Costa Rican Funnies

Cooking for an Army
On one of our last nights in Costa Rica, Charissa and I told Maritza we wanted to cook her and Abuelita (Grandma) a Canadian Dinner. The afternoon of our cooking day came around and we noticed the house was full of family and friends. A bunch of them asked us what we were planning on cooking. It was then that the truth dawned on us. It seemed the whole of Costa Rica wanted to be in on an Canadian Dinner. We pretended not to be surprised. Casually Charissa asked how many we should prepare the meal for. Maritza said she thought maybe 16. Every minute the number grew... Sofia had a friend she thought might come.... Maritza phoned her sister... sounded like it´d be 18... oh, maybe 2 more. Charissa and I looked at each other and ran to our room, where we burst out laughing. What had we gotten ourselves into. First of all, San Jose had no running water. Secondly, shopping for ingredients would be quite the trick considering it would be hard to find stuff like we have in Canada. (Plus we had to translate using a dictionary to find the ingredients... you don´t learn the words like baking soda in school) Third, we had made our friends Canadian Pancakes the other morning and had found out that when you used too much electricity at once all the power goes out. Not only at Maritza´s but also in the neighbouring houses. For example, when we used the blender and the oven at the same time that caused the power to go out. Fourth, cooking in the oven meant cooking over a real flame. Neither of us had ever cooked a full meal over fire before. The list goes on and on... tiny kitchen... only a few pots... a small oven... and what would we even cook that is really Canadian? We made up our minds we´d try to do it anyway. First we made our shopping list. That ended up changing up quite a bit, because you simply can´t buy some things in Costa Rica. We started cooking at 3:00pm... and didn´t get finished till 8:00. (No big deal, they eat late anyway) It was such an adventure. Thank God the water came back on just in time. It would have been a nightmare cooking without running water. We cooked 3 apple crisps for dessert, with whipped cream. 3 onion, ham, cheese quiches. 3 pans of potatoes. Tomato avocado salad. 3 loaves of garlic bread. Plus someone brought wine to drink with dinner. The oven was so small we could only cook one thing at a time. We had to continually pop one in after the other and then at the last minute try keep it all warm. In the process I burned my arm. The scar is just about healed now... and it´s been over a month. Secretly we thoroughly enjoyed the madness. Praying the whole time we wouldn´t burn anything or end up serving something totally inedible. In the end we actually made enough.... and surprisingly it tasted pretty good. At least our army loved it.... and wanted the recipes. The cool thing was that they had never had any of the things we cooked, not even garlic bread. Charissa and I slept so good that night.... we both felt a sense of accomplishment... and I do believe any cooking after that will be a breeze.

Names
It was funny what we got called. Charissa just can´t be pronounced by the Spanish speaking world. So she´s been Clarissa for most of the trip. Or else they pronounce her name like chair... Charissa. I haven´t had any trouble with them pronouncing Anita, after all it´s a Spanish name. The funny thing is that Anita means ´little Anna´. They can´t figure why I´d be called Anita if I´m so tall. So most people call me Anna.... it has taken me so long to respond to Anna. Most of the time they´d call me and I´d just totally ignore the call. Oops.

No Water
During our stay in San Jose the whole city was having a pipe repair. Whatever it was we didn´t have running water.... for quite a while. No shower for 2 weeks. Fortunately there was a bucket that collected rain water, that became our shower tub. We had to wash our hair and clothes in the bucket. There are so many things we take for granted in Canada. (Running water. Hot water. Even when the water came back on it was freezing cold... and just a trickle. You get good at speeding showers.)

Buggy Surprise
One night Charissa and I were journaling and I heard something trying to get under the crack in the door. It sounded big... it was dark out.. but with the little light we had I could see something crawl into our room. Is that a lizard I asked. I got up to get a closer look. It was, no joke, a Cockroach the size of my hand. I´d never seen such a big bug in my life. I stomped on it about 10 times with my shoe to make sure it was good and dead. Then I picked it up to get a closer look. It was still alive! I couldn´t believe it. The thing just wouldn´t die. Seriously, I tried so hard. Finally I just sealed it up in a zip lock bag. The bug was coming home with me... to show the family. Unfortunately it stunk so bad I had to throw it away. It was really cool looking.... and HUGE! P.S. I got a picture... which you will have to see.

Bus Crash
On our bus trips there were many times we thought surely the bus would crash. Tight squeezes and sharp corners all the time. The bus drivers seem to continually play ¨Chicken¨ with the other taxis and motor bikes. (You´ll notice a lot of the vehicles on the roads are taxis, buses, or motor bikes. It´s expensive to own a car. Some of the buses are old American school buses.) You´ll be driving along what you think is a way too narrow one lane road.... with parked cars on either side... when suddenly you realize it´s actually meant for two way traffic. It seems like there is no way the speeding taxi and ginormous bus will manage to fit past each other. You grip your seat and wait for the crash. Yet every time they seem to manage the impossible. We´d gotten fairly used to the crazy driving. One day we saw it coming. Our bus and another taxi both tried to race to fit through a small gap. The taxi was coming towards us... this time I just knew there was no way we´d both fit. Sure enough... neither bus nor taxi gave up... and in an instant there was a crunch. The taxi was in the side of the bus. Both drivers shook their fists at each other... shrugged their shoulders and that was it. The taxi was still drivable, so it´s owner simply hopped back in. The bus pulled forward and the taxi drove off.