I just made perfect whole wheat pita’s. What fun! They cook up in less than 6 minutes and taste fantastic. I will give the recipe’s owner his due credit, Saad Fayed, this is a wonderful recipe. Here is the link for all of you who want to try, do it, you will be amazed. http://mideastfood.about.com/od/breadsrice/r/wholewheatpita.htm?p=1 I love Middle Eastern food and Pita’s have so many uses. We will have these for dinner this evening with pickled onions and kalabasa sausage with greens.

I love to cook, and out here in the middle of nowhere, it is nice to have those things that make you smile. Like, organic whole wheat pita fresh from your oven with something wonderful tucked inside. They remind me of my young hippie days at rock concerts. Now we are just old hippies, living off the grid because we want to get away from noise, the rat race (rats never win), and do something meaningful in our lives.

Today my husband Felipe and his men are mining sand out of the river. There is none to be bought, so they strung up a cable, like a zip line and they fill buckets with sand and zip back across the river right into the back of our big truck. One Home Depot bucket at a time, my walls will soon have enough sand to be plastered. Yes!!!

Here is Helen Thompson's latest article about the Cabecar. http://backpackingcostarica.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/hiking-out-to-the-hidden-cabecar-people/ Most people just don't understand the plight of these people. 2 dentists, 30,000 people, it is a rough skin to have been born into. So much need, so little caring, and no resources.

The Voz Que Clama Mission is expanding, they will be able to house 17 disabled Indigenous residents and provide more services (kind words, direction, intervention and lots of prayer) to those Indigenous who come for help. The bare bones price due to the rising construction materials cost and the need to meet the disabled person's law is $250,000.00 US. More money than any Costa Rican in Tuis will ever see in their lifetime. So we are looking to raise money. Today's meeting was excellent, we will have Bingo, raffles, BBQ's, lots of fun community stuff, and they will try their best, but they have nothing. The people have pledged to give $50.00 per family, per year for 6 years. I am not sure how many family's that will be, it is just a little Mission of very poor people and the Indigenous don't have a colone to their name. But they are going on faith, that the Lord will see how hard they are trying and like the fish and the bread, he will provide because he knows how big the need is.

Please pray for the Voz Que Clama Mission in Tuis. Today they made their thermometer and marked it at $38,000.00. The Mission has saved up that much money since 2002, a miracle in itself. Hector the Director of the Mission, squirrels away every dime and neither Hector nor Daniel have ever taken a paycheck.

Today is the 6th of the month and already there is no milk for the coffee that I brought for the meeting. Nothing is more important than providing services to the people. I drank my coffee black, the voice had told me to bring milk and I did not listen, I said it is the 6th of the month, surly they will have milk. I know I should always listen to the voice, when will I learn that lesson?

Life is such a challenge for so many here. I feel blessed to learn of their needs, to listen to their hearts and to at least be able to share their plight with others while we pray for a miracle.

Here is a link to the latest published article I have written along with photos. You can view the photos and original story by clicking: http://www.welovecostarica.com/public/1689.cfm


Costa Rica's Cabecar Indigenous
by Ginnee Hancock

The Cabecar indigenous group are Costa Rica's most primitive Native Americans. They have been pushed so far up the Chirripo mountains in remote Southern Costa Rica that their continued existence and quality of life is in trouble.

My friend Rebeca arrived for a visit and we road to my farm on my quad, the Rhino. It was another beautiful day in very rural Southern Costa Rica. You feel so alive waking up to the sounds of the rivers, birds and with a view of Volcan Turrialba in the distance to our North. We blasted down the road to the bottom of the mountain, through sugar cane fields in the valley and coffee on the slopes that lead up to Esperanza and our farm.

We then climbed high up on the winding road that follows the meandering, volatile, whitewater Rio Atirro. As we drove towards Esperanza, I spotted a local Tico named Juan walking on the trail and knew him from a far distance by his very fast deliberate walk. I offered him a ride to the pueblo and he jumped in the back.

"You and I could not live their life as they live it, in survival mode." Help us to help them ...

We dropped him off at his house as it was on our way, continuing on slowly, exploring our way into and through Finca Quijote. We came across our first Cabecar Indigenous family of the day, with their children, walking down the mountain from their reservation village on the path that comes through my farm.

We slowed, said Hola, gave a nod, a wave and moved on. We continued on our journey, spotting beautiful birds, our cows and horses, enjoying all that nature has to offer. We crossed the Rio Oro on the quad and came upon our second group of Cabecar, a young mother, a 10 year old girl and a little baby who were traversing our farm. They, like all of the Indigenous, stepped aside, off the road, well out of our way.

