Craft Day, Christmas Caroling, and the Chirripo

Saturday, December 8th (before the gymnastics trip) – Earlier this month we had a Christmas Craft Workshop at our house for the kids in the neighborhood. We had 4 different crafts, cookies and juice. It was really a fun time! The kids don’t have an abundance of craft supplies to play with, so everyone was thrilled with the things we had. There were about 40 kids here and we met a lot of new friends.

Wednesday night, December 19th – There was a Christmas celebration at the mission on Wednesday night. It started with a candlelit parade of Christmas caroling in Tuis. There were more than 80 people that participated. After caroling, we returned to the meeting area for a service. RandiKate participated in an interpretive dance with a few of the other children. Sorry, I forgot to bring a picture of this with me.

Friday, December 21st – There was a Christmas celebration in the mountains for the Chirripo people. The Chirripo people are an indigenous group that has lived in the mountains of Costa Rica for hundreds of years. The majority of the people live in remote areas. We loaded up two trucks (one with clothing, food, and gifts) and the other with people. There were also about 5 SUV’s with people. In total, about 40 people left Tuis in our caravan. Chandler, RandiKate, Charlie, and John David rode in a Jeep. I stood in the back of the truck (see picture) for the whole trip.

It took 2 hours and 35 minutes to get to the meeting place. The roads were terrible and the majority of the time, the truck drove about 10 miles per hour. The entire time I had to hold onto the bars above my head. It was a workout. But don’t feel sorry for us, the Chirripo people walked 4-6 hours to get to the meeting place. The terrain for them is very difficult as it has steep inclines and declines. At times, it is dangerous. There were more than 200 Chirripo that made the trip. This included more than a dozen mothers with little babies. I was the photographer and video person. After arriving, my hands were totally black from the soot on the bars in the bus. It took me about 10 minutes to find running water where I could clean my hands before handling the camera equipment. Hector & Daniel (the directors at our school) began the celebration by leading the Chirripo children in games. The children were having a lot of fun. The son of the chief of the Chirripo (I can not remember his name) is a Christian and pastors a church. The people that came were part of his congregation. I was unable to get any pictures or video of this because John David had an issue with ants. He came to me and said that ants were biting him. When I looked at the back of his green shirt, it was totally black. There more than 400 ants rapidly crawling all over his body. He had more than 30 bites on his body. He truly had ants in his pants. After stripping off his clothes and 20 minutes of shaking them, he was clothed and ready to play. He ran off and played with the other children as if nothing had ever happened. I heard there are a zillion ants for every person in Costa Rica and you need to learn to live with them. We are getting used to it, but it is no fun when you get into an ant hill and get attacked.

After the games, the children lined up for drinks. They get very excited about red Fanta. The whole event is very chaotic. Most of the Chirripo people speak some Spanish but they have a language of their own. This makes it difficult for providing instructions to the people. After drinks the people from Tuis served meals of Rice and Tuna. To top it off, they had hot dogs (cold and uncooked) in a bun. The red Fanta and hot dogs are a favorite of the people.

After the food, it was time to give out the clothes and Christmas gifts. There were hundreds of pounds of clothing (you can see the large white bags of clothing in one of the pictures) and gifts. They would carry this to their homes in the mountains on their backs. Their walk home will be 1-2 hours longer for each of them.

On the return trip, Chandler rode in the back of the truck and I found an opening in one of the cars. The mountains, rivers, and waterfalls were really beautiful on this trip. This is a great place to be.