Cornell's CU Winds in concert
Jan. 19, 11 a.m., across from the library, Earth University, Guácimo, Limón. Info: 2713- 0202.

‘Summer' workshops
Organized by the José Figueres Ferrer Cultural Center, including watercolor (adults and teenagers), country (older than 8 years of age), handcrafting (older than 11) and origami (older than 8), Jan. 19-Feb. 14, at Capilla Santa Lucía, 100 m. north of the main entrance to San Ramón, for further information call 2447-2178.

Social Club in concert
A Jamaican ska and reggae band, Jan. 19, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú. Info: 2288-4740.

The Costa Rican Foreign Ministry received word on Monday that Eithel Rodolfo Sojo Ramírez, one of three Costa Ricans who had been reported missing in Haiti at the end of last week, is safe. Friends of Sojo told ministry officials that they had made contact with the Costa Rican and said he was aboard the Greek ship, Nicholas, at a pier near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

The Costa Rican Ambassador to the Dominican Republic spoke with the Costa Rican rescue team that is helping with relief efforts in Haiti and requested that the squad embark on a special mission to the Greek vessel to take food and water to Sojo.

Jorge Antonio Mora Mejías and Javier Quesada Crocceri, who were believed to be in Haiti during the magnitude 7.0 earthquake, are still unaccounted for.

Mora's family told the Foreign Ministry that he works on a ship in Haiti and “sporadically communicates with his family.” Mora's sister said Mora was last seen along Haiti's coast six months ago and went by the name Susu. She said Mora was a good friend of a group of Cuban doctors.

Quesada works for Animal Planet and lives in the Dominican Republic, according to data from the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry. Officials will attempt to contact Quesada's family for more information.

Including Sojo, 18 Costa Rican's have been located on the Caribbean island. Seven are under the care of the Costa Rican Embassy in the Dominican Republic and are awaiting a flight back to Costa Rica. Five have been removed from the country by their employers and organizations. Two remained in Haiti to help with humanitarian and relief work, while two have already returned to Costa Rica and one is believed to be en route to the Dominican Republic.

Previous Story
Costa Ricans in Haiti unaccounted for as search efforts continue

As of Monday morning, the Costa Rican Red Cross had collected ₡ 130 million (close to $235,000) to help relief efforts in Haiti, the humanitarian aid organization said in a news release. In spite of a temporary suspension by the United Nations of all aid efforts in Haiti on Monday, the institute said it will continue to accept donations.

The group is channeling the funds to Haiti through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (FICR). Money will be used to help Red Cross teams from around the globe assist the island nation with health services, water and food supplies, search and rescue missions, evacuation shelters and temporary housing construction and telecommunications.

This weekend the Costa Rican Red Cross sent nine rescue specialists to Haiti. The National Emergency Commissions sent a team of 55 engineers, rescuers and health experts to help earthquake victims. Costa Rica's National Police also sent search and rescue personnel to Haiti.

On Monday, however, the United Nations ordered the suspension of all relief operations because of social unrest that has sprung to life in the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince. Members of the CNE relief team reported that, during rescue missions, bands of people surrounded search brigades and demanded – at times violently – water, food and permanent shelter. News agencies on Monday began to report cases of looting and fierce violence throughout Haiti's capital city on Monday.

Costa Rican aid crews camped out in the Port-Au-Prince International Airport with relief squads from nine other countries representing Europe, Africa and the Americas. On Monday evening, groups from the 43 countries conducting relief missions in Haiti waited for the anxiety to settle in hopes of continuing rescue work soon.

Before the suspension order, Costa Rica's CNE teams had entered 176 collapsed structures and removed 10 cadavers.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross will keep open its bank accounts at Banco Nacional and Banco de Costa Rica for donations to assist relief efforts once work resumes. The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) has set up a system to donate by cell phone text message to the Red Cross.

The FICR is asking for donations totaling $103 million, which they believe will be able to support 300,000 Haitians for three years.

Donors can take non-perishable food items and toiletries to the Red Cross headquarters in San José, 200 meters south of the Hospital San Juan de Dios. Officials recommend items such as canned foods, snacks, baby food, toilet paper, tampons and soap. As of 3 p.m. on Monday, the Red Cross had collected nearly 5 tons of supplies. The donation center will be open until January 31. The United Nations will deliver the goods to Haiti.

See The Tico Times' How to Help Haiti page for a list of organizations that are collecting funds for Haitian relief efforts.

The National Emergency Commission (CNE) moved seven families evacuated because of gas and ash eruptions at Turrialba volcano out of a temporary shelter in the community center in Santa Cruz to houses in the mountain town, the CNE said Monday. Two families remain in the shelter and sleep inside the church next door.

The Mixed Institute for Social Aid (IMAS) subsidized the rent for the houses and located each family as close as possible to their place of work. The CNE provided food, pots and pans, a gas stove, a rice cooker and utensils to each of the seven families. IMAS is looking for houses for the last two families in the Santa Cruz shelter.

A total of 40 people fled their homes after Turrialba erupted earlier this month, in what scientists described as the first display of this magnitude in more than 140 years.

Turrialba is about 40 kilometers northeast of San José.

Volcanologists said on Monday Turrialba continued to spew ash and gas over the weekend, although the widespread ash eruptions that forced the initial evacuations have calmed. The biggest concerns now are the sulfur, carbon dioxide and hydrochloric acid that are seeping out of the volcano.

A team of specialists from the University of Costa Rica's School of Geology will visit the volcano Tuesday to measure the gases and determine where they are concentrated. The latest tests from the Health Ministry did not indicate any major negative consequences affecting breathing as a result of the gases.

Scientists maintain that lava flows and magma eruptions are highly unlikely and do not believe that landslides will occur.

Nevertheless, the CNE maintained the yellow alert – the second of the country's three alert levels – for Santa Cruz de Turrialba, Santa Rosa de Oreamuno, Capellades and Pacayas de Alvarado, the districts closest to the volcano's crater. The commission has restricted all access to areas near the volcano – La Pastora, Las Virtudes and Guarumo de Pacayas –except for scientists who are studying the volcano.