You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May, 2008.
I’ve moved into my friend Mark’s house while he is out searching for the missing golden toads. Now that the rains have come, he has great hopes he’ll find them, or maybe some other missing toad. As I said in the last post, he has already found two species that were thought to be extinct. I wish him well, am very appreciative that he was around to do the introduction at the book launch, and am thankful to have his little cabin in the wet forest, even if I’ve already killed three scorpions!
I have this thing about scorpions…I’ve been coming to the tropics for eighteen years and, touch teak, I have yet to be stung by a scorpion. They seem to disappear once the rains begin – they come into the houses in dry season, but here in the House in the Hole, the scorpions don’t seem to have cottoned on to the change in season yet. Mark said that this year was a ridiculous year for them – he was killing two or three a day – but he hadn’t seen any since the rains began last week. Well, I guess he missed the three I got yesterday! Makes you a little nervous each time you put your hand in a bag or grab a towel or piece of clothing – I truly feel it is just a matter of time till one of them gets me, and I’m tempting fate by living in a house such as this one.
The slow boat to Costa Rica that was bringing our books turned out to be a fast boat and the books are already here in the country. Wolf and I are heading down the mountain to San José tomorrow to start the process of getting them released from customs purgatory. The paperwork and run-around will probably take several days. So we will go visit the Tico Times, the English newspaper, who has already put something on line at www.ticotimes.net about the book. They want to do a review and an interview. We will also talk to 7th Street Books, the English bookstore/publisher in the city, about distributing the books around Costa Rica. And then there is beginning discussions with the Tropical Science Center about the Spanish translation. Carlos Hernandez, the director of the Monteverde Reserve, sounds very serious about it. We are hoping that Wolf’s son Carlos will do the actual translation. But we are just starting with that issue. No doubt I’ll visit friends and go out to hear some music and do some dancing while down in the big city.
And then I’m going to the beach. Enough of this rainforest stuff, I need some sun. Today is actually dawning with a very blue sky here on the mountain, and the sun will no doubt be warm and wonderful, but I want some real heat! So once the city business is done, I’ll make my way to one of the beaches, which I’ll decide on by the weather – wherever there is the most sun and heat, I shall go. There are so many great beaches in Costa Rica that one doesn’t need to be limited. Best swimming – Playa Hermosa in Guanacaste. Best relax – anywhere on the Caribbean. Beauty walking across sandy beaches and rocky outcrops and swimming in cool streams – Playa Moctezuma. Ai yi yi – decisions! I may disappear from bloglife for a few days but will write again when I’m on a good computer. Ciao chicos!
PS: A fine gentleman, Nicholas Goodwin from Minnesota, just helped me get the system down for posting photos. I like to think that it’ll be easy now….as long as someone nice guy like Nicholas is sitting close by. Or maybe I’ll manage it solo one of these days….
ON TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN
Last night was the apex moment for Walking with Wolf. We’ve hit the summit and start down the backside now. What a night! Actually what a couple of days before what a night! Global warming causing extreme weather brought near hurricane turmoil to Costa Rica at a time of the year when you just don’t expect this weather. We thought it was going to ruin the celebratory book launch, but in fact it was all perfect, including a last-minute change in the weather.
It is normally quite still here at this time of the year, unlike November till March when the winds can be ferocious and, minimally, are constant. But starting Wednesday afternoon it got real blustery, adding extra kick to what was already curtains of rain. Incredible! Wolf, Lucky & I spent the morning hunched around the woodstove, wondering how many people would possibly make their way out at night in this nasty weather. I said that the only people we could count on were the forest guards and the maintenance guys from the Monteverde Reserve since this is just what they do – go out in whatever the conditions are. So coming through the storm to the presentation, to eat bocitas and drink coffee all the while staying in a dry warm building, is easy for them. As it turned out, they were the one group who didn’t show up.
The rain was coming horizontally with such force that you just can’t stay dry unless you are completely covered in rubber. The old jeep we were using to carry the books from the house down to Bromelias Music Garden was almost as wet inside as out, the water entering wherever it could. Antonio Guindon’s wife Adair was driving me and the books down at 2 p.m.. At 12:30 water was everywhere – puddles consolidating into rivers, a downpour of rain that was also a sidepour, and the humidity hovering as a heavy mist that kept things wet even when the faucet turned off for a few minutes. I was thoroughly soaked just running out to the barn. I wrapped the three boxes of books in plastic and kept hoping that the rain would subside when it was time to go. And, miracle of miracles, it did!
