Playin´ at Westland

These cute little guys and gals (plus about 20 more) have been a joy for me...albeit an exhaustive joy! I´ve had the pleasure of teaching english each week to first and second graders at a small school called Westland. To be more exact, I am teaching geography in english...which is really a quite basic level of geography given the ages and english levels of the little ones. Volunteering on a regular basis has been a wonderful connection to another aspect of Costa Rican culture--each week I learn more, first hand, about the education system...as well as what it takes to maintain some minute level of classroom management! The staff and children have been so welcoming of me, and so I always look forward to Thursdays´ high dosage of hugs!

Holes Full of Rain

So, I fell in a hole—both figuratively and literally.

Figuratively, I fell into the deep abyss called ‘failure to blog.’ And for this and to you, my valued reader, I apologize. In an attempt to justify my absence from posting on Pura Vida Meg, I refer you to my prior entry (“She’s a Graduate Student”). I do, however, have good intentions to get back into a more regular blogging rhythm again!

Now for the literal portion—yes, I truly did fall into a hole. You see, here in Costa Rica, much to my dismay, there are an obscene amount of rather large holes in the pavement. Of course there are the common less-than-ideal paved roads, pocketed with minor to gigantic potholes. There are also, however, just very large holes intentionally cut out in the pavement. Now, both the potholes and these very large holes are due to the extremely high level of rainfall in Costa Rica. Potholes come about from the combination of lots and lots of hard rain and lots of immediate pressure from the transit on these roads. Large holes intentionally cut in the pavement are also related to the rainfall in that they are attempts to create drainage systems (for the purpose of avoiding the “river effect” on the roads, which, in turn eventually leads us back to the creation of potholes). To the credit of those who construct and maintain the roadways, many of the large drainage holes do have grates covering them to protect that which is not rain and/or small debris from falling into the holes. Many, however, do NOT have any sort of protection for those items (or beings) that fall under the category of non-rain and/or non-debris.

Pictured below is one such example of a large non-grate covered hole, which is conveniently located on my route to and from the bus stop.

Thus, we arrive at the point of this explanation: I FELL INTO A HOLE. Okay, so I know what you’re thinking: duh, it was inevitable, Megan. And indeed I, too, had been thinking the same from my initial weeks here in Costa Rica. How could I possibly get through this year without falling into a hole? Well, I’m proud to report that I made it approximately 5.5 months without falling into a hole. Just recently, however, my winning streak came to an abrupt halt.

So, there I was walking along, merrily chatting away with my dear friend Meghan. We were laughing and joking and having a grand ole time. Meghan was telling me a story, and was so into it, in fact, that when we stepped off the curb to cross the street, she didn’t even notice when I failed to step onto the (dare I say- expected) pavement and instead went slipping, falling, floundering into a 10-foot deep hole…gracefully, mind you. Covered in mud and gunk and splashed with day-old rainwater, I wailed for Meghan to come rescue me, and it was at that very moment when Hole In One Man came swooshing in to save me, lowering down to me his ultra-long golf club….

And this is what really happened when I fell into a hole… Meghan and I had just arrived at the Police Department, where we had the task of getting our fingerprints taken so that we can eventually be issued student visas. Meghan was asking a question about the process and I, standing nearby, slightly shifted my stance and whoooops, there went one foot, down into the rainwater drainage channel, which just so happened to be about 6 inches short of full grate coverage. Lucky for me, I only floundered a mere 9 inches or so before my foot reached solid ground again. Also lucky for me, there was a line of people waiting to get their fingerprints taken and so when I reached out for support as I fell a very nice gentleman’s arm happened to be just inches away, ready for my reach. Yes, I even managed to get a battle wound from my first fall into a hole—a minor scrape above my ankle.

Now, we return to the topic of rainfall in Costa Rica (which boasts an annual rainfall of 60-80 inches in the Central Valley where I live, but upwards of 240 inches in some parts of the country!!). The rainy season—which is also commonly known as ‘winter’ or, as dubbed by the tourism industry, the “green season”—begins in May and lasts 3 times as long as the country’s ‘dry season.’ Thus, I am now daily faced with buckets full of one of my least favorite climatical happenings. As I tell myself, though, I really must learn to appreciate all this falling water because it truly does fall EVERYday. In the beginning, it was a very easy-to-deal-with pelito de gato (translation: little cat hairs), or a very light misty (or sprinkling) rainfall. Gradually increasing in volume and duration, we now daily experience tremendous downfalls of rain. It pours, people...and they tell me with a smirk, “oh, just you wait until October!” So, apparently, I ain’t seen nothing yet…which honestly makes me slightly depressed, as I, again, don’t really enjoy rain. Of course, one learns to adapt, quickly learning to never leave home without your paraguas (translation: ´for water´=umbrella) as well as to give your pantlegs a quick rollup!

Classmate, Marco, caught in a downpour with a less-than-adequate umbrella.