops! So much for our mastery of the busses.



I set a waypoint on my GPS so we could at least find this spot again, and set out on foot to find where we might get a bus home, going on the assumption that the bus terminal must be not too far away, and people get off here because this is the shopping area. First things first, and this did not look like a place to be after dark. Dianne said she saw the bus turn right at the next corner, so we went in that direction.



Dianne & I have been together nearly 25 years and she is famous for her sense of direction. In fact, if you say "do you think we should go this way or that", then choose the exact opposite of what she says, you will ALWAYS get to your destination. It's uncanny, really, but despite this knowledge I chose to follow her instruction because after all, she was going on what she saw, not on what she felt, right?



Well, suffice it to say we now have seen all the sights of Limon, found the hospital, saw a couple neighbourhoods that made me nervous, and wore out most of a pair of shoes before we finally found a sign with "Autobus para Cahuita" on it - one city block from where we got off, you guessed it, just LEFT of the intersection where we turned right. Some constants are universal.



That problem solved, we proceeded to do some shopping in an area that reminded me of Asia and the Middle East - packed with people, street vendors, small specialty shops and food food food. Noise, vehicles, singing for coins, - the sights, smells, and sounds are an assault on the senses, especially after a few weeks in a small village. It was a blast.



When we tired of shopping, we bought tickets for the bus and poked in a few more shops as we had 40 minutes to kill. With 30 minutes remaining, a line was forming, so we go into it, just in case. This line grew, and grew. With 10 minutes to go we started loading and being near the front of the line, we got seats together. The seats filled, and people were standing in the aisle, waiting for the bus to leave. Street vendors wandered in the front door and out the back door flogging sweets, drinks, frozen treats, and even singing songs.



Finally we pulled out and just like the other busses, every few hundred meters we stopped, and more people got on. And more. And still more. With packages, and shopping and gifts and coolers and babies. And strangely good spirits. Smiling, joking, very little complaining, and standing holding treasures for 40 or 50 km of potholes and hairpin turns.
Clearly, Dorthy, we are not in Kansas any more. But I love it.



An update on the shower



Sometimes I'm an idiot. I freely admit this. I love to solve problems, but occasionally, I'll decide a problem is not worth the effort of solving, and just live with it. Take my shower (please). I'm a morning shower person, mostly because I don't want to be entered in a Phyllis Diller look alike contest by Dianne when I'm not paying attention.



The shower here, despite the electrocuter, is tolerable in the afternoon after the sun heats the ground, but a tad on the cool side circa 6 AM. The other day, Dianne, in one of her fits of making trouble, turned on the faucets while I was in the shower. At home this would have frosted my already chilly shower, but here, the drop in water pressure resulted in it actually getting warmer a little. A little longer for the water to pass through the heater - makes sense.
The next morning, I was in the midst of an icy rinse and thinking about flushing the toilet to get things just a little warmer, when eureka! It struck me... I could simply turn the water flow partly off, to just a trickle, and it might get warmer. Warmer it got - almost hot in fact. By playing with the faucet, I could achieve the perfect temperature.





Duh.



O.K. Now I really might never go home. I wonder if I can telecommute from here? If we ever get internet, that is... *sigh*

Latest News

Blog for a rainy day
What seems like a gentle, all day rain has settled over Cahuita. It seems like a good time to get caught up on our bog. All of Costa Rica shuts down for Easter week, so Charles has the week off. We’ve been using the time to explore. No time for blogging.


Easter Week
Easter in Cahuita! The whole place swells up with zillions of people and they party. There are booths being set up and fields being mowed for extra parking. By mowed I mean a guy with a machete cleaned up the whole thing. The fella who sells jewelry at the bridge has added 2 more tables of stuff. Bus loads of people arrive everyday. I don’t know if they come for the day or stay over but man there are a lot of people. No liquor is sold from midnight Wednesday to midnight Good Friday. (now they tell us) The local police actually visit bars and restaurants and put yellow tape on the alcohol fridges. Me thinks that there might be a party on Saturday, Woo! Hoo! I mean, Charles and I do not cotton to such frivolous activities.


Office Matters
The ocean has been very angry these past few days. The waves are huge and loud, and they slam you around with such power and disregard for human life.
So I’m coming home from the office and there were about 50 turistas standing, pointing at the trees and yelling hoo,hoo,hoo. The howler monkeys were just sitting there eyeing them suspiciously. Now I’m not sure if the howler monkeys yell is to scare you off, or if it’s the war cry before they kill you. I decided to move on.
Then as I was nearing the beach exit there were another bunch staring and pointing at a tree. They were laughing, more cackling than laughing. As I got closer I could see a big green parrot in the tree, mimicking everything some girls were saying and laughing along with them as if he understood the joke. Very cool!


On the Home Front
I bought a Spanish cookbook. It’s in Spanish. I was getting pretty cocky about all of the Spanish I’m learning until I got this book. I picked a recipe at random and decided to try it, not knowing what the heck it might be. I figured out the first half of the recipe and instructions (incorrectly), but then I got stuck. Near as I could figure I had to distress the tomatoes, abuse the plantain, and put a dressing gown on the eggs. My friend Ernesto helped me translate it properly, but he said this looks terrible. Do not make this. Hahaha Well you know me, I’m going to make it anyway, and I told Ernesto that I’d make some extra for him, too.


Bus Trip
Charles has to take the bus to Limon on Monday so we thought we’d give it a test run and do some shopping in the big city. We asked for 2 tickets to Limon and the guy told us to hurry and get on that bus there. So we did and it was going in the opposite direction. I hear Panama is nice this time of year. Uno jerk! Anyway we got off a few hundred feet later. Security guy wouldn’t let us in the back door, so we had to walk around the block to the bus terminal. He let others in but not us. Dos jerk! Charles was getting a little annoyed. Anyway we hoofed it around the block, went back to the ticket seller and with squinted eye, (You know the look, eh boys?) Charles asked for 2 tickets to Limon.
Riding on the bus was kinda cool. People started to get on with towels and I gotta tell you this now makes me nervous. Not a problem, though, we stayed on paved roads all the way. No giant dust clouds. After a dozen or so km, the bus was stopped at a police checkpoint. Everyone had to get off and we had to present our passports. They actually checked to see if they were stamped properly. Apparently if drugs are moving from Columbia to North America by land, this is the only road. Anybody not an obvious local commuter is checked very closely. Although everything was fine, it was still a little disconcerting.
We had a great day in the city. We got some sandals, a button for Charles shorts, some amazing coconut cookies sold by a lady at the side of the street, a candle, and a praise CD with songs sung in Spanish. Days of Ellijah, in Spanish, too much fun. We had lunch in a place that might have been Spanish Kentucky fried chicken, mostly because it cracked us up. After lunch we got on the bus to Cahuita and all was fine. On the trip home, however, we weren’t stopped at the checkpoint. Apparently no one smuggles drugs into Columbia.
We just found out that the internet place is closed until next week. Still I’d like to wish you all a safe and Happy Easter, knowing that my darling Charlie will probably fine a way to post this. Everyone should be married to a geek!!!


