CATIE in Turrialba Costa Rica [Fotos]
More rain. Mud-skating downhill in the car. Putting foam strips under
the doors to impede the invasion of insect and spider armies. Spiders so
big they thumped through the vacuum hose. (Reminders of India) Before my
house was closed in, millers blackening the lights and threatening to drop
into whatever was cooking. My kitten finding and killing (thankfully) an
18-inch long red and aqua colored lizard that I assumed was a rubber toy
until I put my reading glasses on. A worker bringing a baby sloth to
school. The music teacher belting out O Sole Mio just like Pavarotti.
E-mail from son
Chris in May saying he was graduating 2nd in his class of Architecture with
the Master's. Learning and teaching origami--peacocks, sampans, boxes,
flowers, giraffes, elephants, koalas, owls, rhinos, lobsters, crabs and
fish...from instructions written in five different languages. Taking the
4th graders on a field trip to the Rawlings baseball factory in Turrialba
(where I live). Watching the 800 workers in a large hot room stitching the
balls by hand, balls destined for the U.S. Major Leagues. Going to
Tortuguero by launch to see the green turtles nesting. Seeing an alligator
and several bands of monkeys on the way.
Returning to the U.S. in July during the heat wave (school winter
vacation). The wonder of white eggs, hot water actually coming out of water
faucets, lawn mowers instead of machetes, buying bananas that cost more
than 3 cents each. Returning to tropical Costa Rica, ironically, to cool
off, most days a pleasant 80 degrees. To a land where vendors on street
corners sell lottery tickets and calcamonias de Piolin (Tweety bird
stickers), the hotel wanting to know if I would like gallo pinto (rice with
black beans) for breakfast, and figuring out how much the colon had
devaluated during my three weeks' absence. Back to grocery stores which
this week might be out of eggs...or ground beef...or baking soda...Back to
my property whose treetops are sprinkled with toucans and oropeles.
Back to my banana trees and pursuing a stalk in my mini-jungle, vines
wrapping themselves around me, pointy stickers covering my clothes--the
kind that take an hour to pick off. Thinking as I puff up and down the
hill that I'm too old for this and how unfair it is that all the birds have
to do is alight on the branch and start eating.
My students' enthusiasm when I brought some coins from around the
world--ones with square holes in the center (China) or fluted edges (old
annas from India; Morocco) or the one with the kangaroo, and telling about
some things that were at one time used for barter--beetles' legs, whales'
teeth, salt, playing cards, jungle bird feathers...
The boa constrictor in front of the girls' bathroom that had just
swallowed some hapless critter. None of the students had arrived yet--just
the cleaning lady and I witnessed it. Taking a walk at night and hearing
the armadillos quacking to each other, and listening to the macadamia nuts
fall off my neighbors' trees.
Marinating ants in insecticide. White water rafting with a cousin
through 18 miles of teacherous class III and IV rapids. Naturally, I was
swept overboard and feared for my life...
Tamales made with real corn (as opposted to cornmeal)and rice, wrapped
in two layers of banana leaves. My cat Tigre boldly chasing the same
German Shepherd that threatened to have him as a snack two months
earlier...
These are some of my memories of 2000. I'm headed back for another
year of teaching the 21st ([Jan 2001] in three days), for school meetings
start Feb. 1st. It's been great being on the receiving end of our class
letters -- this letter is making up for lost time on my part.
Marilyn
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Other tales. Or
Class of '59.
Webbed by Philip McEldowney |
Rain, happily pounding
on my aluminum roof. Waking up to mountains garbed in mist. Praising God
daily for the beauty around me. Being busier than a leaf-cutter ant in the
rainforest. A student teaching me that "papaya" is not just a fruit; it's
a color. Soccer being THE sport. Lilac jeans for men being popular.
Going to the Caribbean Coast with relatives over Easter. My car tires
crunching coconuts just yards away from the ocean waves, the water warm
enough to walk right in.
