Bridges & More Newsletter # 13

November 5,2008

Well, the nation can finally exhale. I have never been as drawn into an election nor awaited its results with such hope and trepidation as with this one. Dare we hope we can get on with our lives now?

I have been in Massachusetts taking care of the gringo half of my life since September. I’ve shared some wonderful times with my son Ben and am happy that he seems to be putting some of his problems behind him. As well, I’ve been doing some painting and fix-up on my house here, and readying a small house I bought for rental--busy enough, and now busier as Julie Rich and I prepare for a Bridges & More fundraising fiesta. Remember Julie? She, Todd and their two children Zeno and Freya spent eight months with me in San Josecito working on projects I wouldn’t have been able to do myself, and you can find some of these in previous postings

The great thing about this fiesta is that after two years of running into roadblocks on the Bridges part of our raison d’etre (we’ve focused on the & More part) we are now raising money for a bridge. It will not be the sweet little swinging hammock bridge we originally envisioned, because needs have changed. Most folks use cars now in San Josecito, though as recently as the nineties they were still conducting business on horseback or on foot. Now an aging couple, don Isidro Nunez and dona Ester Quesada, traditional Tico subsistence farmers, can’t negotiate the rugged muddy slopes and rickety hammock bridge (photo at right) the way they once did. Don Isidro nearly sold the entire farm a few years ago to a developer from Boston—it occasioned some real alarm on the part of his neighbors and his sons Giovanny and Danilo who want to continue farming the land.

The deal fell through, and Isidro has had to consider other options. One of these is to sell a parcel of land from the farm to finance building a small bridge for cars. The problem here has been circular: it’s all but impossible to sell the land until a bridge has been built, and there’s no money to build the bridge until the land sells. That’s where Bridges & More comes in: we are not sufficiently endowed to finance a car-sized bridge. Right now we can offer only $5000 toward the projected $60,000 total cost of the project. I have committed a personal loan of $20,000 to be repaid when Isidro sells the land. That still leaves the project very short-funded. We hope that we can raise a couple thousand more to add to the kitty with this fundraiser.

The fiesta itself will take place on Thursday, November 20 from 5 to 8 pm at the Orleans Methodist Church, and will include tortilla-making, children’s games & prizes, and salsa dancing lessons. It will be preceded (from 4-5) by a showing of Cavu’s film Nuestras Aguas, Nuestras Vidas, a fascinating look at the problems posed in our area by irresponsible development. The film includes scenes from the only other surviving traditional Tico farm in San Josecito, the Guillermo Nunez farm. After the Fiesta, at 8 pm, I”ll make a short slide presentation of the work Bridges & More has done over the past two years. For tickets call me at (508)240-5699 or visit Main Street Books in Orleans).

Meanwhile I worry about the remaining money (maybe $33,000) needed to build the bridge that will allow these good folks to stay on their farm. I know nothing about grant-writing. Is there anyone out there who does, or who has other ideas? The family farm, in Costa Rica and elsewhere, is a vanishing species. Don Isidro and his sons use traditional methods to eke a living from rugged land they inhabit, planting and harvesting their beans, corn and rice by hand, growing and processing their own sugar cane, raising the few animals they need. I was fortunate to get a tour of the farm from Danilo one day, and to see the hydro-generating system they’ve maintained in a creek below their house. The typical Tico farmer stewards the land carefully, and maintains a healthy segment of rainforest that encourages wildlife to thrive and water systems to remain intact. If this farm were developed, tons of earth would be displaced, run down into the Morete River, and end up in the Parque Nacional Marina Ballena, choking out the mangrove estuaries and further destroying the coral reefs. More wildlife would be driven out or the area, the once vast biodiversity of the area further reduced.

