Is This Really My Life?

Wednesday December 16, 2009

What a day. Today was a day full of “Is This Really My Life?” moments.

Is This Really My Life Moment #1

Walking to school this morning I was deep in thought planning how I was going to check email, make dessert for the staff holiday get together and take out cash during the day. A stones throw away from the entrance of the school I saw a movement and looked up to see two white and grey speckled horses turning out of the driveway of the school and heading up the road towards me. This was a first. Maybe they were just returning their books to the library – I don’t know. I hesitated for a second, remembering stories of kids almost getting kicked by neighborhood grazing horses. The horses, one small enough that I almost want to call it a pony, saw me and hesitated. They looked as wary as I felt and hugged one shoulder of the road as I hugged the other. Before I passed them on the road they turned off the road into the cemetery that is next to the school to eat and poop on graves.

I turned into the entrance of the school playing over in my head what had just happened. Before I was even in the school parking lot I faltered in my step again – on the front lawn of the school was another horse, this one brown and muscular with a black tail and mane. I walked past, keeping a good ten feet away, watching the muscles above the animals hind legs and thinking about the force and velocity that could send one of those back legs shooting out towards my delicate bone structure. Once I was safely past the horse I paused and looked back. The horse turned to me, ears back, forward, swiveled. I turned and headed into the school building.

Is This Really My Life? Moment #2

Thirty minutes later kids had filled up the front yard, hallways and open classrooms of the school. As I headed towards the 3-4 classroom I saw a gaggle of my students and stopped short. One of my 4th grade girls had a tiny black kitten held delicately against her chest. All of the things I should say passed through my mind:
Whose cat is that?
What are you going to do with it?
Why did you bring a cat to school?
Has it had its shots?

But this is what came out: “Oh my gosh! Look! Oh – it’s so cute! Aw…”

Once I regained my composure and asked some coherent questions I found out what was up – they had brought the kitten for the family of a student in my class that was going to adopt it. Unfortunately this student is habitually fifteen minutes late for class and the bell was about to ring. “Well, I guess the adorable kitten will just have to come into the classroom”, I said. “Darn.”
The bell rang and we had to start morning meeting. The girls put the kitten in a shoebox with a string to keep the top on and placed it on one of the classroom tables to await the arrival of the mother who was going to take the kitten home. We began to organize ourselves, seated in a circle in the circle area. I looked up and saw a fuzzy black head and front left paw poking out of the shoebox. My brain didn’t work very fast: “Cat! Cat! Cat!” I called, pointing to the kitten that was by then ½ out of the box. The girls leapt up and grabbed the kitten before it tried to leap three feet onto the concrete and tile floor.

“Just hold it in your lap”, I suggested. Great idea, but I am one of two teachers for the 3-4 classroom and this is the sort of thing you would usually want to discuss before hand. “How do you feel about tiny kittens in the classroom?” My co-teacher arrived and when I updated her on the situation she just smiled, raised her hands and shrugged.

We sat down, the kitten curled peacefully in the lap of a student and began reading “Pelitos” by Sandra Cisnero. Every once in a while the kitten let out a weak mew, but was mostly content to suckle on the fingers of the students on whose lap she was sitting. And here’s the crazy thing – I was more distracted by the kitten then the students were. How are they able to focus? I looked around the circle – if I hadn’t know better, I would have said that no, there was not an adorable kitten in the circle with us. There is nothing like getting schooled in maturity by a bunch of eight and nine year olds.

Is This Really My Life? Moment #3

During recess I mentioned to a teacher who has been in Monteverde for four years about the horses on the lawn that morning.
“Did you see them?” I asked.
“No,” she said matter-of-factly. Then, “I’m surprised we haven’t had any cows yet this year. My first year, almost every morning we’d come in and see at least one cow in the field.” She motioned to the soccer field behind the school. Oh. I guess horses chillin’ in the school yard is no big deal. Silly me. I’m such a city girl.

Is This Really My Life? Moment #4

Today there was only a half-day of school. We had a special program for Christmas and the students went home at noon. At 1:00 a van came for us teachers and we headed down the mountain to have a potluck lunch at the house of a woman who works at the school. The ride itself was pretty fantastic – past grazing cows and then down down down into Alto San Luis, past breathtaking views of the San Luis valley and the Nicoya Gulf – but I had done this before. What was new today was climbing out of the van and into the forest to the house surrounded by plantain tress and coffee plants. It’s a coffee plantation, actually, and they harvest and sell to the local co-op. We sat on the porch sipping juice and relaxing until we relocated to the fire pit. To get from the house to the fire pit one has to take a short walk past the hanging rope swing, under the plantain tress, past a few rows of shaded coffee plants, over a tiny creek, past more coffee plants and into a clearing carpeted with fallen plantain leaves. I filled my plate with food and paused – Here I was at a holiday party IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST ON THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN IN RURAL COSTA RICA. I took a deep breath, smiled and sat down to eat.

Is This Really My Life? Moment #5

We were fed and happy and back up the mountain and at the school by 4:45. I got a lift into Cerro Plano to take money out from the ATM, but had to walk back. It was about 5:15 and the setting sun had turned everything goldenrod. The sky was clear but a cloud was blowing through creating an Across The Entire Sky Rainbow. No one talks about the rainbows here in Monteverde, but already I’ve seen enough eye-popping dashes of color in the sky to write a book. I walked quickly because the sun was setting, feeling the fine, cool cloud mist on my face and walking towards the end of the rainbow.