Here's something highly irritating about Costa Rican culture: When someone calls you and they don't recognize your voice, they ALL (and I friggin' mean EVERY SINGLE PERSON does this) ask "¿Quien habla?" (Who's speaking?). This annoying habit seems to have come from the days when we didn't worry too much about revealing our identities over the phone, and our parents taught us to answer like a good receptionist: "Jones residence, this is Lolita speaking!" all with great cheer in our voices. Those days are over, but the Costa Ricans do not seem to have caught up with the times. (They have only recently stopped putting your entire credit card number on receipts, for goodness sakes!)
So when I get a "Quien habla" call, "None of your G-D biz" is what I say! Actually, I don't, but I don't tell them who I am, either. I usually say, "¿Con quien desea hablar?" (With whom do you wish to speak?). At this point, they do one of two things: 1) realize that they don't know you and don't want to talk to you, and hang up, or 2) haltingly give you some other stranger's name (er, ah, Gonzalo? Ofelia? Emilia? Raul?). This has led to me doing one of two things 1) letting esposo answer the phone or 2) letting the answering machine get it. The only time I will answer the phone now is if I recognize the phone number in caller ID. AGHHH!
Another good one is when you answer the phone and they simply say someone's name. "Raul?" Sometimes this name is phrased in the form of a question that sounds like they're asking you "Is this Raul?" Other times the single-word response is in the form of a statement, as if they're saying "Raul, glad you're home!" Either way, do I friggin' sound like Raul? J. Sucristo*, I hope not! Maybe my OB-GYN needs to recheck my hormone therapy dosage. In these cases, I will say, "¿Me parace Raul?" (Do I sound like Raul?) And then I usually get a "Er, um, ah disculpe señora..."
*J. Sucristo, sort-of meaning "J. Your Christ" but which originally meant "Jesus Christ!" and came from the back of a car esposo and I saw one day that had giant stickers reading (in Spanish, obviously) "Jesucristo" with the "e" missing. We have, since that time, used "J. Sucristo" in place of "Jesus Christ!" This way we can be sacreligious and inoffensive to the Spanish-speaking populous at the same time! Whee!
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
E-mail Sheep
The idiocy of chain mail has certainly not left Costa Rica unscathed. On a weekly (or more often) basis, I am bombarded with the most annoying "forwards" from one of the people I work with in Costa Rica. Being a Catholic country, most of this "wonderful" junk is religious in nature, and I tend to just delete it, wishing this person would take me off of his forwarding list! However, I received one the other day that enraged me too much to pass up.
This particular e-mail had to do with some movie that the recipient was asked to sign a petition banning, based on the claim that it "mocked Jesus." (I admit I was so angry that I just deleted it, steaming as I did so, or I'd reproduce it here.) Now, who in their right mind sends an e-mail petition to a magazine editor asking them to participate in censorship of any kind? It's true that I do not report the news, but I am a 100% believer in freedom of expression, as long as it isn't something that forcibly harmed someone or something in its making (child porn or animal snuff films, for example, which I find beyond reprehensible). Adult porn? Not my thing, but whatever, I am not going to say how someone else should live. A movie that purportedly "mocks Jesus"? I have never even heard of said movie, so how could I possibly take one COMPLETE STRANGER'S opinion on the movie and blindly accept that what this person has said is true?
Here in Costa Rica (as I said earlier, a Catholic country), there is a great debate going on about the movie "The Da Vinci Code." Catholic leaders in this country are asking followers not to see it, even though they themselves admit they have never read the book! I just find that, at the least, irresponsible. I loved the book and can't wait to see the movie, and neither can my husband. It was great to be able to talk to someone who comes from a Catholic background about the ideas in the book as mature people without anger or defensiveness. What if...?? This is basically the premise of Brown's book, and I see nothing anti-religion in it. In fact, as my husband pointed out in a forum specifically about "The Da Vinci Code" on La Nacion, wouldn't it strengthen your faith to know that Jesus was someone even more like you; somone who had a wife, a child. Personally, I have always believed Jesus to be something other than what is in the Bible (which is, at its core, a collection of stories written from several individuals' points of view -- many gospels were never included in the Bible because they lacked mass appeal, so who knows what information they might have contained?): An extraordinary person who did extraordinary things, but a person nonetheless, like you or I might have been.
