Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving, or in Spanish, “Dia de accion de gracias.” Of course, the holiday is not celebrated here in Costa Rica (though Black Friday or “viernes negro” is). But to commemorate today I thought I’d write a list of some of the things I’m thankful for about where I am (and to distract myself from thinking of where I’m not).

1.     Spanish

There are many times when I have not been thankful for the Spanish language and the mountain of mistakes I make while speaking it, but today I am. I am thankful for the beauty of the way people speak it, the nuances of the lifts and falls, which I don’t think I’ll ever quite learn even after I’ve mastered grammar and pronunciation.

     I’m thankful for the truths of which this language reminds me. In Spanish you can be nervous, lazy, excited, or afraid, but it’s not uncommon grammatically to have or to be given nerves, laziness, excitement, or fear. One is never hungry or thirsty but has hunger or thirst. This is a good reminder that these conditions—nervous, lazy, hungry, sad—are not things that we are. They are things that we receive and let go of, things that we pick up and put down, things that we carry like so many shopping bags on black Friday.

     And I’m thankful for the mysteries of Spanish that English doesn’t understand. For example in Spanish, there is one verb, “esperar,” that is used for three of our English verbs—to wait, to expect, and to hope. In Spanish, ‘I didn’t expect that you would come,’ ‘I hope to become a lawyer,’ and ‘I am waiting for the results’ all use the same verb. I don’t know what the significance of this is, but it seems important, doesn’t it?

2.     Food

Though I’m dearly missing stuffing, creamed corn, and pumpkin-flavored anything, I have to say that I know I will crave fresh papaya, pineapple, and ‘cas’ when I return to the U.S. I’m hoping to recreate some of the delicious food I’ve had here when I go home, but these tropical fruits in all their goodness can only be had here—airport customs assures that!

I am thankful to be abundantly well-fed and I’m also thankful for food’s meaning. During orientation the first day in Costa Rica, our program directors encouraged us to try everything we were offered, eat everything on our plate (at least the first few nights), and to never speak badly about the food because here, food equals love. In my families, I’ve found this to be true. My last morning in San Jose, my host mom prepared me a breakfast with all of the works—bread, cheese, natilla, two types of fruit, coffee, and orange juice. And that morning, the directors’ words came back to me. Yes—food equals love.

3.     Sun

Though the weather today is chilly, cloudy, and rainy—appropriately Thanksgiving-like—I am so thankful for the norm. Even in the rainy season, the day almost always starts out warm and sunny. No matter how much time I spend outside during the day, I always feel like I’m not taking enough advantage of the fresh air and gorgeous views here. Adjusting to winter weather back home will not be easy!

4.     Family

I’m thankful for my host family here. I can’t imagine having a stranger live in my home who struggles to speak my language. Though I’m sure it is uncomfortable for them, I know they make extra effort to make me feel at home here and I am so grateful for the consistent grace they extend to me.

I’m also so thankful to know I have family and friends at home who I can look forward to seeing when I return! God has blessed me far beyond what I deserve.

There are many other things that I could list. But that is a start. I am thankful for God’s faithfulness throughout this semester and I continue to pray to lean on His faithfulness for the last few days. 

Here my name is Hannah

Due to lack of internet in my house in San Jose, I haven’t been able to update this blog for a while. I’ll try to catch you all up!

This week I began the third phase of the semester and take on my third name. In San Jose I was "Maria," in Nicaragua "Hermana Ana," and here I am just "Hannah."

I am living in a small town called San Pedro de Poas and working with an English teacher in a primary school. The school year here is coming to an end, so I do not spend a lot of time at the school. But I am enjoying the time I’m there! The teacher is very good at involving me in the class, having me write sentences or demonstrate English pronunciation (a word which, ironically, I have a very hard time pronouncing in Spanish). She tells me that she is grateful to have someone with whom she can practice her English. And now that I do not see my English-speaking peers, I’m grateful to be able speak English with her too!