At about 1 p.m. as we took the bagged boxes out to the vehicle and wrapped them in a dry tarp inside the jeep, the frequency of the raindrops definitely lessened. By the time Adair and I got to Bromelias and unloaded the boxes shortly after 2, we were only working in heavy mist. By the time people started coming around 5, even the mist was lighter. The winds stopped sometime mid-afternoon and by evening, it was just a thin fog that was blurring the night air, deadening the sounds, bringing serenity.
It had been such bad weather that roads were washed out, people’s houses shifted – the newspaper was filled with stories of landslides and flooding throughout western Costa Rica. So even with the change in weather, many people wouldn’t be heading out after such a harsh day. However about seventy-five did and together we enjoyed a warm and cozy night in beautiful Bromelias.
My friend Mercedes at the Reserve helped me put together about 180 photos that we projected from my laptop – those from the book, other old pictures I had scanned that didn’t make the book, pictures from our hikes, many of Wolf, a few from Canada or the beach thrown in. These ran constantly as a backdrop through the evening. Russell Danao played his beautiful vibraphone – high-end marimbas. He played at the Havana Jazz Festival this year. He kindly accepted our request to grace the evening with his music. As people came out of the fog and into the amber light of the room, they took their seats and watched the slideshow and listened to Russell’s jazz-toned and classical vibras.
People brought bite-size food and sweets, we had coffee and juice prepared, and Patri had the bar open, though this wasn’t a drinking crowd. We set up a table with a buncha books, it looked great, all those little Walking with Wolfs piled there. To introduce the evening, I had asked Mark Wainwright, our friend who read an early draft of the book and gave me valuable editorial comments. He is an artist, biologist, teacher and writer himself – and in many ways has mentored me (younger pup that he is). It meant a lot to me that he would introduce the evening. He didn’t really want to do it – doesn’t like being on stage though he is great – and had very firm plans to go off onto the trails looking for the elusive golden toad or any other amphibian he could find. Since the rains started, it is prime frogging season and Mark is a frogger who has already found two missing species thought to be extinct. So he wasn’t going to be able to be at the presentation. Then due to the extreme weather, he didn’t go into the forest. Mark did a wonderful, funny and super kind introduction to the book, Wolf and myself. Then Gary Diller, one of the story tellers in Walking with Wolf, read a poem about Wolf that he had been inspired to write yesterday in all that rain. It was a nice addition to the evening.
Wolf got up and very emotionally talked about the beginning of the concern in the community for the forest. He reiterated the thought that “all those who wander are not lost,” his mantra. I was amazed how well he got through talking, as I knew he was fighting those ever-ready Guindon tears. He then passed the microphone to me and I said my little piece – that we hoped to have a Spanish translation in the works, and I apologized for any discrepancies with how community people remember the events we discuss, and I thanked people who were there for their contributions – then I read some pages from the book. It all felt real good, the people were wonderful, and the whole night just rolled out smooth as pie dough.
We sold about sixty books and I knew there were many people missing who have said that they would buying in quantity. Mary Stuckey Newswanger bought ten books and then handed me a copy of a book that she has been working on with her brother – she and I have spent a lot of time at the side of the road talking about our books over the past couple of years. At the end of the evening, people were able to walk out into the misty night air without getting soaked. Patri and I went to Moon Shiva, our pal Nir’s place, for dinner. Great new chef there, loved loved loved the food – Nir has always run a beautiful restaurant – has for about five years now – but when the chefs change so does the food. Three guitar players were playing – Irish ex-pat Robert Dean who toured with Sinead O’Connor before moving to Monteverde, and Andres and Bernardo, hot local talent – it was great music and a bit of dancing. Off to Fish’s new bar for some more dancing. Through the night it would hit me every once in awhile – this was the climax of eighteen years of a certain thought, a vague plan, a lasting commitment, our book.
