Three volunteers get to know the lifestyles of indigenous people in Costa Rica.

Author: Verena Stierschneider

Talamanca, 29.02.09

Last weekend Sophia from Germany, Katja from Russia and I had the unique chance to meet indigenous people and observe their livestyles in Costa Rica. We went to Talamanca to distribute useful items such as pencils, notebooks and uniforms. The activity was organized by Roxana Segura and the group JACA-EL-EL. At dawn our group of 22 people boarded a minibus and a few hours later we arrived at the village of Bri Bri. From there we crossed the river Telire in a boat.

We then climbed into a truck to reach Katsi, where there was already many people waiting to have Mass and sharing utensils. The church was very simple, there was also a school and a high school in the town. A few times a day the bus goes to the river. The children were very happy with the notebooks, pencils, uniforms and cookies. Unfortunately we could not stay long enough to spend much time with the native people because we had to continue on to Bamboo where we delivered more supplies and uniforms. Amubri, the town where we stayed to spend the night at the priest's house, is bigger. There's a shop, a bar and an internet cafe.

The priest told us that there are people far more removed than Katsi, Bamboo and Amubri and Telire (it takes 5 days of walking to get from Telire to Amubri!). William's father has lived in this area over the last 10 years and has helped a lot. According to him, the Indians almost never get married (in 5 years there were only 4 weddings) and women have children very early, at about the age of 12 or 13. When a woman is pregnant, she does not leave the house and the family says she is sick. In Telire as elsewhere, pregnant women have to leave the house a month before the birth of the baby, her family built a ranch on a part with the house.

Unfortunately, many traditions were lost due to outside influence. The only tradition that is still common is the tradition of death: when a person dies, they are buried alongside the house, depending on the importance of the individual in the community they may wait eight days until they are buried.

For me, the experience was very interesting and special because I had the chance to get to know a very different place that I had yet to see in Costa Rica. My ideas of Talamanca were that people live further away and there are no buses, Internet or grocery stores, so I was surprised. It is also sad to lose much of their traditions. I would have liked to share more with the Indians but still learned a lot and I’m happy to have seen this place.

Sophia: "The tour to the group Talamanca JACA EL-EL was very interesting and very charming. Overall, it was different than I imagined. I thought that the indigenous people live further away from civilization and their traditions and culture are very important. I never thought they would already be Catholic. It was very rewarding to see how they live and the land is very beautiful there".

Katja: "Our experience in Talamanca was excellent! Not everyone has the opportunity to escape the city and forget the stress, cars, pollution, etc. Yes there is poverty in Talamanca but the difference is that poverty is more noticeable in San Jose because the Indigenous people are all equal and have the same amount of money, clothing, food, and other items. In San Jose you will find a person sleeping in a box in front of a hotel or a casino. I appreciate the opportunity to experience another culture in Costa Rica. Going to Talamanca was like visiting another world while we were in the same country".