Earth Day

There are a lot of commercial purpose special days. But today has not to be one of them. Earth is the only place we have to live. Our planet is fragile, helpless, and wonderful. We have to take care of it in a really commitment way.



We have to fight when the local governments (Municipalidades) decide to cut old trees. The excuse is: “big trees are dangerous, they catch thunders”. No way. We can fix it adding a big steel stick in the upper part of the tree.

I have a little place in the sidewalk planted with trees. My neighbors’ dogs destroy them every week. I keep planting trees: I had two big “güitites”, one planted by the birds. I planted two “guayaba” trees and they are hardly surviving. I planted two coffee plants, but they are not going to resist. I had a lemon tree which survived after cutting the big tree and then the roots where too big to put them away, so the tree decided to re-born and know it has little lemons on it. My family makes fun of me because I continue trying with the trees. I hope that some day my neighbors understand that the nice place they keep destroying could be a goodfruit provider for them.




One of my neighbors’ houses has an electric fence. They are elder people and they are afraid of be assaulted. Last year we have the visit of two beautiful “pájaros bobos”. Then one day one of them was killed by the fence. The other one stay close for a while before to leave. They are loyalty couples. The other “bobo” will never have babies anymore. What a shame!


Maybe most of all will never have big lands to keep rivers alive, but we have to contribute with little details to keep our planet alive and healthy.
When I was a child in Moravia, every June 15th all the children from the school went by foot, to La Isla, nearby the Virilla to plant trees and we were walking and singing the Tree Hymn.
Maybe some of you remember it:

(Letra: José Santos Chocano. Música: Roberto Campadabal)

It is a touchy poem:

Árbol que tiendes hacia las nubes,
en un ejemplo de elevación.
Subir quisiera como tú subes
y abrir las ramas de mi canción.
Diría entonces que el alma mía
solo es un árbol hecho de amor,
que da a los vientos su poesía,
como pudiese dar una flor.

Diría entonces que el sol me ama,
pues si soy árbol mi Padre es él,
y que en mi siempre su viva llama,
de verso en verso,
de rama en rama,
va elaborando frutos de miel.

Pájaro errante: te daré nido,
trémulo anciano toma un bordón.
Romero puedes dormir tendido,
bajo la sombra que me ha salido
de lo más hondo del corazón.
Yo soy el árbol que habla.
El del cuento.
Árbol Florido ¿no eres feliz?
Como tú sube mi pensamiento
y sus flores arroja al viento,
es en su tierra que echa raíz.


I love trees, I love nature, and I try to recycle as much as I can. We, as teachers, have the responsibility of spread the loving feeling about Earth. It is our job: to educate. Maybe it is not enough, but we have to try because we have no other place to go.

Foreign Guests

On March 12th, our Culture Course had a guest.

What do you think about Texas? What is Texas?
Oil wells, Rodeos, big cars, Country Music, Cowboys. Texas is all of that. We met a Texas State University Professor who is all of that, too. Her name is Jonna Beck and she is Texas.


But after that introduction, she made clear that she is not part of Texas culture.
American individualism is more current in Texas than in the rest of the United States. Everything in Texas is bigger and better.
Professor Jonna told us about family traditions, religion, and believes in Texas.
Texas carries on a racist tradition since American Civil War in XIX century. Professor Jonna had a brother from Ruanda, Jean Claude. He is a survivor from one of many Ruanda street disturbs, and he is not safe from the police in Texas, neither. Jean Claude lives with Jonna, and she loves and protects him. The professor explained to us about feminism, and sexual tolerance. Texas continues being a traditional state. Professor Jonna does not share that point of view. That is why she is not part of Texas’ culture.
Professor Joan is a citizen from the world. She does not accept the word: multicultural. She said that nobody’s culture is formed by little pieces. Everyone has his own culture. Hers is as Texas, influenced by many traditions: Taekwondo from Korea, traditional dresses from Germany (her ancestors’ country), literature from Ireland (James Joyce is her favorite author), and dance from Mexico.
Family is very important for Texas people and for this professor, too. Her husband and his family are very different from her tradition, but she loves them this way . They are The Palmers, and they are from Chicago.
The experience of professor Jonna talking about herself was amazing. Some classmates shared their experiences too.
She was really kind and generous. She told us that she could have a possibility for our classmates to go to Texas State University to get a PhD. She will wait for them the next twenty years. I really hope that someone could get it!! She gave us her card and pencils from her Texas State Writing Center. It was a nice experience.