We reached the end of my property, turned around and started back. When we reached the Rio Oro, the indigenous woman and her daughter had already crossed over and were putting their rubber boots back on. The baby was in a scarf tied to her mother and they were carrying a small pink satchel. Rebeca took a photo that captured the moment, and then we crossed over picking our way around the rocks, avoiding the deepest holes so that we did not drown our Rhino's engine.

Rebeca asked them in Spanish if they wanted a ride and they said yes. Rebeca got into the back of the Rhino with the young girl while the Mother and baby sat in the front with me. The baby had a bad cold; her little nose was crusty with dried mucus, her mother worked delicately to clear her nose. For a one year old child, she was very undernourished, tiny; she could not yet walk, and did not have the bodily control that she should have had for her age. The baby looked to be 4-6 months of age, not one year old. Rebeca continued to engage them in conversation. They spoke some Spanish, not good Spanish, but she was able to communicate.

The Cabecar speak their own native language as do most Costa Rican indigenous groups. They were from Pacuare and had been walking for 7 hours. They would have crossed many rivers during this trip, some very deep. The baby never took its eyes off of me. Her mom cuddled her to keep her warm as the breeze was cool on our mountain. I drove slowly so as not to alarm them and also because I was unclear about where they were going. Esperanza the Mother had said, but I could not imagine that would be her destination, and it was not.

Farther down the mountain she said, abajo, indicating where she wanted to go with hand signals, and we continued down the mountain as it was the path towards our home anyway. I had been planning to spend more time at the farm, but as this opportunity to engage our passengers was more than I could have hoped for, we seized the moment. Had there been a man with the woman and children, she would never have talked to us, not one word.

Rebeca, a Cuban - American who is a tropical biologist and a neuropsychological researcher, had previously lived in Costa Rica for about 10 years. She worked here for the Christian Children's Fund and has a wide range of knowledge regarding the rural poor and indigenous, their problems and needs. She was observing the 10 year old girl in the back with her, as I carefully drove so as not to launch us off the narrow mountain trail.

They were not wearing seat belts, I did not suggest it because I didn't want the Mother to feel trapped and the position of the baby would have been in the way. Most Indigenous have never ridden in a car, and the Rhino is an open air quad that is much like a dune buggy, but looks like a big green alien bug.

The young girl was neatly dressed although her legs and clothing were now very dirty from the 7 hour walk through the jungle and forest following the goat like animal trails that you or I may not even recognize as a trial or path. We could see head lice and nits in her well groomed, neat, shiny straight black hair. She wore several handmade necklaces with beads and small seashells. We asked permission to take another photo and the girl said no.

Another beautiful Indigenous child, she was probably the oldest child of this 24 year old very slender mother. If we do the math, the mother would have given birth at age 14, and been pregnant at age 13, so I am assuming this was her oldest child. We would also be safe to assume that there were other children, I know of Indigenous mothers with 6 or 7 children by the time they are 24 or 25 years of age. The oldest child was probably brought along to help care for the baby and to carry what they would take back to the reservation. I will guess that may include rice, beans, and I hoped medicine for the baby.

As I glanced at the baby, whose eyes were riveted to me (they may have never seen a blond haired white woman before), I noticed her mother's now dirty skirt. She had hemmed part of it by hand using a running stitch; the thread was a different color, not consistent with the other hem thread in any way. It reminded me that we should put together sewing kits for Christmas gifts to give to Indigenous women.

If we were able to get spools of colored thread, needles, small scissors, small embroidery hoops, some brightly colored embroidery thread donated, and secured them in a zip-lock bag to keep them dry, it would make a beautiful, useful gift. This gift would be a cherished, prized possession of these beautiful, proud, and extremely poor women. They would never ask you for a handout, money or a crumb for their hungry children, lifetimes of discrimination and repression have taught them what their place is expected to be.

I am sometimes asked if the Indigenous are lazy. People often equate poor with lazy. No, they are not lazy. You and I could not live their life as they live it, in survival mode. We are not prepared to suffer survival as they do every day of their life from birth to death. They are very malnourished, have parasites and intestinal worms. Their diet often consists of nothing other than tubers, a root of some sort such as yucca. Starch, just starch, and for that morning, if they ate at all it may have been a piece of leftover tuber from the day before, shared between them. It is all they have.

