June 23rd, 2009 fmorgan
I hate being injured. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen that often, but about ten days or so ago, I did something really strange to my leg. A storm came up as I was walking from the office to the house. I don’t care if I get wet, but I had some papers in my hand so I started running up the steep path to our house. I do it all the time, but this time something popped in the calf of my leg. It felt like someone punched me or something. I still don’t know what happened, but I had to get someone to rescue the papers and bring me a big stick to lean on so I could hobble my way to the house.
I had an important visitor the next day whom I was going to escort all over the farms. In the morning I could still put no weight on the leg nor flex my foot, so I had a driver take me to pick up the visitor. I made a valiant effort, but after about ten steps, I had to let someone else escort him inside the first plantation. I got home as soon as I could, turned over tour duties to others, and retreated to a couch to attempt not to move for a while.
By the next night it was a little better, and we sat in a hot spring for a while. That helped.
Now after about ten days, it is almost okay, but it still twinges, which tells me I better not go running for a while. Thankfully, it has recovered enough so that I no longer am in danger of country remedies. We have a lot of workers, and they are very concerned if I get sick (very rare) or injured (rarer yet). They want to help, but their help is a bit scary. All that most of the workers know how to treat is horses and cows, and since I am nearly the same size in their eyes, the suggestions for remedies sounded frighteningly similar.
Why is it that anytime someone suggests a cure around here, they start by saying that it will really hurt a lot, or taste horrible, or in this case burn like fire, but then it will really help, too! What I gathered was that some nurse or possibly a pharmacist would take a huge needle and inject a muscle relaxant into my butt. This does not sound good. After the agony was over, the muscle would be fine and I could go about my business, after of course visiting the dentist to fix all my teeth because I had clenched them so hard. I bet the pharmacist does veterinary work on the side. Maybe dental work too.
Just to be on the safe side, I have been working at walking as normally as I can. You never know, if they get the idea I will never walk and run normally again, they might suggest I be put down.
Posted in cultural adaptation, culture, doctor, finca, horses, injury | 3 Comments »
February 2nd, 2008 fmorgan
What a challenge it is to make yourself understood even in your own language and culture, much less when everything is foreign!
When we first arrived in Costa Rica, more than 3 1/2 years ago, my Spanish was pretty much non-existent. I had filled myself with enough vocabulary so that I wouldn’t be totally lost but understanding another person was beyond my ability unless they spoke very slowly, with little words and looking straight at me.
Even though now I am pretty functional in Spanish — most people are impressed since it hasn’t been that long — it still is challenging to communicate. If I want to merely get myself fed, no problem at all, and I even have a very good chance it will be what I ordered, but when I try to get into the details, that’s when it gets hairy. I still deal with the ever-expanding scope of communication. For example, as Finca Leola continues to grow (30 workers now) we also are moving into new areas of doing business besides just planting trees. Every time we start doing something new, like furniture making, I get a whole new set of words to learn.
I have learned not to try to give too many details, because that is what gets me in trouble. Let’s say we need to build something with nails. Perhaps I know that you normally use a 10 penny nail to secure it. I won’t say that; I will just say, secure it. The reason is that if I say “use a 10-penny nail” they probably don’t use the phrase — no pennies in Costa Rica, for one thing. Second, I might be distracted and say use a different size nail from the one I want, and because I am an engineer and the owner, my wishes will be carried out even if it is not what the person would normally do. Third, there might not even be 10 penny nails within 2 hours of us and it requires a special order. Fourth, it is possible that the wood itself will eat nails and you should use galvanized…you get the idea.
So I have learned to just describe what I want to achieve. In the campo, often one word is used for everything. Want to connect something? That would be “pegar,” which I remember by thinking of a peg, as in stick a peg in it. It does not say what to peg it with — just get them together. But even that is fraught with risk. Usually I find it much more effective to merely describe the end result I seek (keep the horses off the lawn) and let people do whatever it is they normally do.
