Generosity that will blow your mind

Posted on by stanleyobando

My husband was watching Channel 7’s midday news on Saturday when he shouted to me, “Come see this!”

I was glad he did. The show was covering a story that took me some time to wrap my head around, thanks in no small part to the biases and preconceptions messing around in my brain. The headline said that indigenous communities in Talamanca, in southeastern Costa Rica, had donated huge amounts of food to professional female soccer players. I kept thinking, “Isn’t it the other way around?”

No. No, it’s not. A group of Talamanca women spent 10 weeks going door to door in their communities, on foot and by boat, to collect more than 10 tons of yuca, plátano, chayote, ayote, chile dulce, culantro coyote, pejibaye, limón, malanga, caña de azúcar, mamón chino, fruta de pan, naranja, toronja, carambola and cacao. And others. But you get the idea.

They donated the food to women soccer players who are having trouble making ends meet during the COVID-19 crisis and who, in many cases, have themselves been voices for solidarity and philanthropy during this difficult time. (Check out this Boost from July.)

“We don’t have much moey, but that’s no reason not to show solidarity and share the little we have with people having a hard time,” community Edith Villanueva told Channel 7. “This country has helped us during our toughest times – during floods and earthquakes and now during the pandemic… so we thought we could show our thanks to Costa Rica by donating part of our harvests.”

Why soccer players? She said they know that these women practice all day long, holding down jobs and studying in many cases, and have been affected economically just like others in Costa Rica.

This isn’t the first time Talamanca’s indigenous communities have taken my breath away with their philanthropic efforts. When Hurricane Otto devastated northern Costa Rica, they gathered food and sent it all the way across the country to help those in need.

Once again, this region is giving us a master class in what it means to stand with others.

All images from Vice President Epsy Campbell’s public Facebook profile.

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; learn how to join my Overwhelmed Writers’ League, every Saturday at 1 pm EST; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! To learn more about how to support Costa Rica during the crisis, visit my COVID-19 section – or for ways to enjoy Costa Rica from afar, visit Virtual Costa Rica.

 

More proof that women’s soccer is the best

Posted on by stanleyobando

Today, La Nación reported that women’s soccer player María José Brenes of the Saprissa club has been giving away jerseys to people who donate money, food or masks for those in need during the COVID-19 crisis.

This wasn’t a team effort or a project of the Saprissa Foundation. It was just María José, trying to figure out a way to help. And I’m not surprised: women’s players have to hustle their whole lives (to get respect and recognition, to eke out a living between their sport and their other jobs), so they are well suited for a moment like this.

María José isn’t alone. Raquel Morera, Lixy Rodríguez, Viviana Chinchilla and Valery Sandoval are also listed in the article as impromptu fundraisers. They’ve been joining forces to pick up in-kind donations and get them where they need to go. I hope that after today’s press coverage, some more resources will line up behind these players.

Thank you, ladies, for showing us not just how women do, but also what it means to be an athlete and a role model. We see you.

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! If you want to learn more about how to support Costa Rica during the crisis, visit my COVID-19 section – or for ways to enjoy Costa Rica from afar, visit Virtual Costa Rica.

All hail Stephanie!

Posted on by stanleyobando

Here’s some good news to start your week: Stephanie Blanco of Amubri, Talamanca, in southeastern Costa Rica, has been signed by a European football club. This milestone makes Stephanie the first indigenous woman from Costa Rica to play professional soccer internationally.

This. Is. HUGE.

The defender is a star of the reigning women’s champions in Costa Rica, la Liga Alajualense, and previously made history as the first indigenous woman to play on Costa Rica’s National Team. She’ll now be playing for Deportivo La Coruña.

Thank you, Stephanie, for reminding us that life goes on, and for giving Costa Ricans, women, and beautiful Talamanca a reason to cheer right now!

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! If you want to learn more about how to support Costa Rica during the crisis, visit my COVID-19 section, updated regularly – or for ways to enjoy Costa Rica from afar, visit Virtual Costa Rica.

I’m with Shirley: soccer is for all of us, and language matters

Posted on by stanleyobando

Today’s post is brought to you by Costa Rican soccer superstar Shirley Cruz. After Channel 7 sportscaster Ramón Luis Méndez informed the world on Sunday that “fútbol es de hombres” (“soccer is for men”) –  he was arguing that it’s a contact sport, not for the faint of heart – Shirley posted this simple message over three posts:

Soccer isn’t “for men.” Soccer is a universal sport, for all genders. These types of phrases sully the work that many women have done for years to break down stereotypes…

For the people who say that a phrase like “Soccer is for men” isn’t machista: you never suffered when they yelled at us from the buses that passed by the back field at Sabana Park, telling us to stop wasting time and go home to wash dishes. We ask that parents support their soccer-playing daughters because even today there are girls who play soccer at school and the boys drive them away with these kinds of comments.

