Letter, September 10, 1974

Dear Jan,

Your letter & Mom’s arrived on the same day, and I was glad to see them because I had been getting anxious about getting some word from home. The picture you sent was a real life saver because the day before the family I’m living with had been asking me why I didn’t have any pictures of my family. Even down here seven sisters really impresses people as a lot!

The change in culture hasn’t caused as many problems as I expected, primarily, I think, because Costa Rica is really a very rich and liberal country by Central American standards. The house where I live is very modest by American standards, but very adequate down here where you don’t need heating & insulation. My family doesn’t have T.V., thank God. They show a lot of dubbed in American reruns down here, but what people like best are Peyton Place style soap operas which are shown in the evening. The radio is bad enough, with its 5-10 year old American songs and over-sentimental, bubblegum Costarican songs.

I’ve done quite a bit of reading from your book of Walt Whitman’s works, which I stole when I left. He had an amazing faculty for putting into words what the rest of us can only feel and remain speechless about.

My training has got me down a little right now. The Spanish isn’t bad, though I am impatient about my rate of progress, but the agriculture is like going back to high school Vo. Ag. { vocational agriculture }. They more or less cover a bunch of topics which our boss has listed as “training objectives”, and then we regurgitate them back on a 2 hour exam (We had the second one yesterday). The hardest thing about the tests is trying to figure out what the guy who writes them (his English is pretty mediocre) means, but they are a real pain in the nalgas {butt}.

Want to wish you luck on your 6 week exams, since by the time this gets to you it will be about that time. I think it’s great that you got a job at Union South; I always thought it would be nice to work in one of the Unions.

Yesterday one of the guys in my program had to have some kind of large fly larva removed from his leg. These flies (they are something like the horn flies in Wisconsin) infect the cows really bad, especially long haired ones. From now on I’m going to check over every new mark on my bod from pimples on up to make sure it isn’t one of those. I feel guilty about being so utterly healthy so far when several of the guys have had digestive or parasite problems. I suppose my time will come though!

When I’m in a more analytical mood I’ll have to tell you about the social state of women down here. They really have it rough, but it is hard to feel sorry for them while dodging their advances! Girls here are taught that you have to nab a husband between the ages of 15 and 20 or it’s all over for you!

Hasta luego,

Dean

Letter, September 8, 1974

Dear Mom,

Got your letter and Jan’s both last Tuesday. Was very happy to hear that my letters are getting through and about all that is happening at home. Sorry to hear about all those bulls you’re having, but I’m sure the situation will improve, the law of averages is on your side!

Jan sent me a picture of her with LeRoy’s aged cow. It certainly is a beauty, but I bet he paid plenty for it. My family has been asking to see pictures of my family, so that picture got me off the hook for a little while. Doña Maria thinks the cow is “muy gordo” (very fat), and it took me some doing to explain to her that it wasn’t ours, but belonged to a friend of Dad’s.

Glad to hear Donna is going to technical school. Tell her not to let Bruce buffalo her into doing more farm work than she can handle if she stays at home, studies come first (at least over barn chores!). She’d probably be better off not living at home if she can swing it financially, because I know it’s awful hard to study with so much else going on in the house.

I got the ballot Thursday and sent it back out Friday; hope I had enough postage on it. As you will see, I couldn’t find 2 Wisconsinites here to cosign it; there is only one other in my program and none among the other trainees here.

Glad to hear you got the oats & that the corn looks good. It was very dry when I left and I was afraid that might reduce the crop if it persisted.

I miss having the sweetcorn (I can almost taste it), but the variety of fruits and vegetables that grow here is really remarkable. I’ve had tangerines, mangos (a fruit something like a peach but much tougher skinned), bananas and now oranges fresh off the trees. We have a lemon tree in the back yard and I get lemonade, freshly squeezed every evening for supper.

Since you’re probably making silage now I should tell you how we made it Wednesday. We cut the maicillo (sorghum) using machetes and put in a hole in the ground that was lined with sheet plastic. It makes good silage if you choose the site well, and it is very cheap.

