Rainy Days

The last few days here in La Fortuna have been the rainy days I’ve experienced, and the usually ever present sun has been only a mere visitor. It seems that the weather wanted to give me a sneak peak of what it is like in the summer during the rainy season, and let me tell you, there is a lot of rain. Nonetheless, the past few days have been nice, they just have included a bit more time indoors than I usually like.

Sunday, the morning was very rainy. I slept in all the way to 7am thanks to the cool air and pit-patter of the rain that made for perfect sleeping. I then got ready and headed to the station and had breakfast and spent more of the morning in the office using the internet to skype and read on the internet. That afternoon it cleared up, and my host parents and I went to the festival along with Evi’s 6-year-old daughter Jimena and we watched her play on the scary-carnival rides. As Evi watched her I chatted with Andres. He told me how he was one of 6 brothers and sisters and his dad owned a bull that they would take to festivals almost every Sunday for the “running-of-the-bull” type event that is included in most festivals where a bunch of men get in a ring with a bull chasing them around. I have been watching at the station with the police recently as this is the season for festivals. They all laugh while I shake my head in disbelieve. After Jimena returned to her grandmothers, we headed back to the festival to listen to the live music. I enjoyed a lot of it- the first a woman covering Selena songs, of which I could actually sing along to thanks to my obsession with the J-Lo movie, and a couple other Latin-traditional bands, included a group from Mexico. My host mom danced with a really good dancer who also grabbed me at one point to dance; however, he quickly realized I had no idea what I was doing, and I went back to a small swaying on my own. That night, I went back to the station as I was invited to watch a movie with the whole group. A missionary brought a projector and good sound system to show the film Courageous a Christian based film about police officers set in Albany, GA. It was funny to watch the movie with Spanish voice over’s for characters that were supposed to be good-ol’ Southern boys and other street-talking black characters. It was fun watching with the officers and also watching it with English sub-titles for them to practice. I also found it interesting how often the translation did not exactly match up.  At one point it started to rain so hard that the awning above us wasn’t enough to keep us from getting wet and forcing us to move the projector screen. Luckily, by the time I walked home the rain had let up.

Monday was yet another day of lots of rain. When the dark clouds roll in, I find that a part of me gets a little paranoid that the storms might get really serious and produce a tornado, although I know that they do not happen here. I guess that’s what something like the May 22 tornado and Joplin will do to you though. Monday morning there was also a lot of buzz around the station as there was a murder in La Fortuna, and much like back in small towns in Missouri, this was definitely huge news. The murder was of self-defensive, and involved an American who killed a man who was known for being on drugs, stealing, and had a rather large record. I went to the gym later that morning, grateful that I the event occurred when it did as it occurred around a place that is on my walk to the gym. During the afternoon I did one of my favorite things and headed to the park to read. Unfortunately, it started to rain, so I took cover under a chocolate store awning that has some nice chairs. While reading, my friend Sanne happened to walk by, so we chatted for a while. She also told me about a neat jewelry/art store that a friend of hers worked in nearby where we were, so after reading a bit more, I made a visit to this store. She was right- the little cute store had a bunch of beautiful handmade jewelry and pottery and an area where you could watch the artists make it. I chatted with Sanne’s friend as well who is actually from Sweden and working at her uncle’s store for a few months. I spotted a few items that I will be going back for before I leave. Walking back, I ran into a guy from New York from the Social Club, and chatted with him for a bit. I really like the fact that I am starting to see familiar faces when I go out, and realize that I now recognize some faces of people that live nearby my apartment, or work at one of the grocery stores, or who I have seen on a bus. I also stopped by Sanne’s office of the tourist group she is doing her internship with that offers tours to Nicaragua and visited more with her. It is so nice to have another good friend here who I can even talk local gossip with.

I’m also starting to get used to the fact that I am going to have discussions with these officers that I would never expect. Monday night during class, one of the officers that is my Dad’s age asked me what the English word is for testicles, as he was having a problem with one of them. Although he had a perfectly legitimate question and I was glad I could answer him, I still had to think, it’s not every day I tell an adult man the name for his testicles. My old favorite Victor, whom I’ve learned the term in Spanish for is “old-green man” referring to an old man that hits on young girls, has been keeping up his marriage offers and mean jokes about my boyfriend. He even gave me a kiss on the forehead while skyping with Austin to give me trouble. It’s such a hoot to get him going and give him some of his own medicine. The other morning he decided to give me a big hug, and I was surprised at how nice it felt, as I realized I really haven’t received a good hug in the past 6 weeks.

Tuesday was by far the rainiest day, so much in fact, that I finally took some time when taking a break from fun reading to study some Spanish and go over some verb conjugations I had been meaning to go over for a while. I also finally took the time to figure out how to use the old printer in the station office to print the long list of irregular verbs in English and a quick study sheet I made up for the officers. The printer is the type that makes a printing noise you can hear 100 yards away, and that has the strips with small holes in the sides that I used to have fun folding together when we had one like it in the late 90’s. It took me a couple tries and quite a few sheets of wasted paper, but I eventually got them all printed. I also used some of the carbon-copy paper that is used here to make the printing go by faster, which meant I had blackish finger print smudges from the carbon on several of the copies. After getting these printed, I went back home to read more of The Help, while attempting to ignore the shouts and screams of Jimena and her little school friend also named Jimena in the other room as well as their trips into my room to grab another toy or doll. At lunch, I had an experience I have yet to have at the police station, which considering it is a police station is somewhat surprising. The police had captured two men who were caught robbing tourists. The men were hand cuffed to the bars outside one of the windows right in the area where the tables are where we eat. It was pretty uncomfortable sitting there eating lunch while these men were being interrogated. I was surprised at how rough the men were with the older of the two thieves, and even watched the boss slap this man in the face. I felt bad for the other captured thieve who was a young boy, not much older than 15 years old I’m sure. They separated the two, taking the older man inside, and the boy was crying and claiming he did nothing while they asked him more questions. Usually I stick around after lunch and chat for a while, but today, I was ready to get out of the uncomfortable atmosphere. The afternoon was full of more rain, so I read some more, and when there was finally a break, escaped to the gym to bike. Because the gym is a slightly open building you could see evidence of all the rain on the floor and on some of the bikes, and when the rain came in strong, I got a few refreshing whiffs of fresh rain on my bike. On the way back home from the gym, I got caught in yet more rain, so my cold shower felt extra cold.

The other volunteer that is coming to Fortuna to work on this project has still not arrived. He had contacted me to let me know he made it to San Jose on Friday and was going to stay there and visit around that area a few more days. I’m slightly surprised he has yet to make it here, and hope he is enjoying his time. Until then, I’m hoping to try some new things with the officers after getting some good suggestions from a ESL teacher that works with Geovisions. I’m also getting very excited for my family to arrive as I see more and more large groups of students on Spring Break visiting Fortuna. It is almost impossible to miss the large groups and the bright orange “EF” tour bags, of which I am familiar with from my trip with the educational tour company back in high school. One of the officers told me there was a group of 100 students the other day- I feel sorry for those sponsor teachers. Hopefully the rain will let up in the next week so our outdoor getaways are a little less soggy!