Christmas In Costa Rica

A few weeks ago, I went Christmas caroling with the youth group from church. We traveled caravan style across the city, with guitars, candles, and tambourines in hand, to greet members of our congregation in jubilant song. One of our favorites was “Hoy es Navidad.” Quite a few songs mentioned Mary and donkeys. The most energetic of them all was “El Burrito de Belen.” When you get to the chorus you spin slowly in a circle and dance as you sing, “tuki tuki tuki, tuki tuki tuki tah.” It was really fun! Check out the songs on iTunes for a taste of Christmas in Costa Rica.

Christmas trees here have more of a designer look with bows, ribbons, big ornament balls, even butterflies sometimes---anything glittery goes! All about presentation, there are no homemade ornaments. Nativities are elaborate and commonly seen in houses, even of those who do not attend church. There are stuffed mascot-like elves and santas parading through malls, some of them on stilts. In fact, stuffed Barney and Baby Bop can even be seen mingling with the pigeons, clowns, and crowds of folks during a typical day in downtown San Jose. Sometimes it’s funny what transcends culture! Wii and silly bands are big here, too.

Fireworks are also a big start to light up the sky as early as mid-October. The biggest display is New Year’s Eve at midnight when people set them off all over the valley (San Jose is in a valley, surrounded by mountains!). From where I sat, it sounded like a series of gunshots as debri from the explosions set off all along the street fell on nearby roofs. Costa Ricans know how to party! There were even bull fights in nearby Zapote during the week between Christmas and New Year’s and a light parade and a horse parade in downtown San Jose.

OOPS!

I tried to open the heavy metal gate in front of the primary school building today when I got to work, and the key broke in half. Part of it is still inside the lock! OOPS! The gate is so heavy that the key has bent, torqued over time and today it finally had it. Luckily I got the gate open before the key broke off, so all the kids in K, 1, 2, and 3 grade could get to their classrooms. I told the secretary what happened right away, and Luis, our maintenance man, fixed it by the end of the day. Whew!

A student at ILE has celiacs disease and gave me some gluten free flour to try out. It's called Pamelas, and it's pretty tasty. I can't make most of the recipies on the back of it cause they contain sugar and oil, which I can't have. However, there is a pancake recipe that only requires water and an egg. This is very exciting for me, because, for some reason, I associate pancakes with being sick and special occassions. We have a gas stovetop (no oven) at my new place and one heavy cast iron skillet. I have not quite perfected the pancake making process with these items and a lack of things I can use to make the batter not stick to the pan. One of my pancake attempts yeilded significant amounts of smokey air (despite the fact that the pancakes were just a little toasty, not burnt, and very edible). OOPS!

Monday I helped Alejandra take the Costa Rican flag into the school wide assembly. Every Monday we gather as a group to stand at attention as the flag enters, sing the national anthem, stand at attention as the flag leaves, sing praise songs together, listen to a lesson about Costa Rican culture, and listen to a short devo from one of the teachers. I thought I'd secured the flag in the little wooden box that holds it up, but I didn't push the pole down far enough into the hole in the box and it half fell over. It almost hit a few kindergarteners in front, but Alejandra caught it. OOPS! It is a very serious occassion when the flag is present and quite the matter of respect, so I tried to keep a straight face but a big grin and a little giggle escaped. It was so funny! They usually have a few senior high kids carry the flag in, and this was the first time teachers did it. They kids have always done a beautiful job.

I recently went on a camping trip to the beach with my church. They graciously arranged for a ride there, to share a tent with a friend, a ride home, a mattress to sleep on (I just had a set of sheets), and cooked something different that was specifically for me and met my dietary restrictions every time we ate. They are really gracious people! Saturday night we worshipped some, and the pastor preached a bit about how Christ should be what sustains us, that we shouldn't go after momentary pleasures that just kill our hunger for a brief period. He called the momentary pleasures "matahambres" (or kill hungers). After the sermon I asked my friend Priscilla what her "matahambres" were in effort to discuss what we'd just learned and go deeper...except I forgot the term, and said "matahombres" instead (or kill mans, man killers). OOPS! It's funny what language mistakes I make: llover (to rain), llorar (to cry), oferta (sale, bargain), ofrenda (offering at church)...

This Is For You

I recently moved in with a family from church. I have been blessed in several ways through this, one of which is the fact that several members of church and the youth group that I've been getting more involved in live on the same street or the next street. They're really close and have basically invited me into their group of friends. I am amazed at how both the gringo body of Christ and latino body of Christ have been so actively loving me during the last few months.

Several of the youth were at the pastor's house playing the latino version of Guesstures (a lot like charades). The pastor and his wife even participated off and on as they walked through the living room to do other household tasks. Near the end of the evening, the pastor entered the room with a huge butcher knife and said something in Spanish as he walked towards me like "This is for you!" Whoa. What was happening? Why did he want to give me a knife? He seemed confident and friendly as usual.... He passed by me to the back door, exited, and returned with a large green plant. It turns out he had chopped off part of an aloe plant outside for me to take home. Not only is aloe good for skin, apparently it is good for intestines if you drink it. He showed me how to prepare an aloe drink in the kitchen and told me if I run out, I can always come back to his house and get more. What a kind man! I have also seen aloe sold in bottles in liquid form to drink. I almost bought one at a Chinese supermarket I found in downtown San Jose when my friend Joy from NMSI came to visit. There was all kinds of interesting things there from rice noodles, to bean paste, to turnips, to jellyfish, to ham flavored cookies, to tofu. It's been a while, so I don't remember all the more exotic things, but it was fun to look through the isles and discover them.

The Heart of a Child

This was the second day back from school after Christmas break. The kids get so excited about reading the Jesus Storybook Bible that they clap for it sometimes. They've also been into memorizing the books of the Bible in order, so we practice with a WeeSing CD my mom mailed me. They love that, too. Sometimes our discussions afterward are profound. It depends on the day, the story, etc. Today's discussion warmed my heart. Here's a glimpse:

I read the story about Jairus and his daughter and how Jesus said he'd come right away to help the sick daughter, but ended up stopping to help the woman who'd been bleeding for 12 years who touched his cloak. I asked the kids what they thought would happen next, whether the girl would die, etc. and Jonah T. piped up and said, "It's never too late for Jesus" with total confidence. It was that simple. It's never too late, with Jesus. He can heal her if she's dead, so no worries. Another boy, Federico, raised his hand and said, "That's like the verse we were learning this morning about how god helps us escape from death." Whoa! A discussion of heaven, everyone having to die at some point, what it would be like to never get sick again, and new bodies. I love it when stuff like that happens!