An Australian in Costa Rica

Part 7 

Well, I arrived at my site in Garza on Sunday afternoon. The welcome was cordial and polite. My room had been cleaned, and I have been given the best fan in the house!

Garza is stunningly beautiful. My town consists of the main street, ten houses, a school, two/three bars, a foodstore, a football field and a church. If you have been to Costa Rica before this will not come as a suprise as every single town no matter how small (and I think mine is one of the smallest) has these five things.

I am lucky because I have the sea.

First days of school. I show up whith no idea who anyone is, and after asking two or three times I finally meet my director. School starts with the national creed and anthym. This is amusing as I am expected to stand at the front with all the teachers and set an example by singing along . . . !

Of course I dont know the words.

Because nobody is sure whats going on, they invite me to teach a forty minute class to the whole school at one go. Admittedly this is only 35 students. But the skills of English ranges from absolutely nothing to almost fluent. I am also inredibly nervous because the director is watching and its my first time ever teaching.

I pin a massive smile on my face, and yell hello! The rest of the class was in Spanish, and only lasted about ten minutes! I explained the rules, and regulations of the class - and told them that the best behaved grade would win a prize!

I taught my kids to say "whatsup, nothin much!" Except they say the question and the answer all in one go. So we need to go back and review, however I was more than gratified when one of them ran past and yelled TEACHER TEACHER whats up! Nothing much! and waved his hand at me like a cool rapper and ran away!.

My fifth graders ran into my class one day yelling "teacher we dont have break we need to work through". I was mock outraged! What?!? I asked, we dont have class. Ha ha they yelled. Just kidding, and ran away to play. When they came back in after class, I told them in all seriousness that I didnt like jokes. So therefore Friday they really wouldnt have break. I forgot how smart kids can be, Instead of being upset, they laughed at me and yelled ha ha teacher! You dont work Fridays!

You might wish to reprimand me at this point for the over use of the word "yell" but its all they do!

I started my adult classes on Tuesday. This went good and bad. I had loads of cool stuff prepared. Like the explanation of the Bud ad, and Wassssssssssssuuuuuuuuuuup. I explained it slowly and carefully. Then provided to sit there for a minute wasssssssuping. Not a smile. Not a flicker.

However, I got a glimpse of a smile when I explained the whole reason behind "how you doing" and Joey from Friends. Although not as much as I would like!

I was hoping that adult classes would mean that I would make some tico friends, but its not looking good right now. It gets hard to remember to keep smiling and keep being a charming person, when nobody seems to want to chat.

Theres a crazy american who was in Vietnam. He lives with some not so crazy Americans. I introduced myself to them yesterday. They seem nice. Bonny and Rich. Maybe they will be my friends. At least if I buy a beer?

The crazy Vet sounds great. My older brother was stopped by the police for not wearing a helmet. He plead to be left go home in peace because he has a wife and children waiting for him at home. The Vet said he wouldnt have plead, he would have shot the police. That would have dealt with the problem adequately.

There is a man who beats his children in the house behind mine. I think I may be calling on the Vet at some point to deal with this person. As far as violence goes in this part of the world - it happens. Alot. Out of thirty children about four of them come to school with bruises. Like most countries the mothers must renounce the fathers. But unlike the UK or Aust, there is no social system. So if they do renounce the fathers who will pay for the food.

My diet here is very basic. I am always served rice and beans, sometimes I get meat or chicken. The high points are that I often get lobster or crab. For breakfast lunch or dinner. Because thats what my Dad does. He literally got home after a hard days work with four fish. This was a bad day.

The great thing about my Dad is that he is very quiet. Until he has a couple of beers, and then he becomes the worlds greatest conversationalist. He tells me that they are very poor, that they have had to work all of their lives for what they have, that I am very welcome, that when my family come, all five of them can stay. They can sleep on the floor! (theres no other space!)

He's a nice guy. I was worried about guys, but my family seem to be good and honest people.

MY Mum cooks for the town, works as the medical administrator, runs the church fundrasing program, sells her sewing, looks after the two old people who live in a tiny hut next door, and feed me her husband and her son. She actually wanted to do more but Chano (my Dad) gets very grumpy and doesn’t talk to her if his lunch is not on the table when he wants it.

I would make a terrible wife to a Tico man. I dont like iron, I hate to clean, and I love to cook but only when I am in the mood! Here it is expected, even if the women works, that she will do all of those things and more if it is asked by her husband.
I have really high points, where everything is awesome. I have really low points when all the women run out of my English class together to hang out and leave me behind. Or when I come home exhausted, and my new nephews and nieces are running around creating absolute havoc in my house, and all I want is time out. Then there are high points when a fourth grader draws me in all of her drawings swimming etc. just to make me happy. Low points are constantly being bitten by bugs, and putting on organic bug spray and discovering that mosquitos like the flavour. Even lower, putting on a new bug spray, and the mosquitoes leave me alone, but then these things called beechos decide they like the flavour of this new stuff. 35 bug bites later, I feel like a bag lady with fleas!

And then, I put on my swimsuit, and I swim out as far as I dare, and I float on my back and watch the sunset from the ocean, yellow and orange butterflies flutter past, and silver fish leap out of the water. The splashing of the water, and birds chasing fish are all I can hear. I remind myself that its only the first week in a year. A lot has already happened, and if I am logical and smile, its going to be a great year. Life is what I make it. Surely.