In Tamarindo: bringing three cultures together

Tamara Osnovikova, 82, is a great-grandmother. Her granddaughter, Katerina Veeden, is the mother of twins Michael and Michelle. The twins call their great-grandmother “Baba,” short for “babushka,” which means “grandma” in Russian.

Tamara was born in Ukraine in 1941 during World War II. She remembers that her mother’s sister took care of her when she was a little girl. She migrated to Canada as an adult with her husband, who has since died; their family has made their home there ever since.

The twins, Michael and Michelle, were born in Canada in 2016. Because their parents work remotely, the family was able to move to Costa Rica in 2020. Katerina and her husband, Eugene, chose Tamarindo, Guanacaste because they wanted to experience living at the beach in a tropical country.

Baba loves traveling the world and spending months at a time in different countries. When she visits Katerina and her family, she stays with them for a few months at a time. She takes care of the twins during the day so that their parents can work, run errands, and spend some alone time.

Baba speaks to the kids in Russian. She believes it’s important for them to listen and inherit her mother tongue. Michael and Michelle understand everything in Russian, but they usually reply to her in English.

The twins say they love spending time with their great-grandmother. She takes them to various restaurants and coffee shops in downtown Tamarindo, cooks dinner for the kids, and plays games with them. She also takes the kids to yoga and then to the skatepark so that they can ride their bikes. During school days when the twins’ parents are out of town, Tamara walks them to and from school.

Tamara says that due to her age, the days caring for the twins can sometimes be long, but that she watches them with lots of love and dedication. She makes sure they are well fed, well cared for, and happy.

Our October 2022 edition, “Las Titas,” explores the realities of caregiving for older adults in Costa Rica: how they do their jobs, what challenges they face, and who is working to support them. With the support of the Yamuni Tabush Foundation, we have also hired five photojournalists, all Costa Rican women and mothers, who have spread out across the country to capture a day in the life of older women and men who are caregivers. Gloria Calderón Bejarano is one of the five photojournalists. Explore the edition here.