Food Provision

My third day, 6-29-08, at Costa Rica was pretty busy. In the morning,the son in my host family, showed me all his pets- a bunch of chickens, three dogs, a parrot, three rabbits, and birds. I told him that I had two dogs, which established an instant connection between us. He said that he loves animals a lot. I fed the rabbits with him. In the morning, I ate breakfast with my host family (how delicious), and then felt just a tiny bit weird for leaving the dining table, not wash the dishes, and head off with Gail (my boss). I first went to Kulut’s house (I think that’s how you spell her name), to prepare food for the homeless. Kulut also works with Gail, and she’s a volunteer there from the States developing projects to help CRHF. I chopped onions, chicken fat, tomatoes, ginger, and garlic. To be honest, it was my first time chopping any of these items, seeing how I do not know how to cook, nor have I ever really cooked. For the first time, I now know why people say chopping onions gives you tears. During my choping, I talked to Kulut and her daughter. Her daughter seems really sweet. They all speak English. Later Terry and her daughter came over, two other volunteers- Terry went to UNC, and we had an instant connection. Kulut’s brother went to Caltech, and I’m from the Pasadena area, so we also had an instant connection. Places, places, places! Then, Terry told me about her life, her adventures after college, and why she went to Costa Rica eventually. Her daughter is going to 8th grade, and seems very mature for her age. Terry told me about the lovely vacation spots in Costa Rica- national parks, beaches (Kulut also told me something about a peninsula that is 9 hours of driving away from our area whose name I can’t remember), and ziplining areas. She asked me where I would like to go, and I said “something adventurous,” with a chuckle. She immediately mentioned ziplining, and also smiled. I was going to ask her about “where to skydive,” since I’ve always wanted to go, but I thought that it might have been an awkward question. She also has two dogs. Dogs, dogs, dogs…. Apparently, this is how petowners bond with each other…. By talking about their experiences with dogs.

After the cooking, which took about 1-2 hours, I went with Gail to the Savanna Park, a huge central park with many, many soccer players. I met Gail’s adopted daughter, Cala, and her father, Nelson.

At the Park, I tried to play soccer with the boys there…. but I ended up taking a tour with Nelson around the park, searching for a basketball court. He asked me if I play sports, and I said that I loved basketball….

He talked to me in Spanish, and I talked to him in Spanish, and surprisingly, we understood each other for the most part. He had four Chinese letters on his left arm (which was VERY muscular)… he asked me if I knew what they were. I said that I couldn’t really read Chinese…. He seemed to have gotten a good laugh out of that…. Especially since I was pretty much the only Asian-American I’ve seen in Costa Rica so far. He seemed like a cool guy…. And he loves Cala very much. She seems to motivate him.

Then, afterwards, Gail, Nelson, Cala, I, and two other volunteers we met at the Park (two women who spoke very good English) went to an extremely impoverished region in San Jose to feed the homeless. One of the two women had a French accent, which I thought sounded really nice and pretty. Kumar and Kulat went with us,bringing the food that we had cooked earlier. The place smelled like sewage, and I was turned off immediately. As we opened the car trunk with the food, the homeless came rushing in. They were nice people,and had poor clothes. One woman was smoking and pregnant. It was raining a little bit. I separated the bowls so that they were easier to serve with. Afterwards, a guy with a banjo on the streets started to sing. Gail and Cala started dancing, and an old homeless lady started to take my hands and dance with me. Gail laughed and said “come on, Tony!” I awkwardly moved my legs…. But didn’t really dance. I felt slightly embarrassed, but also amazed at the energy of these homeless people.

I asked my homestay mom, Susanna, about her work, some of her personal life, and told her a little about my summer (classes, three days back home, which was EXTREMELY GLORIOUS, and my work in La Carpio). She and her husband both work for a civil engineering company, and Christopher wants to be a plastic surgeon in Miami when he grows up. I laughed, and so did Susanna. Tomorrow, I will see Frances and her crew for the first time in Costa Rica, and then we will go to La Carpio to test out my survey/interview questions. I’m a little bit “nervous” (I can’t think of another word to describe this), to be completely honest, because I don’t know frances that well, and have never seen her friends before.