Photo: Miguelito Leiton Obanda looking over the San Luis Valley.
I am back at Cinco Hormigas Rojas (bed and breakfast) in San Jose for another day of transition. I said a fond and tender good-bye to my host family, Geovanny, Cristina, Miguelito and Daniel Leiton this morning. And then I traveled up the mountain from San Luis to Monteverde and then down and up again to San Jose by shuttle bus.
It is a kind of still point, this Good Friday. San Jose is empty and quiet. Almost all businesses and restaurants are closed. Semana Santa is a major holiday for Costa Ricans. There is no school all week, and most folks who are able travel to see family and friends.
So I am here waiting to see my family -- Donald -- tomorrow.
Donald and I have been Skyping as he packs his bags. At the same time he showed me our yard at home, blooming with daffodils and budding with bright green leaves. It will look totally different -- to him and to me -- when we arrive home next Sunday, one week after Easter.
It has been odd to spend this Holy Week away from family and friends. Though my host family is Catholic, we did not attend mass any time during my three week visit due to family and community activities.
Yesterday, Maundy Thursday, we did drive a long way down the mountain to the church at 3 pm with Dona Alicia, Geovanny’s mother. We planned to attend the special footwashing service. But no one was there. We heard two other potential times for the service, 4 pm and 5 pm. So we drove back up the mountain, up La Trocha, and to the supermarket in Santa Elena to buy food and beverages for the many, many visitors who are coming to the family farm, Finca la Catarata, this weekend.
As part of Semana Santa, at the finca there was a steady flow of family, friends, local visitors and tourists. The culture of Holy Week is one of hospitality, visiting, serving one another food and drink, walking together. Danny and some of his teen cousins grabbed their towels and hiked up the trail to swim at the base of the waterfall.
I had lots of time to sit high on the mountainside and soak in the blues of the sky, the greens of the rain forest, and the sounds of birds calling, layered with familial conversations like river tumbling over rocks, and syncopated by the yips of dogs wrestling, and children chasing one another with pails of water.
For “coffee” we have good Costa Rican coffee, of course, and fish and vegetable soup with rice and the traditional “modo” of Holy Week. I meet more of Geovanny’s eleven brothers and sisters and their children. And I got to teach some of the grandchildren how to play Dutch Blitz! Some things work in all languages.
However, it did make me miss my daughter, Rachel, since this is her favorite game.
I was part of this family communion for one more day, ending with a last supper in the evening at home around our small kitchen table.
As I left Monteverde this morning, the shuttle driver asked me a question I have heard many times:
“Why did you come to Costa Rica for these two months?”This is a good time to stop and ponder…
“I came to be part of the language and culture of Costa Rica. I came away from responsibilities. I came to learn to be present and alive -- to a different world of people and of beauty. I wanted to stop and listen and love.”I have been granted many gifts.
The Leiton family fully welcomed me into the intimate life of their family at home and the extended life of their family and community in San Jose.
By this week I was able to greet most of the folks we passed by, having met many of the members of the 72 families of San Luis. I jokingly said to Geovanny, “Yes, and 60 of these families are your relatives!” I was not far off.
This week the family visited the cloud forest, to see a female quetzal, and a whole garden of hummingbirds! It was what tourists usually do first in this region. I felt thankful to do it last, and to walk the trails with my family, now my friends, and to see this world through their eyes.
I end this writing on Holy Saturday. It is a day "in between."
Donald is now by my side getting the sleep he missed as he traveled through the night. Tomorrow, Easter, begins a new and final week in Costa Rica.
And now I am seeing through the eyes of Donald as well.
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