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.
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