My First Big "Life Event" as an Adult!

Warning: The following contains lots of cheese, sap, emotional touchy-feely type items, and general Chicken Soup for the Soul themes. Reader beware!!!

Buying my first home, I have to say, has been one of the most emotionally intense experiences of my life. Trekking around Denver for months touring dozens upon dozens of homes (with my poor, exhausted real estate agent in tow), surviving the bidding process and a rocky inspection (with a collapsing roof and broken sewer line), AND committing to the largest financial investment of my life (eee gads!), was just the beginning. The entire home-buying process, and subsequent success, has been incredibly touching / emotional / heart-warming. I have never had something so single-handedly bring out the sap in me…

From the joint coordination of ALL of parents (Mom, Dad and Anne), they came together to support me in so many different ways, enabling the process from start to finish. From my dad’s crash courses in real estate deals, mortgages and contracts, to my mom’s emotional support and uplifting enthusiasm, I couldn’t have done it without them. Seeing my parents, the same parents who had been separated for my entire life, come together for the common cause of enabling my dreams, was one of the most touching moments of my life. I have never felt more loved and supported.

Finally, to see my first lifetime goal be accomplished is incredible. There is nothing else in my life I have wanted so badly and have dreamed of so vividly, but I have always been unsure of when / if it would come true. Not knowing if I would achieve this goal in 2 years, 10 years, or maybe failing to achieve at all, the accomplishment is even all the more wonderful. This constant dream of mine is now my reality, a reality of which still gets me choked up to this day. I can’t begin to articulate the deep emotional fulfillment I feel at striving for this lofty goal…and getting there. I couldn’t be happier.

So thanks to everyone, and I mean everyone, who has enabled me to get to this wonderful place in my life. May my home always be a home to you and may there always be lots of love and laughter under this beautiful roof.

Life is Beachin'

The entire ranch has migrated to a little beach town on the Pacific coast in order to swarm the local bar and watch what is known as the Super Bowl. More of an excuse to “get out” and consume some delicious cool beers while watching the tide come in, Super Bowl weekend is a tradition at the ranch. The night before we left, there was a lengthy PowerPoint presentation (yeah, not kidding) regarding the rules and regulations of American football. We don’t want any of our Brits and Italians among us to be lost on the big day. We rented four cabinas on the beach in Esterillos, a sleepy strip of oceanfront cottages, bungalows and vacation homes. The beach here is beautiful; the tiered surf breaks in long continuous stretches, reaching out from end to end as far as the eye can see. The beach is immaculately flat; the water is ridiculously warm, yet still retains a refreshing quality; the sand is clean, soft and free from foot-poking objects, aside from a lovely stray shell or two. Did I mention the breeze? Ah yes, a delightful breeze is gently rocking the hammock I am nuzzled into at this very moment. The morning light is filtering in through the lush palms, the sound of the waves crashing...okay, yeah yeah yeah, so you get the point. I have totally hit paydirt in the vacation department. Heck yes!

Tonight is the big game and surely the debauchery will commence. For now though, it is a zen-like combination of beach and pool, pool and beach, beer and pizza, pizza and milkshakes, then back to pool and beach. Ah yes. Mmmm hmmm. Life is goooood.

A typical day

Life here at the ranch continues on, isolated from the rest of the world. It is a strange feeling being so cut off from the rest of the world. No phone, no internet, no news, nada. Presidential primary elections have vanished from daily discussions; no one knows which teams will compete in the Super Bowl; natural disasters, gang violence and world famine rages on as we quietly sit here eating each of our three wholesome meals a day; Hollywood lives on without us noticing; we aren’t even up on our Britney gossip! Part refreshing and part disorienting, I am learning to adjust to life without cell phones (definitely don’t miss) and my email (definitely do miss). I find myself daydreaming of logging onto my gmail and checking the bounty that surely awaits my hungry eyes within my inbox. But alas, that must wait. For now, life is contained within the boundaries of the property line and when I venture beyond its borders – even for a quick run across the street to pick up a case of juice – I really feel I am “getting out.”

