Thoughts while in Liberia, an update
Trip Start
May 16, 2008
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Trip End
Ongoing
Liberia, Province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Monday, June 2, 2008
I miss having my own house where everything is familiar. I miss talking only to the people who I want to talk with and deciding not to talk to people if I don't want to. I miss understanding everything. I miss being lazy when I want to. I miss.... The comforts of my own life. This is a mission, an adventure, something I need to do so that I can get my masters degree. I like it, it is really interesting. However, I guess the first waves of homesickness have finally reached me as I am starting to become involved and interviewing my "field participants" and realizing that I have two more months here. I am scared in a way.... I am just being myself, being nice and caring and hoping that people will talk to me and that they will open up to me. I really need luck now. If I ever needed it again. But all is going well. I just miss my life in the States. I am very homesick.
Here is an excerpt from my fieldwork notes on the first couple days:
I have been thinking about thoughts on a "buy local" community concept. I was looking at my Immigration Market receipt and noticed that it says, "Utah buy local first" on the front of the receipt. I was thinking about the pulperias and smaller sodas or small book and gift stores and realized that this is all Buy Local stuff here in CR. Bodley was also pushing the buying first local issue in 519. It seems the only major corporations that buying local in costa rica supports is the Fantas, the Coca Colas that are in demand which are sold in the small local shops or on the side of the road. Or, to put it simply, the brand names, La Marka. There are a lot of fresh made things from Costa Rica that are sold in stores. The demand is vast in Costa Rica, but the fresh made things in the US such as having a larger and demanding audience brings more money to US food companies that go local. I was thinking that the concept of buying local first is to invest and retain money in the community and help it grow. But this does not seem like a full circle cycle. It seems here like the tiendas do serve the small community. We must keep in mind that most people do not have cars and that a lot of the food that is ate regularly on a daily basis is bought in pulperias and supermercados. So, they serve a direct need function.
In the us how is this different from gas stations? Gas stations are the mini markets, they are also affiliated with major gas companies. However, almost all of them sell food, groceries, and other simple stuff. Kind of like a pulperia and a minisupermercado. I wonder if the people who work the gas stations can have their own food market and totally make off from the profits and not the gas companies themselves. Also, the gas stations here do not sell food or cigarettes, very little sell drinks.
Then there are the people who make food and sell it in the streets. There are people who sell the chips and drinks on the highways. Ticos are very mobile people. You always see people going from major city to major city, Puntarenas to Liberia, San Jose to Puntarenas, Puntarenas to Monteverde....etc. very regularly. They work in these cities and regress to their own homes. They utilize public transportation very regularly.
I noticed that the families that are established here and have houses have the help from their families to become established. They have more of a sense of permanency. Most of the houses that I have come into contact with have been here for years, over ten years. They have established themselves in the community and are now living "life as usual" in the community. I think it is important to find out where these people work. It seems like the main drive for people when they come to this country is the opportunity to work. But what other factors come with that? A lot of the people I have talked with say that they associated wellbeing with having a good job and being economically stable. There seems to be a deep association with having the opportunity to work in order to live well.
Comments
Sounds Like a Perfect Small Nation Project!
I'd be interested to see how your sample population defines happiness and rate their own life satisfaction, then comparing that to material wealth... Sounds as though personal relationships, developing networks, and social capital are daily occurrences, no? In other words, are people happy regardless of their income and spending?
On a similar note, I'm guessing fewer have the ability to participate in excursions, and visitors to the area or tourists with non-local incomes make up a good number of participants. I'll be interested to see what you find!