PS. Does anyone know what this is?

The "Touch evberything finger" in action

Rain and cats

The place where they gather weather information near here is the airport in Limon, about 40 km away. According to their records, this area gets 3.1 meters, or just over 10 feet of rain every year. It doesn’t matter if you grew up knowing your finger is 3 ½ inches long, or 2 cm wide – that is a LOT of rain. Dianne, standing on my shoulders, would still have her nose under water. Hence the name “rain forest”.

Being the kind of guy that does his homework as much as possible, I knew this fact long before we left and made sure we had rain jackets, ponchos, umbrellas, and plenty of dry socks packed in watertight plastic bags. (something else to take home unused) After years of being a Scouter, I try to “be prepared”.

Since we’ve been here, it has been a long procession of perfect sunny days. We’ve had a bit of rain, in the night, about once a week, which just serves to get the dust off of everything, and give us clear morning views over fantastic greenish blue waters. I’m thinking we are about due, but come on – nobody even wears socks, let alone dry ones, so how bad can it be?

Yesterday I had my coffee looking at some trees and noticed a fine mist of rain against the dark background. 100% humidity, condensing, 30 degree C ambient at 6:00 AM, dust from passing vehicles – the perfect computer environment if you’re Dante. At least static electricity isn’t a problem, which is lucky because they keep the memory sticks in a bowl on a shelf. I put my umbrella in my pack, just in case, and wandered off to work.

We’ve seen this sort of morning before, and it always clears by 9:00 or 10:00 AM. Yesterday was not really an exception as there was some clearing, but the humidity never let up. Long before lunch I was wet – not from rain, but from sweat that didn’t evaporate. Dianne took a break from the serious business of shopping and counting sand dollars for the afternoon, and rinsed some clothing and put it on the line. She’s found a cookbook of Costa Rican recipes, in Spanish of course, and experiments using my little translator and her phrase book. We had another amazing meal (she’s very good at this) and watched the full moon for a bit – the clouds had not returned.

Early to bed Costa Rica style (we really don’t miss TV) and after a bit of reading under the mosquito netting, we turned out the lights. (your turn. Um.. I’m pretty sure it’s yours. Heads or tails? While you’re up getting that coin, could you turn out the light?)

And then the rain came. A gentle patter on the roof, increasing in intensity, still increasing, pounding (Is that hail? No, dear), shouting to have a conversation, deafening, serious rain. I have a little hearing loss in my left ear, so with the right ear on the pillow, the sound level is just under a space shuttle launch, but still not exactly conducive to dropping of to sleep. The most popular roofing material here is metal, and you have to ask why. Houses do not have attics – we look at the underside of the tin roof from our bed and understand where the idea for the steel drum came from. The rain continues. (So what do you want to do now? Just relax and enjoy the sound, dear) Eventually the intensity dropped off and so did we, but we wonder what it’s like in the rainy season. 10 feet. We likely got an inch. Without using a calculator, that means similar downpours 120 times over the course of the year, or every third day. Since we’ve had 2 days worth in the last 20, the implication is that sometimes the noise will continue for days at a time. No wonder everybody plays Bob Marley really loud.

My shirts are well rinsed too. Still on the line, they’ll likely be dry by April. If not, well, I still have those waterproof plastic bags…

The bedroom

More Fluffy than Mange.

Just a quick update on our kitty. He’s looking much better. He’s really filling our now. He’s still very skinny, but he really looks like a cat. His mange spots are healing and he’s starting to pounce bugs and do silly cat things. Just one problem left to solve, fleas. When Charles and I were in Puerto Viejo we found a really large grocery store. It’s still smaller than any thing we’re used to, but big for here. We were so excited and wandered up and down the isles looking for stuff we might need, and lo and behold, flea powder! Poor Mange! Yesterday was powder up the cat day. I took him out behind the cabana and dusted him up. Experience has taught me not to do this in or near my house cause just like rats jumping a sinking ship, the fleas will desert a flea-powdered cat. So there he was poor trusting, purring creature, rubbing against my ankles when poof, poof, poof. Powder everywhere! Cat not impressed. (What makes annoying cats so much fun?) He wandered a few feet over there, thinking I wouldn’t follow, silly kitty. I now had to hide the container of powder cause if he saw it he was gone, so I filled my hand with stuff and petted him and rubbed it in everywhere. Finally he’d had enough and just left. Charles and I sat down for supper at the usual time. He was telling me about his day when Mange decided to show up. He was quite annoyed with me, but I guess he could find it in his heart to forgive me if I had a plate of food. He munched his food took a few steps, shook and poof, huge cloud of white powder drifted skyward. Hahaha I thought we were going to die laughing. This morning he has returned and decided to let us feed him breakfast. Cats are such forgiving creatures, as long as you have food. Do you suppose he wandered about in last night’s storm to get rid of the powder? Or spent it under something still sneezing? He looks really good. His fur is looking really white and, dare I say it, fluffy. Hmmm, Fluffy, what a great name for a cat!

Silly songs with Larry

Everyone’s got a water buffalo.
Mine be fast but yours be slow.
Where we get them I don’t know,
But everyone’s got a water buffalo.
.
....Larry the Cucumber

OK this guy isn’t a water buffalo, but he is a cross between a cow and a, you guessed it, water buffalo! He’s a water cowfalo! (For those of you that don’t speak Dianne, Charlie is working on a dictionary)

We had a great day today. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning. Charlie put on a pot of coffee and we tried to decide what to do for the day. After breakfast we decided to walk to the butterfly garden just outside of town. The driving here is insane. At one point a guy and his kid, riding double on a bike passed us, who were at the same time being passed by a car, who in turn were being passed by a tourist bus. This is what happens when you pave a road people!!!

The butterfly garden was amazing. Winged creatures of blue and green and orange and gold were everywhere. Beautiful! There were lots of colourful pictures and information in several languages about the butterflies. There was even a humming bird in there and Charles found her nest. Very cool.

The "touch everything finger" in action

Then we headed back to town. By 10:30 we were back trying to decide what to do with our day. I gotta tell you, we Gales get more done by 10:30 than most people do all day. I was trying to talk Charles into getting on a bus and going to Bribri, which is about 20 km down the road, but instead we went to the beach. I’ve been to his office a number of times, so it was only fair that he should see mine.

