We are moving towards our Easter Sunday and in Costa Rica the country celebrates Holy Week or Semana Santa. During Holy Week, the Learning Center takes a week long break.
For many Costa Ricans, Semana Santa is a time for reflection and worship with family. The Catholic Church in each town organizes traditional masses and processions which take place on Holy Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Each procession is a dramatic reenactment of Jesus’ journey through Jerusalem to his crucifixion and resurrection. During Holy Week, the tradition is to eat 
seafood, complying with the Catholic practice of not eating meat on Fridays during Lent. Delicious dishes such as rice and shrimp, ceviche and fried fish are prepared. Various desserts such as empanadas, pudding and jelly are all made from chiverre, a big squash that looks like a watermelon and is in season during this time. There is also a very down side to the celebration of the Holy Week. Many Costa Ricans and tourists head to the various beaches and the celebrations often result in weekend accidents causing useless fatalities…especially among the young. We hope the Holy Week is a safe week for all.
Again, thanks to several of you who sent “get well” notes. By my estimate, I am close to full recovery.
With a few things going on over the past couple weeks, I have failed to mention that we blew right by our 7,000th hit on our Blog in early March. We are also ahead of our hit count reported this time last year and running ahead of our monthly average. These are all good and positive signs and we continue to defy gravity. These stats are a direct result of 
your interest and willingness to stay connected with the Blog each week.
Over the past two weeks, you have been introduced to both Casey and Xavier. You can see these two students are very special and have both academic and non-academic interests which will fit well into their volunteer time in Copey. I am looking forward to keeping everyone informed on how things are going once they arrive in Copey in May. Thank you for staying connected.
Dear Scrapper,
Glad you are improving my friend. Your timing is perfect. We were just discussing how everything stops in the Caribbean and in Central and SA during Holy Week. Our surgeons are available in Escazu at Biblica only for emergencies that week!
Lin
So glad you are feeling better, Arthur. Happy Easter!