Return to the Rainforest

Annnnnd we're back from that brief commercial break of the more commercial city, and now live from Las Cruces field station!

Oh hey, rainforest! 

On Monday, I bid "¡hasta luego!" to my host mama for the time being, until I go back to stay with her for a week in October. Mi mama tica and I had multiple scoops of interesting dinner conversations over the weeks I was there...we touched on views about immigration, family structure, religion and ice cream--basically all the important issues.

A brief recap of things I learned from mi mama tica, mostly while eating ice cream together after dinner (if you want, you can pretend you've just dined on some rice, fried plantains, squash soup, have just sipped on some splendid fruit juice, and have accepted the offer of ice cream for dessert):

-Immigration is a charged issue in Costa Rica, that has some parallels to the situations in the states. Many people from Nicaragua migrate south to Costa Rica in search of jobs, since the scare supply of jobs available in Nicaragua offer meager pay. For the most part, Nicaraguans in Costa Rica are concentrated in the city area, and women primarily work in houses while men work in construction. The largely un-patrolled border between the two countries stretches for 192 miles. Some Ticos are unhappy about the migrant population, asserting that Nicaraguans are usurping the jobs that citizens could carry. But, the job sectors of the Ticos and the Nicaraguans are mostly two sides of a venn diagram that don't overlap. Yet, prejudices present themselves and resentment rings among some. Sound familiar? Why can't we all just get along?

-The only time my mama tica went out of the country was to visit a friend in Denver. She brought back a panini maker from a garage sale as a souvenir. I'm fairly certain this is the panini maker that receives the most enthusiasm on Earth.

-Costa Rica is something like 76% Catholic, with the runner-up religion being Evangelism. Costa Rica is actually not a secular state--it is indeed has Catholic government, which can be seen in some governmental policy as well (ex. abortions are illegal). Anyway, my host mom is a church-going Catholic, and has been surrounded by similar-believing people for her whole life. Consequently, she didn't know much about religions besides Christianity. She had only heard of Judaism in passing (and it probably didn't help I perpetually forgot the español word for Jewish), and didn't know about Hinduism either, both of which I tried to explain (uh, cómo se dice, "the mesiah hasn't yet come?"). So either my host mom now has more of an understanding of them, or is utterly confused with some haphazardly-created, nonsensical religion I may or may not have concocted.

Before I left San José, I decided to wander around UCR (Universidad de Costa Rica) since it was a 10 minute walk from my house and I was feeling explorative.

Pay phones are still a thing! Maybe that Maroon 5 song is more relevant than you thought it was, sí?

I'm a fan of all these energetic mosaics

The UCR equivalent to the WashU bunny?

And that (and a six hour bus ride with muchísimo traffic out of San José) brings us to Las Cruces, also known as my home, home in the rain, where the agoutis and the toucans play, where often is heard a serenading bird, and the skies are basically cloudy all day.

This week, we've had plenty of classes learning about anthropological research methods, protozoan diseases with funky life cycles, and identification and information about field plants. On Monday, we head out for the week to live with and research two different indigenous groups nearby!