Well, I have successfully gone more than a month without posting a blog (with much chiding from many). I apologize, though, really! I have been blessed with so many wonderful opportunities over the past month and a half that have given me a chance to reevaluate how I think about and should respond to the world around me.
This thought process undoubtedly started with our trip to Nicaragua. I explained to many of you already how influential this week was for me. During our time there, we stayed at Villa Esperanza – a home to 24 young girls who have been removed from their original home of La Chureca, the local garbage dump. Villa Esperanza provides them with the opportunity to rebuild their lives, go to school regularly, learn to do household chores, and grow in their faith. As wonderful as this program is, it’s a shame that not all of the children of La Chureca can partake it in. Naturally, Villa Esperanza can only support so many children at once, so they take in the children who they consider most in need of leaving the dump.
Not only did we get to spend a little time with the girls, but we also had the humbling opportunity to visit their once home, La Chureca, where their families still live. I knew that it would be a really difficult thing to see, but I responded in a way that I didn’t expect at all. I felt completely terrible for being there. The first thing we did was walk through the home of a family that none of us knew (except for the pastor who was guiding us) into the back yard. A man sitting to the right didn’t even budge upon our arrival. All I could do was imagine what was going through his mind. I was so caught between my curiosity of this lifestyle and the pure guilt I felt for “touring” the lives of these people. For me, the hardest part was wanting help for these people, but knowing that not only could I not be the person to help them directly, but that I didn’t have the heart to. I am so grateful that there are people in this world who are strong enough to take it upon themselves to start churches, schools, and clinics inside of La Chureca with the hope of one day helping them leave.
Our week in Nicaragua was packed with amazing learning opportunities. Aside from our eye-opening visit to La Chureca, we played with children, heard talks on fair trade from NGOs, visited coffee and taro plantations, went to a volcano, learned about a local HIV/AIDS organization, and visited the U.S. Embassy in Managua. This especially was a memorable experience for me. We had recently learned a lot about the history and politics of Nicaragua which does not put the U.S. in the best light. So, it was very interesting to hear the perspective of the U.S. government agents working in Nicaragua on similar political issues and the U.S.’s historical role in Nicaragua.
As for as school goes, after we got back the second block of classes began. I took Latin American Women Writers (Escritoras de América Latina) and audited Introduction to Latin America. Both were wonderful classes. It was great to be exposed to so many important authors of Latin America, although I feel like now I need to read some writings by important male authors as well to balance out my familiarity. Aside from this exposure, I completed my first 3 novels in Spanish – La casa en Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Como agua para chocolate by Laura Esquivel, and El país de las mujeres by Gioconda Belli. All of them were wonderful. The first two are available in English as well, so I recommend them to all of you!
Now we are just finishing up our third class, Conservation and Human Rights. The best thing about this class is that we have had the opportunity to study the course content hands-on through two trips: one to the Caribbean coast, the other to the Pacific. On the first trip we hiked 3-4 hours through the rainforest (yep the RAINFOREST!) to get to our final destination – Punta Mona. On the hike we saw wonderful (and kind of scary) things. As far as animals go: many golden orb spiders, howler monkeys, some sort of cool iguana, bullet ants, poison dart frogs, and a yellow viper. Among these though, we saw beautiful scenery and views, drank juice from pipas (from the coconut family) right off the tree, learned how to create a make-shift cast from banana trees (for when our almost friend almost gets hurt and almost breaks a leg or almost arm and almost needs a cast until he almost arrives at the almost hospital…our guide almost had an almost Caribbean dialect).
When we got to Punta Mona I fell in love almost immediately. A couple, Stephen and Sarah, live there, grow their own food and use virtually all of their waste…ALL of it! They use micro-organisms to make their own human waste into compost to use as fertilizer for their plants. Punta Mona is made up of 85 acres of farm land right on the beach and it’s incredibly beautiful. Visiting here showed me how easy it really is to live without leaving a huge ecological footprint. Thanks to Punta Mona and many hours of processing all that I’ve learned here in Costa Rica, I plan to plant a garden with only fruits, veggies, and herbs when I get home as well as start a compost pile (surprise Mom! Hope that’s alright with you J). I can’t wait to get started!