To finish this hugely long story, the reason the forest guards weren’t at the presentation, considering how much they would have wanted to be there to support their mentor Wolf, was that they were doing what they had to do – that is, go out to help a group of people who were down in Penas Blancas and needed to be assisted to come out of the forest. The vague details are that the guards and maintenance crew had to head out early in the morning in the worst of that bad weather, through the torrential rain and dropping branches, around the mudslides and over the raging streams. They escorted the group across the streams with cables, cleared away tree falls, and carried their packs through the pouring rain and thick mud. They didn’t get out of the forest until after 7 p.m. so they missed the celebration.
A few years ago, Wolf wouldn’t have made it to his own book launch – he would have been with the other men doing their job – making jokes, ignoring the brutal weather, helping troubled hikers to get back to civilization, no doubt filling them with hot coffee before they got started. The forest guards are the jungle version of fire fighters – heading into what most people walk away from. I was so sorry they weren’t there, but find the reason quite poetic.
New seasons always bring new surprises – I knew that it would be wet here in Monteverde at this time of the year. As I said in the blog yesterday, it has been really wet – although that is very recent, as in the day arrived. The rains came late and they were getting desperate for water here. Hard to believe for a rainforest but true. However, since I’ve been here, I’ve seen much more rain than sun… and I think I’ll be heading to the beach soon. It’s all panchos, hats, umbrellas and rubber boots. I sure wish I had Lori Yates’ flashy red flowered rubber cowboy boots…man, they’d be styling here!
The big surprise for me though was the delicate gossamer beauty of a termite’s wings. For most, termites is only a real big problem. Such as at Wolf’s house. In the chapter of Walking with Wolf, All Trails Lead to Home, you will read about Wolf and his termite problem in his house…well, basically waiting for them to bring the house down before he gets around to fixing it. So now his son Antonio is building them a new apartment (a barn penthouse I call it) over top of the barn. Once it is finished and Wolf and Lucky move there, they may fix up the house they have been living in for 40 years or they may just let the termites finish with it. In many places the wood is paper thin, cleaned out internally by the little pesks. What looks like wood planks and posts are now hollow paper beams. So there is a push on to finish the new living quarters before the walls literally come tumbling down.
In the meantime, as the rains begin, the termites come out and fly about and mate and lose their wings and die and….well, I don’t know what all…but I can tell you that last night as a bit of sun broke through the clouds at sunset, the sky filled with clouds of winged termites. Lucky systematically emptied her beautiful blue, green and gold glass bottle collection out of her windows and vacuumed up the termites that were resting on the ledges. I walked into my room, which has a skylight, and saw all these delicate floating petals – termite wings, tiny translucent feathers floating down from the ceiling. They were landing all over my clothes and I actually found the whole effect quite magical…but then, this isn’t my house that is hosting the hungry little critters. I doubt many people here find them delightful, but I’m trying to think up an art project that could use their shimmering beauty as a detail. Termite wings, who knew?
Rain is pounding down on the zinc roof of Wolf and Lucky’s house, making conversation difficult, but finally giving me a chance to write from Monteverde. Aah yes, the cloud forest in the rainy season – not for the faint of heart but paradise for those with webbed feet. Actually it has been so dry here that water was being rationed in the community up until the rains started in earnest about a week ago. Looks like I got here right on time. The humidity has cranked up the clamminess, the landscape is a collage of intense greens, and the dirt roads are slowly becoming water-filled ditches supporting small gravel islands.
I was so busy with getting the book ready and preparing to leave my home and garden for a couple of months, that I wasn’t thinking so much about where I was going, other than to Wolf’s house to present him with his book. But in very short order, upon my arrival in Costa Rica, my heart has filled with the warmth of the Guindon family, the anticipation in the community for Walking with Wolf, and the enchantment of the place. The last time I was here in this particular season, the beginning of the rainy season, was 1990, my first year here. I had forgotten how the view from up on the mountain in May, looking over the Nicoya peninsula to the Pacific, is this magical world of clouds, mountains, water, and sky - these elements merge and mingle and seem to get turned upside down, in a way that even Stephen Spielberg couldn’t capture with an arsenal of special effects. When I woke up on Thursday morning, just as day was breaking, and looked out the windows to the west, my breath was taken away by the layers of color and shadow suspended on the shifting horizon. I grabbed my camera and went out to try to capture it (a picture here isn’t worth the thousand words it would take to describe the scene) – I startled two masked tityras, beautiful white birds with pink and black facial markings, who were feeding in a guayaba tree and didn’t notice me right away. They fluttered about grabbing the small fruit, only five feet from me, until they realized that I was there and flew off.
