"It's raining and it's warm"

Folks,

It was back to school after Semana Santa off, and it was my last week in charge at school, and I'll be delighted to see Barbara back tomorrow. We're now into rainy season.

The pic of the week is from the Good Friday procession. It's Christ's, I don't know, coffin?, and is the climax of the procession. Because it's dare you can't see the people carrying it. The coffin itself is lit by neon!

"It's raining and it's warm"
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We've made the transition to rainy season. I have the umbrellas back out. But although we have rain, the temperatures are also rising. It's actually warmer here in winter than summer. I was doing the weather appropriately enough with my intro classes. To the question, What's the weather like today?, they answered, It's raining and it's warm. I was amused at how un-Irish a phrase that is.

Maurice and Colette
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Many of you will know Maurice Devitt and Colette Healy, from Irish Life. They were out here on holidays recently. They were on a tour travelling around the country, but we managed to meet up just before Semana Santa in San José. It's great to meet up with people from home. They'd loved their holidays and were very impressed with Costa Rica. I feel some sense of pride in Costa Rica, and I'm always delighted when people like it.

Semana Santa
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Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is one of the busiest times in Costa Rica. The only other comparable time is Christmas week. For Semana Santa, the cities empty and everyone heads for the coast or the mountains. The roads are dangerous at the best of times, but more dangerous when they're so busy. This year 40 people were killed on the roads.

The Good Friday procession in Heredia is very impressive. There is a cast of hundreds, and thousands more watch it in the street. The participants are dressed up as the apostles and people from biblical times. There are kids dressed as angels, and woman in dresses with long flowing trains (soggy from the rain) carrying various things representing Christ's life. There are drums and things like those noisy corncrakes they have at football matches. It's a long slow march, every reverential, very funereal, and very Latin.

An Irish family
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One of my friends in school is Erin. She's from an Irish family in California. Her family are visiting en masse this week. It was funny because her parents are so Irish. You'd swear that her dad had just come directly from Roscommon his accent is so thick. They visited the school during the week, and he popped into my office to tell me that they were going across the road (to Mulo's) for a few beers if I wanted to join them. It was 3pm. And if I wasn't teaching at 4, I'd have been tempted!
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Well, that's it for this week. Next week Barbara returns to work, so hopefully I'll be able to spend a lot less of my time at the school.

So until next week.

Chao,

Éamon

Today's Headline in La Nación: Regular gasoline to rise tomorrow by ¢16 a litre