Living the Dream

Disclaimer: Graphic imagery ahead.

Life has continued on here in Costa Rica at a leisurely pace. As of right now it is the rainy season and it is basically raining all day everyday. I finally made it to the internet place after a 90 minute walk in the rain, completely soaked but at least I finally made it. Alot of things have been going on since I last posted so I will try and update you on everything I can remember.

A couple weeks ago everyone in my town was getting ready for the ¨Fiestas Patronales¨which is basically a 2 day party at my site in order to benefit the church. The church in my town was repainted and the party began 2 Saturdays ago with cooking of Tamales, which is a type of food made of corn meal, rica, pork and wrapped in banana leaves. They take a while to make so everyone was helping with the preparation of the tamales for the larger party the next day. There were raffles for various different items as well as as a lot of eating and drinking going on. The next day was the larger party were soccer teams from neighboring communities came to my town in order to participate in a 7 team soccer tournament, which my town ended up winning. As of right now my soccer skills aren´t up to par in comparison to the players in my town but I look forward to playing on the team in the future. Overall the fiestas were a great success and the church earned a decent amount of money.

One interesting experience before parties was the preparation of the pig which was to be killed in order to supply the meat for the fiestas. Typically for a big party or during christmas time families kill the pigs which they have been fattening for around a year in order to celebrate. This time around it was the pig that lived down the road at my host sisters house, time to be sacrificed. I was reading my book one day when a family friend of my host family came by in his car and asked me If I wanted to go see him kill the pig. As I had nothing else to do, and felt that this was an experience I must have I decided to go with him. We arrived at the house to a boiling vat of water and the sounds of the pigs screaming in the distance, I feel that one of them already knew their destiny. My host sisters husband, My host sister, my host brother, my host nephew 3 years old, and 2 family friends were there for the execution. Before hand everyone brought there own knives and compared which one would deal the final blow to the throat. We took a rope to the 4 foot by 4 foot area the pig had been living in for a year put a noose around the neck and walked it over to the corral. This 100 kilo pig almost trampled me as I was watching it exit the pen. One person lay some corn feed on the ground to distract the pig, then WHAM!!!!!!!! with the back side of a very large axe one of the men crushed the skull of the pig. This resulted in large screaming and disorientation of the pig where then another person swooped in and stabbed the pig in the throat resulting in a river of blood exiting the pigs body at the whole in the throat. Immediately the dogs of the house that were watching this started to lap up the blood exiting the pigs throat while one of the man continuously bashed the back end of an axe into the pigs skull fracturing the skul in several places. After 5 minutes the pig was then propped up on a table and doused with the boiling water to remove the hair. It was then decapitated and hung upside down to drain the blood. Then commenced the pealing of the skin for the chicharones, fried pig skin, and then the slow carving away of all the meat and the careful removal of the internal organs. If certain parts of the internal organs are pierced during the extraction it can ruin the meat, i.e. stomach acids or contents of the intestines.

Anyways what to make of this, why did I write about this in such detail ? For me this was a very interesting and eye opening experience. One might consider this disturbing, but in reality there is no ¨humane¨way to kill a pig. At first I thought it was gross, but it further solidified my feelings of living close to the land which I live on. In my house we eat many of the fruits and vegetables we grow i.e. plaintains and mangos. We eat the meat of the animals we tend to pigs, cows, and chickens. Seeing them carve away at the ribs of the pig made me truly see where my favorite meal of Barbecue Ribs actually comes from. And for the people that I live with to have the skills and will to raise and kill this pigs says alot. They dont just walk down the aisle and pick up freshly sliced pork chops resting on styrofoam trays wrapped in plastic, they see the life of the pig from birth to death and obtain the meat with their own hands.

After seeing this experience I did not expect to be eating pork for quite a while as you can imagine. But actually I ended up nibbling away at freshly boiled chicharones, pig skin, with fresh lemons and a cold imperial 3 hours after the fact the pig was living and breathing. Overall it was a great experience, that same night another neighbor came over who killed one of his cows and left the full rib cage of the cow he slaughtered on our kitchen table. A small child could have fit inside of the giant bloody ribcage that was left on our table. That morning I had no idea I was going to experience that. Just like everymorning I wake up here in Costa Rica it is a new adventure.

English Classes. So far I have had 4 English Classes for the adults. 2 classes each week 2 hours each. I am averaging around 35 people per class which is insane considering that I am using the same classroom where 25 small primary school students completely fill up the space. It is an awesome experience teaching people from ages 18 to 65 in my class. People all have various different skill levels but for the most part are all beginning learners. We have begun to learn basic introductions, alphabet, and numbers. I am looking to start up an official program with accompanying books and other materials in November. Right now I am making the class up by myself entirely, just like how I am with my kindergarten and primary school classes. Everyone seems to really be enjoying the classes, It is definately a handful with so many students, but I look forward to working more with all of them.

Interviews. I have continued along the with the interviews in my town and at this point I am approximately 85 percent complete with all of my interviews. It has been really eye opening to see everyone houses in my community and talk to them about the issues facing them. I will be using all of this information in the future for my report about the community.

This past weekend I went to San Jose to visit my traning host family as well to celebrate two volunteers birthdays, Bill and Julia. Visiting my training host family was alot of fun and very relaxing. It was awesome to meet up with them, It kind of felt like coming back home, but to my home in Costa Rica. They are all doing well and we caught up on what we all were doing and I explained to them the latest in my life. The next day I woke up to 10 women in the house painting pictures on canvases. Apparently for the past 3 months every friday my host mom and her friends get together and paint all afternoon and have a leisurely lunch together. It was fascinating to see, my friend Bill also came over to my family. It was not just the fact that they were painting which struck me. It was that that my host family had their whole family as well as extended family and friends at the beautiful mountain top house with 360 degree mountain views doing art together. It was a very tranquil afternoon with art, food, and fun. The guys were fixing the cars, while the women were painiting, while all the children playing on the deck. This is a regular weeky occurance. To me this solidifies the feeling of family, and importance of family within their lives. While others around the world are staring at the clock to hit 5 on a friday they are spending time together relaxing and enjoying life. Sure that they live a more basic life then many in the US. But what is really important to drive that new car back home to a house late friday night, or drive back home early in a less fancy car to spend time with family and friends. Clearly people have different economic situation and what not, but for me and being here in Costa Rica I have noticed the central importance of family here. I remember coming home in Middle School and Highschool and going to my friends houses immediately after school or participating in other activites away from home. Here people come home after school and play with their siblings and extended family down the road well past High school. Clearly it is a different look from the more individualistic way of life, which is predominantely lived in America.
Later that weekend I partied it up with all the members of my Tico group in San Jose. We had an awesome time from dancing in the clubs to heading over to the Regal Mall Escazu to watch movies and play Playstation 3 on the largest widescreen HDTV in the world. Crazyness.

Overall my time here in Costa Rica has been great and I look forward to more crazy advenures and experiences. Soon I will have another meeting with all the volunteers in the south at the beach and then my girlfriend Tamar is coming which I am highly anticipating.

Shout out to Russell P. and Jen S. for hooking it up big time with an amazing care package for me. I am extremely grateful to recieve anything from the US. Thanks for your generosity. For the rest of you out there I patiently await for your packages. If you send me something, I can arrange to send you a howler monkey or toucan or something, haha we´ll see.

Much love for all. Tuanis.

Rudy