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| 5 of us from Su Espacio raised a 100,000 Colones ($200) at the Gringo Halloween Party (I’m in the Red Scream Mask) We sold Sangria, had a raffle at about $100 each and had only 11 angels taken from the tree, but more will go later. |
A Saint’s passing reminds me of God’s Grace
I just learned of the death of Dot McGinnis, one of the saints I worked with at Belmont Heights Baptist Church in Nashville back in my Youth Minister days. Service is October 29, 1 PM, Woodbine Chapel.
God’s grace has always kept me surprised by the good things He keeps allowing me to be a part of though not deserved! And the brief intersections with her life and that of her son Ben (Pastor of Woodbine Baptist Church) are certainly some of those acts of grace for which I am thankful. Her untiring faith raised two very fine sons who honored their parents until death. Ben’s passion for missions is something I pray all pastors might gain.
I thank the McGinnises for their faithful examples and for being one of those surprises of Grace they gave me. Your light is still shining!
Blessings! -Charlie
Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:7 THE MESSAGE
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An article for those considering a move to Costa Rica, the Happiest Country on Earth!
Who’s Happy in Costa Rica?
If you’re an unhappy American, you may have to change more than your country to be happy! 🙂
Passion flower & Advantages of Walking
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| Passion Flower, common name in English Granadilla del monte, common name in Spanish Passiflora vitifolia (official Latin name) |
I’m passing these a lot in my walks around town now. The flower is the reddest of any we have here I think, or at least it seems so to me. It grows on a vine that climbs walls, but only blooms near the ground for some reason. Just one of the little perks of not having a car or bike, I see pretty things on and near the ground! 🙂
“Thoreau is careful to point out that the walking he extols has nothing to do with transportational utility or physical exercise — rather it is a spiritual endeavor undertaken for its own sake.”~Maria Popova
la danza de la mascarada
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| Audience and Dancers Mingle in Portico of St. Rafael Church |
The Masquerade Dance at End of the St. Rafael Week of Celebration & Worship honoring the patron saint of Atenas. It was a colorful, musical bit of chaos. The band played and the teens and children in costumes or paper mache masks “danced” or jumped around during the music. The audience walked in and out of the dancers and sometimes danced with them or talked with them.There was no organization or dancing talent demonstrated, though the brass and drum band was pretty good. It all took place under a portico of the St. Rafael Catholic Church in center of town as one of many events during the last full day of the Patron Saint Celebration. I went for the colorful photo possibilities and here they are!
I missed the Mass and children’s choir and the line was too long to eat at the church, so afterwards I went to La Carreta and ate Arroz con Pollo or chicken and rice for lunch with a Lemucha rice milkshake, like a Horchata but with ice cream instead of just milk! Really good!
(I’m assuming you know that if a site I link to, like the two above, are in the Spanish language you can right-click on the site page and get an English translation of the site in just seconds.)
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| Brass Band with Drums – A lot of these in town! |
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| Lunch was served cafeteria style in church fellowship hall with good homemade Tico food, but line was too long for me! |
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| St. Rafael |
In case you did not see my 18 October Post on the carnival part of this patron saint celebration, you can see it at this link: Atenas Celebrates Patron Saint There have been activities going on all day every day and many announced with loud fireworks and the ringing of church bells. Interesting! There is a statue of St. Rafael in the church surrounded by smaller statues of other saints as if honoring him. Here’s a not very good photo of the statue of St. Rafael the Archangel.
“The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.”~Cesare Pavese
Celebrating Atenas’ Patron Saint
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| In October every year Atenas Catholics celebrate the city’s Patron Saint San Rafael Arcángel or Saint Rafael the Archangel (link gives details) It began Friday night with dancing and the carnival on church lawn below and continues through Mass on 25 October. I hope I haven’t already missed the masquerade dance which is usually part of it. Last night was just carnival. I’m guessing next Friday and Saturday nights will be bigger, especially 24th. |
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| Lots of food booths and kiddie rides like these little cars on street by church |
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| Tilt-a-whirl and Ferris-wheel of course for older kids & trampoline for smaller |
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| algodón de azúcar or Cotton Candy at most fiestas along with many kinds of pastries including meat-filled |
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| And of course a merry-go-round with cute horses is necessary! Everything here is very family-oriented, conservative and inexpensive. |
You guys at First Baptist Nashville can just think of this as their version of your “Fall Festival” for the children. It just lasts longer here! I don’t often go downtown at night much, but hope to go again and maybe catch the masquerade dance, probably next Friday or Saturday night.
