Primary Presentation - Costa Rican Style

Wow I wish it were even appropriate for me to take pictures in church. On Sunday we decided to find the ward building in Cartago. Church started at 9:00 Am with Sacrament meeting, so we gave ourselves a half an hour to take a taxi to the building. As mentioned before, addresses here in Costa Rica are based off of distances from landmarks, such as 50 meters north from the old dried river, then 100 meters west, etc. So we had no idea looking at the address where the meeting house would be in Cartago.

Luckily for us though the taxi was inexpensive and we knew exactly where we were when he dropped us off. The Cartago ward house is located near the bus terminal on the outskirts of downtown Cartago. We had been there the day before when we went to the mall and Taco Bell outside of San Jose. Knowing where we were we decided to walk home from church when it was over.

When we arrived in the building, everyone was busy but also everyone stopped by to shake our hands and welcome us. It was Primary program day! I mean seriously, could I have picked a better day to come to church besides maybe Christmas or Easter? Best Sunday of the year! Plus I was so excited to see how the primary program would differ from the one we were planning at home.

When church began I noticed that the person in charge of playing the piano did not come. I was SO anxious to play, but couldn't figure out 1) how to ask, 2) who to ask, and 3) where the piano music was. It seems that everyone here brings their own hymn books to church and each of the children had a paper copy of the songs they were singing. But no public books. So I didn't play :( That would have just made my day to play in Cartago just like I did in France. Sad!

Well the children sang He Sent His Son, Follow the Prophet (many verses), Praise to the Man, and Our Saviors Love. They didn't sing the new song that we got this year with the theme, and there were no actions to songs (one of my favorite tools to help the kids learn). It was very cute though, and I was impressed with how well they did without a pianist.

We attended Sunday School after the primary program was over and then decided to walk home from there. We stopped at a bakery, which smells almost exactly like the bakeries in France, to buy lunch of a mini pizza and juice box. The juice box was for me, but take note that apple juice is NOT the same in Costa Rica.