My family here is made up of my parents, two sisters (23 and 20), a brother (17), a dog named Pancha, and a beta fish named Toasty. My siblings are out of the house most of the time, but it’s been great to be around some Costa Ricans my age. I spend most of the time with my host mom, who is very caring. I consider the second half of my internship to be helping her with her work—sewing. She’s been letting me cut fabric for napkins and pillowcases.

The town of San Pedro de Poas is beautiful and very different than the city of San Jose. I’ve got a beautiful view from my host home (picture below), and when I take a deep breath, my lungs fill with air with a noticeably lower pollution percentage. I can hear crickets at night and my house doesn’t have a security system. When I ran errands with my host parents, they stopped to talk with a friend in almost every place and yelled out greetings to cousins and neighbors and acquaintances as we drove by. My tico (Costa Rican) professor told us that this place is “the real Costa Rica” and I believe him; everything here seems “tranquila” and “pura vida.”

What have I been doing for the past month and a half? Here are some highlights:

Weekend at the Quetzal Education and Research Center (QERC): I traveled to the valley of San Gerardo de Dota for a night with three other girls from the program. We stayed at QERC, a research center associated with Oklahoma Nazarene University (I think…). We hiked in primary rainforest and got pretty soaked by an amazing waterfall. I felt like I had found my way into a paradise postcard (pictures are on facebook!). It was a restful weekend and a great break from being in the city. Our whole group felt like it was a little ‘retreat.’

Time with my San Jose host family: The day after I wrote my last post, we celebrated my host sister’s birthday with a special meal and cake with the abuelos. The weekend before I left for our Nicaragua trip, we went to an old ‘haunted’ hospital together. My parents lamented (and I rejoiced) that since there was so much light and it was so crowded, it wasn’t too scary. Nonetheless, it was fun to take pictures and be together!

Two weeks ago we went to a birthday celebration for my host uncle with all of my mom’s family. I loved being ‘part of the family,’ though I don’t do much more than listen and smile. We ate heaping plates of delicious Caribbean food, which my abuela is famous for, and ice cream…and corn on the cob and coffee and cupcakes (food equals love, our program directors tell us!). I listened as my family had a rather tense religious discussion about aspects of Catholicism. At times I so badly wanted to jump in, but I don’t have the Spanish skills and I figured it would be better if I stayed as neutral as possible! We also looked at pictures of my uncle’s trip to Washington D.C. (!) for the marine marathon. It was fun to see the fall leaves I'm missing and hear his commentary on 'my' city. 

I miss my San Jose family now--I am so grateful to have lived with them! 

with my host mom at the haunted hospital

Last day with San Jose family! Eating caramel corn.

NICARAGUA: Our group traveled to the neighboring country of Nicaragua for a two week study trip. We learned a ton about Nicaragua’s volatile political history and the problems it continues to face. We lived in humble communities for a few nights, getting a taste of the realities that most Latin Americans face. And we experienced Nicaragua’s natural beauty, cruising Lake Nicaragua (though we didn’t see any of its famous freshwater sharks). I could write pages about Nicaragua, but for now, I’ll let some pictures speak for me!

a mural in a church in Nicaragua's capital

an outlook over the city, the lake in the background

the old government building, now a museum. Also, great examples of Daniel Ortega propaganda that is everywhere!

my 'nephew' Caleb and I in Nicaragua. Unfortunately, my 'niece' Emily is behind the camera!

me with my host dad and the pastor of the church that took us in

ladies busy making tortillas! They graciously taught me how! 

Lake Nicaragua

a real live howler monkey!

Kingdom come-post

Two posts in 24 hours? Today I'm using this space as a quick personal reflection on today's 'class:' a trip to an organic farm.

During the past year, I’ve had a lot of questions. About Christianity, the Christian life, everything. What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it really mean? I often fell into unmerciful cynicism, leaving very few things sacred.