Back to the junk mail: let's assume that it is true, and the movie in question "mocks Jesus." Is there no room in this world for dissent from mainstream religion, or are we all supposed to blindly follow along, doing whatever we are told simply becaus church leaders say it is so (I am led to believe the latter is true). Perhaps the filmmaker had something thought-provoking to say, or perhaps the movie was truly anti-Christian, but we would never know it if the movie was simply banned and there was no room for public discourse on the matter. We would never be given the chance to agree or disagree with the filmmaker; we would never be given the chance to think for ourselves. Perhaps Christians would despise the film, but perhaps also it would strengthen their faith. Who knows, if we all simply blindly followed along and signed a petition to ban the movie we had never even seen, let alone heard of.
Personally, I was apalled to see 27 names ahead of the sender's, and I seriously doubt any of them actually saw the movie. Sheep. I refuse to be a sheep, and I hope that my son will never be a sheep, either. I'd much rather he saw, read or participated in something I disagreed with and we could discuss said activity, perhaps seeing (at least respecting) each other's point of view. Perhaps we could come to an agreement; perhaps we wouldn't. But at least he would decide for himself and use his head to consider what he was doing, instead of blindly following someone's order "not to read that book, or see that movie." To think for oneself: I am led to believe that institutionalized religion is adamantly opposed to this, otherwise the sheep might start to think for themselves. How sad.
Update: It appears this whole thing started as some kind of joke to get Christians all riled up. I tend to check out Snopes.com whenever I get something ridiculous like this, and when I looked this one up, sure enough, there it was.
This particular e-mail had to do with some movie that the recipient was asked to sign a petition banning, based on the claim that it "mocked Jesus." (I admit I was so angry that I just deleted it, steaming as I did so, or I'd reproduce it here.) Now, who in their right mind sends an e-mail petition to a magazine editor asking them to participate in censorship of any kind? It's true that I do not report the news, but I am a 100% believer in freedom of expression, as long as it isn't something that forcibly harmed someone or something in its making (child porn or animal snuff films, for example, which I find beyond reprehensible). Adult porn? Not my thing, but whatever, I am not going to say how someone else should live. A movie that purportedly "mocks Jesus"? I have never even heard of said movie, so how could I possibly take one COMPLETE STRANGER'S opinion on the movie and blindly accept that what this person has said is true?
Here in Costa Rica (as I said earlier, a Catholic country), there is a great debate going on about the movie "The Da Vinci Code." Catholic leaders in this country are asking followers not to see it, even though they themselves admit they have never read the book! I just find that, at the least, irresponsible. I loved the book and can't wait to see the movie, and neither can my husband. It was great to be able to talk to someone who comes from a Catholic background about the ideas in the book as mature people without anger or defensiveness. What if...?? This is basically the premise of Brown's book, and I see nothing anti-religion in it. In fact, as my husband pointed out in a forum specifically about "The Da Vinci Code" on La Nacion, wouldn't it strengthen your faith to know that Jesus was someone even more like you; somone who had a wife, a child. Personally, I have always believed Jesus to be something other than what is in the Bible (which is, at its core, a collection of stories written from several individuals' points of view -- many gospels were never included in the Bible because they lacked mass appeal, so who knows what information they might have contained?): An extraordinary person who did extraordinary things, but a person nonetheless, like you or I might have been.
