Erika is having breakfast at the Orchid Cafe in Turrialba.

Wild ducks at the farm

Erika is picking "alien" vegetables that will be stuffed with meat.

Phil picking ajote in the organic garden.

We are cooking with gas, methane gas provided by our cows. The kids from Earth U came for a weekend and this is the result, our biodigester. Now we need to build a roof over it.

We are almost finished bulding our 2nd prefab concrete and steel home at the farm. It takes 90 days minimum to build any prefab house if nothing goes wrong like, rains, floods, availability of supplies, workers show up, you have power. It is the rainy season right now. If it only takes 88 days to build, your lucky. Allow 90+ and be safe at least in your head.


The foundation: That is assuming site work is done. Such as your pad is raised, so your not flooding when the rains come. Remember, as a foreigner, your standards are higher than theirs, much higher, it just is. Our caretaker house was supplemented with a house pad made with concrete blocks and rebar, filled with river rocks and then stuccoed. This added to the time involved and the cost. Our farm crew gathered all of the rock from the river, truckload after truckload. The package price just builds it there, wherever there is. You still must remain smarter then your "contractor", and always be thinking a week or more out. If not, you will get what you get. The caretaker house without the foundation we put in would not have been a good thing. They contractors would have put it there however, no problem.

Make sure the exterior doors are exterior doors. Locks, you pick them out or hire a lock guy. Make sure they open the way you want them to, I swear no one here is thinking about how doors should open. When you have a small space you needed to use that interior space for you, not for your doors to swing in. Have a large overhang over every exterior door, so the door and people under it stay dry. Perlin does not attract termites, we use it. Termites are a problem in the rainforest. We used fibrolite (concrete board with no asbestos) for our ceilings, I like it and it can be interestingly arranged. Later we may add a bamboo ceiling over it. Your ceiling does not need to be a flat one inside your home, it can be cathedral like. Ours is, our caretakers is not. Add insulation to the ceiling. It is an extra cost, but the rain is so loud you can not hear yourself think, and it eliminates (or helps to eliminate) condensation.

There is no problem with prefab homes, the problem in general is a Central American culture problem, no one is thinking beyond this moment, in many instances.

Here are the questions I now ask regarding everything: What does that mean? And what does that mean to me? Learn to ask them out loud, demand the answer to your satisfaction, take the question to the 10th degree, I don't care how long that takes, now get it in writing. Asking these question before the disaster happens is a good thing. Remember, your level of expectation is higher than their level. Way higher. You can not leave them to build it like you want it and expect that it will happen.

An owner I know of built a house (not prefab), he went there on weekends to visit it. The site was prepared, the house was to be started on Monday, he came back the next weekend and it was facing a different direction. The contractor said, I thought it would look better this way. The owner was so angry, and he later sold the house.

Our friend had a pond dug in. It was all planned, and the backhoe guy knew where it was to go, it was staked out, he went back to other work on the farm and when he returned in the afternoon, the pond was in a different place. The backhoe guy said, I liked it over here better. That pond was filled in and redug at the operator’s expense. The house was never turned around.

Poco a Poco the house is coming along. The ceiling is being installed over the insulation, and I hope that sometime next week that phase will be completed. We are down one man, he left abruptly for another shortsighted opportunity. Oh well.

This presented a problem because our primary worker who came with that employee, now had no transportation. Another construction worker has a motorcycle but the shocks were so bad it sat on the tire with two men on it. So we bought him a new set of shock for his motorcycle, the cost of getting a house built, and now they come to work together. Ya do what ya gotta do.

It is a beautiful blue sky morning with a few clouds floating around the volcano. 62 degrees when I woke up and we are off to Turrialba for an adventure.

It is winter, we are about 10 degrees north of the equator, so it should technically be summer, but it is not. The deciduous trees are bare here in the summer and filled with leaves in the winter. It is just the way it is. I love winter here, a bit more rain in the afternoon and evenings but the temperatures are perfect for us.

I bought a new car, a 1974 Toyota Landcruiser BJ40 with a 2.7 liter diesel engine. How cool is this vehicle? It is as strong as a tank. Crosses rivers, has high clearance, is not hard to drive, I love it. Why would anyone prefer a Hummer to this?

My daughter Erika has rented a lovely 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with an additional guest house. Rural Costa Rica is much cheaper than San Jose and Gringo Gulch. It is just hard to find these nuggets because it is all about whom you know and who they know. You never see a sign or advertisement for these sweet locations.

