wish I had a mango tree....

Last week I went to La Flor with my friend Mari. Her family lives there. The organic farm (where I was migrant worker for a month) is also in La Flor. That’s how I met Mari. She worked there. She helped me with my Spanish. She became my first real second-language friend.

Walking through the farm was almost surreal. It’s so strange to go back to a place, years later, when things are so different and so the same. Most of the people working there were new. Eugenia, the cook, was still there. I used to help her make breakfast at 5:30am every morning in the outdoor pavilion kitchen. A lot of the same animals were still there too… I’m pretty sure my canine compañera, Benjamina remembered me. She used to walk with me down into the valley when I stayed out in this one dorm by myself (about a 15 minute walk away from everyone else). She slept outside the door and waited for me to walk back in the morning. She also chased away the snakes (most of the time).

There were some LASP students there doing their internship. I talked with this Canadian guy who was in the Spanish sped class. Oh dear. It reminded me of when I was a student… who had no idea what was going on and couldn’t speak Spanish at all. I’ve come a long way… in so many respects.

I loved being at Mari’s house. Just that feeling of family is so significant. Her mom is great. For some reason, I just loved how Mari (and her sister when she came) wiped her hands on her mom’s apron. It was just a small absent-minded gesture that was really endearing.

On Saturday and Sunday I went to Orotina with my Tico family. They have a house there with a big yard and lots of fruit trees. Eating star fruit off the tree? Don’t mind if I do. They said there used to be a lot of iguanas that came into the yard, but the neighbors ate them all. Whoops.

It was really relaxing… swimming in the aunt and uncle’s pool, reading in the hammock, watching hummingbirds (while reading The Hummingbird’s Daughter), strolling down the dirt road, chilling at the beach… dynamite! Also, they had a mango tree in their backyard. Wish I had a mango tree, in my backyard.