Back to the junk mail: let's assume that it is true, and the movie in question "mocks Jesus." Is there no room in this world for dissent from mainstream religion, or are we all supposed to blindly follow along, doing whatever we are told simply becaus church leaders say it is so (I am led to believe the latter is true). Perhaps the filmmaker had something thought-provoking to say, or perhaps the movie was truly anti-Christian, but we would never know it if the movie was simply banned and there was no room for public discourse on the matter. We would never be given the chance to agree or disagree with the filmmaker; we would never be given the chance to think for ourselves. Perhaps Christians would despise the film, but perhaps also it would strengthen their faith. Who knows, if we all simply blindly followed along and signed a petition to ban the movie we had never even seen, let alone heard of.
Personally, I was apalled to see 27 names ahead of the sender's, and I seriously doubt any of them actually saw the movie. Sheep. I refuse to be a sheep, and I hope that my son will never be a sheep, either. I'd much rather he saw, read or participated in something I disagreed with and we could discuss said activity, perhaps seeing (at least respecting) each other's point of view. Perhaps we could come to an agreement; perhaps we wouldn't. But at least he would decide for himself and use his head to consider what he was doing, instead of blindly following someone's order "not to read that book, or see that movie." To think for oneself: I am led to believe that institutionalized religion is adamantly opposed to this, otherwise the sheep might start to think for themselves. How sad.
Update: It appears this whole thing started as some kind of joke to get Christians all riled up. I tend to check out Snopes.com whenever I get something ridiculous like this, and when I looked this one up, sure enough, there it was.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
I Just Want Someburger to Love
On the topic of stupid commercials, there's another one that pops up fairly frequently. It's for a company called Paty that makes hamburgers. The tag line goes, "Paty te cuida, Paty te quiere," or "Paty takes care of you, Paty loves you." Really? Now hamburgers love me? Or some anonymous Paty person who makes hamburgers loves me? Maybe she just loves me so I'll buy her hamburgers, which means I guess she doesn't love me, since I'm a vegan.
There is also a Burger King commercial that I (and my husband) find completely offensive. There's a woman in a hospital bed, having just given birth, and who seems to be having difficulty breastfeeding her baby. The nurse, with her gigantic, silicone-enhanced breasts, takes the baby and — you guessed it! — immediately the baby begins nursing. The tagline goes something like, "Bigger, better, grilled." Aside from the ridiculous offensiveness of a stranger with big boobs being able to nurse the baby better than his own mother, GRILLED? Yeah, yeah, the BURGERS are "bigger, better, grilled," but the boobs, hopefully, are not grilled. What would happen if you grilled breast implants, anyway?
And on the topic of random fireworks for any given celebration, last night was someone's birthday here in my neighborhood in the boonies, complete with mariachi band and — you guessed it! — fireworks. Gah! The mariachis I can handle, at least. But WTF with the freakin' fireworks?
There is also a Burger King commercial that I (and my husband) find completely offensive. There's a woman in a hospital bed, having just given birth, and who seems to be having difficulty breastfeeding her baby. The nurse, with her gigantic, silicone-enhanced breasts, takes the baby and — you guessed it! — immediately the baby begins nursing. The tagline goes something like, "Bigger, better, grilled." Aside from the ridiculous offensiveness of a stranger with big boobs being able to nurse the baby better than his own mother, GRILLED? Yeah, yeah, the BURGERS are "bigger, better, grilled," but the boobs, hopefully, are not grilled. What would happen if you grilled breast implants, anyway?
And on the topic of random fireworks for any given celebration, last night was someone's birthday here in my neighborhood in the boonies, complete with mariachi band and — you guessed it! — fireworks. Gah! The mariachis I can handle, at least. But WTF with the freakin' fireworks?
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Hooray for Easter Fireworks — NOT!
I am awoken at 10:45 by what sounds like an airstrike, or perhaps an earthquake, or maybe the ICE's transformer blowing out again. I grab esposo's arm, mumbling something along the lines of "What the hell was that?" Another sonic boom, and I realize it's this idiotic B-F town celebrating Easter. Oh joy.
My dogs hate fireworks. Isabella is already at the back window crying and scratching the wall to get in. Normally the big dogs sleep outside, but tonight I manage, to the chorus of never-ending sonic booms, to crawl out of bed and let the three who hate fireworks the most inside.
