It’s a Whole New Playground

When was the last time you took a look at your neighborhood playground? Is the swing set in good operating order? Are the grounds nice and tidy or do you have trash strewn all over the place? Well, if the place is a mess, then you have a great opportunity to bring out the whole village and clean it all up! Recently, our own Village Emergency Committee organized a ‘clean-up and repair day’ at the playground in El Rodeo. Everybody came out to volunteer and all had a wonderful time.


Here’s a shot of Jose painting one of the playground roofs. In a matter of hours, villagers had transformed the playground into a colorful, clean, safe place for the kids to play. Armando teamed up with some of the stronger guys to install new fencing, and everybody else just pitched in where they could - cleaning up trash, repairing, painting, etc. Now the El Rodeo Playground is a delightful meeting place for the whole village. Memito supplied colorful new trash bins - one for trash and the other for recycling. Because, yes, El Rodeo now has recycling collection! Many thanks go to the Hacienda El Rodeo for organizing recycling and also for providing the bins.


Here’s a shot of Luisa Hughes painting at the Playground.
Have you noticed how much better maintained our soccer field looks? The village Equipo de Futbol committed to maintaining the ‘stadium’ grounds nice and tidy in exchange for uniforms and other support. A big thank you goes to Luisa and Robert Hughes for supporting our local team. It’s not just about buying uniforms, it’s about giving the kids responsibility and guidance - keeping them off drugs, alcohol, and other self-destructive pursuits…
We were still in New Orleans when the El Rodeo Emergency Committee carried out the first of a number of planned initiatives. Luisa wrote to me in New Orleans with the following information:
From Luisa to me in New Orleans:
Hi sweetie - Glad to hear from you. Lots of things have happened - We got our graduation certificates and our new sign, purchased a couple of more and installed several signs through out El Rodeo. Our road has been re-paved, We had a clean-up day a few weeks back with the committee members and our new El Rodeo football team, We installed new trash bins in Rodeo Centro, fixed the basketball hoop, fixed the Rodeo school fence, went to an event this past weekend with some members of the committee regarding Community peace, the District committee is getting all the merchants from the Canton to team up and see the possibilities of installing cameras in Ciudad Colon Centro. Sonia held a seminar for all the kids in Rodeo regarding self esteem this past Friday. So as you can see we have been pretty busy lately.
All I can say is a big THANK YOU SWEETIE! Thank you, Luisa, for taking the bull by the horns, for organizing so many projects large and small, and for making positive things happen in our beloved El Rodeo.
And many thanks to Maria Marta for spearheading the Red Cross Training Courses, now taking place at the Community Center.


We returned in time for the final Emergency Committee Meeting of the year, where Teniente Azucar – yes, his name really is Azucar - received a thank you gift on behalf of the Committee. You can take a look at all the latest details related to the Mora Seguridad Comunitaria at their blog:
www.comunidadesdeMora.blogspot.com
With Teniente Azucar’s help, we have accomplished a lot during the year. Petty crime has plummeted! People are more aware, proactive and interested in the well-being of the village and surrounding forest. Trash is always a problem, with weekend warriors leaving their trash wherever they go (walking, picnicking, biking, horseback riding, quadricycling, etc., etc) but many more volunteers have now started setting an example, by going out and picking up roadside trash more frequently.
Our neighbor, the University for Peace, paid homage to one of its founders this past weekend, after Costa Rica’s 40th President, Lic. Rodrigo Carazo Odio died on December 9th in the Hospital Mexico. Don Rodrigo Carazo served as President from 1978 to 1982 and, during his tenure, as part of his legacy, joined with long-term United Nations advisor, Robert Muller, to carry through a UN resolution to establish a University for Peace - an important statement during politically turbulent times in Central America. The University for Peace was built in Costa Rica, on partly forested land donated by Cruz Bennett Rojas in El Rodeo, just west of Ciudad Colon. The old growth forest in El Rodeo still exists to this day thanks to the combined vision of Carazo, Muller, Cruz Bennett Rojas and all those affiliated with the University for Peace. This forest survives because Costa Ricans - especially those living in El Rodeo - still stand committed to protecting it through their many individual efforts.
Gerry and I both volunteer whenever we are in town. We helped out with the party for Los Abuelos (the grandparents/senior citizens of the village). Apparently, so much has been done for the kids recently that many felt that we should do something for the ‘older kids’…


Here’s a shot of the gang from the Comite de Seguridad Comunitaria doing kitchen duty at the Fiesta de Los Abuelos.


