Friends and Firecrackers

As many of you know (especially those who live on our road), George really enjoys fireworks. He has passed on this love to Adalaya, who was thrilled to receive lots of fireworks from her daddy for Christmas. While procuring these presents, George met a big Tico (Costa Rican) on the street corner who had a black suitcase full of firecrackers. Well, little did we know that this guy also made house calls, and a few days before New Year's Eve he arrived at our door on his small moped, with his black suitcase loaded with explosives. Here's a glimpse into the "black suitcase".

George was like a kid in a candy store as he picked out his choice fireworks. His favorites, by far, were the "Dadi-Crackers" - all bang and no beauty, essentially a bomb. George had unwittingly blown off part of a wooden bench with a "Dadi-Cracker" earlier in the week, and "needed" more!

Closer to New Year's Eve, some friends came to visit us from Celo. Tal and Jess, and their boys, Isaac and Micah, were in Costa Rica for their Christmas break, and we were thrilled to have them stay with us for a few days. George and Micah are kindred spirits in the explosive realm, and, between the two of them, took pirotechnics to new levels of creativity. Their favorite, I think, was when they placed a "Dadi-Cracker" inside a coconut. The explosion sent a shock wave through the air and ground, and sent bits of coconut raining down on the roof, while the scent of burnt coconut and explosives hung in the air.

On New Year's Eve, Micah and Adalaya were wanting more fireworks for that night, so we stopped by the fireworks tent on our way to the beach, and the kids bought some of their own explosives.

Micah was hoping to buy a "Dadi-Cracker" with his own money, but this vendor didn't have any, so George tried to relay his desire for a similar explosive devise in broken Spanish. Micah wanted to build a sandcastle at the beach and then blow it up. Good dad's that Tal and George are, they were willing to help with the project, but it ended up in disappointment when the firecracker merely sent colorful sparks shooting out of the side of the sandcastle that Micah and Adalaya built.

With a full array of fireworks lined up on our doorstep for the New Year's Eve display, George gave a lesson in "Fireworks 101" to 3 eager students. Here George is demonstrating the correct crouching position for lighting a firecracker.

And here is one of his apprentices in training, lighting her own firecracker.