10/12/11
Dear Everyone,
This morning I woke up early to make pancakes for my family. It was slightly more complicated than I thought it would be, in that I had no measuring cups, no spatula, and an utterly unpredictable stove. I suppose I’m a good guesstimator because they tasted fine, but between my flipping them with spoons, and the odd shape caused by the dented pan, they looked pretty damn weird. Carolina was watching and helping throughout the whole process, and I’m not sure if it made things easier or just gave me performance anxiety. Well, at least she and Victor seemed to like them quite a bit. They asked if I would make them tomorrow as well. It was also nice for Lizzie and me to have a taste of home. Even if we did use the Aunt Jemima *scouf. *
Work has been going a little better since two men from a motorcycle gang (that’s all we’ve been told about them) started helping us out. They are beasts at digging holes, and our speed has really picked up. We planted five hundred plants today, and we would have planted more if we hadn’t had to keep stopping to climb through barbed wire, and if we hadn’t been attacked by at that herd of cows. Yes a herd of cows ambushing us is a regular occurrence here.
Today we were joined by Caroline, a Peace Corps volunteer living in Puerto Limon. She told us that we gringos have been the talk of the town. They’ve even mentioned the extremely small and skinny one, which Caroline assumes is me. She also told us not to purchase anything embarrassing, because everything we buy is broadcasted on the nightly town news.
Funny story about the Los Naranjos Peace Corps volunteer we watched an hour-long (234 picture) slide show on. Caroline tells us he was kicked out halfway through for traveling during a no-travel period. They sent him home, but he just came straight back on his own dime. The community welcomed him back with open arms.
The doctors in Puerto Limon are not to be trusted, and the closest reliable doctors are an hour and a half away in Santo Domingo. Partly for this reason and partly out of curiosity, our group has officially turned to shamanism. Of course some missionaries converted all the Tsatchilla people to Catholicism way back when, but they still practice shamanism as well. Today Lizzie was sent home with a potato and a ginger root for the weird bite/sting/prick on her leg. As we speak she is lying on the floor of the kitchen with a potato salad on her leg.
Much more exciting was the cleansing ceremony Alejandro performed on Haley today in order to cure her insomnia. Haley and Alejandro both very graciously allowed me to observe the entire process. We trekked out into the forest, to a straw lean-two. He started by rubbing her body with an unlit candlestick. Then he lit the candle, and placed it on an alter of sorts, along with some very interesting rocks and a glass orb. Next he took a swig of a liquid that smelled like liquor from a bottle with dirt and roots at the bottom. He then proceeded to spit the liquid all over the items on the alter. It was at this time that he began smoking something, I’m really not sure what. Paying special attention to her face, the next thing he rubbed on her body was an uncracked egg. After he finished the rubbing, he cracked the egg into a cup of water, and examined it for a long time. Then he had Haley take off her shirt and stand in the middle of the room. He poured his special liquid on a feather-duster arrangement of leaves and began spitting on her and splashing her with the leaves. Next her rubbed a red fruit smelling liquid on her face. Once she was sitting down again, he rubbed the many different rocks on her body. During the entire process he alternated between whistling, grunting, and chanting under his breath. After he finished, he explained that the egg showed many bad spirits. She was thinking, working, and worrying too hard; that’s why she couldn’t sleep at night. He said he cleansed her of the bad spirits, but she would have to drink two lemons tomorrow, and he would make her a special drink on Monday. I’m very curious to ask her how she slept tomorrow morning.
Because we stayed late at the center to watch the cleansing, Lizzie, Haley, and I had to brave the long walk home in the dark. It was all fine and dandy until we reached the neighbor’s house with the evil dogs. We were all screaming and trying to scare them away by throwing rocks and water bottles…and that’s when Carolina found us with her flashlight. She must think we’re insane, but she got quite a kick out of the whole show.
Thankfully Carolina had hauled in some well water, so we were able to bucket shower instead of facing bathing in the river in the dark. I quite enjoy the bucket shower, although I must say I’m getting much better at the river bathing. I find it quite calming.
Well I think it’s bedtime for me. You see, to combat the exhaustion of the most physical labor I’ve ever done in my life, I’ve been going to bed at the old lady time of 8:30. This averages about nine and a half hours of sleep per night. Of course this sleep is frequently interrupted. It is a common misconception that rooster only crow at dawn, and I’ve found that the ones surrounding my house can wake me up as many as three times a night. So better get started on that.
Love,
Katherine
P.S. If you remember my 10/10 post on our breakfast of fried friedness, there has been an interesting breakthrough. My host family calls them “empanadas.” They are not empanadas (at least in the traditional sense.) It turns out; Alison’s family calls them “tortillas.” They are not tortillas. I have no idea what’s going on.
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