A week later, on March 12 we had more nice guests. This time we met two caring girls from Germany: Regina and Kata.

They shared with us their experiences in a totally different country. Regina had been in our country for some months and Kata just spent few days. They talked about their own country: economics, car industry (I was embarrassed because I thought that Volvo cars are German, but they are Swedish), family issues, and of course, school. They revealed their concern about how people looked at them because of the Nazism tragedy. They felt proud of been from German but they try not to show it in order to not bother people from other cultures. Regina was excited about visiting beaches, volcanoes, and having telluric movements. She explained to us the difference between our tropical beaches and the Baltic Sea which is always cold. She was afraid of our way of driving and crossing the streets. She said that she already knew that in San José she had not to wait for the traffic light, but for the people who cross the street whenever they consider it will be fine.
Kata told us about the increase on education costs after the reunification in 1989.
Now Germany has to provide education to twenty million more people. The new German government is supporting a voluntary service program all over the world. Regina is part of it.



I asked them about classical music education. I wondered if German children had a very professional music education since some of the most famous classical composers are from Germany: Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and Wagner. When Kata explained that children have music education as part of the Elementary Curriculum I realized that I had jumped to conclusions in the same way that people from other countries could expect to find in our country tropical dancers in the streets, and if they ask for that, a lot of people will answer that they do not dance salsa, merengue or reguetton.



I love to have guests in our class because it is a direct way to develop what we had been studying since February. It is too easy to prejudge and to criticize and we try not to do it consciously but it is with the real interaction that we discover our respect to other cultures.

A Sunday in San José

There are wonderful Summer Festivals in big cities around the world. In New York there is Phil at the Park. In Austria there is the Vienna's Glorious Ball Season. In France it is the Versailles Festival. And so on. We can see all those activities by the mass media. They are so far away: music, art, dance, drama, crafts, free courses…



I was really impressed when I spent a family Sunday in San José. In our sad, dirty and rough San José. But something had changed. In the parks there were no more homeless or alcoholic people asking for money.




The Central Park, Morazán Park, España Park, National Park… they were unrecognizable. They had colorful flags waving to the wind. Hundreds of people were walking by the little roads between crafts expositions.



Mimos, boys in street rollers, dancing groups, cheerleaders yelling aloud, street artists doing graffiti, famous writers reading their own creations, a young sculptor teaching his technique to everyone who wanted to learn it. A bunch of artistic expressions for free.



There were a lot of people enjoying the Sunday at the city. Families with little kids. Young couples. People walking their dogs. Teenager groups. I could not believe that it was San José.
Nearby the National Library there was a tent. A lot of people were waiting for something. I went over to spy. Thirty musicians were waiting for someone. An old man arrived with two ladies. He was a famous singer some time ago. His name is Rafa Pérez and he started singing with the San Jose Professional Band. A group of elder people started to dance. They went from boleros to pasodobles. The public clapped.



Suddenly another kind of music appeared. It was another kind of music band: a cimarrona. The parade arrived. El pasacalle had a lot of people dancing and running with big masks. Some kids yelled. There were our traditional characters: la Giganta and the totally red Diablo.


We walked down the avenue. My husband and my son stayed watching street boxing. My daughter and I went to the Book Fair.



In a little tent there was someone telling a story. When we arrived a lady was reading a story about Ratón Pérez. Then she told another one about our changing weather: the responsible was a Escazú Witch who blinks her long eyelashes when she wanted rainy or sunny days. At the end another writer arrived: she was Arabella Salaverry who read some of her wonderful poems about love, desolation, and hope.



The day was almost over. We were really tired. My son was eating a “copo” and my daughter bought some wood jewelry. I was talking to a group of Guaymíes who where selling handcrafted baskets and clothes. I got a doll dress alike the one wearing by their little baby girl who was sleeping in a big basket near to them.


I took some photos and when I looked at them I could not believe that it was happened in my country. The photos reflected the beauty of that summer day. The city buildings were not as sad as they usually are. The parks were impressive. The people looked happy. I wished it happened more often. That wonderful time was: TRANSITARTE.