We went out to my fish restaurant for lunch before we headed to my office. This week I just got a fillet, but usually I get this fried, whole fish with a funky sauce on it. I eat my fish while he stares back at me, but today I didn’t feel like looking my lunch in the eye.

Anyway, off we went to my office. Man I love the white sand beach. This is palm Sunday, and people here take an entire week off for Easter, so the beach was a bit crowded. Still we found our spot in the shade and we played in the water, warm and wonderful! I was sitting in the shallow water and playing in the goopy sand when my hand brought up a sand dollar, a live one. Then I looked around and noticed I was sitting among hundreds of them. Way cool.

On the way back we found the veggie truck and loaded up with fresh stuff, brought it home and chopped it into salsa. Mmmmmm

During our travels around town we’ve spotted several small churches, but the closest we’ve found to a recognizable denomination is a small Catholic church. Today we decided to brave Spanish services and attend. The sign on the door says mass at 4:00 PM, so we went back into town to go to Mass at 4. Yes it was only 4. We had had a very busy day. Sadly there was not going to be a service today, as (we think) it’s a multi point parish and they only have mass every second week. The other weeks are a bible study, which does not work well if you don’t speak the language. I was kinda bummed.

So we went to the Internet café to visit with the kids and any friends who might be online. We also talked with Willy, the café owner / tour guide, and we and may have a chance to go to an indigenous village on Tuesday. A 6 hour walk, following up the river sometimes walking in the water (not more than 3 or so feet deep, he promises) – how hard can it be?


Charlie’s Day –in Jurassic Park

Sometimes I think the age of the dinosaurs never really ended, they just got smaller and smaller and eventually moved to Costa Rica. There are an amazing collection of lizards and associated species here, some just a little scarier than others.

I don’t mind the family of salamander like guys that live in our house – they actually help keep the biting insect population down and anything that reduces the itching and scratching we contend with is appreciated. It’s also fun to watch the babies, only a couple inches long, struggle with trying to eat an ant that is about half an inch long. It’s like putting a gallon of ice cream in front of a three year old – he’s not sure where to start, but it’s a good day!

There is one that makes me a little nervous, however, that I see on my way to work every day. He’s a bit over a foot long with the tail, and looks like a skinny iguana, but he’s got a bit of tyrannosaurus rex in him, and a fair amount of attitude. He runs faster than anything I’ve seen, and he runs upright on his back legs. Every day we try to remember to take his picture, and every day we forget and scare him up before thinking about the camera. Today we remembered on the way home, and I got him on… ummm.. What do you say now that there is no “film” anymore? (Somehow “flash rom based electronic storage media” doesn’t have the same ring to it)

There is another kind of lizard that lives in the computer storage area at work. In size he is between the two mentioned above, but in attitude he’s pretty aggressive. He has learned, however, that humans with brooms will prevail, and now generally gives me a wide berth. We saw several others types on our hikes through the rainforest, but they were too quick for our fumbling with the camera.

And the sand crabs, (sort of related), are a blast – scurrying sideways on the beach and hiding in their holes with just eyestalks sticking out until we go by.

Yesterday an older German couple staying at the same place we are staying, told us they saw a yellow viper in the jungle behind our cabin.
Oh.
Good.
Snakes.
My favorite.
Poisonous ones at that, aggressive, and they like to hang from trees.
And we were just discussing a hike back there.

I bet Dianne would love go to the beach instead, especially if I buy her a fish for lunch!

(Are you kidding? A bright yellow poisonous snake? I gotta get a picture!!)

Tyrannosaurus mini-rex

Our New Arrival….

We had the nicest day today. Charlie had the day off, so we decided to be brave and take the bus to the next town, Puerto Viejo. Another fun adventure.

The roads here are a hoot. One of them is paved, but we never seem to stay on it for long. Once we turned off the paved road, well, it was like nothing I’ve ever seen. The first thing that happened was the driver put a towel on his head. This amused me until I looked out the front window and saw something that looked like a thick, thick wall of fog. I couldn’t figure out what it could be because the weather was wrong for fog, and looking at the driver I was suddenly wishing for a towel too because he clearly knew something that I didn’t.

We drove into a cloud of dust the likes I have never seen. Higher, wider, and thicker than anything you could imagine. Visibility zero! Now one would think that towel head driver guy would slow down once he could no longer see anything, but no. I think he was flying by his instruments. He was just zipping along, passing big trucks, zooming across one lane bridges. The dust became so thick that it was becoming hard not to panic. People, including me, had their hands in front of their noses trying to get a breath. It was a bit scary, but soon we bounced into Puerto Viejo and all was well.

This place is a beach town like Cahuita, but larger and much more touristy. There were lots of booths set up along the beach and lots of people selling things. We had lunch at a neat place that served Caribbean food and had great pitchers of sangria overlooking the ocean. This is the town where surfer dudes go to play, but the sea was calm today and they weren’t out. We wandered around a bit more after lunch, bought some souvenirs and fresh fruit and headed back to the bus stop. Within about 15 minutes a bus arrived driven by another guy with a towel. (I can see the interview now…. Can you drive a bus? Yes! Do you own a towel? Yes! Congratulations! You’re our guy!) The whole bus ride, there and back, cost us four dollars in total, for both of us. Pretty cool. We were even going to get back in time for a lovely swim at the Playa Negra. Best day ever!

The bus let us off at the White Sands strip mall, right next to the store that sells blenders. They make a wonderful drink here. They fill a blender with ice, water and fresh fruit, and man is it good. I have been eyeing blenders ever since I had my first one. Well today as I had my hopeful nose pressed against the front window of the appliance store, my darlin’ Charlie went in and bought me a present. The Crush Master 2000! Now seriously, how could we not buy something called “The Crush Master 2000”!

We went home and after our swim we walked back into town and bought even more fruit. We came home and here we sit, in the dark, staring longingly at our Crush Master 2000. There’s no power!!!!! Sigh, again I say, sigh…..






Fun facts our friends tell us the better they get to know us…..

