Let The Giving Begin!

Many many thanks to those of you who went out of the way to donate to our collection for the orphanage. We´re now in a position to do a little more good while we´re here. We´ve only had one day at the orphanage (the boys went on a field trip today so we had the day off) and we hope to get a better sense of what their needs are shortly. One thing that was easy to see was that they like to watch American films. We asked one of the ¨Tias¨ (spanish for aunt) what kind of movies they like and she said action movies. So today we went to the video store and put to use a little of that money you donated to buy them a handful of action/superhero films like Indiana Jones, Superman, Batman, Star Wars (Revenge of the Sith) and a few others. We´re sure they´ll be well received!

We´re In It!

Well, we´re here and clearly, we´re in it! I know it´s only been a few days, but already, it feels like we´ve done and been through so much. There´s really a lot to tell and I don´t know if I´ll get to it all in one day, but I´ll do my best.

I knew before we left that we were sure to run into challenges, but I didn´t expect them to come so quickly, nor in the manner in which they came. On night one, we settled into our home stay quite nicely, meeting and chatting with the mother, Mariellos and her three lovely children until we basically couldn´t keep our eyes open anymore. Off to bed we went into our quaint but comfortable little room, where we passed out within minutes (after, of course, I killed about a dozen small insects on the ceiling). At about midnight, we were awakened by the LOUDEST damn chicken in all of mankind. ¨Weird,¨we thought. So we poked our head out the window and noticed that our bedroom backed up to a huge chicken coop, while other chickens roamed free about the property. One of them MUST have been right outside our window, because he sounded like he was cock-a-doodle-dooing from the pillow next to me. Now neither of us grew up on a farm, but it was our impression that chickens woke up at day break and made a racket, but apparently Costa Rican chickens do things differently. About every 10 minutes, starting at midnight and continuing right through till about 8am, one would call out and then the rest would chime in for about a minute. It would calm down, then pick right back up.


Needless to say, by the time daybreak came, we hadn´t slept much and knew we had to do something about it. So off we went with Mariellos to our volunteer coordinator for our initiation and tour around town. On the way, I had to explain to her how awful it was that we hadn´t slept and how unlikely it was that a guy who could be kept up by the sound of butterfly farts could stand living there for a month. She was obviously disappointed, I´m guessing at least in part because of how much money she would be missing out on. I said as nicely as possible ¨Please understand that we really adore you and your family, but I don´t think we´re going to be able to stay with you.¨ To which she replied ¨Dios mio.¨ (translation: My god) Yeah. That was an awkward 10 minute walk.

Anyway, we were fortunate that they had another family ready and willing to take us in for the month and in retrospect, we´re really glad we made the move. We´re in a great part of town (close to the town center but not too close) and everyone there is really friendly. They speak no English, which is good in a way because it´s forcing us to use our Spanish, but they never make us feel bad about our Spanish (which has a ways to come). The house we´re staying at is really like more of a compound, in that they have 4 houses on the property with a shared courtyard, and each of the children has their own little house (kinda´like Big Love minus the polygamy). We stay with the abuela, Anna (we´re guessing she´s about 70), and one of her sons, Guilo, who is a locksmith. There´s also another son Jugo (and his 2 kids) in another house, Damaris and her 3 sons in another, and Fanny and her 2 kids in the last. It´s really great that they have their family so close but also have a bit of privacy in their own houses. The pictures below might give a better sense of the ¨compound¨feel of the place. Not sure if they´ll do the place any justice, but here are a few...


After settling in for about an hour, it was off to work at the orphanage in La Garita, about a half hour bus ride east. We met a fellow volunteer, a guy named Chris from Colorado, who´s been there for about 2 months. On the ride over, he let us know what to expect, which essentially amounted to scaring the crap out of us. He let us know that there´s a lot of pent up anger and frustration and that the boys need constant attention. I was exhausted just listening to him. Anyway, it didn´t take much time there to realize that he was pretty dead on. There are currently 15 boys there, ranging in age from 13 to 17 (when they´re 18, they´re adults and can leave) and almost all of them wanted as much attention from us as they could get. For teenage boys, that amounts to showing off how athletic they are, how fast they can ride their bikes, how well they climb the tree, etc. We spent the day doing the aforementioned, and also playing soccer with them, taking tours around the place, and generally just keeping them occupied. Almost all of them say life there is too boring and so they´re constantly looking for diversions. I think having two new American volunteers there made for a good diversion yesterday, and it couldn´t have hurt that one of them is very cute and friendly (and Kandi´s not bad either).

I could definitely sense the anger and resentment that they have to be there. I´ll see what I can do about posting pictures another time (taking photography there is tricky because they need to keep the boys´identities secret) but they´re confined there by walls and even barbed wire in a few spots. They´ve been removed from their homes due to no fault of their own (most of their parents abused or neglected them) and now they´re stuck essentially in a juvenile detention center. They´re not very well behaved and not all that respectful (most of them, a few are sweethearts), but it would impossible to blame them.

