February 26, 2007
My new host family is absolutely fascinating. I thought for sure I was a princess and a half waltzing into their lives, until I met their daughter. Even then, these rustic hard working people, still take time to care for themselves. On Sunday at her mother’s house I watched my host mother, Doña Maru as some call her, get a pedicure, manicure, and haircut from her sister. And the rest of the time she takes care of their housework, works in the organic veggie patches and flower gardens and works for a women’s association which makes natural products from the herbs that the women grow. The kitchen is amazing, and the smells almost constantly wafting from there, are almost enough to make me forget about chocolate. For breakfast I had corn tortillas with cheese on them, about the freshest cheese I’ve ever tasted, an egg, a cup of excellently fresh coffee, and a little banana that looked like it just came in from the garden.
Houses are decidedly different here. This house seems larger to me, and lacks the metal bars + garden that provides an extra door before the door to the house. San Luis is also one of the most tranquil towns I’ve ever been in. At night I can see the stars, and I can hear the wind in the trees and the chirp of insects rather than the roar of cars and public transit of San Jose. Ahh, this is my spot!
Doña Maria Eugenia y Don Eliécer Rodríguez own and operate an organic farm. They also host a farmers market here at their place every 1st and 3rd Sunday, so needless to say, I’m excited to be here when Sunday rolls around. I can hardly believe that it is only 10:30, because I got up at about 6:30 and I’ve been working on my polishing up my project proposal and making a schedule for the upcoming weeks. Tomorrow I meet with the man from the ‘cooperativo’ to talk about which farms I can study, and then let the fun begin! I’m really excited about my project, and if anyone is really curious, I can send my proposal, or post the introduction section in the blog or something.
So, I took my first cold shower, not wanting to offend the family by saying that I thought that cold showers were painful, and I was to the point to where I really wanted a shower. Yowza!! Afterwards when I was hanging my towel outside to dry, my host mom goes “oh I forgot about hot water!” and she explained to me that they heat some water with gas, and put it in a bucket and haul it into the bathroom. Whew! I thought I was going to have to develop nerves of steel or something! Though I think after working all day in a coffee field, and coming home hot and sweaty, and cool mountain fresh shower will feel good.
The family dog, Chispas, has learned that I am a friend, though she is still constantly playing the groveling submission role, no matter who talks to her. I think she’s very cute despite her unfortunate under bite.
My new host family is absolutely fascinating. I thought for sure I was a princess and a half waltzing into their lives, until I met their daughter. Even then, these rustic hard working people, still take time to care for themselves. On Sunday at her mother’s house I watched my host mother, Doña Maru as some call her, get a pedicure, manicure, and haircut from her sister. And the rest of the time she takes care of their housework, works in the organic veggie patches and flower gardens and works for a women’s association which makes natural products from the herbs that the women grow. The kitchen is amazing, and the smells almost constantly wafting from there, are almost enough to make me forget about chocolate. For breakfast I had corn tortillas with cheese on them, about the freshest cheese I’ve ever tasted, an egg, a cup of excellently fresh coffee, and a little banana that looked like it just came in from the garden.
Houses are decidedly different here. This house seems larger to me, and lacks the metal bars + garden that provides an extra door before the door to the house. San Luis is also one of the most tranquil towns I’ve ever been in. At night I can see the stars, and I can hear the wind in the trees and the chirp of insects rather than the roar of cars and public transit of San Jose. Ahh, this is my spot!
Doña Maria Eugenia y Don Eliécer Rodríguez own and operate an organic farm. They also host a farmers market here at their place every 1st and 3rd Sunday, so needless to say, I’m excited to be here when Sunday rolls around. I can hardly believe that it is only 10:30, because I got up at about 6:30 and I’ve been working on my polishing up my project proposal and making a schedule for the upcoming weeks. Tomorrow I meet with the man from the ‘cooperativo’ to talk about which farms I can study, and then let the fun begin! I’m really excited about my project, and if anyone is really curious, I can send my proposal, or post the introduction section in the blog or something.
So, I took my first cold shower, not wanting to offend the family by saying that I thought that cold showers were painful, and I was to the point to where I really wanted a shower. Yowza!! Afterwards when I was hanging my towel outside to dry, my host mom goes “oh I forgot about hot water!” and she explained to me that they heat some water with gas, and put it in a bucket and haul it into the bathroom. Whew! I thought I was going to have to develop nerves of steel or something! Though I think after working all day in a coffee field, and coming home hot and sweaty, and cool mountain fresh shower will feel good.
