Tico Times – Costa Jill

Great Review of Free to Bloom by Dorothy MacKinnon of the Tico Times

Adventures of an independent woman in Costa Rica

Posted: Friday, November 18, 2011 – By Dorothy MacKinnon

OPEN BOOK: Southern Zone resident Jill Green relates her experiences living as a foreign woman alone in Costa Rica in her book, “Free to Bloom.”

What is it about Costa Rica that attracts so many accomplished, independent women to start new lives here? In her first book, “Free to Bloom,” California-born, Florida-reared Jill Green tells a personal story about starting a post-divorce, new life as a pioneering homesteader in a remote area of the Southern Zone. Although thinly disguised, these are autobiographical stories told with heart and humor, leavened with soulful introspection.

From the trials and tribulations of building an off-the-grid house to romantic encounters and harrowing adventures in the wild – including an intimate relationship with a botfly – Green’s tales will resonate especially with like-minded women already living here, and with anyone contemplating the leap into life in Costa Rica.

Green is an excellent storyteller, weaving flowing conversational prose with lyrical passages that capture her love affair with the “stark, shocking beauty” of the southern Pacific coast where she has chosen to live. Along with evocative descriptions, she segues seamlessly into perceptive philosophical musings about the simpler, but never boring, life in Costa Rica. She learns to appreciate, too, the slower pace of life here, accepting the Tico approach to time: “… time isn’t something to beat, it’s a continuum of life from morning to night.”

Green’s book grew out of her personal blog, which she posts to keep friends and family apprised of her adventures. Many women will find her personal aperçus concise and compelling, too. After 25 years of a rocky marriage, Green finally sees her way through to breaking free: “I don’t need to be afraid with him any more. I’m no longer afraid without him.”

Living alone in a foreign country can be challenging for anybody. But in light of some recent horrific attacks on extranjera women living in remote parts of the Southern Zone, does Green have any new concerns about single life on her mountaintop?

“When I look at what’s happening worldwide with the bad economy and the poor getting poorer and hungrier, I don’t think things are much different in other locations,” Green answers. “… On my mountaintop near Uvita, I have lots of big barking dogs and a wonderful caretaker and his family nearby. My daughter and her family living in the area also helps. I don’t have second thoughts of living alone here any more than in the U.S.”

“Costa Rica is the place where I became an independent woman,” Green adds. So the title, “Free to Bloom,” is apropos. And although her author’s note states, “This is a work of fiction,” many local readers, from Dominical down to Uvita, are enjoying some entertaining gossip, trying to work out just who is who in the book – especially a mysterious “caveman” who provides a very steamy interlude in Green’s personal growth.

“Free to Bloom,” published by A Cappella Publishing in Sarasota, Florida, is available as an e-book ($2.99) from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or as a real book ($14.99 plus shipping). Visitwww.freetobloombook.com for ordering details and access to Green’s blog.

There’s nothing like a great review. Thank you so much Dorothy. For those who have asked. My soft cover edition is available in these locations in the Southern Zone of Costa Rica.

Green Leaf Art Gallery in Ojochal.
Rincon de Uvita Farmer’s Market at Diana’s Made by Scratch booth and at the DAWG Library every Saturday from 8 am – 12pm.
Call me at 8892 8135 or email me at jill@hinesfamily.com and I will arrange a delivery.
Amazon.com will be publishing the soft cover edition by the end of November. It already carries the ebook.

“The Arrival not the Journey Matters.”

p2060689-300x225-7137257 — The changing face of Nicaragua

Bob and I are on our second trip to Nicaragua, this time to contradict T.S. Eliot’s quote, “The journey not the arrival matters.” We are building three latrines and a hand washing station at the primary (and only) school in the little pueblo of Casas Viejas. Our first trip to Nicaragua was a joint venture with Water for People and El Porvenir. On our second trip Bob and I are going it alone with El Porvenir. Since our Costa Rica life borders on Nicaragua and the hotly contested Rio San Juan, we’re a bit anxious, but mostly excited to help our El Porvenir neighboring villages with their basic needs.

My partner, Bob Burnett, has come up with a great way to help those in need and have a wonderful vacation tour at the same time. Here’s his letter about our trip appearing in the Tico/Nica Times this week.

Dear Tico Times:

Nicaragua is the large, mysterious country that lurks across Costa Rica’s northern boundary from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Río San Juan currently divides the two nations. I wanted to learn more about Nicaragua by seeing it from the inside.

