Day 7
Thursday
We all bid a sad and tearful farewell to our various wonderful hosts of the last week. Then we all gathered for one last time in the Chachagua church yard and had a time of testimonies and sharing. Marcos gave a moving account of the some of the lives we had touched and also thanked us very sincerely.
Marcos addressing us just before we left Chachagua
We hopped on the bus and headed for La Estrella. On the way, I gathered cameras and downloaded pictures onto my laptop. This was a time consuming task. We have many good photographers and cameras on tour. We have lots of Canons, which is a good thing: 20D, S2IS, S3IS, A740IS, SD550, SD800, etc. We also have several nice Nikons and Kodaks of the S-series style along with a Fuji elph (SD-series) style.
Trina taking a nap after supper
I have the great privilege of staying at the house of my double second cousins (their dad, Phil, is my dad’s first cousin and their mom, Elaine, is my mom’s first cousin). They have a beautiful house! It’s about 6 years old. Their yard is a tropical paradise with coconut trees, papaya trees, tropical flowers, pet monkeys, and a lake with alligators. We went out and fed the monkey some bananas. We also got a machete and split open a coconut and drank the juice and ate the fruit.
My awesome cousin Michael and their pet monkey
Pet monkey
Michael + coconut + machete = coconut milk
I was delighted to get the chance to chat with my dad’s first cousin Tim—I hadn’t expected to see him this trip.
Jenna was feeling better today—thanks to those of you that prayed! Keep praying, though. She’s not back to normal yet. The cooler, less humid climate of the La Estrella area is good for her.
Over supper, Justin had a group of about twenty people as a captive audience. He regaled them with story after story of his dirt bike riding and other stories. It involved enticing his sister to ride with him, working up her courage, and then unexpectedly jumping off, leaving his sister to drive. She panicked and floored it, racing around the lawn. She nearly got clotheslined by a clothesline—she ducked just in time. She was somewhat less than peacefully thankful for the experience with which he had endowed her. He also had fun wrecking a brand new dirt bike going too fast over a jump, doing a total flip. I won’t attempt to tell all the stories because it is lacking Justin’s hilarious tone of voice, expression, and details.
I spent about an hour playing soccer with three little munchkins (about 5 years old). I rolled up my jeans and went barefoot in the wet, muddy grass. I was the goalie and they each had a soccer ball. I had to defend against all three at once. It was exhausting work! Needless to say, they slipped many balls into the net. However, I had a great time with them. I would shout things to them in Spanish and they shouted to me in English, both of us eager to practice the other language. It was a blast!
Next we played some truly memorable volleyball. They set up two nets on the grass as well as lights. We students were totally out of practice and the wonderful Costa Rican youth didn’t play much volleyball. These factors combined with the wet slippery grass and the occasional mud hole on the side of the court came together to make some of the most interesting and unique volleyball I have played in a long time. (Splitting my pants also added to evening’s festivities.)
That night I also had the privilege of meeting more of my second cousins: Connie and Randal, children of Duane and Ruth Nisly.
Regina, one of my wonderful, sweet cousins, offered, without any hints on my part, to iron my shirt. While she was ironing, she saw that it was dirty—and it certainly was—so she went ahead and washed it for me! I am having such a wonderful time with my cousins! Not just because they do nice things for me, but because they are such awesome, fun people!
This evening, my worst fears were validated. I was just about to step into the shower. I had just turned on the water. All of a sudden I was startled by a loud crackling noise and blue fingers of lightning/sparks flying around in the shower head. I jumped back in terror and stared at the electric show in horrified fascination. I finally unfroze and gingerly reached around the stream of water and switched off the metal (!) water knob. The zapping—which sounded disturbingly like a bug zapper with me as the bug—mercifully stopped. I got dressed and went and asked one of the cousins about it. Her reply was filled with foolish (or so it seemed to me—the vision of blackened, fried bugs was a poignant one) and unconcerned dismissiveness. I cautiously retreated back to the bathroom and stared at the shower head for a while. I finally kicked myself for sitting there doing nothing because I had someone waiting on the shower. I very cautiously reached out again for the metal knob, as if I expected it to morph into a rattlesnake and strike me. The touching of the knob was fortunately uneventful so I bravely moved on to the next great event, turning the knob. I did this very quickly—not out of fear of getting shocked, amazingly enough—but rather to get the water pressure high enough that I wouldn’t get another lightning show. Now don’t get me wrong, lightning shows are pretty and spectacular, but there are times when despite their coolness, one simply does not wish for their presence. I turned the pressure quite high—the cause of the lightning was when the pressure was not high enough to fill the electrical coil with water and the electricity arced across the coil—which ensured no arcing, but equally ensured very cold water because the water flowed through the coil too fast to be heated by its brief passage. Once again, I weighed my options and for some strange reason chose cold water over electrocution.
(The next day, my fears were more than validated, they were confirmed! I found out that Trina had been using an electrical shower head and had gotten a very long shock. She had trouble letting go at first, but finally managed it. Also, Chuckie got a brief shock as he tried to adjust the heat settings.)
3 Responses
April 7th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Thanks Hans! Keep me updated on Jenna. So glad to hear she is doing better! PTL!
April 7th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Costa Rica! I love that land! Reading about familiar names and places brought back many wonderful memories of Pilgrim High’s Spanish trip last year. Keep living it up in Pura Vida! Adios!
April 7th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
thanks for the updates Hans. We’ll keep praying.
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