Huacas Fiesta

At this time of year, the beginning of summer ( the end of the rainy season), Costa Ricans apparently have all kinds of festivals. What they mean by this, apparently, is that they set up a makeshift bullring, bring in Brahmin bulls from their farms, and get drunk. That is about it!

Last night I went to my first (and probably my last, fiesta) but I can now say I went. As you can see from the pictures, Costa Rica imported Brahmin bulls from India centuries ago because of the big hump in their backs and their ability to retain water during the dry season. Since I live in a farm community, I assume the guys do not see each other that often so when they have an opportunity for a party they make the most of. The bull ring last night, I think, is probably more or less permanent, but I have seen many being constructed in public parks.

What appeared to be happening is that the bulls get their electric shock and jump out of the gate with their rider. The rider lasts a few seconds on their back and then is unceremoniously thrown off the bull, always violently and then is carried off, sometimes by a stretcher, while ten drunks run around the ring encouraging the bull to chase them so that the fallen rider does not get gored to death. Then four cowboys come out with their horses and lasso the bull from every possible angle so that the bull eventually gives us, falls down and is pulled by its’ tail back into the stall, probably not heard from again until next year at this time. Then a bunch of drunks jump into the ring for the next round of shenanigans.

Great fun eh? Since I knew I was going to be early, I took a drive down to Santa Cruz, the provincial capital and I discovered a REAL town. There was actually a street of stores, the main roads were paved with brick cobblestones and they had TWO parks. Almost all of Costa Rican towns only have one park! I can’t wait to go back and explore. This town actually had a name signposted, a couple of hotels almost on the main street and people. Since today is Sunday they probably pull in the sidewalks like every other town but perhaps next Saturday I will go.

Even my beach seems to be getting quite busy now. Yesterday morning there were at least ten people on the beach, about five from San Jose and five tourists from the other end of the beach where there is big hotel. I normally never get to that end of the beach because I swim for a bit and then get out and walk back to “my” area. Now, because of winter, there are actually waves and it is difficult to swim so I end up walking along the beach. I am discovering hotels and restaurants and all kinds of “neat” stuff. Maybe today I will go and play golf. A little too late for the Sunday morning tournament but not to late for a regular game. The problem is that I have to take an electric card and it sort of takes the fun out of it for me. Ah well!

The pair of shoes

I keep writing about this every month or so and sadly, I keep adding to my examples .I went for a walk in Liberia last night and I actually saw people, if you can believe it. I asked one girl with a little baby where the barber was and we started talking. She asked if I would do her a favour ( we had just met one minute earlier). When I asked her what, she asked that I buy her baby some shoes. I told her that her baby could not even walk yet so she but her baby down sans shoes to show me her 6 month old baby could stand and wobble a bit.
I went on to ask her about her husband or boyfriend and she told me when the baby was born her boyfriend disappeared. She is living with her mother who thankfully has a job. I asked her how old she was and she said nineteen. When will this cycle end? The waitress in our restaurant as well as the chef are pregnant at the moment and they do not have a husband or boyfriend. When I asked if they would consider putting the baby up for adoption they looked at me as if I was crazy. I have witnessed this for three years now and for some crazy reason it still shocks me. I did buy the shoes but sure wish I could have done more.I did not find the barber!
When I went to the Unesco headquarters In New York they would not even speak to me and told me to write a letter. I know education, in the broadest sense is the answer.
The good news, to change the subject, is that I played golf today in Sardinal, close to where I live. I got on the course for $25 because of my Toronto connection and the fact that the pro’s father teaches with me. Josh, I have a sore right wrist by the way. What should I do? I know, I know, don’t play golf.
So, I won’t. Today I spent the day on the beach, or at least an hour and spoke with a San Jose couple with four dogs, three kids and an orthopedic doctor husband. He told me, by the way Josh, that chiropractors were not doctors. When I told him you spent eight years in university he conceded you could be called a doctor. Anyway, here is the good news. I bet I spent one hour talking with them and for sure butchering the language, but you know what, we spoke about kids, jobs, long distance running, where I could buy beach chairs etc. My girlfriend, Rosetta Stone, has really helped me improve. I believe my vocabulary to be quite good and if I could only speak properly I might even have a real conversation with someone. As it is, I can converse for an hour. In Thailand, it was more like 30 minutes so maybe there is hope!!
One more week of school and then off to South America to learn but another accent.

