El Día de Los Ángeles and MORE!

So August 2nd marks the day of the patron saint of Costa Rica, La Virgen de Los Ángeles, and thousands of people celebrate with a pilgrimage to the city of Cartago to visit the basilica.

For my sister Angélica and I, Cartago is quite a distance, so we opted instead to hike up the mountain to Los Ángeles de Nandayure. (In case anyone is noticing a pattern here, that´s becoming a frequent party destination!) I was still worried about the bike accident injuries, but I was able to aguantar better than my host sister and helped her trek up the mountain in a little over 3 hours. We met up with my compañera Anna and enjoyed the festivities, religious and otherwise! Anna´s town sure knows how to party... or maybe it´s just me and Anna. And we both like to dance! Regardless, fun times all around.

Back in Jabillo, I had a Sesión Informática for my adult English class. About 30 people showed up from several different communities to see what the deal was and how I was going to structure everything. They have until the end of the month to officially enter the course, so we shall see... If more than 20 register, I´ll have to separate them into two classes, so that will delay the process a bit, but assuming all goes well, I will have the books and be ready to go in mid-September.

On August 5th (Saturday afternoon), a volunteer from Tico 15 (the next volunteer group following mine) came out to visit me. For those who keep tabs, this is equivalent to the first time I visited Anna in Los Ángeles (who knew I´d end up her neighbor and travel there for fiestas!) To make things confusing, my visitor´s name is Ann and she is a part of the CYF program (Children, Youth, & Families). I work more with an organization called DINADECO (explained somewhere in some blog or another), while she works on behalf of PANI, which is an organization for children.

She´s pictured with my family on the mountain behind our house. I thought we´d do something fun before heading to work with the Asociation of Development on Monday, so Sunday we started out for the beach. Luckily this time we didn´t have to walk! We enjoyed the playa tranquila, taking advantage of the sun, sand, and surf. When we returned, some of my townsfolk commented on the fact that I was bien bronceada and paying me the compliment that I´m developing Tica skin. But poor Ann had a bit too much fun in the sun. She told me she loved our beach excursion, but I was just relieved that I didn´t kill her! She´ll be feeling the burn for a few days I´m sure, but my town can´t wait to have another gringo to visit! Hint, hint... ;) Anyway, I still managed give examples of some real work situations and participated in the Association meeting, where we set the date for the Asamblea General, which takes place once a year (and hence, needs to planning and preparation). It´s the chance for all the afiliados of all the communities of the Asociation to discuss the past year and create a Plan de Trabajo, or work plan, for the coming year. So I was able to expose her to more than those harmful, but beautiful rays!