Welcome back to Monteverde…
The flight down was fast (those individual TV screens on the planes are great – two movies of your choice and you’re here); the books arrived safe and sound (did I mention how expensive they were as extra baggage? – Kaching); customs didn’t look once at me that alone twice; and as soon as I got through to the wall of windows at the exit, there were Lucky and Wolf, smiling and waving. As promised, the Reserve’s four-wheel drive, army-fatigue-green, Toyota crew cab truck-limo, complete with Beto the chauffeur, had come to pick me and the books up. We waited until we were in a restaurant to unveil the books – and, as hoped, Wolf and Lucky were very excited and pleased. We had our first moment of celebrity – the waitress saw the cover and looked at Wolf and asked if that was him – and then saw my photo on the back – and was thrilled to be serving two such important people! HA! Not like we got a free meal or anything, but it was fun for all of us nonetheless.
We didn’t make it up the mountain to Monteverde, normally about a three to four hour trip from the airport, until 9 that night. They were putting in a culvert on the highway and there was only one lane open and they were letting the traffic going to the city pass much more frequently than those of us heading to the country. We spent close to three hours inching forward in fits and starts, Lucky playing old tunes on the harmonica, Beto and I getting out to tempt fate with the oncoming traffic, Wolf picking up the book from time to time, checking to see if it was real. By the time we got up the mountain, there was nothing left but sleep. But we were very, very happy.
On Thursday morning we took the book up to Carlos Hernandez, the director at the Reserve. He insists that the Tropical Science Center (who owns and administers the Reserve) is serious about wanting to finance a Spanish translation. I told him that although I think this is wonderful, I don’t want to give up the rights to the book and also want to control the translating process (new little control freak that I’ve become – makes me wonder just what kind of parent I might have been after all…). I believe he is on Wolf’s and my side in this – he took copies to give to the members of the board of the TSC. I suggested that he have someone who is fluent in English read the book first and make sure they are still interested. He suggested that I check out how much the translation itself might cost and who we might employ to do it. We will proceed from there. But my immediate feeling was a good one, that he understands how personal the project is for Wolf and I, and that he will represent us well to the board.
We made our rounds showing off the book (one last baby comparison – the book’s cover really is soft like a baby’s bum, I swear). Our friends Mercedes Diaz and Luis Angel Obando, who show up in the last chapter of Walking with Wolf, were thrilled to finally get their copy – immediately plans were started for the fiesta, la presentacion del libro, and we started selling books. Lucky began reading and her reaction has been wonderful (although she did find an error deep in the book – a factual one, not just a difference of memory from her husband – I think I will leave it ambiguous and see how many people catch this error….hopefully not too many more will be found).
Leaving Wolf and Lucky with the book safely in hand, I jumped on a bus on Friday morning and returned to the big city of San José to meet up with my friend Patricia Maynard. She was taking a group of Latin American literature students from the University of Georgia around town to a variety of cultural events. I sat in on talks by our musician friends Edin Solis of Editus and Jaime Gamboa of Malpais on the historical context and present day reality of Costa Rican music. They both tried to convince the American students, who listed reggaeton as one of their favorite genres of music, that songwriting which includes poetry and composition that is more than three chords is of more value than easy, commercial music – I’m not sure if they convinced the students, but Edin and Jaime spoke with such passion that I would hope they at least made them think. We had a great meal at the Café Arco Iris and watched Alejandro Toceti – now a kind of Cultural Attache with the government, but who we’ve known as a beautiful dancer, whose every muscle speaks even when he stands still – tell stories with his body. We finished our day with a night of hot dancing at Jazz Café in San Pedro – Manuel Monestel and his ever-changing Afro-Caribbean band, Cantoamerica, kept us jumping to salsa, calypso and reggae. Since my years involved in the music festival in Monteverde, all these musicians have remained great friends and a night of hearing them play only whets my appetite for more.
The next day we had the great privilege of a visit with Daniel Villegas, one of the top authors and playwrights in Costa Rica. He studied years ago in Europe as well as Los Angeles and New York City at The Artists Studio. Not only was his conversation colorful and informative, but for me, the new young author that I be, it was very touching. When he spoke about how he found inspiration, how stories can be told, and the most important thing being to write honestly and about what is real in your life – well, I like to think that I have tried to do that with Walking with Wolf. I humbly gave him a copy of our book. He accepted it graciously, though who knows if he will ever read it. But it was the first instance where I presented myself as an author with a book I am proud of and wasn’t embarrassed to share it with such a distinguished writer.
