Opening Ceremony

On Friday night, for the opening ceremony of the olympics, Becky invited us to come to her house so we could watch it. We all piled into her Blazer and drove the 3 blocks to her house, only to lounge about in her living room, play with her dog Buster, eat popcorn, and fight the temptation to fall asleep. We oohed and ahhed, and then grrred a bit as the cable connection from Miami froze up a few times. By the time she brought us back to the UBL, it was nearly 11 pm here and we were thoroughly exhausted, but super grateful to Becky for the opportunity to watch it!
 

Soggy Saturday

Becky came to take us shopping.  We took the bus downtown and were entertained by a man playing the guitar and singing Spanish songs for tips.  We had to clap and  tip him after he played "The Star Spangled Banner" and a few other American tunes.  It was raining again so we carefully picked our way through the crowd of umbrellas while watching for potholes and other things that might trip us up. At the Central Market where everything is sold from meat and vegetables to birds and puppies we bought a few souvenirs.  Our biggest purchases were made at the coffee... where they roast and grind their own coffee.  It smelled wonderful.  A little shopping along the way to the Artisan's market where we bought a few more souvenirs from very accommodating  shopkeepers willing to lower the price.  The array of textiles, wood products, and general merchandise was outstanding, and we wanted to help boost the economy.  

We then took the bus home hoping to say good bye to Loren before he left for his Costa Rican adventures, but had to be satisfied to talk to him on the phone as the  Saturday traffic and the rain conspired to make the bus ride longer than usual.

 Since it was still raining we had to be content to play games like Farkel and Uno for the rest of the afternoon instead of completing  our outside tasks of varnishing the windows and power washing cement tables and chairs.

 This evening we had a guest for dinner again, Perfecto from the Dominican Republic.  After dinner he gave a testimony of how he came to be at UBL.  He was working for World Vision with children whose parents had died or were affected by Aids.  An organization had offered to send several adults from Latin American countries working with some aspect of this problem to come to UBL and get a degree in theology with and emphasis on HIV/Aids.  He will spend some time here and some time in other countries before he attains his Masters.  Because of the expense he will not see his family for 2 years, and we are thankful that there are such dedicated people.  He was also very worried to give up his job, but will most likely be reemployed by World Vision.  He explained that at this time the Dominican Republic churches in general have been unwilling to open their doors to people so affected so we pray the everyone can view this as a health condition and not ostracize those who are affected.

Friday's Work

Friday began with a whirl of things to do, and then nothing to do. Rafael had Eben cutting and bending rebar to make the supports for the frame of the second driveway, and while Leslie was helping him with that, the rest of us were trying to finish the shoveling and leveling. We had to wait a while for more supplies to arrive, so the day was very stop and go. While we waited, we went ahead and placed all the rebar in place for the frame, and Rafael measured everything out. Once we had the rebar in place, Rafael decided that about half of it was too low, and needed to be raised even further... so back to the shovels and wheel barrows for us! 

 By the time the slab was ready for pouring and the materials had finally arrived, some pretty dark clouds had begun to form. After all the work to get the slab ready, Rafael decided that it would not be wise to pour the slab with what appeared to be a pretty big storm blowing in, so we called it a day pretty early.

A view of the casitas from below.  

With our work at the casitas cut short with a solid hour or two left in the work day, we ventured back to the UBL and sought out things that might need to be done around the campus itself. It turned out that the House of the Million Women desperately needed the windows and doors to be sanded and re-stained, so we started in on the sanding.   

It wasn't too long before Rafael's prediction about the rain came true and the sky began to fall! Sylvestre, the local handyman (who was also working with us off and on), pulled out a power washer and put Eben to work on some of the concrete picnic tables that grew all kinds of fun stuff in the Costa Rican rain and heat. Even when the rain set-in, Eben simply pulled out his poncho and continued working like a champ! We sanded until there wasn't much point with the rain, and then the rest of us sipped coffee and watched Eben playing in all the water. 

Surprise Theologian!

Earlier in the week, as we were finishing dinner, a woman who had just arrived from the airport joined us for a bit. Her name was Elisabeth and she was introduced as a visiting professor of theology.  We chatted with her for a bit as she ate, and we learned that she is from Germany, but is currently a Theology professor in Massachusets. I was so tired at the time, that I had not even put together who she was until I later saw the banner with her name and photo (this is Katy). Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenze is one of the top feminist theologians in the world and is currently teaching at Harvard Divinity School! When I was in seminary, I actually read quite a bit of her work for various courses, and now I just happened to run into her while on a mission trip in Costa Rica! On Thursday night we managed to sit in for her second of 3 lectures, titled “Power, Diversity, and Religion.” At one point, she was speaking about women in the church, and described a couple examples of churches that maintain a sternly fixed stained-glass ceiling for women in leadership roles. One of the examples she spoke of is the Roman Catholic church and the ability for women to be nuns, but not to be priests or preside over the sacraments. As we sat there listening, we were only a couple rows behind a nun, and I couldn't help but wonder what must have been going through her mind! Just as Michelle and Luisa face so much criticism and turmoil for pursuing ordained ministry in the Anglican Church of El Salvadore, churches in Latin America are typically more oriented towards male leadership. I remain amazed by the steps the UBL is taking to make the students here think for themselves. The UBL is not afraid to bring in controversial speakers or approach controversial topics (there's currently a flier posted around campus for a conference on homosexuality and theology), knowing that many diverse views will surface. In speaking with one of the students about her thoughts on the lecture, she responded by saying that controversial topics are good for the students because they make them think for themselves and appreciate the diversity of this university. Who would have thought that a mission trip to Costa Rica would land us in the presence of such an incredible and prestigious theologian!

