Family Bonds, Service Inspire a Costa Rica Journey
Photos by Susan Shusko The Laguna Beach Shuskos mixed pleasure with service in Costa Rica, including a stay with a host family. Jessica and Alex Jr. with their hosts, Wayner, Dona Bella and Yuerland in La Lucha. My most lasting memory of our family's Costa Rica adventure will be the roosters starting their daily routine, crowing before dawn. Each day at Dona Bella's house in La Lucha took shape beginning at 4:30 a.m.
Her small house, an old home and a newer addition, had three bedrooms, a family room, a spacious kitchen, a sewing room and a laundry area. Overall, it was probably about 1,200 square feet. Our family of four, including my wife Susan and daughter Jessica and son Alex occupied two of the bedrooms.
Alex, better known as Flip, is a Laguna Beach High School senior. Jessica is a sophomore who swims and plays water polo.
The house was situated on a small farm that included a very small, rear house for her temporarily exiled husband and two other modest houses for the families of her son and daughter. The primary crop was a yucca root, similar to a potato. There were also numerous plantain and banana trees, plus mangoes and papayas and other tropical fruits. There were about 10 cows, although only one was producing milk. (Don't ask about our milking skills!) And along with the roosters came the chickens that produced eggs regularly for breakfast with yolks of an amazing orange.
Jessica amuses a monkey, also named Jessica, a native of San Carlos. We had come to this remote section of north central Costa Rica on a trip put together by my Notre Dame alumni association. Kathleen Sullivan, director of the alumni group's spirituality and service section, engineered this first-time event. Before we left, she indicated that the university wanted to develop a program that offered a chance for personal enrichment and family bonding and a chance to "give something back." For us, the trip was an incredible success on all fronts.
The local co-coordinator was Alvaro del Castillo, who runs Proyecto Asis, a wildlife rescue center. Its mission is to educate local residents about native animals and their habitat to reduce the number of monkeys, parrots and other creatures captured for pets or for sale on the black market. Del Castillo depends upon volunteer labor to help makes ends meet, and the homestay program helps broaden the scope of his program by providing a unique environment for the participants.
During our 10-day stay in the area, we helped build a new lagoon for Francisco, a five-foot long caiman. We also converted a cage from raccoon use to parrot use and otherwise did grounds clean up for a regional wildlife symposium to be held later in August.
Other service work we did included stops at a Catholic church, a nursing home, a recycling center, and an overnight trip to Bosque Eterno de los Ninos (BEN), for a day of construction site clean up and a swim in the crater lagoon.
The morning after our overnight at BEN, we were awakened by the roar of a howler monkey from the nearby rainforest.
Dona Bella only spoke Spanish and her 25-year-old son Wayner preferred to speak Spanish, although his English did emerge later in our visit. Alex was our source of most communication and did a masterful job. His skills were so advanced that he became the interpreter for the group whenever Alvaro was not around. My daughter Jessica learned that when it came to entertaining nineyear old Alexandra and threeand a-half-year-old Yuerland, the language of fun was all you really needed.
We learned much about ourselves and about a different way of life. I don't know that "simple" is better, but it sure is interesting. We also learned it is possible to eat beans, rice and fried plantains at every meal and that a hot shower is more of a necessity than a luxury!
Alex Shusko, who runs an Irvine CPA practice, has been treasurer of the Laguna Beach Little League and Soccer Club as well as booster rep for high school baseball and girls water polo.