Overall San Josecito has done well in preserving and restoring its rich biological treasures: the Walter Odio family began their eco-tourist forest preserve Rancho Merced many years ago, and it is now designated a national wildlife refuge. More recently the Duarte brothers committed a section of their land holdings to their own forest preserve, Oro Verde, where tourists can purchase a three-hour rainforest tour on foot, or a road and river tour on horseback, followed by a traditional Tico meal. I saw my first howler monkeys and sloth on one of these tours. As traditional farming disappears throughout Costa Rica, I can picture the Isidro Nunez family augmenting their meager income by providing tours of a working farm. It’s a far happier vision than that of ostentatious cement houses crammed into the verdant hillside….

Well, I’ve written enough. I’m looking forward to getting back to San Josecito to see all my friends, to check on Guiselle’s chicken project, Beatrice’s huerta, Alvin’s cows, and my own trees. I have some children’s books to carry with me to start a community library in La Escuela de San Josecito, and some ideas to help encourage the children in the village to read for pleasure. In February three of Isidro’s and Ester’s daughters will graduate from high school! I know one of them (Milena) is hoping to study art at the university level. Most of all, I hope I will see a bridge span the river between the road and the Isidro Nunez farm before another rainy season sets in.

Best wishes all for a happy Thanksgiving. I’m sure I’ll be reporting back before Christmas, and will pass along more holiday wishes then.

Con mucho gusto,

Elizabeth Kushigian

President, Bridges & More

PS In reviewing the blog I notice that I never did add photos of the hike down to Isidro’s generator, which Bridges & More helped repair with a small grant last spring. I’m adding them now.

PPS Thanks to all of you neighbors who did your part to get the road repaired. Many still have not helped, and the community still owes money to contractors. How about it? Send checks made out to “Bridges & More Inc.” and marked “Road Fund” to:

Bridges & More

PO Box 1642

North Eastham, MA 02651

PPSS The Tico Times (www.ticotimes.net) October 31 has a good article about our neighbors' non-profit Cavu, which has aided hugely in halting destructive development in our zone by flying officials overhead for a perspective they would not get otherwise, and by making movies like the one we'll be showing on November 20.

Hydo-Generator Repair at the Finca Isidro Nunez

Last spring Danilo Nunez asked me if Bridges & More could loan his family some money to repair their electrical generator, which is powered by the creek below their house. I'd never seen the generator, only the primitive cable-pull they engage at the house when they want to turn on the power. So my friend Carol Sewell and I grabbed this opportunity to drive down the little easement road that descends steeply to the river, crosses, then climbs up the other side to Danilo's home, the Isidro Nunez farm. In the end Isidro decided not to borrow money for the generator because he hoped he could borrow money for a bridge, and didn't feel he could do both. Carol donated the cost or the generator repair to Bridges & More and we awarded it as a grant to the Nunez family farm. Thanks Carol!

I've collected some photos from our tour of the "hydro-generator plant." Above see Carol's Landcruiser, which has just crossed the river and is about to begin the climb up to the farm. At left we've climbed down to the creek where the generator system lives, and Isidro is resting on a rock.

In the next series of photos Danilo traces the path of the water as it is channeled downstream for filtration before entering the generator.



First chicken wire








then gravel







The Generator




Danilo & Isidro examine the plant





The faulty
part


A close-up.

Bridges & More Newsletter # 12: 9/1/08

I’m sitting in the living room of Nereyda, Carlos’s aunt, with 2 hours to go before Hector’s taxi arrives to take me to the airport. Carlos and Cindy’s apartment, my former San Jose home, has been upended and cleared out, so Nereyda kindly opened her doors to me. As well she has shared with me her delicious recipe for pastel de yucca, one of the most comfortable comfort foods I’ve ever encountered. I’m still collecting for that Costa Rican recipe book…

My visit to San Josecito was only of 3 weeks’ duration this time, owing to family commitments and a final operation on my eye when I arrived in San Jose. I, who was formerly legally blind, now function quite well without corrective lenses. Amazing.

Over the past year two San Josecito vecinos have died: William Aguero Aguero, caretaker for David and Jordan Smith, was recently killed on the highway at the entrance to our road. William’s wife Guisella and their two little boys continue to live and work at David and Jordan’s finca. And Danny Brower of Arizona, who along with his wife Sharon was building a home in San Josecito, died suddenly of an aneurism. I join all of San Josecito in extending my deepest sympathies to Sharon and to Guiselle and her boys. On a happier note, Ademar Nunez and his family (Marion, daughters Juliana & Aljondra, and new baby Jared) have returned to San Josecito and are living in the house Julie and Todd occupied last year.