Life is moving forward for her, I suspect that in the future she will only visit with me at the farm or come for an occasional overnight stay. She has her life to live, and now she has her own business packaging, providing, marketing and managing tours for groups and individuals throughout Costa Rica.

I would give her furniture for the new house, but we brought no furniture to Costa Rica. So we will donate 2 beds and a folding table, with time we can make practical furniture for her home. Felipe says I should give her one of our loved bamboo sofas so that she has something to sit on. Okay….

Felipe has been hard at it building my kitchen island and composting toilet in the evenings after a hard days work at the farm. What a guy! He is doing a really nice job.

Wood in Costa Rica is not dried properly so we are doing the drying process ourselves. If you are building here, you should know this and plan now.

I just made perfect whole wheat pita’s. What fun! They cook up in less than 6 minutes and taste fantastic. I will give the recipe’s owner his due credit, Saad Fayed, this is a wonderful recipe. Here is the link for all of you who want to try, do it, you will be amazed. http://mideastfood.about.com/od/breadsrice/r/wholewheatpita.htm?p=1 I love Middle Eastern food and Pita’s have so many uses. We will have these for dinner this evening with pickled onions and kalabasa sausage with greens.

I love to cook, and out here in the middle of nowhere, it is nice to have those things that make you smile. Like, organic whole wheat pita fresh from your oven with something wonderful tucked inside. They remind me of my young hippie days at rock concerts. Now we are just old hippies, living off the grid because we want to get away from noise, the rat race (rats never win), and do something meaningful in our lives.

Today my husband Felipe and his men are mining sand out of the river. There is none to be bought, so they strung up a cable, like a zip line and they fill buckets with sand and zip back across the river right into the back of our big truck. One Home Depot bucket at a time, my walls will soon have enough sand to be plastered. Yes!!!

Here is Helen Thompson's latest article about the Cabecar. http://backpackingcostarica.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/hiking-out-to-the-hidden-cabecar-people/ Most people just don't understand the plight of these people. 2 dentists, 30,000 people, it is a rough skin to have been born into. So much need, so little caring, and no resources.

The Voz Que Clama Mission is expanding, they will be able to house 17 disabled Indigenous residents and provide more services (kind words, direction, intervention and lots of prayer) to those Indigenous who come for help. The bare bones price due to the rising construction materials cost and the need to meet the disabled person's law is $250,000.00 US. More money than any Costa Rican in Tuis will ever see in their lifetime. So we are looking to raise money. Today's meeting was excellent, we will have Bingo, raffles, BBQ's, lots of fun community stuff, and they will try their best, but they have nothing. The people have pledged to give $50.00 per family, per year for 6 years. I am not sure how many family's that will be, it is just a little Mission of very poor people and the Indigenous don't have a colone to their name. But they are going on faith, that the Lord will see how hard they are trying and like the fish and the bread, he will provide because he knows how big the need is.

Please pray for the Voz Que Clama Mission in Tuis. Today they made their thermometer and marked it at $38,000.00. The Mission has saved up that much money since 2002, a miracle in itself. Hector the Director of the Mission, squirrels away every dime and neither Hector nor Daniel have ever taken a paycheck.

Today is the 6th of the month and already there is no milk for the coffee that I brought for the meeting. Nothing is more important than providing services to the people. I drank my coffee black, the voice had told me to bring milk and I did not listen, I said it is the 6th of the month, surly they will have milk. I know I should always listen to the voice, when will I learn that lesson?

Life is such a challenge for so many here. I feel blessed to learn of their needs, to listen to their hearts and to at least be able to share their plight with others while we pray for a miracle.

Here is a link to the latest published article I have written along with photos. You can view the photos and original story by clicking: http://www.welovecostarica.com/public/1689.cfm


Costa Rica's Cabecar Indigenous
by Ginnee Hancock

The Cabecar indigenous group are Costa Rica's most primitive Native Americans. They have been pushed so far up the Chirripo mountains in remote Southern Costa Rica that their continued existence and quality of life is in trouble.

My friend Rebeca arrived for a visit and we road to my farm on my quad, the Rhino. It was another beautiful day in very rural Southern Costa Rica. You feel so alive waking up to the sounds of the rivers, birds and with a view of Volcan Turrialba in the distance to our North. We blasted down the road to the bottom of the mountain, through sugar cane fields in the valley and coffee on the slopes that lead up to Esperanza and our farm.

