All Things Bright and Beautiful

“All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful;
The Lord God made them all.

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.”

--Cecil Alexander, 1848

So concludes the first week of my official ministry in Limon, Costa Rica. There have been so many experiences this week- it seems like I somehow managed to get a lifetime of excitement in one week! Between my first official beach visit and the beginning of classes, I found myself exhausted from the constant adrenaline rushes and almost overwhelmed by the scope of God’s work here.

First of all, classes are a success… at least insofar as I can plan and execute them. I’m still stressed out about how I will manage to touch every subject that they are requesting from me, but for now it is simple enough and I am happy with that. Approximately 25 people showed up to the first class, for which I had prepared a brief history of music including a wide variety of sound samples ranging from Ugandan Mbira music to the works of Arcadelt and Bach. We discussed what music was, and what forms of it we preferred…it led to a remarkable conversation about influence and musical evolution that I hadn’t foreseen and really enjoyed.

From there we began the painstaking process of learning the note names for each clef and discussing scales. I have to be careful when I do this, as the adults prefer to learn in English and the children are restricted to learning in Spanish. In the past week I have learned that the treble clef is called la clave de sol, the bass clef is la clave de fa, and the alto clef is la clave de do. I have also learned that while Americans use the musical alphabet to describe notes, the Costa Rican system uses solfege and the far trickier terms bemol and sostinido for flats and sharps. I have decided- for my sanity, mostly- to teach both the English and Costa Rican system side by side. I also make them sightread using numbers instead of solfege. I am hoping that this will reinforce intervals when the time comes to explain those, and not force me to figure out how to sing sharps and flats in fixed-Do-Espanol.

Saturday’s class did not have the turn out I expected, being the last weekend of summer vacation here. No one from San Jose came out for the school which was both a relief and huge concern. It was a relief because you can teach a lot more when the ratio of teacher to student is 1:3, but a concern because I have no idea how many folks to expect from the capital. Also of concern is the fact that the people in San Jose, unlike those in Limon, do not speak English. They are learning, but it was only recently that the San Jose schools started requiring English- just as it has only been in the last few years that the Limonese have been required to learn Spanish.

My major concern- and I hope to have this addressed soon- is the fact that they want me to teach a variety of classes for the kids and adults. We prepared for this trip assuming that the children were only signed up for the lessons and not for the classes, but it has proven to be a bad assumption. They want the kids to learn the same things the adults are, but in kid terms. It would not be a problem to do this if I were only expected to teach the children during the week. Instead I’d be required to cover the same material during the Saturday classes… which aren’t long enough to accommodate 4 hours of kids classes on top of 4 hours of adult classes. Not to mention that one group or the other would be left to its own devices for the 4 hours that the other group is in class… a very difficult schedule to balance. Please be praying that we develop a compromise- I know my limits and these expectations are far beyond them.

On top of concerns at the school, upon my first visit to Faith Moravian Church- Limon’s only Moravian Church- I was appointed the new choir director and maybe even the new organist. I hope it is one job and not both because I would hate for them to see just how awful I really am at playing the organ, however if I need to play it I can manage. The church is not formal, so I think everything I can contribute will be appreciated, but that makes for two more nights a week that I am downtown when I’d rather be at home writing my lesson plans and watching WWE Smackdown.

That’s right- I said WWE Smackdown… one of the three programs we can get on our television other than the news show Primer Impacto. The other shows are The Family Guy (El Padre Del Familia), and El Chavo, which is the 1970’s sitcom that started the stereotype of the Mexican actor dressed as a little boy and with fake freckles drawn on his face. Believe me- you’d recognize Chavo if you saw him. He’s hilarious, so if you catch him on Telemundo, watch him. I plan on scouring the internet for subtitled DVD sets of him when I return to the US. In the meantime he will continue to teach me Spanish in between overdubbed showdowns between Edge and Triple H.

Between Chavo and lesson planning, I somehow managed to have time to visit the ultimate Costa Rican beach- Puerto Viejo. People here on the coast refer to the beaches just south of Limon as the “Heart of the Caribbean.” They are right on the money- there are more Jamaicans living on the Costa Rican coast than just about anywhere else outside of the actual country. They are Rasta, they are Reggae (or Reggaton in the younger circles), and they live up to the country’s slogan “Pura Vida,” or Pure Life.

Upon first arrival in Puerto Viejo, one is struck by the ridiculous number of street vendors hawking jewelry (beautiful and cheap jewelry), the stench of pot smoke mixed with garbage (a smell I am beginning to identify with most of the country), and the array of restaurants and lodges named in honor of the Reggae Roots master Bob Marley. I myself enjoyed a very inexpensive but ridiculously tasty cheeseburger- my first since leaving the US, no less- at a little café named for Marley’s daughter Tamara… or it could be his wife- I don’t really know.

The ocean in Puerto Viejo is very shallow and warm. This is due to the fact that most of Costa Rica’s coast is coral reef and not sand. This natural barrier catches sediment and forms a fence around the coast, making it a lot like an all natural wading pool; you can only go so far before confronted with a giant coral reef filled with crabs and anemones as high as your head. Of course, there are those who don’t care and walk across the reef- effectively killing it- but for those folks there are sharks waiting on the other side of the reef and attacks occur more frequently than I’m comfortable admitting.

The water here is also crystal clear- you can see everything. There are fish here that most Americans only see in the expensive section of the pet store- during my swim I saw beautiful purple fish with yellow tails, yellowfin tuna (babies), angel fish, green cichlids, algae eaters, pipefish, black fish with orange tails, and little yellow reef fish with black stripes. I also almost stepped on a very large crab that looked more like a rock- until he stuck out his claw. I saw a small octopus, and even a few very small puffer fish. It was amazing! Of course, such clear water comes at a price, my pasty white friends… you burn ten times faster, and with the opposite effect of the Atlantic. Instead of the pasty white body with the brilliantly red face and shoulders, you can expect minimal sun on your face and excruciating sunburn everywhere else. I thrice applied SPF 30 sunscreen before, during, and after my arrival and still managed to burn so badly that my back and legs (which were submerged the whole time, mind you) were nearly black. Of course, now I’m enjoying a nice deep tan, so the worst is over, I guess.

Well, this week the excitement continues with a board meeting on Wednesday. Carnivalito (something akin to a county fair, only held in the middle of downtown) is in town this week, so I plan to go down and check that out… I might ride the Ferris-wheel or torment the sloths in the central park (who take it SO well…). By the way- if you’re ever in Costa Rica, look in the trees; if you see something that looks like a giant sack of fur, then congratulations- it’s your first sloth!

Otherwise, it’s off to another week full of waiting and watching, looking to see how God will move next.