I came back up the mountain in time for the Quaker meeting on Sunday. After the hour of silence, when it came time for introductions by visitors and announcements, I confirmed the rumors to those present, that I had indeed returned with the book in hand (I had left last May stating I wouldn’t return until the book was truly a book). I invited everyone to the celebration to be held later this week at Bromelias Café, on Thursday, May 29th at 5 p.m. I then presented Jean Stuckey, the head of the Monteverde library committee, with a signed copy of Walking with Wolf. The dedication reads:
“For the Monteverde Friends Library, my favorite library in the world. It is with the greatest pleasure that we give you our book to be placed on your musty shelves. With love, Kay and the Wolf”.
I’m on my way there now to help catalogue it and place it on the shelf!
It is now Sunday, which was once heralded as a day of rest but not for the wicked, as my grandmother would say. Guess I know which list that puts me on. I’m on the cusp of leaving for Costa Rica, in full-blown sales mode, completely caught up in the celebration of the arrival of Walking with Wolf in book form and trying to see friends before I leave for a couple of months. I will sleep on the plane.
The reaction I’ve received from people who have bought the book and started reading is just what I would hope for – they don’t want to put it down. That’s all a writer can ask for – because it doesn’t matter what brilliant thoughts, keen observations, delectable wisdoms or hilarious anecdotes you wrote in your book, if people can’t read it, or don’t want to go beyond the first page, then it’s all for not. So the second stage of publication – receiving feedback – is being met with great positive reaction and I’m breathing easier still.
I have now become a book peddler – fortunately I believe in the book and the story so selling it isn’t so hard. I’m not a natural salesperson – I’d rather give it all away – but after pouring my life and money into this project for so long, I really have no choice – it’s take money or I’ll be pouring coffees at Tim Hortons, and that could get ugly really fast. As the coffee is spilling down the front of the customers, I’d be explaining, “but I’m really an author.” And I can hear what the caffeine-deprived in their stained shirts would be responding…
Ken, the manager at Coles in Jackson Square in downtown Hamilton, was my first book merchant who I dealt with and he was extremely kind, supportive, enthusiastic and gentle. Took the book at a reasonable commission, and told me that Chapters/Indigo/Coles, the cross-country chain, would most certainly pick this book up to go to their stores across Canada. But they take 45%! I reacted quite unprofessionally and a mellow expletive escaped my lips, but caught myself (well, my friend Freda kicking me helped too). Although the writing of the book paid me nothing and the production of the book took a lot of time and money, I’m so glad that I persevered and went this route of self-publishing. What a lift I get everytime someone tells me how good the book looks or how much they are enjoying the read. That’s all my heart and soul and aesthetic on those pages within the smiling Wolf cover – certainly with the professional influence of those who worked on it with me as well as Wolf’s stories and spirit - but the overall product was within my control and I now reap the direct results. And I am really enjoying that. When my friend Lori wrote and said, “You see Kay, I feel that I know Wolf already, feel a little possessive, and I’m only at page 40, so your book is a true success!!” amongst other wonderful comments, well, the satisfaction is overwhelming.
The last few nights have also brought some great music – the musical mayhem of Gallery 435 on Barton Street here in the Hammer, a place that gave me faith that I could survive in the urban jungle when I first returned to the city after many years of living in the bush. I hadn’t been there for ages and am thrilled to see that Ellis’ room is still happening, hotter than ever, a hidden den of bliss. A little dancing on the bayfront in the wee hours under an almost full moon, car stereo pumping out great tunes by local rockers – that was also too much fun. Rocking day and night with the eight-month Lily, the granddaughter of my Mattawa friends Patti and Leo, a gem of a baby and a hot little dancer already - while Steve Earle kept the tunes rolling on Sirius. Don’t ever stop the music she screams! Last night with my wonderful, old, until-recently-lost friends, Dave & Carolyn Stupple and their daughter Beth…we used to do the bluegrass circuit in the 70s and I haven’t seen them since. And here they are again, dropped back into my life, in time for the arrival of the book – another night that meandered through magical musical moments. I just have to get them down to the jam at Gallery 435 – a completed circle. How lucky am I?