We then climbed high up on the winding road that follows the meandering, volatile, whitewater Rio Atirro. As we drove towards Esperanza, I spotted a local Tico named Juan walking on the trail and knew him from a far distance by his very fast deliberate walk. I offered him a ride to the pueblo and he jumped in the back.

"You and I could not live their life as they live it, in survival mode." Help us to help them ...

We dropped him off at his house as it was on our way, continuing on slowly, exploring our way into and through Finca Quijote. We came across our first Cabecar Indigenous family of the day, with their children, walking down the mountain from their reservation village on the path that comes through my farm.

We slowed, said Hola, gave a nod, a wave and moved on. We continued on our journey, spotting beautiful birds, our cows and horses, enjoying all that nature has to offer. We crossed the Rio Oro on the quad and came upon our second group of Cabecar, a young mother, a 10 year old girl and a little baby who were traversing our farm. They, like all of the Indigenous, stepped aside, off the road, well out of our way.

We reached the end of my property, turned around and started back. When we reached the Rio Oro, the indigenous woman and her daughter had already crossed over and were putting their rubber boots back on. The baby was in a scarf tied to her mother and they were carrying a small pink satchel. Rebeca took a photo that captured the moment, and then we crossed over picking our way around the rocks, avoiding the deepest holes so that we did not drown our Rhino's engine.

Rebeca asked them in Spanish if they wanted a ride and they said yes. Rebeca got into the back of the Rhino with the young girl while the Mother and baby sat in the front with me. The baby had a bad cold; her little nose was crusty with dried mucus, her mother worked delicately to clear her nose. For a one year old child, she was very undernourished, tiny; she could not yet walk, and did not have the bodily control that she should have had for her age. The baby looked to be 4-6 months of age, not one year old. Rebeca continued to engage them in conversation. They spoke some Spanish, not good Spanish, but she was able to communicate.

The Cabecar speak their own native language as do most Costa Rican indigenous groups. They were from Pacuare and had been walking for 7 hours. They would have crossed many rivers during this trip, some very deep. The baby never took its eyes off of me. Her mom cuddled her to keep her warm as the breeze was cool on our mountain. I drove slowly so as not to alarm them and also because I was unclear about where they were going. Esperanza the Mother had said, but I could not imagine that would be her destination, and it was not.

Farther down the mountain she said, abajo, indicating where she wanted to go with hand signals, and we continued down the mountain as it was the path towards our home anyway. I had been planning to spend more time at the farm, but as this opportunity to engage our passengers was more than I could have hoped for, we seized the moment. Had there been a man with the woman and children, she would never have talked to us, not one word.

Rebeca, a Cuban - American who is a tropical biologist and a neuropsychological researcher, had previously lived in Costa Rica for about 10 years. She worked here for the Christian Children's Fund and has a wide range of knowledge regarding the rural poor and indigenous, their problems and needs. She was observing the 10 year old girl in the back with her, as I carefully drove so as not to launch us off the narrow mountain trail.

They were not wearing seat belts, I did not suggest it because I didn't want the Mother to feel trapped and the position of the baby would have been in the way. Most Indigenous have never ridden in a car, and the Rhino is an open air quad that is much like a dune buggy, but looks like a big green alien bug.

The young girl was neatly dressed although her legs and clothing were now very dirty from the 7 hour walk through the jungle and forest following the goat like animal trails that you or I may not even recognize as a trial or path. We could see head lice and nits in her well groomed, neat, shiny straight black hair. She wore several handmade necklaces with beads and small seashells. We asked permission to take another photo and the girl said no.

Another beautiful Indigenous child, she was probably the oldest child of this 24 year old very slender mother. If we do the math, the mother would have given birth at age 14, and been pregnant at age 13, so I am assuming this was her oldest child. We would also be safe to assume that there were other children, I know of Indigenous mothers with 6 or 7 children by the time they are 24 or 25 years of age. The oldest child was probably brought along to help care for the baby and to carry what they would take back to the reservation. I will guess that may include rice, beans, and I hoped medicine for the baby.

As I glanced at the baby, whose eyes were riveted to me (they may have never seen a blond haired white woman before), I noticed her mother's now dirty skirt. She had hemmed part of it by hand using a running stitch; the thread was a different color, not consistent with the other hem thread in any way. It reminded me that we should put together sewing kits for Christmas gifts to give to Indigenous women.