Unexplored Costa Rica

Off the beaten track, and I mean beaten. You have to either have four wheel drive car so that you are up high or a hole in your head (or both) if you dare take a dirt road off the main thoroughfare. Even the main roads in Costa Rica are broken and full of pot holes and everyone who takes these roads I know are loco. Anyway, since I am already certified crazy, I decided to take the monkey trail or conga trail I believe it is called, from near my house to over the mountains to the beaches. If you want to take a long way around it is actually quite easy, but I was just fascinated by this dirt road seemingly going off into nowhere that I see every day but never dared venture on.
Yesterday, I discovered a little zoo and botanical garden as well as a brand new multimillion dollar hotel without one sign to let you know it was there and today I discovered horseback riding or more accurately a bunch of cowboys driving their horses on the road at the risk of a horse breaking an ankle, deserted beaches , soccer games galore in the small towns that do not even have a sign with their name, on my way to Protero on the coast and back through Filadelfia. (No this is not a spelling mistake.)
Now picture about one thousand toilets flushing at the same time. I am sitting here writing this blog and it sounds like my roof is about to collapse with thousands of toilets flushing upstairs and a tidal wave are pouring in and crashing to the shore. Do you know what it is? Is it the world coming to an end that the New York cabbie told us about or something else? I just ran outside to see what it is and wouldn’t you know it, there is a school of howler monkeys in the trees contiguous to my house. I was wondering where they went since I used to hear them every morning but for some reason stopped a few months ago. I guess they were off to greener pastures, but they are back! Sorry about that Michael. Not sure how much sleep you are going to get. There are about a dozen monkeys from babies to bamboons, it seems but the only one making the big noise is the father who is clearly the father if you know what I mean!
I just went for a swim and they are still here. At some point they will disappear only to return tomorrow, when I am at school I hope. Apparently, if you bother them they throw their feces at you which can’t be a good thing.
Anyway, have a look at the pictures and let me know whether you think going on these ‘adventures’ is worth risking my life for to say nothing of the $20 in gas I put in when I can walk out my front door ( and only door) and see a school of howler monkeys right here.

Stand up and deliver...or not?

Imagine a school where the kids don’t come to school half the time. At any given moment, half of the school could be out in placements as interns and the other half of the time they would be in classes working on material that is meaningful for them? I visited just such a school today in the Bronx. (it cost me $30 by cab to get there and only $2.25 to return by train, but I had to walk miles to find a booth where I could buy a $2.25 ticket. Obviously a conspiracy by the cab companies to get fares!). Anyway back to the story.

It was the only such school in New York State until this year and the school is located within a larger school on the top floor. To get into the school, by the way, I had to walk through more security than the airport and ultimately had to empty my pockets because the machines were ringing so loudly. I also had to go back because I forget (or did not know) that I had to sign in. No wonder so many American kids are taking home schooling. It certainly felt more like a jail than a school and in fact I found that part very disturbing. When a fight broke out in the cafeteria at lunch time, 25 ‘peace’ officers were called to the scene I was told, even though I was eating my lunch peacefully upstairs.

I think the school I visited is doing well. When the school had 4000 students before it was transferred to a number of smaller schools, the drop-out rate was 75%. Now, apparently, 88% of the kids graduate in the small school I visited today and more credit to them since many are from broken families, all are of some ethnic minority and are disadvantaged in some way. I was very impressed with these statistics and even though many do fail, probably more would and did fail in a stand up and deliver type of classroom.

What I saw was a very good understanding on the part of the students about what they were doing and why. Even though they were all working individually they were able to articulate what their learning goals were, the due dates for assignments which they established themselves and what the performance criteria were that they were going to be graded on. They were all working on what they considered important at the time, whether it was mathematics, primary source material in history or the importance of their own ethnic minority in founding New York. In addition, they all had to do a major assignment for the internship site they were doing which got them to reflect on their own learning. I won't bore you with an analysis of what worked and what could be improved in the school but the important story for me is not what was successful about this school or what was not successful, but rather the fact that we can and should be creating a wide variety of schools for different kinds of kids and should not be restricted in our own thinking to what we grew up with ourselves. I do have the opportunity in my present job to do some wonderfully creative things and hopefully will since we do have a brand new school we can take anywhere our imaginations will allow us.

