Tom Solan's Visit

Our great friend, Tom Solan (my ex-partner in the construction business, now living in Oregon) just arrived for a short visit. He came over to the house today with grand daughter, Valeria, and grandson, Javid. They just pigged out on the home-made tortillas and McKinney special Humos, plus a brown rice dish that Julie made. Even Javid liked both dishes! :

Javidy had a wild ride on our backyard swing, with Valeria giving him super high pushes:

Bay Window Miracle

For everyone who knows our house, check out the new window seat in the West Bay window!
Julie's artful design...plus it's super comfortable as well! Two more pillows of a different color will be ready soon to cover the back. Now we need to upgrade the lighting in that area so people can sit there are read a book in luxury. (Just in time for the Pyburn's arrival!)

Great turnout for today's gathering!

After so much fuss and preparations we were totally delighted with the turnout at our special get-together today. Our favorite speaker, Richard Mirkovich, came all the way out from the Island of Chira (about an 8 hr trip for him) to keep the whole crowd completely entranced with what he had to say.
The theme was about the unfolding of civilizations--always being under the guidance of Spiritual Teachers. Richard is a person who has integrated the Baha'i Teachings very well in his life, so he's a wonderfully natural speaker and educator. It's truly entrancing to listen to the wonderful ideas he presents, like the latest studies he's been doing on the Indigenous cultures who inhabited this area thousands of years in the past. But his talks are full of practical daily applications of the principal of service to humanity. He has little kids, their parents, local policeman--anybody who is interested---attend his English classes on the island. They flock to him and really keep him busy. (The idea of teaching locals English stems from his idea that this will assist them to deal with the huge influx of international tourists to the area and improve their economic situation. However, he has them converse about spiritual and scientific matters while they are learning the language. If they don't understand a particular idea he'll give them a translation.) Anyway, the students are flocking to his place in a steady stream. (There's no charge, of course, and they know that the benefits are long-lasting.)
Here's Richard expounding the theme:
We were very happy that a number of guests who are interested the the Faith showed up.
Plus a bunch of our Baha'i Youth and their friends came:
Margie blew everyone away with her elegant attire! (She was going to her boss's wedding after this event.)
And the kids played a bunch of hoops on David's new set before we called everyone in for eats and cake and coffee. We always know how successful an event is by how long they hang out afterwards. (Note the sunset.)

Spring cleaning in the Kitchen

A couple of days ago I started refinishing our kitchen counters. These are made of a mix of practically every kind of Costa Rican hardwood. They've been under constant attack by daily kitchen use for over 20 years, so there were dings and water stains and such which I needed to sand out.

The old finish was a mix we call 1,2,3. (One part clear varnish, two parts linseed oil, and three parts turpentine. You apply a coat with a brush, wait 5 minutes and rub it off with a cotton cloth. This is applied once a day for a week, once a week for a month, and once a month for a year. It's like an oiled finish.)
However, this time I'm going to try a commercial finish since it's less of a hassle in the long run--even though it's pretty expensive: Polyurethane floor finish. This stuff resists just about everything. I'm applying three coats, the first of which is now on (since we have a Day of the Covenant event here and we need the kitchen to be functioning).

We're installing some fancy backsplashes behind the sink area. They'll be wood with decorative Mexican tiles inset, but we are short a few so, hopefully, Aria will be able to bring some down.

Meanwhile, Julie didn't know that I was going to tear of her kitchen apart with all this sanding and such. I had to pull out the stove which is inset in the two Eastern parts of the counter. Poor lady was really in a funk!
Here she is wondering how she'll be able to do any work in there. (The spots are dust on the lense, I suppose. ) She ended up going over to Gianni's place to cook while I pulled the stove out.

Change of Season

This heavy downpour was, apparently, the last of the rainy season. It came down with a vengeance (see photo). Just two days later the winds started blowing, plus we had a couple of hefty earthquakes--both promising signs that the dry season is upon us. The winds filled the yard with leaves and small branches and blew the chairs right off the porch!

So, with the change of season, the tourists start pouring into the country. And we are expecting our beloved lil' Aria with her gorgeous little daughter, Sasha, plus husband James, his dad and stepmom, to arrive in early December ahead of the crowds. (I'll have plenny of photos for that big event--hopefully with a fancier camera which I ordered.)