If we were able to get spools of colored thread, needles, small scissors, small embroidery hoops, some brightly colored embroidery thread donated, and secured them in a zip-lock bag to keep them dry, it would make a beautiful, useful gift. This gift would be a cherished, prized possession of these beautiful, proud, and extremely poor women. They would never ask you for a handout, money or a crumb for their hungry children, lifetimes of discrimination and repression have taught them what their place is expected to be.

I am sometimes asked if the Indigenous are lazy. People often equate poor with lazy. No, they are not lazy. You and I could not live their life as they live it, in survival mode. We are not prepared to suffer survival as they do every day of their life from birth to death. They are very malnourished, have parasites and intestinal worms. Their diet often consists of nothing other than tubers, a root of some sort such as yucca. Starch, just starch, and for that morning, if they ate at all it may have been a piece of leftover tuber from the day before, shared between them. It is all they have.

They have been walking for 7 hours, under the most difficult conditions, rugged terrain, and they started out hungry. I looked at my watch as we drove along, it was going on 1PM which meant they left their village about the time the sun was coming up. They had no water bottle as it would have been more weight to carry. When thirsty they drank from the steams along the way, a source of parasites and bacteria.

As we continued our descent from the farm, Rebeca spotted a beautiful falcon on a branch hanging over the road. I stopped and as we watched him, his hooded head turned and he watched us. The Indigenous woman threw her head back and laughed aloud at our pleasure of seeing this magnificent bird. We looked at him in wonderment; she has seen them all of her life, we were her wonderment today.

The end of our journey with them was at the bottom of the mountain where they would go in a different direction heading towards Oriente, but for destinations unknown to us. We probably saved them more than an hour of walking on the both dusty and muddy unpaved mountain trail.
At that moment I wished I had food to ease their hunger, or a small amount of money to give them so that they could buy food when they came to a town, but we had none. Mil colones, a bit more than $2.00 would satisfy the three of them at a local soda (restaurant). It would have only purchased one nutritious meal, but that would have been more than they had eaten in days.

The Cabecar Indigenous of rural Costa Rica have a hard life to just survive in the cold Chirripo Mountains on their reservation. They have been pushed high up into the mountains that originally had no value to the Spanish or white man. Access is limited, the terrain vertical, with no realized riches to exploit, the Indigenous somehow marginally survive there.

It is only in recent years that they were issued a Cedula (like a social security card). Prior to this, the real natives of Costa Rica were considered foreigners, although they have lived on this land for generations more than any Hispanic. They had no rights; no vote, no education, no medical benefits.

These precious people need your help to get them to a point of sustainability on their reservation land, which is owned by the Costa Rican government, not the indigenous groups.
Our best opportunity to provide training and a helping hand is by working with the Voz Que Clama Mission. Climbing to the reservation since August 2002, risking their lives, carrying building supplies and food on their backs, Hector Soto and Montoya Salas, directors of the Mission have earned the trust of the Chiefs and people of the village. They have also learned some of the very difficult Cabecar language. Your tax deductible monetary gift to the Mission will go 100% towards helping the Cabecar.

The Mission works with the tribal Chiefs and the people in the villages directly, assessing the need today and planning for a better tomorrow. We can not meet their needs today; we do what we can, looking for sustainable solutions that will help them to meet their nutritional and life skills needs. Today these beautiful brown, high cheek boned children need food, protein, powder milk, rubber boots, warm clothing, blankets, school supplies, usable education and hope for their future. They need you; you're the best foreign aid that will ever come into their lives.
The Voz Que Clama Mission, a 501c3 US tax deductible charity, does not make a profit. Daniel and Hector, both Costa Ricans and Directors of the Mission, have never taken a salary. They are volunteers, committed to helping the Cabecar.

They also operate a wonderful Spanish language school CISA Costa Rica. If you have a chance, come and learn some Spanish in very rural Tuis de Turrialba. Classes are small, no more than 1-3 students per teacher, which allows for intensive training. Students have the opportunity to interact with both the Indigenous and the local people of Tuis. Homestays in the pueblo of Tuis help to provide income for the local people as well as a multicultural experience for the students. You may even have a chance to hike to the reservation if you are tough enough.
This has been a very bad year for the Cabecar, they are hungry and cold. If you are visiting Costa Rica, please help us to help them, bring a suitcase of donations for the Cabecar and the rural poor Costa Rican children. We thank you for your help and support. For more information or to donate please contact: ginnee@racsa.co.cr


The Following Items Are On The Mission's Everyday Wish List:

Used lap top computers in good working order, chalk, pencils, colored pencils, scissors, pens, crayons, art paper, art supplies, craft paper, book bags, finger paints, powder craft paint, face paint. Sweat shirts from the thrift store on 1/2 price day, sizes small and medium and children sizes These are small frame people and it is cold in the mountains.