And no, we’re not being over sensitive, as this man says. Let’s not forget that television broadcasts reach the whole country. There are synonyms that could be used so as not to interfere with the progress of women’s soccer. We live in a machista country where many women are murdered each year.

This is my struggle and that of many women. We are not a hypersensitive generation. We are a generation that wants a change in the world.

Pretty awesome, and pretty darn straightforward, right?

Apparently, many found it quite shocking. I probably learned more about sexism in Costa Rica by reading the comments on Shirley’s posts than I have in the previous decade, and that’s saying a lot. Women and men alike had plenty to say: she’s oversensitive. She’s overdramatic. She’s being ridiculous because he wasn’t commenting on a women’s game – he was just saying soccer isn’t for wusses. She’s too impatient; it’s unrealistic to expect people to change so quickly. She should suck it up because you don’t see men getting upset when people say, “You’re playing like a girl in high heels” or “You’re a little princess.” (Umm, world: that’s also an insult against women. Not men.) The sportscaster himself, in filming a brief “apology,” remarked that some people are “a little too sensitive,” and it seems that many of his viewers agreed.

We have a long match still to play, and I’m so grateful to have a captain like this one. Thank you, Shirley, for sticking your neck out. While I might have been surprised by the vitriol you faced, I know who wasn’t surprised in the least: you. You’ve been facing this nonsense since you were playing pickup games on the back field at La Sabana. You knew exactly who was coming for you when you decided to speak out. You laced up your cleats anyway, knowing that in the end, you’ll outrun them all.

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! You can also find me churning out small, square poems on any topic under the sun (here on the site, on Instagram or Twitter). 

 

Day 36: All hail the conquerer, Amy Palmiero-Winters

Posted on by stanleyobando
Endurance athlete Amy Palmiero Winters

Do you have a busy week ahead of you? Me, too. But you know what gives me a little more energy? Keeping in mind that a woman who endured the amputation of one of her legs (and the reconstruction of her other foot!) in her youth just rode her bike through the killer mountains of Costa Rica, tackling one of the toughest adventure races in the world.

The wide-eyed story I saw about Amy Palmiero-Winters in Costa Rica’s newspaper of record, La Nación, over the weekend made it sound as if this might have been her first rodeo. She joked in the interview about having to have words with her sponsor because the race turned out to be much harder than she expected, and I think the journalist took her too seriously. When I Googled her, I discovered that she is an international phenomenon. She’s run gut-wrenching ultramarathons, became the first amputee ever to qualify for the grueling Western States, and, in her free time, pushes wheelchairs for participants in other races, according to the New York Times.

Screenshot from The New York Times

What’s more, that same NYT article tells the story of how – after a car driver skipped a stop sign and hit her motorcycle, but before her left leg was amputated – she ran a marathon in Columbus, Ohio. That’s right. She ran a marathon with one leg atrophied, having been subjected to more than 25 operations. She ran the marathon, and then went in for her amputation.

No wonder she tackled the mountains of Costa Rica, inspiring yet another country with her steely nerve.

Whatever we’ve got on our plates this week: we’ve got this. Just ask Amy.

Want to read omre about the Ruta? I never tire of my friend Jill Replogle’s amazing piece about the Colorado man who literally fell off of the route and spent 30 hours shoeless and lost in the Costa Rican jungle. Check it out here.

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! You can also find me churning out small, square poems on any topic under the sun (here on the site, on Instagram or Twitter). 

Day 16: In just 12.64 seconds, she opened doors

Posted on by stanleyobando
Costa Rican athlete Andrea Vargas

I spend a lot of time thinking about the big changes that need to happen in order for my daughter to inherit a Costa Rica and a world where women are treated better than they are today. Yesterday, I was reminded that sometimes, those changes get made through sheer individual achievement. Doors can be smashed open by, say, one woman who runs like hell.

How improbable is it for a Costa Rican athlete to become the fifth-fastest woman in world? As a friend pointed out after Andrea Carolina Vargas Mena broke her own records to secure her spot among the world’s best at the World Athletics Championships, not to mention becoming the first athlete from her country ever to qualify for an open-area athletics final, you have to take her context into account – and not just the tininess of her country, five million strong. It’s the lack of support, both official and societal, for female athletes. The lack of enthusiasm for any sport aside from soccer. I am reasonably interested in sports and very interested in women’s sports, and had never heard of her until this weekend. Many people here are still unaware, especially since she ran her final at the same time that Saprissa and Alajuela were facing off on the football pitch.

All of this is to say that when Andrea Vargas blazed her way down the track, she overcame not only the limits of her own legs and lungs but also layer upon layer of disinterest, of low expectations, of what have surely been many pulls and distractions and calls to give up and do something considered more sensible or appropriate. She showed us what it means to power through. Without any doubt, she gave new hope and surely attracted new resources to women athletes of all ages in Costa Rica – including women who are mothers, as she is.

Andrea won many hearts in just 12.64. She definitely won mine:

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! You can also find me churning out small, square poems on any topic under the sun (here on the site, on Instagram or Twitter).