Dia de Cultura

Today was culture day at at school which means we did not have school! We did however get to experience a familiar site for many Costa Ricans - an example of a local carnival / fair. We came to school about the same time we would any other day, but instead of going to class, we went to several exhibits that contained many of the games that would normally be found at a local carnival. These include: trying to catch fake fish, bingo, ring toss, dart throws, jacks, bean bag tosses and many other games. We also got to learn about the art / history of making large masks / costums - AND - we got to experience a real live parade that contained a band and many of the life sized 'puppets' that might be in parades like this (see the video and pictures). Overall a pretty cool experience - I hope that we get to experience this in actuality too over the next couple years.

Thanks to Amie and Cohen, fellow ILE students mentioned in a previous blog entry, I have pictures and a small movie of the event (see below). I can't say thank you enough to them for being deligent about using their camera to capture meaningful events. In general, I don't use the camera unless something is shocking and/or amazing to me - however - there is certainly value in capturing daily events in our lives and they have proved that to me again and again in these few short weeks.

One of the more funny things that happened is that when the puppets were dancing and getting ready to leave - one came into the group of the students and starting dancing / coming close to everyone. I had Sammy on my back in a backpack carrier, and when the puppet came within a couple inches of his face, I could feel him stiffen up like a bored. He had a scowl on his face the rest of the time we were at school. I guess the puppets are good from a far but far from good.

Also amusing to me....I did not notice it when it was playing, but now all can think when I hear the band playing in this video is the Blue Oyster Cult Saturday Night Live skit titled 'MORE COWBELL!' If you've seen it, you know what I am talking about. Else, never mind this short paragraph.