Other than the excess of mud and biting bugs, I’ve enjoyed being in San Josecito’s rainforest climate during the rainy season—it’s so green and lush. True—I’m clearing out before things get really bad! But I was present for some pretty formidable deluges, and am pleased to report that the costly road work that reduced the number of drive-through creeks en route to my finca from five to one now allows long-time residents to access their homes even in the heaviest downpours. When I left there were still workers from the municipality busy building fortifications to widen one section of the road that has eroded to a dangerously narrow ridge. Other than that, work has been suspended for the rainy season and will be resumed in January.

Below is an example of a drive-

through creek in the dry season

Above, the creek past Oro Verde in March '08

Below, the same creek in August '08

San Josecito's favorite waterfall and dipping pool is still intact and visible from the this same site on road.

The church has pretty much reached its final form, ceramic tiles for the floor have been ordered, and the community continues its efforts to raise money to apply the finishing touches.

Beatriz’s huerta was badly damaged by a falling tree during hurricane Alma, and awaits work by a welder. Bridges & More is happy to be able to help with a small loan. Meanwhile, the chickens we helped Guiselle Nunez buy last March are now producing delicious local eggs. Gueselle has already fully repaid her loan, and her husband Alvin has applied for and received a loan of his own to buy two cows. A new farmer’s market has opened down in Uvita on Saturdays, and I’m encouraging Guieselle to get some eggs down there to sell. Natural local eggs are a popular product, and farmers run out early.

One of the most exciting developments in the past year is the production of the DVD Nuestras Aguas, Nuestra Vida by David and Jordan Smith’s nonprofit corporation Cavu. San Josecito is hugely fortunate to have this dynamic and talented couple as part-time residents. Cavu uses stunning video photography and David’s piloting skills to capture the formidable environmental challenges posed by unregulated development. In this most recent production one travels above the hills surrounding San Josecito to see the ravaged forests, eroding mountains, and sediment-choked bay of the stunning national marine park Marino Bahia Ballena. We hear familiar local persons interviewed, visit the Guillermo Nunez farm across the river in the highest reaches of San Josecito, and watch the family process sugar cane in its traditional trapiche. And, most important, the film conveys the urgency of the community’s effort to preserve its natural environment and its waters. For a great trailer, visit:

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=URbCyLgwN7g&feature=related

You may recall our original goal of building foot bridges to allow the two branches of the Nunez family living on the other side of Rio Morete to access schools and work during the rainy season. This goal was postponed because we discovered that residents wanted car bridges, not foot bridges, and we didn’t feel we could raise sufficient funds to accomplish this. Additionally, the municipality promised a bridge on the main road leading to the Guillermo Nunez farm, and a bridge to the Isidro Nunez farm was complicated by access disputes.

The municipality hasn’t yet come through with the bridge on the main road. I think it will happen as development up above the river continues, and as more people begin to use this road to get to San Isidro. My hope is that it will be a small bridge, inadequate for the machinery of major development. There has been talk at a federal level of using our road as another major highway between San Isidro and the coast. We all hope this doesn’t happen.

Meanwhile, Isidro Nunez and Dona Ester are aging and increasingly need winter access to the highway and to the new hospital in Cortez. Danilo, one of the younger boys in the family, described to me his feelings of helplessness as he watches his mother’s pain while she slips and slides on the steep roads and paths to the rickety foot bridge the family has used for decades. I feel a personal commitment to do whatever I can to get the bridge up before the next rainy season. Access disputes have been ironed out. Isidro hopes to sell one or two lots on his land to finance bridge construction. But sales are slow right now, and the sale would be much easier with the bridge already in place.

