Fwd: Limon and Things

Limon went like this: HOT, bucket showers, shirtless dreadlocked black
men carrying machetes who rob the elementary school for brooms and
chalk or whatever they think they can sell for crack money, Mosquitos
soccer in my toms, toms tan lines, bites, oily face pimples,
motorcycle gangs, 40 minute bank lines outside ATMs which ran out of
money on national payday, Daniel who sorta reminded me of a young Paul
thompson, whose mom did my laundry by surprise, ants in my bag, bread
and butter for breakfast, a beautiful beach destroyed by last year's
floods and polluted by the city's blackwater, a 5th grader wearing a
che Guevara sweatband because she thought he fought to legalize pot,
poverty everywhere, after the half-dead hunted iguana scared me they
showed me a crocodile in a bag with it's mouth tied shut, a wonderful
river, Daniel telling me as we drank that the water Is contaminated
and I will get sick, Mexico beat Costa Rica in soccer, busses that
were too full to pick up passengers, a three hour trip home to San
Jose through virgin rainforest, ice cream in San Jose with a pc
volunteer whom I never talk to, a wonderful river, children asking
Daniel if I were his. His what? Brother? Best friend? Part time slave?
lover? We would just look at each other and laugh. Last night, after
he told me he hoped I would have to rough it a little, he asked me if
I would like to watch HBO's def poetry jam. He's from Philly and was
impressed when I told him I'd met most of the poets, either in SLO,
NY, or right there in Boston at the Cantab. I forgot how much I love
poetry.
>>
>
> On a completely different theme, I've been meaning to tell you all
> about my host family. So here it is in list form:
>
> Mom
> Fred and his wife
> Andrea and 6 yr old Sebastian
> Ricardo Alonso
> Rebecca and 4 yr old Valerie
> Erick
> Michael
> Lorlly
> Bernardo
> And me.
>
> There are only six of us in the house, but the others and their kids
> come often, and spend much time here, so it feels like a fiesta all
> the time. I'm doing alright with it for now.
>
> Today we got to dye Easter eggs, which was incredible. We used
> crayons and natural dyes and brown eggs, and they turned out
> beautiful and earthy. It was really cool. My Spanish teacher's goal
> was to have us teach this American tradition to a bunch of kids, but
> no kids came, so we taught a few lady neighbors who are friends with
> my host mom. It turns out that I was the only American out of 4 who
> still does this every year. I had a blast. We all had severely
> different expectations, but we were all pleased with the result.
>
> Then this afternoon my host mom taught us how to make pan casero. It
> was ultra messy, with egg volcanoes and leftover food dye to
> differentiate chefs' creations, and flour flying all over the place
> and an insistence on mixing it all directly on the counter rather
> than in a bowl. We ended up with denser than normal bagel-like
> multicolored buns. It was all wild and delicious, and typically
> cross-cultural.
>
> Time is going quickly. Wednesday marks 4 weeks here in country.
> Isn't that impossible? It has sped by. We're about 1/3 of the way
> through training. Yay!
>
> Ok. Be good to yourself.
> Say hi to your family, and if I don't get another chance to say so,
> I hope you have a very good Easter.
>