Good practical clothing, jeans, t-shirts, (small and medium sizes and children's sizes), rain gear, umbrellas, rain coats, rain jackets, Baby clothes, Cloth diapers for babies, gathered skirts for girls and woman (they like skirts), sneakers, children's sneakers, all sizes for children, good quality thick new socks, drum sticks ($2.00 a pair on the internet) drumming teaches counting and develops the brain, anything educational, flash cards, simple Spanish / English dictionaries, blow up beach ball globes of the world (many have never seen the world round, only flat), adult cloth diapers and plastic mattress covers.

Much Needed Cash Donations Can Be Sent To:
Voz Que Clama Mission

990 Sunset Drive

Healdsburg, California 95448

USA

Written by Ginnee Hancock who lives with her husband Phil on their sustainable rainforest farm in Esperanza de Turrialba. They are thankful for how the Mission located in the neighboring town of Tuis, continues to transform the lives of the people of Tuis and the Cabecar through education, understanding, love, opportunity and always with dignity.

It came to me this morning as I was looking at my yellow bedroom walls, that you should not smash bugs with the bottom of your shoe on the walls. The bugs are dead and gone but the shoe prints remain. I was trying to be organic. It is hard to believe when looking down, that my feet are as big as that print on the wall.

On December 21st, the Voz Que Clama Mission http://www.vqcmission.com held their Cabecar Indigenous Christmas Party in the Chirripo mountain town of Quetzal, Costa Rica. I had never made the difficult drive to the Chirripo Mountains before. The almost 3 hour drive from Tuis on the rugged volcanic tortured terrain was steep and remote, it appeared barely populated except for large patches of deforestation.

We were blessed to have 12 house guests who were able to attend with us. The boys helped Phil pack our big flatbed truck with donations of clothing and Christmas gifts for the children and they left our house at 6am to go to the Mission in Tuis de Turrialba and continue to load our truck with all of the donated items. It was a beautiful sunny, hot day for the event.

Two students from EARTH University joined us and they brought a van load of donations from the students. How wonderful that so many participated.

My guests helped peel onions and chop veggies while I prepared the rice and beans for our contribution to the feast, the largest pot of vegetarian Spanish Rice I had ever made. It was a joint effort starting at 5:30am to make a warm and nutritious meal hoping it would still be warm by the time it was served. In the end not a spec of food was left over, and the very hungry Indigenous did not notice that their food was no longer hot and the soda was warm. When it was time to eat the Chief blew his whistle and the children lined up first in one very long, quiet, straight line with no pushing. Amazing!

The vehicles leaving the Mission were burdened with gifts, people and food. A local cattle truck was packed with volunteers from the Mission’s town of Tuis. Others drove their vehicles packed with people and food, a Hyundai Gallopher pulled a trailer loaded with sacks of surprises as we traveled in caravan style to Quetzal. The volume of people, vehicles, their overloaded capacity, and the high energy was a sight to behold. Piled atop our big truck I noticed the wheelchairs that belonged to the handicapped residents of the Mission, no one was left behind. It was a glorious event for all to enjoy. The journey was difficult, steep, vertical, and the suspension bridges were swaying over their very long span. One vehicle at a time, each vehicle allowed the previous to reach the other side before the next vehicle progressed very slowly onto the rickety well worn boards. We crossed water with no bridge and picked our way around and over water covered boulders and very deep spots.

The little children from the reservation were so beautiful. They came dressed in their finest clothing, so dirty from the long journey that my friend Rande commented as we looked at an adorable little girl, that she wanted to take her home and…..….wash her. It was easy to tell which Indigenous came from the surrounding area and who came from high up on the reservation by how clean they were. Their muddy rubber boots told the story.

Santa also attended to the delight of the children and he brought special gifts with him, toys, dolls, trucks, and gifts of warmth. There were two large Santa piñatas filled with candy and the children took turns hitting them until they released their sweet treats.

