A new perspective

Playing a bit of catch up here… There are soooo many fun things to do and see and I get exhausted and go to bed before I can type out my journal entries.

January 20

The past 5 days have been a blur of beans, more beans, and waterfalls. More specifically two days in the bean fields atop the slippery slope followed by afternoons cooling of in the river bellow and then two days off to play. The waterfalls are incredible! The river below the bean field has small falls with dunking holes that you can sit in like bathtubs. The volunteer cow went out for a night on the town after work on Saturday. The Mexi”cans” ( Eva y Hadassa) set the mood with some Brittney Bitch… Which didn’t go over so well. They had different intentions for there evening than I did, I wanted to convers not shake it to Brittney, but I love those ladies all the same.
The whole way to the bar I practiced my best Spanish with another volunteer Jesse, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite people. She instilled in me the confidence I needed to make it through the evening smoothly. She took me under her wing and because she is such an amenable person in outraged locals to talk to “the girl that doesn’t speak that much Spanish.” I was so immersed in trying to comprehend and speak that I only had a drink… Or two… Giovanni, the bar owner, was pouring shots again and he was wasted! He poured me a shot of casece, a traditional Costa Rican drink of fermented sugar cane juice. It was quite tastey and had an added taste of aneas. By the end of the evening the man that was graciously talking to me started blatently hitting on me. When he went for the waist grab I sternly told him to respect me and that about ended the evening. Ah geeez The walk back by the light of the moon was beautiful
We had the next two days off, of which I spent one around the farm checking out another waterfall that you could slide down and then another which you could swim behind and chill out under away from the thunderous crash zone the second day I spent in Puriscal to pick up money and to hop on the net. The bus ride into Puriscal is a neck snapping one that leaves at 5am.
My mood was a bit off because of the early morning and no breakfast. So when one of my new volunteer friend’s debit card got eatten by an ATM machine was not as empathetic as I could have been. I had also been a bit of a grumpy bear towards her that morning as well. After her card was eatten ( actually my worst fear traveling) I told her what my past experiences had been I. This situation, the card is hastala bye bye. 20 minutes later when I met up with her in the bank line, which was out the door around the corner as it is the only bank for miles, she pulled me aside to talk. She addressed me on my shortness to her and how my lack of interest had bothered her very much. Her honesty and openness to address mess was impressive given our time constraints. It was great feedback and it was coming from left field for me. I really like this girl, her energy and silly nature makes me laugh a lot. I was hurt a bit and confused a bit. In the moment I did not do very well with Tolle’s method of detachment from a drama or with he second agreement of not taking anything personally, but I did take the feedback and practiced my VOMPing skills.
To be honest I had been feeling a bit detached from many of the volunteers and farm people. Thinking about it now in retrospect I have been short and a bit quiet. I have been that way because I do t want to be talking about myself all the time. However, as my brave friend pointed out to me connections Aber made by self expression and communication. She was breaking down a wall I didn’t even realize I out up. A wall of protection. The truth is I connect with people very easily, my heart is very open. My lifestyle, however, challenges these connections and great encounters are fleeting. I miss the people I meet. I want to get to know them better. I need to either 1. Come up with a better coping / separation method or 2. Be a better communicator with these people.
I will have to thank my friend before she leaves for aiding me on my path to self discovery and open heartedness.
Yesterday was another hard day of work in the bean field, actually the hardest of the days yet. We got a late start out to the field because the dew on the bean piles needed to dry. The word of the day was aporrear- to thump or hammer, and that’s exactly what we did to the beans. The bean hill at 9am was already at least 90 degrees. As the day went on I couldn’t tell which was more uncomfortable, the heat radiating from the ground or the sun beating on my back. I spent the morning running up and down a 50 degree incline collecting bean bundles from the assembly line of volunteers and placing them in the beating que. We beat the bean pods and vine piles with sticks to free the beans inside. We consumed 6 pineapples, a watermelon, and collected about 150 kilos of beans! I rode i. The tailed the whole way home to make sure the beans where safe….nah it’s just way more fun.
I though my day would end quietly, but when one of the interns called a football game I couldn’t resist. The locals kicked our butts but it was awesome to run around. I trotted the field a few times, passed the ball a few times, accidentally knocked I’ve a little kid just once, and ended up sitting out the last few minutes. The gang played until dusk stole the ball and dinner gongs could be heard around the pueblo.
I was in desperate need of a Coca, I have quickly become addicted, so Jesse and I stopped at the corner bar. She struck up a conversation that took us two more hours into our evening! The man we where talking to, Junior, changed my perspective on single men in Mastatal; he is very respectable! I was vey excited that I could follow the entire conversation! I had a hard time responding and coming up with further questions but I understood!