Updates from Our Branch in Costa Rica: Holidays, New Year’s, TV, Renovations, T-Shirts & More

Happy New Year greetings from Costa Rica, where we rang out the old year and brought in the new with some lovely moments to share.

We extended and renovated our home to allow us to help more mobility challenged members and to hold classes upstairs and downstairs at the same time. We removed part of the wall downstairs to give us a practice area and now we have a washroom with walker/wheelchair access and many more wall bars. The space is welcoming and provides a much more balanced feel to the clubhouse.

At our Christmas meal we had the pleasure of music from the niece of a member who played three pieces for violin, the husband of a member who played flute, and by DJ, a new assistant, who sang and accompanied herself on guitar with renditions to stir the heart. We reviewed the year in pictures and videos and enjoyed the customary raffle, for which members bring cheeses, plants, and other gifts from their businesses to give to others. Rolando gave a testimonial of how he had arrived at the club in August with ten hernias, unable to walk upstairs and with three doctors recommending immediate surgery to remove discs and reduce his mobility by 70%. After three months of 90 minutes a day of Don Yus he was able to return to work for the Red Cross in Africa, without surgery, no longer needing pain medication, and with reflexes in his leg that he had lost 10 years before.

The seasonal collection of food, clothes and presents for 10 families in need has been opened up into an ongoing support throughout the year with school items, clothes, and food being regularly donated by members and with monthly visits to families. This outreach into the community is helping everyone understand more about who we are and bringing much joy and relief to those we are able to help.

In addition to the new year demos in parks we had a TV crew in to make a program in our home for National TV, which screen on a recent morning show. They took 90 minutes of footage to record classes and taped interviews with the branch president and two members about the benefits of Taoist Tai Chi™ internal arts and methods.

We finally connected with a dependable t-shirt company who provided a good quality product, in biodegradable bags, in time for the students in seven new classes to have their tshirts at the start the year. The design competition for the New Year t-shirt is underway.

Wayne and Janet presented the club a framed Dragon carved out of leather during the Christmas meal and Victoria has created a water dragon design on the windows of our new extension.

We are now preparing for and looking forward to our Chinese New Year banquet next month.

Kung Hey Fat Choi!

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