Deo Gratia - Nader's Blog

Solemn Vows

2011-11-08T23:23:00.000-06:00

Hello Everyone! Well as you can tell I have not been faithful to my blog at all, but today is a new day!

On September 17, 2011 on the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis at St. Casimir Catholic Church in Baltimore, Maryland I professed my Solemn Vows to the Conventual Franciscans along with Nick my classmate. Below is a photo of the inside of the Church. On this day I made the lifelong commitment to live the life as a Franciscan Friar.

Nick and I walking in

Me Praying

A cool photo of Nick and I

Nick and I prostrating on the Church floor before professing our vows. During this time the Litany of the

Saints is being prayed by those present at the Liturgy. Before professing our vows we as the saints to be us and guide us.

A close-up of me.

Me professing my vows

Nick professing his vows

The Fraternal Embrace: this is when Nick and I are welcomed into the community as Solemn Professed friars

Nick, James (Our Provincial) and I

Me and my witnesses: Fray Jorge and Br. Tim

Me and my Family

Me and all those who went to CUA - where I met the friars and where my vocation was initially discerned

The desserts at dinner that night

A photo of my cousin Andre and my niece Sophia. He came out to support me all the way from Canada.

It was a wonderful and powerful experience for me. I am so happy and thankful to God for the grace of my vocation and the support of the friars, friends, and family.

Trilogy of Posts!

2011-09-11T21:35:00.001-06:00

Well the internet is acting funny, but as of tomorrow I will put up a trilogy of Posts from my trip to Italy!

Until Tomorrow...God Bless!

Overdue posting...

2011-08-22T21:51:00.001-06:00

Hello Everyone! I am back into my blog. I had good 6 week vacation with retreat and time at home after being in Costa Rica. I am back in San Antonio, trying to get everything started for the year. Once my room is not in disaster mode, I will post pictures up from my Solemn Vow Retreat and my visit with family and friends. I hope to have something up by tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.

Much Love,
Nader

One month of no posts.....

2011-07-04T14:45:00.000-06:00

Hello Everyone! Peace be with you! I have recently been accepted to profess my Solemn Vows to the friars on September 17. Before I make my life long commitment to the Conventual Franciscans, I must do a month long retreat. I will making this retreat in Italy, thus right now I am either in Rome, Rieti, Assisi or Padua! Please pray for me!

The Months of November and December in 1 Post (aka 7)

2011-06-12T16:23:00.001-06:00

Well fellow bloggers or fans of my website, I am back on the blog track. Here is one post that contains 7 posts. Enjoy!

Día del Maestro Part 2 or 3: http://naderata3.blogspot.com/2010/12/dia-del-maestro-part-2-of-3-games-and.html

Día del Maestro Part 3 or 3: http://naderata3.blogspot.com/2010/12/dia-del-maestro-part-3-of-3-favorite.html

Vows x 5: http://naderata3.blogspot.com/2011/06/vows-x-5.html

Birthdays: http://naderata3.blogspot.com/2011/02/birthdays-birthdays-and-more-birthdays.html

MerryThanksAdventGivingChistmas: http://naderata3.blogspot.com/2011/06/merrythanksadventgivingchristmas.html

Graduations Galore and First Communion: http://naderata3.blogspot.com/2010/12/graduations-galore-and-first-communion.html

Gary's Visit, Volcan Poas, and Nature: http://naderata3.blogspot.com/2010/12/garys-visit-volcan-poas-and-some-nature.html

What I forgot to tell you....

2011-06-12T15:38:00.001-06:00

The reason why I have been so delayed in my blogging is because I have been so delayed in my e-mails. In a matter of less than a week I went from 551 e-mails in my in-box to 40. I also deleted form 1700 e-mails from my various folders. I can proudly say that I am up to day on my both my e-mails and my blogging!

5 words!

2011-04-03T19:38:00.001-06:00

I am still feeling sick :(

Lack of a Post on Sunday

2011-03-22T17:46:00.000-06:00

I am sorry for not posting anything on Sunday, the friars had a day long retreat and I spent it with out any of my gadgets (cell phone, computer, camera, or Ipod). It was a very relaxing way to enjoy the day. During this past week two great things happened in my life. My niece Sophia celebrated her first birthday on St. Patrick's day and my good friends Ryan and Lauren were married on Saturday. Also there was the Solemnity of St. Joseph - there is a lot to be grateful for. I hope to post some photos this week. God willing....

Lent has begun....

2011-03-13T21:28:00.000-06:00

Hello Blogging World! Peace! This week in the Christian Circles began the season of Lent. In Costa Rica like all over the world this sacred time began on Ash Wednesday, where ashes are placed on one's forehead in the shape of a cross. The ashes are made from the palm branches used on Palm Sunday. We celebrated 3 masses and a prayer service for the preschool, primary school, and high school. I was blessed to preach at both the primary school mass and one of the high school masses. I focused on doing acts of kindness in secret. This related to discourse of Matthew's Gospel about praying, fasting, and alms giving in secret without anyone knowing. I think that it went well, I received more complements than I accepted.

When I was a kind I thought that Lent was only about sin and mortification, but as an adult I am realizing that it is much more than. Lent is not a time period to be in penance for the sake of penance, rather it is for the sake of living. When I recognize my own sinfulness, I recognize my need for God, and that need for God helps me to truly live. Lent is not done for the sake of lent, rather for the Holy Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. As my professors at Oblate say "You get to the resurrection without going to Calgary", "There is no Easter Sunday without Holy Thursday and Good Friday", and my favorite "You can't skip the cross and go straight for the resurrection." That is not the way Jesus lived, and same goes for us.

I am excited more for this Lenten journey to Easter than ever before. I know that I have a long way to go, but our daily cross can lead to daily resurrections.

Blessing and Prayers ~ Fray Nader

PS: I will be posting more picture post this week, I have to reorganize all of my photos because I put two different photo libraries together over Christmas break and now I need to organize them. I have photos from the same events in two or even three different places.

2011-03-06T19:50:00.000-06:00

Happy Sunday! As promised I am resuming my weekly updates. Yesterday I just relaxed after going to the fresh food market in morning and having a wedding following that in Chapel. I spent the afternoon reading Matilda in Spanish for my Spanish Class and organizing our new china cabinet in the friary. We then had our normal Mass at 4pm and went out to TGIFriday's for a little bit to eat. It was a long but good day - hence why belated posts have yet to be seen; but patience I will write them soon.

Well I am off to do some more homework. I know this was a short one, but I am preparing to write some big ones.

Peace

Overwhelmed....

2011-02-27T19:03:00.000-06:00

Hello family, friends, fellow bloggers, and people I have never meet,

Peace be with you! As you know I have not written anything on my blog since Sunday December 5th. I know that I have not been faithful to my commitment to write on my blog every Sunday. (Thank you to Ileana, Liz, and Sarah for reminding of this).

All I can say is that I have been overwhelmed over the past two months and have not had the time nor the energy to work on my blog. Today I finally logged onto to Facebook after a couple of weeks to respond to the 43 friend requests that I had, many of them being students at St. Francis College. Also the last time I checked I had 574 messages in my e-mail inbox that I have yet to sort through.

I will resume my regular Sunday updates as of next week. Hopefully on Saturday March 5th the two month anniversary since my last post I can do some catch-up posts to bring you up to speed on my life up to now.

Well "Rejoice in hope, be patient under trial, persevere in prayer" Romans 12:12

With Love and Blessings,
Nader

Birthdays, Birthdays, and more Birthdays

2011-02-25T19:12:00.001-06:00

Life begins at conception I have no doubt about that, but it would kinda of weird if celebrated Our Conception Dat and not Our Birthday. This post is about various birthdays that were celebrate during the end of November and the months of December.

Tom, Jordan, and Mateo, the men of FrancisCorps celebrate their brithdays within less than a week of each other. Mateo - Nov. 18, Jordan - Nov. 18, and Tom - Nov. 24.

They requested Ice Cream for their dessert.

Above is an ice cream cake with chocolate chip cookies, chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup. Below is an ice cream cake with oreo cookies, ice cream sandwiches, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup.

The Birthday Men!

FrancisCorps with Toño and I

Below is a Birthday Cake the I made for Teacher Cindy. You can tell from outside, but the inside of the cake is neon green, Cindy's favorite color.

And last but not least of our FrancisCorps Birthdays is Brittany. On February 24, Brittany celebrate her 23rd Birthday. She asked for a pineapple upside down cake, I arranged the pineapple to spell out her name. Can you see it?

Here is Brittany with her cake!

Vows x 5!

2011-01-16T15:06:00.000-06:00

In the life of the friars, some of the most sacred and memorable moments is when a brother willing and joyfully make the step to profess vows to God, the community, and to the church. During this part of my time in Costa Rica 5 brothers have made this commitment. Some for a temporary period and other for a life-long commitment.

Below are photos from the Solemn Profession (life-long commitment) of two Capuchin Friars from Costa Rica.

Below are photos from the First Profession (temporary commitment) of two Conventual Friars who are a part of the Our Lady of Consolation Province in the US.

Last but not least here are two photos of Fray Toño who made his Solemn Profession (life-long commitment) on Saturday, January 15th. Fray Toño and I live in the same friary together in Costa Rica, but I unfortunately was still at my parents house in NJ when his Profession occurred. Below are photos of Toño being Toño.

MerryThanksAdventGivingChristmas!

2010-12-23T15:48:00.000-06:00

You are probably wondering what MerryThanksAdventGiving Christmas means. To be honest it sums up the experience I had of all this holidays and times in the Church during my time in Costa Rica. At the same time there were Christmas Decorations, Thanksgiving Decoration, and Advent Decorations present either at school, the friary, or FrancisCrops.

Here is a photo of the Christmas Tree that was at the FrancisCorps in November.

Below and above are photos of the Thanksgiving Day celebration that we had in the Primary School. For the first time in 60 years they had a Thanksgiving Celebration in the Primary School for yours' truly. The teacher - one of my families in Costa Rica - wanted to celebrate this day with me. We had salad, turkey, stuffing, vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy, and dessert. It was a Thanksgiving Luncheon to Remember Costa Rican Style.

Here is a photo of the area outside of the 3/4 grade classrooms decorated for our Christmas Octave of Breakfasts.

Here is a photo of Roberto (Professor of P.E.) and his wife Alejandra in their house during Advent/Christmas time.

At Mesoamérica we had a Christmas Celebration and was in charge of dessert. Above is a Christmas Tree made from cupcakes and below is an Advent Wreath made from cupcakes.

Here is Ligia my teacher and Carmen the academic director serving the food.

The following photos are from the Christmas decorations that were present in the Chapel and Friary. I helped out in the Chapel with Fray Jorge as the mastermind, but I was the mastermind in the Friary.

Gary's Visit, Volcán Poas and some Nature Shots

2010-12-09T20:00:00.027-06:00

For five days from December 2-7 I was blessed to have a visit from Fray Gary, my director of Formation. He met with me, the friars, and also people of the school. He was my first personal visitor and I enjoyed every moment of the visit.

One of the things that I got to do on Gary's Visit is go to Volcán Poas, here are photos from trip.

Strawberries growing on the side of mountian!

Cows in the middle of the road.

An image of the volcano.

An explanation of the volcano.

The volcano, can't you see it! I couldn't.

Gary and I with the volcano in the background. It was pouring.

A mysterious yet beautiful walkway.

Gary and Toño

The Three of Us

Below are some nature shots from Costa Rica.

St. Francis and the Negrita!

Francis and the wolf in Alejuela

One of my favorite photos from Costa Rica, this photo reminds me of the Lion King!

Graduations Galore and First Communion!

2010-12-07T19:46:00.000-06:00

Since Costa Rica obviously runs on a different schedule, all of the end of the year celebrations are in December.

Below is the Farewell Party for the 6th graders in the Primary School who are now in the High School

The Men

The Women

The passing of the school flag.

Next we have the First Communion of the students in 3rd Grade. For one it is different to have First Communion at this age level but it was even more different to have the First Communion in December. Either way it was beautiful.

Above are the children and below the parents.

Graduation #1: Preschool

Above the children singing to their parents and below the parents singing to their children.

Graduation #2: Primary School

Graduation #3: High School

Día del Maestro Part 3 of 3: Favorite Photos

2010-12-05T21:00:00.013-06:00

Doña Marta ready to rock n' roll at the Carnival Hammer Game

Teacher Fabiana going big or going home on the Hammer Game.