All in all, it was a very full and exhausting day, and needless to say, we slept VERY well last night. Oh, and this morning, we had tamales with corn, rice, and chicken inside and I gotta´tell ya´, that chicken tasted ESPECIALLY good.

I'm Buggin' Out!

You just HAD to do it, didn't you, Richard? You just HAD to succumb to the urge and run that Google Image search for "COSTA RICA BUGS." And you were expecting to find what? Adorable little creatures with snugly faces like panda bears? You really didn't have any idea that you'd run into images like THIS....?!



I'll tell ya' one thing. If I have a bug like that on my face, there is NO WAY I stay still long enough for my friends to snap hi quality, nicely-framed photography. You might, however, get some nice shots of me beating my own face into a bloody pulp.

Oh, and THIS thing...



I mean, Dude. When a six pound beetle lays claim to your hot dog bun, that's his damn hot dog bun. I mean, look at the bear hug that thing's got there! Jesus.

OK, and I saved the worst one for last...



That thing lands on my shoulder and I'm taking off my damn arm with an axe. Or better yet, just kill me. Yeah, in fact, Kandi -- if you see one of these things within a quarter mile of me, just push me in front of oncoming traffic. What the F-CK IS THAT?!?!?!

I will say this. If there's one positive to having seen all these nightmarish creatures, it's that teen angst and ungodly humidity suddenly don't seem so bad.

Help Us Help!

Despite the fact that I'm a TV editor and constantly working with new technology, it took a co-worker's suggestion to realize I could take donations via PayPal (thanks, Jess). So, if you'd like to make a monetary donation to help us help the boys of the orphanage and would like to do it through PayPal, use the button you see below. Thanks for your support!

That's a Long Way From New Jersey!

So it's official! After months of planning, the details of our trip are now final, and we're off to Atenas, Costa Rica to work in an orphanage with adolescent and teenage boys. In talking to many of you individually, it seems like there a lot of questions about this trip, so let me try to do my best to answer them in Q&A form.

Q: How'd you end up picking a little place like Atenas, Costa Rica to do this?
A: It's not so much that we picked Atenas, but that it picked US. We started with some basic criteria -- we want to volunteer in a hands-on way for a month, we want to be somewhere safe, we don't want to spend a fortune, and we'd like to be in Spanish-speaking country if possible. That pretty much led us to Central or South America and then once we factored in the "safe" and "economical" aspects, Costa Rica it was! (no offense, Columbia, but any country whose TV slogan is "The only RISK is not wanting to come home" is just hiding something). When we finally chose to work with RCDP (Rural Community Development Program), they gave us the choice of this quiet, farming town of Atenas or the bustling capital city of San Jose. As many of you know, I wake up from the sound of a car alarm sounding 12 blocks away, so it was kind of a no-brainer from there. As a bonus, National Geographic bestowed Atenas with the honor of "Best Climate in the World", which I'm assuming means 53 degrees with a slight breeze and no bugs.

Q: Yeah, um, WHY are you doing this again?
A: It's a combo of a) wanting to do something good for others, b) wanting to do something different and memorable for us, and c) all the stars aligning to make this possible. Our jobs are both flexible at this point in our lives, we don't have a mortgage or even a rent payment (thanks, Mom and Dad) and no kids, so it just kinda jumped out at us. Plus, leaving NYC for the month of January is always a good idea.

Q: What qualifies you to work with adolescent and teenage boys removed from their homes due to neglect or abuse, or boys who have been taken off the streets?
A: Absolutely nothing. I'm honestly wholly unprepared to deal with these kids and am hoping Kandi can take the lead on this for the first week or so. I mean, I WAS a teenage boy for like 7 years -- does that count?

Q: Where are you living?
A: We'll be staying with a family in Atenas. So far, all we know is that their names are Marielos and Arnoldo (parents) and their three kids, Roxia, Milena, and Roy. Meals will be with the family, so we're hoping for some good traditional Costa Rican cuisine (although, we have little idea what that means at this point). We'll have hot water in the showers, but no a/c. Our coordinator assures us that nights are "perfect sleeping weather." I somehow doubt that a climate that reaches 90 in the day could ever have "perfect" nights, unless somehow it dips into the 40's. No a/c? I see a large, industrial strength fan in my near future.

Well that's it for now. As you can probably tell from the rudimentary style of this post, this is my first ever blog entry. Hopefully I'll improve. On that note, I do plan on doing at least one blog entry a week, and maybe even more. For those of you who have contributed to our fund -- first of all, thank you, and secondly, we'll definitely update you here on how we're using the money to help out the boys. For anyone reading this who's interested in contributing money so we can help these kids even further, please email me at rickdeutsch@mac.com.

Look for maybe one more entry before our departure on Dec 28th. Thanks for reading and wish us luck!