Bridges & More Newsletter #6: 5/28/07

Bridges & More Newsletter # 6: 5/28/07

Winter (or the rainy season) has begun early. May is usually a cheerful month with lots of sunshine and occasional showers or even downpours in the afternoons. Not this May. Since early in the month sunshine has been the exception, rain the rule. And it does rule! The five streams I drive through to get to my house from the highway become raging torrents; loud white waterfalls cascade into the Morete River behind my house, no longer clear and inviting, but huge, brown and angry with whitewater and churned up mud. Cars are no longer fording the river, and this morning Alvin and Guiselle (who live across the river and park their car below) stopped by to say they would be moving their car up above the river by way of San Isidro because Guiselle is afraid to cross on foot.
With the rain come the insects. No, not the usual fascinating assortment, but the swarming, biting varieties: several types of gnoseum-equivalents, a small black fly that draws blood, the usual mosquito (dangerous here because it may carry dengue fever), various kinds of bees and wasps…you get the picture.
On the other hand, the river is now safe from abuse by unscrupulous fishermen and littering families of picnickers. The dust has disappeared and everything is a lovely lush green. From here where I sit on my porch the view is limited by vegetative growth, but I’ve only to lift my eyes to see hummingbirds sipping from the giant coral-colored heliconia flowers, brown woodcreepers running up & down trees, a tawny dove walking leisurely across the yard. A flock of white-crowned parrots squawks its way overhead, and I’ve recently been invaded by an outlandishly loud group of chachalacas. My coffee sits beside me on one of the little tables constructed by Todd and painted by Milena, who has agreed to paint pictures on the front of my ugly concrete bodega one day soon. I harvested dozens of sweet juicy pineapples from my patch until the other day when the wild pigs discovered them. In two days the pineapples were history. Julie and Todd’s boy Zeno suggested we hide in the brush, and that when the pigs come we jump out and cut off their heads with our machetes (he just got a new machete for his birthday, and to his way of thinking, it would be only fair, as they ARE pigs, after all, and we HAVE been feeding them.)

I’m avoiding having to say that there has not been much Bridges & More (or Puentes y Mas) activity since my arrival. I’ve been here just under a month, passed some time dealing with car problems, some time figuring out why my photovoltaic system is not working properly, much time listening to rain pounding so hard on the zinc roof that I wonder if it could possibly rain harder, and then it rains harder; more time just accomplishing the basic tasks of life (my washer is at Julie’s since I have no energy to power it; I’m forever washing mud off shoes and slathering on insect repellant; I sometimes have to visit 3 different internet establishments before finding one that works…). For the most part it’s pretty hum-drum stuff.
After I arrived in early May, Carlos Rojas introduced his orchid-growing proposal to me. The idea is that local women (or men) could build greenhouses from inexpensive materials such as bamboo, and Carlos would offer the expertise, support, and the plants to help them set up orchid nurseries. He was able to take time off from his three jobs to visit San Josecito for a day, and we drove up to Alvin and Guiselle’s (getting stuck axel-deep in mud on the way!) where he presented the idea to Guiselle. She is enthusiastic, and we are awaiting more word from Carlos.
Todd and Julie have assembled the materials for a clay oven, also up at Alvin and Guiselle’s; but scheduling a time when Alvin isn’t working proved difficult, and now the river is too big to cross most of the time.
Milena has painted five very sweet little tables for sale (see mine in the attachment), and Julie has moved them to a real estate office in Dominical where they are on display. Beatriz is feeding us organic salads from her nursery, and I fed her family pesto & pasta yesterday with basil she’s grown there.
The real drama here right now, though, has been the road. In addition to Puentes y Mas there exists a local organization called the Asociacion de Desarrollo de San Josecito de Uvita de Osa. For the most part the Asociación works to collect funds and contract work to keep the road in good shape, so we call it the Road Association. Anyway, due to early rains and irresponsible development on the part of a few property owners, the road is in imminent danger of being washed down into the river and being carried out to the ocean. In the midst of this, half of the senior officers on the board resigned. I’ve been putting in quite a bit of time trying to remedy some of the miscommunication and lack of communication that seem to have contributed greatly to discord and inaction. So I’m forever on the computer translating minutes from meetings, typing them up, distributing them. It’s something I had been doing for Puentes y Mas and Bridges & More anyway, but this is much more labor intensive as there is a lot of past to catch up on, and a number of landowners here who need to be contacted and milked for contributions to road upkeep.
All this to explain why only now are we scheduling the first meeting of Puentes y Mas since I arrived in May. It will take place Wednesday June 5.
As for bridges, the new alcalde (mayor) for them municipality seems like a straight arrow, and we’re optimistic that he will make sure Alvin and Guiselle have a bridge to drive Estiben to school next winter. Additionally, this alcalde has called a halt to all major development in this area until he can investigate the flagrant disregard for environmental law that has been practiced until recently. As always, big money will probably win out eventually, but it’s nice to register a few small victories along the way!

That’s all for now. I’m attaching a couple of pictures: one of Milena’s tables and an inside view of Beatriz’s nursery. Hoping to get my efforts back on track here by the time you hear from me again!

Con Gusto,
Elizabeth