Miscellaneous 1

I was looking through the files on the computer and found a number of pictures from Jaco that just did not fit into any of the blogs.  I thought about creating blogs about birds, and flowers, etc., but decided to just put some of these pictures into a couple miscellaneous blogs.   So here goes...

There are large bunches of bamboo all over the place.  This is one right beside the tennis courts. They are quite large and can be as high as 30 or 40 or more feet tall.

Bamboo

 There are a lot of different kinds of birds.  These little blue ones come to the trees right outside our balcony every morning.

Blue Bird of Costa Rica

And these look like red doves.

Red Dove

And these yellow guys are the songsters.

Yellow Bird

Gail and I go boogie boarding almost every day.  I have a lot of pictures of us playing in the waves.  However, I thought some of the guys would enjoy this picture more.

Go Girl

As you can see from this picture, Gail is in heaven when she is eating Ceviche.

Shrimp Ceviche

Sunglasses

Hats

Down here everyone needs sunglasses and hats.
But sometimes there are things for sale along the street that you are not quite sure what it is.

Not Sure

Much of our day is spent enjoying the pool.  We have learned that being in the shade is a good thing.  This is how Gail spends many hours.  Note the very unusual, and beautiful, flower behind her.

Gail Relaxing

This is a grave site.  Cory passed away but was obviously a surfer who enjoyed his beer.  There must be some significance in the Mother-In-Law Tongues at the foot of the site.

Here Lies Cory

This is our office.

Our Office

The chains on our bicycles have rusted already and we have had them only a few weeks.  I have "bathed" the entire bicycles in WD40 which seems to help, but they still rust.  This is the gate leading out to the ocean side of our complex.  It has rusted so badly they can no longer use the lock but have to use a chain instead.  

Rusty Gate

 So if you ever decide to add more iron to your diet, make sure you cut back on the salt a the same time.  If you don't, your gate could permanently loose it's swing! 

Tennis

Gail and I try to play tennis at least three times a week.  There is only one court so you have to reserve it in advance but it only costs $5 an hour.  It is in town but has a small creek running across the back and a large stand of bamboo on one side.

Tennis Court

The one end has trees that over hang the court and sometimes Iguanas and the Macaws from the restaurant across the street come to watch us play.

Watching Us Play Tennis

 This does create a problem that we have to play around.

Poop On The Court

Gail is tenacious.

Gail 1

Gail 2

Gail 3

Gail 4

 Me--I'm just there to give her target practice and try to, once in a while, hit it back to her.

Larry 1

Larry 2

Larry 3

Larry 4

We always play early in the morning (8:00 am) but it does get hot by the time we finish so we take a lot of water breaks.

Water Break

It really is good exercise, burns a lot of calories, and it does so much to build Gail's ego.

Jaco Schools

While Gail and I were riding our bikes around town we saw a group of preschool children cleaning up the street around their school.

Clean Up Day

What a great teaching/learning opportunity.  They are being taught lessons in work ethics, responsibility, cleanliness, team work, health and safety habits, pride in their school and their community, recycling, and probably a few more.

Costa Rica does not have an army and has, therefore, been able to make education a very high national priority.  In fact, over the last thirty years the Costa Rica government has invested annually nearly thirty percent of the national budget on education.  The literacy rate is 96% in residents age 15 and older, and the country has more teachers than policemen.  

There are no school buses.  It is the responsibility of the parents to make sure the children get to school.  The parents can drive them or, the kids can walk, ride bicycles, or take a taxi or public bus, both at discounted student rates.  (The public buses here are extremely nice.  They are new, clean, and air conditioned.)

Public Bus

All students are required to wear a uniform to lessen the economic distinctions among classmates.  I am not sure what the ratio of boys to girls is but, if this picture is any indication it is two girls for every boy.

Two to One

Education is free up to the university level.  Everyone is required to attend six years of elementary school and three years of secondary school.  Through the secondary school they teach five basic subjects--Spanish, math, civics, economics, and physical education. 

The public schools teach English as a second language and there are also a large number of private schools that emphasize English.

After finishing the secondary school they then have the option to continue for two or three more years at the high school level (they call it technical school).  The amount of time is dependent on the curriculum they choose.

Jaco Technical School

An advanced diploma from the technical school is required to enter a university.  

The schools/class rooms are very basic.  This is the elementary school.

Jaco Elementary School

This is the inside courtyard of the school.