Everyone in Cahuita speaks English, (some only a little) but they like to pretend that they don’t cause it’s fun to watch the tourists struggle. Then they go into the back room and share what silly things the touristas said. Hahaha


Charlie’s View

Next week is Easter week here, which is a major holiday time in Costa Rica. It’s the one time of the year when it is almost impossible to get a hotel room. Many businesses shut down for the whole week. The official holidays are Thursday and Friday, but everybody extends it a little at least. The computer center will be closed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, which gives us 5 days to do something interesting. Pretty much anything we want to do involves a bus trip. Further, the Monday after Easter week, I need to get on the first bus of the day to Limon to meet some folks, to go to a school up in the mountains. Since Ernesto lives in Limon, I’ll be making this part of the trip on my own. Clearly, it’s time to figure out how to use the bus system. Weekends are our time to explore a little, so a short bus trip seemed the best way to combine learning the busses with seeing something new and interesting. A day trip to the next little town, about 20 Km away seemed the perfect approach, and leaving early in the morning would give us plenty of time to recover from a screw-up, like say getting on the bus going the wrong direction or something. Living in the country, it’s been many years since we have used public transit, and this is not a place where you just pick up a bus schedule “Sorry, mon – dare ain’t no such an-ee-mal”. We proceeded to the bus stop, where we have seen people boarding busses every day since we arrived. Complication number one – the ticket window was closed. There was a hand made sign, in Spanish, taped to the steel shutter over the window. It seemed to say something like, “if the office is closed, go to White Sands”. That’s cool, if I only knew what “White Sands” was. Dianne, of course, has explored most of the town, and being an observant girl, explained that it is the name of the strip mall where the ATM is that she visits regularly. The driver of a truck also told us something in Spanish and pointed in that direction when he saw us puzzling over the sign. We thanked him and wandered off to the strip mall. Lo and behold, while we slept, an entire new section has been added to the mall, including a somewhat shiny new bus terminal, with an open ticket window. We, of course had just missed the bus going in our direction, but they seem to run every hour, so we simply had to wait a little. According to the folks I’ve talked to, busses in Costa Rica are varied in nature – everything from something like our Grey Hound machines, complete with air conditioning and rest rooms, to retired school busses, still mostly yellow, complete with missing windows and occasionally sharing a seat with livestock, depending on the route you choose. Our bus was similar to a city bus, and reasonably comfortable if you ignored the permanently open doors that let clouds of dust roll through on the gravel roads. Outside of town, every kilometer or so, there is a 4 x 8 sheet of corrugated tin roofing suspended on 4 posts. This is the official bus stop. Don’t bother looking for a sign – there isn’t one, and besides, I observed several people on the side of the road nowhere near a bus stop, that waved from a distance and were picked up by the bus. The ticketing rules are a little strange too. Returning from Puerto Viejo, I could not see a place to buy tickets. However, we picked up several folks on the way there, so I figured I’d simply pay the bus driver like they did. The bus driver was having none of it, however and explained to me in Spanish that I had to go buy a ticket over there somewhere. He told Dianne to stay sitting, so clearly he was going to wait for me if I was quick about it. I went into a corner store close to where he pointed and “Autobus?”. The girl pointed around the corner, and I scooted that direction to find a mostly hidden bus ticket window. I bought our tickets and made it back to the bus. Most seats were gone, but I made somebody move his pack and sat in it’s seat. Whew – I made it! The bus moved forward about 100 meters and stopped. A girl got on, and paid the driver. You’ve got to love rules.


The birds and the bees

The girl with the swollen touch everything finger spotted a giant mound of fire ants. “I need a picture” says she. “Sure Honey, I’ll be over here”. Then she spots a nest of killer bees, easily a meter in diameter. “Wow!”, says she, “I need to shoot that too!”. “No problem”, says I. “While you do that, I’ll see if the sangria place is open yet”. Sometimes it’s better to go with the flow – or just go…

This is the entrance to an ant hill . The hill is a couple feet high, and several feet in diameter.

Yes - These are bees, and the tree limb is about 8 inches in diameter.

A new look for the old blog

Any time now, the blog is going to start sporting ads on one side. We are not being taken over by corporate america, but rather this is a way for us to make a few dollars for the Cahuita computer center. Every time somebody drops by to read the blog we get a few pennnies. If you click on the ads, we get a few more. So feel free to click away! You don't have to buy anything, just clicking helps.

This is a bit of a science experiment, and may not make more than a couple dollars, but dollars go pretty far here. Many thanks to Geoff Burd who has done all the legwork for us - he's been a fantastic help as we continue to battle the local telco monopoly to get internet access back.

I'm also working to get this charity recognized as such in Canada. Several folks have asked how they can donate a little, and getting a tax break is only fair. It has US status already, so adding Canada should be simple. Then again, so should getting internet access :-)

Yesterday I visited 2 schools. The school system here is quite different. There are no school busses, so every few km there is a small school. Most have fewer than 5 classrooms, an office, a place for a bit of food preparation, and washrooms. Kids walk to school, or bike, or if they are quite far, ride the public bus. Uniforms are mandatory. If you can't afford the uniform, you don't go to school. Most have fewer than 50 students, few textbooks, and a 4 or 5 overworked teachers.

In Canada, with schools typically of several hundred kids, a computer room with 15 or 20 machines is economically viable. In Costa Rica, such small schools would never be able to buy one computer, never mind enough for a class, without Opportunity Access. This organization basically procures the computers that large companies replace every 3 years, usually by corporate donation, then refurbish them, put appropriate (donated) software on them, and get them to these small schools. They also maintain them, network them, and get them connected to the internet if the school has a little budget for this, and other stuff I discussed already early in the blog.

The picture today is a class taking a break. If you look on the left you can see concrete pillars, that hold up the school, 8 or 10 feet in the air. That's because it is in a low lying area the floods when the rains come. It's a fairly new building, because the old one, on the same site, did not fare well being under water every year. The country around the school is banana plantations, and most of the parents work the plantations - long, hard, physically intensive work. The company housing is not exactly one of your more desirable neighborhoods either. Education for their kids is the hope for the future, and they are proud of the computer lab in the little school. I'll be back there in a week or so to refurbish 15 machines and get the network going - it should be a blast, between the kids questions and my limited communication ability. There's another major adventure coming too - I'll tell you when it's closer, but it involves mountains and horses. 'nuff said. Adios for now.

Mango Break

Jueves Marzo 13

I had my first Spanish lesson today. I have a most wonderful teacher named Roxanna, and she doesn’t speak English. We did really well together as I have been trying to learn on my own for 2 weeks now, and she knows the odd word in English. She was trying to express the verb “conocer” to me but couldn’t think how to do it. She asked Ernesto in Spanish “Could you tell us what conocer is in English?” He turned to us and said “No”. We laughed and said fine don’t tell us. He looked confused for a moment and said “No I mean conocer means to know. I know what time it is.” Hahahaha

It was such fun. We were playing a game of dueling dictionaries for a while, arms waving and brows furrowed, but somehow Roxanna was able to teach me quite a lot. In fact she sent me home with work to do, verbs to conjugate. I gotta tell you, I’m getting to old to conjugate. Don’t tell Charles. He still thinks we conjugate like young folks. Hahaha

I’m starting to understand, however, why my father talked the way he did. He was born in Hungary. When he was 30-ish he moved to Germany and learned a new language. When he was 38-ish he moved to Canada and learned yet another language. He was such fun to talk to, but to understand him well, it was really helpful if you could speak Hungarian, German, and English. You usually got all three languages in the same sentence, even if the sentence was only two words long. Hahaha

Trying to learn this new language has opened up the part of my brain where the other languages I know some or all of have been sleeping. Anything is likely to come out of my mouth.. Ya ya ya, I know that’s true at the best of times, but now it comes out in several languages at once. I miss dad.

