Costa Rica Independence

This past Saturday (15th of September) was Costa Rica's Independence Day. For the past few months, kids have been practicing band, bastonera (baton), and learning how to make faroles (lanterns) in preparation for the big celebration and desfiles (parades).

Unfortunately, last Tuesday the President of Costa Rica put out a notice to prohibit celebrations on Friday night and Saturday due to the recent earthquake and the possibility of another one hitting while everybody is in one place.  So, sadly my first C.R. Independence Day celebration was short lived, but I still got to see a little bit of what makes this country tick!

For the past week every day before lunch, the kids at El Llanito gather together to sing the same four Independence songs (they even gathered on Saturday to sing their songs). Afterwards the teachers took turns teaching them about the Independence holiday (attitudes, national figures/animals/songs, etc.).

Below is a picture of one of their sessions and of course some of my kinder class kids.

For those of you that don't know what a farole is, a typical lantern is pictured below.

For the past few weeks, I have been teaching the kids about toys. We've learned some new songs, danced and did some construction projects along the way.  Lots of fun!

Two things I did get to experience was eating tamales and playing Bingo. For Independence Day and Christmas a lot of the women cook tamales for their families and/or sell them to the community.  Isabel tried to show me how to make the tamales but someone in her family passed away...we'll have a rain check for another date.  Here is our first one. 

 AM put on a Bingo match for the community of Potrero on Saturday. It was a huge hit and the women's group of Potrero cooked some wonderful dishes to sell as well. I believe over 100 people came out to play. I never knew how much Costa Ricans LOVE bingo! Another volunteer and I were helping at the door and it was so funny at the number of adults/kids that would come up to change out their bingo card between each match because it just wasn't lucky enough!

Last night John and I taught our adult English class.  In the middle of class, the rain began and it was a downpour.  When the roof is tin, it is really hard to speak over the pounding rain, but we both made it work. It's funny ... I hear John yelling in the room next to me, and I can tell we are both having a good time with this and our class is too!  Then the electricity goes out about 10 minutes before the class is over.  So, with my phone as a flashlight, I pass out their homework assignment and we all scurry home.  My kinder class this morning got cancelled due to the heavy rain from last night and I was a bit thankful due to my small case of gripee (C.R. term for any head/congestion cold).  And then the Potrero's women's group got cancelled tonight (which I probably needed as well so I could rest more).  It's funny, one thing that you have to get used to is the schedule of Costa Ricans. Things seem to change, get cancelled or move almost every week ... so just a little adjusting for me :)

All is going well here ... God is good!

Terremotos ... how scary!!!

I'm writing this blog so John and I won't ever forget our Terremoto (aka earthquake) adventure. 

The day started with a nice peaceful sunny jog to Flamingo beach. At the end of my jog, I met John at Ana's Panaderia for breakfast... a carne (beef) and manzana (apple) empanada (I know it kind of defeats the purpose of jogging). I then hopped in the shower to get ready to teach the kindergarteners at the Brasilito school.

In the middle of my shower (I think I was on the hair conditioner part of my routine), I heard what sounded like a helicopter.  Then I realized very quickly that this was much more...  I can't really remember what all happened but I stepped out of the shower and things were shaking, so I automatically started calling for John. I was clenched to the wall (which was moving) that is in between our bathroom and bedroom (because it was the closest thing I could find to a doorway). 

My mind was racing trying to remember if a doorway was what I needed at this point or if I needed to duck and cover my head.  After screaming out of shear terror ...my faithful husband comes running into the room and makes it to me and covers me with his body.  It was crazy I could see so much love in those few moments as I saw him running toward me (when he was just as scared as I was).  I was so thankful to have him with me.

So, back to the 7.9 terremoto. I've never seen a house shake the way it did. It was going up and down and sideways all at the same time. It's like our house was in a bouncy gym. I wouldn't have thought it would still be standing or that it would at least have had severe damage.  After what felt like forever (but in reality was probably 10 seconds), we hear screams outside from our neighbors and everyone is yelling to get out of the house.

So, I grab the following items (dress, sleep pants, panites) - and of course I'm running out the door with my towel on. 

John somehow manages to bring these items...granted it is 8:42am in the morning bright and sunny!

We were all pretty shaken up, but everyone was ok. The owners of the place were talking about how the houses were built with these experiences in mind... but they had never felt one so strong.  We had our car radios on (since power/internet were down) trying to figure out if there were tsunami warnings.  Thankfully, the tsunami warning was cancelled about 30 minutes after the quake.

We waited outside for about 2 hours and decided to go back in. In the course of the next few hours we felt 3 more aftershocks...very small.  Each time, we would run outside and sit on our beach chairs.  Luckily, the only damage we experienced was some glass inside our house breaking, a few tiles fell off the roof, and some rocks/dirt that fell in our yard area.  It could have been so much worse and I'm just so thankful that we were ok along with all the people we have met in Costa Rica. I believe there were only 2 deaths in the whole country and one was from a heart attack.

