During the late-morning hours of Saturday, October 6th, about a dozen kids and youth assembled at the FUCAN building in Nosara to take part in a mascarada tradicional (mask-making) project organized by the new Culture Committee.
"We have a small group of kids to participate in civic festivals," said class leader Maricruz Rojas. "The idea, more than anything with the kids, is to make masks, but also to make them part of the community, to make murals on the school walls, and to participate in civic events using recycled materials."
Kids mingled, adolescents diced, and the adults were busy blowing up balloons. Several copies of left-over newspapers were promptly sliced, diced and put in bags. Used bottles of pop were cut up, leaving bottle bottoms to be used as containers for a solution of white craft glue diluted with water. Finally, the children, adolescents, and their adult leaders began to give the newspaper some more shelf-life.
Spreading the glaze with both finger and brush, the coloured balloons began to take on all the shades of the publications, as the paste held tightly the paper to rubber. In just over an hour, refreshments were served, simple sandwiches and fizzy, sugary drinks. |
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As others were finishing their papier-mache balloons, some of the children began to leave, in a trickle, as parents and caregivers came to collect them.
The day's end result? Bits of newspaper strewn about the room, a very sticky floor, and several smoothed-over, newsprint-covered, glue-sodden balloons hung up over a line with clothespins, which will spend the rest of the week drying and curing inside the FUCAN meeting salon, until the next part of the process happens this coming Saturday.
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