They have been walking for 7 hours, under the most difficult conditions, rugged terrain, and they started out hungry. I looked at my watch as we drove along, it was going on 1PM which meant they left their village about the time the sun was coming up. They had no water bottle as it would have been more weight to carry. When thirsty they drank from the steams along the way, a source of parasites and bacteria.

As we continued our descent from the farm, Rebeca spotted a beautiful falcon on a branch hanging over the road. I stopped and as we watched him, his hooded head turned and he watched us. The Indigenous woman threw her head back and laughed aloud at our pleasure of seeing this magnificent bird. We looked at him in wonderment; she has seen them all of her life, we were her wonderment today.

The end of our journey with them was at the bottom of the mountain where they would go in a different direction heading towards Oriente, but for destinations unknown to us. We probably saved them more than an hour of walking on the both dusty and muddy unpaved mountain trail.
At that moment I wished I had food to ease their hunger, or a small amount of money to give them so that they could buy food when they came to a town, but we had none. Mil colones, a bit more than $2.00 would satisfy the three of them at a local soda (restaurant). It would have only purchased one nutritious meal, but that would have been more than they had eaten in days.

The Cabecar Indigenous of rural Costa Rica have a hard life to just survive in the cold Chirripo Mountains on their reservation. They have been pushed high up into the mountains that originally had no value to the Spanish or white man. Access is limited, the terrain vertical, with no realized riches to exploit, the Indigenous somehow marginally survive there.

It is only in recent years that they were issued a Cedula (like a social security card). Prior to this, the real natives of Costa Rica were considered foreigners, although they have lived on this land for generations more than any Hispanic. They had no rights; no vote, no education, no medical benefits.

These precious people need your help to get them to a point of sustainability on their reservation land, which is owned by the Costa Rican government, not the indigenous groups.
Our best opportunity to provide training and a helping hand is by working with the Voz Que Clama Mission. Climbing to the reservation since August 2002, risking their lives, carrying building supplies and food on their backs, Hector Soto and Montoya Salas, directors of the Mission have earned the trust of the Chiefs and people of the village. They have also learned some of the very difficult Cabecar language. Your tax deductible monetary gift to the Mission will go 100% towards helping the Cabecar.

The Mission works with the tribal Chiefs and the people in the villages directly, assessing the need today and planning for a better tomorrow. We can not meet their needs today; we do what we can, looking for sustainable solutions that will help them to meet their nutritional and life skills needs. Today these beautiful brown, high cheek boned children need food, protein, powder milk, rubber boots, warm clothing, blankets, school supplies, usable education and hope for their future. They need you; you're the best foreign aid that will ever come into their lives.
The Voz Que Clama Mission, a 501c3 US tax deductible charity, does not make a profit. Daniel and Hector, both Costa Ricans and Directors of the Mission, have never taken a salary. They are volunteers, committed to helping the Cabecar.

They also operate a wonderful Spanish language school CISA Costa Rica. If you have a chance, come and learn some Spanish in very rural Tuis de Turrialba. Classes are small, no more than 1-3 students per teacher, which allows for intensive training. Students have the opportunity to interact with both the Indigenous and the local people of Tuis. Homestays in the pueblo of Tuis help to provide income for the local people as well as a multicultural experience for the students. You may even have a chance to hike to the reservation if you are tough enough.
This has been a very bad year for the Cabecar, they are hungry and cold. If you are visiting Costa Rica, please help us to help them, bring a suitcase of donations for the Cabecar and the rural poor Costa Rican children. We thank you for your help and support. For more information or to donate please contact: ginnee@racsa.co.cr


The Following Items Are On The Mission's Everyday Wish List:

Used lap top computers in good working order, chalk, pencils, colored pencils, scissors, pens, crayons, art paper, art supplies, craft paper, book bags, finger paints, powder craft paint, face paint. Sweat shirts from the thrift store on 1/2 price day, sizes small and medium and children sizes These are small frame people and it is cold in the mountains.

Good practical clothing, jeans, t-shirts, (small and medium sizes and children's sizes), rain gear, umbrellas, rain coats, rain jackets, Baby clothes, Cloth diapers for babies, gathered skirts for girls and woman (they like skirts), sneakers, children's sneakers, all sizes for children, good quality thick new socks, drum sticks ($2.00 a pair on the internet) drumming teaches counting and develops the brain, anything educational, flash cards, simple Spanish / English dictionaries, blow up beach ball globes of the world (many have never seen the world round, only flat), adult cloth diapers and plastic mattress covers.

