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