Frijoles, grass cutting, walking sticks and PUPPIES!!

Today, my last Sunday in Monteverde I woke up at a decent hour (aka, not sleeping until 1:00) and was able to do several things that, if I were in Oregon, might seem mundane, but here it was fun!

When you have a traditional Costa Rican meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) there will be rice and beans on your plate, no doubt about it. My host mom cooks bean about twice a week which can be quite a process. First: you buy the bag of beans. Next you pour out all the beans onto a table and go though them to remove all the bad beans and rocks. Then you rinse the beans, then put them into a pressure cooker with water (about 5 fingers above the level of the beans) plus garlic, cilantro and a little bit of onion. Put lid on cooker, cook about 45 min, or more. Serve with just about everything!

While my host family and I were just chatting, but host brother pulled out the machete and a stick and went to cut the grass. Here lawn mowers are very rare and in most cases people just use a weed whacker (takes longer but gets closer to the ground). However when you work for a living and don’t own a tour company or hotel, a machete and a stick are what you get. Andres suggested that I try…of course Marlenne wanted to see me try too. Oye. They make it look easy, but believe me it isn’t. You’re bent over, cutting with the machete with one hand, the other hand sweeps the cut grass away with the stick. Makes my back hurt just thinking about it.

As I was sitting on my bed with my windows open, I looked to the plant that is right outside my window and saw bright green walking sticks! I have been here for 5 months, and so have the walking sticks most likely, and I only just noticed them. There was one big one and at least three small ones. Reminded me of the time my brother had walking sticks as pets. They reproduced and we ended up with baby walking sticks in the strangest places for a while.

Now the most exciting events of the day! The little dog that lives at my house, Winnie, had gotten very fat. I didn’t think anything of it until my host sister mentioned that she is probably pregnant. Then, thinking back to when she was in heat and her strange behavior over the past few weeks I realized she was right. I didn’t think she would have the puppies before I left though. Today her behavior was even stranger: sleeping all day, barking (much more than usual) at passing dogs or people, and having to go out to the bathroom a million times. Then at about 6:15 pm Marlenne calls me. “Venga, venga!” (come here, come here!). Winnie was having her puppies! Soon my host sister and her friend here running though the door! About an hour later there were three puppies. Winnie is a white French poodle inspired dog. One is all black, one is black with white feet and one that is probably brown with white feet. An hour later Marlenne called “Vea! Venga, venga. Otro perrito!” (Come look! Come here, come here! Another puppy!). Sure enough, another puppy. It is black with white feet and a little brown, I think. Long night for a dog. I had guessed four, but I have no idea if she can fall asleep now or if things will pick up again but four puppies seems about right for how big she was.

Pretty good day for a Sunday, especially when I didn’t even leave the house.

fyi: no more puppies as of Monday morning.

Hugs!
K