That night, we had a small bag packed just in case we needed to sprint out the door at night. Since last Wednesday we've felt about 4 more earthquakes with one on Saturday being around a 5.7 earthquake.

On Thursday we headed off on a mini trip to visit a preacher that spoke at our church a few weeks back and had been doing missionary work in Costa Rica.  We decided since he lived extra close to the Riu hotel (all inclusive) that we would spend the night there since the rates were so good. So, we get to the Riu all excited, and the hotel is like a disaster area. There are about 100 workers working furiously to paint over cracks, repair walls, and the pool side bar was being held up by metal stands while they are trying to weld/repair the columns. It was a mess! 

We got there early so we couldn't check in yet. So, we enjoyed the free food/drinks and swimming for most of the day. Once we checked in...the walk to our room was so scary. The ceilings and walls had cracks everywhere...many of their restaurants were closed for repairs. We kept thinking of course it can't be structural but it looked bad.  Then, we heard that the night before, the hotel was having people sign waivers to stay in their room, so most people were sleeping on the lawn chairs outside.  So, sadly to say we left :(  Just in case you are wondering the Riu is still standing!

We then found out that the missionary (Paul) we were going to meet returned home from Nicaragua on Wednesday and had a bad case of dengue fever...so he couldn't get out of bed.  Please send lots of prayers his way!

The 5 pointer yesterday was so funny. Our friends Didier, Jasmine and Emerida had us over for lunch.  Jasmine saw us in Brasilito and an hour later she is calling us over to have lunch...they are so sweet (and the gallina (hen) was quite tasty!)

The earthquake happened in the middle of lunch.  Jasmine's first reaction was 'Tranquillo'.  Sadly, I am not very tranquillo when it comes to earthquakes. Later that night, John's soccer game got cancelled and we went to a church service with them and at the end of the sermon I caught what the preacher said. He said that as Christians we shouldn't fear the earthquakes, etc ... I think I still have some work. 

Here are just a few examples of how God used earthquakes in very positive ways to carry out his purpose years ago. Thanks again to all of our family and friends that were thinking of us and praying for us over the past week!!!

And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. Matthew 28:2

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. Acts 16:26

Chancho anyone?? ... you'll love this!

John took me and picked me up from teaching in El Llanito on Thursday...so fortunately we were both there which is very rare. Isa and Maria (sisters) work in the school's kitchen. They are super helpful with my spanish and are trying hard to teach me how to cook... I'll do another blog post on those efforts later.

I always take Isa and Maria home from school and today Isa asked me if I wanted to 'toma un foto del chancho muerto'.  John and I were both like sure ---we'll go take a picture of a dead pig. Well come to find out that there was a very large festival last weekend in Santa Rosa and their family was selling lots of pork on Saturday.

We walked in right when her husband and uncles starting working on it. They were pouring hot water on the pig to make it easier to skin. I was amazed that the skin was pure white...I would have thought a rosy color.

This is Isa and I trying to skin a portion of the pig with a knife. She kept saying 'muy duro'...which is harder-harder ... because I'm a weakling and was barely getting any hair off of it!

She eagerly showed me around her house, her family, her family's houses, etc. Isa is like the town cook. She cooks for the school, she cooks for soccer games, and she cooks and sells food for the community out of her house as well. I wish I could have gotten a picture but she literally has 3 kitchens (1 inside and 2 fire stoves/pits outside). 

John and I left that day just amazed at the amount of work that goes into the concept from 'farm to fork'.   She tried to explain how over the next 2 days that will be hanging the pig, marinating the meat, etc.

John and I then made a point to attend the Santa Rosa/Finca Festival to eat some fresh chancho. We have made friends with a Nicaraguan family so we asked if the mom (Isabella) and their three kids (Christopher, Sofia, and Angie) wanted to go with us. John took this picture below - poor Sofia got cut off but you can see Chris' head.

We first showed up at the wrong place (Santa Rosa). I guess most of the crowd meets in Santa Rosa on horseback and then they all ride over to the farm together.   So, we got back in the car and headed to a random farm (almost back to where we broke down last weekend).    We walked in and were quite definitely the only gringos at the festival. Everybody was standing around a ring hanging out. Maria found us pretty quickly and showed us their food station.

We bought a few skewers of pork (que rico!) and the kids had fun listening to the live music and watching the bulls (which all of them were trying to mount each other...such good entertainment). 

We left right when the fiesta was probably getting started (there was a big bull ride that night). As we were exiting ... all the hundreds and possibly a couple thousand horses were entering. I thought our car was going to be pummeled...but thankfully no bruises on our little geo (notice we are the ones off the road).

Next time you eat pork...think of our chancho experience!