Cultural notes

Mama Africa is a little shop here in Sámara that sells sandals and African art. It's run by Ivan and Mario, who I think are brothers, though I haven't gotten to that part of their back story in my conversations with them. My guess is they're from Italy given Mario's name and the speech rhythm that gives their Spanish a slightly staccato feel. It turns out there's a sizable Italian population in Sámara so there are two or three Italian restaurants doing business here. Anyway, back to Ivan and Mario: They're incredibly friendly and laid back, helpful without being pushy. I had bought a pair of sandals from them on Tuesday night, but yesterday discovered that one of them was the wrong size. They were so accommodating that they looked high and low for the correct size but couldn't find it for the life of them. My guess is they gave someone else two mismatched sandals before I got there. But they told me to check back next Wednesday after they get a new delivery and they could replace my off-size sandal anyway, even though I'd used it already. This is just one of many examples that show how warm and cordial Costa Ricans can be, especially in Sámara.

I found out last week in Heredia dance class that the salsa Ticos dance is a lot different from the international style. The salsa they dance here is a modified cumbia while the cumbia is a modified east-coast swing. The merengue, since it's such a simple dance, is pretty much the same all over the world. But the preps Ticos use to turn their partners in salsa and cumbia are so different that it was a real struggle last week trying to learn Tico salsa and Tico cumbia to music that was so familiar. On Monday, I took one of the dance classes at Intercultura Sámara. They're taught by Karol who's a fiery, compact, energetic firecracker, sort of a Sonia Braga type. She teaches a style of salsa that blends the international style and the Tico style, so it was a big relief to finally see something familiar. Karol said that Ticas can indeed dance the international style if they have a good lead.

Norma's cooking is a lot different from Zeneida's. It's simple, no-nonsense country-style comfort food like fried fish, chicken with potatoes, and grilled steak accompanied by that Costa Rican staple, gallo pinto. Like its Cajun counterpart, this Central American version of beans and rice is cooked in large batches once or twice a week and served in different variations over several days. I can tell this is true because for my first dinner, the beans were a little underdone, but as the days progressed the beans became more and more cooked inside and the sauce they were in became more and more thick.

One other quirk of Costa Rican life: The plumbing system doesn't take toilet paper. You have to throw away your toilet paper with the rest of the trash. I have to admit a couple of times I've forgotten the local custom so if the streets in Heredia flood with sewage you know who to blame. My friend Cathy whom I just met on Tuesday says she's had the opposite problem with Latin Americans who visit the United States: They're so paranoid about clogging the plumbing system that they'll toss their toilet paper in the trash instead of flushing it down the toilet.

In any case, my classmate Alex had stomach pains this morning so I ended up having a private lesson with Viki today. We went over a bunch of new verbs, many of which I'd never seen before. In addition, Viki and I visited a number of web sites that offer Costa Rican radio feeds so I can practice my listening comprehension, something I still have a problem with especially when Spanish speakers talk really fast. Of course, Spanish in general has more syllables than English, it seems like the extra syllables Spanish speakers have to pump out compel them talk at light speed.