Every day here is different, but full of learning. I rise at 5:00 am if I am on the breakfast shift and cook a feast for 35 before 7:00 am. Pinto, a fancy name for rice and beans, is always on the menu. After consuming meal numero uno for the day, I help clean dishes and tidy up the kitchen area. We then have a daily meeting between the interns and volunteers to coordinate the day’s activities. After morning meeting, we work on various projects throughout the ranch. Most of my energy has been spent working on the couple’s cabin; we are close to enclosing the third wall but are still waiting on a bamboo delivery to install the window frames. Other days I have worked in the kitchen preparing lunch and the afternoon snack or had an orientation on the tool shop and proper tool usage. At noon we commence meal numero dos – lunch. Once again, rice and beans are on the menu. After lunch our time is usually spent working on our own projects, which can be everything from furniture projects to gardening to ranch maintenance. Currently I am making a cedar shelf for the kitchen. I am hoping to use natural branches as my l-bracket supports, but this is dependent on finding the perfect ramas (spanish for branches). When said branches are found, I will surely have my first opportunity to wield a machete! Yahoo! Jungle Jennie awaits. At around 4:00 pm, after our “strenuous” day, we have an afternoon activity to exert ourselves – usually ultimate frisbie (I rock at disk chucking) or horseshoes (can only manage to throw the shoe into the jungle, thus ending the game until the following day when shoe can be fetched from the wilds of the thick overgrowth). Getting ridiculously sweaty in the tropics is quite possibly the most heavenly way to end a day. At 6:00 pm it gets dark, so our athletic endeavors come to a close and we hit the showers to clean up. My new shower local is at the Hankie, which means I am showering outdoors looking into the vast jungle...that is if I had a light. At 7:00 pm we have meal numero tres: dinner. On the menu: rice and beans. After dinner and more dish duties, we wind down the evening with games, chatting or a quick beer at the Pulperia. The Pulperia is the social hangout of Mastatal. Then it is to bed to bed (before 10:00 pm usually), which always involves me tiptoeing around as my roommates are out before 9!

Laundry Woes

Ten things I have learned thus far in the jungle:

1. When ants begin constructing a new colony in your dirty clothes bag, it’s time to do laundry.

2. I am bad at doing laundry.

3. Doing laundry by hand is f-ing difficult (pardon my french...er spanish). Praised be thee who invented the washing machine. I love you.

4. Wearing clothing numerous times decreases weekly laundry load, but also increases scrub time and likeliness of moldy undies.

5. Wearing no clothing is highly advised. However, this can compromise cleanliness of the kitchen. Can be valuable, though, during naked sushi night (see previous entry).

6. The clay oven is a great dryer, just be careful who catches you baking your undies in a Pyrex dish in the middle of the night!

7. Surround yourself with other people who smell – it always increases your smellfesteem.

8. Wear dirty laundry to cob sessions – cow manure masks any previous objectionable odors.

9. Not only does cow poop smell, it stains. Mold stains too.

10. Now I know why Tarzan only wore a loin cloth.

Naked Sushi Night

Tonight was “Sushi Night” at the Ranch. After an endless drone of rice and beans, beans and rice and the occasional beany rice, sushi night was a refreshing change. Some fellow ranchers had brought back sticky rice from the coast and we had rationed some salmon especially for the occasion. Everything was set for a fantastic evening of culinary delights. However, us newbies we were in for a much bigger treat.

Tonight, I learned of and experienced the true “Sushi Night,” which here at the ranch really means “(Naked) Sushi Night,” just not as widely publicized. As per tradition, the cooks strip down to a singular apron, hopefully covering the essential parts. They cook rice, roll rolls and fry tempura, all the while stark naked. I walked into the kitchen to see a fellow intern dancing to rap, stirring some rice, and wearing nothing more than a flowery apron barely covering their naked loins. Nothing like a full moon and some jiggle to really whet the appetite.