And TO CATCH UP ON MY PERSONAL ACTIVITIES:
- X-RAYS EVALUATED by my doctor indicate I have twin babies, Dr. Candy joked with me, baby bone spurs on each heel. For now she has prescribed a pill to take as needed and soak the sore foot (my right one now) in ice water to relieve the pain. If it gets worse she will send me to a specialist who will give an injection in the heel that sometimes helps. Last resort is surgery, a long way down the path if ever for me.
- RUFOUS-COLLARED SPARROW in my house again the other day. Before I got him chased out (waving a towel) he pooped several times on floor and once on my bed’s blanket (time to wash anyway). Funny thing is the same day I got an email from Bonnie Meriwether suggesting I get a screen door. I’m considering that if the landlord approves, although this is still a rare thing and the insects and lizards cannot be kept out. My sliding glass door does have sliding screens which I close at dark, but usually leave open in day since I twice walked through those screens. An open house is just the way it is done here by everyone.
- HABLO ESPAÑOL MAS AHORA (I speak Spanish more now) but still a long way from fluent or even good conversations. It is very slow learning for me and part of the reason is I live alone and don’t socialize enough with Spanish-speakers. I always try to talk about the weather or traffic with taxi drivers in Spanish, order in Spanish in restaurants, and communicate somewhat in other businesses and the bank. Of course the Spanish Class is Spanish-only now and a friend from it will spend time with me “practicing” when I request or schedule, like the time I had him over for pizza. Poco a poco (slowly, slowy).
- MORE RAIN THIS WEEK like it is suppose to be in “Rainy Season” with even more than last week getting rain every afternoon and most nights which is really nice for sleep! Old timers say there is no way to get enough rain to make up for the dry winter and dry season starts in November or December.
- My taxi in Alajuela drove by the new CITY MALL under construction and scheduled to open
Architect’s Drawing of Main Entrance
A 45 minute bus ride away for me.in November, the largest mall in Costa Rica and 2nd largest in Central America! And Alajuela is already where I go to shop, so I’m ready! While my rich friends drive to San Jose or Escazu shopping where it is more difficult for me on the bus. City Mall already has a Facebook Page, You Tube Videos, and a bunch of pictures plus lots of articles online and in local papers and magazines. It will have a parking garage for 2,600 cars and is the largest mall ever built in Central America in one stage. Panama has one that was later enlarged that is now larger. Our current largest mall is in the Escazu area of San Jose and will really have a lot of competition now. Alajuela is closer to me and easier to get to by bus than San Jose, so I’m glad, though . . . I am really not a mall shopper where everything is more expensive and even more so here. But I may go to their cinema! 🙂 Or to look for a hard-to-find item. Or to eat in one of their restaurants!
A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.~Mahatma Gandhi
The Maturing Garden
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| The garden is a full jungle now, needing pruning every month. This means the Tuti Fruti Verbenas border get most of their blooms cut off and thus not as many flowers on them now. While the Heliconias and Gingers are getting very large. Gingers constantly bloom, Heliconias are in down period. |
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| The Maraca or Shampoo Ginger has 5 new stems growing fast, but lost the 1 flower. |
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| The Triquetraque or Mexican Trumpet Vine is finally blooming but not covering the wall yet. Hoping for more. |
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| The extra large Heliconia plant lost its big flowers and now has 1 new one growing with more expected soon. |
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| This Costa Rica Petunia blooms profusely every morning with blooms dropping off in the afternoon. Interesting! |
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| One of the many Red Ginger blooms |
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| The favorite flower of the hummingbirds and butterflies for which I haven’t been give a name yet. Same one below, different color. |
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| Fewer butterflies now after the June-July swarm. |
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| The Blue Plumbago continues to bloom mucho as the background hedge. It now gets trimmed only on the front side, so only losing some flowers. |
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| One of the small Heliconias |
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| My gardener calls it Once Junio planta, 11th of June Plant, a nice extra gift plant he brought for my front yard. Has yellow berries too! |
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| The ground-cover I got sprigs of from the apartments has spread well around my small palms in the front yard. Nice bright blooms in morning which simply close in the afternoon. No name for it yet. |
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| The Pilea ground-cover in my main garden has complete coverage now. I think it is much better than mulch and the lizards like it. Hope not snakes! |
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| Another Heliconia opening up. They too bloom year around. |
And to see what garden looked like on the first day planted, just click the link for May 1 post!
And see a free preview of my little book in Spanish about the garden Mi Pura Vida Naturaleza Jardín
“God made a beauteous garden
With lovely flowers strown,
But one straight, narrow pathway
That was not overgrown.