I may be writing later to ask you to send two books I have at home either to El Salvador or to Washington D.C. I am going to write the desk officer for El Salvador and see if he will send them from Washington. If he can it will save a lot of red tape because diplomatic pouches are not subject to customs inspection, taxes, etc. The two books are sociology statistics books (Glass & Stanley, “Statistics in Education and Psychology”, and Hays and Winkler “Statistics for (?)”) which it looks like I will need in El Salvador. Don’t worry about them yet, I will tell you where to send them at a later date.

Tell Bruce to beware of big, mean defensive linemen; life is too short for broken bones!

Hasta Luego {Until Later},

Dean

Letter, August 25, 1974

Dear Bruce & Tom,

Felices días de natal {“Happy birthdays”, but not the common way it is expressed in Spanish}! Sorry about not sending birthday cards, but if they do share that custom here I haven’t found where they sell the cards yet! If you get this letter in the customary 4-5 days it should arrive right between your birthdays and during the fair. Lots of luck with your cattle, and wish mom and Carla luck with any clothing and stuff they might have entered.

I would guess Jan should be registering for school this week. Is she going to live with Joyce again this year? If not please give me her address or have her write me & give it to me.

Has anyone written from up there yet? I think I’m the only one who hasn’t received a letter yet at Basico. Perhaps the address I left with y’all isn’t specific enough. I have two more which are more specific that you may try if you like:

Apartado 30	Seminario Franciscano
San Antonio de Belén	San Antonio de Belén
Heredia, Costa Rica	Heredia, Costa Rica
Centro América	Centro América

Three of the volunteers in my program have been pretty sick this week and have been taking antibiotics. Two of them appear to be feeling better, but one guy is still pretty sick and it’s really getting him down mentally. If he doesn’t feel better soon he’ll probably go home. I’m feeling just great, however! Having temperatures between 75° & 85° daily (and all year around here) really agrees with me. They always give me a lot to eat and lately I’ve been cleaning it all up. With playing volleyball at lunchtime and walking the 1¾ to 2 miles from home to Basico twice a day, I get enough exercise to work off the food.

Fortunately, I like rice and beans, and the wide variety of fruits and vegetables they have here pretty well, unlike some of the guys.

Bruce, are you going to work ½ days during school this year? Are you out for football or volleyball or highball? What about you, Tom? Don’t knock yourselves out trying to be highschool heros, look where it got me (nowhere).

Just got back {Here there is an arrow in the original letter, pointing to the start of the previous paragraph.} from playing basketball with some ticos (Costaricans) about you guys’ age. They don’t have much skill (they are much more at home kicking the ball), but they make up for it with hustle. They can stand the heat better than I can!

Well, happy birthdays again and lots of luck this school year.

Dean

Letter, August 17, 1974

Dear Mom,

I have 2 weeks of Spanish under my belt, but am still not communicating very well. The few phrases I know don’t go very far. 3 guys have left the program and gone back to the States. From what I understand an attrition rate of 25% is about average. In these three cases I think it was mostly a matter of them not fully realizing what they had signed up for until being down here a week. Last Monday a group of 5 nurses (and one special ed. major who is the husband of one nurse) arrived here in San Antonio. It is encouraging to see how much more Spanish we knew than they did, but they are catching up rapidly.

Wednesday another guy and I milked the cow at Basico (we are all taking turns). Dad would shake his head in disbelief! The cow is a little Brahman type and we milked her by throwing a lasso over her horns, tying her to a tree (with her calf tied beside her to make her give her milk down), and milking her by hand. Even though she has been fresh only about 4 months {meaning it is 4 months since the cow last gave birth to a calf}, she only gave 2¼ lbs. of milk! This is the common method of milking in northern El Salvador, and most of their cattle have some Brahman blood.

Wednesday at noon break I went for the first time to Ojo de Agua (literally eye of water) which is a resort right over the fence from Basico. It is unbelievable! There are 5 swimming pools ranging from Olympic size to a little kids wading pool, plus a small artificial lake for boating, a basketball court, soccer field, volleyball court and tennis courts. All the water for the pools comes from a huge spring (the Ojo de Agua). I’m going to have to take a picture of the place to show y’all how tough we PCV’s have it! Admission to the place is 3 Colones (about 35¢ - American) and includes swimming, etc.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I plan to go to a big soccer game in Tibas. The two best city teams in Costa Rica are going to play.