We decorated the table with giant banana leaves, in which the bounty of sushi was laid. Soon adventuresome diners had followed suit, resulting in a long table full of bare arses. What a beautiful sight. The dinner was amazing; the sushi being incredible after a long drawl of rice and beans. Tonight was different. Rice yes. But instead of beans, we got so much more! Aye! Dios mio!

Life at Rancho Mastatal

Today was my first “going into town” experience. After spending 10 days at the ranch, I am venturing for the first time beyond its immediate borders. Although I am back in the small town of Puriscal, reachable only after a bumpy two-hour bus ride, I feel I have truly reached a great metropolis. There are two grocery stores (!!!), multiple restaurants and stores with things for sale!!! A far cry from the world I have ventured from – Rancho Mastatal.

The Ranch is located in a rural part of Costa Rica, about 50 kilometres from Puriscal. Adjacent to a large national nature preserve, most of land remains largely virgin rain forest. The surrounding area is a lush blanket of trees, bushes, immense vines, flowers and pasture land, which gently blanket the mountainous terrain. The region, being the convergence of high and low, east and west, boasts one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. Or is it Coast Rica? Aren´t they the same? There is a large peak jutting out from behind the ranch, La Cangra, which has been taunting me to climb it ever since I first spotted it among the clouds. We are the center of the town of Mastatal. Mastatal proper has a bar, an elementary and middle school, a soccer field (of course) and a police shack…er I mean station. Everyone knows the village dogs by name, news travels faster than if cell phones were a possibility and “entertainment” is limited to a rusty old foosball table. I can´t complain though, it is after all the pura vida – the pure life.

Rancho Mastatal is a large grouping of properties, meant to be an ideal of sustainable living. Taking in educational groups, interns, volunteers and individual tourists, it is a vibrant community of people from around the world (but mainly gringos). There are families, retired folks and everyone in between. In the ten days so far, we have already fluctuated from 44 people down to 10…people come and people go. There are 6 other interns, the youngest being 24 and the oldest being of an age where inquiring about their age would be inappropriate. Everyone but two of us live in “The Hankee,” a bamboo constructed tree-house, just short of rope swings and bucket pulley systems. A previous intern constructed the entire structure during their time at the ranch, leaving behind a beautiful sleeping dormitory as well as some large shoes to fill. I live in the main house, in my own private room (yahoo!), where one of the ranch cats has already set up shop between my tank tops and pull overs. My windows are wooden shutters, which open up onto the porch where we take our meals. This means I am up at 5:30 am with the kitchen crew (hard to sleep through the sounds of a coffee bean grinder) and stay up late with the social crowd. (Late here is 9:30 pm). Sleep deprivation is not a problem though, as there are numerous hammocks throughout the complex where I can nap to my heart´s content.

A bit about pooping. (You might want to skip this paragraph if you are reading this during your lunch break…but come on people, everyone knows that some of the most hilarious times travelling revolve around going number two!). Anyway, all but one of the toilets on the ranch are “composting toilets.” What this means, literally, is that we crap into a giant composting pit. Much more lovely than sounding, I am turning into quite the composting toilet fan. They are all designed as a three sided-perch, with the fourth wall being left open to look out upon the jungle as you sit down to do your doodies…er I mean “duties.” In each structure there are two pits, one that is actively composting and one that you are currently using. After each completion of business, one must cover their “presents from the gods” with sawdust. This keeps the toilet odor- and bug-free! Seriously smelling nicer and looking cleaner than most truck-side toilet stops, pooping in the woods couldn´t be better! The composting side turns into dirt in less than 4 months (the climate here is incredible for decomposition) and becomes beautiful fertile dirt! Then the two sides are switched by moving the toilet lid from one hole-in-the-ground to the other and the former active bin starts composting. To top it all off, the head of the ranch is very serious about making sure there is a fresh weekly supply of reading material at each toilet to keep customers happy 