We learned that our taste in clothing and theirs is very different in some instances. We had lots of good laughter as we watch an Indigenous man so proud in his woman’s tunic top. It was flashy and he loved it. There was something for everyone.

We had far more people than we planned on. I think that no one could have done a better job of handling, so many than Daniel, Hector and staff as they worked with the Chief of the Tribe. They saw to it that everyone got something and had a good time. Building relationships within the Indigenous tribes is most important. It takes so many years, you don’t want anyone to feel hurt or left out. I think that having the items of used clothing made a big difference. They need clothing and items of warmth, but they were not greedy. In fact it was as if they were afraid to pick out or touch the clothing, and yet we know they have little or none. We had to encourage them to take items. Not that they understood a word that we were saying. Remember, most do not speak Spanish, they speak Cabecar.

I have started to plan for next year’s event already. You can participate from wherever you are. We always need gifts of clothing, and all of the other items that are on the Wish List. When you come to visit, please bring us a suitcase filled with donations. Your friends and co-workers will gladly clean out their closets and give you the donations. Your local school will help with school supplies. Children love to help other needy children and you would have a hard time to find children more needy, with no resources, no other possibilities other than you. If you would like to send a tax-deductible check, you can mail it to our US address and we will provide for their needs as necessary.

Voz Que Clama Mission
990 Sunset Drive
Healdsburg,
California 95448

It is very different in the US. Somebody always cares, there are agencies, churches, food pantries, food stamps, assistance, clothing banks…, here, there is nothing and for the most part, no one cares. Do you think I am wrong? Read this report, http://saiic.nativeweb.org/ayn/crilo.html we should be informed as to the reality of our Indigenous. The Cabecar are one of the many tribes of the Americas. They routinely traversed from South America to Canada and back many years ago before there were borders.

All people deserve an opportunity to live in dignity, it has not served this world well, to ignore any particular group of people. We are all humans struggling to survive. Some are struggling far more than others just to see another sunrise. There, but for the grace of God, go I. We thank you for your kindness and generosity and look forward to hearing from you.

Cabecar Indigenous children playing a game at the party for them.

Helen Thompson an English reporter from AM Costa Rica joined us for several days and wrote about our Indigenous Christmas Party for the Children. You can see her story and photos here http://www.amcostarica.com/morenews2.htm

Sally O'Boyle and her sons, Americans now living in Escazu, Costa Rica also joined us and wrote a wonderful touching story with many photos. www.abroadincostarica.com

I was asked who the mission served, the following is an overview as I see their service:

Mostly they serve the Cabecar Indigenous, but they serve so many more.

The Mission's service to the Cabecar Indigenous gives employment to locals, the caretakers of the patients, teachers for the language school that helps support the Mission's projects.

The women who cook the meals, care for the patients, clean and wash now have employment.

A vehicle driver now has employment driving the handicapped residents to school, shopping and medical appointments..

The Mission brings the Spanish Language students that need paid homestays and meals. http://www.cisacostarica.com/

The visiting students bring donations for the Indigenous, and spend money in Tuis providing the trickle down theory of employment.

The students return to their native countries sharing their experiences and all that they learned by participating in our very rural Costa Rican lives.



Perhaps the town of Tuis has been blessed the most through their changed perceptions of the Indigenous. At first reserved, and unsure if a Mission was what they wanted in their town, they have come to be supportive and protective of the Mission and their work http://www.vqcmission.com/ Many locals volunteer to help the patients, carry supplies to the reservation, and they come to Sunday afternoon service.

The original concept was to be a church. Because Costa Rica is primarily Catholic, people would not come to the non-denominational church because they said "we have a church and you can only have one church." Daniel and Hector made the mental adjustment to become a Mission; the people said, "a Mission is good, a mission helps people, we don't have a Mission, we can come." And so a Mission it was. In the early days people came to the simple small house owned by the Mission and at 4pm on Sundays, service was held. Why 4pm? Our rural neighbors are agricultural based, they have cows to feed and milk, farm chores that must take place every morning, farming is a 7 day a week job. The house that is now the Language School and administration center of the Mission, was the first place of worship. Soon they could no longer fit in the little house and the need for a larger facility was needed. At this time service is held outdoors, under cover, surrounded by cows and horses who seem to enjoy the inspirational music that flows from Hectors keyboard and vocals, and the driving beat of Daniels drums. Both of the Mission's directors are also extremely talented professional musicians.