Mateus' Visit

Little Mateus Solan arrived yesterday for a visit, bringing along his Mommy and Granma. (Mateus is Shawn Solan's little boy. He's in Oregon presently working there as a house painter while his wife, Angelica, came home for a short visit.) Here he is, the center of attention, in our living room:
Of course, he had to check out every detail while the grown-ups were chatting:When Auntie Julie gave him a cracker to munch on she was his favorite from then on! (When they were leaving he reached out to her and started crying!)
Hummm, Butter Kitty's tail is so luxurious, but how to grab onto it?
How's about a little kiss? (She got a bunch of em, but the delay on the camera focusing didn't allow me to catch any in the act.)

More Reflection Gathering & Youth pics

I got the following photo of the Baha'i Youth at our last Relection meeting in Moravia from Gerald Morales (light blue shirt, white pants in the middle).
Lua Delcampo (front left, looking away from the camera), and Jordan Baese, (front in black shirt) were the facilitators for the Youth group that day.
This is a shot of some of our local Youth who were on an outing to the Poas Volcano earlier this year:

Birth of Baha'u'llah Celebration

Yesterday's celebration, planned very carefully by our local Baha'i Community, was a roaring success! An international lunch was prepared by many people, some from far away Baha'i Communities. We had decided to have everything informal, with no speeches or anything that might be unpleasant for our guests--the main purpose of the event to be held in honor of Baha'u'llah--but for their delight. Many of our neighbors arrived and some brought their families.

Since the event began at mid-day, we had all afternoon to get to know everybody.

The Baha'i friends below are Alma and Payam Motlagh, originally from Uraguay and Iran, repectively, and the Eshraghi's, also from Iran, but living here for many years. The Motlagh's (left) live in Santa Ana and the Esraghis in Heredia.
Here's Mike Robles (who sang up a storm during the event, with backup from David and Dennis), next to Xiomara (his sister-in-law who's also a great singer, and who lived for many years in Spain).
In the background is Gina Brown (she's Kelly's mom) and her mom's friend Richard, who just arrived to live in Costa Rica.
Below is Estella's whole family, including her elusive husband (to our great delight--this is his first Baha'i event!).
On the far end of the table is little Victor, and across from him Sandrita and Juan who came with their mom, Sandra (she's the wife of Juan Luis Rojas, our Baha'i brother who had to be at work).
Here's Sandra (the mom) with Estela's oldest daughter, Alejandra, serving some of the guests.
The lineup for the delicious meal! The Esraghi's daugher, Roya is on the left and Vanessa next to her. Vanessa will soon be marrying Stephan (the fellow who bought and is remodelling Alan Pringle's A-Frame next door) Julie's on the right, and Doña Blanca (Nicaraguan Baha'i who lives in Moravia) being served at the end. Note the youth behind Blanca...that's Ronny Matamoros who used to be that tiny little kid at children's classes! (And a bunch of other youth behind him.)
Roya's boyfriend, André, below, serving dishes, and Gianni on the right also serving!

Here's a better shot of Vanessa serving meals. Our bearded artist buddy, Ruben Dario, is in line for the goodies. (He and Jenny are our neighbors who have the fabulous house up the hill from ours, mentioned in previous posts.)More visitors who came: Jenny and husband Carlos Coto, with their two children. (Their little girl was really shy and didn't let me get her picture.)Here's Melisa, our violinista, her dad, Don Jorge, and her little brother, Sebastian, with Doña Lourdes in front and Jose Angel standing behind. (Jenn's friend is arriving in background.)
Stephan Brunes, Vanessa's fiancé, standing with our U-Peace student & renter, Jennifer; Alan Pringle and Don Apolinar seated on the chairs.Margie Diaz and Alma Alzola de Motlagh (who was distracted by my camera).

Dennis Fletes, jamming on David's drum seat, with Mauricio Arana, first time visiting our place from San Pedro area.Our Baha'i Youth and Pre-youth, including our newest Baha'i, Luis Diego "Hoopa", on left.

Immigration Madness!

