What a week(end)

First things first. Sunday marked the end of the seemingly weeklong celebration of the day of the children 'el dia de los niños". There was a big assembly on Tuesday celebrating children. Wednesday was the actual day and students got out early. We decided to treat our niños to some icecream to celebrate the day. If it has not been mentioned yet and I am sure it will be mentioned many more time hereafter, these people love their sugar. They add it to everything including things that already have lots of it like icecream. The motto seems to be don't stop adding sugar until you have reached the saturation point and then add a bit more for good measure. Anyway Thursday students got to arrive an hour later than usual and could wear whatever they wanted. There was another long assembly/talent show at school (Michael Jackson is alive and well down here) as well as trampolines set up and music blaring. We watched a bit of the assembly and as we did so scores of students showed up late with 3 liter bottles of coke or the generic brand "BIG" five or so large cakes and literally hundreds of bags of chips. Although the chips could have been just to restock the snack bar the school offers as one of its amenities. Thurday night there was a celebration at the school for children's day but it was raining hard so we skipped it. Friday Leif had no school and Sidne was out by 11:00. Friday morning we accompanied Isue and Karoy to run errand in Puntarenas. We stopped by a candy store to purchase candy for the children's day celebration at the church on Sunday.


Saturday my mom and I awoke at 4:45 put together a quick sack lunch swallowed a few bites of oatmeal and gulps of coffee and were out of the door at 5:10 to allow enough time to go to the weekly farmer's market before the 6:00 departure for San Jose to watch Natan play in his baseball game. 5:30 is a nice time to be up buying vegetables according to how many people were already there. We rushed through our list and were able to find almost everything. For just under $15.00 we bought carrots, onions, potatoes, 4 large mangos, a watermelon, 3 pineapples, a 2 lb. bag of lychee, bananas, lettuce, and 6 ears of corn that we are hoping is sweet enough that people will take more than one bite (last weeks corn was the wrong variety we learned).


It turns out that the bus was not going to make its scheduled departure time but by 7:15 (and 15 minutes waiting on the bus for its imminent take off. The game we were told was to start at 9:00 and since San Jose is at least 2 hours away it was going to start a bit late. To our amusement, Karoy still informed us the game would start around 9:00 or maybe 9:30. We mumbled 10 or10:30 under our breath.After an unexpected but welcomed 30 to 45 minute stop for breakfast, Karoy conceded the game may indeed start at 9:30 or even 10:00. Again we mumbled under our breath. We did finally arrive to the game, which to our delight had seats in the shade, albeit 100 meters away. I got fried the first game I went to which had no shade. Even better than the seating arrangement was the location of the stadium; a mere block away from the San Jose farmer's market. This sucker is huge. We watched a few innings of the games (they squeezed all three into one field and played them all at once) and when we realized the Puntarenas team was overmatched we bolted for the market. I wish we had a camera because words could do it no justice. We walked for about five blocks and saw maybe half of it. The variety was unbelievable. We found a very nice papaya for about a buck and got 5 large avocados for a $1.70. We even found our first guava which we juiced (tasty).


We got back to the game just as they ended. Natan's team lost 7-1 butcould hold their heads higher than the older boys who lost 26-0. Ouch! It took at least 45 minutes to get back on the bus as the players were fed a quick bite to eat (15 minutes) and the coaches had to secure beer for the ride back (30 minutes more). Once on the bus, we were told the kids were going to be taken to a mall to run around for an hour or so. Once our hour was up Karoy came looking for me to get back on the bus. However on our way to the bus we met the coaches walking in the opposite direction on their way to yes you guessed, buy more beer. 30 minutes later we were back on the road for our two hour ride back to Miramar. Three and a half hours and 3 more stops for more beer (I kid you not) later we arrived home, exhausted. The last 45 minutes we were both fighting nausea from the winding roads and smell of fumes form this old bus.
To make the day even longer, Ricardo skype me to let me know that the Oregon Duck football game was to be coming on and he would be willing to set his computer in front of the t.v. so I could watch it. This really was a treat. The feed was off and on but for the most part it was like watching a game with Ricardo. Ain't technology something. Thanks Ricardo. There are only 11 more games...then basketball season starts.
Sunday (it's only Sunday?) started with us going to Isue and Karoy's church for the big candy festival I mean dia de los niños celebration. There was a cute children's program and then the kids went off to Sunday school while the adults fell asleep. I think that is what we all did but I am not exactly sure. Actually I didn't fall asleep until after the parade in the street accompanied by police and fire sirens and school bands slowly passed by the front of the church. At that point i was contentedly standing outsided the doors very alertly taking everything in. But we they decided to close the church doors in vain hope of quieting the parade I was force inside. From then there was no prayer of staying awake; not a snowball's chance not even there. After everyone woke up, kids and parents were reunited. And while the parents were napping the kids were being outfitted with suitcase sized boxes of candy. Luckily, Sid and leif aren't the advnturs type and were unwilling to try some of the more exotic local flavors, which left them with jwhat seemed like just under 3 kg of candy each. The plan was to go to the beach Sunday night with Isue and Karoy's family but instead everyone crashed into bed for a few hours. We had a nice meal and then watched "Love in the Time of Cholera" a latin american novel in English with spanis subtitles. Then off to an early night.
As a postscript, the kids got out of school early again today (10:50) as part of the start of the independence day week of celebration. We went to a parade tonight and will post some pictures soon. No school tomorrow as it is independence day proper. We will see what the rest of the week brings. One final note I got our lime tree planted in the front yard. What a battle. Tomorrow the papaya tree. Picture of them to follow as well.