Jess' Travel Blog Summer 2006

Hello again everyone!

Well, since my last update about a fortnight ago I have been just as busy. We celebrated Christmas and exchanged gifts with the San Marcos community at the Salon Communal and danced the New Year in at Janette´s house whilst watching a crazy count down show (in Spanish of course!). I´ve been playing nightly cardgames with the local boys, seen freshly slaughtered pigs hanging from trees by the side of the road and watched farmers swim cattle across a wide and fast flowing river one by one beside a very unstable looking canoe.

I´ve learned to accept the diference between clean mud and dirty mud, and become so used to the smell of DEET that I´m starting to like it! (My friend walked past as I was spraying some on the other day, breathed deep and said ¨Jess, what a nice perfume, can I have some?¨ We´ve definitely been away from home a while now!). My perception of distance has also altered. We now think it is perfectly reasonable to walk 20kms to a supermarket...and then another 20kms home!(That was our new year´s day special excursion!)

I´ve taught basic english and karate classes (suprised anyone? he he he), attended art classes (my still life drawing from yesterday is proudly displayed in the kitchen, have attempted to walk slack rope(a close cousin of tight-rope walking and have learned not to freak out when I see an unattended fire, of which there are many by the side of the road. Kids play with matches here, and with fireworks, and their parents don´t seem at all worried.

I did freak out a little when our foreman brought a dead poisonous snake to the worksite for us to see and it turned out to be still somewhat alive! He found it hilarious! We also entertained the locals greatly by attempting with moderate sucess to milk a cow. It amused them almost as much as we amuse them with our crazy gringo dancing!

We are breaking down gender stereotypes merely by being present at the worksite and by working with gusto. Some women have joined us to help out occasionally which is great. The men added the roof of the souvenir shop to the frame we´d built (we can´t work higher than 2m because of our insurace) and we´ve poured the slab. This week we will do the same for the lookout. Work´s going well, and we now have a workplan that exists on paper as well as in our foreman´s head! So we are really happy with our progress. The community conference will be held on the 20th and we are also planning a big Australia Day celebration so there is even more business ahead!

I´m having a fantastic time, and hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Snow on bushfires on Christmas day sounds crazy!

Take care,

Love from Jess

P.S. A special note to Am´s mum: she is safe and well and happy and sends her love!
P.P.S. Andrew can you please add my photos to my blog for me. Thanks sweetie.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well, I´ve been here for a crazy three weeks and have so much more news than I will be able to write in the brief minutes I have available to me...I´m in Ciudad Quesedad doing some last minute Christmas shopping and there is only one bus home to San Marcos so I can´t be late!

Highlights have included...

Going to a rodeo, attending a wedding, singing spanish kareoke, eating, learning to salsa and dance with the locals, painting faces and playing pinata at the primary school´graduation, learning to make empanadas and tomalis, digging a hole 1.8m deep for a septic tank in heavy clay, walking across a swaying wooden bridge to work every morning, getting up to go to work at 5am every morning, not having a fridge and struggling to keep our food fresh, horse riding, being driven everywhere in the back of a truck, following a machete wielding local into the rainforest to see howler monkeys, seeing toucans fly overhead and watching the vultures endlessly circle, eating a pig killed fresh that morning, and having the locals try and gross us our by holding the head up as a mask, developing machete envy as they are useful for everything here! Eating far too many oranges, pinapples, limes and sweet lemons, having to filter all our water, learning to love cold showers, developing very expressive body language to supplement my slowly improving spanish, tasting the local´s home brewed coconut spirit, drinking from coconuts cut straight from the tree, and being kept awake by roosters with a twisted idea of what morning is, riding horses, being chased by cows and slathering myself in DEET.

As you can tell, it´s been pretty busy.

I am living with a group of 11 others, mostly girls and mostly from Australia in comparatively luxurious accomodation. We have an indoor sink and a shower with a shower head! Both are absolute indulgences, although because the water here is pumped from wells there is sometimes a gap between when the holding tank runs out and the pump starts again. But after a hard day´s work in the sun, and an hour´s walk home from the work site, that trickle of a shower feels heavenly!

We´re working hard, but playing hard too, and have been embraced by the community who have generously welcomed us into their midst.

My love to all, have to run!

XOX Jess

P.S. If you want to see more photos check out my Photo Gallery, i've asked Andrew to upload them for me.

Hi everyone,

This is my allocated activity whilst in Costa Rica. It sounds like i'll be living off pineapples. ; )

Hope everyone is well!

Speak soon,
Love Jess.
(from Andrew)

Project Description

What?
Work on the initial stages on Rural Tourism project. For that, some infrastructure will be needed: Lookout point, greenhouse, butterfly farm and Artisans´ center

Who?
Women association from the community (Asociación Femenina Ecologista de San Marcos), with funds from the UNDP

Where?
Alajuela province, San Carlos, Northwest of Costa Rica

Weather?
Temperature 24—30°C
Altitude: 500 m
Hot, humid and rainy

When?
December 3 2006 to February 11 2007

Community?
Community is formed by 600 people, they dont have access to running water. The land is owned by the goverment and given to local farmers, so this project will benefit the community by creating a touristic zone which is intended to boost local economy. Most of the people work in local pineapple plantations.

