Prepare yourself for what may be my most disconnected and most sporadic post ever. Fair warning.
First of all, I would like to formally introduce my new family members - its definitely getting crowded here at 25 meters West of the Escuela (yep, that's my official address here in Costa Rica - although I doubt it would help anyone who doesn't live in town find my house). Although never formally introduced, Gidget, the black and white 2 and a half month old kitten has been living with me since mid December. She is a pretty laid back kitten, although she gets manic when she sees her food and she loves swinging in the hammock with me. The newest member of the clan is Piper, the month and a half old puppy. Piper has a white body, with small black spots all over, a large black spot where her tail meets her back, a large black spot on her left eye, and another on her right eye and right ear. She has darling little brown eyebrows and currently sports a purple collar. She is a handful and a half. Fortunately Gidget gets the brunt of Pipers energy and enthusiasm. Gidget walks around perpetually looking over her shoulder, because Piper loves to pounce on Gidget and either bite at her scruff or put Gidget's head in her mouth. Gidget is mostly a good sport, although as Piper bounces around in front of her, yipping with excitement, Gidget puts her ears back and looks rather disdainfully annoyed. In the evening when I read in my hammock, they both curl up in my lap and nap together, which has to be the most endearing thing ever.
Today is the fourth day in a row that I have spent 2 hours in the morning doing laundry. Today I finally finished and found the bottom of the laundry bag (which will be hidden again tomorrow). I really don't have that many clothes, its just that hand washing takes much more time, and quite of a few of my clothes have started growing mold, which is harder than it looks like to get rid of.
There is one more new resident in my house - a dove or paloma - who now lives in my kitchen. When I was out of town I guess she thought that the perch in my kitchen was an ideal location- nice and quiet, safe and protected from the elements. Little did she know, that I had already laid claim to this piece of property. Although at first she would manically fly from her perch whenever I entered the kitchen, which made me jump, she has adjusted to my presence in the house. I can now go about my business in the kitchen without bothering her and without her bothering me. I think she has eggs in her nest, I will keep you updated.
Yesterday I played soccer with my women's soccer team, and although the other women's team didn't show up, we organized a small game against the men's team and everybody enjoyed themselves. Although one of my cleats broke (believe me it is not redeemable, not to mention the pair only cost me $8, so they were not high quality to start with). You see I didn't break the cleat, the visiting men's team did show up, so the men played first. And usually only half of the people who are playing on any team at any given time have half of the equipment they need to play. Thank God we are not sharing uniforms with the men's team anymore, everyone still shares cleats, socks, shin guards and the like. I have large feet for a Costa Rican female, so someone from the men's team usually borrows my shoes. Well he broke the left shoe, and at the end of the night when I went to take my shoes home, I found a lime green left shoe sitting next to my black unbroken right shoe. So now I have a pretty stellar non-matching set of cleats. But I can't figure out....where did he find the lime green left shoe and what happened to the lime green right shoe?
Now I am going to tell you about the shit sand. I know that poop sand would be a little more appropriate, but honestly, you have to agree that it just doesn't have the same ring. So the shit sand. The local government stored supplies in my house before it was my house. And they still store supplies in it, now that I live here. I was assured that the supplies would be moved after a few months...my hope is dead and rotting that they will every move these supplies out of my house. But in all honestly, the majority of the supplies are no big deal at all. Except for the sand which lives in my dining room. My lovely animal family, thinks that the sand is either a litter box, or 'dirt' from outside, so when the door is closed at night they choose to 'do their business' in the sandbox in my dining room. Now at first this made me laugh and think "Well, that's what the local government gets for not moving their sand." But here is the thing, its been a while now, and although I clean the chunks out, as much as I can, I don't want a pile of shit sand in my dining room - it doesn't smell great. And yesterday after her flea killing bath, Piper ran right over to the shit sand and rolled herself all over. Needless to say, I did not enjoying cleaning the shit sand out of her fur into the only sink in my house.
Now for something a little more serious. After having spent some time out of site, I returned with a renewed sense of enthusiasm for the projects that I can accomplish with the community. I was jazzed up. And then I returned, and it's amazing how quickly those ganas disappeared. I have given it some thought, over the past few days (this is not the most well thought over premise) but I think that in order to to live in rural Costa Rica I have to accept certain things. I have to accept that I have to walk from the bus-stop in the mid-day sun. I have to accept that people won't show up to meetings on time. I have to accept so many things every day, just so that I don't go crazy from frustration and aggravation. In some ways I think its a good thing, I have learned to accept things that I can't control. But I am beginning to realize that there are downsides to this acceptance. I have gotten so used to accepting things that I can't control, sometimes I accept things that I can or could control. And this phenomenon extends further than just me. So when frustration over the status quo is missing, how do I motivate people to work for change?
One final random paragraph and thought. (I was going to type about, well I honestly can't remember). Just NOW, 10 seconds ago, as I was sitting in this chair at this desk in my bedroom --- I shift my bare feet on the floor. I feel something move underneath them, weird. I look down, expecting to see, my cat, my dog, a flip flop, a worm, a spider, a cockroach? Nope. Instead I see a BAT crawling out from UNDERNEATH my foot. My BAREFOOT! I squelched and did an awful little dance. Now I have shoes on, and will be unfailingly skittish for at least the next few hours. GROSS!
Sending loves.
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