Christmas in San José

Those who are familiar with the film "The Holiday" have surely heard of "Santa Anna," the wind that blows around Christmas in Los Angeles. It's similar here. For some time now, there’s been a strong wind, so it’s advisable to have a jacket on hand. However, when the sun is shining, it can get warm quite quickly. These trade winds are known here as "Alisios" or also Papagayo winds.

Since the organizer for the nativity play on Christmas Eve was unable to participate due to illness, Martin and I had to improvise. Children and parents volunteered, and we gathered after the service on the 4th Advent to assign roles. Martin had a script for the nativity play from four years ago in Lima, where nothing could be rehearsed due to the Corona pandemic. Thus, Martin and I narrated the Christmas story in a child-friendly manner, and the children reenacted it with costumes and props. We sang a lot in between, always matching the lyrics. The service was very well received, and the children were fully engaged and very proud. Two children also got to ring the bell with me at the beginning and the end. The second service, also with a full church, was quite festive. The congregation here sings very robustly. A visitor from Germany accompanied with the viola, and the postlude was performed by a horn player from the USA, organized by the ambassador. After the two services, both of us were quite exhausted. There was no service on December 25th. However, we received an invitation to dinner from a church warden who is particularly close to me. We had red cabbage and roast pork, and for dessert, Christmas cookies and mulled wine. Two Ticas were also invited, which meant we only spoke Spanish.

And we had a video call with our children, which was especially important to us.

By chance, we learned that depending on the last digit of your car's license plate, you may not be allowed to drive on certain weekdays. That means the city would actually be much busier. However, we were blissfully unaware and were lucky not to have been stopped.

Here in San José, there is a crazy intersection: it practically crosses over, meaning the entire traffic lane on the right switches to the left and vice versa, and then back after the intersection. The traffic light helps with this quite well. At the same time, there are on-ramps to a highway.

Now for something very personal: after much consideration before Christmas, we decided to return to Germany in January exactly after three months. The living situation here in San José exceeds our strength and significantly affects our health reserves. Therefore, we will have to forgo some things: visits from Germany, from Lima, a visit from the pastor who applied for this position, our trip to Lima and Panama. We believe this is the best decision for both of us. And we are very much looking forward to seeing our children and grandchildren, to our cozy home, and to the peace. At the beginning of January, we will still go to a national park for a few days, which almost didn’t work out. I will report on that next time. And on January 21, 2026, we hopefully will arrive in Germany safe and sound.