Much Needed Cash Donations Can Be Sent To:
Voz Que Clama Mission

990 Sunset Drive

Healdsburg, California 95448

USA

Written by Ginnee Hancock who lives with her husband Phil on their sustainable rainforest farm in Esperanza de Turrialba. They are thankful for how the Mission located in the neighboring town of Tuis, continues to transform the lives of the people of Tuis and the Cabecar through education, understanding, love, opportunity and always with dignity.

It came to me this morning as I was looking at my yellow bedroom walls, that you should not smash bugs with the bottom of your shoe on the walls. The bugs are dead and gone but the shoe prints remain. I was trying to be organic. It is hard to believe when looking down, that my feet are as big as that print on the wall.

On December 21st, the Voz Que Clama Mission http://www.vqcmission.com held their Cabecar Indigenous Christmas Party in the Chirripo mountain town of Quetzal, Costa Rica. I had never made the difficult drive to the Chirripo Mountains before. The almost 3 hour drive from Tuis on the rugged volcanic tortured terrain was steep and remote, it appeared barely populated except for large patches of deforestation.

We were blessed to have 12 house guests who were able to attend with us. The boys helped Phil pack our big flatbed truck with donations of clothing and Christmas gifts for the children and they left our house at 6am to go to the Mission in Tuis de Turrialba and continue to load our truck with all of the donated items. It was a beautiful sunny, hot day for the event.

Two students from EARTH University joined us and they brought a van load of donations from the students. How wonderful that so many participated.

My guests helped peel onions and chop veggies while I prepared the rice and beans for our contribution to the feast, the largest pot of vegetarian Spanish Rice I had ever made. It was a joint effort starting at 5:30am to make a warm and nutritious meal hoping it would still be warm by the time it was served. In the end not a spec of food was left over, and the very hungry Indigenous did not notice that their food was no longer hot and the soda was warm. When it was time to eat the Chief blew his whistle and the children lined up first in one very long, quiet, straight line with no pushing. Amazing!

The vehicles leaving the Mission were burdened with gifts, people and food. A local cattle truck was packed with volunteers from the Mission’s town of Tuis. Others drove their vehicles packed with people and food, a Hyundai Gallopher pulled a trailer loaded with sacks of surprises as we traveled in caravan style to Quetzal. The volume of people, vehicles, their overloaded capacity, and the high energy was a sight to behold. Piled atop our big truck I noticed the wheelchairs that belonged to the handicapped residents of the Mission, no one was left behind. It was a glorious event for all to enjoy. The journey was difficult, steep, vertical, and the suspension bridges were swaying over their very long span. One vehicle at a time, each vehicle allowed the previous to reach the other side before the next vehicle progressed very slowly onto the rickety well worn boards. We crossed water with no bridge and picked our way around and over water covered boulders and very deep spots.

The little children from the reservation were so beautiful. They came dressed in their finest clothing, so dirty from the long journey that my friend Rande commented as we looked at an adorable little girl, that she wanted to take her home and…..….wash her. It was easy to tell which Indigenous came from the surrounding area and who came from high up on the reservation by how clean they were. Their muddy rubber boots told the story.

Santa also attended to the delight of the children and he brought special gifts with him, toys, dolls, trucks, and gifts of warmth. There were two large Santa piñatas filled with candy and the children took turns hitting them until they released their sweet treats.

We learned that our taste in clothing and theirs is very different in some instances. We had lots of good laughter as we watch an Indigenous man so proud in his woman’s tunic top. It was flashy and he loved it. There was something for everyone.

We had far more people than we planned on. I think that no one could have done a better job of handling, so many than Daniel, Hector and staff as they worked with the Chief of the Tribe. They saw to it that everyone got something and had a good time. Building relationships within the Indigenous tribes is most important. It takes so many years, you don’t want anyone to feel hurt or left out. I think that having the items of used clothing made a big difference. They need clothing and items of warmth, but they were not greedy. In fact it was as if they were afraid to pick out or touch the clothing, and yet we know they have little or none. We had to encourage them to take items. Not that they understood a word that we were saying. Remember, most do not speak Spanish, they speak Cabecar.

I have started to plan for next year’s event already. You can participate from wherever you are. We always need gifts of clothing, and all of the other items that are on the Wish List. When you come to visit, please bring us a suitcase filled with donations. Your friends and co-workers will gladly clean out their closets and give you the donations. Your local school will help with school supplies. Children love to help other needy children and you would have a hard time to find children more needy, with no resources, no other possibilities other than you. If you would like to send a tax-deductible check, you can mail it to our US address and we will provide for their needs as necessary.

