Junior anthropology major Jessica Lester is in San Jose, Costa Rica for five weeks living with a host family and conducting ethnographic research on religion, gender, and race.

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"En Costa Rica hay bastante [discriminacion] contra del nicaraguense."
San José, Costa Rica
15 June 2004

As Nicaragua, Honduras, San Salvador and Columbia are all countries that Costa Ricans tend to caste down as nations of poverty, they caste down peoples within. "Nica" is a derogatory slur against Nicaraguans and to be called such a name could cause many doors to slam in one's face in the way of housing and work. Costa Ricans tend to believe that these peoples are invading their country, increasing the crime and drug use rate, and taking would be Tican jobs. Indeed, the color of one's skin and the look of one's face tells the tale of such ethnic origins so that the more "oscuro" or "indio" one looks signifies a lower status. Luis always seems to be promoting his Castilian heritage and Hilda talks about how she needs to get a tan because she is so white. Upon looking around the busy street corners or in shopping areas, I saw many tanning salons, some looking very high class, where women walked out with tans that some American girls would envy a great deal. However, I'm not entirely convinced that they're tans were entirely manufactured. As I write this, I think its more important to go to the salon than it is to be in need of a tan. If you don't need a tan, than you must already be dark and we all know the connotations of being "negra" or "oscura."
I had the unique opportunity today to speak to the Nicaraguan woman who lives in the Monge household names Julia. She came to Costa Rica 4 years ago, but has been living in the Monge house for the last two. Julia told me that the fa Hilda took her into their home when other people would have wanted nothing to do with her. Julia's former matrons became more and more abusive as time and the steady I must say I was guilty of assuming at first that Julia was a housekeeper helping Hilda with the mountain of chores she must do everyday; in fact, I had no idea she actually had room and board in the house until 2 weeks after I'd arrived. Her room was in a shut off part of the house that was as close to being outside as one could get. The door that lead to the main part of the house was blocked by bicycles and a table and chairs, which was not there 3 years ago when Luis lived there. Yet, when Hilda talks about her it is with a great deal of pity and respect for her plight.
Today, I had an opportunity to speak with her as she went about her chores. Today is her only day off from work and she takes advantage of these few free hours to do her laundry. She was very friendly and open about her experiences and I believe it was just a relief to talk to someone. She was not an uneducated woman. In Nicaragua, she earned a degree in accounting, but could not find enough work to sustain her mother and 2 children (boy and girl); so, she moved to Costa Rica where wages were far better. She could only find work as a cashier at a fast food chicken restaurant, Rosti Pollo, and she can only afford to see her family once a year at the most. The cost to travel between the two countries is very steep and she knows most of that money should go towards her children's food, clothing, and school. At this point in our conversation, Julia had tears in her eyes and, as I think of her now, I must say I have tears in mine.
I asked her if she ever encountered the discrimination that I'd seen and heard so much about. She said, "you probably read a lot about how Nicaraguans cause all of the problems in the papers. I don't like to think about my country that way because it is not a country of criminals. However, many of the Nicaraguans that come into Costa Rica are criminals and they do bring that in with them. Its hard for me to find work or a place to rent because no one wanted to rent to Nicaraguans. At one time, I thought I could work as a domestic housekeeper, but all the advertisements asked for San Salvadorians, Hondurans, or Ticans. Nicaraguans were left off of the list of desired peoples."
"En Costa Rica hay bastante [discriminacion] contra del nicaraguense."

Junior anthropology major Doc Billingsley will be traveling to Chiang Mai, Thailand to study the relationship between culture and population management.