Speaking Spanish in New York

It’s amazing that I had to come all the way to New York to speak Spanish. I speak English at school all day and when I go home at night I speak Spanish with my girlfriend - Rosetta Stone. In New York, every second person speaks Spanish, including our new cousin by marriage Ariel. I was amazed last night that I could actually converse with a few Spaniards from Spain in their native tongue. I felt great…last night but today I just got home from having my shoes shined by a Spanish women and did not understand a word she was saying. When this happens to me in Central America, the people are usually from Nicarauga so I asked her where she was from; ( a donde esta vive?) she responded Queens! How embarrassing. At least I got my shoes shined. I have been waiting two months for this shine since the only time I ever got them shined was in Saigon which is a bit too far to travel from Playa Hermosa.

We just had a great time in New York. The wedding was great, as one would expect from the Shapiro’s. They really know how to throw a party. New York itself has absolutely everything to offer and then some. The people are incredibly and unfailingly friendly. You will never encounter a sour face or a harsh word. I kind of think it is because of the size of the city, but I am not sure about that hypothesis since many large cities do not seem to have the same openness about them. Everyone speaks to you, smiles and will walk way out of their way to take you where you want to go. No-one ever says don’t walk there…it is dangerous , which I am told all the time in Costa Rica. In fact, when I wanted to walk down to the docks to-night to see the new ship built out of the ruins of 9-11, I asked a doorman if it was safe to walk down 50th and he just looked at me as if I was crazy.
On another note, Daniel has this great deal with his company that provides complimentary passes for certain museums so we just spent some time, between the shoe shine and the hotel, going into the Natural Science Museum to learn about dinosaurs and space, it seems. If that is not your cup of tea, you can go next store to the Arts Centre, the Julliard School of Music or anyone else for that matter. As I said, New York has everything, even crazy cabbies, one of whom who told us Christ was returning October 25, 2010 so we should be prepared. I asked him how he got this date and why he was so sure of it, and he told me he got it from the radio so it must be true.
I wish I had the nerve to take pictures of people because New York brings out the fashionistas, the sloths and every day New Yorkers who come in all sizes and colours, but do dress in a very amazing way. I am struck both by the diversity as well as the nerve of some of them to wear what they do. Even though it is Monday and Broadway is dark, I think I will go out now anyway and see if I can get some tickets for something to-night. I will take my camera down to Times Square where I get the half price tickets and see if I can take some pictures of people.
Sorry, I am back, did some some amazing outfits but far too shy to take the pictures. It seems, by the way, no matter where you walk, there is some benefit happening or a movie or television show being made or some “event” New York should call itself the event city.

Tomorrow I am off to a school which I am sure I will find interesting. If I do, you will hear about it!

Rincon de la Vieja

As my teacher friend told me the first week of school: " You can forget about visiting towns and cities, once you have seen one you have seen them all. They all have the town square, the church and some ancillary buildings." The reason you come to Costa Rica, he told me before he went to jail, was to experience nature and I am discovering how right he was...is.

I had a great week-end just exploring around where I live. On Saturday I visited the beaches near me, Playa Panama and Playa Ocotel and now I know why my beach ( Hermosa) is so great. These other beaches were somewhat rocky, small, and not long. The more I use Playa Hermosa the greater I like it because there are no rocks, few waves and even some tourists to talk to these days.

To-day (Sunday), I went with a few teacher friends to the Vieja volcano and within a few square kilometers we must have walked through three or four different eco systems. Unlike New Zealand, the she-she place for hiking where they even have paved walkways and toilets, this was real hiking but the fascinating thing is we actually started at a rainforest, saw waterfalls which will be dry in a few weeks and then splutering mud holes and other natural wonders totally different in nature then what we just went through. Have a look at the pictures and I think you will be amazed at all of the different things we saw on this three hour walk.

It is so amazing to believe that with a few square kilometers there are so many natural landforms and micro weather systems. I loved the mud pools with the spluttering eruptions so if you look at the pictures you can see the movie of the mud erupting. I was considering going a little closer but my friends wisely suggested I do it on my own time. They weren't crazy about the possibility of sending my body home and all of the forms they would have to sign. Remember Josh, when you almost put your hand in one of these fumorales in New Zealand?

This week should be busy as usual with staff and parent meetings, marketing and branding meetings and the usual 'teaching stuff.' I am looking forward to Friday when I am flying to New York via El Salvador for a family wedding and seeing my own family. Can't wait.