It’s good to go through those times of questioning, I’ve been told, and I now understand. And I think today I realized that many of my questions arose from a confusion or an effort to distinguish the difference between God’s kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven, between the kingdom of this world. In college I saw the inconsistencies of Christian community and wondered whether Christ made any difference at all. Though I entered college with huge dreams, I grew calloused, even spiteful, toward poster after poster and club after club and bright-eyed freshman after bright-eyed senior wanting to save this or that corner of the world. “Don’t these people think of the practicalities?” I often wondered. “They don’t live in the real world.” I scoffed. (Though how I knew what the ‘real world’ was, spending most of my life in suburbia, I have no idea.)

But today at an organic farm in Costa Rica I saw what I hadn’t been seeing this past year. We met a man named Roderick who has worked for almost 20 years on the same 11 hectares of land. The way he talked about his work, it was clear that his very veins and arteries were bound up in that earth and in Christ; he, his work, and its relation to God could not be separated. 

Roderick told us that, working with earth, with the elements, he feels strongly the forces of darkness and light. He told us that the soil was humus, human, Jesus. That we are made to live on the earth and eat from it. That we are not made to eat food grown by industry, taken from plastic wrap.

He spoke poetically of the science of agriculture, saying that there’s magic in the minerals that make plants grow. That the leaves are the lungs, the soil is the stomach of the earth. That farming should give to the land, not take from it. That in this way, soil is an altar to give thanks to God.

In Roderick’s eyes, these things are not just factual, but beautifully and wonderfully true. He doesn’t love organic farming because of the points that are so often listed on campaign posters or in textbooks. He loves organic farming because he is working with Christ.

As Roderick was talking, I could hear voices inside me prodding. How could he survive? Surely one has to be able to make money. This might be great for him, but clearly would not work on a large scale. How does his 11 hectare plot of land change the world? Is this practical?

And the amazing, wonderfully confounding answer is no.

This past year I've been frustrated trying to reconcile the kingdom of God with the practicalities. How can I give to the poor without giving up the things that make me part of my culture? How do I tell people about Christ without messing up? How do I study God’s Word without slacking in my studies or time with friends? How do I radically obey Christ without losing my comfortable worldly things?

The answer to many, dare I say all, of these questions is I can’t. I don’t. God’s kingdom is not one to be reconciled with the world. God’s kingdom is one that values the opposite things that the world does.

For Roderick, he doesn’t make much money at all, but he and his family survive. He knows he’ll receive his profit beyond this world. His 11 hectare plot of land isn’t changing the world. But Christ is there with him, loving him in his work. And I get the feeling that when Roderick gets to heaven, he and Jesus will have plenty to talk about.  

Today I'm thinking that living for Jesus isn’t about reconciling the practicalities. It’s about embracing the beautifully impossible. I easily become weighed down by the heavy ugly problems in this world, so that I forget God's wondrous mysteries. But I believe in a man who died then rose from the dead, after all. There are zero practicalities there. 

God has not given Roderick “a job to do,” but an art to pursue and love with Jesus, the pearl of ultimate price. We are here to serve Jesus and He is gracious enough to have redeemed heavy practical work and life so that we find Him in them. Praise be to the one and only God, Yahweh, the King of heaven and earth.  

Bingo

I continue to realize that not being able to speak a language fluently is hard--especially when meeting new people! Whenever my host parents introduce me to someone, we exchange nice-to-meet-you's and then they turn back to my host parents and ask, "Does she speak Spanish?" However graciously they answer, my blank stare and tentative ‘que?’ (what?) suffice as an answer.

In these times I remember how patient my host family is. They speak slowly and simply and listen intently as I scramble for phrases. Conversations probable take twice as long as they normally would, but my family never makes me feel inferior. I am constantly thankful for their grace with me.

