“WHAT are you doing all day long?!” I am asked frequently.
Good question!
And good questions should be answered.
Rise and shine: 5 Uhr!
First of all I have a good night’s rest. Until 5 am. Because then the roosters start to crow and the village, with all its threehundred and fifty people (+ one Kiki) wakes up.
Then I rub my eyes and, brrrr, creep out from under all my blankets. I take my fleece pulover and flannel pajama off and jump as fast as possible in my hiking clothes to avoid frost bites.
Task 1: Hiking
I have the choice to toughen my body by doing either a strenuous, a very strenuous or a extremely strenuous hike.
I doesn’t matter where you are going: it is steep – you only can choose how LONG you wanna hike.
Recently I met this little fellow:
Task 2: Having a shower
After returning I’m having a shower. If I am lucky the water is cold. If I am unlucky it is ice-cold. Meanwhile I can handle the shower tough like an indian. But washing my hair still is a nightmare…
In the morning there is no rain and sometimes there is even a little bit of sunshine
And then the weather decides what I will do next. As there is rainy saison right now in Costa Rica it rains a lot and heavy. But in the mornings usually the weather is dry. And sometime even the sun comes out – and then I will take a break, enjoy the sun and just read a book.
Or I pet the cats and dogs. Or I read a book while petting the cats and dogs.
Is there no sunshine I join madre Margarita in the kitchen (she is having vacation this week) or search internet to write you, or have a telephone chat…
Lunch: rice + beans
Around 11 – 12 am lunch is served. Every day we have rice and beans. Every day! Joined by some potatoes, or ayotes, or a salad, or patatas… But I like simple things as well!
This is Pinto de Gallo – the Costa Rican breakfast. Rice with beans. To this you can eat what you like. And my family likes scrambled eggs.
In the afternoon there is nearly every day rain. No, that’s to optimistic. It is pouring and every few days there is a thunderstorm.
After the almuerzo, the lunch, I will go into “work”. Only five minutes (uphill) there is a tiny hotel in which I am allowed to use internet.
Okay, maybe the description “in which” is wrong.
Because IN the hotel there are only the four rooms, a shower and a toilet. And so I work on the little patio. That’s nice when it is warm. But in the afternoon it gets quite chilly and I feel a little bit cold…
Dinner: rice and beans. I don’t know why they are so upset in the djungle camp…?
But inside the houses it is also cold – there is no heater and some walls are only made from chicken wire. So we get warm from the warm dinner (rice and beans and something added) and afterwards tea.
Night’s rest: 8 pm
We have a little chat but around 8 pm everybody yawns and falls into his bed. Before I sleep I study a little bit Spanish, but at the latest 9 pm I sleep as well…
Highlight Apfelstrudel – Apple Strudel
Yesterday I baked Viennese Applestrudel! And my family was delighted!
“¡Muy, muy, muuuuuy rico!” they shouted on and on. And madre Margarita likes to have a cooking lesson in how to bake viennese applestrudel.
Madre Margarita, grandchild Steidelyn, daughter/aunt Lorena, Padre Memo, daughter/mother Alejandra while savouring applestrudel
First work – then pleasure: karaoke bar!
Tonight we go out! Lorena + Estevan, Mirna + Julio plus sun and I. We will go to the bar, and every saturday there is karaoke time.
But I am not sure if they will be fit enough as they worked especially hard this week.
Most of the people work hard and much…
Lorena for example works six days a week, eight to ten hours daily (depending on the saison) in a hotel in the office. To get to work she walks fifty minutes – one way! And remember: it is steep here. When she returns back home she is soaked as it is pouring in the afternoons and evenings. After drying she is having dinner and around 10 pm she starts to study – she studies tourism.
Is there no work performed they enjoy life!
Lorena’s husband, Estevan, also is not lazy. He walks to work Monday night at 4 am. He works in a kind of kiosk on Mt Chirripó. He needs two hours of walking for the 8 kilometers. Tourists need about 4 hours – because, you already know it, it is just steep. He stays at work until Thursday, then returns and has the weekend for studying for his studies, Agricultural Engineering.
Madre Margarita is 65 years old and works as a schools-cook. She cooks for sixty five students lunch. After washing and drying the dishes and pots (of course there is no dishwasher) and washing up the floor she could go home – ready to do her own household.
I could keep on telling you – nearly everybody is that hardworking! Maybe women even a little more…
But do you know what really impresses me? Nobody complains!
Is there no work performed they enjoy life – and don’t waste time by complaining!
Allthough everybody is working that hard there is no money left in the end of the month allowing to buy something nice. Like going on vacation. Or to tile a floor…
…I already told that the floor in my room is only simple concrete. Since yesterday I know why. Until lately the floor of the whole house was like that. But Margarita and Memo saved money to tile the floor.
“Oh it is just hilarious to have tiles on the floor!” Margarita is beaming with joy. “It is much easier to clean now. Unfortunately we hadn’t enough money to tile everything, but at least kitchen and living room! That was the most important! And some day, maybe, we can do the bedrooms as well…”
Are heart’s desires fulfilled, one is happy. And until then one is content with what one has!
I am not only here to practice my Spanish, or to travel through Costa Rica. But to broaden my mind and to look for new horizons. To escape our world of consumption. To correct the I want to have to a I want to be.
To practice beeing modest, content and greatful – things that are more and more forgotten in Austria and in the Silicon Valley!
Yes, in “our” world we learn from our teachers how to write, to calculate, geography, history, a complex profession… Many people here don’t know Mozart or things we would call general knowledge. But from these people I learn to see with my heart, to accept unchangeable things (no one here complains about the daily rain!), to be aware when there is a butterfly…
…and therefor I am grateful!
PS: we went out yesterday and had so much fun!!!
Mis hermanas... 😀
