National Emergency



Rio Conejo - the river rushing muddy through my town



11/08/10

 This has been a week of relaxation and patience.  On Tuesday when I got home they told me that one of my host-dad’s cousins had died as he was trying to dig a hole to prevent a loose boulder from falling on a house and was crushed when it fell.  So my host-grandmother Mamita , uncle and his wife came for the funeral on Wednesday and were not able to leave until Sunday because of what followed.  It did not stop raining from Tuesday until Friday.  Within these days various parts of Costa Rica were struck by mudslides and flash flooding since the land has not had a chance to dry up.   Everyone agrees that Costa Rica has not seen anything like this within the last 55 years. 

As of Thursday night we did not have electricity and most of my friends here that have water from the next town didn’t have for days.  We all got electricity back Friday afternoon though and it blinked in and out within the next few days. 

Mauricio, Virgita and I enjoying our cookies in our kitchen

The roadways out of Rio Conejo in all three directions were blocked in by fallen trees and mudslides.  In the town where all of Tico 21 meets up for training twice a week I’ve heard that a tower has fallen and still four days later that route to San Jose has not opened up.  I have a feeling that the road to Cartago is not fully clear but the one through San Juan has been running since Friday although pobrecita Mamita who headed back to Perez Zeledon on Sunday had to get off the bus and walk two blocks through over one of the mudslides in order to board another bus which took her to San Jose.  Then, their bus ride to Perez was delayed about five extra hours because of the care that all of the buses and trucks had to drive over the bad roads.  It was really tough to constantly be seeing the destruction on tv and not be able to do anything about it. 



Raque and I out celebrating her birthday!



Here at the house we’ve mostly been relaxing waiting for the rain to stop.  And since Saturday it has been gorgeous outside.  The sun is constantly out with a beautifully cold breeze blowing.  We’ve all spent a lot of time outside and living like the days after a hurricane in Miami without much mobility out of our town but with electricity and water.  So we’ve watched movies and entertained people.   Friday I even made Raquel chocolate chip cookies for her 18^th birthday and had a chance to share them with everyone who came to visit.  And Saturday we went out to celebrate her birthday with her friends from school which was tons of fun and added some normalcy to the weekend. 



Mamita, Raquel, Virgita and I



We finally have class tomorrow although not in Tarbaca.  It was so nice to have three additional days without class to catch up on our homework all though haven’t had a chance to interview an English teacher which was due tomorrow which I guess has to be postponed.   Hopefully off to the gym later. 

Relaxed and happy. 

Jenny





I will leave you with an image of Mau´s daughter (my niece!!) and I