This also allows me opportunities to learn how they do things here where our hardware store isn’t exactly overflowing with options. Usually there is only one way to do almost any given thing because nothing else is available to buy — unless of course you want to drive to the central valley for it, 3 1/2 hours away!
I have at times researched in books for the proper word for things, but it doesn’t always help. Once I needed to talk to our workers about putting horseshoes on our horses. After having people look at me strangely for saying zapatos de caballos I decided to look it up. The dictionary says herraduras. Great, so I used that word — even blanker looks until someone showed up from Nicaragua where they use that word. Here it is cascos. This means the hooves of a horse, but also means a helmet. So, if you were to ask someone for a casco without being able to explain the context, they could hand you a horseshoe, a helmet, or left the leg of the horse!
As I have said before, I can now confuse people in three languages. Is it possible to be fluent in confusion?
Posted in Spanish, business in Costa Rica, cultural adaptation, horses, language learning | No Comments »
January 16th, 2008 fmorgan
Today I went to visit a new finca (farm) that we are looking at buying. We already have one finca for planting this year called Quebradon, but it only has enough space for 35,000 trees, which might not be enough this year. There is another, much larger, finca connected to it that we visited today.
By we, I mean myself and Nelson, our general manager. We didn’t drive to it, we took the ATV. When going back into the campo, it really makes sense to use an ATV instead of a car — after all, if the ATV gets stuck, you can just lift it out.
As time passes we have to find larger farms, and that generally means more remote. Also, this helps us keep the price down on trees. It does raise the cost a little while planting, but not that much. It is a blance between accessibility and price. More remote generally means better land, since it has not been farmed for too long. There is always much more wildlife as well.
Visiting a finca is usually done from horseback, especially the larger fincas. This finca is 183 manzanas, or about 311 acres, or 128 hectares. It has about 30 hectares of forest and the rest is pasture. Remember that 100 hectares is a square kilometer, to give you a perspective on the size.
As usual, the owner figured since I am growing trees what I want to see is trees! Not really, what I want to see is pasture, because that is where we grow trees. But what happens is that I first got a guided tour of the forested areas. This of course is the roughest section of the finca to travel in. Think the downhill ride/slide in the movie Man from Snowy River! I can’t believe the kind of terrain I ride on regularly. Today one spot was really bad and we actually had to dismount to help the horses go up it. It was worth the pain though — at the bottom of the hill was the largest Spanish cedar I have ever seen. We also had a snack of heart of palm — very nice. You haven’t had heart of palm until you have had it fresh.
You know that you are in trouble when visiting a finca and the owner asks twice if you know how to ride horses before you start. He really wants to make sure you can handle what you’re about to go through. Thankfully he gave me the best horse and the best saddle. His saddle was just a piece of leather with stririps tied on with rope, and he still rode better than me, but that’s no surprise. I swear some of the Tico cowboys defy gravity when riding. Perhaps they superglue themselves to the seat.
This finca is off the grid, that is, there are no electrical lines or phone. However, it does have power. First of all, the electrical monopoly here has a program of renting out solar panels that will give you enough power for three lights and a TV for 2 dollars a month. Also, within this finca is an mini-hydroelectric system that used to work. It can be repaired and will be.
The finca looks like a winner for sure. It is a good price and well suited for our planting. With this finca and our other that it is connected to, it will mean about 265 manzanas connected together, or 450 acres. One side connects to the reserve that extends from there to Arenal to Tilaran to Bagaces — I think that would be about 60 kilometers. Just a little bit inside the reserve I am told is a 100-foot waterfall. It should be fun to visit.
The next step is to have a forestry engineer review the titles to the property for any issues (such as it can’t be sold because it was a government gift house) as well as determine which areas can be planted with what species. After that, we make the deal.
Posted in buying land, campo, finca, forest, horses, off the grid, trees | 3 Comments »