The tremors under my office chair, all the way over here on the other side of the valley from the epicenter, have finally subsided. We had one – a long one – at 3am Monday morning, but it’d been several days since the one before that. Thank goodness! Those tremors are unnerving. I’m sure the survivors near Poás are grateful the aftershocks are mostly gone. They have enough to deal with. I imagine freedom from the anxiety over an immediate repeat performance is welcome.
Recovery and reconstruction are underway. The area will be affected for years to come. Muddy waters have killed the life in the Sarapiqui River. No fish, no fowl… The electrical plant there is in disrepair. (Most of Costa Rica’s electricity is water-generated.) Strawberry fields have been decimated, leaving workers with no income. Cows and other livestock have been killed and injured. The death toll is at 23. The homeless at over 2,000.
Two articles in a weekly newspaper here, the Tico Times*, moved me to tears this morning. Hope, spirituality, gratitude. Pardon the platitude but an earthquake ain’t nothing compared to these forces.
The first article is about Ana Cambronero, 41, who lost her husband and three teenage children when the soda her family owned collapsed down the mountainside 19 days ago. Today she is staying with relatives and helping unemployed victims find jobs. She believes God spared her so she could help others recover. Where does God find people like this?
The other is a letter from a gringo couple who was staying at the La Paz Peace Lodge. I’ve asked for permission to reprint the letter and I will if they grant that. (Who wouldn’t want to be famous for 15 minutes on A Broad In Costa Rica?)
We’ve been busy looking for a new place to live, hopefully someplace we can operate as a small b&b. Or lease an up and running b&b, small hotel. The response has been so good we are encouraged – the right place is out there. Somewhere. If our future unfolds like our past, God only knows where we’ll end up. So far, we’ve considered almost 15 properties. And so far, there’s been that One Little Glitch in the way of actually packing up and signing a lease. But, hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
The other new development is my discovery of EFT. I’ve done a few workshops here with a woman named Margot Diskin (I was linked to her website but it’s down). EFT = Emotional Freedom Technique and go ahead, laugh. The name is completely over-the-top new-agey. It does, however, accurately describe exactly what EFT is and does: this quick exercise gives you freedom from emotion trapped under years of squashing. Even huge trauma and you don’t have to relive it. I am wild for it and hot to teach others how to do it (which I do here — it’s so simple, you can teach others in under 10 minutes).
Before we moved to Costa Rica, I was investigating acupuncture colleges in the U.S. The plan was for me to go when we got back from here after a year. God laughs when we make plans, no question. Since there is no acupuncture school here* and I don’t really want to do massage (although I may go to school for that, too, since the training would definitely help), this is the next best thing. Actually, in some ways, I believe it might be better.
If you have any doubt that emotional energy can clog you up, watch What The Bleep? If you’ve never seen What The Bleep?, it is not to be missed. If I were God, it would be required viewing.
This morning, we are headed back to migración to get the stamps for the boys’ passports so they can leave the country** and to get our drivers’ licenses renewed. They expired a year ago. Yeah, procrastination are us. We have a big day ahead of us, hours in line waiting for estampillas [stamps]. Oooh, be still my heart! Pray for short lines. Thank you.
*There is a woman who does have a school but she does not respond to emails. She did once and even added me to her contact list. If I could find her and her class, I’d sign up. There is also a man in Zapote who teaches a series of classes and I took several during our first year here. But it’s all in Spanish and I missed understanding at least half of it… I will start his class again when it starts up next.
**This should make a good post… Bureaucracy in Costa Rica is always a good time.
well I am glad you posted something
I was heading here specifically to ask wth was going on and to let you know that I was going to go to the Ministerio de Trabajo to file action against you for not posting anything (in clear violation of rule…..eh…..I am sure there is something)
I like EFTs (electronic funds transfers), just keep them under 10k (From you to me of course) and we will be ok
the regulations in the new transit law are draconian…….make sure you don’t let them expire like that again….even not carrying it (despite having it etc) implies a stiff fine
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Yeah, just let me know your SWIFT number and I’ll be getting that dinero right over to you…
GL with the BB hunt
btw, you didnt say but I hope you went to Banco de Costa Rica to renew your drivers license…..instead of the mad house in Uruca
I am going in 2 days for passport renewal…at Banco de Costa Rica as well (one visit/year when we go for Mrs Wolfie residence renewal is enough)
next year hopefully no more immigration altogether as resident cedulas should be renewable at Banco de Costa Rica
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Can I renew at the BCR? I think I need the doctor thing… none of the expats on the CRL group mention BCR. It might just be for ticos. Maybe we’ll stop there… but migración has been such a nightmare, I don’t think I could stand it to go to BCR, wait in line then have to go to Uruca anyway.
Thanks for the earthquake updates.
I really believe in the energy healing-type stuff too. Yeah at first it was weird to me, but from my experience it really does work and I’ve had great results from clearing up emotions that were literally making me sick.
We’ve had fun waiting in long lines to get my daughter’s Costa Rican citizenship…so many places, so many lines! What a pain!
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Blogging today on the migración clusterfuck. Unbelievable. I’m almost speechless… almost.
Hi Saratica!
Thanks for the update – here in Pa. we aren’t getting much news on what is happening there regarding the quakes.
The EFT is great – in my chiropractic practice I also use NET – NeuroEmotional technique which also helps to release emotional blocks in the body. It can be realy powerful – I’m sure you will have fun with that and help a lot of people.
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Hi Susan – looking forward to learning more about this whole energy healing thing. What a concept, as they say! Will have to look up NET now, too – thanks!
Hey, Sally,
Yeah, EFT really is great. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years and turned some other folks on to it, too. I’d be really curious if you found some kind of EFT training here in CR. Have you gotten any of the DVDs from EmoFree (the main site) — they’re supposed to be pretty good. We’re doing Theta Healing training here in CR in March which is different but all energy related.
Cheers. Good luck in the B&B search; sounds like a good plan!
–arden–
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Hey Arden,
I’d love to know more about the Theta Healing, that sounds interesting. Margot is coming back in March to do an EFT training so I’ll do that. Still working on the B&B – found a great location but the owner decided at the last minute that he didn’t want a commercial venture on the spot. shoot!
Don’t have the DVD’s yet but I’m going to get them. I’ll make you a copy when I do – you can give away up to 100 copies. That Gary Craig sounds alright to me!
FYI, I tried to donate using the Western Union option, and after some time spent poking around their web site without success, and then 35 minutes talking to two reps and waiting on hold a lot, I was finally told that it can’t be handled over the web site or via telephone, but it has to be done at one of their locations. I did find a WU press release that provides some of the official info: http://ir.westernunion.com/press/releaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=359811 (too bad it leaves out that little detail about it having to be done at a WU location!). So I’ve printed out the press release and now I’m off to find a WU location nearby.
…Chuck
OK, so I went to the “Western Union location” given to me by the WU person earlier today, and it turned out to be a computer station behind the Customer Service desk at my nearby K-Mart. A computer station which wasn’t working, and which the customer service rep didn’t know when it might be working again.
It somehow feels like I’m not meant to donate via Western Union!
…Chuck
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Just found this in my comments:
https://www.ticobingo.co.cr/donaciones.php?dol=1
You can donate here using visa or mastercard. Tico Bingo is how the Cruz Roja here raises money – this is legit. I’m going to post this on the CRL, see what everyone says!