Sights and Sounds

This is Day Two in Costa Rica.

I have gone to other countries on tours, where you stay at the best hotels with all the comforts of home. Or toured with someone special in Ireland or the US or Canada and experienced all with the language of English. I have gone to countries in Europe on my own where you walk amongst the locals but the richness is apparent and the tourists are plentiful. It's different in a Central American country.

There's a different pace. there's a different feeling. You see things that are familiar yet different. You do not understand the signs, the language or the customs. When you walk here in this small town in Costa Rica, you have to watch where your feet go - the sidewalks are wonky, the roads are uneven, the open sewer channels for the rain are deep. This is not the tourist area, where things are packaged at great expense for your enjoyment. This is real. The drivers have the right of way. Pedestrians are a nuisance.

The fear that we have for the unknown sometimes overwhelms us in life. We don't try new things because we are unable to reach outside our comfort zone.  Coming to a different culture is like making a change in your life where you are not sure of the outcome. It's exciting, filled with trepidation, a bit of fear, a bit of anxiety and a smidgen of homesickness.

Coming to this country is not a panacea for what ails you. It is instead a way to experience a life outside your own existence. It is not the romantic version in the movies. The sun isn't always out, there are no bugs or poverty, the people aren't singing in the hills. People are still people. As I walked aorund the town of Grecia today, I watched people taking a moment to just be, or a whole day to just stare, next to those who were feverishly texting friends. Familiar yet different. I watched them as they lived their lives, picking up bread at the corner store, cursing at the boys on the skateboards, mothers hustling their children away from the road, school children skipping down the sidewalk, women huddling together under the umbrella so they wouldn't get their hair wet. I was observing the same facial expressions as anywhere - concern, single mindedness, love and amusement, joy, annoyance and diffidence.

My fear dwindles. I observe those around me and welcome this part of the world into my life.

To report my day, my birthday on this earth, is purely selfish but that's what this blog is about! I ate wonderful food, walked around, talked to wonderful B&B owners, had a siesta, was too scared to go try and buy some floss bacuse I couldn't pronounce the translation, emailed and facebooked and skyped, and went to an amazing restaurant and was served a great steak and wine. The coffee tastes like liquid gold and the vanilla ice cream was so creamy that I was almost overwhelmed. I became a bit more comfortable in this foreign place - a place in which I was not born and will reside for a short time. It is yet one more step in this journey. I even learned a couple of words in Spanish that I will try to remember.

This place that I have chosen has plants that I see inside a house in Canada. I see impatiens growing on old gnarled thick vines along a wall. I see imperfections in walls and houses and roofs. I see bars on windows and broken doors and razor wire. I see perfection in this imperfection. I see a new reality in a different place.

It rained most of the afternoon and into the evening. In the back yard outside the back of the B&B is an area with a tiled floor and a tin roof. I am sitting on a couch typing this to the world, listening to the sound of the rain on the tin roof, hearing the rhythm of the water as it hits... a symphony of drumming.

Day two was a good day.