What is the work like?
Very similar to the description on the first project, as it involves a similar work. However this project will bring new challenges as there are great differences between both projects, mainly for the kind of reserve and altitude. Also communities will be very different and will provide a new opportunity for challenges. The opportunity of working with a women´s group is also a strong point of this project which is just in its initial stages. As this area is not a National Park, there wont be presence or Rangers, but on their place, locals will be helping the group of volunteers understand culture and they way they live.

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to say I have arrived safely in San Jose. Thankyou all for your messages, its great to hear from home. I'm in Alajuela doing some last minute shopping with the group before we head off to our project tomorrow. We are only doing one project, but happily I got my first preference, the butterfly farm, trail and womens empowerment group one in San Marcos. Andrew, can you post the blurb for people so they know where I am please!

The people are fantastic and I'm having a great time! I'm really excited about the project cause I'm on the organising committee for a womens empowerment conference.

The project accomodation sounds more luxurious than expected! We will have running water and electricity. And there is a public phone in the village. I will buy a phone card and get yo to call me back cause its cheaper. Apparently you can get cheaper calls from Aus to Costa than the other way round. Maybe you should get a phone card too!

I am unlikely to get internet access from now on. Post will be delivered to us only at the midpoint and the end of the project. I'll try to write letters but it'll probably take 3 weeks to get to you.

Sorry this is such a rushed note, I'll call home and Andrew, either later today or when I get to the village tomorrow. Maybe Andrew could update my blod for me :D

My love to all!

Hugs
Jess

Well, I arrived in San Fransisco yesterday after a rather rushed departure. There was along delay at the check in counter so I ended up just making it to my flight at the final call. Once on the plane I had twelve hours to calm down. My seat 'neighbours' were a British couple who were friendly but reserved and I managed to sleep fairly well once the attendants paused the incessant supply of food.

My 'cousins', Lou and Richard met me at the airport and welcomed me into their home. They are an older couple (late 60s-70s), but very active and interested in everything. As Lou aptly put it at dinner tonight, "The world is so interesting, if you get bored, it's your own fault!"

Lou and Richard live in a lovely house in Vacaville, an hour or so's drive from San Fran. Although they do not consider themselves wealthy, they have an amazing car that is heated through the seats and has a satelite assistance system through which we were able to get directions and a dinner reservation from a live operator. However, the car does have a mind of its own and we had some trouble disarming it's alarm to leave the airport.

As I was not so tired from my flight, we took a scenic drive around San Fran to see the Golden Gate bridge, Cliffhouse which is naturally perched on the side of a cliff overlooking the bay, and the remains of a centre built for the 1905 Great Exhibition. I especially enjoyed seeing all the quaint San Fran houses, whose colouful and ornate architectural style is quite distinctive.

Today I have had another wonderful day-this time we drove along the Silverado Trail in Napa Valley, home to some of California's best wineries. We stopped at Sterling vinyard and ended up staying the whole afternoon. Sterling is big white greek inspired building perched at the top of a very steep hill. You have to take a cable car to get up to the top so on the way you are treated to a marvellous view. The valley is bordered by some rugged looking mountains that are as sparse and brown looking as australian hills but the valley floor is covered with vinyards. It is of course autumn here, so the weather was cool and crisp but beautifully sunny. I am told such weather is quite unexpected for November. After a tour of the presses and barrels we tasted a selection of delicious wines. They had a fresh, clean flavour that I really enjoyed. We were made very welcome by the staff, who upon hearing that I was all the way from Australia, brought out a very special golden reserve wine that is produced especially to be served at the Oscar's. Talk about red carpet treatment! Needless to say, it was very good.

After such a relaxing and indulgent afternoon, we then made our way to the Culinary Institute of America for dinner. The Institute is in an imposing building aptly called Greystone Cellars, which was once the largest stone winery in the world. It used to be a monastery owned by the Christian Brothers, who produced a range of wines, brandies and ports. Today it is the premier chef-training school in America.

The restaurant is not run by students, although there are student interns, and the food was delicious. The kitchen is open so you can see the chefs at work. As it was a Thursday night and not so busy, the manager (a British expat arrived recently from Australia) illuminated us as to the complexity of the kitchen's organisational structure and then took us on a private tour of the rest of the building. We saw a room full of 2000 gallon red wood casks, now used for special banquets, and an enormous display of corkscrews. Apparently they were only a selection of the Brother Timothy's collection which numbers in the thousands.

On the way home, we swung past Vacaville's Candy Cane Lane to admire the christmas lights that are up already. These private homes spare no expense in decorating for Christmas.

All in all, a fantastic day!

Lou and Richard continue to be the most gracious of hosts and I feel very privileged to be a guest in their house. They are also very entertaining conversationalists whose knack for asking the right questions and finding connections with the people we meet seems to open doors...such as the Greystone tour! San Fransiscoans seem very friendly and extremely patient. They are more formal in the way they address eachother (sir and mam and even boss). I am still adjusting to how serviently customer service is delivered.
Tomorrow we head to Sacramento which promises to be another great day...

Hope all is well with everyone back home! I'll upload some photos when I work out how. Something to learn tomorrow I think!
Love Jess