On the Pacific trip (just 4 days later) we visited a small town by the name of Tárcoles where a community fishing co-op exists. We learned all about Coope Tárcoles, their goals, what they do, and even got to go out and fish with some of the fishermen. It was a great experience and taught me a lot about the fishing industry (of course).
Now, I am completely satisfied to stay home and spend the remaining weeks with my host family. I’ve traveled a lot and had great experiences, but the truth is what I’ll miss most when I go home is going to be the everyday Costa Rica life.
I’m not sure that I mentioned in my previous posts anything about my family here, so I better do that. I live with 3 other people. First there’s Hannia, better known as Mamá Kuki. She and her daughter, Emelina (who is currently living in Holland), are completely full of life and always joking and laughing about everything. Also, I have to point out that I love Kuki’s food. Naturally, it’s different that what I eat in the States. It’s always healthy and has fresh veggies, rice, and sometimes beans. We eat a ton of soup also. My favorite so far has been sopa azteca. It’s a tomato soup with avocado…and other things that I’m spacing right now. I’m making a point to get as many recipes as I can so I can make these things myself when I get back home.
Next, we have Carlos. He’s a Mexican grad student studying bees of all things. It has been great living with him because not only did his fast-paced Mexican Spanish challenge my own language abilities at first, but he always teaches us Mexican slang and even Mayan words. Carlos is the jokester of our house. He comes complete with sound effects for everything and even songs for sad and sleepy times. Kata and I (who I’ll get to in a minute) are certain that we’ll be going home with these habits.
Thom came to our family a few weeks after Kata and I got here. He also is a grad student, but from Holland! When I told him my full first name I think he thought it was a little strange, as do many many Costa Ricans. I guess it’s like someone being named Belguim for us. Oh well! Thom is great. He’s always interested in getting out of the house and experiencing all that Costa Rica has to offer. He and Carlos have become pretty close lately. They share the same jokes and are always laughing (okay, pretty much all of our house is always laughing).
Finally, there’s Kata (AKA Katalina, Kaitlyn, and Bucky). She’s a student from Wheaton College in Illinois who is studying at the Whitworth Costa Rica Center for the semester. I came to Costa Rica excited to live with a family on my own so I wouldn’t have the temptation to speak English with other students. However, when I switched families (just 2 days in), I was blessed to be placed with Kata and this family. Her Spanish is very good so I have learned a lot from her and we naturally speak Spanish together nearly all the time. In the States, she plays soccer for Wheaton and studies Geology and Spanish. We’ve had a ton of fun living and experiencing Costa Rica together!
One of my favorite memories with the family has been going to a traditional Spanish concert at some ruins in Ujarras. We arrived by bus to the site. We were in the middle of a fairly developed, but rural city, staring at what appeared to be a Catholic church under construction. “Are they rebuilding the ruins?” asked Kata. Continuously throughout the night we asked each other, “Dónde están las ruinas?” On the wall of an outdoors stage there was a mural of some ruins, so we finally decided that this must be what the ruins are since there were clearly none around us. The music began, and it was dreadfully boring – definitely not the candle-lit scenery and awe-inspiring music that Kuki had promised us. Oh, and speaking of Kuki, she told us she and Eme would follow us and meet us there. However, she never arrived. She told us that she was waiting for the engineer to show up and then it was too late. This figure of “el ingeniero” has become quite the joke in our house. Finally, during the concert, we discovered that they had changed the venue of the concert last minute. Already having listened to 45 minutes of long, drawn-out, religious choral music we decided to stick it out. As miserable as I may make this sound, I can honestly say that that night I laughed more than I have in my entire time in Costa Rica. We did a dang good job of making that into a fun and memorable evening.
I think that I’ll stop writing here. If you stuck through with me to the end of this blog then kudos to you! I realize it’s incredibly long. It’s difficult to sum up months of my time in another country. If I had been writing this entire time I realize that I would not have this problem. In my last few weeks, I plan to write more regularly of my experiences and hopefully I can re-cap some other moments that I have left out of this blog post (like visiting Quepos and Manuel Antonio, getting to help with bees, zip lining, beach trips, going to a Saprisa soccer game, and many many many more!).