However when I’m in a room of Spanish-speaking people I don’t know, I quickly feel discouraged. Two weekends ago we went to one of my Dad’s brother’s houses to play bingo with his family and the other five siblings and their families. Lots of new people! Playing bingo was great—I've got my numbers down—but conversation was a little more difficult. Entering a new social situation is hard enough for me when I can speak the language—much more when I have the language ability of a 6 year old! I kept going back and forth, at one moment thinking “If only someone would give me a chance…” and at the next “I hope no one talks to me.” I felt frustrated at not being given the opportunity to communicate and afraid at the same time, knowing that given the opportunity, I would surely misunderstand or make a mistake.

I wonder if people who have disabilities that hamper language experience something similar. I wonder if they, too, feel isolated outside the small network of people who are patient enough to listen until they understand. I wonder if they wish people would give them a chance, but fear failure. And I wonder if they appreciate any attempts to communicate as much as I have.

On the bingo night, one of the cousins and my sister were throwing maíz (our bingo markers) at each other. Soon I caught the cousin grinning at me, and looked down to see my carefully placed bingo markers scattered by a well-aimed corn kernel. I smiled because I knew I was included.

I hope I will return from this semester with greater knowledge of Spanish and Costa Rican culture, but I think I’ll return with many more lessons like this one. And following, to make this more interesting, are some 'daily life' pictures! 

The view from in front of my house. The mountains are behind the clouds...as usual!

Some delicious sopa (soup)...one of the many yummy meals I've had here!

Goooooooooooal!

There has been much soccer-related excitement here lately. Not only did Costa Rica soundly beat the U.S. (a rivalry made even hotter by this), they also qualified for the World Cup. Speaking of which, so did the U.S. Gooooooooals all around!

When the big game began, my host parents and I were finishing up dinner at McDonalds. When Costa Rica scored a goal within the first 5 minutes of the game, everyone in the restaurant swarmed to the TV like moths to a porch light. We returned to the house for the rest of the game and when Costa Rica scored the final goal, cinching the win, we could hear cries of joy throughout the neighborhood! I was thankful to be a 'part' of the victory--even while falling asleep to a chorus of jubilant car horns in the street.

Last weekend was also a patriotic one--Costa Rica's Independence Day was on September 15th! There are a few pictures below of the festivities. I have continued to enjoy talking (and eating!) with my host family and I'm settling into my routine of classes. Although this weekend we are breaking the routine by taking a trip to Limon, a city on the Caribbean! I can't wait.

I'm working on a longer blog post, but this will just have to be a small update for now! Made even smaller after deleting itself when I tried to publish it...

Thank you for all of your prayers! I am so thankful to have experienced God's presence and care here in Costa Rica. Every time I've sought Him, and every time I haven't, He's been there.

Some pictures:

Some yummy helado sorbetera from the Central Market in San Jose! I don't always look that tired...at least, I hope not!

 A beautiful example of a farole, a traditional decorated lantern that school children carry in parades the night before Independence Day.

 Part of the Independence Day parade!

A clip of a music group we saw on the night before Independence Day. I loved listening to them--they made me wish I could dance!  

A day in the life...

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning in Costa Rica. All the windows in the house are open and the sun is shining…for now. During the rainy season, sun in the morning usually means heavy rain in the afternoon. Yesterday this pattern proved true; it was a perfect night to stay in and work on my first homework assignments.

I’ve written this over a period of a few days, but I’ll try to give you a small picture of my daily life here. Of course, ‘daily life’ is a tentative description, as I've only been here for a week! But with classes having started on Friday, I’m getting a sense of the routine.

On weekdays, my family and I wake up in the morning around 6 or 6:30. If you know anything about my sleep preferences, that might be hard for you to believe. But here, the sun sets around 6 and rises around 4:30 or 5, so it’s much easier to get up (and go to bed) early! One of our instructors informed us that for Costa Ricans, 9pm would be a rude time to call someone on the phone, since most people would already be in bed. I’ve got a nice window into my room, so on Sunday I ‘slept in’ until 7.