For $1,020, not including travel to Managua, I found a ten-day, all-inclusive tour to a rustic village called Casas Viejas in Matagalpa, about two hours north of Managua. Included were all meals, mostly home-cooked, an interpreter, guides and transport. The package also included a night at Selva Negra Resort, which features a German menu; tours of Managua, Grenada, Masaya, Matagalpa, Dario; three nights in Managua; and the chance to work.

El Porvenir sponsors tours that let people like us expats in Costa Rica, and others, express our feelings toward helping out our neighbors in need. My group of four volunteers helped villagers install a waterline, a basin sink and three latrines at the elementary school in Casas Viejas.

When the work was finished, residents threw us a fiesta, with speeches, music, dancing, poetry and a stuffed piñata. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Their homes of adobe, wood and brick reminded me of homes that Costa Rican campesinos used 30 years ago.

Catelina and Marcos from El Porvenir shepherded us through the whole trip, from pickup to departure, to make sure we were safe and comfortable.

Accommodations are basic, but we always had hot water and air conditioning at night. Work was hard, hot and dusty. I carried Hemingway’s “The Green Hills of Africa” with me, and the Matagalpan landscape looked just like his descriptions of east Africa.

A tour like mine, with its many options, can satisfy people who like a taste of the “hardy life” and might be curious to know more about our northern neighbor.

For more information, see www.elporvenir.org. p21008651-300x225-1570900

Sitting on the porch Of Chepita (our cook in Casas Viejas) and Jose’s (our village crew chief for the project) house, we hatch our dream of starting a little tourist retreat while eating wonderful typical food and enjoying the cool breezes and gorgeous view of the valley below. From left Catalina- our guide, driver and cook, Jill-volunteer, Marlon our El P leader, Connie-volunteer, Chepita-cook, daughter, Jose-village chief, front Bob-volunteer

Next post – The vision materializes.

p20606921-300x225-1394696 — Bob and Jill in Managua

Feel Good – Help A Local Costa Rican Family in Need

Farmer’s Market Rincon de Uvita, Costa Ballena, Costa Rica open Saturdays 8am – 1pm

p10101882-206x300-8854353 My productivity as a writer is increasing, and when the writing helps those in need, that’s even better. In his book The Geography of Bliss Eric Weiner travels the world looking for the happiest place and/or people who have the essential ingredients of a ‘good life’. A foreign correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) he is typically expected to discover breaking news, which usually involves death and destruction. As he says, “It’s rewarding work, but can be a real bummer.” So he takes a break from the negative to “turn journalism on its head and seek out the world’s unheralded positives.” One of the major criteria for happiness that keeps turning up for Weiner is feeling good, and a big chunk of that is feeling good about helping others in need.

I read Weiner’s book after spending time working for nonprofits Water for People and El Porvenir in Nicaragua and chronicling the experience here. It gave me the impetus to talk of my experience on my NPR station WSLR in Sarasota, FL, and write a perspective piece in the national English language newspaper in Costa Rica and Nicaragua -The Tico/Nica Times.

Since the Geography of Bliss was printed Costa Rica has been voted the “Happiest” places in the world, according to Nicholas Kristoff in a recent NY Times article, but disasters still occur. I have just returned to my second home on the Costa Ballena, Costa Rica to the aftermath another horrible accident on the dangerous Costanera highway. Juan Carlos Guadmuz, the brother of my caretaker Edgar, was driving home to Hermosa from Cortez with his family and two local women when a car tried to pass three semis on a curve, causing the Guadamuz car to swerve into the oncoming truck with disastrous results. Of the seven people in the car four died – the two women from Uvita, and a Guadamuz son and grandson. Juan Carlos, his wife Maria and another son survived, but with serious injuries. They are trying to put their lives back together and are recuperating slowly, but neither husband nor wife is able to work yet, and the car was totaled.

Again, I am writing this in the hope that you will join me in feeling good about helping some good people in dire need – the Guadmuz family. They are some of our local hardworking and proud pioneers. In fact, Juan Carlos’ father’s life was recently chronicled in one of our monthly magazines – Ballena Tales.

p1010179-300x225-3600972 — Diana & Ian, Made FromScratch booth at Feria - Uvita

We will have a donation box for the next several weeks at the local farmer’s market, Feria – Rincon de Uvita at Diana’s ‘Made-from-Scratch’ booth. The Feria is open every Saturday from 8 am to 1 pm. The family would appreciate any money or non-perishable food items to help them get through the next couple of months.