The family dog, Chispas, has learned that I am a friend, though she is still constantly playing the groveling submission role, no matter who talks to her. I think she’s very cute despite her unfortunate under bite.
Tuesday February 27, 2007
Yesterday when I told my host mom I wanted to go for a walk after lunch, she insisted on calling her friend so that I wouldn’t have to walk by myself, when really I just wanted to get away from after-lunch-sleepiness. The friend wasn’t able to go yesterday, but said that she’d like to go Tuesday around 7 to avoid the sun. I was thinking 7pm was an odd time to go walking because who wants to be cruising around in the dark? So, when my host mother knocked on my door at 6:35 a.m. on the phone with the friend saying that she was ready to go, I was a little surprised! But I jumped out of bed, eager to start a new routine of early morning exercise in contrast to my no-exercise routine in San Jose (besides one round of spinning). Turns out I made a wise choice, because now I’ve got a friend who loves to chat, and I can have company, and I can get to know the San Luis valley all at the same time.
For now, I’m waiting to start my project because I have to talk to the “tecnico” about which coffee farms I can use for my project. This tends to stress me out, because I have no specific information about this man, only that he is supposedly coming over today and I’m going to walk around the cafetales with him. HOPEfully he comes.
Wednesday February 28, 2007
So since I had nothing better to do and I couldn’t start my project yet, I decided I’d get sick. Yep, silly I know, but it was the only logical thing to do next so that I felt justified in wasting time. As soon as I got back from my walk yesterday I started feeling scratchy in the throat. Today I’ve gotten up to eat breakfast and lunch, read for an hour, and the rest of the time I slept.
I did get to hang out with my host mother’s grandson Joshua yesterday, and learned a lot from him. When I didn’t know a word he proceeded to pantomime and acting it out saying “that one thingy on their back, and the other thingy, and they swim in the water!” I also watched amazed as he diligently hunted for spiders in the house, picked them up and chucked them outside. I’ll grab a shot of one at the next available chance.
So it turns out that the Tech guy has car trouble and hopefully he can come soon and show me around. My host father was saying that everything is pretty informal around here, and I just have to be patient and wait. I hope they realize that I’m only here for a limited amount of time and that I need to get busy on this project! I’m sure I’ll be much happier once I get that going. But for now it’s taking all my self constraint from ripping my hair out in boredom.
Yesterday when I told my host mom I wanted to go for a walk after lunch, she insisted on calling her friend so that I wouldn’t have to walk by myself, when really I just wanted to get away from after-lunch-sleepiness. The friend wasn’t able to go yesterday, but said that she’d like to go Tuesday around 7 to avoid the sun. I was thinking 7pm was an odd time to go walking because who wants to be cruising around in the dark? So, when my host mother knocked on my door at 6:35 a.m. on the phone with the friend saying that she was ready to go, I was a little surprised! But I jumped out of bed, eager to start a new routine of early morning exercise in contrast to my no-exercise routine in San Jose (besides one round of spinning). Turns out I made a wise choice, because now I’ve got a friend who loves to chat, and I can have company, and I can get to know the San Luis valley all at the same time.
For now, I’m waiting to start my project because I have to talk to the “tecnico” about which coffee farms I can use for my project. This tends to stress me out, because I have no specific information about this man, only that he is supposedly coming over today and I’m going to walk around the cafetales with him. HOPEfully he comes.
Wednesday February 28, 2007
So since I had nothing better to do and I couldn’t start my project yet, I decided I’d get sick. Yep, silly I know, but it was the only logical thing to do next so that I felt justified in wasting time. As soon as I got back from my walk yesterday I started feeling scratchy in the throat. Today I’ve gotten up to eat breakfast and lunch, read for an hour, and the rest of the time I slept.
I did get to hang out with my host mother’s grandson Joshua yesterday, and learned a lot from him. When I didn’t know a word he proceeded to pantomime and acting it out saying “that one thingy on their back, and the other thingy, and they swim in the water!” I also watched amazed as he diligently hunted for spiders in the house, picked them up and chucked them outside. I’ll grab a shot of one at the next available chance.
So it turns out that the Tech guy has car trouble and hopefully he can come soon and show me around. My host father was saying that everything is pretty informal around here, and I just have to be patient and wait. I hope they realize that I’m only here for a limited amount of time and that I need to get busy on this project! I’m sure I’ll be much happier once I get that going. But for now it’s taking all my self constraint from ripping my hair out in boredom.
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