Lazy-Ass White Bitch

Sometimes you come to realize who you are by learning about others. Por ejemplo, the mother of our gardener Venicio, housekeeper Mariana, and friend Ester is about 80 years old (even her kids aren’t quite sure how old she is exactly). She’s Nicaraguan, dark, skinny, small, partially toothless, and looks younger than her supposed age. She’s been rolling her own cigarettes since she was six. She has birthed 10 children (three of whom died in infancy) and is still raising grandchildren. She is one of the matriarchs that led a family exodus from Nicaragua to Costa Rica 20-some-odd years ago on the run from the Sandinistas who had burned down their house. She now lives in a clean, simple home with dirt floors and no windows. She wakes up at 3am and does household chores until she goes to bed at 10pm. She has done the laundry by hand her entire life. She travels every year to San Jose during the winter to pick coffee – back-breaking work with long hours. She still gets everywhere on foot, sometimes walking two to three hours at a time to get to her destination. ... Learning the details of this amazing woman's life was one of those gifts of perspective that life brings. I thought I was a pretty hard worker and had really been roughing it down here out in the middle of nowhere, far away from family and friends, Target and Whole Foods, with a limited wardrobe, two jobs (one which doesn't pay), no babysitter, a sh@#$y car, and a few peeling walls … but upon fairly simple, comparative reflection, I think it’s safe to say that, in relative terms, I’m just a lazy-ass white bitch.