Laundry, Costa Rican style

When we arrived here, the most obvious surprise and adjustment we had to make was washing clothes. As soon as we saw our washing machine, we knew we were in a different place. As you can see in the picture, even Timothy is a bit confused by it.

First, let me describe this contraption. It is old, probably made in the late 80’s or early 90’s. The original color is that strange yellowish-beige that was so popular in the 80’s, complimented by over a decade of sun-fading. The lettering on the front reads “semi-automatic” and “Super Deluxe.” It has a cycle selector, two timer dials (the only automatic part), two toggle buttons and one buzzer volume control (perhaps this is the super deluxe feature). There is one large basin on the left and a smaller with a tall cylindrical basket in it to the right. It is connected to the water faucets with ordinary green garden hoses. We asked our dueña (landlady) how to use it and she gave us a crash course, but it took some experimenting and questioning to finally get the hang of it. Here is how it works, as explained by the engineer of the family:

Wash
Step 1: Manually turn on water ensuring that “wash” is selected on the “water selector” button and “wash/rinse” is selected on the “drain selector” button so that the water enters the large basin on the left and does not drain away.
Step 2: Add desired amount of laundry detergent.
Step 3: Insert soiled clothing into large basin.
Step 4: Wait for basin to fill to desired level and turn off water.
Step 5: Use the cycle selector to select gentle, normal, or strong (this simply changes the time between agitations).
Step 6: Set the wash timer dial to the desired agitation time for washing (about 9 minutes).
Step 7: Wait for agitation to complete.
Step 8: Select “drain” on the “drain selector” button to drain the water.
Step 9: Wait for the water to drain.

First Rinse
Step 10: Select “wash/rinse” on the “drain selector” button.
Step 11: Manually turn on water to refill basin for rinse.
Step 12: Wait for basin to fill to desired level and turn off water.
Step 13: Set the wash timer dial to the desired agitation time for rinsing (about 6 minutes).
Step 14: Wait for agitation to complete.
Step 15: Select “drain” on the “drain selector” button to drain the water.
Step 16: Wait for the water to drain.

Second Rinse
Step 17: Repeat steps 10 to 16 adding fabric softener to the rinse if desired.

Centrifuge
Step 18: Move as much clean clothing from the large basin on the left that will fit into the basket in the smaller basin on the right.
Step 19: Select “centrifuge” on the “water selector” button.
Step 20: Manually turn on water to run over clothes in the small basin.
Step 21: Set the centrifuge timer dial to the desired centrifuge time (about 2-3 minutes).
Step 22: Wait about 30 seconds and turn off water.
Step 23: Wait for the centrifuge to complete.
Step 24: Place clothes on line or in dryer to dry and repeat steps 25 to 30 for clothes that wouldn’t fit in the basket the first time.

Going to the market...

We have been living here in Costa Rica for over two months now, and are starting to feel more confident in living our daily lives here. When we first arrived, even basic things like food preparation were daunting because we did not find all of the food that we are used to, and because we did not know how to prepare the food we did find! We have a long way to go in the learning process, but we are learning how to use the fresh vegetables and delicious tropical fruits we buy at the feria (outdoor market) to prepare our meals.

Our neighborhood has a small feria that we had been walking to every Saturday morning, but we recently discovered the HUGE feria in Zapote (a nearby town). The 5 minute drive is worth the experience of this market. There we encounter not only rows and rows of every kind of fruit and vegetable you can imagine, but also vendors selling flowers, baked goods, many kinds of raw meat, juices, clothing, kitchen items, etc. We squeeze our way through the bustling crowds (which is tricky with Timmy's stoller). We are surrounded by the vibrant colors and smells of tropical fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The yelling of the vendors trying to attract us to their produce can be overwhelming because we can barely understand it. There are many surprises as we walk around, including cases of chicken feet in the meat section or juice being squeezed out of some sort of large stalk in the juice section (we're not sure what it is: bamboo or sugar cane?). After an hour or so, we go away with our week's supply of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Throughout the week, we enjoy fruit salads and meals made from the fresh vegetables. By mid-week, we might start running out of what we purchased at the feria over the weekend, but a truck stops on our street every Thursday morning selling produce and we can replenish our fruit and vegetable supply from his goods until we go to the feria again on Saturday or Sunday.

¡Que lindo!

