En Español
Tres Ríos, Costa Rica 18 December 2007
Dear World,
It’s been two years since our last life update. Since then, we have had significant life changes:
- We moved back to Costa Rica in February 2006. We joined forces with Marisol’s brother, Fernando, to buy the Mayorga family house from their dad. For a period of 10 months, we renovated, remodeled, and built our side using biophilic architecture (the use of many images and aspects of nature in our design: ventilation, natural light, real animals and plants, natural colors, big glass doors transitioning into the backyard, paintings of nature, etc.). Meanwhile we had a baby (see below), and now we continue adding little touches to the never-ending first draft of our house.
- We were pregnant 22 weeks at our last update. Now Dion (who was a nameless, genderless mass of protoplasm then) is nearly 20 months, talking and running during ALL waking hours (usually starting at 4:45 am ). He was born a week and a half late and despite our having prepared for a natural birth via hypnobirthing, Dion wouldn’t exit, so we had an emergency C-section after 30 hours of labor. Although parenting has challenged us with many time constraints (making us give up some of our former habits and activities), Dion has brought many rewards too.
He’s been in pre-kindergarten for the past 8 months. The degree to which he uses words in English and Spanish surprises many listeners. Thanks to his father, Dion can recognize the Patriots logo anywhere, knows how to jump up and yell “touchdown.” He runs through the house with his football, occasionally dropping and yelling “fumble!” He’s outgoing, daring, talkative, and likeable, although he’s still using (we’re working on that) the old-fashioned cry to lobby for his wants.
- Professionally, we can’t complain. Jon has been focusing on park planning, affiliated with the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO; heritage interpretation training for parks; ecotourism consulting; and writing, both non-fiction and some fiction. Currently he’s trying to sell a full-length novella produced last year. He is also preparing a book on
Dion at Arrayanes National Park , Argentina
a new paradigm in park planning with a professor from University of Montana; continues publishing in a variety of publications, including an academic chapter on ecotourism quality and certification. This year his work brought him to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Also the US State Department sponsored his giving a lecture tour on environmental interpretation in Bolivia and Ecuador. Later Jon joined up with Marisol and Dion to attend a congress on Latin American protected areas in Patagonia , Argentina . On her side, Marisol has been on a steady transition from parenting to being a professional again. Sh
e just finished up her second semester teaching Environmental Interpretation and Education at the University of Costa Rica. She’s also doing consultancies in environmental education, and translations. -
In terms of our intentional community, after some ups and downs in the process of recruitment and development of the vision, we are currently a bit on hold, but we have been increasing the capacity of our household to manage challenges… Though our principal motivations to create the ecovillage include a feeling of belonging, living life according to our values, a healthy place to bring up Dion, and increased security, the last factor has taken on even more importance since we first began working on this. For example, we now have reserve food and water systems, a vegetable garden, first aid and disaster relief kits, a contingency plan, and so on.
People often ask if we are in Costa Rica permanently and our answer is actually the same as it has been ever since we met: “We’re here indefinitely.” We don’t know. But for now, Jon got his Costa Rican residency and driver’s license, and we use Satellite TV to see the Patriots games (and some of the Packers too). Alternatively, Marisol got her Green Card for the US in 2006, and Dion has dual citizenship and uses both his passports.
With lots of hugs from the tropics,
Dion, Marisol & Jon
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Dion shows his teeth at Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica
Hotel Villa Blanca, San Ramón, Costa Rica
Dion and his grandpa at Arenal Volcano (in background), San Carlos, Costa Rica
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