Voz Que Clama Mission
990 Sunset Drive
Healdsburg,
California 95448

It is very different in the US. Somebody always cares, there are agencies, churches, food pantries, food stamps, assistance, clothing banks…, here, there is nothing and for the most part, no one cares. Do you think I am wrong? Read this report, http://saiic.nativeweb.org/ayn/crilo.html we should be informed as to the reality of our Indigenous. The Cabecar are one of the many tribes of the Americas. They routinely traversed from South America to Canada and back many years ago before there were borders.

All people deserve an opportunity to live in dignity, it has not served this world well, to ignore any particular group of people. We are all humans struggling to survive. Some are struggling far more than others just to see another sunrise. There, but for the grace of God, go I. We thank you for your kindness and generosity and look forward to hearing from you.

Cabecar Indigenous children playing a game at the party for them.

Helen Thompson an English reporter from AM Costa Rica joined us for several days and wrote about our Indigenous Christmas Party for the Children. You can see her story and photos here http://www.amcostarica.com/morenews2.htm

Sally O'Boyle and her sons, Americans now living in Escazu, Costa Rica also joined us and wrote a wonderful touching story with many photos. www.abroadincostarica.com

I was asked who the mission served, the following is an overview as I see their service:

Mostly they serve the Cabecar Indigenous, but they serve so many more.

The Mission's service to the Cabecar Indigenous gives employment to locals, the caretakers of the patients, teachers for the language school that helps support the Mission's projects.

The women who cook the meals, care for the patients, clean and wash now have employment.

A vehicle driver now has employment driving the handicapped residents to school, shopping and medical appointments..

The Mission brings the Spanish Language students that need paid homestays and meals. http://www.cisacostarica.com/

The visiting students bring donations for the Indigenous, and spend money in Tuis providing the trickle down theory of employment.

The students return to their native countries sharing their experiences and all that they learned by participating in our very rural Costa Rican lives.



Perhaps the town of Tuis has been blessed the most through their changed perceptions of the Indigenous. At first reserved, and unsure if a Mission was what they wanted in their town, they have come to be supportive and protective of the Mission and their work http://www.vqcmission.com/ Many locals volunteer to help the patients, carry supplies to the reservation, and they come to Sunday afternoon service.

The original concept was to be a church. Because Costa Rica is primarily Catholic, people would not come to the non-denominational church because they said "we have a church and you can only have one church." Daniel and Hector made the mental adjustment to become a Mission; the people said, "a Mission is good, a mission helps people, we don't have a Mission, we can come." And so a Mission it was. In the early days people came to the simple small house owned by the Mission and at 4pm on Sundays, service was held. Why 4pm? Our rural neighbors are agricultural based, they have cows to feed and milk, farm chores that must take place every morning, farming is a 7 day a week job. The house that is now the Language School and administration center of the Mission, was the first place of worship. Soon they could no longer fit in the little house and the need for a larger facility was needed. At this time service is held outdoors, under cover, surrounded by cows and horses who seem to enjoy the inspirational music that flows from Hectors keyboard and vocals, and the driving beat of Daniels drums. Both of the Mission's directors are also extremely talented professional musicians.

Working with little money they put on the most professional service. I reflect to my diverse religious background of having been raised Catholic and in later years attending various churches who served my needs. We had the songs sung projected onto a screen that dropped down from the costly ceiling. The Mission has a sheet hung from a chainlink fence, a young man of perhaps 10 years of age is in charge of the projector on a folding table and pushing the buttons on a laptop that operates the PowerPoint presentation taking us to the next page or the next tune. He is silent, wise beyond his years, serious and professional with his demeanor and operational skills. His small body stands 10 foot tall with the responsibility that is in his hands. The on looking cows are equally impressed as they move closer and closer, I think they are grooving on the tunes. The Indigenous as well as Costa Rican neighbors pour in. Some walk the long and winding road from La Suiza that follows the Rio Tuis to attend what becomes the highlight of their week. It is dark when they make the return trip on the dangerous dark winding road. As we drive home on the obstacle course of people and free ranging cows who have escaped and an occasional horse with and or without a rider, it always comes to me that it is a wonder there are not more roads deaths. No one has a flashlight or reflector, ever. It never seems to occur to them to move out of the way.

The women of Tuis will make their locally unique food for the Indigenous Christmas party. It will be made with love from their hearts because they have come to appreciate the Indigenous, their plight, and the richness that the Mission, Daniel, Hector and all of the volunteers have brought to their lives. They will never be the same again.