And to this beauteous garden
He brought mankind to live,
And said “To you, my children,
These lovely flowers I give.
Prune ye my vines and fig trees,
With care my flowers tend,
But keep the pathway open
Your home is at the end.”
“God’s Garden”
― Robert Frost
What I am Reading
If you are a member of Goodreads, the reading/sharing book club affiliated with Amazon and/or Kindle, then you know what I am reading. The Kindle Fire was the absolute best thing I purchased before leaving the states and is my primary entertainment. I have lost track of how many books I’ve read on it since moving to Costa Rica.
I have two versions of the Bible on Kindle and read from both each day (THE MESSAGE and HCSB). I have read several devotional books of varying value. I reread the entire Chronicles of Narnia series and the entire Hobbit-Lord of the Rings series, more traditionally I have read John Grisham, Agatha Christie, and Louis L’Amour books, plus some children’s books (still a child at heart), Costa Rica books, nature, birding and travel books, a pair of science fiction books that were pretty good: From Time to Time and Time and Again, both by Jack Finney. I read a book on simple living which I’m not following real close, the lengthy and sometime boring Don Quiote and the latest biography of Jimmy Carter, A Full Life, which is very good. I read three books by Catherine Ryan Hyde which were all good and totally different, though really into everyday life problems and emotions from a wide range of people and situations. Pay It Forward is her best and was made into a movie I understand but can’t find on Netflix. Electric God was not what I expected but was very good and I recommend. And I just finished When You Were Older, which was particularly interesting to me because of the special needs child becoming an adult and reminded me of Juli in many ways. I am now reading a World War II novel about two children, one in France and one in Germany and how the war is affecting both of them in both similar and different ways. It is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Even as a war story it is lighter reading than the last book which became emotionally heavy for me at times. Most Children’s stories are good! Not sure what will be next.
I also read National Geographic digital, Christianity Today digital, and Washington Post digital on my Kindle along with a locally made Costa Rica Bird App to identify birds including their songs (On my phone too! A guy in our birding club developed it.). So this little gadget has been a world of information and entertainment! AND I have the Kindle App on my Galaxy 4 Android Phone so that when on the bus to Alajuela or in a restaurant, I can read on my latest book or play solitaire. On the Kindle at home I also have a jigsaw puzzle app. Wow! I don’t watch TV though I probably should some just for the Spanish. And I’m using my Bose CD player for a CD-based extra Spanish class which is good for the actual talking and pronunciation. Never bored! Pura Vida!
Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.
–Vera Nazarian
Housemates Getting Bigger
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| Bigger than the little geckos on my ceilings and walls and didn’t want to go out. Not sure of ID though similar to Ground Anole, or maybe Ameiva or Whiptail. He eats insects to pay rent, though I don’t like his little poop on the floor! |
Earlier posts on lizards at home: A Scorpion in the Sink and Lizard on the Wall!
And my photo gallery: Costa Rica Reptiles
Ceramic Tile Mosaics Honoring Calufa in Alajuela
Mosaics representing 4 of Carlos Luis Fallas “Calufa’s” books:
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| Mamita Yunai, 1940 |
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| Gentes y Gentecillas, 1947 |
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| Marcos Ramirez, 1952 |
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| Mi Madrina, 1954 |
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| Memorial Calufa Carlos Luis Fallas Sibaja, 1909-1966 |
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| Local Government & Artists Credit |
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| 3 Artists who made the 4 book-themed mosaics |
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| Artist who painted the portrait of Calufa |
A fitting memorial of the famous writer and activist for labor in Costa Rica features tile mosaics of 4 of his books plus one mosaic about him – another favorite son of Alajuela.
About CALUFA Carlos Luis Fallas Sibaja in Wikipedia
And a Spanish bio on guiascostarica.info with photo
Carlos Luis Fallas en el mapa literario de América, La Nacion newspaper history article
Parque Juan Santamaria
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| Juan Santamaria statue in Juan Santamaria Park in central Alajuela, Costa Rica |
Who was Juan Santamaria? See this short article on Wikipedia for more details about the drummer boy who set William Walker’s fortress on fire and led to the defeat of the crazy American trying to turn Central America into his slave farm. He had actually conquered Nicaragua, so our Alajuela guys is their hero too! The San Jose International Airport is named after him as are a few other things in Costa Rica. He is the perfect national hero as a poor laborer of a single mother. And he died in his act of heroism in 1856. The history museum in Alajuela by Central Park is also named after him.
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| The central plaza of the Juan Santamaria Park |
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| Colorful Alajuela sign at one end of the park near my x-ray clinic |