¡Vamos! (Jueves)

Today our morning class and a few of the other classes all piled in a van to have a field trip. We all thought that we were going to go to the herb market since we had to give presentations on medicinal plants Friday. Our teacher wanted us to try to bring a small sample of the plant into class. Our first stop was at this old church. We didn’t know until we got inside that it was the famous church of the virgin of los angeles. The whole church was built around this rock that is part of a famous legend. The legend basically is about this little girl going out into the woods to get firewood and on the rock she sees this doll. She decided to take it home with her because it was so beautiful and put in a special box. The next day she went to do the same thing and saw a doll on the rock that looked just like the one she found before. She was so excited that she found another one so that the other one could have a friend. When she went to put the doll in the box with the other she saw that it was empty. The doll kept reappearing on the rock and today the people of costa rica pray to the virgin of los angeles to cure sickness and pain and for miracles. The church is beautiful and inside the bottom of the church the original rock appears and cases with gifts that people have donated and given because the virgin had answered their prayers. They feel like they need to respect that and give something back in return. There is a fountain of holy water where we saw many people waited to fill up many water bottles. I did it too.
Every year on August 2nd, in the city of Cortago where the church is, thousands of people gather and make a huge pilgrimage to this church. It is considered a huge holiday here, but last week the minister of health canceled the pilgrimage and festivities because of the swine flu pandemic. So because of this many people started their piligrimages early. We went to the “fresh market” so to speak next, and I wasn’t a fan but it was interesting to see. Many of the boys got these huge tortillas with what it looked like cheese filled inside of them but none of them could eat it all and others didn’t like. Kacey and I took their leftovers and decided to give it to all the stray dogs that we saw. We ended up buying Costa Rican soccer jerseys to wear for the game right before we had to head back to San Jose and right before we got to the van we saw two black dogs that looked so hungry. We tried to throw a piece to them but they didn’t take to it. I man was sitting not too far from them and clearly he was homeless and he only had those dogs and what he was wearing. I had the girls hold my stuff and I took the bag of left over tortillas and told him it was for him and his dogs. He was very gracious and I could tell he was avery hungry too. I felt like I had accomplished something good by doing that even though I shouldn’t have gone up to him.
In the afternoon a small group of us went to el museo nacional. It’s the national museum of costa rica. The building itself was once used as the fort for the Costa Rican Military before they abolished it in the late 40’s. with all of the history classes that I have had in the past year it all came together and it was interesting to see pictures and be in a place with the history of costa rica that I had read and learned about back home. It wasn’t a very big museum but full of information. We decided that we would take the bus back to Veritas because we actually walked to the center of downtown and didn’t know it until after we left the museum. On the way to the bus stop a girl, Lynette who is one of the assistants for ISA, and I talked for a long time. She knows very little English and is going to be a professor. She has a little girl who is 5 and lives on her own. Shes very young herself, only 25 years old but one of the nicest people I have met here. I love talking to her because she is patient when we talk to her in Spanish. I learned a lot about her in the little time we spent together. When we were on the bus just about back to Veritas I looked out the window and there was a group of men standing and surrounding a man who was sitting down on the sidewalk. There is no telling what he did or didn’t do, but one of the men completely kicked him in the face. The poor man was getting beat up and nobody cared to do anything about it. That was something I was not expecting to see, nor did I care to see. It was a little shock to see that driving down the street, not what I am used to for sure.
We had to hurry up and get ready because the big game for the gold cup was on at 8. Usa played Honduras before and won. All of us in our house and the girls down the street their mama tica her son and daughter, and emma’s grandsons went to this sports bar restaurant place to watch the costa rica vs mexico game! It was by far one of the most fun nights we had out. It did seem a little weird though being with a mom and young kids who were 16 and 17. I just felt like it was wrong for me to be associated with them out in public. We all had so much fun though. The whole place was crowded and cheering like we cheer when we watch a football game with a group of people on tv in the fall. Out of the whole place we shared a big table with a group of México fans. So if the ticos didn’t hate us enough for clearly being American lets add Mexican fans to the list. After the game we went to Castros for the typical Thursday night outing; Great way to end the night. Hasta pronto…