Home for the Holidays

Feliz Navidad    Merry Christmas   Happy Christmas
I will resume the blog next week.
Have a joy filled, peace filled weekend.

Felix Navidad

     Tonight an angel came by.  He came in the shape of Kendall, a 7 year old boy
dressed as Balthasar.  With his hand made crown decorated with markers and glitter and his homemade robe, he lit up the room like the North Star one faith-filled night.  He was so proud of himself. His shining moment.  I taught Kendall this fall and he is a boy long on smiles and smarts, but short on attention. Most of the time he is being corrected and told to sit still.  Sound familiar?
     Not tonight. Tonight he stood tall  among the sheep made from cotton balls and socks for hooves. Among, Jesus and Mary, all giggles and shyness. An American boy dressed in a robe and a Santa's hat, narrating and encouraging the younger ones. Christmas songs in Spanish sung by the tiniest of voices. There was Kendall, smiling and singing all the words. Such pride in this simplest of pageants. Babies were crying, children were waving but Kendal was doing exactly what he was supposed to do.  He knew all the words in Spanish and English.  He stayed on task.  He shone.


     Amazing what can happen when the restraints are gone.


     So Merry Christmas to Vielka, Veronica, Allison and Danny.  Felize Navidad to Allysia, Christine and those darling little pre-schoolers. I hope you all find something in your stocking. 
      To you dear Kendall, I wish you the world. With the knowledge that you shone tonight and you will shine again. Just never, never sit still.
     

Peace

     Music wandered through the windows, around the houses, down the hill,
 into my kitchen.  It was "Jingle Bells" with a salsa beat. A baby cried. The motorcycle backfired. From a distance I could see the smoke of a clearing fire. Sunday night in the Colinas neighborhood. These people are poor. There's just no getting around that.
But they are happy. They laugh and gather and eat and fix their cars and watch their babies.  They know no differences. This is their life. It has always been their life and it will be their childrens' lives. They walk to school and walk to town and would walk to
the hospital if they had to.  When they get caught in the rain, they smile, open their
umbrellas and continue on.  There's no rushing or yelling or rudeness.  Just a peace about their walk and a willingness to wait. They have God and know God and are at one
with God. The church is undergoing a massive improvement campaign.  Only they don't call it a campaign.  They just smile and say, "God is good".
     I'm coming back to the States on Saturday.  Back to the rushing and yelling and rudeness.  I'm hoping enough of the peace here has rubbed off on me so that I will be able to smile at strangers and say, "God is good."

Sunsets over Manuel Antonio

     Today I took Lucy to the beach. It was mid-afternoon and there was triple the
number of people as when we first visited Playa Manuel Antonio. It's a full moon so the water was way up the beach. There was little space for sunbathers or soccer players.
Lucy wanted to play ball but was really afraid of the frequency of the waves.
So we walked up and down the beach. While I looked for shells, she kept watch out for anybody that she deemed unworthy of being close to me.  By 4:00 the sun had gone behind the cloud layer and I decided to call it a day. But not an entire day.
     Our taxi drove us home in record time and I rushed Lucy to get rinsed off.  I had decided to go back to the mountain and watch the sun set. Something tells me it will be awhile before I can get a chance to do that.  Showered in 3 minutes and dressed in 4, I was back in my little red taxi for the ride up the hill.  I wasn't sure, but I decided to check out Ronny's Place.  Set way off the road and on top of a hill, Ronny found the perfect spot for sunsets.  As I sat on the incredibly hard and uncomfortable tile bench, my eyes moved left and right, unsure which vista was more beautiful than the other.
     I've seen the sun set from many far away places.  I know it takes about 2 minutes from the time the ball touches the water until it sinks into the water.  What I didn't know until tonight is that the colors on one side of the vista can be straight out of Tuscany at the same time the colors on the other side of the vista can be robins egg blue.
     Miraculous. 

