| Success in good
works inspires further good works, if recent events at the populated
end of Lake Arena - the windmill-festooned west end - may be generalized.
The new children's library in Tilaran continues to be well-used on
its schedule of 10 to 5 Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, many kids
having exchanged their first books for new ones, according to the
report of Suzi Butterfield, Ladies of the Lake secretary. Children
who bring their books back on time are allowed to use the crafts table,
a popular privilege. Though there is a paid librarian, volunteers
have helped with the crafts table and reading circle, and more such
volunteers will be welcome.
Besides brainstorming for
more fund-raising ideas for the library, the Ladies have started
to help on a new project named Safe Play in the growing village
of Sabalito, where, according to Helena Buell, the number of children
has increased from six to 30 in the last few years with more on
the way. Current play equipment is rusted, broken, and thus dangerous.
Residents have begun expanding a site and buying materials for a
new playground. Sabalito has a scenic, if windy, setting almost
atop the hills at the extreme west end of the lake. Much more about
it, windsurfing and other west-end features can be seen on the very
nice website at www.sabalito.com. Helena said that the Sabalitans
hope that their Safe Play project will become a model for other
small villages.
There's been good progress
also on the elementary school project at Nuevo Arenal on the north
side of the lake, where news in past Tico Times editions about the
huge rebuilding project - new septic system, rebuilt kitchen bathrooms
with new fixtures, landscaping, painting, etc. - has helped increase
volunteer
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help and donations,
some of them, according to project organizer Patrick Hughes, coming
from states such as Wyoming and California, with one donation sent
from Germany. There has been an upsurge in the number of local Ticos
and Gringos helping with painting the school. The Ladies of the Lake
have also made donations to this major project.
Institutions within the national
government also have been improving aspects of life at the lake.
The formerly incompletely paved highway, often back-jarring and
washout-endangered, from the dam at the volcano end of the lake
to Nuevo Arenal is now completely paved except for perhaps 100 meters.
On the other hand, the government has let exist for over a year
a very dangerous 30-foot section not far west of Nuevo Arenal, created
not by them but by private enterprise. Public and private entities
have thus combined to create and let remain a possible 15-foot drop
into a creek bed for the traveler who attempts to share that narrowed
section of the road with an oncoming bus or truck. Meanwhile, a
drive along the south side of the lake from Tronadora to Rio Chiquito
is now a very pleasant experience, scenic as ever and no longer
a stress test for the mechanical weak spots in your car.
Patricia Brenes reports that
the First Tilaran Art and Music Festival will be held June 21-23
in the Tilaran gymnasium, and will include a performance of the
national dance company as the closing event. Patricia has arranged
a further fund-raising opportunity for Las Damas del Lago (Ladies
of the Lake) gaining permission to have a Cachi Vaches (knickknacks?)
table for selling items no longer wanted around the house.
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