We all eat breakfast together—my parents, sister, and me. Breakfast has been papaya and watermelon or banana, bread with butter and queso, and coffee. Yes, I’ve been drinking coffee! I add a lot of milk and sugar, but I’ve been enjoying it. I figure it’s part of the experience—Costa Rica has some of the best coffee in the world.

The food here has been great. On Saturday my madre kept joking that we would become gorditas because we ate so much at the market! We had gallo pinto (rice and beans) huevo torta y tortilla (a tortilla with egg) coffee, and samples of many fruits—papaya, pina, jocote, nances, and pipa, along with some chocolate and chips—all gifts from friends! Not everything I eat is too exotic—on Friday night, we had Papa John’s pizza.

 My madre is so happy that I eat, or at least try, everything she serves. Most of it I really like! We had salad with cilantro, fish, and mashed potatoes the first night. It sounds just like what I’d eat in the U.S., but the flavors are different. We also have fresh juice every day at dinner—I’ve had limeade, juice from ‘cas,’ a fruit a bit like a lemon, and carámbola, star fruit, juice. Also, I have not been lacking in dessert—my padre loves helado, ice cream!  

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I leave for class, my packed lunch in tow, around 7:40. I haven’t gotten lost yet! There aren’t really street names outside of San Jose, so addresses are written by landmarks, like house colors. I cross the street at the farmacia amarilla, yellow pharmacy, and turn toward LASP, the program office, at the casita, a little house where a guard monitors the comings and goings on the street. Every day around 12:30 I walk or take the bus with the other students to Spanish classes, which end around 4:30. The walk is about an hour (yes, you read that right. All of us are pretty sore from walking everyday!). I come home around 5:30 and my parents return from work around 6:30. I try to help my madre make dinner (I’m an expert at cutting vegetables for salad now), and then we all eat together.

It has been awesome talking with my family. They are all so patient with me in my lack of Spanish skill! They ask me questions that I understand and do their best to include me in their conversations. They also correct me and teach me as I speak. For example, on Tuesday in a conversation with my padre I said the Spanish equivalent of “It’s more better,” a ridiculous error to me, a grammarian! But my padre didn’t laugh at me or even crack a smile. He agreed with me, knowing what I meant to say, and then pointed out my mistake. I was embarrassed; I had felt pretty confident! But he dealt with my mistake in such a gracious way that I couldn’t feel ashamed for long. Also, I constantly have to push past feeling stupid if I want to communicate at all!

I am so grateful to be with my Costa Rican family! God has given me much grace through them. I know I do not deserve their kindness. I thought living with a host family would be the most difficult part of studying abroad, but the times with my Tico family have been my favorite. I’m looking forward to watching the big fútbol game with them tonight—Costa Rica vs. USA!

I often think of home, but I am thankful to be here. God is good and I pray that I will be able to trust in Him more each day and less in myself. Praise Jesus for the hope He has given us, no matter where we are or what language we speak.  

 one of my favorite new fruits--mamones chinos! on the inside, they have a texture like jello.

 My family's dog--Escot! (ehs-COHT)

I am alive and well! The first few days in Costa Rica have been overwhelming, exciting, funny, and definitely humbling. Today at the feria, an open-air market in my neighborhood, I realized how patient and understanding my madre de Costa Rica is when I couldn't understand most of what my new friend, Laura (who is 4 years old) said! Though my Spanish is better than I thought it would be, I have a long way to go!

I am so glad I'm here and I'm so grateful for my Costa Rican family! They have been so kind and patient to me. Yesterday mi madre and I were laughing as we watched telenovelas, soap operas, and my padre has ingrained in me that the best futbol team in Costa Rica is Saprissa! 

I don't have much time to blog, but hopefully I'll be able to post mini-updates like this! 

En la feria!

My madre and I with los flores

Drinking pipa with Laura, who is wearing her abuela's sunglasses