Yesterday my residency card was due for renewal. At the present time there is a major chaos going on with the immigration offices--well documented in the English language newspaper, "The Tico Times" last week. You have to wait for hours in a line (if you're lucky, the right one!) just to get an appointment for renewal! So, going with the flow of things, I got in line about 5:30AM (under a light drizzle) and waited for about two hours in the street for the front gates to open. I was 19th in line. Someone left a plastic chair in the street near where I was standing, so I picked it up and got the weight off for awhile. I had nice conversations with my in-line companions (all Nicaraguans). They saved my place in line when I needed a bathroom break--to return to the line moving through the gate! The line for renewing passports was about 200 meters long (past the last tree in the photo below). My line was shorter. The fellow with the open hatch-back of his car was selling coffee, hot chocolate and other goodies:
The passport line started moving about 1/2 hour before ours: The "goal" area is the building in the background (behind the BCR sign).
So, by about 9:30, I got to the window and was issued a sheet of paper with a date to appear for renewing my residence card. The date is 6th of June, 2007! These cards are required practically every day for any business transactions (like banking, etc.), but since I'm well known at our bank I'll probably be able to get by in the meantime.

(It could be worse--at least I HAVE a residency card! Some people can never get one...)

We always have hopes that the System will ultimately get upgraded on computers and become easier. Meanwhile, life in the Tropigs can be adventursome!

Today's Reflection Meeting

This Baha'i Reflection gathering was held for the first time in Moravia, since the Charles Wolcott Institute was pretty filled up last time and they expected many more.

There wasn't a huge turnout but there were many first-time visitors, some newly declared friends, and Baha'is from almost all parts of the Meseta Central.

Today was Vahid's last day in Costa Rica and luckily his flight wasnt' intil the afternoon, so he and David were able to sing a couple of songs at the start of the gathering. They brought great cheers from the audience:
Here's a shot of Roya Eshraghi with her boyfriend, Andres--cool fellow indeed!
Lua DelCampo was a great children's class teacher. She even got little Victor, our shy 9 year old (3rd from the right), to attend and join in the activity she prepared them for as a presentation to the crowd.
Some of the bolder ones even took the mic to tell what they had learned:

Fiesta at Alan's

Last night was the Baha'i Fiest at Alan Pringle's house. The little living room was pretty packed. David brought his guitar and Vahid sang a special song from the Baha'i Writings (with David harmonizing. I know that Mike Robles, our resident musician, was pretty impressed, but David and Gianni and Vahid had to leave after the devotional portion, so there was no jambin' together...

Here's a shot showing Marco Morales with his new haircut, Vahid, David, Gianni, Mike and Jose Angel Fallas
We're delighted when Amanda Matamoros shows up (with headband) then Margie Robles next to Mike, Jose and Gerald. Margie makes great visual charts for our teaching campaign, plus the best Fund presentations!
Alan sitting on his appropriate throne, Julie, Maribel and Jeremy Morales, plus our newest Baha'i Youth, Luis Diego "Hoopa" Cascante (with hand on cheek) and Ferisdani Morales-face partially visible:
Here's Michael Mena talking to Gerald, and his gorgeous little girl, Jade Nicole, playing up a storm with Julie:

Secret to great Humos

In Costa Rica this stuff grows wild! We call it Culantro Coyote (Wild Cilanthro). Here's what it looks like just outside our front door:
The broad leaves, seen in the closeup below, have rough edges, but they're snipped off with scissors and the rest of the leave diced up and ground in with the garbanzas, garlic, tahini, lemon and olive oil. But YUM!

A-Frame modifications

For anyone who wasn't aware, Alan Pringle has sold his home on the hill (next door to our house). It was sold because he was living there alone and wanted to be closer to town and make his life simpler.

The new owner is Stephan Brunner, a Costa Rican of German descent. He's a very nice fellow who is planning to marry as soon as the remodelling work on the house is completed.

The original design of this house (which was the first home I built here, so many years ago) was chosen from a drawing in a magazine. I found that A-Frames are not very practical, really. The upper storey, where the bedroom is, was lacking light. A dormer window was installed in front of the upstairs bathroom, but the bedroom really needed one too. So, that's precisely what Stephan is doing, plus he's extending out the kitchen and entryway as well. The following group of photos show some of the changes in progress. (The first is the original house--front view.)

The new trenchwork for extending the kitchen out.
It will also include a washroom. The wall between the old kitchen and the living room has been removed:
View from the old kitchen toward the new:
These are the new kitchen area walls, a photo taken just a couple of days ago:
The hallway has been extended to lead outside (thru what was originally a closet off Alan's office):
They are extending the entryway--moving the door and windows outwards: