Tarea #2

Colin Yarnell

4/10/11

Lugares Importantes en la Comunidad de Cañitas

El Salon: a multi-use building mostly used for indoor soccer and dances 

Este edeficio es El Salon. Es importante porque sirve para un edificio multiuso para la recreacion donde la gente le gusta jugar deportes y a veces hay bailes tambien. El tesorero de la organización de desarrollo integral de Cañitas me dijo que un lugar como este para la recreacion es importante para distractar los jovenes de las drogas recreativas que se puede encontrar en Santa Elena/Monteverde.

______________________________________________________________

The elementary school where I teach

Este foto claramente es de la escuela. Es importante porque es la única escuela en el pueblo. El edificio tiene dos aulas, una cafetería, y unos sanitarios. Al derecho, se puede ver el jardín y mas lejos La Salón. Cuando saque este foto, estuve en la cancha de futbol. En el otro lado de la escuela, afuera del edificio, hay otra área para recreo con un swing set, un seesaw, y un jardín donde trataron de sembrar cosas pero no han tenido éxito.

______________________________________________________________

La Casa Club: a non-recreational multi-use building

Este es La Casa Club. El edificio sirve para la comunidad en varios funciones. Unos ejemplos son: Yo lo uso para enseñar clases pequeños de ingles, la organización de desarrollo integral lo usa para unas de sus reuniones, y unos Canadienses lo usaron para una presentación sobre sus experiencias viviendo en la comunidad por dos semanas en Marzo. La Casa Club está apoyada, por lo menos en parte, por la organización Clubes 4-S que es de Costa Rica. El foto debajo fue sacado dentro del edificio.

Inside of La Casa Club

______________________________________________________________

The Catholic church

Este foto es de la iglesia Católica de Cañitas. Es importante para la comunidad porque me parece que casi todo la gente es Católica.

______________________________________________________________

The ATV: a common mode of transportation

One aspect of community life that has surprised me is that in some ways, people seem to be less averse to risk than many communities in the United States. For example, motorcycles appear to be a common mode of transportation, and it is often that I see three passengers on one bike: usually a man driving, a woman sitting behind, and a very small child sitting in front. Sometimes not one of the passengers is wearing a helmet. While my host mother has expressed nervousness about the popular activity of riding dirt bikes, and people speeding on a motorcycle up and down the precarious, rocky road here are described as “loco”, little concern seems to be produced from piling half a family on a single motorcycle. If my family – or any other U.S. family for that matter – witnessed this occurring along even the best-paved and generally safest roads, they would very likely turn their heads and say something to the effect of “que locos”. I have not investigated the potential causes of this behavior, and won’t pretend to know why it occurs, but I would assume that the families’ financial situations might influence the decision to travel this way. Perhaps if they could afford to buy a vehicle with four side door airbags, or even just a vehicle with doors, they would. This is really just an educated guess, but I would imagine that the motorcycles, ATV’s, and go-karts driven by the people here probably are more affordable than the cars that can also be seen in the area, usually belonging to a taxi company or a relatively wealthy person.
Similarly, when I asked the substitute teacher at Escuela Cañitas if I could teach English there part of the week, she took under a minute to say yeah, it was fine. If I wanted to do this in the United States, I’m sure I’d have to go through some sort of background check to make sure I wasn’t a child molester. While I understand the importance of these kinds of checks, they can be quite time-consuming and seemingly unnecessary (because I for one know that I am not a child molester). But here, not only was it the case that I got to start teaching right away, I also was given quite a bit of time during the class to teach – usually about 50 minutes. While I can see why they might be excited to have a native English speaker come to teach voluntarily, I am a bit surprised that they would give me that much time, considering I am not really a teacher and there aren’t that many hours in the school day.
The social interactions between the students and the teachers have also surprised me. For example, the group of students with whom I work often get their teacher’s attention by calling out “niña!”. Conversely, when the teacher tries to convince a student to cooperate, she will often say “________, mi amor, por favor …”. I understand that I should probably not make a literal translation of “niña” or “mi amor”, and that the phrases may not be as affectionate as they are merely traditional, but they still seem far less dry than referring to a teacher as Mr./Ms. _____ or simply using a student’s first name to grab his/her attention. As is the case in other settings in Costa Rica, physical touching is much more acceptable in the classroom. A number of times I have seen some of the older boys wrap their arm around the substitute teacher’s shoulder, which did not provoke any protest from her. I’ve also seen a different female teacher give a girl an affectionate slap on the butt. Like in the previous example, the person receiving the contact seemed neither surprised nor upset by the action. While this type of friendly spank is quite common in certain American arenas, such as between a male athlete and his male coach, it would very likely raise some eyebrows were it to occur within a classroom.
The last difference I’d like to comment on is the unthinkable amount of rice I’ve consumed here. Unless I specifically state that I would rather not eat rice with a meal, it is inevitably included as a side dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At least one day I had a dinner that included rice as a side dish of the main plate, a drink that was made somehow of rice, and a dessert of rice pudding. I’ve been told that a Tico couldn’t live without rice, and can see clearly how it has a cultural importance for the people here, but even so, I was surprised to see and eat so much of it three times a day. It seems to me that in the United States, it is mainly the exceptionally picky eaters, and those faithful to a particular type of cereal, who eat any one food with such frequency. I personally am accustomed to a fairly varied diet, and have already grown tired of the heaping helpings of rice I am offered here.
I am not entirely sure what this all has taught me about my own culture, as I can never know exactly what are the roots of the differences I have identified. With regard to food, I think I already had a sense that the United States doesn’t really have any one food that bears the same cultural importance to us as something like gallo pinto does to Costa Rica. After all, as a nation of immigrants, we are the “salad bowl” (or are we the “melting pot”?), and we like to sample the food that other cultures have brought us: Chinese takeout, Greek gyros, Ethiopian food, “TexMex”, etc. In my opinion, with the exception of maybe fast food, no dish is “American as apple pie”, not even apple pie itself. While this delicious dessert makes an occasional appearance for special occasions, such as Thanksgiving, I think most Americans would not dare eat it every day for fear of putting on weight and/or damaging their health. Fear may also be playing a role in the decision of many Americans to buy the gas-guzzling SUV because of its crash safety rating. One could easily point the finger at the country’s aggressive capitalism, which often exploits people’s anxieties to motivate them to keep consuming. At the same time, however, the economy’s success in growing wealth (for some) may be what has allowed many Americans to afford a safe car. This may also be what allows the oversight in schools to happen to protect children from potential harm. Or maybe there is something else happening behind the scenes to create these noted differences and I haven’t seen it yet. As I spend more time here and reflect on the cultures I have experienced, I’m sure my understanding of them will grow and evolve.