RESEARCH

(Nellie is not a name understood by Costa Ricans. Banagrams = life)

Happy Thanksgiving! Today, appropriately, marks the TWO WEEK point. In fourteen days, I will be on my trek home to Portland. It’s unreal that I have been here for 81 days. My blogging has become much more infrequent. I have begun to forget that my life here is only an excerpt from reality. That my day-to-day is still abnormal, and that this will soon be nothing more than a memory… WEIRD.

(This puppy loved me. How sweet is this floor?!)

The last week I spent with my directed research group in little cabins near Carara National Park. Remember my last blog entry about Carara? It’s a beautiful wet forest with lots of biodiversity. People visit it mostly to see scarlet macaws (lapa roja). There are also peccaries (sainos), pacas (tepezcuintle), guans (pava negras), and many other types of rodents and birds.

That’s kind of a pitch for our research project. We spent the week interviewing families in surrounding neighborhoods about hunting practices in and around the park. Essentially, illegal hunting is happening and is a serious threat to the preservation of biodiversity there. (It is also really, really humid and hot in this part of the country. Hence us being ridiculously sweaty all the time, and in all the pictures in this post.)

So we went around from house to house speaking horribly broken Spanish and asking someone in the household to take a twenty-minute survey. And honestly, people did it! Not only were they willing to do it, but they greeted us with smiles, invited us to sit in their living room or on their porch. Can you imagine if someone knocked on your door speaking Spanglish, asking you incoherently to take a 20-30 minute survey about illegal happenings in your neighborhood? If not totally annoyed or uncomfortable, I would at least be unwilling. But if anything could give you an idea of what Costa Rican culture is really about, I hope this does.

There were times when people started getting visibly uncomfortable when we probed about hunting. People in these communities definitely hunt, and definitely know it’s illegal. But most of the people we surveyed were women (ama de casa, or women who work in the home because they were the ones home during the day), who don’t do the hunting themselves. It’s husbands, or sons, or neighbors they see walking up toward the mountains at night. Most people recognized that we weren’t out to get anyone, just innocent college students collecting data. There were some who gladly told us how ricisimo paca meat is and how much they love it.

I wasn’t stoked to be giving surveys for my research project. But, in turn, I got to meet forty Costa Ricans, and practice my Spanish, which I needed desperately. And it was so much less painful than I had expected, having forgotten that Costa Rica’s way of life is pura vida, and just don’t harness as much stress and hostility as most Americans. This woman welcomed us into her home and then we bought homemade coconut ice cream from her for 50 cents.

(I realize this is the least attractive picture of me ever. Being abroad takes a toll, okay?)

The schedule and accommodations were also kind of a plus. We gave surveys for about three hours each day, and then got to spend the rest of the day swimming in the pool, napping, watching movies, reading, playing soccer… And we got to go out to eat for every meal. Dinner most nights we spent in Jaco, a fun nearby beach town. One day, we spent the whole afternoon at the beach, shopping and eating and lounging. Other groups had ten hour days in the field, under the sun, doing laborious work on steep coffee farm hills. We were living pretty luxuriously, to say the least.

The group dynamics were also great. It was nice spending some time away from the center and with only 8 other people. Also, our prof Sergio is the shit. He was so chill and understanding, and hilarious. We tried to teach him how to swim once, which was just comical. We all had a really, really good, relaxing time.

Coming back here, the staff and students can already feel the tension of the last two weeks setting in on everyone. But all we have left is a ten-page paper and presentation, and a whole lot of free time. Oh, and cooking Thanksgiving dinner. And somehow, I am playing the role of head chef today! I am trying to channel my mother’s Italian cooking gene, as I prepare turkey, stuffing, gravy, casserole, potatoes, and pumpkin pie for close to 50 people. Oh my goodness, wish me luck.

And lastly, in two days, my best friend, love of my life, and daughter, Kirstin Anne Moline, turns 21! I can’t believe that this is the year that I, and everyone I know, am turning 21. Watch out world, this could get dangerous.

(Nellie showing her deep love for me.)