Here’s a shot of some of the Abuelos making music.
Abuelos and Nietos played Bingo and enjoyed the feast. Everybody on the Emergency Committee helped out, bringing food, drink or a gift for the Bingo.
I brought a refresco concocted out of tamarind and clove basil that we grow in the garden - a nice refreshing, non-alcoholic drink. I got the idea from Maria Hon at her restaurant, Tin Jo, located in downtown San Jose. Maria is amazing at blending unexpected flavors into something very special.


The party attracted a large crowd from the village - everybody is either an abuelo or a nieto. I recognized abuelos from just about every family in the village (all five of them…).
Sonya, from the Emergency Committee, gave a nice speech about community spirit - working together - healthy village - Drug Free Zone.
So, in keeping with the spirit of her words, we did not offer alcoholic beverages at the party. However, I couldn’t help but notice that some of the abuelos slipped away early, right after eating. I think it was a simple matter of, ‘No guaro, No abuelos’! But, at their age, they’re entitled to do just what they want…
Yaneth made a nice bread pudding for dessert - much better than the version she served for dessert a few days earlier for Gerry’s Iron Chef Indian Culinary Extravaganza…


GERRY COOKS CURRY!
Gerry’s cooking now? Well, he watched a lot of ‘Iron Chef’ programs on television while we were in New Orleans and, of course, with all the John Besh (local NOLA character and world-class chef) influence, he decided that he was going to come back to Costa Rica and cook.
And, because Gerry is English and the English adore Indian food, Gerry wanted to cook various curries. However, here at Reserva El Tigre we have herbs and plants for all sorts of cooking, but NOT for Indian. Why couldn’t we just cook something simple from the fruits and vegetables already growing in the garden? But, nooo…
So, that meant going out and searching for the ingredients to make Garam Masala and for a whole assortment of other exotic spices. Not so easy in Costa Rica - where there is like one Indian Restaurant in the entire country… But Gerry does like a challenge. He called everywhere, trying to find what he wanted: Chinese supermarkets; Tommy Tomas from Ark Herb Farm; Corinne Aulak, frequent traveler to India (no luck with Corinne - Costa Rican Customs confiscated her spices at the airport). Finally, Gerry went to the Taj Mahal Restaurant in Santa Ana (the Indian restaurant previously mentioned) - where we have feasted with the other Horsemen frequently over the years - and convinced the owner to take pity on him and sell him what he needed (personally brought in from India): cumin seeds, coriander seeds, papad, etc. I believe they had a few drinks together at the bar and became very good friends…
So, Gerry cooked his first dinner in Costa Rica. Our invited guests included culinary artists, Robert Whittington and Phylliss Crist; botany pals Rob and Karen Arras; and botanists Barry Hammel (Author, MoBot and InBio) and Isabel Perez (InBio).
By the way, if you gardeners have already made pilgrimages to Kew Gardens and the New York Botanical Gardens, then don’t miss the incredible Missouri Botanical Gardens (MoBot). Back in 1851, MoBot’s founder, Henry Shaw, consulted with Sir William Jackson Hooker, previous director of Kew, on how to organize the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. Kew Gardens is celebrating its 250th Anniversary this year and, with 40,000 specimens, is one of the largest botanical collections in the world. Only two gardens come close to Kew: the N.Y. Botanical Gardens (est. 1891) and the Missouri Botanical Gardens. (Ref. HerbalGram, American Botanical Council, Number 83, Oct. 2009, www.herbalgram.org).
Just about every student of botany in Costa Rica - and, for that matter, from the entire New World - consults the MoBot website at one time or another to search the database. Specimens found in Costa Rica get catalogued at MoBot and locally, InBio. I was very much looking forward to meeting a famous botanist from MoBot and, now, InBio. Would we find anything interesting at El Tigre?


