Lazy Weekend in San Jose

Saturday – Saturday was a fairly uneventful day; I slept late and woke up to an empty house, as the Cisernos were attending their daughter Lisa’s high school graduation. I decided to explore the neighborhood, and put on my running shoes. A couple of laps around the neighborhood and the nearby hospital in the 85 degree heat and I was sweating bullets. Probably did around 5 miles, but definitely lost a little of the endurance I gained running for the month I was home. After lunch and the return of my host family, I watched the Argentina vs Australia soccer game with Maximo. I walked to the local mini mall later in the afternoon to get a “Congratulation on Graduation” card for Lisa and a “Father’s Day/Birthday” card for Maximo. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and doing one of my Spanish language lessons on the ipod. In the evening I started watching the Red Sox vs Pirates game which was on ESPN Deportes, but then the power went out, due to the thunder and lightening storm. The family was getting all dressed up for the Graduation Celebration Party that evening, and had to do it by candle and lantern light. It also made it pretty funny when I tried to take photos of them before they left, when they were all dressed up…cause the entire room was dark and when the flash went off everyone kept closing their eyes. After they left I went to bed early, but woke up for a snack and some TV when the power came back on a few hours later.

Sunday was Father’s Day and also Maximo’s Birthday. I awoke to Max jr sleeping on the couch, and made a pot of the coffee he had brought with him from the plantation he works at in MonteVerde (supposedly the best coffee producing region of Costa Rica – up in the cloud forests). It was a delicious way to start the day. I went with Maximo to church again, and we went early this time for a couple of reasons. First I had the opportunity to attend a meeting that Maximo was organizing between some of the church leaders concerning a project he is working on with them and Habitat. As the community and church relations director – he is attempting to organize his church to help them provide Habitat housing in their own community. I met a young guy – Carlos – who is the youth relations representative for the church, and we chatted about a whole bunch of things. He is a published writer and we shared some of our writing with each other; and promised to try and hang out sometime in the future. The Second reason was that a group of 20 missionaries from Florida were attending today’s service and Maximo had borrowed the simultaneous translation equipment from Habitat to be able to allow them to understand the sermon. I helped him hand out the equipment, and make sure everyone’s was working properly, as well as keep track of who was using which device. The sermon was interesting – it was taking a look at the different types of Parents and they way that they relate to their kids. It highlighted six negative things that some parents do, and then ended by discussing ways to change those 6 types, and offering 10 questions for self-reflection: so that church members could assess their own relationships with their children as well as recognize real ways that they could change for the better. While the sermon was going on I had the chance to practice my Spanish with a little 6 year old girl Rachel. She was really cute and we practiced basic things, like names, age, parents and brothers and sisters, etc…she had fun listening to the English in the translation equipment and practiced her writing in my notebook. After church we returned home to a Father’s Day feast of steaks on the BBQ…which were delicious…right on par with the LOIN :o)…I also got the chance to talk to my folks for the first time since I arrived in Costa Rica, great to hear their voices and it was nice to be able to wish my Dad a Happy Father’s day. More soccer in the evening – as the Mexico vs Brazil game was on, and was really exciting…with Mexico pulling off the stunning upset 1-0 on a crazy header. Just before sundown, Maximo asked me if I wanted to play paddle ball…I said sure – not really knowing what it was, but grateful for any athletic fun. With his special heavy wooden paddles from Peru (the size of pickleball paddles, but much heavier), and a tennis ball we headed down the street to the neighborhood park. The game is a combination of tennis net skills and the paddleball you see at the beach; but with the heavy paddles the ball travels really fast, and you can’t let it hit the ground. SO you are simultaneously trying to keep the rally going, while hitting a difficult shot for your opponent to return. After I got the hang of it, it was a really fast paced, reflexes based game…that left us both sweating bullets and gasping for breath after 30 minutes. Lots of fun, I hope we get to play again. After a shower I spent the rest of the night reading and went to bed early.