Bigfoot and Balls of Poop

El Vergel is just one of the many tiny pueblos on the Borucan Indigenous reserve.  Borucans are a very kind and welcoming people who believe strongly in their sense of family and community.  They are also deeply invested in preserving their culture, language, and customs.  I feel very lucky to have been place here in El Vergel because its given me, not only, a chance to learn about Costa Rican culture but also the Boucan.  I like to ask my family about the history and the customs of the area and their people.  In doing this I have learned that, like many other indigenous tribes, Borucans are very superstitious.  They believe and all kinds of mythical beings and spirits.  

From the first day I arrived Vergel I started hearing stories. Stories about witches that sneak out of the mountains and rob people at sunset,  trolls that take on the form of people and kidnap children, and my favorite, the Hombre Peludo, who lives in the river behind my house and kills people that try to go swimming at night. 

Late one afternoon my family and I took a trip up the mountain to the town of Bouca to visit some relativ

es.  Most of us were riding in the bed of the pickup truck when we stopped to pick up a hitch hiker.  As the man jumped in the back with us and I could tell he was extremely disturbed by something.  My host mother asked him what was wrong and he told us that he had just seen the Hombre Mono (I guess thats like the Costa Rican version of Bigfoot).  The man seemed legitimately scared for his life and was tremendously thankful that we stopped to pick him up.  My host mother tried her best to comfort him until we reached town.  I found the whole thing pretty ridiculous and tried to keep a straight face for the remainder of the ride. 

I have heard dozens of these stories, each one more dubious than the next.  However the Borucans, absolutely 110% believe that they are true.    

There was one story, however, my host brother Pablo told me that I didn’t find entirely absurd and actually did give me a little bit of a fright.  The story was about the first WorldTeach volunteer in Vergel in 2006, Joe.  I had heard a little bit about Joe in the past and knew that he left after only six months because of a death in his family.  However Pablo told me the “real” reason he left.  

Just before Joe arrived the family added a small room to the side of the house that would be the new cuarto de teachers (teachers room).  Joe moved in and got settled. A little while after arriving his girlfriend came out for a visit and ended up staying for a few months.  Shortly after she arrived was when the trouble with the brujas (witches) started.  Supposedly, one night all the stray dogs in the area decided to sleep right outside Joe’s room, like they were protecting him from something. Then at some point in the middle of the night they all got up and chased something over to his classroom barking the entire way, and remained there barking for thirty to fourty-five minutes.  When Joe arrived at his classroom early the next morning he was met with a unexpected surprise. He found perfectly round circles of feces, about the size of baseballs, scattered all over the floor of his classroom.  The door to the classroom was closed exactly the way he had left it the night before, it was obvious that no one had opened it.   

This exact same scenario was repeated night after night at exactly the same time. The only difference being that the balls of feces would rotate between the floor, Joes desk, and the blackboard.  The family was convinced that one of the many brujas in the area was haunting Joe.  The last straw came one morning while Joe and his girlfriend were still lying in bed.  They heard the soft knock on their door and bruja calling out Joe’s name, Jooooee, Jooooeee, Jooooeee.  This really freaked everyone out and my host mother decided it was time to take action.  She made crosses out of banana leaves and put then on all the doors entering the house to scare away the evil spirits. And sure enough they did the trick; the dogs stopped sleeping outside el cuarto de teachers, the feces stopped appearing in the classroom, and the bruja stopped haunting Joe.

However, the crosses weren’t enough to suppress Joes fear and he moved back to the states shortly thereafter.  

My host mother became really worried when she found out that Pablo told me about the brujas.  She feared that I might get scared and want to leave too.  She reassured me that she has take many precautions to keep the brujas away, including making the teachers sleep in a different room, placing rosaries on the doors, and calling in Fathers Merriin and

karras to preform an exorcism (just kidding about that last one).  Since Joe left no one has spent the night in the cuarto de teachers.

I don’t know exactly how much of this story is true, and if I had to guess, I’d say not very much of it.  I say this because I know first hand how gossip can spread in a small town like Vergel, and how easily little things can get blown out of proportion.  However, I have to admit this story did scare me slightly more than any of the others I’ve hear so far.  Its also made me slightly more of a believer in the Borucan Folklore.   

Dominical

Many weekends I take a short bus trip just up the cost  to a little surf town called Dominical.  This is one of my favorite places to go because its ease of accessibility , laid back atmosphere, and good waves. It’s known in the surfing world as the Puerto Escondido of Costa Rica because its big, powerful, hollow, and great for tube riding.  