Ginnee y Felipe HancockFinca Quijote de Esperanza, SACosta Ricahttp://www.costaricamountain.blogspot.com/

I was sitting in my favorite chair at 2:05pm today when an earthquake rolled through the house. A smaller quake rolled through last week, or perhaps I was in the right place today to feel the maximum swell. Phil was in the kitchen preparing our coffee and heard the roof creak, but did not feel the roll. It is like a wave softly rolling through the house. It came up the hill through the front yard, from North to South, and into the living room. I shouted out to Phil that we just had an earthquake. The parrots did not quit screeching, not even for a moment. What’s a little more sway if you’re a bird?

The blog has had no new additions as of late, not because nothing is happening but because I did not want to give a Dear Diary, blow by blow description of the ongoing events in our lives. I have written possible entries but I did not like what they said or where my head was. Sometimes I need a mental adjustment and the frisbees of life were flying faster than I was able to comfortably process them.

My husband Felipe is still recovering from his accident about 3 months ago. He may be unplugged from his wound vac today at the hospital, lets hope.. The vacuum is no longer sucking up vast amounts of fluid, only a very small dribble at this point.

What treatment has worked? I am sure the tree bark tea (try saying that fast 3 times) prescribed by the BriBri medicine man has helped, because within a few days the lymphatic fluid slowed down and is now almost finished. Felipe started hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy last week and continues that treatment through this week. It is making him smarter while repairing cells. They say it increases your IQ by 50%. His skin on that leg is still abnormally hard to the touch. I would say he still has edema from the knee down. He wears a compressions sock and that will continue. I do not know why the skin remains hard, nor how to cure this problem. Will time make a difference? I need to get more tree bark and continue with the tea as it was the factor that changed our course. Felipe is scheduled to see the medicine man again on the 3rd I believe. What will be prescribed next?

I did try dry brush lymphatic massage on my husband (the instructions of which I downloaded off the internet) perhaps that helped, he said it felt good and was enjoyable. I wrote to some friends that between the dry brush lymphatic massage, the tree bark tea, medicine man, hyperbaric oxygen chamber and wound vac machine, the only thing missing was a cloud of medicinal marijuana smoke and chanting monks. We are still open to suggestions and cures for the final act of this play.

We took the bus to San Jose yesterday for another visit with Phil’s surgeon. He is slowly mending and it does look better, but it is going to be sometime before we see normal.

The directo bus is the best way to go to and from San Jose and it is less than $2.00 a ticket. With gas prices at $1.00 a liter, this is a bargain. This particular bus (they run every hour on the hour) had pleasant, soothing, easy listening jazz music. Sufficient for keeping the driver awake and yet calm the passengers. I choose not to drive this route as it is a white knuckle trip most of the time and I see nothing except the road because I am trying not fall off of it. Being elevated on the bus gives you a different view over the barriers of obstruction that car passengers see because they are so much lower. If the bus fell off the road there are places where we would fall for what looks like thousands of feet before we became an unidentifiable heap as a result of our abrupt halt. The cows would not even slow us down. How do they adhere to the sides of such verticalness? Sometimes they don’t.

64 degrees at 7:30am is the perfect temperature to wake up to. Beautiful blue sky and crisp sheets to lay on, it does not get any better than this.

Last night it rained hard, extended hours of serious white-out condition downpours with thunder and lightning. The hardest lengthy rain we have had so far this season. I can still at this moment hear the stream raging as the waters from the mountains flow down through the forest.

An early appointment today brought me to the farm for a closer inspection of our rivers. Tiny meandering streams were swollen from the abundant rain. The boxes of rocks we built for one problem stream are holding strong and fully performing to expectations. We could not ask for more. Today they were covered with large rocks that were not there just 3 days ago. Trees have fallen; some have been swept down river. Everyday the view changes, the river giveth and the river taketh away. You never know what awaits you and perhaps that is the excitement of being truly alive in rural Costa Rica.

Maria is down at our river looking for magical medicinal therapy rocks for use in massage. She found a suitcase full.

One of our cows fell down during a landslide and broke her leg last week so after checking with the vet who had just visited the herd on the previous day, she was butchered at the farm for meat. We gave all of the meat away to workers, neighbors and then took a cooler full to the Mission. It was perfect timing as there had been a large number of Indigenous staying with them and food was in short supply because they had exceeded their food budget for the month. Meat is expensive for Costa Ricans and they buy very little. Daniel and some men from the Mission took the whole giant sections and legs to the local butcher and he cut them into manageable pieces that could be packaged and frozen for future meals.

