The school year in Costa Rica is February through the first week or two of December with a 2-3 week vacation in July. The adults too take somewhat of a vacation during this time. During this July vacation period my satellite town of Los Angeles hosts a Semana Cultural every year. This year marks the 22nd year of the event, and the popularity is through the roof. I was raffled onto a team when I first arrived in Quebrada, not really knowing what that entailed. Well I soon found out the event is a highly energized, competitive week-long competition among community members divided among 8 teams. The teams are relatively fair considering it is done by raffle. I was raffled on to the blue team, which we named “Blue's Brothers.” The popular thing to do was to have a team name in English. The black team even named their team the “Obama's.” I found that pretty awesome. The week consisted of a very diverse variety of competitions; sports including volleyball, basketball, field soccer, court soccer, a running race, long jump, high jump, sack races, relays, penalty kicks and bike races. Others included performance competitions like dance, singing and painting and board games like chess. Then there were the goofy things like tortilla-making contest (men only), hot dog eating contest and wood chopping contest. Ending the week was a concert by a really good local band, fireworks, and a dance.
I can only tell you this was one of the most entertaining and fun week's of my life. My competitive spirit was most definitely ignited. I participated in nearly all the sporting events. I got second in the women's run and my team won the women's soccer, volleyball, soccer penalty kicks, and basketball free throws. We also took second in basketball. All the sports are divided into girls and guys competitions except the volleyball. I can honestly say it was the women on our team that carried us to a second overall finish. We were so close to first and actually we were in first place for much of the week, but then our guys lost in soccer, and took a pretty bad defeat in both tortilla making and hot dog eating. There was no way I was participating in hot dog eating, although they asked me, since I am “the Gringa” and gringos are supposed to love hot dogs. Right. I was asked to referee in several events as well. I reffed basketball which was scary because of how competitive and physical people were getting. I also was one of the refs in both tortilla making and hot dog eating. I never want to be that close to someone shoving wieners down their throat ever again. One guy had to walk away to puke. Nasty. One day was a type of obstacle course relay race that included climbing up this dirt hill, slithering under a plastic sheet, swimming through a mud bath thing, and a bunch of other stuff. I was the part of the relay that included a sprint down a hill and through a kind of mud hole that led to the basketball court for a free throw. It happened to pour rain on this day.... and I mean really pour. So you can imagine what we all looked like after climbing up sheer mud hills, etc. It looked as if we had been mud wrestling all day. And after this event was court soccer, so we all just jumped onto the court to play in our soaking wet muddy apparel. The court was full of mud puddles, but it was totally worth it when we won. I had mud ball marks on my face, chest, legs, everywhere. I got home and my host mom made me come in through the back door straight to the shower. Great fun. The women's race was a 2k. Doesn't sound like much I know, but shorter distances are actually more challenging for me than long one's, and the part that made this one super challenging was the fact that there is not flat place here. It was a run up a huge dirt hill and back down to the finish line at the field below. Sprinting back down the hill was scarier than anything else. But I did not fall to my death as I had pictured in my head prior to starting, and I sprinted through the finish line to secure second place at something like 12 minutes. It was a really tough run, but in that moment the sheer pleasure of team spirit, support, and the adrenaline of competition swept over me. This was unlike anything I had experienced before. Members of my team ran with me at different points. A guy on my team rode a motorcycle next to me with water. People lined the sides of the road and three of my teammates ran through the finish line with me, all the while urging me on, “vamos vamos, si se puede!”. This is the kind of thing I live for. The entire week transpired in this way; with passionate enthusiasm, support, encouragement, and the creation of unbreakable bonds. On the final night, fireworks were bursting into life in the darkening sky above when my team was called onto the stage to receive our medals. We charged the stage and began jumping up and down together chanting “azules, azules, azules” (blues, blues blues). I can't even explain the beauty of it, how much it meant to me to be a part of this team, this community, this family.
The dance was later that night, and everyone returned home to beautify in their flashiest attire. I embarked on learning the steps to meringue, salsa, kumbya, and raggaetone. After several different partners who assured me “si se puede” (yes you can), I gained some confidence and actually felt like I was fitting in on the dance floor. I bought a kumbya and salsa CD of the band as well. I really am growing to love the music genres here. They are very high energy.
On another weekend I traveled with my host mom to Tamarindo to visit her daughter and granddaughter who live there. I spent much of my time lazing on the beautiful beach that is walking distance from Gentry's house. I absolutely fell in love with 5 year old Yamilla (Betty's granddaughter). She ran on the beach with me and we found shells and drew our names in the sand. I also attended a motocross to watch Gentry's husband fly over dirt hills on his suped up moto. It was very entertaining. I was also able to see Playa Conchal, Playa Ventana, and Playa Grande, which are all in Tamarindo's general area. I swear beaches will never get old for me. I love swimming in the ocean, lying on the beach, running on the beach, sitting and watching the sunset/sunrise/waves. Although it is four bus rides to Tamarindo from my site, it goes relatively quickly and is relatively cheap. So I definitely plan to visit again.
English classes in my primary schools are in full swing. When vacation is over the kids will soon have a little quiz over the alphabet and some vocab. They take this very seriously and I was impressed with their interest in the syllabus I made for semester one. I have two groups of adults for Saturday English classes; level one and level two. Everyone seems pretty energized for some English every week. But my favorite thing is passing time chatting with community members on their porches in the afternoons. This is the thing to do here. And it is this time when I see the people who really want to learn English. They ask me to correct pronunciation, to tell them a certain vocabulary word. And of course I am learning new things every day. Every day is a lesson in Spanish, in Tico culture, and in life. Sure, I embarrass myself often out of sheer naivety, but I think that's part of the experience, and it shows I am willing to put myself out there, and that yes, I can do this. “Si se puede.”
