Coco and Mango

Our landlady and friend Rebecca asked us to take care of her two little dogs, Coco (a brown dog with white spots) and Mancha (a white dog with a distinctive mango shaped brown spot---we couldn't remember his name when she left him, so it became "Mango") for a month while she was on a trip to the U.S. to visit her family. Her idea was that they would run around our finca freely and enjoy themselves while they were with us. The kids liked having them around, Eva especially. For the first few days the dogs were with us, Eva could not be found inside the house as she was continually playing, cuddling, reprimanding, and snoozing with the dogs out on the back patio where they spent most of the their time. It was really beautiful to see such a strong bond forming between her and the dogs. They were a little barky for the first several days, even at night, which didn't put them on the list of favorites for Tim, but nonetheless, we had fun with the little fellows for almost the entire month.

Perhaps one of the absolute saddest events happened in our family's history, however, when just one morning before Rebecca was to fetch her dogs, we had the gates opened for us to go to the gym, Tim returned to the house to comfort Eva, who was having a hard morning, and he heard a sickening thump and painful cry. He ran down the stairs asking if I had heard the same thing, and we went out to the road to find  what we feared. Coco had been hit by a car and now lay in a pool of blood in the street. Tim carried him to the side of the road and I petted him and talked soothingly to him as life and warmth left his body. I was devastated, not only for Coco, but for his best friend, Mango, for Eva, and for Rebecca and her kids, Isabella, and Juaquin. When I told the kids what had happened, Eva cried briefly. She came out to say goodbye to Coco but Asa didn't want to see him at all.

We happened to have our friends Jim and Caroline and their daughter, Amei, staying with us, and they instantly helped with the situation at hand. Jim helped Tim dig a hole and bury the little dog in the flower garden while Caroline read stories to the kids. I wrote a very difficult email to Rebecca.

Perhaps the most touching moment for me was when Zena saw Coco laying where we put him in the driveway and motioned with her little hand toward him, "'mon" (for "come on"), as if he was still alive and would just jump up and come to her--a total unawareness of the permanence of death.

Of course in retrospect we wish we would have not left the gates opened for so long, but actually, there were other access points through the bamboo onto the street. Perhaps we should have tied them up or kept them in the house. In a disturbing and foreboding way, I had witnessed a different dog getting run over only the night before a half mile down the road. Rebeca, our housekeeper, also shared a traumatic tale of her nephew's dog having been run over within a week prior. This, along with other dog casualties resulting from cars, made me realized how dangerous that road is for animals, and even made me wonder about how safe it is for us to be walking and running on. In all of these dog deaths, the drivers never stopped. It would seem that there is a lack of respect for dogs by drivers and therefore they are highly vulnerable.

Since this event, Eva brings up Coco once in a while. She had a dream that he was alive again. She likes to look at the photos and videos of the dogs, and remembers him fondly. We can surely say that Coco received an abundance of love and attention from Eva in the days before he passed on.

Eva with Coco, napping, and Mango

Los Muchachos

When we made the commitment to live in Verbena Norte, a good several kilometers out of town, we were concerned about isolating ourselves from neighbors, as one of our big goals was for our children to be able to rub elbows with Tico kids. But as it turns out, Asa has become fast friends with Keilor, Rebeca's 10 year old son, and his cousins, Johann, 9, and Jefferson, 10. Most days the muchachos congregate at one of the houses to play soccer, wrestle, do art, play monopoly, old maid, or bingo. We are so grateful for their friendship with Asa, especially since it's been hard for Asa to break into the social order at school. The language difference seems not to be a barrier at all, and with a few words and gestures, Asa is able to communicate very well. A special honor for us was when we were invited to Jefferson's family birthday party recently. Asa slept over at his house after the party and was reportedly served coffee for breakfast, a common drink for kids around here I gather.

Jefferson, Asa, Keilor



¡Feliz cumpleaños, Jefferson!

Keilor, Asa, Jefferson

Rebeca

Rebeca has been working for us as a housekeeper for about four months now and has become a dear part of our family. We are so grateful to have her around, not only for her help with cleaning, cooking, and childcare, Spanish infusion, and endless insights and connections to the community around us, but also for her boundless love and patience with our family, her sense of humor, openness, honesty, and her love of animals. Due to Zena's ongoing need for mama and mama milk, I've shared many a morning, me on the couch usually nursing, and Rebeca in the kitchen cooking, sharing with each other our experiences, thoughts, values, and difficulties.

Even though Costa Rica is a progressive Latin American country with regard to women's rights and as such has a woman president currently, Rebeca and her sisters were not allowed to pursue their educations beyond sixth grade due to their father's old fashioned notions of the place of a woman. She loves her father but clearly regrets that she wasn't able to pursue more schooling. She has a dream of some day finishing her high school degree. Although I didn't plan on spending so much time with a new person in my life I have grown to respect and love Rebeca, as have our children. Asa and Eva have also benefitted from befriending Rebeca's son, Keilor and his cousins, Johann, Jefferson, and Ariana.

Making tortillas

Looking at photos

At a soccer game with Isela (Rebeca's own daughter), Zena, and Eva



At CATIE pool with the kids