Everyone arrived early for a walk, which was just fine, because Gerry wanted us all out of the house so he could cook! We went out for a lovely wander on the horse and woodland trails, and Barry pointed out a lot of plants.
“No, that’s not a Morning Glory. It’s a Bignoniaceae”. And, “No, that’s not a Convolvulaceae vine either, it’s an Apocynaceae”. And he didn’t even need to check for the sap, much less leaf position! Barry could ID the lovely vines at a glance! He differentiated between the three leaflet Syngoniums and Philodendrons. Answer: the Syngoniums have white sap.
We had a swell time. Hiking in the forest with botanists is like going with kids - a continuous sense of wonder and new discoveries. “That’s not a lemon, it’s an orange”! Isabel, who is equally as impressive as Barry, suggested that we rename the property, ‘Reserva Bernoullia de Tigre’, after the Bernoullia flammea trees growing all over in the forest. A few are still in bloom, brightening up the canopy with orange blossoms.
Did we find anything special? Not on this day. Next time, we shall head down to the old growth, undisturbed forest - down to Las Cataratas.
We headed back to the house where we met up with Phylliss and Bob, who’d arrived after the hikers. But, Gerry wasn’t ready for us. He was running late in the kitchen and didn’t even want to stop to offer us a drink - he wanted us out of the house. So back outside we went, where we meandered around the gardens and through the orchards. I forgot to show Karen our latest garden with ‘All Nativos’.
And I forgot to show them the monster hedgerows! There’s this science fiction writer, Neal Stephenson, who wrote about ‘tangles’ - edible hedges - in his latest book, Anathem.
Well I’m doing ‘tangles’ - with Chayote, Passiflora, Hibiscus, Citrus, etc., and my plantings mix in with a slew of volunteers that the birds bring in. The whole thing is becoming an incredible, colorful, gigantic hedgerow - with all the associated buzzing and chirping that goes on in such a complex ecosystem. It’s a gardener’s version of a charral - abandoned pastureland, allowed to naturally regenerate back into forest. When we bought El Tigre five years ago, we stopped cutting over 8 hectares of pastureland and allowed it to return to forest. We didn’t plant anything – the seeds come in from surrounding secondary and old growth forest. We have observed over the years that the Charral is also a dynamic, fascinating ecosystem. Up in our garden hedges, Armando clips the edible Hibiscus as topiaries, but the rest we just let climb and grow into - tangles…
Anyway, we got back to the house rather warm and thirsty. Gerry, who normally loves to mix cocktails - the best martinis, margaritas, and manhattans - was still busy in the kitchen cooking and would not stop to serve us drinks. And why couldn’t I serve drinks as hostess in my own house? Because on this day, Gerry didn’t want me involved in anything in the kitchen at all! He wanted to manage everything! Well, hell, even the Iron Chefs don’t make drinks! We would be lucky to get a drink at all. Luckily, Karen came to the rescue, and we managed to scrounge up some wine, beer and orange juice.
Finally, Gerry called us to the table. And it was very good indeed. But the leftovers were even better! Karen brought a wonderful, aged chutney that we’re still enjoying.
Next on Gerry’s menu: Christmas Dinner for the Horsemen. Oy.
Farm Report:
Armando squeezed out 12 torselos from Eddie the Beagle’s back. Why do some dogs get torselos and others don’t? Because some dogs let the mosquitos bite! Eddie - like all the dogs and cats - normally eats any biting insect that gets too close! They rarely get torselos. I can only figure that somebody served Eddie a big plate of leftover something and he just fell into a gluttonous slumber and didn’t feel the bugs bite!
The mosquito deposits the Botfly eggs, which hatch under the animal’s skin as torselos - the larva stage. The torselo grows fat and big, causing discomfort to the animal and, if not discovered and killed, will eventually transform into a Botfly. And the cycle begins again. We break the cycle! Every dead torselo is one Botfly fewer! So we kill them all. Armando and Jose are both masters at feeling around the dog’s skin for the torselo and applying just the correct pressure to squeeze it out. Don’t try to extract torselos from your dog unless you know what you’re doing. You could well make a mess of it and cause a nasty infection in your dog.
Take your dog to the vet.
Horses rarely get torselos but, for some reason, cows let the mosquitos bite them! It took two long sessions to clear out the bugs from Lola La Vaca and her calf. We used Ivermectin on the calf to knock back the population but we still have to treat them both locally to kill them all - especially to reduce the potential of Ivermectin resistance. If you want a deeper understanding of how quickly resistance happens and why, read Richard Dawkins’, ‘Greatest Show on Earth’, a splendid book on evolution.
The rains have now pretty much ceased and the weather is bright, sunny and windy most nights, mostly calm during the day. The Sun’s rays feel much more intense than usual. The forest is still humid, and the springs below the house are still flowing well so far. Luehea speciosa, Tecoma stans and Senna papillosa are in full bloom all over the hillsides. Schizolobium parahyba and Guachipelins are just getting started. Leaves are beginning to drop. We shall see how El Nino affects us this year. It’s a fragile forest. Fire is never far from my mind.
World Report - Copenhagen: Nations join together to discuss climate change and take action.
It’s all about individual actions: recycle, reuse, shop for things that won’t end up in the landfill. If that plastic container won’t disintegrate within 500 years, then use it again!