Costa Rica, and this town in the boonies in particular, has a "thing" for fireworks. There are fireworks on all the usual occasions — New Year's, Independence Day, etc. There also seem to be firworks for holidays one would not normally expect fireworks on, such as Mother's Day, or, so it seems, Easter. And of course Costa Rican holidays like Juan Santamaria Day get fireworks. So do birthdays, christenings, weddings, 12-year anniversaries, etc. The week or two leading up to New Year's Eve is a virtual fireworks insanity, with cherry bombs (these appear to be the explosive device of choice around here) going off every 15 or 20 minutes from sundown on, every night. You would think it was the Costa Ricans, not the Chinese, who invented fireworks. You would think, too, that the Costa Ricans feel somewhat nostaligic for those good ol' days of military might. What is New Year's Eve without a good air raid? Or Easter, for that matter?
I hate it, and my poor dogs freak out during all of these episodes. Last night, as I finally managed to stumble around in the dark, get the dogs in, get back in bed, all without waking up the baby, they miraculously stopped.
What WOULD Jesus do about Easter fireworks, anyway?
My dogs hate fireworks. Isabella is already at the back window crying and scratching the wall to get in. Normally the big dogs sleep outside, but tonight I manage, to the chorus of never-ending sonic booms, to crawl out of bed and let the three who hate fireworks the most inside.
Costa Rica, and this town in the boonies in particular, has a "thing" for fireworks. There are fireworks on all the usual occasions — New Year's, Independence Day, etc. There also seem to be firworks for holidays one would not normally expect fireworks on, such as Mother's Day, or, so it seems, Easter. And of course Costa Rican holidays like Juan Santamaria Day get fireworks. So do birthdays, christenings, weddings, 12-year anniversaries, etc. The week or two leading up to New Year's Eve is a virtual fireworks insanity, with cherry bombs (these appear to be the explosive device of choice around here) going off every 15 or 20 minutes from sundown on, every night. You would think it was the Costa Ricans, not the Chinese, who invented fireworks. You would think, too, that the Costa Ricans feel somewhat nostaligic for those good ol' days of military might. What is New Year's Eve without a good air raid? Or Easter, for that matter?
I hate it, and my poor dogs freak out during all of these episodes. Last night, as I finally managed to stumble around in the dark, get the dogs in, get back in bed, all without waking up the baby, they miraculously stopped.
What WOULD Jesus do about Easter fireworks, anyway?
Sunday, April 09, 2006
The Story of Luna
I really wanted to write something nice about Costa Rica, since I seem to be doing more bitching than praising lately. So here it is — veterinary care is excellent and inexpensive here. I have seven dogs, three cats, and a bunch of other animals (chickens, a rabbit and now guinea fowl), so having access to both good and cheap veterinary care is essential.
We have a major tick problem out here in the boonies. I have tried just about everything to get rid of them: Advantix does not work at all, Frontline works for a few days, and a special vaccine made for both mange and ticks seems to work the best. Someone told me about a product called Ectol (sp?) today, so I'm going to check into that one. At any rate, at $10 a pop, it would soon get too expensive to use Frontline once a month, so in a way it's ok that it doesn't work well. The vaccines are around $1.50 and I get them at the agro next door to the cafe, where they'll give the dogs the shots or you can take them home to do them yourself.
It has been quite a hassle taking two dogs at a time down to the agro for the shots (since no way am I doing them myself), and they just seem to pass the ticks around each other that way. So last week I had the idea to ask someone there if they could come by the house and give all the dogs the shots at one time. One of the guys who works there said he would do it — on his day off, I might add — so we arranged for him to come by the next day. He gave all the injections, we gave him a little extra for his time (which he did not ask for and which is unlikely he would have asked for anyway), and this seems to be doing the trick. Now how many vets in the U.S. would do that for you?