Teacher Ariana showing us how to win this game.

Teacher Hilda riding the bull:

One of the funniest photos I have ever taken

María Laura showing the bull who is boss!

One of the workers after making it to the top of the pole!

Some nice looking cowgirls and the Gringo cowboy.

Teacher Anabelle making her Birthday wish:

Just like at the arch she has going.

Teacher Gabby showing us younger folks how to dance!

The teachers having a great time dancing!

A photo of me trying to dance!!!

María Laura - She make an excellent cowgirl!

Mariela and Melany

Teacher Anabelle

This is what happens

Me sleeping on the bus ride home!

(See I do put embarrassing photos of me on my blog too!)

Día del Maestro Part 2 of 3: Games and Birthdays

2010-12-05T20:00:00.000-06:00

After a long delay of about 5 months here is part 2 of el Día del Maestro: Games and Birthdays. Below are photos of various teachers enjoying the many games from the day.

Matt riding the bull!

José riding the bull, do not let his weight fool you, he rode the bull for a very long time!

Robert after reaching the top of the totem pole.

Mariela trying to reach the top of the totem pole - her facial expression is priceless!

Another one of the workers who reached the top of the pole too.

Mauricio close, but no cigar!

While we were celebrating the teacher's we also got the chance to celebrate three birthdays. We did not plan this, so our individual birthday cakes were smiley face made from nuts clusters for the eyes and fried plantains for the mouth. I had to work with what I had.

Marie Isabel, Mateo, AnaBelle blowing out their candle!

After receiving their cakes, they had to through a coin into the pool and make a wish. Here is Maria Isabel making here wish.

Día del Maestro Part 1 of 3: The Day

2010-12-05T19:00:00.000-06:00

On Friday, November 19, 2010 the professors and staff celebrated Día del Maestro by going to a place called La Tertulia for a day of food, fun, dancing, games, and sports.

Here is the breakfast line, the lunch line was great too, but I was too busy eating to take a photo.

Here is a photo of the pool, small, but wonderful.

The day had a ton of games, so here are photos of some of them, obviously I did not take the photos in which I am seen, but Mariela did.

I never got past this point!

All fo games present are shown except the bull that you could lasso.

A group of the professors looking on at the games from the sidelines.

Above you can see a photo of people playing volleyball. I did not play volleyball but I did attempt to play soccer. Below is a photo of the pool being used.

After lunch began the dancing.

A photo of the musicians.

A group of the professors looking on at the dancing from the sidelines.

The next two photos are of the late-night stayers of the day.

Adventures at the Beach 4 of 4 - The Nature

2010-11-18T21:00:00.026-06:00

Here is a set of photos of the nature and uses of nature!

A blue tailed lizard found near the pool

Small birds looking for lunch

Tree branches ready for a fire.

An outdoor patio built by the gifts of God's earth by the hands of God's creatures.

An image of the ocean as it slowly pushes branches on the shore.

A huge part of a tree that was pushed onto the shore.

A myriad of shells that lies under the waves of the ocean.

A close-up of the shells. I collected a bunch of them and gave them to the teachers of the English department.

Adventures at the Beach 3 of 4 - The Sand

2010-11-18T20:42:00.017-06:00

Now here are photos and stories about the sand at the beach. Here is the sand, which is black and very fine. It was absolutely lovely to experience the beach in Costa Rica.

Here is I am after being buried in the sand by Toño and before this I buried him, but forgot to take a photo. After his is a photo of the pit I was buried in.

Above and below are photos of my cleaning off the sand that was all over me.

And here is a photo of me - so fresh and so clean clean!

Below is a photo of all of the trash and garbage that is brought up on the beach by the waves.

As a joke I searched through all of the trash and found "Christmas" gifts for my family. For my father I found beer and a vacuum hose. For my mother I found a sieve. For my sister I found a shoe. For my brother I found fabric to use in one his projects. For Pete I found beer and Lizano Salsa. And last but not least for Sophia I found a basketball (Go Villanova!), a wheel for her bike, a Croc, and legos.

Also Toño did some searching as well and found these gifts for Sophia: a Christmas ornament, a number puzzle, and a stuffed bear and Daffy Duck.

Adventures at the Beach 2 of 4 - The House

2010-11-18T20:20:00.000-06:00

Finally we made it Playa Tivives, it was way past sunset, but Toño and I walked on the beach. It was great to have sand through my toes and water brushing up against me feet.

But before we get to the beach photos were are some of Casa Malinche. Interestingly, this house used to belong to the Dobles Family (Jorge's Family) and was previous owned by Jorge's dad. It has 5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, two balconies, a kitchen, a small living room with a TV, a pool, and to top it all of it is right on the beach.

The view of the beach right outside of the friary

My feet in the sand and the water!

Me sporting my beard for "No Shave November"

Adventures at the Beach 1 of 4 - The Journey

2010-11-18T19:57:00.000-06:00

For a day and a half I finally got to go to the Beach! Saturday afternoon Toño and I packed up the car and headed to the beach. On the journey we visited the Tárcoles River, which is know for it's crocodiles. Below are some photos that I took of our detour.

Above is a bird that was walking very close to the crocodiles, I thought that he/she was going to be their afternoon snack. Below is a cool sign that has the classic Costa Rican saying of "Pura Vida".

Above we have a view of the Pacific Ocean from one of those on the side of the road sightseeing points. And below we have Toño eating fresh ceviche for a road side restaurant.

Next Post...our House....

Do I hear purring???...

2010-11-16T18:56:00.000-06:00

The answer to that question is yes! Today Roberto (One of the gym teachers) heard the purring of kittens. Somehow two kittens fell in between part of the support structures near the gym, they were trapped in a long tube of metal. Below you can see were the metal support was cut so that we could rescue the cats.

And the last two photos are of the kittens! They are so cute and feisty. By now they have made it to their new homes.

This incident today reminded of last year when I was driving one of our cars and at a stop light a couple was waving their hands at me. I rolled down my window and they said, You have kittens in your car. At first I did not believe them, but they were right. Two kittens snuck down into the engine of the car. In the end, I drove back to the friary, opened the hood of the car, and eventually the kittens left the car on their own.

Early Christmas Sightings Part 2 of 2

2010-11-16T18:27:00.000-06:00

As promised here are more photos of Early Christmas Sightings! The five murals below are ones that I found in the Preschool.

The Annunciation to Mary (Luke 1:26-38)

The Trip to Bethlehem (Luke 2: 1-5)

The Birth of Jesus (Luke 2:6-7)

The Magi (Matthew 2:1-13)

The Shepherds (Luke 2:8-20)

Above is the Bridge that was used during the week of St. Francis and now has been turned into a nativity scene. Below is a tree made of wood pieces without leaves that is across from them bridge.

The next set of photos revolve around an idea that I had for Christmas Decorations - originally only for the Language Lab. The idea is a way to combine Thanksgiving and Christmas. With the approval of the Doña Rosario and the English Department all of the students wrote done things that they would like to thank God for during the Christmas Season on pieces of paper. The students could write whatever they wanted, in what language the wanted and how they wanted. Then I linked their thanksgivings together to make chain of gracias. I soon found out that 470+ pieces of paper would over power the Language Lab, thus they were put near the big Nativity Scene at the entrance of the Primary School.

Above are the chains made from the scraps of paper in the Language Lab, you can also see the Merry Christmas sign in the left of the photo. Below you can see the other sign that I put up as well Seasons Greetings.

The next three photos are of the final result of the decorations. The four chains in the middle are of the student's thanksgivings and the two outer chains have the various names of Jesus (Prince of Peace, Light of the World, Mighty God, etc) and the feasts present in the Church during the Advent and Christmas seasons - written in English. I like that the chains are leading towards the Manger Scene, it is as though the school is laying down their thanksgivings at the feet of Baby Jesus.

Below is a close-up of some the papers that the students decorated.

And here is a close-up photo of the Manger Scene, but these chains have the various names of Jesus (Príncipe de Paz, Luz del Mundo, Dios Poderoso, etc) and the feasts present in the Church during the Advent and Christmas seasons; but written in Spanish.

The students were not the only ones who write their thanksgivings, the teachers and staff did as well.

Above is the note that Teacher Yoli wrote for me in Spanish and below is the final product present in the teacher's room.

Early Christmas Sightings Part 1 of 2

2010-11-15T18:19:00.000-06:00

Now I love Christmas! It is a time to celebrate the gift of God becoming a human. It is a time to celebrate family and friends. It is a time to celebrate the beauty of giving and receiving gifts. It is a time to celebrate the awesomeness of nature (aka snow in my case). It is a time to enjoy the anticipation of Advent, the joys of Christmas, and the great feast days that follow until the New Year comes. And it is a time to remember ancient biblical stories, past Christmases, and beloved holiday tales (A Christmas Carol, Home Alone, A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, etc). For me Christmas also holds a special place in my heart because it is one of the few holidays that I can spend with my family while I am in formation, so it is often the time to see most members of my family in one place.

Now that you know where I am coming from, I do not want to sound like Uncle Scrooge, but I am tried of Christmas decorations coming so early! In SEPTEMBER I saw the first signs of Christmas here in Costa Rica. I know that there is no Halloween or Thanksgiving here, but come on, over three months in advance? Below is a photo of an article from the newspaper, it is dated Saturday, September 20, 2010. Whatever happened to waiting until December for Christmas? In my humble opinion I think we have gone a little overboard.

With that said, here are some photos of the Primary School decorations. Again I think it is too early, but they have a reason to be decorating so early: the school year here will be finished on November 26. They are not even in school during the month of December, so if the teachers and the students want to celebrate Christmas, they have to do it now. There were decorations in the hallways, in the classrooms, manger scenes, lights, bells, and even Christmas Trees! Yes Christmas Trees are being sold here in Costa Rica in November.

Above we have the decorations that are in the hallways and below we have a bigger version of this decoration that is located closer to the classrooms.

Here you can see one of the Christmas Trees that is in the classroom of 3A.

Add here to can see a manger scene made out of paper that is in the classroom of 3-C.

These are just some of the Christmas decorations that can be found at St. Francis College in November, tomorrow I will hopefully show you the decorations that I came up with.

Peace and all good things!

Exámenes....

2010-11-08T22:13:00.002-06:00

Thirteen days ago the Primary school finished their regular exams for the semester, so I decided to bake some cakes to honor the hard work the teacher had done in preparing their exams. The last time that I made something for the teachers, there was no where enough to go around; so this time I made three cakes. Each cake was different: with the cake batter, the type of icing, colors, and messages on the the top. The first cake on the top left of this photo reads "There are no more exams...." and the second cake reads "until November 8th." The first cake had chocolate icing with a vanilla - green colored - cake inside and white and blue lettering/decorations. The second cake had chocolate fudge icing with a chocolate cake inside and blue and white lettering/decorations (this cake was gone like a flash).

This third cake says "Pura Vida" which essentially means "All is well in life" as well as "Uyuyuy Bajura" which is a saying from those who live in Guanacaste, one of the seven Provinces in Costa Rica and one of the first "tico" sayings that I learned here. This cake had purple icing with a confetti cake center and red, blue, and white lettering/decorations.

Above and below are photos that were taking in the teacher's lounge. As you can see one side has a lot more people than the other side. The friar covering his face below is Fray Toño, who I was supposed to introduce to the teachers in the Primary School, but I forgot. He didn't mind though, all he wanted a piece of the cakes.

Well as I mentioned earlier the Primary School was not going to have more exams until November 8th, which is today! Today began final exams in the Primary School, so I decorated the chalkboard in the Language Lab with these words "Good Luck on your final exams!"

I aslo wrote these phrases on the board, which I myself should use when taking exams.

Breathe. Read. Think. Write.

Good Luck Everyone! You and all students where ever you maybe and at whatever level you are in, know that you are in my prayers!

St. Joseph of Cupertino (Patron of Students).....Pray for us!

Birthdays and another Cake Story

2010-11-08T21:25:00.000-06:00

Recently the friars in Costa Rica had the chance to celebrate two birthdays in one weekend! First from the friary in Moravia we celebrated the birthday of Francisco who was born on October 30. Though we did not have anything for him on his actual birthday, we did celebrate it as a community the following Tuesday. If Francisco loves two things it is fruit and it is tea! So for fruit, he and everyone received their very one crocodile (or in Spanish el cocodrillo) which is made up a kiwi, a slice of banana, and two sugar balls for the eyes. Below is a photo of one of them.

The recipe was taken from a book that I found at the book fair the school had to encourage reading. Here is a photo of the cover. They also had one on vegetables and one on sandwiches. In regards to tea, Francisco received 6 boxes of tea as his gift.

The other birthday was celebrated in the friary in Alajuela for Fray Eugenio who celebrated his 78th year of life on October 31. Below is a picture of the guys from Alajuela singing. Fray Eugenio is the older gentleman standing in the background wearing glasses.

And time for another cake story. On Saturday students from theology school came to St. Francis College to play sports, eat lunch, and use the pool in honor of their semester being almost over. Since I knew that our friars and postulants from Alajuela would there I decided to make a cake. A made a strawberry flavored cake with chocolate icing. After cutting the cake I tried to carry 4 pieces of the cake to bring back to the friary. Well as you can see from the photo below I was successful in bringing the pieces back to the friary, but they were accompanied by some dirt! I fell when I was carrying them, that is why on the right side of my face you can see icing smeared across my face.

Oh well, people liked the cake so that is what matters.

Sacrament of Confirmation

2010-11-06T16:22:00.001-06:00

On Friday, October 29, 2010 I got to witness Saint Francis College celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation. After months of preparation and a two day retreat, 83 young men and women were confirmed in St. Francis Chapel. The Archbishop was unable to attend the Liturgy, so Fray Victor was delegated to administer the Sacrament. Below is photo of the chapel full with the confirmandi, their sponsors, as well as family and friends.

After the confirmandi received the Sacrament each were given a San Damiano Cross from Assisi that was placed around their neck by their religion teachers. At the end of the Liturgy the newly confirmed sang a wonderful song of praise and you could really sense the Gifts of the Spirit through their voices. Below is a photo of them singing.

And in case you were wondering, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are Wisdom, Awe and Wonder (in God's Presence also known as Fear of the Lord), Understanding, Reverence (Piety or Fear of the Lord), Knowledge (of the Lord), Fortitude (Courage or Strength) and Counsel (Right Judgment).

And in Spanish they are Sabiduría (Wisdom), Temor de Dios (Awe and Wonder) Entendimiento (Understanding), Piedad (Reverence), Ciencia (Knowledge of the Lord), Fortaleza (Fortitude), and Consejo (Counsel). These all come from Isaiah 11:2-3.

This photo was taken to show how the Altar Server look from the side when they hold the Sacramentary for the presider during Mass. To me it looks kind of funny, but to Costa Ricans at times I look kind of funny.

Lastly here is a photo of Fray Toño, María Laura, and I taken after the Confirmation Mass.

My First Trip to a Rainforest...

2010-11-06T15:48:00.000-06:00

Two Tuesdays ago I finally got the chance to visit the nature side of Costa Rica and went to a rainforest for the first time in my life. This particular rainforest is located in Braulio Carrillo National Park and we went to Rain Forest Aerial Trams Atlantic: Costa Rica Telefericos Del Bosque Lluvioso. This year the winners of the science fair went to this location, which I knew was going to occur, but I did not know. Well I found out the day of that the trip was occurring, so I changed quickly and hopped on the bus. It was great experience and below are some photos from the trip.

An Areal Tram: our mode of transportation through the magical rainforest

A view from the aerial tram

Some of the tallest trees in this rainforest

Me on the aerial tram

The oldest tree in this rainforest, 350-400 years old!

A close-up of some of the unique bushes in the rainforest.

Moss growing on the branches of one of the trees.

Fungi growing on a log.

Mariela one of the Science Teachers and this cool branch that was growing in path

The roots of a Palm Tree

Home of ants

A leaf that has been eaten by insects

A tapir and her child taking a stroll in the rainforest!

I was the last person in our group during a walking tour of the rainforest and I heard a noise. I thought it was another group following us, so I turned around, but I did not see any humans. I saw this animal that I have never seen before so I immediately said "shhhh!" Then everyone in the group turned around, awed, and began taking pictures, so I did the same not knowing what I was taking a picture of. I found out later that the tapir/danta/anta is the largest indigenous terrestrial land mammal in Central America and we got to see two of them live in their natural habit. There was no fence between us and the tapir, so I was a little scared if Mama Tapir was going to get defensive or not. Thankfully she and her baby stopped for enough time to take pictures and then they went on there way. You can not see from this picture, but the baby tapir is actually brown colored with white spots. The students, teachers, and I were graced to see this hybrid elephant, rhinoceros, pig, and horse of animal in it's natural home.

And last but not least all good trips have a meal! This is the spread that was put out by the Rain Forest Aerial Trams Atlantic group for lunch and I have to say it was pretty fructose intolerant friendly meal. Hopefully more nature adventures will be coming soon...

A Blast from the Past...

2010-11-05T21:21:00.000-06:00

On Friday September 24, the Primary school had a Costume Day. I dressed up as a Old Friar. I entitled this post A Blast from the Past because this day seems like it was so long ago.

Here is a photo of Teachers Ileana, Carolina, and I.

Above is the group photo of the teachers that was taken on that day and below is our fun photo that was taken.

Below is a photo of Teacher Xinia copying the mime that came to the school two weeks prior to this day.

Lastly here a photo of Isabel and Yamilet who helped to make me an Old Friar.

First FrancisCorps Birthday

2010-11-05T20:56:00.000-06:00

In October we celebrated our First FrancisCorps Birthday! Jelly celebrated her 23rd Birthday on October 9th!

Happy Birthday Jelly!

Lucky for Jelly, October 9th fell on a Saturday so her housemates had a party for her. As a gift I made Jelly her birthday cake. She requested a Strawberry Cheesecake, which I never made before. With the help of Mariela (The teacher of Cooking at the School), Tía Florita (A famous cook from Costa Rica), and Guadalupe (Our Cook) I survived my first cheesecake experience. Mariela gave me Tía Florita's cookbook which has her "Chessecake año nuevo" recipe and Guadalupe helped me to make it. Interestingly in Costa Rica they use condensed milk in their cheesecakes and it tasted very good. Below are two photos of the cakes that I made.

While at the party one of the many games we played were Celebrity The Game. Essentially everyone writes down names of celebrities on pieces of paper and then everyone has to guess what name is on the paper. There are usually three rounds. Round 1 you can say anything except the name of the celebrity. Round 2 you can only use two-word clues and in round 3 you say nothing, using only charades and gestures. It was a lot of fun. Below is a photo of Fray Jorge and Laura Dobles (who actually is the niece of Fray Jorge) as we were playing the game.

Below is a photo of me carrying one of the cheesecakes to Jelly.

Above we have a photo of the FrancisCorps group and below is a group photo of who was at the party around 9pm.

Our next party will be for the boys of FrancisCorps, Matt, Jordan, and Tom who were all born in a week of each other.

Semana Franciscana 5 of 5

2010-11-04T21:40:00.000-06:00

FEAST OF SAINT FRANCIS

After 4 posts on Semana Franciscana we are at the heart of our week and our lives, the Mass for the Feast of St. Francis. For this Mass, the whole school was present (high school, primary school, and preschool) as well as family members of the students. Below is a photo of everyone!

Below are Frailes Jorge and Victor as well as the pastor from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish.

Of course we have Francis and the Bridge for the weeks theme "Building Fraternal Bridges" as decorations for the Mass.

This photo was taken while Fray Victor was preaching.

Here is a photo of Mateo one of the FrancisCorps volunteers leading the music for a Communion Song. It was sung in English and think he and the students did a great job, it is called "In the Secret" or "I want to know you"

As customary after the Mass there is a school-wide Parade through the street of Moravia.

Here are the leading flag bearers.

Here is a photo of the school preparing to march.

Above is a photo of one of two Statues of Saint Francis and below is a photo of one of the two bands that were in the Parade.

And below is a photo of banners that the high school students made.

As mentioned earlier, Isabel and I did not sell all of the pastries that were made for Family Day, so we sold them after the parade. Check out the wig that Isabel is wearing, I bought to wear for the parade it is a friar tonsure!

Above is a photo of Isabel, Yamilet, and I before the remaining pastries. We had 7 big trays of cupcakes and 6 small tray of Rice/Cocoa Krispie Treats. Below you can see that I redecorated the cupcakes for them to look new. I wrote three sets of messages. Here is a photo of the one that says Construyendo Puentes de Franternidad SFC 2010. The other two said: Colegio Saint Francis 60 Aniversario and Semana Franciscana 2010 Saint Francis College.

After a busy afternoon of selling pastries I got to enjoy a great catered meal with the friars, postulants, aspirants, academic coordinators, religion teachers, the FrancisCorps volunteers and other friends of the friars.

Above is a photo of our dining room with no people and below is a photo of everyone who gathered for the meal. If you zoom in on the long table on the left side of the photo you can see the banana sundaes that I whipped up on the Eve of the Feast and finished right before the lunch. They were a hit, thank God, I had the recipe saved from a food magazine last year.

And last but not least we have a photo of the late afternoon guests. I enjoyed the company of new friars and friends as we celebrated the immense memory of Francis and his example of imitating Christ.
St. Francis.....Pray for Us!

Semana Franciscana 4 of 5

2010-11-03T16:58:00.000-06:00

Now we are at the heart of Semana Franciscana that focuses on the family: Día de la familia or Family Day which took place on Saturday, October 2nd. I actually had no idea about Family Day until about two months ago when the friars jokingly talked about me having a booth to sell pastries at the event. Well they laughed about, but I really thought about doing it. Well what began as a joke become a reality over the time of Seman Franciscana leading up to 14 hours of baking/cooking and +700 portions of desserts.

Fray Victor had a vision of me wearing a Chef's hat for the event and the two lovely, sweet, Costa Rican women below bought me an authentic Chef's hat with my name an stitched to the brim. THANK YOU MARIELA AND ILEANA. This photo below was taken by Alicia.

So let the story begin. If you remember my post, Welcome of FrancisCorps 12 and a Cake Story, then you will recall that the friars were having a mouse problem at one time. Since I was making a bunch of desserts and did not want to start them too early becuase there would be no where to put them safely in the friary; I began baking/cooking on Friday, October 1st around 4pm for my pastry booth.

Above is a photo of what I had finished around 2am on that Saturday morning (not including the 5 Dirt Pudding trays that were in the fridge). And below is a photo of the security blanket that I used to wrap up the desserts overnight. And by overnight, I mean 2 hours of sleep, I woke up around 5am to continue the baking/cooking.

Below is the final product of my labors. I have to say that I did not do everything on my own - Thank God - Walter and Jorge were a tremendous help. One of the benefits of having brothers, you do not have to do things on your own.

Here is a list of all that I made: 5 Apple Cobblers, 5 Strawberry Cobblers, 5 Rice Krispie Treats, 5 Cocoa Krispie Treats, +200 cupcakes (half vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing and the other half was chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing), 5 Dirt Puddings, 4 Batches of Triple Chocolate Brownies, and then two cakes (one Vanilla and on Chocolate)

Above is a photo of the sign that Fray Jorge drew for my booth. I love it, it is currently hanging up in my room. The sign reads: Friar Nader's Pastry Shop: Peace and All Things Sweet (sweetness) and below that: Franciscan Delights and more....with the experience of 800 years! The next photo is of Isabel and I running the booth. Thank you so my for all of your work Isabel, I could not have done it without you. (And just to note I have no idea who took this photo)

(The next four photos were not taken by me but by Ileana and one other person)

Here is a photo of me serving the Apple Cobbler.

Here is a photo of me eating a Costa Rica Tamale and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot and liked it more then the ones I have tried in the States.

Now the new two photos have a story behind them. One day Fray Walter, Maria Laura, Ariana, and I went out to see a movie, eat dinner, and celebrate Ariana's B-day. During that trip Ariana talked about El Baile de la Polilla and her needing someone to dress up like a polilla. With not knowing what my job would be or what a polilla was I signed up for it and so did Walter. I know now that a polilla is a moth and the job of the polilla during the dance is to remove the numbers from the dancers that the judges did not like. Below is the end result of Gloria's hard work in designing the wings - I am pictured with Ileana.

Last but not least here is a photo of me in my two roles of that day combined: a chef and a polilla!

Unfortunatley Isabel, Fray Jorge (he sold item while I was a polilla), and I did not sell of the pastries, thus we sold them again on the Feast of St. Francis.

On Sunday, October 3rd, the Eve of the Feast of St. Francis the friars from Moravia when to the friary in Alejuela for a wonderful lunch. The students in formation and the friars there heard about my pastry booth and wanted to try one of my desserts. But needless to say I was pastried (not a real word) out and in spite of that I did end up making for all of the guests of St. Francis day individual banana sundaes.

Later that evening we celebrated the time honored tradition of Transitus, which is the commemoration of Francis' transition from his earthly life to his life in heaven. The prayer service was done by the Secular Franciscan group in Moravia and consisted of what I call "Way of the Life of St. Francis." It was similar to the Stations of the Cross with different locations set up throughout the school campus with candles, readings, and reflections. Below are two photos from that event.

Semana Franciscana 3 of 5

2010-11-03T15:31:00.000-06:00

Later that day after the Blessing of the Animals the primary school had there first ever Public Speaking Contest in English. This may not seem like a big deal to you, but to the teachers and the students who participated, this was history in the making. Below are photos from the event.

Our Sign

The Decorations

The Participants

Our Moderator - Ana Catalina

The Students Listening to the Speeches

A photo of me giving the closing remarks, I was so nervous!

Then on Thursday, September 30th, the Primary School had the Spanish Public Speaking Contest. Now I have to say that I did not take any photos of the this event not because I am not in the Spanish Department but because my camera memory was full and the battery had run out. Sorry!

On Friday, October 1st, the Primary School had their infamous Festival de Talentos aka Talent show. Even though there were was only a select group that performed in front of the whole school, we used up 5 lessons and a little over 2 hours of class time; and on top of that we did not hear who one! The kids did a great job and think Shakira needs to pay the kids for dancing/singing to "Waka Waka" 5 different times throughout the show. Here are photos from this event.

The Sign

The Decorations

Doña Rosaria speaking with the participants behind her, as you can see there are a lot of them

Our illustrious judges

A photo taken during one of the performances, I thought it was pretty cool.

Semana Franciscana 2 of 5

2010-11-02T21:20:00.001-06:00

Semana Franciscana began with the Inauguration Ceremony to kick of the week of events on Monday, September 27. Below is a photo of the whole school that was present for the event in the gym.

The event began with a costume contest by the Pre-school students. Below is a photo of one of the groups crossing of the bridge that was made for this year's theme.

Here is a photo of the big wigs of the school. The academic coordinators of the pre-school, primary school, and the high school. Then there is Fray Victor (Director of the School), Fray Jorge, and Yamilet.

Here is a photo of the high school band.

Here is a photo of the musical group that came. The pre-school kids love them and danced up a storm.

Here is a photo of Fray Victor giving a speech at the Inauguration Ceremony.

Semana Franciscan continued on Tuesday with the first Inter-religious Prayer for peace event. There were four religions present. From right to left Buddism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity (Episcopal Bishop and Catholic). I helped to decorate the table that is behind our guests, each person prayed in their own tradition for peace and then lit one of the candles on the table.

Here is of photo of the chapel filled with some of the students from the high school.

Later that evening both bands from the primary school and the high school had a concert in honor of the school's 60th Anniversary of the school

Above is a photo of the primary school band and below is a photo of the high school band.

Here is a close up of the table that was set up for the Inter-Religious event and then was used for the Band Concert.

And early on Wednesday morning we had the infamous blessing of the animals. Here is a photo of the St. Francis Statue with the water that was used for the blessing.

Last and but not least for this post, is a photo of people gathered for the blessing of the animals.

Semana Franciscana 1 of 5

2010-10-18T17:26:00.001-06:00

Well I am one day late, but that is better than one month late :). Anyway the Feast of St. Francis is a big deal here at Colegio St. Francis. They have a whole week's worth of events and activities as you can tell from my previous post. This post will focus on Semana Franciscana as a whole and my thoughts about the theme. The theme for Semana Franciscana 2010 was Construyendo Puentes de Fraternidad or in English Franciscan Week 2010: Building Fraternal Bridges. Below is the logo used for the week.

Before Semana Franciscana, I never really thought about bridges too much. I like looking at them and I have crossed many of them in my lifetime. Well bridges are actually a pretty cool object to reflect upon. A bridge connect two distinct locations that prior to the bridge being constructed, did not have a physical connection. Also a bridge cannot be built by one person alone, so you need to work together for the bridge to be built and for it to last. Building a bridge opens up so many more avenues to communication for the once separate locations. Now here I am talking just about physical bridges as the ones pictured below in a mural that was located at the entrance of the Primary school.

But what about Fraternal Bridges! These are bridges that cross more than just land, but genders, races, religions, sexuality, nationalities, languages, social classes, and hearts. We are called to build fraternal bridges. Which means that we build the bridge even when it is difficult, even when it will cost us, even when it will cause pain, and even when the person, place, or thing on the other side does not want us to build the bridge. This bridges we can do alone or maintain them alone, they must be constructed as a community, even if the only other member of that community is God. I say this because I have helped to build fraternal bridges when no one else wanted to and the only builder with me was God.

Building Fraternal Bridges out of love, respect, honer, faith, and hope is a tremendous task. I think that St. Francis helps to show us that. Based on the example of Jesus in the Gospels, St. Francis build fraternal bridges and laid the foundations for other bridges throughout his life. He built bridges between the rich and the poor, the healthy and the unhealthy (lepers), humanity and the rest of creation, contemplation and activity, Christians and Muslims, the people of God and the Pope, and humans with their God.

I am no expert on building fraternal bridges, but I am willing to try to build them anyway one day at a time with God as my guide.

A whirlwind....

2010-10-12T15:35:00.003-06:00

Hello Everyone! Peace be with you! I am sorry for the delay in writing any posts. The past two and a half weeks have been a whirlwind. It began on Monday, September 27 when St. Francis Week began at the school with an Inauguration Assembly. From there proceeded a Inter-religious prayer event, a concert, the 1st English Public Speaking Event, the Spanish Public Speaking Event, the Talent Show, Family Day (which including me make 740+ portions of pastries and dancing dressed like a moth for an hour), lunch with the friars and men in Formation in Alajuela, Transitus, Mass for the Feast of St. Francis, the parade, selling the last of the pastries, lunch for the Feast of St. Francis and our First FrancisCorps Birthday.

As you can tell it has been a packed couple of days. I promise to have pictures of these joyous events by Sunday if not earlier. I will by you pizza if I don't!

Relics of St. Anthony Part 3...

2010-09-25T19:02:00.000-06:00

The Relics of St. Anthony have now come to Costa Rica and are now back in Padua. It was a wonderful and awe-inspiring to have the relics with us and all the experience that went with them, even the stressful ones.

Here is a photo of the Anointing of the Sick that took place September 3.

Here is a photo of the Secular Franciscans giving away "St. Anthony's bread after mass on that same day.

From St. Anthony's in Belen here is a photo of Fr. Luciano explaining about the relics in Italian and Fray Victor translating what he said into Spanish.

Here are the infamous petitions and intentions for the intercession of St. Anthony from the people. Every couple of days we would spread out the petitions and intentions on the dining room table to sort them. We separated those that addresses or e-mail addresses on them from those that did not because there are people in Padua who will respond to everyone that wrote down their contact information.

Now do not be fooled, this is not all of them that were written. After being sorted they will all be sent to Padua and placed on the tomb of St. Anthony, the friars will pray for the petitions and intentions daily, and then eventually they will get burned. There are many more than are in the photo above, it was amazing to see the faith of present on these papers. I do not want to apply that I read them, but I am referring to the amount of things people wrote filling the papers and to the various materials people used to write their petitions (for example: business cards, receipts, pages from calendars, and newspaper or magazine ads.

Above is a photo of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders visiting the relics. Below are two collages that were made by the children in 3rd graders.

This one is an image of St. Anthony's miracle of the Real Presence of the Eucharist. As the story goes a person did not believe in the real presence and told St. Anthony that his donkey after not eating for three days would choose to eat hay over the Eucharist. Well the donkey venerated the Eucharist. Here is a link to the full story, St. Anthony and the Real Presence of the Eucharist.

This one is an image of St. Anthony preaching to fish. In the city of Rimini, the people would not listen to St. Anthony's preaching so he preached to the fish and the listened. Eventually the people of Rimini began to listen to him. Here is a link to the full story, St. Anthony and Preaching to the Fish.

Here is photo of the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders visiting the relics.

And here a photo of the preschool visiting the relics. I have to say that for me this was the most emotional part of my time with the relics. The children sang a song to St. Anthony with hand motions and everything. It was so moving, even Fray Luciano and Javier joined in; I would have to but I was controlling the music. The faith of the smallest children of the school was amazing.

After singing, like all of the other groups, the student had a chance to see the relics close-up and to touch the reliquary. Fray Luciano asked if I would hold the reliquary as the little kids venerated the relics, I said yes. I was surprised and honored at the same time. I knelt on the floor and one by one each child came to touch the reliquary. We told them "Tocar y Rezar" meaning "To Touch and to Pray". One child before touching the reliquary prayed for his family and friends out loud with his eyes tightly shut and opened his eyes to touch the reliquary. There was no way to doubt the movement of the Spirit, even in the lives of the youngest among us.

Here is a photo of Fray Javier, Teacher Kary, and Fray Luciano with the preschool students.

Last but not least is a close-up photo of Frays Javier and Luciano. These are the trooper friars who went everywhere the relics went as guides and testaments to the Life of St. Anthony. Day after day the same story and the same jobs, but all for the Glory of God! I am grateful to have met them and wish them all the best as their journey of preaching the Gospel through the example to St. Anthony continues...

FrancisCorps House Blessing and Where's FrancisCorps?

2010-09-21T12:14:00.000-06:00

On September 9th the friars and friends of FrancisCorps gathered to bless the house of FrancisCorps 12. Below is a photo of everyone that is was present.

Here is the list of everyone in this photo (L-R):

First Row: Fray Walter, Jordan, Alvero, Mateo, Brittany, Marta, and Yami. Second Row: Kelli, Fray Jorge, Me, Fray Francisco, Fray Jim, Jelly, and Tom. Not Pictured: David who was taking the photo

Above is a photo of people who were gathered for the House Blessing and oddly there was a group of us who were all wearing the color blue. (L-R) Jordan, David, Me, Fray Jorge, Jelly and Tom.

Now we are going to play a game....

Where's FrancisCorps?

There are seven people hidden in this picture. Can you find them?

Below is a close up of everyone if you can't!

1) Mateo....our very own Filipino scarecrow, but way cooler than the one in the Wizard of Oz.

2) Tom preparing for his stigmata. (Si Dios quiere)

3) Kelli chillin' like ice cream fillin'!

4) Jordan....can you hear the bells?

5) Brittany...ready to go Under the Sea with the fish!

6) Jelly spread out on the hammock like Jelly on toast.

7) Can you find the seventh person?...That person is actually is invisible!

It is me, the one taking the picture!

Have a great day!

Relics of St. Anthony Part 2...A Close-up of the Relics

2010-09-20T19:04:00.000-06:00

As you all know we have had the Relics of St. Anthony with us in Costa Rica since September 2nd. Here is a close-up of the Relics.

Below is the small reliquary upon the altar in San Antonio de Belen parish. This reliquary contains a piece of the rib of Antonio.

A close-up of the reliquary.

A close-up of the rib.

Below is the big reliquary that has relics in the bust of St. Anthony holding the child Jesus in San Antonio de Belen parish. This reliquary contains pieces of heart tissue, organs, and skin of St. Anthony.

A close-up of the bust.

A close-up of the heads of St. Antony and Jesus.

A close-up of the relics.

189 Aniversario de la Independencia de Costa Rica

2010-09-18T15:16:00.002-06:00

On September 15, Costa Rica celebrated 189 years of Independence from Spain! But there are four other countries that celebrate their independence from Spain on that day too: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The festivities for this day began weeks in advance with decorating the school, making of faroles (lanterns), and band, singing and dance practices.

The celebration began in the friary on Sunday, September 12. We had the Francis Corps volunteers over for their first Sunday meal on their own. I was making a cake and since I new that the Independence Day was coming up I made a Blue, White, and Red cake.

Here is what the cake looks like before cutting. The blue writing is vanilla icing with blue food dye and the white icing is cream cheese flavored.

Here is a photo of the cake with a red inside. It was a french vanilla cake mix with like 40 drops of red dye.

The celebrations officially began at the school on Monday, September 13, with the Inauguration of Civic Week. We had an assembly in the school gym with lots of various activities including: procession of the National Flag and School banner, singing of the National Anthem, praying, show by the second graders, singing and playing of music by select students, typical Costa Rican dances, more singing, and the band playing.

Above is a photo of some 10th graders dancing.

Below is a photo of the Secondary School band.

Then the celebration continued on the Eve of Independence Day. It is customary for schools all over Costa Rica to sing the National Anthem of Costa Rica at 6pm the day before Independence Day and to have a desfile de faroles (parade with lanterns).

Here is photo of the Primary School Band preforming in the kiosk.

This is an example of a farole (lantern) that the children carry in the parade. Some of them were pretty elaborate.

*This photo and the next four were taken by Mariela (one of the teachers). Like me, she also has difficulty taking clear pictures at night, but I am grateful that she took them anyway.*

Myself and two other teachers - Mila and Illeana

Jordan and Mateo (2 of the FrancisCorps Volunteers) and I holding candles that are to be used to light the faroles of the children. Mine made a mess of my habit!

During the parade the Primary School Band played the entire time and during various songs students from the Secondary School danced. Here is a photo of some of the males dancing.

This is not a very clear or good photo, but I think it expresses the fun we had and the joy that is in our hearts!

On September 15, the actual day of Independence, it was pretty much a free day. We were able to sleep in and enjoy the free day. We did have a community meal for lunch and dinner which were both cooked by Fray Javier from Argentina. They were both delicious! For dinner he made pizzas and made one without gluten just for me. We also celebrated the final day of the Relics of St. Anthony visiting us with a Mass in the evening.

Above is a picture of all of us eating lunch on the patio. Beginning with the friar in the gray shirt on the left and going clockwise here are everyones' name: Luciano, Javier, Alvero, Walter, Victor, Nader, Francisco, and Jorge. Below is another photo of us at lunch, but now you can see the table decorations.

Día del Niño

2010-09-18T11:39:00.000-06:00

On Thursday, September 9, Costa Rica celebrated Día del Niño. It is a day to celebration children and there are no classes on that day. Everyone gets to dress down on that day (no uniforms), play sports and games, watch a show, and eat pizza. Above photo is the decorations that 4C put on their chalk board.

The next four photos are from the show that took place in the primary school gym. There was a mime who was pretty funny and really captured the students's attention.

Then a gymnast/person like from Cirque du Soleil came and did some cool acrobatics.

Below is a close-up of him hanging in the air by these two long pieces of red fabric.

Here is a close-up of the mime, his makeup was great for his role.

The photo below is to give you an idea of the number of students that are in the Primary School.

After the show it was time for pizza, here is a photo of the students rushing to the pizza tables.

The next montage of photos were obviously not taken by me because I am in them, but they were taken by Alicia one of the teachers. As part of the day there were these wooden boards with characters on them who had no heads and the children had to throw plastic balls through the hole where the heads would have been. Some of the teachers wanted me to put my head through the hole, so I did.

Here is me in the caterpillar.

Then I put me head in so that just my hair was showing.

Then the art teacher who made the boards wanted me to stick my feet through the hole so I did.

Since I already had my feet propped up, I decided to enough the sunny weather for a bit.

After the caterpillar, I moved to the image of Browser from Super Mario Kart. While there one of the children gave me a pink plastic ball to put in my mouth, the above photo is proof that this occurred.

Everyone had a lot of fun that day! The children also go to leave early on that day too.

Tour of Colegio St. Francis

2010-09-14T20:17:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Colegio St. Francis! As promised here is a close-up of the buildings taken in aerial photos posted earlier. At the bottom of this post is a short 31 photo slideshow of the pictures from the school. I am going to highlight a few of them now.

Here is a photo of the secondary school for the second floor looking out onto a courtyard where there is a big statue of St. Francis and a fountain/pond with fish.

Here is a photo of the Primary School and the Preschool. Between the three schools there are 1500 students. I am blessed to work with grades 1-6 which equals 18 classes because every grade level is divided in to three class (A, B, C).

Also in this picture is the kiosk (el kiosco). I point out the kiosk because during numerous English Conversation class I came to the kiosk with the teachers and students, and we practice speaking in English. The first week the children practiced speaking about their vacations and then we moved to describing everyday activities (ie. How to tie your shoes? How to take care of a pet? How to make a salad? How to make a milkshake). I hopefully next week I will be learning how to describe the same activities but in Spanish.

Here is a typical common area between the different classrooms. I actually really like this set-up. Each common area is shared by six classrooms, this one is of 3A, 3B, 3C, and 4A, 4B, + 4C. There are three others: one of the Preschool, one for first and second grades, and another for fifth and sixth graders. Also each classroom has a bathroom in it, which in my opinion is pretty convenient.

Here you can see what a normal week for the children looks like. Everyday they have English classes, either regular class (grammar, spelling, reading, etc.) or the Conversation class (speaking and vocabulary, which are not graded).

Here is a typical classroom. As you can tell it possible to put the desks in various shapes.

Last but not least is the Teacher's room. Here we gather to eat, converse, laugh, and relax before and after school as well as during recro (recess). The person at the head of the table is Doña Rosaria the director of the Primary School. There are many of my friends and colleagues pictured here, but I will not name them all so as to not forget anyone.

Well to my home at least from 7:15 a.m. to 2:45 p.m!

Feel free to come and visit if you would like!

Here is the slideshow with more photos to entice you to come and visit...

Colegio St. Francis....Before and After....60 years later!

2010-09-13T20:12:00.000-06:00

Peace be with you! On May 22, 1946 the Conventual Franciscans first arrived in Costa Rica in Alajuela. Within 4 years some friars moved to Moravia in San Jose and Colegio St. Francis opened for it's first year in 1950. Now 60 years later the friars and the school are celebrating many years of dedication to the education apostolate. Below are two photos, taken by me, but the originals were not!

First we have an aerial view of the grounds of the school taken sometime before anything was built!

Then we have an aerial view of the grounds of the school pretty much as it looks today. The only difference that I tell is that the soccer field is now made out of astroturf and not grass.

It is great to be a part of such a long tradition of empowering and teaching children through the Catholic School System. In the next post you will get a close-up look at buildings pictured above. God Bless!

My Spanish School: Mesoamérica

2010-09-12T19:53:00.000-06:00

Since I arrived in Costa Rica, I have been studying Spanish each week at Mesoamérica: Instituto de Idiomas. I began with taking classes every weekday from 8am-12pm. Then when teaching began at St. Francis I started to take classes three days a week: Mondays (3pm-5pm), Wednesdays (3pm-5pm) and Fridays (1pm-5pm). Now with my current teaching schedule, I am only able to go to classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 3pm-5pm). Here are photos of the school:

The sign outside of the school.

Peter (who was studying Spanish this past summer) outside of the gate leading to the school.

Mesoamérica from the outside!

My Classroom

The dry-erase broad which is used all the time during class.

The recreation room which I use during "recreo".

The view of the backyard of the school.

Ligia (my professor) and I!

She is a great teacher and helps the students to learn what they would like to learn. For example, we review common prayers, the parts of the Mass, and the responses of the Mass in Spanish little by little.

Here you can see three posters made by Ligia on gender. I am very bad at gender in Spanish and one day I said, "Can we please go over this again, because I am so confused?" And we did! As you may be able to tell they are hanging in my room and were there for two weeks as I practiced gender.

Here is a close-up of one of the posters, this one is on the Feminine gender!

Modern Technology

2010-09-12T19:17:00.000-06:00

When I came to Costa Rica I never thought that I would be seeing my friends and family more than I did when I lived in the States. Thanks to Modern Technology of Skype and G-Mail Video Chat I have been able to see and talk to Reto in Texas, Pokey in Maryland, and The Roger's Family (Ed, Liz, and Ruthie) in Texas.

On Sunday, September 5, I was blessed to talk to my family for the first time through video chat with me in Costa Rica and them in New Jersey. And to top it all off, my whole immediate family was there, Mom, Dad, Nancy, Alex, and Sophia. They are doing very well and looking great. Sophia is so cute and so big from the last time I saw. I wish I would have a taken a picture of them, but I never thought of it until I longed out of G-Mail.

Twice this week, once on Tuesday and then again today, I got the chance to talk with the Craine Family (Erin, Rick, and Ricky). Oh what a joy it was. Below is a photo I took with my camera while we were video chatting.

Erin is doing well and is expecting her second child. Rick is great and preparing to run another marathon this fall. And Ricky is as cute as a button and is talking up a storm. It was an awesome experience for me. On Tuesday I planned a "surprise" chat with Erin and Rick so that I could talk to my friends Ryan and Laura. I wanted to talk to them because Ryan proposed to Laura on Friday. CONGRATS TO THEM AND MANY BLESSINGS!

Welcome of FrancisCorps 12 and a Cake Story

2010-09-12T19:03:00.002-06:00

On Thursday, September 3rd, the 12 group of FrancisCorps arrived in Costa Rica for a year of service work. They are a great group of people, below is a picture of the group with Fray Jim (Director of FrancisCorps, Jordan, Tom, Jelly, Brittany, and Matt. If want to here more about their experiences check out Matt's blog (Catholic.Filipino.Ridiculousness) and Jordan's Blog (Mi Vida en Costa Rica!)

Now a cake story for the books....So I thought that it would be a great gesture to make a "special cake" for the Volunteers on their first Sunday with us, well little did I know that a mouse wanted the cake just as much as I did. This was my first double layer cake, so I decided to bake the cake the night before so that on the day of our lunch all I had to do was ice the cake. Well on Sunday morning I found a whole in on of the cakes as your can see below, I thought that it was someone playing a trick on me, but it turns out that the friary has a mouse/mice problem.

After donating the mouse bitten cake to the birds, I immediately went to store to buy more cake mix. When I got home from the store I made the cakes (yes cakes...now I was making a 3 layer cake) and impatiently waited for them to cool. To make the cake even more interesting, I thought it would be cool to do a layer of chocolate icing between the cake layers and vanilla frosting over the whole cake. Needless to say I was a little over ambitious for my first attempt at a layered cake and only going by what I had seen on TV.

As I began to layer the cake into its final form, the first two layers came out great and looked good. But as I placed the third cake layer on top of the bottom two, the cake began to split, I figured that if iced it really quickly I could save the cake. I thought the icing would cake as a glue. Well instead of that occurring, the chocolate icing below the top layer became more like a slip and slide. I had cake and icing falling everywhere. I distinctly remember Br. Jim "Nader your cake is falling! No really Nader your cake is falling apart!" After saving massive pieces of the cake from falling on the floor, I ran of over to the sink and washed my hands. I then proceeded to break apart the top layer of the cake to make a cake crumble topping for the cake. It still looked pretty bad, so I made some green and blue colored icing. I zigzagged the green icing first and then put the number 12 in blue for the 12th year of volunteers. I entitled the cake "La tierra"! Below is a photo of the end result.

And here is a photo of the inside of the cake, as you can tell the two layer cake came our pretty good.

The Relics of St. Anthony have arrived...

2010-09-12T18:33:00.000-06:00

On Thursday, September 2, Costa Rica was graced with the relics of St. Anthony arriving. The relics came from the Basilica with Fray Luciano Marini (Province of Padua, Italy) and will be with us for15 days. Along with having Fray Luciano with us, we also have Fray Javier Fontana (Province Rioplatense, Argentina/Uruguay) who works for El Mensajero de San Antonio (Spanish Edition of the St. Anthony Messenger). There are two types of reliquaries that were brought from Padua. One contains a piece of the rib of St. Anthony and the other contains parts of heart tissue, organs, and skin of St. Anthony (I will post close up photos this week when the relics make a second visit to Moravia). Here are some photos of our first day with relics.

Me in the trunk of the car with the relics of St. Anthony. I felt that I needed to take a photo to capture the moment. The smile on my face hopefully expresses the joy that is in my heart to have the patron of the Province that I am a part of in Costa Rica.

Here is the first Church that had the relics on display, Parroquia de San Vincente.

Here is the display of the bust of St. Anthony and the Child Jesus and people gathering to pray and take photos.

Here is Fray Victor with the small reliquary, which contains a part of St. Anthony's rib, people are coming up to him to venerate St. Anthony.

Here is another view of people venerating St. Anthony, as you can see his relics have drawn a pretty good crowd.

And lastly here is a photo of Fray Jorge being interviewed by a local TV station about the relics of St. Anthony.

It is a great blessing and testament to the faith of the people in Costa Rica to have the Relics of St. Anthony with us. St. Anthony pray for us and intercede for our prayers!

8 Aspirants visit on Sunday 8/29

2010-09-12T17:50:00.001-06:00

On Sunday, August 29 we welcomed 8 aspirants to the friary. They had spent that weekend visiting the House of Formation in Alajuela and visited our friary with Fernando and Marco. Here are two pictures from that day. One is of the aspirants listening to a talk on Religious Life given by Fernando. And the other is of us eating lunch including: the friars of Moravia, the Aspirants, Fernando, Phil Ley (who I lived with for 3 years and is living in Belen), and Javier Fontana (who is visiting from the Province Rioplatense, Argentina/Uruguay). Please keep these young men in your prayers as they continue to discern our way of life.

Here is the dessert that made for that date, Dirt Pudding aka Puden de Tierra, simple yet a goodie!

The friars liked it a lot, so much so that this past week I helped Fray Walter make it for the teacher in the Colegio.

Trip to Nicaragua...

2010-08-28T19:58:00.004-06:00

From July 14-July 17 Friars Walter, Francisco, and I took a trip to Nicaragua with 15 other teachers from Colegio Saint Francis. We left at four in the morning on Wednesday and arrived back in Moravia around eleven in the evening on Saturday night. This is the bus we took:

We spent our first day in Granada and that evening we ate Guapote Cocibolca which is a fresh water fish

from Cocibolca lake in Nicaragua and took 30 minutes to cook. Here are some photos of it. It was delicious.

The next morning we took a tour of Lake Nicaragua by boat. Lake Nicaragua has hundreds of tiny tropical islands and a favorite one among the group was an island that was the home of many monkeys which joined us on our boat for a mid-morning snack of bananas. Here are photos of one of the monkeys.

Here is a picture and a video of this little bug parasite thing that I found on my hand.

That evening we traveled to Leon and the next day enjoyed a fabulous tour of the Cathedral there. Here is photo of part of our group on the roof of the Cathedral looking out in Leon and one of the inside.

That evening we arrived in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. While we were there we were given a tour of the Cultural Institute of Nicaragua and had the pleasure of hearing the people of Managua celebrating 31 years of Independence from the dictatorship of Somoza. Here is one of my favorite paintings from the Cultural Institute, it is entitled Independinciz Total H2O by Josue Trinidad Garcia.

Then we went and visited the New Cathedral of Managua. Here are two photos of the Cathedral.

I have to say that it was not one of my favorite churches that we visited. That night a group of us went to a restaurant for dinner and enjoyed the music of Carlos Mejía Godoy y los de Palacagüina, he is native Nicaraguan and his music is popular throughout Central America. It was a great experience to see the musical side of Nicaragua and to hear everyone in the group singing along. Here is a photo of Carlso and one of Fray Walter and I enjoying the music. (And just to clarify, neither one of us was drinking wine, not because drinking wine is bad, but the fact that I can't drink it)

The next day I found a butterfly on the bus, which as you will see later enjoyed chilling on my hand.

Our last stop before heading back to Costa Rica was a visit to Volcan Masaya National Park. It was my first trip to see a volcano and though we were not able to see any lava, the trip was worth it.

Below is a photo of all of us including our tour guide and bus driver. Many of the women in the photo are women that I work with each day.

Once we got on back on the bus, the butterfly that I mentioned earlier ended up on my hand. Here is a photo of me and the butterfly and on of the butterfly on my thumb.

Lastly here is a photo of me sleeping on the bus taken by teacher Xinia.

Oh and if you want to see more photos from the trip click on the slideshow below.

Happy Birthday Jorge!

2010-08-27T19:47:00.001-06:00

On Thursday, August 19, Jorge celebrated his ??? birthday! (If you look close enough on the cake you can see how old he is) Unfortunately he was not here to celebrate. Thus we celebrated his birthday as a community on Tuesday August 24.

Within the first month of me being here I asked the friars if they do anything special for their birthdays and they said no. I proceeded to explain to them what we do in the friary in San Antonio: we get a cake, a card, a gift, and the birthday boy gets to pick the meal. Once I said that I was told "You're hired"! Well I do not think the friars thought I would remember....but I did!

On Tuesday - the first night we were all home since Jorge's birthday - I made a cake, had the card ready (signed by everyone) and the gift wrapped (picked out by Walter, Lara, and I). Jorge did not request a special meal, but he did request a "Dummy Cake" which is canned fruit, cake mix, and butter that comes out of the oven like a cobbler. Jorge wanted strawberries with yellow cake. Below is the photo of the cake.

As you can tell from the picture, I needed to use nuts to spell out Feliz Cumpleaños. I chose pecans! Why? In Costa Rica I have not been able to find the little tubes of icing that can be used to write "Happy Birthday" on cakes, so I used nuts. Next time that I need to write something on a cake I will probably just take regular icing, put it in a plastic bag, cut off one of the corners, and then write whatever it is that I need to write. Anyway, that is why yesterday I made a pecan pie, so as to use up the pecans.

And lastly here are photos of Jorge with the cake. The first one is of him laughing after blowing out the candles. The second one is of him still, he looks frustrated in the photo because in the other 5 photos I took he was blurry and in this photo he was sick of smiling. All he wanted to do was eat the cake, but I couldn't blame him for wanting to do that!

Until tomorrow....have a great Friday!

Another Day....

2010-08-26T21:11:00.000-06:00

Peace be with you everyone! I promised Teacher Ileana that I would write on my blog so I am, but this is not a real post with pictures and stuff. I promise to post more stuff tomorrow. After a full day of classes, baking a pecan pie, and making bread; I am going to study and then go to bed. Until tomorrow....

Comida divina....Heavenly food...

2010-08-22T11:05:00.000-06:00

As many of you know, I love peanut and bananas separately and when combined they are great. Today I finally got the chance to make a Fried Peanut Butter Banana Sandwich. It was heavenly to cook and to eat! To be honest I was speechless when I was eating it because no words could describe the deliciousness of the moment except...mmmmm. Below is a photo of the sandwich, it is not mine because I ate it way too fast before I could take a photo.

Link to the Photo

A Fried Peanut Butter Banana Sandwich was one of Elvis Presley's favorite sandwich. I have known this for some time and all this week I had a great craving for it. First I had to bake some Gluten Free Bread using Now Healthy Foods: Gluten-Free Baking Mix, which worked out well. And then I used my Fifty 50: Low Glycemic Creamy Peanut Butter without added Sugar with bananas from the house.

The only thing I can say now is....GO MAKE ONE FOR YOURSELF!

A day that I did not expect to come so soon...

2010-08-11T21:57:00.000-06:00

Today I experienced something that I did not expect to come so soon, the funeral of a child. Yesterday a member of the fourth grade died of a heart attack. The name of the student who died is +Andres. +Andres has had heart problems before, but it was a shock to his family and the school that he died so young and so quickly. +Andres is the second child in the primary school to pass away in one year. Early this year a student by the name of +Gustavo died of cancer.

Today was the funeral of +Andres; it is customary for the funeral to be the next day in Costa Rica. I have never been to a funeral for someone so young nor have I ever served a funeral for someone so young. The prayers that were prayed were so beautiful, but it is sad to know that they needed to be written in the first place and yet I am glad that they have been written at the same.

Yesterday, when I heard about +Andres’ death I knew it intellectually and in my brain. I went over to the Primary School with Friars Jorge and Walter and spent some time with Director Rosario and the secretaries. I also took the time to e-mail the homeroom teacher of +Andres. However, it was not until the funeral that I knew +Andres’ death emotionally and in my heart. Seeing all of the flower arrangements in the chapel, seeing students and teachers crying, and seeing +Andres' parents pushing the casket of there only son made the situation real for me.

I knew that in my time being active in the Church and being with the friars I would expect to be a part of a funeral for a child; I did not expect it to be during formation, on my Apostolic Year, in Costa Rica, and during my third week at the school. I have reflected on so much today. I reflected on what it would be like to have lost a child. I reflected on what it must be like for +Andres in heaven. I have reflected about how I have taken for granted my time with the children at the school. In addition, I reflected about my own mortality.

Before going back to teaching, I decided to witness a ritual present here in Costa Rica. At the end of the funeral people where given balloons and everyone let them go into the sky. As I released mine, I said, "Goodbye Andres, please watch over us." Then to my surprise the parents opened the coffin of +Andres. I was unsure if was going to pay my respects to +Andres in the coffin or not. But I did. It was powerful to see him dressed in a t-shirt and jeans; after all he is a child. The coffin had a glass cover between the lid and +Andres' body, I touched the lid near his face and said "Goodbye Andres." I was unable to go up to +Andres' parents in person, but I did in spirit.

Today is a day that I will not forget. As I went to my room in the friary to get stuff for teaching, I walked through the chapel and took some Calla Lilies that fell from the flower arrangements which was placed on +Andres' coffin during the Funeral Liturgy - in total there were three. I have placed them in a glass with other flowers and hope to keep them for the year as a reminder that my life is in God's hand and not mine.

I may not understand death and especially the death of a child, but I do understand the God is love and the whole world is in God's hands. I have to believe in the Resurrection promised by Jesus! I say this not because I am a Christian, nor because I am a Catholic, and not because I am a friar. I say this not because I am supposed to believe in it either, rather I say this because I DO believe in the Resurrection. The Resurrection is something that I believe in my gut. It is difficult to explain. Looking at the faith present in the eyes of the parents and family of +Andres, in the voice of the friars during Mass, in the tears of the students, and in very sacrifice of the Eucharist, I know that the Resurrection is real. Some people may think that I am crazy, but one explanation of faith is trusting when all else tells you not to. Granted I do not have all the answers, nor do I claim to have them, yet part of life's wonder is its mystery. It takes faith to not only accept this mystery, but to embrace and to love it too (I read that somewhere).

On this Feast of St. Clare may she greet +Andre in Heaven and together may we all praise the Lord!

Teatro Nacional - My two visits...

2010-08-11T20:02:00.002-06:00

I arrived to Costa Rica on Friday, June 25 and the next day I got the chance to visit the Teatro Nacional aka the National Theatre. Below are photos of the Teatro Nacional:

The Outside of the Building

The Stage

The different types of seating

A close-up of the ceiling

This photo is obviously not in the Teatro Nacional, but it is outside of it. As some of you may know there is a great homemade ice cream shop in Old Town Alexandria, VA (USA); which I loved to go to, so this photo is in honor of Pops in VA. There is a Pops Ice Cream shop located very close to the National Theatre and it is a chain of Ice Cream in Costa Rica.

My First Visit: For my first visit to the Teatro Nacional I was invited by Fray Walter along with Fray David to see two concerts.

The first concert was entitled Camerata Preparatoria and was directed by Lorna Costillo

The second concert was entitled Orquesta Sinfonica Infantil and was directed by Miguel Peña. This concert featured one of Fray Walter's students playing the flute, he is the person that gave us the tickets to the concert.

My Second Visit: My second visit to the Teatro Nacional took place this past Sunday, August 8th (which was my father's 69th birthday). Friars Maury, Francisco, Walter and I along with Yamilet (The Administrative Secretary of St. Francis College), Isabelle (Primary School Secretary of St. Francis College - Yamilet and her are sisters), and Marta (Physical Education Coordinator of St. Francis College) We went to see La Italiana en Argelia. Here is a link to the story in Spanish and English. The show was great.

The view from our seats

Friars Francis, Francisco, Maury and I. (We took two group photos, in one Maury has his eyes closed and in the other Francis has his eyes closed. The photo above has Francisco's eyes closed, so below is a photo of him with his eyes open) *This photo was taken by Yamilet*

After the show we went to a great restaurant called Tin Jo. It was fabulous! I cheated on my fructose intolerance that night hardcore. Besides eating onions in my fried rice (which was huge), I had two desserts. One was Banana's Tempura and Vanilla Ice Cream and the other was a Tres Leches Cake that Francisco, Maury, and I split. Thank goodness I was very vigilant the week before because my body handled the food pretty well.

Finally Costa Rica: Welcome to my new home!

2010-08-11T18:44:00.003-06:00

Hello Everyone! Peace be with you! I am so glad to be finally up to my time in Costa Rica. This post attempts to give you a tour of the friary through photos. Please note that I have removed some of the photos from the below slideshow that were here before out of respect for the privacy of the friars. Thank you for understanding. I say "attempts" because this is my first time embedding a slideshow with photos. So sit back relax and enjoy the show!

Two New Foods: Liver and Rabbit

2010-08-05T21:35:00.016-06:00

Living in Costa Rica I expected to eat different foods particularly when it came to fruits, but to my surprise I have come to eat different meats as well. During my first week here I ate liver (higado in Spanish) for the first time (of recent memory at least). I ate one piece along with a lot of rice and beans with eat bite. I have to say that I was not thrilled by it and have not craved it since then. Today we had liver on the menu for lunch and I avoided it, the smell of the meat got to me, and I could not eat any of it. Interestingly it is not a favorite of the friars here either. When it came for dinner time, Fray Victor chose to make something new to eat instead of the liver.

To my surprise Fray Victor made rabbit (conejo in Spanish). It was DELICIOUS! The meat was juicy, tasted good, and felt light to the stomach. I liked it so much that I went for seconds. Fray Victor jokingly asked "How does Bugs Bunny taste?" I said, "Good, but I prefer to think that I am eating Thumper from Bambi." He and the other friars laughed.

Well as you can tell from the last two posts, I am FINALLY caught up to my time in Costa Rica. I hope that you enjoy it...Pura Vida!

375 Years

2010-08-04T20:00:00.007-06:00

On August 2, 1635 - 375 years ago - the Apparition of Our Lady of the Angels (Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles) occurred in Cartago, Costa Rica, she is the Patron of the country. Each year on August 2 and the days surrounding it, people from all over the country walk to the Basilica that was build in Mary's honor based on her request. The walk is called "la romerá"! On Sunday, August 1 of this year I had planned to make "la romerá" but I was sick on Friday and Saturday with a virus and was too weak to make the 3-4 hour trip from Moravia to Cartago. Instead, I made the cake you see below for the friars in honor of that Patronal Feast of the Costa Rica. For those who would like to know it is a confetti cake with vanilla icing and M&Ms.
The next photo is of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in the Basilica. Though I was not able to make "la romerá" to see her near her feast day, I did get to see her the weekend prior. The actual image of Our Lady of Angels is very small. Here are the dimensions: height: 148.55 mm or 5.8 inches, width: 73.17mm or 2.9 inches, and weight: 1085.12grams or 2.4 pounds. It is to be noted that it was only last year (September 18, 2009) that La Negrita was scientifically examined closely. It is perhaps the smallest of the famous images of the Virgin Mary. Mary and the child Jesus in her arms are surrounded by an ornate dress and mantle made of gold, silver, and jewels.
Before I go any further, here is the story of the apparition of Our Lady of Angels adapted from a book called Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles Patrona de Costa Rica by Franco Fernández Esquivel.
-On August 2, 1635 a young wood-gatherer, a mulatto (Mixed Race) named Juana Pereira, went out for firewood for her home. With great joy she found, on a very big stone, a little image, about eight inches high of a dark color cut in stone, representing the Most Holy Virgin Mary with her child in her arms. The girl joyfully took the image home and placed it in a small basket.
-Next day she went again to gather firewood and found, on the same stone, an image as on the preceding day.
-Thinking it was another one, she went home joyfully imagining she had two images, but on looking into the small basket, she found, to her great astonishment, that the one she brought home the preceding day was not there. She then decided to keep the image under lock and key, thinking that perhaps someone had taken it back to the woods.
-On the third day, going again to the woods, she found once more the little dark image, on the same stone. This time, upset and afraid, she hurried home with the image, opened her case, and saw to her great surprise that the “other one” was not there.
-She then ran to the curate’s (priest’s or pastor’s) house, told him what had happened to her and game him the image. The curate, not giving much importance to the matter, kept the image, but when he looked for it the next morning, to examine it more carefully, he discovered that it had disappeared. He went to the woods, and found the image on the stone, whereupon he brought it back to the Church with him and this time placed it in the Tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament.
-The day passed. The next morning during the celebration of Mass, the presiding priest, at the time of giving Holy Communion to the people, noticed the unusual thing: the image had fled!
-After Mass, in the company of the other priests, he went to the stone; there was the Lady: She wanted them to erect a Church on that spot. The “dark lady” (“Negrita” as she is affectionately called by Costa Ricans) wanted all to be children of one God and therefore brothers and sisters. She wanted to be the guiding star of the “Very Noble and Very Loyal City” of Cartago: she wanted to the “Queen of the Angels,” the “Queen”, also of the “dark skinned”, and the Queen of the “ticos”
Here is the home of La Negrita.
Here is the inside of her home. As you can see the center part of the church is open and without pews. This center aisle is always open for people to kneel and make their way to pray for the intercession of La Negrita. It is a powerful thing to watch and to see the faith present in the hearts and minds of the Costa Ricans.
This photo above is from the a display case that is located below the Basilica. What you are looking at are called Exvotos. Exvotos are offerings or promises that show our faith in God. Regularly they give expression to a grace or a petition that has been fulfilled through the intercession of La Negrita. For example if an arm was healed an arm is hung or if someone's body was cured of cancer a body is hung. There must be hundreds if not a thousand of these Exvotes displayed there.
Here is a photo of the Scripture quote that leads one into a circle walk way to flowing faucets of water. The translation of this passage from Psalm 42 in English is "As the deer looks/seeks/longs for streams of water, so my soul looks/seeks/longs for you, O God."
Here is a photo of people and the water. A person can drink the water, wash parts of their body with the water, or take some of water back to their home. The water scene here was present at this location before the apparition of Our Lady of Angels occurred, but now the flowing water has taken on a religious, spiritual, and healing meaning for people.
Here is a banner which was made in honor of the 375th Anniversary of Our Lady of Angels
Lastly this is a photo of Our Lady of the Angels in the Chapel next to the friary. Since I was not able to visit the Basilica I made a mini romerá in our Chapel.

Last Visit to the MD Area before Costa Rica

2010-08-04T18:15:00.011-06:00

On Friday, June 19, I made a surprise visit to see my best friend Michael Tenney and his band (The Understudies) in honor of them finishing - okay almost finishing - their first album. The album will be out this Fall so look out! It was a great surprise, I planned it with Laura Van Duzer, his other bandmate. As I was getting out of the car when Pokey said, "Your Friar Lair!" He said this because earlier in the day I told him that I was not coming. It was a great time included being recorded for the album (trust me, I am not singing), a bonfire, brats, friends, and an ice cream cake. Not to brag, but I brought the ice cream cake below and put the band's logo on it. God bless the young women at Cold Stone who put it on the cake for me!
The Ice Cream Cake - I think it would have been a disaster if Cold Stone tried to make black icing - so red had to work...see the real logo colors below
Here is a photo of Michael and Laura
The Original Logo

*The photos about the Understudies were not take by me. The three photos that follow were.*

The following day I was blessed to see Nancy, Pete, and the Baby as well as Pete's Family at their house in MD. Here are some photos from the visit. Sophia doing some tummy time as Nancy and Pete watch
Opa playing with Sophia
Sophia in a mid-dance pose!

The Nature of Lake Louise

2010-08-04T18:15:00.010-06:00

My previous post was on my cousin Andre's wedding to Meghan at Lake Louise, but I failed to show any photos of the lake. Well here they are as well as other nature centered photos. I hope that you enjoy them. Thanks to the Poor Clare Sister of Bordentown, NJ I have learned how to attach photos from Picasa site to my blog; therefore the last image in this post is a slideshow of all of the nature photos I took.
The Chateau and Lake Louise
Horseback riding Adventure Number One: Me on Horse with the Chateau and the Lake behind me. I have to say that riding a horse has been on my Bucket List for the past 2-3 years and I got to fulfill that dream at Lake Louise. We had some free time so I went! *This photo was taken by Matt the riding instructor.*
A map of the Mountains
A real photo of the Mountains
The boats you can take out for a row or two
Me on a boat
Boat view of the Chateau
Boat view of the Mountains
A close up of the water. *This photo was not taken by me, but by Pete*
Horseback riding Adventure Number Two: When some of my cousins arrived to Lake Louise I told them how I went horseback riding and they decided to do it too. Interestingly they only wanted to do the hour and a half ride and I said, "You are going to want to do the three hour ride when you see that horses!" and they said "No", but after all we went on the three hours course. So below are more nature pics. This photo above is probably when of my favorite photos that I have every taken and it was done on a horse!
Mirror Lake - If I remember correctly it is called "mirror" lake because when looked at from above it gives a reflection like a mirror.
Lake Agnes
A waterfall being supplied by Lake Agnes
Me and Lake Agnes
The view of the Chateau from Lake Agnes
Me and the view from Lake Agnes behind me
A Moose Sighting!
At a closer look it is Sophia...isn't she and the outfit precious? *This photo was taken by either Peter or Nancy not me*

A photo of Moraine Lake with a rainbow.

Please click on the image if you would like it enlarged:

My Cousin's Wedding at Lake Louise

2010-08-03T18:53:00.010-06:00

Calling all of Andre and Meghan's family and friends to a beautiful yet remote location! That is right my cousin Andre married his fiance Meghan in Lake Louise, Canada which is about two hours north of Calgary. On Saturday, June 12 in The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise Andre and Meghan were married. Below are a bunch of photos from the wedding. Sorry for the amount, but I had to brag - Andre is one of my first cousins from my mom's side.

*All of the Photos in this post were not take by me, but are a combination of many cameras, as always please do no use without permission*

Meghan and Andre exchanging their wedding vows!

The Groomsman (Rami at the far left is the Best Man, Andre's Brother, and my cousin. Patrick, the second guy from Rami is also a cousin.)
The Bridesmaids
Andre and Meghan's first kiss as husband and wife.
Groom's side - Uncle Adel, Meghan, Andre, Paula (my mom's sister), and Rami.
Bride's side - Dad, Grandma, Meghan, Andre, Mom, and Brother

The next set of photos are an ode to the family (Sorry that I did not have the group photo of everyone):
Uncles and Grandmom from Andre's side of the family
Nancy, Pete, and Sophia
Alex - I love this one
Taunt Salwa - all the way from Egypt!
My mom and Sophia

The Reception:
The Couple's first dance
Me giving a blessing before we eat! Now here is a funny story, I was trying to make sure that I did not forget Meghan's name; so I kept running her name in my head over and over "Meghan Elliott, Meghan Elliott, Meghan Elliott." Well I remembered it so much that I forgot my own cousin's first name. In the prayer I said "the wedding of Meghan and Elliott" instead of Meghan and Andre! I know how I could I, but I did. Thankfully Andre took it in stride and so do I so that I could actually finish the blessing.
The cake cutting!
An Egyptian Wedding Reception would not be complete with a Belly Dancer - Here is a photo of my Uncle Ashraf and the Belly Dancer - Words could never describe this photo with justice
Me and my cousins (Rami and Andre)
Me and the Beautiful Couple
The Next Day - Check out the Onesie Nancy and Pete got made
A close-up of Sophia and the onesie

Renewal of Vows

2010-08-02T17:25:00.003-06:00

On Tuesday, June 8, 2010 I renewed my Simple vows! Why? The answer is simple, since I professed my Simple vows for the first time 3 years ago (July 21, 2010) and I am in Costa Rica for the year, my vows would have expired during my time here - hence why I renewed my Simple vows before I came to Costa Rica. God willing, August 15, 2011 I will profess my Solemn Vows.
Here is a picture of me professing my vows. The picture was taken by Erin Craine.

For those who are interested here is the Vow Formula that the friars profess:

To the praise and the glory of the Most Holy Trinity, I, Friar Nader Nabil Ata, inspired by divine grace to follow the Gospel more closely in the footsteps of our Lord, Jesus Christ, with faith and will, in the presence of my brothers, into your hands Friar James, vow to God, the Holy and Omnipotent Father, to extend my Simple Vows for 15 months to live in obedience, without anything of my own, and in chastity. I also promise to observe faithfully the life and Rule of the Friars Minor confirmed by Pope Honorius III according to the Constitutions of the Order of Friar Minor Conventual. Therefore, I commit myself to this fraternity with my whole heart, so that, by the working of the Holy Spirit, the example of Mary Immaculate, the intercession of our Father Francis and all the Saints, with the help of my brothers, in service of God, the Church and humanity, I may attain perfect charity.

Response of the Provincial:
And I, in the name of the Church and our Brotherhood, receive your vows and on part of Almighty God, if you observe them, I promise you eternal life.

The parts of the Vow Formula that are italicized are that way because they are the parts of the formula that changes depending on the Friar, the Provincial, the type of vows (Simple or Solemn) and the length of the profession (Three years, One year, or for life)

I try to renew my vows each day as well because I think it is important and a great reminder to me that my life is in God's hands and is for God's People.

Sophia's Baptism

2010-08-02T15:18:00.007-06:00

On Saturday, May 23, 2010 both my Family and the Church had much to celebrate for Sophia Anne was Baptized. Not only was Sophia baptized, but she entered the Church with four other babies. Here are some pictures from that great day!
This is a picture of Sophia in Nancy's arms before the Baptism began. It is to be noted that Sophia is wearing the same Baptismal Garment that Nancy wore at her Christening.
Here is a picture of the Baptismal Candle that was made for Sophia by Fr. Joe who not only baptized Sophia by married Nancy and Pete 3 years ago. This picture was taken in the Sophia's bedroom after the Baptism had occurred.
Sophia being baptized! You cannot tell in this picture, but Sophia was a crying during the Baptismal Ceremony...she was hungry!
The Family after the Baptism
Sophia, her parents, and her godparents (Chris and Mariko)
My Family and Sophia
Pete's Family and Sophia
Sophia with her cake in the front and the gifts she got everyone in the back!

*I did not take all of the pictures in this post, only the one of the Baptismal Candle and the one of Sophia with her cake*

My First Day of Teaching...

2010-07-26T21:09:00.002-06:00

Peace be with you! Today was my first day of teaching at Colegio St. Francis in the English Department of the Primary School. At 7:30am I celebrated Mass and Morning Prayers with the friars. After Mass and Prayers I ate breakfast and then went over to the school with Fray Walter. I was so nervous to meet the Director of the Primary Schools, to meet the teachers, and of course to meet the students. Thanks be to God it was not as bad as I thought. The Director was very nice and helpful. The teachers were very welcoming and excited about my presence in the primary school; actually 5 of the professors in the Primary school went on the trip with me to Nicaragua. I think the students were glad to see me as well, but it was also their first day back from a long break and it was a Monday.

My ministry at the school is to work with the English-Conversation classes for grades 1-6. Since every student is expected to learn English as well as to continue their studies of Spanish, there is a class dedicated just to conversation in English. Each grade also has English class where they learn grammar, spelling, and such. I will help the teachers to encourage the students to speak and practice their English. I will be teaching or conversing each day with various grades from 8:25am until 2:30pm. There are breaks throughout the day so I am not teaching constantly. On Mondays and Wednesdays I will go to Spanish class from 3pm-5pm and on Fridays I will go to Spanish class from 1pm-5pm.

An interesting observation I made today was that in Spanish a teacher is called maestro/a or profesor/a, but in the Primary School the teachers are called teachers. I thought that this was only in the English Class, but I found out that even in the Spanish Class the teachers are called teachers - the Spanish translation of the world is not used.

Well until next time....ciao!

First Meal In Costa RIca...

2010-07-25T20:27:00.003-06:00

Hello everyone! Peace be with you! Today I COOKED my first meal in Costa Rica! I prepared spaghetti with a bolognese sauce and spinach on the side. I also prepared a salad of cucumbers, tomato, and fresh mozzarella. There was bread too. For dessert was a chocolate bunt cake with chocolate frosting and multi-colored sprinkles. Thankfully it was a hit with the friars, as one of the friars said "You are hired!"

Tomorrow begins my first day of teaching! I meet with the director of the primary school tomorrow to find out what I will be doing! Wish me luck!

Summer Adventures Before Costa Rica...

2010-07-19T18:13:00.009-06:00

Before my arrival in Costa Rica many wonderful moments of friendship, fellowship, and fun occurred. Below are pictures of some of them:

VISIT OF THE BAPTISTINES: On May 20 and 21st I was blessed to spend time visiting with Brothers David (One of my Novitiate classmates) and Augustine who recently formed The Brothers of St. John the Baptist; an Association of the Faithful in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. They are a newly formed contemplative community of religious brothers who rely on the work of their hands to support themselves (ie. soap, incense, candle making, and tailoring), as well as donations from benefactors.
Br. David and I
Brs. Augustine, David and I

VISITING WITH MAKRANCE: Lauren and I got the pleasure of seeing other during my visit home. I did not get a picture of her and I, but I do have a picture of her and my niece. Lauren and I did enjoy a great dinner out at P.F. Chang's which has a great gluten free menu.

VISIT BACK TO THE NOVITIATE: After two years since my last visit I had the grace to go back to the Novitiate. From those that do not know, the Novitiate is where I received my habit and where I professed my first vows after a year of study, prayer, discernment, and work. Below are two pictures: one is of the novices from the past year and their directors and the other is of me with the novices and Br. Paschal.

(This picture was taken by Fr. Robert)

VISIT WITH VINCENT: During my visit to the Novitiate I drove out to Carey, OH and spend some time with Vincent. Vincent and I lived in San Antonio for two years and he discerned to leave the novitiate during the past year. Carey is a very small village and it did not have a bowling alley so we drove to Findlay to be able to bowl. Below are three pictures of us at the bowling alley. First, there is one of Vincent bowling a spare. Second, is one of me bowling a strike. Third, is a picture of our final score: I won 146 to 108 and had 4 strikes that game. *Note: this is the first game I have ever won against Vincent*

Lastly is a picture of Vincent and I outside the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation before I drove back into the Novitiate.

VISITING THE ROGER'S FAMILY FOR THE FIRST TIME: On Saturday, July 7 was the Baptism on Ruth Cecilia, the first born child of Ed and Liz Rogers. Funny story, I never actually saw the Baptism, I was stuck in traffic with Erin, Rick, Ricky, and Lauren and never saw the Baptism live. I did have the chance to watch the video of the Baptism while at the party at Ed and Liz's. Below are some pictures from that day. First, is of Ed, Liz, and Ruthie talking through Skype with Liz's family in Texas. Next, is a picture of Ed and Ruthie; followed by a picture of Liz and Ruthie. Finally in this set is a picture of Ruth and I.

VISITING THE CRAINE FAMILY: As usual, I enjoyed a lovely Sunday dinner with Erin, Rick, Ricky, Lauren, Ryan, and Laura. Here are great pictures of this fun evening. First, is a picture of Ricky, isn't he cute! Next, is a picture of Ricky and I. Then there is a picture of Rick and Ricky and one of Erin, Lauren, and Ricky. Lastly, there is a picture of Ryan and Laura.

Back from Nicaragua and baking...

2010-07-18T17:45:00.004-06:00

Hello Everyone! Peace be with you! I hope that all is well. I had a wonderful time in Nicaragua, met some great people, saw some gorgeous churches, and ate some delicious food! I was going to post some pictures as promised, but instead I chose to make a post about a new adventure of mine. Today was the first day at baking! Over the past three weeks I have not found any gluten free bread in Costa Rica so I have begun to bake some instead. Using Pamela's Gluten Free Bread and Flour Mix I have made my first loaf of bread. Below is are pictures of the mixture I am using and my first loaf of bread - a classic white loaf with medium crust.. A second loaf is baking in the bread maker - an Italian white loaf with medium crust. I have already found out that I need to make sure that I use a TSP when the recipe says so and not a TBSP. I have been putting too much yeast in the bread and it is very dense, but you live and learn!

Nicaragua Bound...

2010-07-13T21:25:00.003-06:00

As of tomorrow at 4am I am off to Nicaragua with Walter, Francisco, and some of the teachers from the school. I will not be back until Saturday and will post pictures, from my time before Costa Rica, My Cousin Andre's wedding, Costa Rica, and my time in Nicaragua. Sorry for being so behind. Until then...God Bless!

Sophia and I

2010-07-13T21:06:00.007-06:00

On Saturday May 22, I finally got to meet Sophia Anne for the first time in person! All of the pictures to follow is an ode to that time!

Sophia Eating
Sophia Burping
Me trying to look at Sophia was looking at.
Sophia and I
Sophia Smiling

Sophia Sleeping in my Arms

(The pictures in this post were not taken by me)

I am an Uncle...Sophia Anne is born

2010-07-13T19:07:00.011-06:00

Introducing SOPHIA ANNE!!! On St. Patrick's Day my family welcomed a precious gift from God. Nancy and Pete became first-time parents, my mom and dad as well as Pete's parents become first-time grandparents, and my brother Alex and I as well as Pete's brother Mike became first-time Uncles and Pete's sister Sue became a first-time aunt. As you can imagine much joy filled our hearts on that day.

Here are the Facts:
Name: Sophia Anne
Date: March 17, 2010
Time: 4:25pm (EST)
Weight: 7 pounds and 7 ounces
Length: 20.5 inches long

Above is a picture of Sophia Anne inside the womb and below is a picture of Sophia Anne outside the womb on her birthday!

(Note that Sophia is wearing a green knit hat because it is St. Patrick's Day, if she was born on any other day she would be wearing a pink hat)
The New Family: Nancy, Pete, and Sophia Anne!

My brother bearing many gifts! You can't see them in this picture, but one balloon says "Mazel Tov" and another one says "Es Nina."

Proud Uncle Alex

Proud Grandparents - My Mom and Dad

Proud Omo and Opa - Pete's Parents

Proud Taunt Sue

Sophia Yawning on Her Birthday

Isn't she precious! Next post will be of pictures of Sophia and I!

(The pictures in this post were not taken by me)

Sunday through the eyes of my camera....

2010-07-13T14:02:00.008-06:00

Here are pictures from the day of reflection and chapter we had on Sunday! The first two are pictures of the location of our day and the view of Costa Rica from that place.

The next two pictures are of a coffee plantation. I never knew that coffee beans grew on a tree. These coffee beans will go from green to yellow and finally to red when they are ready for harvesting.

Below are pictures of mangos on a mango tree and mango that is broken open to prove it. I still like mangos though I am not supposed to eat them. I believe this is the first time I have seen a mango tree in my life.

Here are pictures of a chicken coop that the sister's have on their property. It was pretty cool to watch them during feeding time. The sister's have about 80 chickens that are separated into two rooms.

And last but not least is a picture of the friary as of Sunday. I say this because David will be going to the friary in Alajuela, CR by the end of this week and Peter will only be here until August 2.

Above are the friars that I have the pleasure of living with for the summer and for the next year. From right to left are Friars: Maury, Francisco (or Chico), Jorge, Victor, Walter, Peter, David, and Me!

Website Difficulties

2010-07-12T20:58:00.008-06:00

Sorry folks, but something is not working with the picture uploading on the website. I will try to post up some more stuff tomorrow! Until then, sleep with the angels!

An interesting day...

2010-07-11T21:43:00.003-06:00

Today I wanted to make a dessert for the friars called "Dummy Cake" which tastes like a cobbler or an apple crisp when it is finished. The dessert is called "Dummy Cake" because a dummy can make it. You preheat an oven to 350°. Then you take a 9x13 pan and grease it up. Next you put two cans of pie filling, any kind, but I used apple today. After that take a box of pre-maid cake mix and spread it evenly on top of the fruit. Once that is done, cut thin slices of butter and layer the slices in rows covering the entire pan; which is about 1 1/2 to 2 sticks (max). If you miss a spot that part of the cake mix with not be cooked by the butter when baking. Anyway pop the cake in the oven for 45 minutes until golden brown and you have yourself a scrumdiddliumcious dessert which is amazing with ice cream.

Ok now back to the story, I was getting the cake all ready, but there was one problem; I could not turn the oven on! So I asked two of the friars and they said that they have never used the oven, but finally one of the friars did. Anyway they loved the dessert and it was a joy to be in the kitchen again. Besides that my day was interesting because we had a day of reflection and a house chapter on the grounds of a convent and I saw three things that I had never seen before. One was mango trees. Two was a coffee plantation, and red coffee and that. And three was a chicken barn.

Well it is time for me to go to bed, I will post pictures from today tomorrow. Adios

My first tremblor....earthquake!

2010-07-08T21:42:00.002-06:00

Peace be with you! Well honestly it is my second earthquake while in Costa Rica because a couple of nights ago I slept through one that occurred in the middle of the night. The earthquake that occurred today was the first one that I have ever felt. During class everything started to shake and I thought it was just me imagining things, but my professor said, "No, it was is an earthquake." It occurred for a couple seconds, but enough to make me forget how to speak in Spanish and English.

Well I am off to do my homework! Until next time...peace!