Pupusas!!

During one of our breaks on Thursday, Dona Emma very carefully attempted to teach us gringos how to make Pupusas. Pupusas are basically tortillas stuffed with beans, cheese, meat, or any combination thereof. You start with a bowl of corn flour and slowly add water till it reaches the right consistency. Then you grab some of the dough, roll it into a ball and squish it to form a kind of thick tortilla. Form the tortilla into a bowl shape and fill it with whatever mix of fillings you want and fold the sides up to enclose the goodies. It took us a bit to get the hang of it, but for our first try we were pretty proud of the results. Dona Emma insisted that we needed to add more meat and cheese so the grease could seep through the tortilla part. You can probably guess from her suggestion what kind of diet we’ve been consuming over the past week… oodles of fried goodness!   

Thursday's Work

As Thursday morning rolled around and we found ourselves somewhat refreshed, we returned to work. We still had the rest of the rocks to clear from the second driveway location, so we re-created the chain gang and cleared the pile fairly quickly. 

The next thing that had to happen before we could frame and level the driveway, was to remove the mango tree (not the yummy mangos) that stood right in the middle. When we asked Becky about possibly re-positioning the driveway a few feet to the left so we could leave the tree, she laughed and said that it took longer to pass things through the UBL board than it does to pass things through a Methodist Administrative Board, so chopping the tree it was.

Rafael began with an axe, but soon found that due to the dense nature of the mango wood, it was too hard to effectively chop it down. His next attempt involved a Sawzall, which quickly gave way to the density as well. Without access to the tools we would normally utilize in the US, we had to go back to the drawing board. A huge thank you to everyone who purchased stock in the mission team, because your funds purchased the university’s first chain saw! Power tools cost about twice as much here as they do in the US, but they now have a chain saw that will hopefully last them through the remainder of the building project over the next few years.

With the tree finally down, Eben jumped in there with the saw to break the tree into manageable pieces for removal. With the stones removed and the tree cut down, we were now free to frame and level the driveway! In order to level the ground, we had to dig out dirt from the top of the hill and wheel barrow it about 50 yards to the driveway site. With all of us working, this took the entire afternoon, and we still didn’t quite finish the leveling… but Friday is another day.

 

La Negrita

Upon returning to Cartago on Wednesday afternoon, we headed straight for the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (Our Lady of the Angels Basilica). As we had traveled from San Jose to Cartago earlier Wednesday morning, we had noticed the vast number of people who seemed to be flocking in the direction of Cartago. Becky had explained to us that every August there was a pilgrimage that 2.5 million people (Costa Rica only has about 6 million) would make to the Basilica in Cartago, but many people go earlier due to work schedules or to avoid the monumental crowd. 

She said that people would walk from their homes and upon arriving at the Basilica steps would drop to their knees and walk to the front of the Basilica on their knees. We had heard her explain this, but it did not really hit us until we actually approached the Basilica and saw it for ourselves. It was so humbling to see such an incredible expression of faith, and we could not help but feel God's incredible presence in that place. 

The story of the Basilica goes that many years ago there was a peasant girl who would go into the forest every day to collect fire wood. One day, in a spot near a creek, she found a peculiar black stone with what appeared to be the image of the Virgin Mary. She took the stone home and placed it in a box for safe keeping. The next day, during her trip to the forest, she found another stone in the exact same spot that seemed to bear the exact same image. She took it home and went to place it in the box with the other stone only to find the first stone was gone. The third day, when she found the stone in the same spot and yet again found her box to be empty, she took the stone and ran to find the priest. She told him about the past three days and how the stone kept returning to the same spot, and he placed it in a box until he had time to inspect it further. On the fourth day, the peasant girl again found the stone had returned to its spot by the creek, but when it happened for the fifth time the priest declared it to be a sign from God that the spot near the creek is where God wants the Basilica to be built. 

Today, the original black rock is endearingly called "La Negrita" (the little black one) and can be found encased in a gold embellished case at the front of the Basilica. After crawling to the front, the pilgrims place their offerings and tokens of prayer in boxes near the altar. The tokens are frequently shaped in the form of a body part for which the individual is praying for healing, or an image representing a specific prayer request. Some of the tokens that have been collected over the years are now displayed in a basement room beneath the main Basilica.

Right next to the Basilica itself is a ramp leading down to the creek beside which La Negrita was found. The creek is still running and has been routed so the water comes out of a couple pipes for easy access. The line of people waiting to reach this holy water was all the way around the basilica and it isn't even August yet! 

Pilgrims were collecting the holy water in plastic containers shaped like the image-bearing stone, and were anointing one another with the waters. Despite the typical contaminates found in waters around Costa Rica, the holy water that flows to the basilica has been found to be free of contamination and is actually potable.