Jonathan: We actually do some work, too

February 3, 2008 (Still a little behind)

It’s been awhile since the last entry, but there hasn’t been a ton of time. Highlights from the week: Tuesday, Sean and I went with Dr. Cristian to a home visit. It was fascinating seeing the inside of someone’s house in el barrio.

It actually wasn’t as terrible as I feared, but they were certainly living in poverty. Lots of people in a small space, dirt floors, no running water, no waste/sewage disposal, lots of random wires or uneven ground or other tripping hazards. They seemed pretty happy, though.

However, the land they live on is owned by 250 people who live there. (There are currently about twice that many there. They have saved up enough money to build proper houses there, starting in March. The building project should take about six months. Meanwhile, there is some government housing available for them in some other area, and there is apparently some option for the people who are currently living there without owning property. It was a little confusing because the woman was speaking quickly, but that’s the gist of what I understood. It will be interesting to return next March to see what had come of the plans.

Clinic seems to be moving along steadily. People seem to be getting lazy, though... not wanting to work on health education stuff, not working on fixing the back room... Argh... I wonder whether the back room project, which seems legitimately valuable to FIMRC, will get done. I wonder how long it will be before someone gets fed up with picking up the slack for others or gets majorly ticked off at constantly being pestered to do more work.

It strikes me as interesting that in our group of nine, the vast majority (if not all) of us claim to be interested in helping the underserved, and yet when presented with an opportunity to help ICHAI (another organization that runs free clinics in impoverished areas of Costa Rica) open a new clinic in San Jose by painting a few rooms, putting together furniture, etc., only a minority of people volunteered. That was Wednesday. Maybe people had things to do.

When given the same opportunity Thursday, the same minority stepped up; the same majority did not.

So, Libby, Alisha, Neil, and I painted. It was a bit frustrating that the students who were actually volunteering for IHCAI just sat around and played ping pong or played with their computers while we were working at their clinic. And then we found out later, even though we worked WELL into the late evening twice in a row after having put in days of work at our own clinic, the IHCAI people had the nerve to be upset that we didn’t come back Friday to work again. Makes me think that I can’t blame the majority who didn’t volunteer if no good deed goes unpunished.

(Sorry if this entry sounds whiney. The whining is done now, I think.)

The weekend was great, though. We spent Friday and Saturday in San Jose. Friday we explored the Mercado Central as a potential source of souvenirs/gifts. No luck on that front, but I did get a cheap watch to use while I’m here. On the way home Friday, we stopped at the Multiplaza, which is basically a huge, American-style mall. I bought a book there by Garcia Marquez, but otherwise not much story-worthy happened... Except The T-Box. Very cool Turkish store with t-shirts in impossibly small boxes.

Saturday, we went to a few museums and a couple different artisans’ markets for some souvenir bargaining. That was good times. We bought some fun stuff. We didn’t want to buy TOO much because our host family hinted that they might take us to Sarchi Sunday. (Sarchi is well known for their wood products, many of which are souvenir-type things.)

We went to an Asian restaurant, Tin Jo, for dinner. It was quite good. Then, we ended the night in most delightful fashion by seeing A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Teatro Nacional. It was a gorgeous theatre, and the production was quite good, even if they took a few liberties with the dialogue.

Sunday, we didn’t do a ton. No trip to Sarchi. We got a little flustered (ok, just a little more whining) because at some point during the very early afternoon, our host family was half in their running car when they invited us to go to some fair right that second. We weren’t really in the mood to go out right that second (as I was in the middle of a nap when they invited us, and Libby was busy on the computer), so we politely declined. They said they’d be back at 2:30pm to give us lunch.

We waited for them until about 4:00 or 4:15 before finally making plans with Alisha and Neil to go out to a Superbowl party that Dr. Struthers (the gingra doctor) was holding. Our host family pulled un just as we were walking out, and they guilted us into sticking around to eat, and then they proceeded to tell us how we should’ve gone to the fair because there were lots of souvenirs (information that was not given to us before the trip). Argh.

The party was fun, though. It was an exciting game (Giants beat the heavily favored Patriots with 30 seconds left), and it was sort of nice to hang out with some non-MSU gringos. A pretty good end to the weekend, I’d say.