Greetings from "Jessica dos" (Yes here I'm known as "Jessica 2")
On Friday, my first exam of the course went much better than I anticipated (at least it felt that way, we'll see when I get the results back.) Thank you to everyone who prayed for me about the exam.
Today was the best day so far in Costa Rica. But before I tell you about it,
some of you have asked about the family that I am staying with. Let me tell you a little bit about them:
My Tico mom (Tico is short for Costa Rican. All the students here call their host mother "my Tico mom"), Dulce Maria, is a widow in her early 60s. From what I can piece together, her husband passed away about 10 years ago. She is a great homemaker and good cook. She is a quiet but emphatic woman, so even though she speaks no English, she usually manages to get her point across and also makes sure I pronounce things correctly. Each night she and I attempt to converse for 30-40 minutes while I eat dinner. She has some health issues that make it difficult for her to walk sometimes.
The daughter, Jessica, is 27 and is a classy urban Latina. She is an engineer that oversees process/product quality control for a company that does cosmetic surgery. Thankfully she is bilingual and helps translate when needed. She leaves at 6:30am and doesn't get home until 7:30pm. She is hardworking and a fun person, with a hint of the "fiery Latina." On Saturday, we went jogging together which was great.
The son, Ricardo, is 33 and the calm, peacemaker type. He works for a nearby ice company and appears to be also going back to school for another degree. He too has crazy hours, so he's rarely around but since he works close he can come home in the middle of the day if the mom needs help. For example the other day, the mom was going to walk to the bank, so I went with her. By the time we got to the bank and she finished her transaction, she was exhausted so Ricardo came and picked us up.
Today the family took me with them to visit their relatives in a town up in the mountains. It was truly a wonderful and amazing day. Beautiful drive up in the mountains. Good thing we were in Ricardo's truck as at one point the road became a dirt path and we had to ford a stream :-)
One of the towns we passed through was having its annual "Blessing of the Horses." Basically traffic shut down for 30 minutes as farmers and ranchers paraded on their horses down the main street, while the priest splashed them with water. Jessica and I got out of the car and walked down to watch this interesting cultural experience. (Good thing, because afterwards the priest generously splashed all the cars going by too, so we enjoyed a moment of humor at the expense of Ricardo, his girlfriend, and my Tico mom :-)
My Tico mom is from a family of 14 children. We went way up into the mountains to a town called Acosta where we visited the homes of 3 of her siblings. The mountains are beautiful with many trees, flowers, birds, and streams. Hopefully I can post pictures at a later date. The extended family was so gracious and I enjoyed listening to the conversations, trying to understand, and even occasionally engaging in the conversation. For some reason it is easier for me to understand a conversation in Spanish if a few people are involved, probably because I can watch all the faces and get many more visual clues.
Family is very important in Latin American culture. It is also part of what defines your identity. Wherever I go the first question I get asked is "Are you married?" and other questions about my family connections. Because my answer to that first question is "no," it is inevitably followed by "Do you have a boyfriend?" When I explain no, there is instant concern because I am apparently alone in the world and then the fun begins (Think Jane Austin books on steroids with a South-of-the-Border flare). To be in Latin American and not have a spouse or boyfriend means you are fair game for your Latino friends to have the happy task of coming up with someone they know that they could connect you to, or to at least spend lots of time talking about how people come to Latin American and often find a spouse.
All the relatives had a great deal of fun with my single status today. In fact, I received my first "proposal" ;-). My host family's 80 year-old uncle offered he could be my boyfriend!!! It was hilarious.
Joking aside, I got to meet many warm-hearted people who welcomed me as one of their own. Sometimes they even forgot I was from the United States. Driving home we got to see the lights of the capital city as we came back down the mountain.