Maria, a Russian American woman who is a licensed massage therapist in Florida and learned the art originally from her Mother in Russia, visited the Voz Que Clama Mission with me on this day. We met with some of the patients who reside at the mission and Maria worked with several of them while chatting and receiving big smiles. Maria speaks Spanish, Russian and English, but these Indigenous speak no Spanish or very little; yet the big smiles tell you all that you need to know.

One young man has Cerebral Palsy and shares a room with his Mother at the Mission. He was placed on a tin roof and left to die by his tribe because they believed he had a bad spirit, both he and his Mother were taken into the Mission when they found him near death several years ago. Maria showed his caregiver how to gently stretch his legs and exercise them. He has feeling in his feet and Maria tells me that if he were to have excellent physical and massage therapy he could possibly walk and have some mobility in 2 to 3 years. That would be a blessing.

Another young man who suffered a spinal cord injury when he fell out of a tree was beaten with sticks by his family and left out to die in the Chirripo rainforest in adverse cold and wet weather because he was a burden to his family and they did not want him. He showed me his father’s cedula (social security card) with his father’s photo on it. Daniel the co-director at the Mission tells me that this boy loves his family very much and has forgiven them. He looks forward to their visits at the Mission and is warm and loving towards everyone.

I commented that I was not sure I would be able to do the same at this point in my life. Daniel said he knew he was not yet there. There are many lessons of love, commitment and forgiveness to be learned at the Mission and I learn another lesson with every humbling visit.

Thieves stole the phone wires to the town in the middle of the night, right by Casa Turirre, our 4 star resort. At 11pm I had phone service but none at 7am. The police, many of whom do not have a gun, will not take their car up the mountains so the thieves wave bye until the next time. Nobody in our surrounding little towns from that point on has phone service because of the break. How petty. I wonder how much a couple of low life ladrones can get for stolen phone wire that contains a minimal amount of copper? Enough for some crack or guaro perhaps. Drug use is a problem in every country. Costa Rica has the compounded problem of being the drug route out of Columbia on its Caribbean side, unstable employment opportunities, untrained uneducated labor, and little money to control, catch, punish, contain, the bad guys. I see crack sales happening in Turrialba by the old railroad tracks when we go to buy propane for our tanks. I always have the urge to do something to ruin their day, or capture them, but I am still thinking about that. My husband has commented that he doesn’t know how I have managed to live this long. They have ruined their lives, and I am sure that death will pursue them all too soon one way or another. “It is easier to give birth than to breathe life back into the dead.” That is why we must focus on the children and provide useable education for them.

When a lone policeman pulled me over because my 2nd license plate had fallen off the front of my car, rather than just write me a ticket, he preferred to hassle me looking for chorizo (a bribe of $20.00). Which in the end he received and I received a $4.00 ticket in exchange. I remember that he had a little pea shooter of a gun stuffed in his pants waistband, pointed at his manhood (my cowgirl gun when I was 5 was more substantial and I had a holster to go with it), and I pictured it going off the whole time he had me. It was an ugly vision. It is also more lucratively rewarding for him to pull me over rather than deal with real crime such as drugs and theft.

I look forward to my morning phone calls from my husband and that won’t happen today. He has another surgery scheduled for this evening at 8pm. What I hope will be the last of too many, and then he can come home.

Useable education, think about that for a minute. They teach French in the 7th grade in my area. I will only address my area in this instance as there is no consistency regarding much of anything in this country except to say that Public Education for the most part is severely lacking. I am being very kind, it actually sucks big time, and it is just a matter of is your area worse than mine. French, what is that about? How useless in the scope of things. If you are French I am not trying to insult you, we really appreciate the ambulances you donated. But you also speak English as it is the world’s business language and you are educated. Most all Europeans learn English in school, so when you are a poor Costa Rican child, and you do not know how to use your Spanish dictionary, phone book, do simple math, read, comprehend and enjoy a novel in Spanish, why in the world is your educational system wasting your time on French? All job opportunities requiring a 2nd language in Costa Rica such as Call Centers or tech support require English.

Shop class, an elective in the US, would be an extremely useful class (useable education) in rural Costa Rica. You can see where math without a calculator could come in handy in this instance and they could count their money all the way to the bank. French will get them….,what? Sorry, can’t think of a thing, because they will never learn more than a few words to start with, they can’t read Spanish sufficiently yet. They need to focus on useable, useful educational tools, asking every step of the way, “Will this get me a job or provide me the ability to make an honest living?”

