COSTA RICA

1991 !

COSTA RICA 1991 !

ALSO SEE

SLIDESHOW VIDEO @

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlHI8V-QG5g

Dear friends, let us

love one another, for
love comes from God.
Everyone who loves
has been born of God
and knows God.
because God is love
1 John 4:7,8

"Queridos amigos,
ammonos unos a
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otros, porque el amor

viene de Dios. Todo el
que ama ha nacido de
Dios y conoce a
Dios. ...
porque
Dios es amor ... "
1 Juan 4:7,8

SO THESE PICTURES ARE NOT in

chronological order, but as you can see these
photos are from the 1991 earthquake that hit
near Limon, and we were out in the field
doing needs assessment to determine how we
could help (we represented the Christian
Reformed Church World Relief Commission
CRWRC, now known as World Renew

this guy went along as a translator, albeit

most of us spoke Spanish fairly well

after several months of disaster relief I found

a job teaching in a rainforest area in
southern Costa Rica, the Drake Bay area.
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Lots of wildlife surrounded us: monkeys,

toucans,sloths, sealife, butterflies, all kinds
of insects & snakes, you name it...a real
rainforest full of life, not yet destroyed by
humans

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BACK to disaster relief near Limon

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as you can see, the earthquake

did extensive damage

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at rio estrella, the bridge was

knocked out of commission
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this was the cross-over to Panama which also

got hit a little bit by the quake

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back in the rainforest, here I am trying to

play Tarzan, swinging on the vine

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here are the two kids I taught: Brian &

Adrian, 2nd & 3rd grade, the sons of Herb &
Melanie who owned the tourist camp in
Drake Bay . Nice kids. Herb was American,
retired...maybe in his 70's at the time, and
Melanie was a young Tica (female Costa
Rican)

we took a lunch break at this shack

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above: we briefly walked

into Panama and back

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a scorpion

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some of the green life that is in abundance

throughout costa rica which gets plenty of
rain
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this is the cross at the top of the hill above

san jose...I hiked there with Mirtha (adopted
daughter of missionaries Tom & Melva Post)

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tamra was one of the tourists who visited

with a large group while I was there & when
I returned to the USA she sent these photos
of our trip. Thanks Tamra ! She's from
Texas.

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this photo by me seems like a "classic"

now...just happened upon it at a little store
somewhere near Limon

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riding horses @ Drake Bay

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little Adrian doing his classwork.

He was SO smart

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this was one of the ladies from the Tamra

group...there were several sisters & their
husbands...and the husbands went fishing for
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the day while we took them horseback riding

& swimming up the river. On the right is one
of the guides that Herb periodically hired to
help out for the day

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here are the kids again. I only taught two of

them...the others were cousins or neighbors
who had their own education location (I
think, or maybe they didn't go to school)

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here we are swimming up the

river with the Tamra group

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back with the disaster relief group, this is the

Tom Post family (he was a white American,
not shown here, and started out as a peace
corp volunteer in Belize where he met Melva
when she was quite young...they married &
later Tom became involved in the Christian
Reformed Church & eventually became a
director for the CRWRC and was in charge
of Central America at the time (I think he's
in Asia now as of 2014)

we took a tourist trip with the Post family to

the volcano Arenal one day
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long-distance view of the San Jose

cross to which we hiked

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cow hogs the road in Panama

of course I had to drink

directly from a coconut, right ?

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tom & melva's youngest daughter Rachel

as you can see, this tunnel was blocked by a

landslide from the earthquake...we actually
were stuck on the other side for several hours
as we waited for a bulldozer to clear the way

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here we are with a group of Ticos talking to

them about what they
need most in terms of relief

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this was a missionary-translator's home,

which fell, partially, on top of their land
rover. We actually "jacked" up the house
and were able to pull the vehicle out, and it
started !

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this was a banana plantation

not far from Drake Bay...

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it took us a while to get up this road, so

soaked with water & mud...couple of locals
helped out

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rachel, so sweet...she must be

in her late 20's by now...wow !

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the quake really tore up some of the roads...

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other side of the tunnel

this may have been a sloth in

the tree if I recall correctly

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we actually had to drive thru a few rivers

such as this along the way...some got stuck

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back near san jose ...Mirtha showed me

around

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the golden retrievers of tom & melva post

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on the left you see Mirtha, the adopted

daughter of Tom & Melva from Belize

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lovely Mirtha, hope she is well today

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saw lots of monkeys

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notice the steps on the right...steps to

nowhere..actually most of these houses in this
area were built on stilts because of the rainy
season...the earthquake knocked some of
them off their stilts.

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can you believe we made it thru this river ?

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the three locals who helped pave the way with

rocks

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the earthquake even knocked this train off

the track

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we stayed at this place for a night...it was

some sort of catholic organization...the
mother nun was very kind to us

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beautiful flowers everywhere in costa rica

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these were girls who lived near the tourist

camp in Drake Bay...Cythnia (top right) the
other two were half-American

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this lady shown here with one of the Tico's

who helped us do needs assessment was from
Grandville Michigan...she arrived with her
husband shortly after me

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here's Tom Post (left) with me at the Costa

Rica-Panama border...he's a midwest
Michigan boy like me...but spoke fluent
spanish and had lived much of his adult life
in central america

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here's the sloth for sure...the other may have

been one of the monkeys

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here you can see the houses built on stilts

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i was there ! the 1991 total solar eclipse

happened when I was at Drake Bay...albeit
these are NOT my photos...I bought them
later at a market...they show what we saw... it
was a remarkable moment ...actually the day
started cloudy so we weren't even sure if we
would be able to directly experience the
moment apart from it getting dark, but just
as the eclipse begin the clouds cleared ...and
we could observe the moon slowly but surely
cover the sun and the sky grow dark..we even
saw fireflies light up for a while..all while we
watched it happen (with safe glasses of
course)

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we had a GREAT time swimming up the

river with the Tamra group..and then
enjoying a little waterfall pool as well

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on my way to costa rica I had a layover in

Ecuador...and spent the night at this
hotel..nice pool, met a dude who told me
about his country and enjoyed a cerveza
(beer)

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to get to drake bay you take a taxi or bus or

whatever wheeled-vehicle you take to get as
close as you can to the area by road...then
you have to take a boat (usually a motorized
canoe of some sort) the rest of the way...
(although there's also an airport for small
planes now that is a bit closer)

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aa beatiful costa rican waterfall

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here's cynthia & her sister ...nieces of

Melanie

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volcan arenal is semi-active

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adrian makes a funny face for the camera

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the youngest child of Herb & Melva, not yet

ready for school

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two construction workers who worked at the

tourist camp

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Jesus answered, I
am the way & the truth
& the life. No one
comes to the father
except through me.
John 14:6

"Respondi Jess:"
Yo soy el camino y la
verdad y la vida. Nadie
viene al Padre, sino
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por m. "
Juan 14:6

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