1. Go to the beach. It’s a week where virtually the whole family has off so many pack their book bags hop a bus and hit the beach.
2. If you are a legit hard core Catholic you will be going to mass every day and participating in processions (like parades but somber) while you carry an image of Jesus or Mary or your favorite saint around town.
3. And option number three if you don’t want to leave town but youre not Catholic you will stay home and watch the hundreds of poorly made biblical movies that the good old US of A has made with blond haired blue eyed Jesuses that are dubbed over into Spanish.
Leading up to this Semana Santa the family was talking about going to the beach but in true tico form they had made zero plans which I assumed would result in us spending semana santa in form number 3. (this form was the way I spent smenana santa here during my study abroad…and I was dreading it) Option number 2 is obviously not for us seeing as how we are hard core evangelicals and not hard core Catholics. So this is how semana santa went down for the Bejarano Chacon Gremar family…
Palm Sunday: went to church as normal. Church was anything but normal. Started off the pastor telling us about his one week missions trip to Peru. Then he told us how God had placed on his heart that we should have communion (we do it once every couple of months) and so he was going to buy unleavened bread like during the feast of the Passover but then he decided that we would do communion different. How? We would spend 30 minutes hugging each other. Well as soon as my host dad Randall heard that he was like a kid in a candy store (he LOVES giving hugs…ie. he picked up my real dad to hug him when my family got here at Christmas time) I on the other hand thought well crap should I hide in the bathroom or just go outside and relax. (Hugging strangers is not one of my favorite pastimes) So I got my familial hugs, those were nice, and then China and Randall took off to give there hugs to everyone else. And I stood there very very awkwardly. Went to the bathroom, came back…hugging still going on. Pulled out my journal and started to write so I at least wouldn’t make any accidental eye contact. Had 3 or 4 women take pity on me and come give me hugs and then mercifully we wrapped “communion” up for the day. The oddities continued, however, as we decided that instead of normal worship we would sing medlies of worship songs from the 70s 80s 90s and 2000s. Well I can’t lie that was actually highly entertaining to hear the shift in Spanish worship songs from before I was born to when I became a Spanish language lover. And to wrap up the oddities we were given cake…really really delicious cake from Spoon. Why? Don’t know. Nobody said. But when it comes to free cake I rarely ask questions. And that my friends was Palm Sunday. Jesus’s triumphal procession was not mentioned, actually Jesus was hardly mentioned. Later that day I translated the word Easter for Mama china and she said that was today right…nope. Today was palm Sunday, Easter is next week. (Much of this painfully obvious neglect of a crucial story in the Christian faith is because the Evangelicals are sooooo concerned with not being associated with the Catholics in any way shape or form that they often over do it on avoiding things that might be considered Catholic.)
Monday was normal. I slept all day b/c I had the Pajama party the night before and was exhausted)
Tuesday I went to lunch with the other gringos and learned that I would not indeed be subjected to the Biblical movies but that we were going to go to the Beach. I was excited but also super nervous because I kept hearing names of extended family members mentioned and I got the picture that the entire week would be spent hanging out with Ticos I don’t know.
Wednesday we hopped a bus at 7:30am to Orotina where Mama China has family (months ago we had gone to visit this family for a weekend…and it was painfully boring so this added to my dread) We hung out and watched movies on TV (they have cable) then mercifully at 3pm we caught a bus to Mata Limon a little Beach town where we were going to be staying and where Mama China has more family. We got there and saw a good sized house, actually bigger than ours here in Lomas, but it was really dirty and super hot. The pool we had been told about was about 5 ft by 10 ft and about 3 ft deep had no water in it. I was immediately skeptical. There were 3 bedrooms in the house same as there are here in Lomas but instead of divvying up the bedrooms like a normal American family would the rents decided the best option would be to put all the mattresses together on the floor in the main room. Day 1 was shaping up to be odd but not awful.
Thursday we filled up the little pool and played in it for a few hours. I read a book. Wrote some post cards. And in general relaxed. And then at 3pm we headed to the beach we figured it would be better to go when the sun was setting and not at its hottest. The waves were strong and I ended up looking after Emily most of the time but it was a lot of fun. Only chatted with extended family once.
Friday was almost identical to Thursday except that I didn’t get in the little pool this day but continued reading my book. 3pm went to the beach. Then for dinner we grilled meat. Lots and lots of meat.
Saturday was identical to Friday except for the fact that my stomach was a bit upset because I had eaten about a million mangos the first 3 days (the grew all over the trees in Mata Limon so we harvested a ton one day) still read my book although I had finished the first and was on to the second. Finished writing my post cards. And then at 4pm we went to the beach.
Easter Sunday (except I don’t think anyone in my family knew it was Easter Sunday) we took a bus from Mata Limon to Puntarenas. From there we took a bus from Puntarenas to San Jose. And From San Jose we took a bus to Lomas. Walked in the door at 2pm…at 2:05 pm I was asleep on my bed. It is now 5:20 and I’m writing this blog. Strange easter? Yes. There was no bunny, no colored eggs, no chocolate or jelly beans and no mention of Jesus. But in the grand scheme of things its probably no more odd than spending Christmas with my real family on a beach in CR. Or celebrating thanksgiving the 5th of December and singing Christmas songs in Spanish. This year has been filled with oddities but it has been an excellent time as well. And I know that in 19 days!!! When I am home I will miss it. So for now I will continue to embrace the strange things that come my way while I simultaneously count down the days till I get home to “normal” life.
Pura Vida
KT
No comments:
Post a Comment