Here in Costa Rica, when we walk down the street, around the feria (outdoor market), or through a store, we hear exclamations of "¡Ay, que lindo!" (how cute!) or "¡Que bello!" (how beautiful!) as people walk by us. It only took us a couple of seconds to figure out that these admirations were not in response to Dan or me, but to our darling baby. Timothy is definitely the source of much attention here. Even really little kids like to stop and peek into his stoller. People stop to admire his blue eyes, his curls, and his roly-poly chubbiness. They inquire about his age, his weight, and his eating or sleeping habits. He seems to really melt hearts when he's wearing a sombrerito (little hat). When we first arrived here, Timmy often cried when someone spoke to him in Spanish, but now he almost always rewards his admirers' Spanish baby talk with a winning smile of delight. It is so cute. Dan and I also enjoy the names we've heard him called, including guapito (handsome little guy), gordito (little fatty), blanquito (little whitey), and muñeco (doll). [cultural note: calling someone, even adults, gordito or blanquito is not offensive here and often shows endearment...]

I realized how much attention Timmy draws a couple of weeks ago when I was on a walk without him for the first time since we've been here in Costa Rica. I noticed that no one stopped to talk to me; usually when just Timothy and I are out for a walk, we talk to a lot of people. So, the lesson learned is that having a baby is a great relationship-building tool, especially in this warm culture that adores children!

It's not so easy...

The week after we wrote our previous post about accepting the unexpected, we were put to the test, and I (Sarah) was completely humbled. Right after optimistically writing that we had learned to accept inconveniences like the electricity or water being out, I realized that that really wasn't true of me.

Our running water was out first for repairs, then because a bulldozer broke a pipe during the repairs, and then because of un movimiento de la tierra (lit. "a movement of the earth"). For six out of eight days, we did not have water, along with hundreds of thousands of others in our city and the surrounding areas. The first day without water was a Saturday and by Thursday, I had had enough. Dan had gone to three different stores before he found a large bottle of drinking water to buy for us. We had only a little bit of water left of what we had saved and pouring that into the toilet did not flush it. I had absolutely no desire to accept this unexpected event! And yet, we heard on the news that no one knew when we would have water again. By Friday, we were both tired of rationing drinking water, barely washing our hands, not having showers, and giving Timmy sponge baths. Our dirty dishes were piled up in the sink on our back patio and we were out of clothes to wear. The smell of unflushed toilets in our neighborhood was getting more and more evident. Thankfully, we were able to leave for our previously planned visit to Atenas, not only to see our friends there, but to take showers! How good of the Lord to have arranged that trip for us for that weekend!

I sat down and cried when, as we were getting ready to leave Atenas on Sunday, we learned that our area was still without water. I really wanted to outright refuse to go back to San José, convinced that our water was never returning. I was not even thinking about trying to deal with the difficulty, much less gracefully and joyfully accepting the unexpected (who wrote that previous post anyway?). Dan assessed the breakdown and decided to keep the family in Atenas until Monday morning.

We took 15 gallons of drinking water back with us, with plans to share it with friends or neighbors if everyone was out of water and still couldn't find any in the stores. We were esctatic to find out that that wasn't necessary because we had water again when we got home! Apparently, it came back on sometime on Sunday night; we were among the last neighborhoods to get it back.

So, I learned that I have a long way to go before I can say that I've learned to accept the unexpected. But, I have learned to be thankful for some of the things I used to take for granted... and to keep a large supply of full water bottles on the back patio!

Accepting the Unexpected

Greetings from beautiful Costa Rica! The past several months have been a whirlwind as we adjusted to life as new parents, packed up and prepared to leave home, moved to a new country, and began language school here in San Francisco de Dos Rios. Amongst the whirlwind, there have been many new joys, unexpected struggles and important lessons. As we look back on the experience so far, we find it hard to believe that we’ve already been in Costa Rica for nearly a month. At the same time, it seems a very long time since we left home!

Our focus right now is to increase our knowledge of Spanish and to learn how to live and thrive in our new home before moving to Atenas (the location of EMI’s Central America office). While we are eager to begin our roles of project leader and intern program coordinators there, we are realizing more and more how necessary this time focused on learning is for us. One of our biggest lessons has been learning to expect to be surprised and to expect things to not necessarily be as we had originally anticipated.

Accepting this has helped us feel at home in the “furnished” apartment that surprisingly didn’t have the pots, pans, utensils, dishes, small appliances, or the automatic washer and dryer that we had understood it would have. It’s helped us to start to accept in stride things like our electricity or water being out at random times throughout the week. It also helped us very quickly change our original language school plans when we arrived at our school on orientation day and realized that we did not feel ready to put little Timmy in the nursery while we are in class. While Dan is attending conversation and grammar classes, Sarah is now studying with a private tutor so that Timothy can be with her. In all of these things, God has graciously carried us through the unexpected.

In addition to our language study, we are beginning to learn how to live here – how to shop for food at the local stores and the market, how to cook with this food, how to find our way around, how to appropriately dress our baby in the rainy season, etc. We have enjoyed exploring and putting our Spanish study into practice. There are many things that we appreciate about this culture and we are eager to become more a part of it as it becomes home to us.

Please pray for us as we learn to expect (and accept!) the unexpected.