Jaco Elementary School

This is the Secondary school.

Jaco Secondary School

This is their athletic facility (we did see a second building at a different location in addition to this one).

Athletic Facility

The technical school is just down the road from the secondary school.  The CTP stands for College of Technical Professionals.

CTP

And, at the intersection of the road for all of these schools, is this---

Police Station

Costa Rica is working on a program right now to keep more of their students in school longer, to graduate from the Technical School, and go on to a university.  Even with the average financial aid package, student loans and possible scholarships, most students will spend $11,000-$21,000 per year at the university, and will graduate $10,000-$22,000 in debt.   This is a major detriment to continuing education, just as it is in the US.  They have a lot of financial resources dedicated to education here and hopefully will come up with a solution soon.

Housing in Jaco

Gail and I thought we would take our bicycles and ride through some of the neighborhoods in Jaco and try to get a feel for the type of housing they have here.  

There are a great many large condominium complexes in Jaco. These are not for the locals but more for the tourist and investor.  A condominium on the beach will cost a minimum of $300,000.

Jaco Beach

The local people live in apartments, houses, and small complexes that I would describe as a kind of patio home arrangement.
This is a view of the back of one of the apartment "rows" with a new high rise condo complex in the background.  You will note that although the apartments do not look very high class, they do all have air conditioning.

Apartment Row

Some of these apartments can, in fact, be a little disturbing but that is probably true of every city in he world.

Apartments

As we rode we found, at least in the neighborhoods we were in, that the houses were very nice.  Some were obviously more expensive.

Unique House

Two Story House

The majority, however, were more modest but very clean and well kept.

Very Nice House

Two things all of the houses had in common were that they all were surrounded by some sort of fence and they all had outdoor space, some more than others.

Big Yard

The "patio homes" were in a row each having a common wall with it's neighbor.

Patio Homes

These generally appeared to be small and always "protected".

Patio Homes 2

The apartments we saw that were more in a neighborhood were in a complex with common area in the middle, generally including a pool.

Apartment Complex

Jaco is the largest town in the area so they will have the largest variety of housing options.  But, we saw some very nice houses and it seems there is a very large percentage of the population that is living very well.

CHURCH

On Sunday our friends Gus and Carol MacDonald invited us to go to church with them.  It is a non-denominational, bilingual church called Calvary Chapel Jaco.  

Calvary Chapel Jaco

This is unique for two reasons.  First, a church that is bilingual is very hard to find.  Secondly, it is hard to find a non-denominational church because the vast majority of residents here are Catholic. There are quite a number of very nice catholic churches here.  This is one just around the corner from our condo complex.  

Catholic Church

The Calvary Chapel congregation meets in some donated office space belonging to the local movie theater.  There are generally about twenty five to thirty people in attendance although the church was planted here about five years ago.  I believe this limited growth is a direct result of the high percentage of Catholics living in Jaco.   
The service consisted of singing a lot of songs in both English and Spanish.  The words were projected on a screen but Gail and I don't speak Spanish that well so we sang along as best we could.  As the Bible says "make a joyful noise" and that is about all we were doing.
The pastor is a young man from Florida with a wife and four young children.  Before he begins the service he makes some remarks to the congregation about things in general in the church.  There is a local gentleman sitting up front also who immediately translates everything into Spanish.

Translator

After these remarks, there is a potluck meal served .  Everyone brings food and places it at the front of the church.   All of the congregation then goes to the front of the church and fills their plates with food.  They eat while the preacher preaches and even go up and get seconds if they want while the preacher continues to preach.

Preaching and eating

The sermon consists of the preacher saying something in English and then the local gentleman translating that into Spanish.  So a thirty minute sermon turns into an hour.  Plus, I figured out that the preacher has time to think while his remarks are being translated so he thinks of more to say.  His thirty minute prepared sermon turns into forty minutes which then turns into an hour and twenty minutes.   Services are supposed to start at 9:30, but they rarely do, and usually last about three hours.

Preaching, eating, translating

I found it very difficult to stay focused since there was always a pause after a couple sentences while the translation was being done.

Last Sunday was special in that two ladies were baptized.  After the service was over, the congregation moved out to the beach.  

The ladies were baptized in the surf.  

You may notice the lady starts with a dress on and finishes with jeans on; and starts with hair combed down and ends with it in a pony tail.  That could be explained by either:
two different ladies or, the power of the cleansing process.