Ruminants/ Ruminations/ Ruritania

Cattle here are brahmas, horns, humps and dopey faces. I've been told that the portion of them that ends up as steak is cut 90 degrees to the way we do it at home, and not hung anywhere near as long after slaughter which would make it tougher than I am used to. Were steak to come up in conversation between a Costa Rican and myself, we would each assume that we knew exactly what the other was talking about - that it in fact was the same thing, descibed by the same words - which isn't exactly true. Neither one of us would have the ultimate definition of steak, except in the context of everything else we know. So when I tell you of things I have seen here, don't weigh my emotional undertones too heavily. I get the feeling that I often don't know what I'm looking at, at least in Costa Rican terms.

What is the difference between poor and poverty? How do the people who actually live in some of the tin shacks I saw on the way to Ocatal view their circumstances? To my eyes, they were by far the most disadvantaged I have seen so far. I saw no dirty, squalid children - plenty of clean ones, with clean clothes - but the most charitable thing I could say about their houses is that it would not take long to push them over. How fair is my assessment?

If I toss out everything but the fact that some Costa Ricans have very little material possessions, and do not appear unduly worried about it, please understand that I am doing so in the hope that I will eventually know enough to make intelligent conclusions about it all.

But I don't think I'm going to be here long enough - this time.