Yesterday, I walked the baby down to the cafe and noticed they had two guinea fowl for sale. Guinea fowl are known for eradicating ticks from any area in which they live, so I was very excited to see them, considering I've been trying to find some for a year with no luck. Esteban has a few on his property and not one single tick among his dogs. So I asked about the birds, and the same guy that came to do the vaccines said I was welcome to borrow their cage and even pay on Monday, since they were closing in about 10 minutes. Great! Now all I have to do is figure out how to make a chicken tractor, as I won't let them run around the yard in case Numi the Escape Artist gets out and goes after them.
So these agro people sound nice enough, you're thinking. So did I, until Luna made an appearance.
Luna showed up at the cafe on Saturday; we let her hang out, and gave her some food and water. She is a beautiful little black Lab-mix puppy, probably not more than 3 months old. One of the things I really, really hate about Costa Rica is the way many people think of animals as disposable things. That someone could dump this puppy, assume that someone else would take her in and take care of her, or just not even care what happens to her is beyond irresponsible, it's reprehensible.
I start sending out "this puppy needs a home" e-mails, asking various people if they want a dog, etc. etc. Today we do a regular Sunday catering job, and on the way back esposo picks up the camera to take a photo of Luna (I named her that because she looks like our big black Lab Chloe, whose middle name is Luna). When we get to the cafe, the camera's batteries are dead (of course!), so I figure I'll go home and recharge them, then come back later to take the picture.
As I'm getting ready to leave, a wonderful, dedicated woman (Luz Marina) who helps with rescued animals in the area (as well as checks on abuse/neglect complaints) stops by the cafe, looking for the puppy. Apparently, what had happened was that a man asked the agro people if they would try to adopt out the puppy on Friday, and if no one took her, he'd come back for her at closing time. Somehow Luz Marina either heard about it or saw the puppy, and asked them to please call her if the man did not come back to claim the dog, and she would pick her up. Of course the man never showed up, and the people at the agro (who must know Luz Marina quite well) did not call her. Instead, they just let the dog loose on the streets.
Now, the cafe is located on the 2nd busiest street in this small town. Why on Earth would they dump the dog on the street when they could just as easily have called Luz Marina? I have no idea. She came by on Saturday, the agro people said they didn't have the dog anymore, she was sort of frantic looking all over town for her, and here Luna had camped out at the cafe.
[Side note: I sort of think dogs have a separate "sense" about these kinds of things, like where they're welcome, as Luna is the third dog to have made herself at home at the cafe. Others have come and gone, and we had a cat come and stay as well until someone stole her.]
All they had to do at the agro was pick up the phone. Instead, the let the puppy loose to possibly get hit by a car, poisoned, who knows what. Why would they do that? What would be the reason? I had heard from other people that they did the same thing with other kittens and puppies that did not get adopted "in time." I found it hard to believe then, but can't deny it now. And I simply do not understand it. Luckily, Luna made her way to our place, where animals are never turned away. Luckily, too, Luz Marina thought to check with us about her, and tonight she is sleeping in a warm bed. She will be spayed, de-wormed and vaccinated, and then put up for adoption. I do believe that Luna will find her forever home soon, and I know she will be a loving (and hopefully very loved) member of some family. She is a gentle soul who deserves better than she has been handed so far in her short life. And she's definitely one of the lucky ones.
[Side note 2: I want to point out that it was the agro's owner, not the vaccinating guy, who promised to call Luz Marina but neglected to do so, though anyone at the agro really could have/should have called her.]
We have a major tick problem out here in the boonies. I have tried just about everything to get rid of them: Advantix does not work at all, Frontline works for a few days, and a special vaccine made for both mange and ticks seems to work the best. Someone told me about a product called Ectol (sp?) today, so I'm going to check into that one. At any rate, at $10 a pop, it would soon get too expensive to use Frontline once a month, so in a way it's ok that it doesn't work well. The vaccines are around $1.50 and I get them at the agro next door to the cafe, where they'll give the dogs the shots or you can take them home to do them yourself.
