From Big Lick to Big Creek

I was reading the history of San Isidro the other day just for fun and found out that its original name was Quebrada Grande, or Big Creek. It was later named after San Isidro Labrador (Labrador means farmer) because the people wanted to pay homage to the patron saint of farming. For those of you that aren’t from Roanoke, or even if you are and never knew, Roanoke was called Big Lick for a while supposedly because there were a lot of sugar deposits that the deer would lick. It’s always fun to discover random connections like that!

I wanted to let you guys know about an opportunity that you could take advantage of to help support a new dance group this year in the elementary school in San Isidro. Five years ago, they formed a folkloric dance group comprised of students from 1^st through 6^th grades. They bought a dozen or so outfits and these outfits have been used year after year since the formation of the group. This year, they decided to start a popular dance group. It already has 33 members, has been practicing for over a month and just had its first performance today in the school arts festival. The only problem is that they don’t have any outfits for the group because there’s simply no money to buy them. I’ve been working with the school’s guidance counselor filling out a grant application for $500 from Kids to Kids, but even if we’re awarded the grant we’ll still be short a couple hundred bucks. That’s where you come in! I’m a little premature in writing about all of this because I don’t have the account I need quite yet to receive donations through the Peace Corps, but I thought I’d get the information out there while I was thinking about it and update you on the specifics later. Basically, I’ll provide you with a link to the Peace Corps website that allows you to donate money directly to me for my project and I will be sure to keep you all updated on its progress!

I was at the performance today taking pictures and videos of the group for the forms I had to fill out. Since they don’t have outfits yet, the boys wore white shirts with blue jeans and the girls white shirts with blue jean skirts. I thought that the popular dance group would be like breakdancing and stuff like that, but I think it’s just latin dancing that isn’t Costa Rican. It’s basically traditional dances that come from other countries instead of the truly Costa Rican traditional dancing that the folkloric group does. I took a video that I’m going to upload to YouTube. I’ll share the link in my next post. Chao!