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Cabbages & Condoms
17 October 2004
Chiang Mai, Thailand

I'm sure you're wondering if I've lost my mind, but it's all explained below. I've had a busy weekend, and I still have most of today (Sunday) to do business. Actually, today I have 2 language assignments to complete and I need to put together a draft of my family planning user/staff/administrator "questionnaire" to show Ajaan Liwa tomorrow afternoon. It's not really a questionnaire; more of an outline to help me while interviewing folks. I may or may not ask them to write responses to certain questions; more likely I'll tape record them and attempt to transcribe the conversation afterwards with the help of my Thai dictionary software and any Thai students who stumble into the CYIT office.
So my weekly adventures in family planning fieldwork pick up at the local branch of the Planned Parenthood Association of Thailand, which was the earliest family planning program in the kingdom and also the only one to receive the patronage of a royal person -- Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother (now ascended to the next plane of existance or rebirth). Nowadays, contraception use and low fertility are the norm rather than the exception, so PPAT spends most of its resources combating HIV/AIDS and administrating various rural development projects. The director of the Northern Project of PPAT gave Ajaan Liwa and me a detailed presentation about her organization's history and current projects. One thing I found interesting about the PPAT offices was this bulletin board, located outside the staff work area. Although the National Family Planning Program no longer sets numerical targets for new contraception users, PPAT still keeps track of new cases in this public medium. Something for me to think about in my research paper...
Now that I have your attention -- I can only recall explaining Cabbages & Condoms to a handful of folks, so most of you are probably wondering WHAT ON EARTH am I doing in "The Rubber Triangle". The Population (& Community) Development Association of Thailand is one of the most widely-recognized NGOs involved in family planning -- and nowadays, AIDS prevention. The director of the PDA, Mechai Viravaidya, employs the philosophy that no publicity is bad publicity. In an effort to introduce contraception -- especially condoms, as they also combat STDs -- into Thai mainstream society, Mechai and the PDA have set up all sorts of highly visible public events over the past three decades. Among these have been condom-blowing contests by village headmen, free vasectomies in honor of the King's birthday, and the distribution of condoms by everyone from police officers to taxi drivers, even by monks!
Generally speaking, the PDA's efforts have been successful. While it's extremely difficult to quantify the impact of PDA on Thailand's family planning success, the wide-spread familiarity of Mechai and the PDA speak volumes. In fact, the slang term for condoms in Thai is "Mechai," as the first brands marketed by the PDA were named after their imaginative director. In terms of the number of users recruited, PDA has made only a modest contribution; but their innovative advertising and publicity stunts have helped boost awareness and acceptance of the government-sponsored National Family Planning Program.
So where do cabbages fit in?, you ask. Well, one of the programs that PDA uses to raise money and generate publicity has been the creation and management of three restaurants called "Cabbages & Condoms." One branch, naturally, is located in Bangkok -- it's by far the best-known and hosts who-knows-how-many farang tourists each day. The other two are both located in Chiang Rai province; one in the city district adjacent to the PDA's local clinic, and the other -- the one photographed here -- at the Wiang Pa Pao Community-Based Integrated Rural Development center (CBIRD for short). At high noon, this branch was packed -- we had to wait a few minutes for a table -- but I get the feeling it's not one of the most frequented branches.
The director of the PDA CBIRD center conversed with us -- or rather, with Ajaan Liwa and my voice recorder -- for 45 minutes about PDA's role in the area. Afterwards a couple of PDA staff accompanied us to visit a local pill distributor in a tiny little village about 15 minutes away, followed by a visit to a giant Bird house and a nearby Hmong village. Somewhere among all these events we squeezed in a very tasty lunch at Cabbages & Condoms. The food really is tasty (don't worry, there aren't any suspicious latex or rubber qualities to the food) and moderately low priced. Hopefully, I will be able to talk Phii Tom into stopping for lunch on our way to Chiang Rai this weekend.
Like the PPAT, PDA now spends most of its time promoting awareness of HIV/AIDS and working to raise women's and children's status. Both groups also work heavily among the hilltribe groups such as the Hmong and Karen. It's possible I will be able to accompany the PPAT's mobile van unit on a visit to a distant rural distribution site where most of the users are hilltribes and migrants; either way I plan to talk to some of these minorities to find out their perspective of the family planning programs.

Doc at the Rubber Triangle!

Cabbages & Condoms Parking Lot