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2010 Limón Roots Black Culture Festival
Afro-Culture Week, percussion workshop by Kalí Bamba N diaye, conferences by experts from San José and Limón, Aug. 23-27, UCR, Paraíso campus.

Japanese Culture Festival
Conference on traditional Japanese music and theater, led by Michiko Hirama, Aug. 23, 5 p.m., Nueva Acrópolis. Info: 2232-1255, www.cr.emb-japan.go.jp.

Spanish Film Festival
Simón del desierto, Aug. 23 at 7 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center.

China Today”
With expert Patricia Rodríguez, Sept. 10-12, register Aug. 23-26, School of Social Sciences, UCR, San Pedro. Info: 2511-6401, 2511-4037.

Jewish Contributions to the World of Ideas”
Art show, Aug. 23-29, Multiplaza, Escazú.

LIMON – Teddy bears and medical supplies replaced ammunition and weapons as the USS Iwo Jima pulled into Costa Rica's Caribbean port city of Limón on Friday.

Aboard the immense U.S. Navy carrier, doctors arrived alongside aid workers and engineers for a 10-day visit with the aim of bringing health services to 1,000 people a day, renovating two schools and collaborating with local police in disaster relief training.

Despite the visit's humanitarian mission and the local mayor's "open-arms welcome," the reception wasn't all the ship's crew might have hoped for. Twenty people protesting the arrival of a warship in armyless Costa Rica made it clear that not everyone was cheering the ship's arrival in Limón.

The demonstration was the latest event in what has been an ongoing public relations headache for the U.S. Embassy in San José. What the Embassy and the Costa Rican government saw as a routine procedure in the Legislative Assembly in July to renew permission for U.S. Navy ships to dock in Costa Rica quickly ballooned into a high-profile controversy in Costa Rica, complete with exaggerated headlines in the local press and Internet sites such as "46 Warships to invade Costa Rica" or "7,000 marines headed to Costa Rica."

Since then, peace activists and left-wing organizations have been vocal about the presence of the U.S. military in Costa Rican waters, hoping to make it clear that the U.S. Marines and Navy aren't wanted here.

The legitimacy of Costa Rica's 10-year joint maritime agreement with the United States to fight drug trafficking is also under question, as the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court has been asked to review the legality of the agreement. A decision is expect in the coming weeks.

In the sweaty customs house of the Limón port on Saturday, Costa Rica's Vice Minister of Security Mauricio Boraschi emphasized that the visit of the USS Iwo Jima was unrelated to the agreement.

"This visit is unrelated to the joint maritime agreement," he said. "This is a very different mission. It is a humanitarian mission."

The visit was requested by former President Oscar Arias in 2008 in order to give residents of Costa Rica's impoverished Caribbean region a boost of aid and medical services.

The ship's presence is part of an ongoing goodwill and aid mission called Continuing Promise 2010, which also includes visits to Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Suriname and Guyana. It received special permission to dock from the Legislative Assembly while the existing maritime agreement is being reviewed by judges.

At least 2,500 crew members, including 1,000 sailors, 500 marines, 200 medical providers and 30 to 40 volunteers from various nongovernmental organizations make up the mission. All are bunking aboard the 800-foot, 10-year-old warship.
During Iwo Jima's first day in port, Amparo Morales, 43, stood outside a school-turned-medical building hoping to get an operation for a hernia that's been bothering her for three years.

"Though I am not in pain, it does bother me," she said. "I am very happy that it could go away after this week."

Commander Cyrus Rad, a doctor of optometry and the site's medical leader, said he expects many visitors will be arriving to seek second or third opinions. Like Colombia (where the ship docked last), he said Costa Rica has one of the stronger health care options in the region.

"We are aiming to do surgical procedures that are not too complicated, but not too easy either, in order to help the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time," he said.

After a screening onshore, patients requiring surgery will spend a night or two on board the Iwo Jima, where they will undergo an operation. While the ship's medical detail sees to patients, engineers and volunteers will visit the Westfalia and Hone Creek schools south of Limón to undertake a few improvements.

Revised 11:00 a.m., Monday, Aug. 23, 2010.

Costa Rica's National Emergency Commission (CNE) issued a green alert on Sunday for almost the entire country after intense rains pounded 15 cantons over the weekend.

The alert, the lowest of the country's three alert levels, is in effect for the Central Valley, Cartago province, east of San José, the Southern and Northern Pacific zones and for several towns along the Caribbean Slope.

The CNE advises citizens to be on alert for saturated grounds that could collapse and to be watchful of high river levels that could provoke floods.

Approximately 78 millimeters of rain fell in San José from Friday through Sunday. The northwestern province of Guanacaste received roughly 157 millimeters of rain last weekend, according to the National Meteorological Institute.

Hundreds of Costa Ricans saw rivers and streams flood their homes and businesses throughout the country. Dozens of people were temporarily moved to evacuation shelters.

Shelters in two Southern Zone cantons – Abangares and Golfito – remained open through the weekend and are housing victims after a dam on the Río Claro broke on Saturday.

Backed by a calypso band, a reggae singer and Miss Limón Roots 2010, Ramiro Crawford introduced this year's Limón Roots festival with some flair.

At a press conference last week, Crawford treated a group of reporters to a festival preview. Calypso trio Yes a Man sang a classic number called “Matilda.” Michael Livingston performed his own reggae song. Miss Limón Roots 2010 Jazline Farley posed in a yellow dress for photographers.

“Our festival aims to seek recognition for all the contributions black people have made to the development of this country … and also to promote and rescue black cultural traditions,” Crawford said.

The annual festival celebrating black culture in Costa Rica revolves around Aug. 31, Black Culture Day. An inauguration event is set for Wednesday, Aug. 25, at the Fernando Centeno Güell School of Special Education in Guadalupe, northeast of San José. The ceremony, from 8:30 to 11 a.m., will include presentations on Afro-Caribbean history, Caribbean food and artistic performances, including story about the history of black culture in Costa Rica told by deaf students from the special-education school.

The official start of the festival is planned for Friday, Aug. 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the Melico Salazar Theater, where the Limón Roots Awards will recognize black achievements in Costa Rica. Other highlights will include performances by New York City-based gospel group The Roy Prescod Chorale, Senegalese percussion and dance group Kali Bamba N'diaye and the Costa Rican choir Caribbean Angelical Melodies, accompanied by the Limón National Band. Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla has confirmed her attendance at the event, Crawford said.

The next big event of the festival will be the annual Aug. 31 gala parade through the streets of Limón on the Caribbean coast. An Intergenerational Afro-Costa Rican Meeting is planned in Limón for September, and a cultural gathering in the northeastern San José suburb of Guadalupe will close the festival on Oct. 12, Cultures Day in Costa Rica.

To view the festival's full schedule, visit www.limonroots.net.

For more on this story, see the Aug. 27 print or digital edition of The Tico Times.