Volcanoes, Abortions, Mangos, and Refrigerators

May 10, 2009

About a week ago I went with my Tica friend, Margarita, to Volcán Irazú, the highest volcano in Costa Rica. The 20 mile bus ride took us high above the urban central valley, first through Cartago (the first capital of Costa Rica) and then past a seemingly endless number of small, agricultural towns. The landscape was beautiful, and Margarita could tell me literally everything that was growing on every single farm. She also pointed out various sites still showing damage from the last eruption, which occurred in 1963. We spent the day walking around the outside of the huge crater, which is technically still active, although it is not showing signs of erupting any time soon (don’t worry, Mom).

In other news, my host mom showed me her lesson plan for her next catechism class, which she teaches to adolescents every Saturday. The theme of the lesson was (wait for it) abortion, which is not exactly a favorite of the Catholic Church. She very thoughtfully offered to give me copies of her materials, such as a comic entitles, “Who killed Juanito?” Apparently, some people make comics that are not funny. I gingerly mentioned that as PC volunteers we are not permitted to teach the beliefs of any single religion, which was of course met by a look of confusion. As she flipped through horrifying photographs of aborted fetuses, and drawings of poor Juanito being sucked from his mother’s stomach via an evil vacuum cleaner, she argued that these books were clearly not teaching religion. They were just educating people about abortion.

A couple more random things that occurred to me today:

1. Obama was in La Nacion (our largest newspaper), but it was just a picture of him and Joe Biden eating hamburgers in Arlington. No article, just a caption that pretty much translates to, “Obama and Biden are eating hamburgers in Arlington.” Sooo…it was someone’s job to feature Obama in the Costa Rican news and, call me dense, but I don’t quite understand how it was decided that this was the best option. In any case, it had been a while since I’d seen his photo, and I found myself re-experiencing emotions from November and January, thinking, “Booyah! That’s my president!!!!”

2. Mangos are my new apple. Since apples here are gross and expensive, and mangos are cheap and delicious, they are my new go-to fruit. Here they eat lots of “mango verde con sal,” or slices of unripe mango with a little bit of salt sprinkled on top. If you like sour treats, I highly recommend it.

3. Ticos sometimes make refrigeration choices that I find questionable. For example, eggs are almost never refrigerated, and leftovers from lunch (meat and all) are often simply left out and reheated, however my host dad just put the rest of his chocolate bar in the fridge. Hmmm.

4. The house flies are back in full force. I´m trying to forget about the fact that they eat poop as they land all over my stuff.

I will be visiting my future site for the next week...should return with good stories. Hope this post finds you healthy and happy!!! Peace and Love!