Picking up again with last weekend, I have to say that I have really been laying some rubber on the road and doing less teaching than I expected. Part of this has to do with my reaction the environment of Colonia Libertad--i.e., bugs (to which I am allergic) and heat (pant, pant)--and part of it has to do with the general state of disorder in that community. I can definitely see the need there for exigence.I left Liberia after the Semana Santa and headed back to Colonia Libertad. I was a little disoriented once I got there. I had checked over the emails from the Project Ganas mastermind, Sara, and it seemed to me that her idea had been that I was supposed to stay in the teachers' house by the school. The two teachers staying in the house by the school, however, insisted that I was supposed to stay at the house of the schoolmaster's mother-in-law. So I headed up to Finca La Anita to talk with Pablo and Ana and to see if they knew anything. Pablo, as nicely as possible, said that he was troubled by the whole situation, that he had a business to run, and that he would be willing to meet with me the next night to work everything out once and for all.
I stayed the night at the house of the schoolmaster's mother-in-law. She seemed a little begrudging about the whole situation, and I suffered--I counted--28 mosquito bites that night. The next day, I taught a class to the first graders and tracked down Mayra, the schoolmaster. She concurred that I was supposed to be staying at her mother-in-law's house, and told me that that was what had been discussed with Sara. I had my doubts. That night, when we met with Pablo, he essentially pleaded with Mayra and the other teachers on my behalf, pointing out that all I needed was a decent room and that I was in fact there working as a volunteer. Somehow, it came about that Isabel, the kindergarten teacher, went to stay with her mother-in-law and I stayed at the teachers' house for the next two nights.
I worked the next day with a few students who were interested in learning about computers. I taught them the anatomy of the desktop computer and showed them how to work a mouse and a keyboard. They typed some sentences for me about Colonia Libertad. The students have a great desire for learning, which is why I was a little perturbed the next day when I noticed that the students were getting out of school between 12 and 1 p.m. everyday (they go to school at 7:30 a.m.). I also began to feel more and more like an outsider. I really was enjoying eating the food that everyone cooked for me, but somehow without a monetary exchange involved, I felt less than self-sufficient. Whatsmore, I noticed myself unable to catch the drift of a lot of the conversations. I decided that since I had tickets for the Guns N' Roses concert on Friday anyway, maybe it was time to check out and head for more familiar territory. Yes, that means Heredia.
I stayed the night again in San José. I've become quite fond of a particular room at the Molino Rojo hostel. It's a bit on the expensive side, but there are very few bugs and it has a nice atmosphere. It's a good place for writing blogs, you might say. Eventually, I'll have to find other San José digs, but for the moment it can't be beat. Since it's a hostel, there's plenty of space to move around in and there are a lot of North American-style restaurants close by where they don't seem to mind gringos struggling with getting by in a different culture. It's also walking distance from La Avenida Central, which is San José's biggest shopping area, where there are a lot of little artisan bakeries and cafés mixed in.
After a long and satisfying chat session with some people back home, I had an excellent night's sleep. I ate pudding bread in the morning (which meant around 1 p.m.) and headed out for Heredia. Heredia seemed a lot more familiar arriving in daylight. I headed towards UNA (la Universidad NAcional, the most well-renowned private university in Costa Rica) and had a late lunch at a Lebanese food joint. The cook was a druze man and we had a short conversation about Middle Eastern geography. His Spanish was exactly the kind I love--the kind learned during adulthood.
Later on, I hooked up with my friend and got settled in on zir sofa. I downloaded Appetite for Destruction on iTunes (damn not having my CDs and backups) and we started getting excited for the Guns N' Roses symphony. The next day I headed out to walk around a bit and I found a couple of Guns N' Roses shirts, which of course I picked up. I came back to the pad in the afternoon super excited to go to the concert. I showed my friend the shirts and ze was super excited too.
Much to my dismay, however, zir friends informed me that the concert had been--you guessed it--cancelled.
OK. Near as I can tell, what happened is that some idiotic stagehand, or a group of them called 28 Productions, tried to build a professional rock concert setup on top of wood that had been soaked through by rain in the preceding days. Why anyone would do this when working for a professional rock band, I have no idea, but they did it, and the stage collapsed when they tried to put the band's super-size LCD screen on it. From what I understand, Guns N' Roses didn't even make it to sound check. Naturally, the Ministry of Health wouldn't let the concert go forward with the stage in an unsafe condition.
I was bummed out. Guns N' Roses was the first rock band I ever listened to, thanks to Josh F. from Lynnwood, and I had never gotten to see them in concert. (Yes, I know, Axl Rose is the only original member left.) I moped around zir pad, trying in vain to find the inspiration for a blog post, and finally crashed out. In the morning I headed for the swimming pool to relieve some stress. I was a little disappointed with my performance, though. I guess the air here is different or something. Several hours later, I realized that I had forgotten to put sunscreen on.
So that's been the week, I am still recovering from one of the worst sunburns I have had in years and still waiting for Guns N' Roses to come rock my world. Now if I can just find where I put the number for the school and let them know what's going on, everything will be groovy. Catch you this weekend!
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