Working with little money they put on the most professional service. I reflect to my diverse religious background of having been raised Catholic and in later years attending various churches who served my needs. We had the songs sung projected onto a screen that dropped down from the costly ceiling. The Mission has a sheet hung from a chainlink fence, a young man of perhaps 10 years of age is in charge of the projector on a folding table and pushing the buttons on a laptop that operates the PowerPoint presentation taking us to the next page or the next tune. He is silent, wise beyond his years, serious and professional with his demeanor and operational skills. His small body stands 10 foot tall with the responsibility that is in his hands. The on looking cows are equally impressed as they move closer and closer, I think they are grooving on the tunes. The Indigenous as well as Costa Rican neighbors pour in. Some walk the long and winding road from La Suiza that follows the Rio Tuis to attend what becomes the highlight of their week. It is dark when they make the return trip on the dangerous dark winding road. As we drive home on the obstacle course of people and free ranging cows who have escaped and an occasional horse with and or without a rider, it always comes to me that it is a wonder there are not more roads deaths. No one has a flashlight or reflector, ever. It never seems to occur to them to move out of the way.

The women of Tuis will make their locally unique food for the Indigenous Christmas party. It will be made with love from their hearts because they have come to appreciate the Indigenous, their plight, and the richness that the Mission, Daniel, Hector and all of the volunteers have brought to their lives. They will never be the same again.


Ginnee y Felipe HancockFinca Quijote de Esperanza, SACosta Ricahttp://www.costaricamountain.blogspot.com/

I was sitting in my favorite chair at 2:05pm today when an earthquake rolled through the house. A smaller quake rolled through last week, or perhaps I was in the right place today to feel the maximum swell. Phil was in the kitchen preparing our coffee and heard the roof creak, but did not feel the roll. It is like a wave softly rolling through the house. It came up the hill through the front yard, from North to South, and into the living room. I shouted out to Phil that we just had an earthquake. The parrots did not quit screeching, not even for a moment. What’s a little more sway if you’re a bird?

The blog has had no new additions as of late, not because nothing is happening but because I did not want to give a Dear Diary, blow by blow description of the ongoing events in our lives. I have written possible entries but I did not like what they said or where my head was. Sometimes I need a mental adjustment and the frisbees of life were flying faster than I was able to comfortably process them.

My husband Felipe is still recovering from his accident about 3 months ago. He may be unplugged from his wound vac today at the hospital, lets hope.. The vacuum is no longer sucking up vast amounts of fluid, only a very small dribble at this point.

What treatment has worked? I am sure the tree bark tea (try saying that fast 3 times) prescribed by the BriBri medicine man has helped, because within a few days the lymphatic fluid slowed down and is now almost finished. Felipe started hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy last week and continues that treatment through this week. It is making him smarter while repairing cells. They say it increases your IQ by 50%. His skin on that leg is still abnormally hard to the touch. I would say he still has edema from the knee down. He wears a compressions sock and that will continue. I do not know why the skin remains hard, nor how to cure this problem. Will time make a difference? I need to get more tree bark and continue with the tea as it was the factor that changed our course. Felipe is scheduled to see the medicine man again on the 3rd I believe. What will be prescribed next?

I did try dry brush lymphatic massage on my husband (the instructions of which I downloaded off the internet) perhaps that helped, he said it felt good and was enjoyable. I wrote to some friends that between the dry brush lymphatic massage, the tree bark tea, medicine man, hyperbaric oxygen chamber and wound vac machine, the only thing missing was a cloud of medicinal marijuana smoke and chanting monks. We are still open to suggestions and cures for the final act of this play.

We took the bus to San Jose yesterday for another visit with Phil’s surgeon. He is slowly mending and it does look better, but it is going to be sometime before we see normal.

The directo bus is the best way to go to and from San Jose and it is less than $2.00 a ticket. With gas prices at $1.00 a liter, this is a bargain. This particular bus (they run every hour on the hour) had pleasant, soothing, easy listening jazz music. Sufficient for keeping the driver awake and yet calm the passengers. I choose not to drive this route as it is a white knuckle trip most of the time and I see nothing except the road because I am trying not fall off of it. Being elevated on the bus gives you a different view over the barriers of obstruction that car passengers see because they are so much lower. If the bus fell off the road there are places where we would fall for what looks like thousands of feet before we became an unidentifiable heap as a result of our abrupt halt. The cows would not even slow us down. How do they adhere to the sides of such verticalness? Sometimes they don’t.