Don’t get much news from the U.S. down here. The last thing I heard about was when Nixon resigned. I saw a Miami paper yesterday that had some garbage about how Mrs. Ford said Jerry could still cook his own breakfast in the Whitehouse, but not much else.

I imagine Jan is getting ready to go back to school by now. Has she heard anything about where she is going to practice teach yet?

Imagine you have the oats & straw in, and are getting ready to make silage. We just planted some sorghum & grass trials this week here. There are crops in almost all stages in this area, apparently because Costa Rica has a rainy season almost year-around! Most planned activities (outside) here are held in the morning because it so often rains in the afternoons.

I think I’m one of the few volunteers who hasn’t had a good bout with diarrhea yet. Don’t see how I could get sick with all the shots they’ve given me here and in New Orleans!

Hope you’re as healthy as I am,

Dean

Letter, August 9, 1974

Dear Mom,

Here’s wishing you a very belated happy birthday! Sorry it took me this long to write, but with classes, etc. and have also not learned enough Spanish yet to get some envelopes. By the time I get this letter mailed you can rest assured I will have learned where they sell envelopes.

Has Jan come home from Canada yet? Did Bruce & Tom go out for football or are one or both of them planning on going out for volleyball? I have been playing volleyball (the name’s the same in Español!) at Basico during lunch hour this week.

The food here is O.K. and I have not experienced any diarrhea yet even though I drink the water & everything. I have to admit though that arroz y frijoles (rice & beans), the staples of the Costarican diet, get pretty monotonous.

The last half of this week and for the next 3 weeks I will be having intensive Español lessons. They are giving us the equivalent of 2 years of college Spanish in 10½ weeks. With the agriculture training too it makes for long days. I usually get up at 5 or 5:30, eat and walk about 2 miles to Basico. We have classes from 7:30 to 11:30 and 1:30 to 5:30. Then I go home, eat, study, perhaps go to the cervecería for a cerveza {beer} and then go to bed by about 9:30.

The mother, señora Maria Gonzales, in the family I am living with is American by birth, but you wouldn’t know it to talk to her. The only one who speaks any English in the house is one little girl (also Maria) who is studying it in school. There are 4 girls and 2 boys in the family and the father’s grandparents also live here. The “Don” is in the hospital now for an operation, but we don’t communicate well enough for me to know what kind of operation.

Heard today that Nixon resigned yesterday. I think he saved the Congress a lot of hassle and the country some more months without effective leadership. It will be interesting to see what the civil and criminal courts do in his pending cases now that he no longer is “immune” from all but the impeachment process.

Hoping Y’all are well & happy,

Dean

Images, August, 1974

A photo of the front of the Basico training center in San Antonio de Belen. { I got this photo from a newspaper, much later when the campus had been converted to a private primary and secondary school, Costa Rica Academy }

Beautiful money! The Costarican five Colones bill at the time contained a reproduction of a painting depicting the harvest and shipping of Costa Rica's two principal export crops, coffee and bananas.

Here is my group's training schedule for our first week.

Letter, August 3, 1974

{ Written on stationary from the Delta Towers Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana. }

Dear Mom,

We fly out tomorrow to San Jose, Costa Rica. Have been having a good time at training. Today I went down to the river and saw some old-time river boats as well as some huge modern ones. Better hang on to that old doll of yours! I went to a Louisiana State Museum today and saw two dolls with heads the exact same size, shape and hair color! There were also several other dolls that were similar. The display said they were made in the 1850’s or 1860’s.

They gave us an emergency phone number for you to call in case of (obviously) an emergency. They will be better to use than the Costarican numbers I gave you:

M-thru-F (9-4:30) call: 800-424-8580 extension 85, 86 or 87 (take your pick)
All other times call: P.C. duty officer (202) 393-3111 Govt. operator, (202) 638-2574 Answering service

Please don’t call unless it’s super urgent, since they get a lot of “worried relatives” calls. Remember that the mail from Central America takes a week or more to get there. I’ll try to write every couple weeks, but training is very hectic so I don’t know.

We are having a champagne breakfast before we leave tomorrow morning! We’ll be in San Jose in time for supper.

Hope you are getting some rain up there; it has been cloudy all day today & rained some here.

Adios for now,

Dean