Well I had a ton of homework to do so after lunch I took my books and went to the office. I bobbed in the ocean, did some homework, and bobbed some more. Best day ever!!!

My new schedule looks like this. Spanish lesson at nine, and then to the café to msn with friends and family back home at 10:30, that’s 12:30 your time. Then I will do the groceries and have lunch with Charlie. After lunch I will go to the office. I hope I don’t exhaust myself. Oh and on top of this grueling schedule Charlie expects me to make some sort of supper!!! PPfffttt! I just don’t have the time for that kind of foolishness! Has the man never heard of take out? I already know the word for “to go” in Spanish. Para yevar por favor. I mean really!

By the way, if anyone would like to join me on msn, my address is boysmom31@hotmail.com simply add me to your contact list and I’d love to chat. It’s so nice to hear a voice from home.




Deep thoughts while swimming in the deep.

Charles and I have this ongoing debate about the tree outside of our cabana. Is it a lime or lemon tree? Neither the colour nor flavour of the fruit will convince us that it is clearly one or the other. One of us thinks it’s lemon the other thinks it’s lime. Suffice it to say Charles is wrong.

A few days ago the fruit guy had these cut up things. He said that they weren’t sweet and he would put salt and lime juice on them. I like to have a new weird thing each day so I got some. Well he put the salt on it and then he picked up a lime. This lime was yellow. He had a yellow lime! When he cut it open it was bright orange inside, but it tasted like a lime. Imagine a yellow, orange fruit that tastes green! How can that be?

Now in Canada when we want a lime we know that it will be bright green on the outside and lighter green on the inside, and it will taste like a lime. When we want a lemon we know that it will be bright yellow on the outside and lighter yellow on the inside and it will taste like a lemon. Orange? Same deal! It’s easy to judge!

Here in Cahuita you don’t know what’s on the inside from looking at the colour outside. You don’t always know from looking on the inside either. You might recognize the flavour, but you can’t tell what it will be from the colour. Like life, you just have to taste and see.

Time and people

Cahuita's paved street

Time at home in Canada is highly fragmented. Work consumes an average of 10 hours a day between the office and online at home. Add 90 minutes of commute time, 15 minutes walk to and from the car, a little brushing snow, or buying gas, and exactly half the day is gone. Sleep is 6 hours, online reading, writing, and exploring consumes another couple, showers, meals and life in general a bit more and we are left with maybe 3 hours to work on a project or hobby, play a little, or stare blankly at the TV. We try to squeeze life into the weekends, but with unfinished home projects, unscheduled car repairs, and weather to get in the way – urgent things obviously get priority. Time in Cahuita is like a banana; sweet and neatly divided into thirds. 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work, 8 hours play. The sun rises everyday at 5:30 AM and sets at 6:00 PM so people are up at 5:00 AM, and generally go to bed about 9:00 PM. I’ve adapted to this cycle rather quickly, and with increased exercise and ocean breezes, I find myself sleeping 8 hours for the first time in decades. I divide my 8 hours of play to 4 in the morning and 4 in the evening, and include my 10 minute walking commutes and occasional lunch breaks with my working time – what the heck, I’m a volunteer. Dianne has not locked into this cycle yet and tries to stay up later with limited success. She has more success at sleeping later - which gives me a couple early morning hours for introspection, fresh coffee, and watching nature with Mangy by my side. Including of course, philosophical blogging. Yesterday Ernesto needed to pick up a specialized computer part in Limon. It was difficult to find, and checking one last shop made him miss the bus, so the computer center opened late. In my quest for someone local with a key, I visited with Solo at his house. We talked of music, fishing, family, business opportunities, foods, the jungle, and life in general. I never did find a key, but my experience got a little richer. I’m starting to teach little things to a few people as they get more comfortable with the bearded guy. Fortunately the menu items in Microsoft applications are in the same locations, even if the word at that location is not the usual one. The lack of Spanish is a major handicap for me. However, I’m getting a few words, and most people have a few words of English, so with a bit of effort on both sides we get on. Years of playing with Microsoft applications helps me too. I think yesterday a small boy asked me if I was Santa Claus. I told him “a veces” (sometimes). He asked where my house was, but I have not learned to say North Pole in Spanish yet and he eventually wandered away wondering why Santa is an idiot. Or maybe he was asking a computer question and went away wondering why they let idiots touch expensive machines. Ether way, I’m not looking good here. Spanish lessons, here I come!

A self photo with the OLPC

Tuesday Mar 11

Another lovely day in paradise. Today’s temperature, 31 C. I didn’t know paradise was so hot. I hope I didn’t take a wrong turn somewhere.

Today I did all of my marketing this morning. The veggy truck was in town, but the lady wasn’t there, so I had to deal with the veggy man. He told me how to say things properly, el aguacate, and made me repeat it until I had it right. Then when I could say it properly, he told me he didn’t have any avocados today. Hahaha For less then 6 bucks I came away with two huge bags of fresh fruit and veggys. I bought a bag of things that I didn’t know what they were. They look like a tiny kiwi, but not fuzzy. I found one of our friends in town and he said we call them plums and they have a big stone in the middle. The Spanish word is really long and I can’t remember it.

There is a fruit man near the bridge that leads into the park. His stuff is more expensive, but he does have cool weird things, like the baseball shaped fruit that is purple inside but bleeds a white milky juice. Today he had something cut in thick french-fry shaped pieces. I couldn’t understand what they were, but he said that they weren’t sweet, and to eat them he would put salt and lime juice on them. This cracked me up so I got some. Very yummy, but the thing that made me laugh was his lime. It was more yellow than green and when he cut it open it was bright orange inside. No wonder Charles and I can’t figure if we have a lime or lemon tree growing outside of our door. I think there’s a lot of cross mojo-nation going on here.

After I finished my morning’s work I went to the office. I walked a couple km down the shore and found a picnic table in the shade to sit at and relax. Oh man, the beautiful ocean in front of me, the jungle behind. Heaven.

It’s fun watching the new turistas in town and on the beach, now that we are seasoned Cahuitains. There were 2 couples close by shaking a bag of food under the trees to attract the white faced monkeys. Hahaha Monkeys can hear a bag of food rattle from 50 miles away. Monkey tactics consist of loud noises and quick movements to trick you into dropping what you have, then they grab everything and run. Within minutes they had more monkeys around them then perhaps they had anticipated. Turistas!