Above, the Isidro Nunez family, with Don Isidro behind Dona Ester at center, Danilo at right. Note Milena's paintings in the background. Below, me copping a silly pose on the old footbridge they now use on high-water days.

Subject to Bridges & More board approval I hope we can offer the Isidro Nunez family a grant of $5000 toward constructing the bridge. Meanwhile, I have offered Isidro a personal low interest loan to be repaid when the bridge is complete and a lot has been sold.

As I prepare to finish this already-too-long letter, it’s now a week later and I’m back in the U.S. watching the edges of Hurricane Hannah blowing past. In all I feel a combination of excitement for possible developments in San Josecito in the year ahead, and deep worry for the Uvita environs as a whole as forest is cut, hills are scalped, and tons of earth continue to wash down into the bay where they choke the little remaining life out of the coral reefs. Let me hear from you! Wishing you all a happy autumn,

Elizabeth Kushigian

My Spidery House

Bridges & More Newsletter # 10 03/05/08

I’ve always been a bit arachnophobic, but there is something about the huge brown tarantulas that transcends spider. Maybe it’s their calm manner of holding a spot, without movement or apparent alarm. At any rate, I’ve had two tarantulas in my house in the past 3 days. I killed the black one immediately (I know this is not politically correct, but hey…). The brown one, much bigger, was living behind my suitcase in the bedroom, and I simply replaced the suitcase and left it there. Then Alvin told me that they like to steal pieces of skin from sleeping people, and leave a terrible oozing wound behind. When I went to find it again it was gone...perhaps it’s still somewhere in the house.

Already the last of my three months in Costa Rica is upon me. January was idyllic, with long swims and much sunning on the rocks of the river. February was hectic and exhausting with weekly trips to San Jose for eye operations (I got lens implants (as with cataracts) in order to see without glasses), lots of car troubles, property title problems, disturbing news from home, and rumors of a very real threat to our river in the form of gravel mining. Today is my first quiet day at home in perhaps a month. Alvin and I were finally able to walk up through the tree plantation. In only three years some of the trees have grown large enough to form a canopy and to develop personalities of sorts. The Mayo Blanco, for example, is a rainforest tree, casts a cool shade, and has a jungle personality. The amarillones give a dappled shade and have a light, happy quality about them. The teak is heavy. The huge brown leaves rotting on the ground below them hide terciapelos, or fer-de-lance, an aggressive and very poisonous viper. Alvin reported killing 7 of them during his last teak maintenance.

Bridges & More’s sister organization Puentes y Mas had its annual board meeting on February 23rd. We had a good attendance, and now all the members except me are Ticos and year-around residents of San Josecito. I was moved by everyone’s interest and desire to participate. We agreed to resume our river vigilance now that summer (the dry season) is here, with its heat and cars full of visitors arriving to fish and swim. We’ve already had one reported incidence of poisoning down near the highway. This is apparently a fairly common practice among certain Costa Ricans aimed at an easy catch of fish and river shrimp. Unfortunately it results in massive destruction of river life. We hope that with a certain amount of vigilance we’ll get a reputation that discourages the people who do this type of thing.

In addition to vigilance, we agreed to participate in a petition drive in the three towns that surround the national park of Bahia Ballena, or “Whale Bay.” Two rivers, the Morete River (also known as the Higuerón River) and the Uvita River converge just above the coast to flow into this beautiful bay. Costa Rica’s only national marine park, Bahia Ballena is home to myriad species of marine life, estuaries and mangroves. Humpback whales return every year from the north to give birth in its warm protected waters. Now that the rampant development that has already destroyed much of the country is arriving in our backward little area, several applications for concessions to mine gravel from the two rivers have been filed. Such activity would further compromise coral reefs, would erode river banks and estuaries, and would raise large amounts of sediment that would be carried to the bay, thus affecting both plant and animal life there. Already the bay, which used to be a sparkling blue throughout, shows brown a good way out because of the run-off from roads and new home construction. Furthermore, the section of the Morete River under consideration for mining runs through Rancho Merced, a national wildlife sanctuary run by the Odio family of San Josecito.