It has been quite a hassle taking two dogs at a time down to the agro for the shots (since no way am I doing them myself), and they just seem to pass the ticks around each other that way. So last week I had the idea to ask someone there if they could come by the house and give all the dogs the shots at one time. One of the guys who works there said he would do it — on his day off, I might add — so we arranged for him to come by the next day. He gave all the injections, we gave him a little extra for his time (which he did not ask for and which is unlikely he would have asked for anyway), and this seems to be doing the trick. Now how many vets in the U.S. would do that for you?
Yesterday, I walked the baby down to the cafe and noticed they had two guinea fowl for sale. Guinea fowl are known for eradicating ticks from any area in which they live, so I was very excited to see them, considering I've been trying to find some for a year with no luck. Esteban has a few on his property and not one single tick among his dogs. So I asked about the birds, and the same guy that came to do the vaccines said I was welcome to borrow their cage and even pay on Monday, since they were closing in about 10 minutes. Great! Now all I have to do is figure out how to make a chicken tractor, as I won't let them run around the yard in case Numi the Escape Artist gets out and goes after them.
So these agro people sound nice enough, you're thinking. So did I, until Luna made an appearance.
Luna showed up at the cafe on Saturday; we let her hang out, and gave her some food and water. She is a beautiful little black Lab-mix puppy, probably not more than 3 months old. One of the things I really, really hate about Costa Rica is the way many people think of animals as disposable things. That someone could dump this puppy, assume that someone else would take her in and take care of her, or just not even care what happens to her is beyond irresponsible, it's reprehensible.
I start sending out "this puppy needs a home" e-mails, asking various people if they want a dog, etc. etc. Today we do a regular Sunday catering job, and on the way back esposo picks up the camera to take a photo of Luna (I named her that because she looks like our big black Lab Chloe, whose middle name is Luna). When we get to the cafe, the camera's batteries are dead (of course!), so I figure I'll go home and recharge them, then come back later to take the picture.
As I'm getting ready to leave, a wonderful, dedicated woman (Luz Marina) who helps with rescued animals in the area (as well as checks on abuse/neglect complaints) stops by the cafe, looking for the puppy. Apparently, what had happened was that a man asked the agro people if they would try to adopt out the puppy on Friday, and if no one took her, he'd come back for her at closing time. Somehow Luz Marina either heard about it or saw the puppy, and asked them to please call her if the man did not come back to claim the dog, and she would pick her up. Of course the man never showed up, and the people at the agro (who must know Luz Marina quite well) did not call her. Instead, they just let the dog loose on the streets.
Now, the cafe is located on the 2nd busiest street in this small town. Why on Earth would they dump the dog on the street when they could just as easily have called Luz Marina? I have no idea. She came by on Saturday, the agro people said they didn't have the dog anymore, she was sort of frantic looking all over town for her, and here Luna had camped out at the cafe.
[Side note: I sort of think dogs have a separate "sense" about these kinds of things, like where they're welcome, as Luna is the third dog to have made herself at home at the cafe. Others have come and gone, and we had a cat come and stay as well until someone stole her.]
All they had to do at the agro was pick up the phone. Instead, the let the puppy loose to possibly get hit by a car, poisoned, who knows what. Why would they do that? What would be the reason? I had heard from other people that they did the same thing with other kittens and puppies that did not get adopted "in time." I found it hard to believe then, but can't deny it now. And I simply do not understand it. Luckily, Luna made her way to our place, where animals are never turned away. Luckily, too, Luz Marina thought to check with us about her, and tonight she is sleeping in a warm bed. She will be spayed, de-wormed and vaccinated, and then put up for adoption. I do believe that Luna will find her forever home soon, and I know she will be a loving (and hopefully very loved) member of some family. She is a gentle soul who deserves better than she has been handed so far in her short life. And she's definitely one of the lucky ones.
[Side note 2: I want to point out that it was the agro's owner, not the vaccinating guy, who promised to call Luz Marina but neglected to do so, though anyone at the agro really could have/should have called her.]
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