A couple of monkeys came to check me out cause I was close enough to be of interest and who knows I might have some food they could con me out of. Well about 3 feet from where I was sitting a monkey dropped out of a tree onto the beach. She was carrying a tiny baby monkey on her back. She stopped in front of me for a few minutes, and then wandered back into the trees. Very cool!

Critters large and very small

Monday Mar 10,

Today was a quiet day. I had an unexpected visit from Montezuma last night and he was looking for revenge! Funny because we have been very careful with our drinking water and washing our food in treated water. Everyday Charles purifies enough water for drinking, coffee, ice cubes, and cooking in general, but some bug must have snuck in there.

This is a very hot place to be feeling yucky. I spent the day cooling off in the shower and snoozing in front of the fan. I must say I’m feeling much better this evening. Charles, so far is fine. We do expect him to have problems soon though. He had a giant fruit and water drink today. Very refreshing until he found out that the fellow who made if for him stopped using the town water, which could cause problems on it’s own, and had a well in his back yard.

We’ve been seeing this strange creature in the jungle beside our cabana. Charles claims it’s a bunny/duck or maybe a bunny/pig. Today I wanted a picture of a bird in one of the trees so I wandered over there and stood still, hoping for a bird to land. Soon I noticed movement on the ground and the critter that we haven’t really been able to get a good look at, wandered by. I took his picture, and then I left in a hurry. It may well be a bunny/duck/pig, but by my way of thinking it is the biggest rat I have ever seen!

Charles says stuff to try to make me feel better like, “Oh honey, I’m sure it’s nothing more than the local variety of ground hog.” Ya right! A ground hog that looks like a giant rat! A rat/hog! Ha!. Luckily he didn’t like the look of me anymore than I liked the look of him.

Charlie's Day

Despite what the tourist books tell you, Cahuita has not 1, but 2 paved streets. They are actually paving bricks, not concrete or blacktop, and they do not actually go anywhere useful. As you come into town, the main road forks into these 2 bricked streets. The left one goes past the bus stop and ends at the main street, the right one goes past mostly nothing and ends at the main street – a block further south. The main street, which gets 90% of the local traffic, has two small grocery stores, a couple tourist shops, two bars competing for the nightlife crowd, and several restaurants. It begins at the footbridge entrance to the national park to the south, and ends four blocks later, at the post office / police station to the north. Because of the traffic, it’s a pretty dusty stretch of road, and people spray it down with water in front of their home or business most days.

The point of this rambling is to contrast where I work with where I live. When I leave the computer center, I walk about six bocks along this dusty, hot, sometimes noisy, route and then turn into an amazing garden. The temperature immediately drops ten degrees, and, because I’m usually along between 4:30 and 5:00, this amazing perfume is released by some flowering plant that that wafts on a gentle breeze and relaxes beyond anything I’ve ever known. A quick shower, an excellent meal with a pretty girl (don’t tell her I said that), some beer on ice, and all is right with the world. We sometimes listen to radio on the deck until the mosquitoes get too bad, sharing our respective days, then read or watch a carefully rationed video on the laptop when we discover it’s only 7:00 PM.

The computer center is a block east of the main street about half way along, and, while still pretty dusty, is a bit quieter, but only be cause the traffic is a different sort.

Every day several kids come by to play games or work on projects. I think the entire primary school was there yesterday. We’ve had several requests for internet access to look up information for school projects. I’m still hopeful it will be reconnected this week – the paperwork is done, now we just need a truck roll.

The computer center makes a bit of money from repairing computers for local businesses, and a few private individuals. It becomes increasingly clear the internet would help there too for security updates, virus scans, missing drivers, etc. etc. The school computers need this too. And of course we still need to raise some cash for the back rent. Manana.

Wednesday we visit some schools, and I get to try out the bus. The bus looks like and adventure in itself! I’ll keep you posted…

Monkeys & Motorbikes

Sunday March Something…

Another wonderful day! The temperature was 86 degrees F which is a smidge cooler than yesterday’s 88. The weekends are nice because Charles and I can spend them together doing stuff. During the week we both have to go to the office, but on the weekends we can play.

We got up at 4:30 this morning and went down to the playa blanca, the white sand beach, to take pictures of the sunrise on the ocean. Very cool.

Later (inspired by my cousin Anna and Dave) we rented a motor scooter, like a Vespra, but an oriental knock off, and toured around a while. It was the first time I was ever on a motor bike. I was a bit scared, but after a while I got used to it and it was fun. It would have been more fun, I was thinking, if this place had a decent road. The roads seem to be piles of potato sized stones. After a while we came out on a paved road and then things went much better. It was a hoot.

Now this motor scooter wasn’t a really cool one like Dave’s. Charles said it had a 49 cc engine. I asked if that’s big and Charles said to put it into perspective, our chainsaw has a 65 cc engine. Lets just say we weren’t breaking any land speed records, but we did get up to the speed limit, down hill, with a tail wind. (yes, mom we had on our helmets). O.K. it was only once, but we were excited. We did find the butterfly garden place, and it’s walking distance, so we’ll go back when we don’t have the scooter to worry about leaving unattended.

Supper was fun. I found some corn tortillas and put some home made salsa and weirdo cheese on them and fried them up. I also made some gallo pinto (guy-yo pinto) It’s a rice and bean dish that they have here. I tried making it at home before we left so that we could get used to the food here but it was barely edible. Most of the things I made before we left were kind of, well, marginal. Now that we’re here and we can see how it’s made it’s easier to make them just right. The food here is amazing.

Hey Bev!!!!! Thanks for teaching me how to get red wine out of a tablecloth. (There was an incident with the sangria. I blame Charles.) While I was rinsing out the tablecloth, I looked up and what did I see? Actually I’m not sure either. Hahaha. Some sort of tree, with round citrus fruit on it. Charles and I are still “discussing” whether they are lemons or limes. Ya ya ya I know lemons and limes are different colours but things just aren’t that simple in the jungle. Either way they made an amazing lemon (or lime) aid. Yes one would think we’d know after we actually ate one but really they could go either way.

I think we already told you about “Soup”. That’s what we call the rooster next door who crows any time of day or night. And he doesn’t even crow right! (maybe he crows in Spanish) What is wrong with that creature? Will somebody buy him a watch? I swear I’m going to keep an eye on him tomorrow, and when he goes to sleep I’m going to sneak up on him and yell “It’s Cock-a-doodle do! Say it! Cock-a-doodle-do!” He’s going to make a good soup.