For all the above reasons, we’ve written up a fact sheet and petition and have begun circulating it in Uvita, Bahia Ballena, and Playa Hermosa. It took awhile even to verify the rumors. President Oscar Arias has recently enacted a measure that would do the Bush Administration proud: it forbids access of public environmental records by the public. Now the press cannot delve too deeply without paying a lawyer to file for the information. I paid the lawyer in this case, and we now have the evidence to begin the fight. I’ve also written to the Tico Times (Costa Rica’s very good English language newspaper) and asked them to help us shine a light on this recent development. And Francine Ocampo has agreed to write a letter in Spanish to La Nación. Finally, I’ve written to a Costa Rican environmental organization called Fundación Neotropica to request their help, but haven’t heard back from them.

Alvin’s wife Guiselle just stopped by with their little boy Estiben who has recently started school. Guiselle is now cooking lunch for the school children, and I’ve been happy to supply some of the yucca that Alvin planted in my garden for that purpose. Today Guiselle asked whether Puentes y Mas could give her a small loan to get started with a little chicken farm. I’m delighted, because it has seemed to me that residents have been slow to take advantage of the opportunities we’ve offered. We agreed that she will submit her proposal shortly so we can get the loan in progress.

Javier’s construction crew has returned to the church where loads of cement, sand, bars, etc. have been delivered. The Bridges & More donation of $1500 has enabled the town to pay the crew, while certain other residents have offered donations of materials. More is needed! Donations marked for the church can be sent to:
Bridges & More, Inc.
P.O. Box 1642
North Eastham, MA 02651
I’ll soon be home to write letters acknowledging receipt for tax purposes. Even small donations would be very helpful, both to San Josecito and to Bridges & More, which has to show a wide base of support in order to maintain its non-profit status.

I stopped including pictures in the newsletter because several of you were having a hard time downloading your mail. Now several have told me that they haven’t visited the Bridges & More blog because they’re not technically accomplished enough to know how to do it. So I’m gonna say it here! It’s WICKED EASY. Just click on the following URL address: http://bridgesnmore.blogspot.com/ . Some of you might have to press “control” (Ctrl) to do it, but even then it’s not TOO hard. So, if you want to see pictures of the newly painted school, the tarantula, and recent progress on the church, you know what to do!

Here are two pictures of the brown tarantula and one of the smaller black tarantula. The suitcase is one of the huge ones!

Some of my other housemates over time have included a frog that changes color--sleeps white on the wall all day, then turns brown and comes to life at night, and a gecko that has been around for over a year!

See the previous entry for church photos.

Progress on the Church!

La Escuela San Josecito has a fresh coat of paint.

Materials Arrive!

Work Begins!

I'm hoping to get a real newsletter out soon, but for now I'm posting progress on construction of the new church. With our recent contribution and with funds donated from other neighbors the village has been able to buy materials and re-hire Javier, the contractor who started the church in 2006. Here are pictures of their progress, as well as a photo of the newly painted school.

Extended consultations between Javier and his foreman leave the crew gazing longingly at those guavas...

They're eaten worms and all by REAL Ticos.

Sometimes those consultations stretch on!

Buenas noches...

Javier & his original crew from 2006

Newsletter # 9

Bridges & More Newsletter # 9 January 20, 2008

It’s hard to believe I’ve been in San Josecito almost two weeks and in Costa Rica almost three. I stayed five days in San Jose visiting with Carlos and Cindi. Their apartment in San Pedro, the university section of San Jose, has become my transition place and I enjoy spending time with them and their almost 3-year-old Camila.

Here in San Josecito I find all our friends well and happy, enjoying the January vacation before school starts up again. The school has a fresh coat of paint; the salon is clean and our recycling barrels are neatly lined up and labeled for use; the signs Julie made last year add a homey sweetness to the already beautiful drive up our road.