But now I really have to get with it, finish arrangements for sales while I’m away, PACK! When you have a chance to read the book, I think you will find that if you don’t already drink coffee, you may have to start. Coffee is a recurring theme in the book because Wolf is such a regular imbiber – and the love of the nectar comes across in the pages enough that it may help boost coffee sales in Costa Rica - but I think I may have to lay off the coffee for these next couple days so I can slow down and concentrate. This will be the last post till I arrive in Costa Rica and meet Wolf at the airport and hand him his life as printed on the pages (100% post-consumer recycled paper pages of course). I will write again when I find a computer with a half-decent keyboard that doesn’t stick all the time – and a chunk of time to concentrate. Hasta pronto chicos!
When any extreme event, good or bad, happens in your life, everything seems to take on a life of its own and quickly spin out of control. Well, maybe that’s a gross exaggeration in this case, and maybe, seeing as I’ve been waiting forever for this book to appear, I should’ve been prepared, nonetheless I’m still feeling slightly askew.
I had a hard time making my bed this morning. I mean, really! I’ve been doing that since I was four but could I straighten out the wrinkles today? I think it took 10 minutes, going back and forth, side to side, and it still wasn’t right but hey, it’s only a bed. The fact that I kept working at it is the silly part. I’m about to head out with my friend Freda Cole to visit local bookstores and do some business, and it’s a good thing I’m not driving. Distracted and discombobulated I am I am.
I just spoke with Wolf who himself is still in a state of disbelief – until he sees the book for himself, he’s taking my word for the fact that it exists and has all ten toes and fingers (oh right, I said I wouldn’t do the baby metaphors anymore – sorry.) Turns out that I’m going to arrive in Costa Rica as a real VIP this year – the Monteverde Reserve is sending Wolf and Beto, the chauffeur, down in a company truck to pick me up at the airport! That’s a good three to four-hour trip from Monteverde to Alajuela and no small gesture on behalf of Carlos Hernandez, the director of the Reserve. I’m sure they’ll be in their crisp Reserve uniforms – it’ll be like getting greeted by the army. I’ll know I’ve arrived. I’m taking bets on how many seconds will pass before Wolf & I are crying.
I sold the very first book last night to a couple of my longest-time friends - Gerry Thompson and Pat Estey – who came to help me cut up some firewood before I leave for the summer, stayed for supper and celebrated. Little details like that – who gets the first book? – are somehow very profound right now. Tonight I head to Toronto to celebrate with Ken and Bruce – my design team – and a variety of other folks at some place called the Shanghai Cowgirl – somehow Canadians celebrating a book about the rain forest in an Asian rodeo seems apropos. Right now, you know, everything seems right.
Freda just walked in the door with balloons (blue & pink with parrots and hibiscus on them – non-gender specific but tropical) and blowing a tooter – an appropriate flourish for the occasion!
Addendum: several hours later, we return, having met with great success at local booksellers. They all took books, all said that the book and my little “For Immediate Release” blurb looked great, and were thinking about who they knew who would read it first. I liked that. Walking with Wolf is now available in Hamilton at The Pearl Company, Coles in Jackson Square, Bryan Prince in Westdale, as well as Different Drummer in Burlington. I return from my first book-peddling expedition feeling like these books are just gonna disappear off the shelves (an optimist I am I am) – and Freda & I felt like we’d done a good days work and had a whole lotta fun. Gotta rest now…big soiree in TO tonight.
Bruce the delivery doctor
Good things DO come to those who wait…and wait…and wait…
This morning Bruce, the delivery doctor, (a lot of Bruces in this story), arrived around 10 a.m. and brought me the skid of books. I think Mr. Bruce was very touched by the profound role he played in this little drama. My friends Rick & Treeza were here yesterday to help with the carrying of boxes into the house - but all we ended up doing was waiting – and eating and drinking wine – and no books. Instead, I was alone to receive the truck this morning. The sky looked like it might erupt in tears any minute (not a little bit unlike moi) and so as soon as that skid hit the ground, I moved the 42 cartons of books into my house. Amazing what adrenalin can do! I then took a breath (one final big one) and opened a box to see Walking with Wolf. And there it was! Beautiful!