And finally in the news…

The monkeys came back; about 20 of them. They didn’t seem to mind us this time. Man they make a mess though. The people here spend everyday beating back the growth and cleaning the outdoors. The monkeys swing through and the place is inch high in broken twigs and leaves and coconuts. And they smell. And they should wear underwear. And the men are manly. OK, all I’m saying is if one of them bothers me again, I have a new place to aim my monkey whacking stick. I’ll give him something to howl at! And he’ll be like.. ouch! stop whacking me!

I guess we can look forward to being awakened tomorrow by the “Rooster-Howler Joyful Noise Choir”.

Ruth rode a motor-bike.
She sat in back of me.
We hit a bump at 65…
And rode on Ruth-less-ly.

…author unknown

Sunday Morning

Sunrise over Cahuita National Park

Saturday afternoon we went to Playa Negra and played in the water. The black sand is left over from a volcano long, long ago and it is a fine powdery sand. Strangely, it does not stick to you like the white sand and in fact washes off much easier. The water was body temperature - no hesitant entry here, and the salt waves washing over you cool just a little. With the breeze, it's all you need. It feels like home which I suppose in some dark recess of racial memory it is.

Afterwards we tried to invent something else lacking here - Sangria. Some ground pineapple and oranges - a hint of mango, a liter of red wine, and a bucket of ice and it was wonderful. At least what I remember was; seems the wine is a bit more potent here.

We got up very early, to a kitchen full of dishes, and went off to the national park to photograph the sunrise. The security guard thought we were crazy, but agreed to let us go in if we just went in front of the ranger station, and promised not to go into the woods.

Not a problem - LOL

Well, time for breakfast. Seems I just took a bite of Dianne's still life study - pura vida!

Our Blackfoot

How about sand critters?

Peter Frampton lives in my Sink

At least it sounds like him. I think I could do well as a plumber here. The drains make funny noises and occasionally smell bad because nobody seems to have invented the "P" trap or "S" trap. I wonder how you go about getting a patent in Costa Rica?
Associated with the questionable plumbing, is the lack of other types of hardware - for instance, don't lean on the sink when brushing your teeth; it may fall off the pedestal it never got bolted to. I suspect getting crushed toes fixed here might be a challenge.

I could also be a major player as an electrician. I could invent Ohm's law, and show how to make wire thicker than about 18 guage. Then we would not have the lights dim when I turn on the coffee pot, or think of some convicted murderer at Sing-Sing when the lights almost go out from turning on the shower. At least our laptops run on batteries - desktops would fair rather badly here in our little Tico house. The computer center seems to have fewer brown outs; however, Ernesto created a brick when he lost power during a BIOS upgrade. Since it was the computer of a friend, and not one of the old beaters, this was a bad thing.

I'm typing this on the OLPC. It is a major hit with the young kids, particularly the music programs. They come to me now and ask for it to play with. We don't have more than a few common words, but we get along fine. The little girl, whose picture is elsewhere in the blog, is named Margurita, and she asks for "la computer chiquita". Ernie (Air-nay as I was corrected by him) asks for "the baby computer". He has a few words of English, and after looking at me like I'm an idiot, he tries them out. Yesterday, he asked permission to use the bathroom. Seems you can jump on a computer and play Mario if you like, but use of facilities requires permission. Who knew?

Today is Saturday. I finished yesterday with a total of 19 working computers for my week, and an equivalent or perhaps larger pile of junk. The storeroom is getting a little more passable, which is good since a few critters live in there, the Iguana's are a bit aggressive, and I don't like surprises. I had to chase one twice with a broom on Thursday. He went somewhere friendlier on Friday.

Today we'll go shopping, and to the beach. The weather looks like it might rain, so maybe tomorrow I'll rent a motor scooter and we'll head off to the Sloth Sanctuary - we'll see. Two days off and a world to explore - who knows?

Butterflies & Booze

Di's Thursday

Thursday March the big bottle of beer,

OK best day ever! I went to the office today. Work, work, work! Then I showered at the outside shower thingy. Then stuff happened and then Charlie came home with the biggest bottle of beer I’ve ever seen. Best day ever! Somebody cleans my house. Tomorrow somebody will do my laundry and they have really big bottles of beer. Best place ever!!!

OK Charles says I should explain what the office is. Charles office is the bench in front of the computer center. My office is the beach. Work, work, work!! Did I mention they have the biggest bottles of beer I’ve ever seen?

Pictures of our house & yard

Here's our Front Porch where we spend early morning and late evening - Blogging, of course!



View from the deck


Front to one side

Out the back door

What’s in a Name?

I think I told you about Mangey Mucska. Well he is the sickest bag of bones you have ever seen. Covered in mange and fleas with milky, weepy eyes, messy back end… disgusting, pitiful thing, looks like death. Well I couldn’t stand it so I started feeding him. I figured if he was gonna die soon he should do so with a full belly.

It’s amazing how quickly he’s filled out. Poor thing must have been starving. He’s put on a bit of weight, and now he’s up to skinny. His eyes have stopped weeping and are clearing up. He’s starting to clean himself up and is looking whiter. His mange is looking less angry and in some spots he is starting to grow hair again, just in a few days of food. He, of course, lives on our deck now and he’s really pretty smart. He’s learned not to come inside. (I thought we didn’t need fleas in our cabana along with all of the other bugs and creatures.) He knows the word “no”. He’s also learned to accept food from us instead of stealing it or grabbing it. He’s happy to just sit with us and wait until he’s fed. He’s changing from wild cat to happy kitty.

Yesterday, Mange was finishing up his bread and milk when we heard someone calling, “Here Fluffy, Fluffy, Fluffy!” He looked up and made a blurt noise and then finished his brekky. “Fluffy, Fluffy….rude words in Spanish… Fluuuuufffy.” Well Mange aka Fluffy blurted and went over to his owner’s place and had his meager bowl of cat food. Then he came back to our porch for his scritchin’ and a nap.

Hmmmm…… Fuffy? Did not see that coming! Is that how it works here? Well from now on just call me Twiggy. (Twiggy? Hahahah anyone younger than 40 google it! Hahahaha)

Wednesday Mar 5th

“Sail away from the safe harbor, Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

Another lovely day, talked to family and friends, walked on the beach, and had lunch with Charles. This afternoon I turned my groceries into salsa, and then I painted. I think I’ll give the painting to Cindy who keeps giving us treats, and telling us it’s time to close the windows before the bugs come out. I wish I could speak better Spanish. I’m trying to find someone who will teach me, but I’m starting to get the hang of it.

I’ve picked up a stray cat. I’ve named him Mangy Mucska. He’s not well. Mangy and flea infested and skinny, skinny, skinny. He might still be sick, but at least his belly will be full when I’m done with him. He insists on coming inside, but he’s got fleas so forget it. There are enough bugs in our house already.