On one of my trips to Dominical back in May I found myself in a little bit of trouble. After arriving on friday afternoon, I threw my stuff down in my hostel, grabbed my board, and ran down to the beach to catch the last few hours of sunlight.  When I arrived I found the waves to be pretty big (the report said 7-10 foot and building throughout the night and next day).  Having surfed the beach quite a few times and feeling pretty confident out there, I didn’t even think twice about paddling out. However as soon as I got in the water I could tell it was much bigger than I thought. When I finally made my way through the heavy waves to the line up I noticed that the crowd was very small, only me, one other local, and a group of 5 or so lifeguards doing toe-ins on their rescue jet ski.  I spent the next few hours getting a number of good rides, pulling into a half dozen close-out barrels, and taking a few beatings in the process.  It was getting late and I decided to get one more.  I saw a solid over head wave coming my way and paddled for it, stood up and pulled into the barrel just like I’d been doing all afternoon.  This time, however, I didn’t get crushed by the falling lip and tossed around underwater, instead I got spit out into the shoulder, dry as a bone.  After having caught such an amazing ride a decided to paddle out for one more wave despite the late hour and being extremely fatigued.  Just as I arrived at the line up a HUGE set was peaking on the horizon, by far the biggest set of the day.   I paddled as hard as I could towards it, the wave growing bigger and bigger as I got closer.  I knew I had a chance at getting over it but it was going to be a close call.  Just as I got to the foot of the wave the lip started to curl over and I realized that it was going to land right in front of me.  I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get deep enough to duck dive it so I ditched my board and swam for the bottom.  I felt the wave explode above be so violently that I thought for sure my board was going to be in two pieces when I surfaced.  I was tossed around underwater for what seemed like an eternity.  The wave let up just enough to give me a chance to come up for a breath of air and a mouthful of foam before the next wave in the set exploded in-front of me.  I took 4 or five of these before the set let up just enough to allow me to get my bearings.  I noticed that my board was, thankfully, still in one piece.  I decided to call it a day so I jumped on and caught some white water for shore.  

I walked up the beach and sat down on a log to watch the lifeguards squeak in a few toe-in rides before nightfall.   I glanced down at my board and noticed how close it actually came to being snapped into two. There was a huge crease down the middle any small wipeout would surly break it.  Upset about the inevitable fate of my board, I didn’t even notice the on-duty lifeguard walking over to me.  When he stopped in front of me I thought he was going to tell me that he was worried he was going to have to rescue me from the huge set, but he actually came over to complement me on the barrel I had a few minutes prior.      

The waves that broke on me that day were, by far, the biggest and most powerful waves I’ve ever experienced.  Though they did give be a bit of a fright, they didn’t, scare me enough to want to leave my favorite little beach town.  

I’m still having a blast here in Costa Rica. Everyday is a new adventure.  Stay tuned for more tomorrow... 

Mono and All That Jazz

Hello all.  Sorry I’ve been a slacker lately with my blogging.  My schedule has been a bit hectic lately with mid year vacations and a short bout with mono, but here are a few cuentos from the last few months. 

For a big part of May and June I wasn't feeling 100%.  I hardly had the energy to stand up in class let alone make it through a whole day of teaching.  I told my host mother about how I was feeling and she just kept reassuring me that I had “un gripe nada mas” (just a cold).  At about the same time many of the other volunteers weren’t feeling great either and within the next few weeks WT started invading Clinica Biblica hospital in San Jose. By the end of June, 14 of the 23 volunteers tested positive for mononucleosis, me included. The country declared us (worldteach CR) a national epidemic.

The doctor told me that I had to be bed ridden for the next 8 days and that I could not teach. My fist reaction upon hearing this news was “but I have to teach! My students can’t miss 8 days of english class.” My response actually surprised me!   Somewhere in the weeks between our mid-service meetings in May and the beginning of June I stated to really enjoy teaching.  Weeks prior I would have loved to have a legitimate excuse to take a few days off work, but now the thought of not teaching for eight whole days actually scared me a little bit. What the heck what I going to do in Vergel for eight days?  I couldn’t exercise, play soccer, or go to the school to use the internet (because of the risk of passing on virus to the kids). I was going to be bored out of my mind.  Luckily I had a few good books, some empty sheets of sudoku, and chess on my computer to keep me busy.  I spent my mornings sitting on the cool cement floor of my room switching off reading A Thousand Splended Suns and Think and Grow Rich,  both of which i really enjoyed.  Once school was out and all the guilas had gone home, I’d walk over to my classroom and mess around on the internet for a while. I did my best to follow doctors orders and rest. I worked in at least 1-2 siestas per day.  The eight days went by a lot easier than I thought they would.  All in all I finished two books, played at least 40 games of chess against my computer, and got some much needed rest.      

My first day back at school felt great. The kids greeted me warmly and were legitimately excited to have English class again, although some were a little bit concerned to come near me because when they heard that I was sick assumed that I caught Swine flu, or Gripe de Chancho (Pig Disease) as they like to call it.  Nonetheless, I think the best part of being back was just getting into a routine again, even if it was only for a few days.  Because at the beginning of July our midyear vacations started and I had plans to travel  Costa Rica with my friends Ricky and Jon.  

Be sure to check back later this week for more D’Amico and the Ticos...