I have much too much to do to go on right now, but wanted to at least make the big announcement before I run out to take care of some things – after being held captive in my house for two days waiting on the truck, I need to get some food. I called Wolf to let him know, but he had just left the house to go to meeting (that’s the Quaker meeting for those of you who haven’t read the book yet or aren’t familiar) so I could only leave a message with his son Benito, who was appropriately delighted. He said he’d track Wolf & Lucky down by phone somewhere and let them know. Another almost anti-climatic moment, but I’m real good at working with whatever I get!
Now that it is here, I’m almost not sure of what to do next – but eating is a good idea. I am, needless to say, a very very proud mama!
Thanks, but once again, to another kind, generous-with-her-knowledge person, Carolyn Burke at Integrity Incorporated in Toronto, I’ve managed to overcome a stumbling block in blogland. So more pictures will appear amidst my babble. I’m trying to set up the Paypal system on this blog so people can order and pay and then be sent their copy of Walking with Wolf. I’ve arranged with my good friend Kathryn Johnston to take care of this while I disappear to Costa Rica. Hopefully she’ll be so busy she’ll have an assistant hired by the time I come home at the end of July.
Today is a day of multi-tasking while I await “THE BIRTH” – trying to stay calm and take care of business as I wait for the sounds of a big truck coming down my quiet street. Unfortunately, it’s also garbage day, so there are actually a lot of big trucks rumbling around out there today – but one of them will be THE ONE!
I’m sure that the whole birthing analogy may be wearing thin (especially to all the women who have really delivered babies and are just shaking their heads with each new post) but for someone like me, who has never given birth, well, this is as close as it’s going to get. The fact that I live in midwivery-alley here in the Hammer isn’t helping the situation. I’m surrounded in my neighbourhood by three midwives, the closest being the lovely Genevieve Romanek, who supplies me with birthing terms and metaphors on a regular basis and she has supported me through many of my labour pains. However, I promise that once the book is in my hands, I’ll stop with the baby images before I get to slapping the bum, planting the placenta and breastfeeding.
Excuse me, I hear a big truck…
False alarm. Keep pushing…
For those people reading from Costa Rica, I’m heading that way next Wednesday, May 21. I’ll be there until July 30, distributing books, hopefully selling books, celebrating with Wolf, Lucky and the rest of the Monteverdians - and I can guarantee that much dancing will be done. After eighteen years of extended visits down there, it’s hard to imagine that I won’t have the same reason to go each year. But I’m sure I’ll come up with something – the Spanish translation for instance.
And then there’s the movie – but hey, whoa chica, let’s get back to today – and keep pushing…
Walking with Wolf is the story of Wolf Guindon and the community of Monteverde, Costa Rica, but it is also the story of his wife Lucky. She was eighteen-years-old when she moved with her twenty-year-old husband, Wolf, to the wet mountaintop in Costa Rica and began life as a pioneer in a land very different from the cornfields of Iowa where she was born. They raised eight children in this remote environment and for the first thirty years she was a full-time mother, living in relative isolation, having to walk at least a couple of kilometers to meet with her neighbours and the rest of the community.
In 1972, a couple of North American artists, Bill Kucha and Ron Tomlinson, came to Monteverde and started teaching art to the locals. The amount of talent on that mountain was extraordinary. There are now many full-time artists in Monteverde who had their beginnings with these classes. Lucky was one of these. She developed her style of pen-and-ink drawings, detailed, intricate portrayals of the trees, vegetation and forest that surrounded her. She generously donated the drawing featured here, Judy’s Entrance, to be part of Walking with Wolf, but there are many more of her beautiful drawings available, both originals and prints. I have included a website in the links where you can contact the gallery in Monteverde where her art is shown. Although the website doesn’t yet include any images of Lucky’s work, it will one day soon. It does however feature their daughter Helena’s work, stunning colourful vistas from their farm over the Gulf of Nicoya and studies of the tall twisted trees and vibrant plants found in the forest.
As Wolf’s son, Tomas, says, “In what each of my brothers and sisters [and mother and father] is doing, there’s art or there’s the woods. The art comes right from nature, from feeling the forest around you. There’s the human need for peace and tranquility, for a spiritual calm that you only get when you’re surrounded by nature.”