Speaking of bugs… Last night we saw the coolest bug. He was about one and a half inches long. He had these 2 green dots that lit up on each side of his head. When he flew the lit up his wings and he looked like the biggest fire fly you’ve ever seen. Later we actually saw a more normal looking fire fly, but the giant one was pretty cool.




Charlie’s Day

More new friends today, and six and a half working computers – and I left a little early. Not too shabby for an old fart, although I now sport a rather nasty high voltage burn from sticking my fingers into a switching power supply, just minutes after warning someone about the cathode on a CRT (picture tube) that can hold a charge for a long time. Do as I say, not as I do. J Some of you are familiar with the OLPC (one laptop per child) initiative. If you’re not, do a google search on OLPC and do some reading. The basis of the project is to design a laptop that costs 100 dollars and get one into the hands of every child on the planet. It works in bright sun or dark shadow; it’s good with sand and limited amounts of water, and it will run off of anything from car batteries to hand cranks to plugging it into the wall. I actually have one, and brought it along in the hopes of validating its usefulness. Frankly, my opinion is that it is a brilliant piece of hardware, and too bad the software is being put together by a bunch of anti-Microsoft Linux geeks. It really suffers if you have ever had a computer in your hands. However, if you are six to eight years old, and have never seen a computer, maybe it’s not so bad. So I fired it up today while some software was loading, and launched one of the music making programs. The noise quickly generated an audience, and while they looked for a while, only one little girl was brave enough to risk the big furry guy that speaks only gibberish to get her fingers on this weird green machine. I showed her how to run a couple apps and she was busy for at lease two hours. She even brought a friend to play, but when she tried to launch applications on her own, she soon got bored waiting for them to boot (Linux = crap), and tried others, which of course took even longer to boot… well you get the picture. They were back to playing in the dirt pile with some dolls before too long, while the OLPS was still trying to launch eight programs simultaneously without multi-threading or a windowing environment. My batteries needed a charge anyway, so I’ll wait until tomorrow to try again. She managed to take a picture of herself with the machine – here she is.

Tuesday March 4 or maybe Mar 5 or something else

Tuesday Mar 4th

I actually know the date today. I’m so proud. Today Charles went off to his office today, and I went to mine. Mine is about one and a half km from his, on a white sand beach. I had a grueling morning. First I had to decide where to put my towel. (I was exhausted after this traumatic decision) Then I went into the water and was thrown around by the waves for a while. That was so much fun. I got most of the way back to my towel when I decided I wasn’t done and went back to be tossed around some more. I studied the rhythm of the waves. They are tricky things. When you think it’s going out it’s coming in and when you think it’s coming in it’s going out, or maybe there’s just a circular motion there that never ends. I’m not sure.

“All my life’s a circle. Sunrise and sundown. Moon rolls thru the nighttime till the daybreak comes around. All my life’s a circle, but I can’t tell you why. Seasons spinning round again. Years keep rollin’ by.” Harry Chapin

Well you can see how all that thinking tired me out, so I just layed there for a while staring at the little quarter-sized holes in the sand. I put my towel next to them thinking it would be fun to see what lives in these holes. (This kinda stuff happens sometimes when Charles isn’t there to ask me what the heck I was thinking when I put my towel next to the hole of an unknown creature in an unknown country.) As it turns out they were full of wonderful little sand crabs, that skittered across the sand, sideways, until they saw the big scary thing that was laying right next to their holes. Then they were gone.

Everything here is so different I can’t help but touch things. At first poor Charles would say ”Don’t touch that” then, “Don’t touch th..” and “Don’t tou…”, but now he just sighs. As it is a have a rash on my “touch everything finger” so I think I’ll stop until it clears up. I hate it when he’s right.

Things I learned today

1. Things might look like they are pushing backwards when they are actually pulling you forwards.
2. A nice soak in the ocean helps clear up a rash on your touch everything finger
3. Salt water + red leather sandals = red feet
4. Once you have red feet, not even soap will get them white..(although why the red came off of my sandals and not my feet is a mystery to me)
5. It is not a coincidence if you haven’t got sunburn yet. SPF 50 only works if you put it on.



Charlie’s Day(s),

Should I tell Dianne it’s March 5, or let her continue to be proud she knows what day it is? What the heck – she’ll read this someday J Yesterday I started at the computer center. There’s a room full of computers a lot like my graveyard at home except on a more massive scale. 3 of us spent the entire day trying to get 5 working machines. In the end there were 5, and I contributed 1 of them. Not exactly my finest work. However, I did create a reasonable pile of true garbage which will not end up back in the room again. I stripped everything salvageable from 6 machines, and junked the remaining carcasses. Today, Tuesday March FIVE (LOL), I got 3 more almost ready. I say almost because once there is a working set of hardware, the real challenges begin. Installing software in another language is only hard when everything works. When the error messages start, it’s impossible. On the plus side, the buttons are in the same places even if the labels are different. On the minus side, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast, let alone what the most likely error message might be at this point in an install, and what the appropriate response might be to it. I’m great at computers, but I suck at languages – go figure! In 2 days I’ll be helping design some school networks. Paper design is easy, but configuring the machines will be a challenge when I can’t read the menus. Ah well, makes it more challenging.

I made some new friends today. Three of them were about eight – after some pointing and debating, I understood what they wanted, and I got them set up to play Halo. There was much joy and destruction of vermin.
One was a teenage girl that lives where we do. She brought us a coconut with the top chopped off so we could taste it – wonderful!
One was a middle-aged Rastafarian who helps out at the computer center because he is very interested and wants to learn.. We talked about music, life, and his interest in computers. He hopes to not become a “doctor” of computers, but rather learn a little first aid. He said when somebody is drowning you should be able to get them breathing again. And when a computer is ailing you should be able to give it basic life support too. Interesting philosophy and life lessons from the jungle.

Tomorrow we work on getting internet back again. Seems you need a lawyer for this to notarize documents or something just to get the phone going again. Small country – big government. We saw this in action yesterday too. The primary school has been closed because of concerns with the roof. After most of a day of meetings and inspections, it seems only government sanctioned carpenters are allowed to work to repair it. Union scale wages, of course must be paid somehow. Life is only simple for tourists in paradise.

Things I should have packed:

Way fewer clothes
Spanish lessons
Working CD’s of Win2K and Office
A long-range wireless card so I can use unsecured networks for a good cause
Morals (see above)
More patience
A calendar

(hahaha I love it when he’s wrong….Tuesday March 5th indeed!) (I am the smart one!!!)

My watch and my computer don’t agree on the date – technology has let me down. Does anybody know what day it is? We’re pretty sure it’s Tuesday, and more than likely March, and a few schools are going to be confused when they see how I set their computer clocks !

You win this round, short, burned, blonde!