The road itself has suffered during the rainy months from construction traffic, and now that most of the rains have stopped it’s time to get started on repair projects. The hardest part of these is always collecting the money. This year the biggest chunk will go to the placement of some huge culverts. They were provided by the municipality because it is, after all, a public road. But the municipality only paid for the culverts themselves. It has taken about a year to raise the money to have them trucked in and unloaded. Now they sit at odd angles along the side of the road awaiting placement—no doubt more money to be raised! I have not yet been present for any of the road committee meetings, so cannot report much beyond this, but will be attending the next one this Friday.

The church is much as it was when I left last year in August. The community itself has raised some more money toward finishing it and toward repaying loans. Bridges & More has donated $1500 which is currently being held by my dear friends and helpers, Ronny Duarte and Betriz Picado. North American community members James Lewis (don Jaime) and Richard Mattison are also working to collect funds. These are not directly available to be used at the discretion of the community. Instead they’re being put in escrow with a lawyer in San Jose who then is petitioned by the community to pay the hardware store in Uvita for supplies. But there are additional expenses that are not for materials: the community is getting help on certain parts of the construction from a contractor in Uvita, and he and his men must be paid. So Bridges & More donations will be used for these non-material expenses. Currently Ronny has drawn up a list of materials and is getting prices on them to submit to the Richard and the lawyer. Javier, the contractor, visited recently. I’m hoping we’ll see action soon!

Alvin Nunez and Guisella Lopez, whose boy Estiben will be starting school in February, are still concerned about the lack of a bridge. As I reported previously, the municipality is still planning to provide one, but there has been a holdup because the original plan of building a very small bridge that would accommodate only small vehicles is being questioned at some level of the cumbersome governmental hierarchy. Rumor has it that the central government is considering using this road through our little town as a main highway between Uvita and San Isidro. Currently traffic runs from San Isidro to Dominical, then along the coast to Uvita. The road between Dominical and San Isidro is crowded, insufficient, and dangerous.

Meanwhile development in Uvita down below us is exploding—it’s probably the fastest developing area of Costa Rica. Until recently this area was where you were told to go if you wanted to see what Costa Rica was like ten years ago. Now that rustic Costa Rica is lost here as it has been in virtually every other coastal community in the country. If our road is chosen to accommodate the traffic between Uvita and San Isidro, San Josecito as we know it will also be lost forever. We’re all hoping the government chooses a different road to use (there are a couple other candidates). Meanwhile, bridge construction has been held up, and Avin and Luis Nunez will need to undertake yet another trip to the municipality in Cortes to talk to the mayor. If nothing happens, Bridges & More may be back in the foot bridge business!

I’m happy to report that the Isidro Nunez family has reached an amicable agreement with neighbors in regards to easement access to the river-crossing that leads to their land. Isidro can now sell a section of his land to finance building a bridge. Depending on what happens with the main bridge, Bridges & More may be able to help with this. I personally am considering buying a strip of the land that would lead between the upper primary forest and the river in order to let it grow back to its natural state. This would provide a corridor of access to the river for monkeys, sloths, pumas, etc. This idea is still in the dream stage and will depend on Isidro agreeing to sell such a strip of land and my being able to raise the money! At this point I need to sell land before buying more.

Beatriz Picado has continued to enjoy growing organic vegetables in her “huerta,” and I’ve been fortunate to consume a few of them! She decided not to pursue selling to the distributor who markets in Dominical because the cost of gas is so high it’s not really practical to haul the stuff to him. Guisella is using the mud oven we constructed to make bread, and I enjoyed some of that too, in spite of my intention to stop eating white flour! It was sure good! She approached the owner of a local grocery in Uvita about selling her bread, but he doesn’t want to handle it because it’s preservative-free and has a short shelf-life. What I’m seeing as a current community need is a market-place in Uvita for locally grown produce and locally made items. Fortunately I bought a lot there before prices sky-rocketed. Now I’m imagining a community market-place, a sort of farmer’s market that will sell Tico products and serve as a coming together place for the Tico and Gringo communities. Once again, it’s in the dream stage, and will depend on my own financial resources, as it would be a conflict of interest to develop that property with Bridges & More money.

That’s all for now—Pura Vida!!! Elizabeth