Freya & JulianaBridges & More Newsletter # 4 February 12, 2007
I’m sitting in a small pink room just over the Panama border taking ineffective swipes at a couple varieties of biting bugs. February 19 will mark 3 months in Costa Rica, and that’s the limit; so I’m taking a 3-day vacation.
Yesterday Bridges & More made its first official small business loan. Beatriz Picado Rodriguez has been working with great determination to erect the structure she’ll need to grow organic vegetables and medicinal plants from seed. She’s accomplished an incredible amount with the help of Ronny (her husband) and his brother Jose Delfin (see attached photos). Now she needs a few items to finish up and get started. We’ve been able to give Beatriz the $200 she needs, thanks to your generosity. When I return to San Josecito Todd, Julie and I will be helping to make the stairs to more easily access the nursery.
Julie, Todd and their two children Zeno and Freya from Truro will be landing in San Jose today. After a brief stay with friends in Alajuela they’ll get the bus to San Isidro. I’ll meet them there and hope we can fit five people and six suitcases in my Land Cruiser. The children will be attending the tiny school in San Josecito, while Julie, Todd and I are working on Bridges & More projects. Julie has volunteered to help make signs both for Puentes & Mas efforts to patrol the river, and to help the Duarte brothers’ local ecotourism business Oro Verde.
Meanwhile, Alvin Nunez is eager to learn about construction of houses and furniture from bamboo. We visited a family business near San Isidro that grows bamboo, makes furniture, and also provides design and construction of bamboo houses. Shortly thereafter I was fortunate to meet Martin Coto and his wife Grace Lizano. Martin is a renowned designer and builder of bamboo structures, and he and Grace travel throughout the world building and giving workshops. I explained to them the difficulty the local people face: workshops are expensive and require them to be away from their source of income for days at a time. As a result it’s hard for them to attend, even when partial scholarships are offered. Grace and Martin themselves have been disturbed by the lack of local attendance at their workshops: most of the attendees are people from outside Costa Rica. They seemed enthusiastic about the possibility of doing a project that would involve local folks. More about this as it evolves.
The clay oven idea may go on hold for want of interest among the residents of San Josecito. Originally Beatriz had been interested, but now the nursery will be taking all her extra time. Another idea has found an enthusiastic recipient: our friend Carlos from San Jose has volunteered to research the possibility of growing orchids for export. Guiselle, who lives high up above the river, has lovingly tended a spectacular variety of beautiful plants in her yard for many years now. She is very excited to learn more about growing orchids. A meeting between her and Carlos is in the works.
February 19: It was SO nice to get out of that little pink hotel room and back to my casita with its cool morning breezes and birdsong and roaring monkeys! Julie Rich, Todd Schwebel, and their two children Zeno (7) and Freya (5) have arrived. The children are already making friends with local children, and Ronny Duarte’s family (Ronny, Beatriz, Ronny’s mom dona Eida, and their two daughters Fabiola (7) and Samanta (3)) have opened their home and welcomed Julie, Todd & children as part of the family, just as they did for me almost three years ago. And today Tom Hemeon from Lancaster, MA arrived. Tom is a gifted mechanic and will be helping to train Luis Nunez who has long wanted to branch out from his welding to include auto mechanics. Good auto mechanics are almost impossible to find in Costa Rica, and if Luis can get this skill down he’ll have a lot going for him. He’s got incredible potential: even without training I trust his opinion and work on my ’79 Land Cruiser more than almost anyone else.
Luis and Alvin Nunez have begun doing some volunteer river patrol, and word is getting out that the Morete River in San Josecito is watched. This in itself has cut down on the number of visitors who engage in undesirable behavior.
This Saturday Beatriz, Julie, Elizabeth, Todd, and our new friends and supporters Francine & Alberto will attend an educational fair about organic gardening and sustainable farming. Then on Monday Puentes & Mas will have its second meeting. We’re looking forward to having a representative from the Isidro Nunez family, one of the community’s families most isolated by the river. I finally overcame my shyness and hiked up to their lovely farm—and it was quite a haul! I met dona Ester whose legs keep her from leaving the farm, and got to know her two high school aged daughters Milena and Leticia a little better. Milena shows real promise as an artist and has agreed to help Julie with sign-making. The family is badly in need of a bridge-- their current hammock bridge is the one you see here on the front of the blog page. It’s structurally unsound, and because of dona Ester’s health they need something a car can get across. I explained to dona Ester that though Bridges & More can’t afford to supply a bridge for cars, we could contribute some money towards it, and architectural and engineering designs as well. Julie, Todd and I are looking forward to returning to their farm to check out their hydroelectric system: I saw a little part of it, but didn’t really understand how it worked.
I’ll stop here as it’s getting late.
Saludos from San Josecito,
Elizabeth
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