Christmas in Quepos

     It's beginning to look a lot more like Christmas around here.  People in the
tin roofed neighborhoods are stringing lights and adorning their houses with paper decorations.  Occasionally, I will see a small, lighted tree peeking it's head through the
curtains.  Nobody is playing Christmas music.  Thank goodness my friend JD spent
all that time downloading Nat King Cole onto my computer.  I have decided not
to buy any decorations for my pad.  It's sad, but I will be home in a few days and
just am trying to enjoy what I see around town.  My neighbor is American and she brought all kinds of garland and lights and a tree.  She was even making ornaments the other day.  Looked like fun!  Her apartment is all Christmasy and homey and I am definitely fighting off the big lump in my throat.
  And just when I was feeling really sorry for myself, I took my favorite taxi out the the Palm Finca campos.  I wanted to check in on my friend Rita.  
      Sunday was the best day to visit her. Before I went, I wanted to get a small gift for the boys. This is not a town with a toy store. Too frivolous. There is a dime store with a few items, mostly baby toys. The Maxi-Pali, otherwise known as Wal-Mart, finally has some toys on their shelves.  I looked for puzzles and found none so I settled on a good soccer ball and the games of checkers and tic-tac-toe. I knew if I took something for Rita she would like it, but feel miserable because she can't buy me anything. And I also knew that if I gave her too much notice, she would go and prepare one of her delicious meals.  So I decided to call her late in the morning and not give her very much notice.  Carlos, one of my favorite drivers, pulled in front of her house and Lucy bounded out before the door was even open. 
      The family was glad to see me and the boys immediately used their gifts. I threw in some candy at the last minute and while watching everybody have a piece, it dawned on me  that they don't often get candy.  Too frivolous.  As the boys played, Rita and I spoke Spanish while she washed dishes. They have no hot water and the culture here accepts cleanliness with just soap, water and a good scrubbing. As I watched her, I looked forward to a great talk with Rita.  We don't get a lot said because it takes me a while to understand her, she speaks so quickly!. No amount of coaxing her with, "Despacio! Despacio!" helps.  We spoke of the end of the school year that was coming up and whether she likes her summer with the boys. She told me about swimming in the river, clearing the land and spending more time with friends.
     There is a spot just across the street from her house, with a covered roof, small bar and table for 20. It's open air and you can see and hear the mighty river roaring and flowing in front of this place.  Neighbors and families gather here every Sunday for
an old fashioned pot luck.  They cook the meat over a make shift open fire with children and dogs running in and out. I am glad that I can picture her in this spot while I go home for Christmas.
     I need to take you back into her kitchen, all cleaned up and with me hoping we can cross the street and sit in this spot to talk.  Rita doesn't sit. She moves quickly in her house and I followed her out to the chicken coop area to watch her remove a big red pot that was boiling away on her open fire pit. In comes the pot and for the next 30 minutes I watch her debone the cooked chicken, feet and all!  She grated carrots, steamed rice, added spices and onions and butter, tiny peppers and potatoes.  It all cooked down
for the next 45 minutes and by now I had been there 3 hours and not wanting to overstay my welcome, I called for my taxi.  Something made me ask about this dish, was it dinner or for her mother.  Rita answered, this is for special occasions like Christmas or birthdays or when a special guest comes over.  Boom!  She had done it again!
Cooked her heart out for me and in spite of being full from the breakfast, I had at 
11:00, I ate what she put in front of me.  She called Carlos in to join us and sent us away with leftovers for 5. It was so simple and so delicious.  I then decided to ask her 
about the chickens, and she took me back to see the hens and gather eggs then explained that she caught the chicken but her husband broke its neck.  She's grown up like this so it all seems normal for Rita.
It seems so real to me. So alive. So original.  Not like the Hen House where everything is cold and wrapped in plastic.
     I hugged them all and told them that I wouldn't see them for a while. She tried to
take a small, hand made rudolph off the wall. One of 5 similar decorations. No tree here.
Stockings that are simple and need to be repaired. Beyond modest. She really wanted to
give me this small, quiet illustration of her craft work and our friendship. I was thankful when she couldn't get the paper off the wall. 
     As I drove away in the cab, I realized, truly, this was my first real Christmas. No money.   All love.                                                                     Feliz Navidad.

 

It's Sunny!

     I can't believe it myself.  So I hopped in the taxi with Alex (the driver) and got myself over to the beach. Very beautiful in the hot sun.  Many more people here.
Some have started drinking beer or Mai Tai's. It's 11:00 a.m.
I'll do a little work then come back with Lucy.  She has become quite the swimmer dog.  Loves jumping in the pool after a good came of ball. 
     What I really notice is how this sleepy little town as come to attention. There's a quick step in the locals.  Cars and taxi's flood the streets. Although the tides of the ocean move faster that the tides of people, it seems like this sleepy little hamlet in a sleepy little Camelot has woken up from it's nap.   As long as you don't look too closely.  Take the woman who cleans the apartments where I live. She has agreed to come to my house at 9:00 a.m.  She has never arrived before 10:00.  
The cable guys answered the phone right away but they said they would call me back in 48 hours to set up an appointment.  On appointment day, they said they would be at my house between 10:00 - 12:00.  So I waited at home. Waited. Waited.  By 4:00 when they showed up, I had learned from a local friend that I was lucky they even came on the assigned day. 
     In early November I got invited to  watch a local volleyball game. It was at the high school and I was eager to see what a local public school looked like.  The person who asked me told me to be at the school at 4:00.  So I showed up at 4:45.  The players didn't start showing up until 5:15.  We didn't go into the gym until 6:00. The first game started at 6:45.  All was over by 8:00.  
     But back to the town. The streets are packed with people milling around looking for the best place to eat, a place to shop or drink or dance. The windows on some store fronts have put up Wal-Mart or Dollar Store type Christmas decorations.  Great
tchotchke's for a ugly ornament party.  I think I'll stimulate the economy here and bring some decorations home. I rarely see any locals with shopping bags. Oh, plenty from the Pali (Wal-Mart's grocery store here) and Super Mas, but not much from other stores here.  My waitress friend says it because everything is so expensive here and so people get on the bus for 7 colones and ride for 4 hours to Panama and shop there. It's tempting, but the next time she goes she'll be on the road at 
4:00 in the morning.  Tempting????????
     It's raining this evening. Lucy and I played for hours at the beach.  Then we
rode in our favorite taxi and showered when we got home.   There is a good outdoor shower by the pool and she was a very patient girl.  We have some new dogs in the area. Spot, the stray who adopted us, is still the queen bee. But there are now 3 Taco Bell dogs, a French Bull Mastif, a beagle mix and a dachshund mix.
They're here just in time to keep my dogs happy while I return to the states to celebrate.  At least something works on time around here!
     It's been over 90 days of rain since I got here.  I hope it snows and snows and snows when I'm home. Rain, with an edge.