This walking stick insect was found on the front wall of our home. You can see how giant he is from the amount of bricks he consumes with his body.

We recently built a small 3 bedroom 1 bathroom prefab home for our caretaker family. Here is Xinia standing at her back door. It has columns that the prefab concrete slides into much like interstate sound walls are made. The house is solid, dry, and they should be of good quality depending on who you purchase from and who the contractor is. We are getting ready to build another one, this time it is my custom design. You can customize them to your liking. The beauty of these homes is that they are completed from start to finish in 3 months.

You have many choices including but not limited to, the height of walls, overhang size for a veranda, and roofing material used. The columns are placed 1.5 meters from each other, or roughly 4 1/2 feet apart, so every 4 1/2 feet I can have electrical outlets. My walls are acceptably smooth and I used a finish with pigment in it so that no painting was required inside or out. The standard windows that were included in the price were fine for the caretaker house we built but I will install custom windows more to my liking in the next home. Because many foreigners such as myself have more kitchen expectations I custom designed a large kitchen with 2 refrigerators and large island with electric for my new home.

Most plans that are presented to you are with the Tico market in mind, but not limited to those plans. In my desire to simplify my life, I never intend to settle for less than what I want. Good use of space for our lifestyle is most important with the kitchen being the focal point. I have studied small space design for a number of years and this was a chance to do something special using local construction techniques and my imagination.

If the area you are building in is subject to termites, you can build a home with little or no wood. Don't discount the option of a prefab concrete home as I found it is both time and cost effective with good results.

Medical Treatment in Costa Rica

Since my husband’s accident about 3 weeks ago we have tested the emergency system and medical treatment at 3 different hospitals in Costa Rica.

The all volunteer 911 rescue Red Cross vehicle came in a timely fashion. We have no complaints about these folks for they must truly be dedicated professionals who love their job as there is no pay involved and they must sell lottery tickets on street corners to earn money for gasoline or diesel fuel to run the ambulance. We must also give thanks to countries such as France and China for donating the ambulances and various emergency vehicles.

How trained are the rescuers? I am not sure about that in all honesty. I came up with the scissors to cut my husbands clothing off and then a flashlight to see with. At one point when more lighting was needed I took the solar lights from the front door pathway and remember feeling like the Statue of Liberty holding torches. Our neighbor Gonzalo went in the back of the ambulance with Phil to regulate the tourniquet and try to keep him focused for the 20 minute pot holed ride. We are grateful for Gonzalo, as his strength has really helped Phil get through this ordeal. The ambulance attendant is also the driver, which limits his ability to care for a patient during transportation even if he had skills or medication.

My friend Bonnie was visiting us from South Florida, she was the first person to reach Phil when he cried out for help. Phil is a very lucky man, the moon and the stars were aligned properly and the Lord was not finished with him.

Our local hospital did the best they could, they saved his life that evening and then sent him on to hospital #2, located in San Jose, 2 hours away. They took a look and sent him back to Turrialba at 4 AM. He remained in the hospital for about a week. A few days after Phil was released we began to realize that Turrialba’s hospital was out of skills and the wound was deteriorating as cells were dying. We made the decision not to return but to instead take the bus to San Jose and go to Clinica Biblica. Our neighbor’s daughter made the arrangements and Phil met her there at noon saw the doctor and was admitted. That was more than a week ago.

Today my husband is having another operation. This one is to sew his leg back together and make skin flaps to replace the missing skin. This is his third operation since he has been at Clinica Biblica in the last week. We hope it is the last surgery and I eagerly await his homecoming.

I would post the many photos of his wound, but I have promised not to, and with good reason, they are not pretty. His leg modeling days are officially over.

The good news is that we have both had time to reflect on our master plan, and to remember what our priorities are, why we came here, and where we are going.

Our temperature was about 60 degrees at 6AM; it was another beautiful blue sky morning as I heard horses running up the driveway. The Rottweiler’s bark and chase everything so I ran out the front door but not before they heard the beating of hooves on the inclined rock driveway. Ms. Perla, the hunter, is always at the forefront of a pack chase. Sure enough they all went flying down the driveway barking and the horsemen had the good sense to turn around and retreat.

Yesterday Perla was hunting giant iguanas in the bushes. When she gets the scent of wild animals she comes alive and sniffs every inch of dirt and plant material until she finds something. Beware, do not violate Ms. Perla’s territory! Her house, her yard, her people, it is all about her.

This is the church, or school. Volunteers sleeping at the reservation. Notice the beds.