Greetings from Fila Pinar de Coto Brus! I am excited to share with my good friend Lily’s blog readers! It is interesting to think about what I should write to a group of people who I have never met. So let me briefly introduce myself. My name is Aaron Luce and I am originally from Maryland and have been living in DC for the past few years. I live in a very small community called Fila Pinar which is in the deep South of Costa Rica, within 20 kilometers of the Panamanian border. In my town coffee is king, the bus only passes through two days a week, and two kinds of toucans circle the tall trees around soccer field in search of fruit after heavy afternoon rains.
One of the reasons I joined the Peace Corps was the allure to travel to an unknown place and meet people I would have otherwise never met. Prior to joining, I was blessed with many opportunities to travel and had enjoyed them.
Throughout my travels, one thing that has always come crashing into me, like a refreshing tidal wave, is how no matter where I go, I always find many similarities between myself and the people I meet. From Egypt to Chile, Argentina to Morocco, my belief that we share more in common than we have different, has been upheld. And that is refreshing because many times we focus on our apparent differences, which distance us from others, possibly causing isolation or at least social discomfort.
My belief was reaffirmed again last Sunday afternoon when I cooked tacos for a very nice family. After my environmental youth group meeting, I rushed back to my house to pick up some secret ingredients and headed over to Doña Lorena and Don Enrique’s house. They have a daughter, Treicy, who is a teenager and a son, Chadai, who is in kindergarten. Doña Lorena was rushing around frying plantains and grilling hand-made tortillas. Treicy was helping me dice red peppers and onions for the taco mix and Chadai was running around the house, buzzing like a humming bird with the excitement of many visitors. Don Enrique’s cousin and his family were visiting and they have two younger children. The cousin and Don Enrique were having adult male conversation about the local prices of different agricultural products like peppers and different pig raising techniques. Cartoons were on the TV and every 3 minutes my attention was being called to look at a funny face Chadai was making or to answer Doña Lorena’s questions about my recipe or to reaffirm that I was still single and that the Costa Rican girl I was seeing had still broken up with me (long story). The mix of familiar house hold Sunday sounds were like that catchy song on the radio that I have heard a million times.
When we finished cooking, I stuffed my face, drank a cup of coffee, and felt great. Don Enrique pulled out the Connect 4 board game and everyone in the family played (Don Enrique is an evil mastermind at Connect 4). And once again, the refreshing tidal wave of similarity came splashing through the living room. I had a freeze frame moment where I felt like I could see myself through the window, sitting in the living room with my shoes off, joking with Don Enrique and telling stories to Chadai. I felt déjàvu. But I had been there before just with my family in DC on break from college or during Christmas when we visited my Grandma in California. Don Enrique is like my Uncle Allen, a jokester, and Chadai is like my Cousin Annette’s son, Jacob, and daughter, Sofia, who are precious and playful. Instead of cooking patacones (fried plantain chips) and black beans, my Grandma would roast a chicken and serv biscuits with jam. Doña Lorena was like my Grandma asking me if I was seeing anyone and if I wasn’t, why not.
In both places it was Sunday and it was dinner time. For those couple of hours I only needed to be human to fit in and that was really refreshing.
Pura Vida,
Aaron
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