Okay, back to the proper world that doesn´t talk about going to the bathroom…

My time at the ranch consists of three huge meals a day, a snack, and numerous work tasks. Once a week I water the herb-flower-vegetable gardens and newly planted trees, which takes over an hour considering the size of everything. Twice to three-times a week I am in the kitchen cooking for everyone. Cooking for 40 is quite the experience, where recipes are sometimes 8-tupled…is that a word? My favourite rule of the kitchen is whoever walks by the leftovers first has to finish them. Imagine my delight at sticking my fork (and practically my head) into an army sized vat of pasta! Mmmm….Outside of the house we are working on completing the Couples Cabin, which is a timber-framed structure nestled into the forest. We are framing the walls and preparing to wattle and daub them within the next few days. This involves creating a weave out of bamboo, to which we adhere the cob mixture to form earthen walls. More fresh cow manure! I have also taken a first-aid class (so we as the interns can be prepared to care for the numerous machete wounds, seeing as we are hours from any semblance of medical care). Oh and I have done a TON of dishes. Dear god, the dishes just keep coming.

Tomorrow is my first Spanish lesson with a local guy named Marco. I am fairly excited about this, although my hopes of vastly improving my Spanish have been dashed. Most of my time is spent in the ranch proper where English predominates. When I leave the gates, it really feels like a huge outing.

Did I mention I played an amazing game of ultimate Frisbee? Holy moly!

Alright, this is getting ridiculously long and alas there are no pictures to accompany. FYI – I will not be back in town for several weeks, meaning no computer for the same amount of time. You can write me though at the ranch and send packages (hint hint Mom and Dad). Just don´t send anything larger than a shoebox, as I will have to travel far and wide and pay a great fee to pick it up in the capital. My address is as follows:

Jennie Perlmutter
Rancho Mastatal
Apdo 185-6000
Puriscal, San José
COSTA RICA

I miss you all dearly and I am excited to share my photos soon. I hope everyone is happy and healthy and staying on track with their new year´s resolutions!

Much love to you all.
Con amor,
Jennie

My first day at the Ranch

Day one at the ranch has been incredible. After a two-hour bus ride from Puriscal I arrived in “downtown” Mastatal, an area defined by a bar, a pay phone, a large fork in the road and the entrance to the ranch. Being thrown right in, I have already helped with the final layer of an earthen floor for the kitchen addition, been on dish duty for the thirty or so hungry guests and helped with dinner my first night. Mixing and applying the final layer of the floor was quite the experience. After nailing nails at equal heights throughout the floor to create a leveling guide, we applied the earthen mixture. The blend was a smelly mix of clay clip (which I strained earlier to eliminate larger pebbles), black sand and fresh cow manure. We poured the ingredients onto a large tarp and used our feet as mixing implements. When “fresh cow manure” was mentioned during the morning meeting, I had no idea just how fresh it would be. Nothing like the feeling of squishy green poop between your toes and the aroma of just-off-the-pasture cow dung to really wake you up in the morning. Mmmm...

I took two naps today, one in a lovely porch-side hammock. I was woken from my nap by the sound of birds flying overhead and when I looked up, I could see a pair of scarlet macaws flying directly above the ranch. On the bus ride here I spotted a beautiful green parrot that had landed just inches from the bus. The insects here are huge and plentiful, with the ancient cicadas providing our nighttime lullabies.

I can tell I am going to love my time here. It is paradise with delicious food. I am so excited for my next three months!

Costa Rican Arrival

I made it safe and sound to Costa Rica, although I am already sweaty and smelly. The weather here is incredibly balmy, making my jeans and sweatshirt a bit overkill. Add to the fact that I am carrying three huge bags of stuff, despite my attempts at "packing lightly." I think my parents were fearful of me starving, so they sent me with enough snacks and gorp to feed the hungry of Central America.

I arrived at 6:30 am this morning, blurry eyed but excited to begin my latest adventures. My spanish did not fail me and I successfully found my way to an obscure bus station in the middle of San Jose.

I have about 5 hours to kill in this small town of Puriscal, which has been a blessing. The downtime is definitely needed after a whirlwind of a winter break. With all of this spare time I have finished uploading and labeling my photos from South America. You can view these albums along with others at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jennieanne

Can´t wait for the adventure to begin!