Saturday, September 17, 2011

Independence Day and More!

Family and Friends!

Yesterday (September 15th) marked the 190th year that Costa Rica has officially been an independent nation.  In 1821, they gained independence from the Spanish Crown along with Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.  The spanish king Ferdinand VII was dethroned, and the colonies took advantage of the opportunity and started their move toward complete autonomy.  In Costa Rica and my site Agua Buena de Coto Brus independence day is a time to celebrate and recognize some of the Costa Rican traditions of their ancestors.  People wear typical Costa Rican dress and there are typical dances and parades.  I was able to stay in my site and capture the full experience of the Costa Rican independence day.  I wrote a small poem to try to capture the moment the best that I can in words:

Noble Patria tu Hermosa Bandera 

La Hermosa Bandera waves gentley in the vista
The sun touches the colors from above the crista
Blue, the sky that covers all of creation
Red, the blood that spilled for foundation
White, the hope for peace for many generations
Noble Patria tu Hermosa Bandera

They pass through the streets to give salutation
To the day that marks the start of the small nation 
1821 marks the year they became fully independent
The spanish crown, no longer they were dependent 
Noble Patria tu Hermosa Bandera

El dia de la independencia, the significance to you?
Don Luis Diego, La Libertad, to say and to do
Doña Julia, La Paz, living free of war and conflict
Don Danny, Las mujeres bonitas, that make life fun
They stand together, singing under the Costa Rican sun
Noble Patria tu hermosa bandera     

Glossary
  • Noble Patria tu Hermosa Bandera-  The national anthem of Costa Rica that was written in 1853 by Manuel María Guitérrez.  English translation: Noble homeland, your beautiful flag.
  • La Hermosa Bandera (The Beautiful Flag)- The flag of Costa Rica was created in 1848 by the wife of the then president, Pacifica Fernández.  She was inspired by the 1848 revolution in France and used their tricolor.  The blue represents the sky that covers Costa Rica; the red represents the blood that was spilled in defense of the country; the white represents the peace and happiness.  The Costa Rican Coat of Arms is located in the red stripe. 

  • They pass through the streets...- This represents the traditional parades that Costa Rica has every independence day to celebrate.  Each school and high school has a drum line that plays a beat and the women usually do a traditional behind the drum line.
  • In the last stanza, I asked some of my friends what Independence Day meant specifically to them.  Some of the answers were serious and others they made a joke.  Luis Diego said la libertad (freedom), Julia said La Paz (Peace) and finally one of my friends that has a good sense of humor said las mujeres bonitas (the beautiful women) haha.
Here are some pictures from the day:

The night of the 14th celebration

14th

My friend Danny and his wife, Jenny (also my friend)

Parade on the 15th

Drummers from the high school

Singing the Anthem
It was a fun celebration, the parade wasn't that exciting or interesting, but it was still fun to talk to the people about the history of Costa Rica and its traditions.   

Everything else has been going very well at my site.  I am still busy with classes and I am also working a lot more with the small Micro-Finance organization in my community.  They have a new treasurer and she doesn't know too much about the position so I am giving her accounting classes twice a week.  It has been really satisfying because after each class she tells me that she feels a lot more confident with her abilities.  In the next month, I plan to give a speech to all the shareholders in the organization to try to motivate them to buy more stock so we can have more capital to lend to the community and raise our profits.  The dividends per stock are really low right now so new people are not investing so it is hard to give out loans with little capital.  Hopefully, we can grow the organization and it can provide even more value to the community.  

I hope all is well stateside, I think of everyone often!

Love,

ET