So it has been a little while since ive blogged. It wasn’t because I didn’t have anything to say but because I didn’t know how to put into words what I have seen, experienced, and felt. And in some aspects I still don’t know how to verbalize my thoughts but I’m going to try a bit here. We shall just have to wait and see if it makes any sense. We returned from Nicaragua in the evening on Friday the 13th. Walking into down town San Jose a bustling Americanized city after spending a week in the puro campo (extreme rural area) was very surreal. I’ll admit that my first thought when I was in the campo was San Jose is not really any different than the USA. The buildings are big, the people busy, fast food common, and public transportation packed. I was kind of grumpy at San Jose and Costa Rica in general (which I realize makes no sense but that’s what I felt) I was angry that my host family in costa rica wasn’t so protective of me like my family in Nicaragua. I was annoyed that people in costa rica have a negative image of Nicaraguans. And mostly I was ticked off that the costa Ricans all thought we were going to our deaths by going to the puro campo and in reality I was having the time of my life. As we came into san jose though my attitude changed. Maybe its just the middle child adaptation mechanism in me but I began to change my anger to happiness and my negative thoughts to gratitude. I really do love my family in san jose and the city really is fun for a time. The culture is different than in Nicaragua not better not worse just different. I spent all day Saturday writing an essay about Nicaragua and trying to verbalize my feelings in Spanish…I fear I was not overly successful. : ) We had a short spring break then and me and three other girls left early Sunday morning for Monteverde a serious tourist town that is surrounded by rainforest. The first day we went exploring and wound up hiking for about 3 hours on a tiny muddy trail that didn’t lead anywhere in particular : ) It was a blast we climbed up hills that people had left ropes by so you could pull yourself up, we each fell several times, we were sucking wind because everyone on this trip is seriously out of shape, and we took in the amazing sites of a rainforest. Monday we went to an actual park called Santa Elena cloud forest. I’ll be honest I don’t know why the word cloud was there because it was a perfectly sunny day. : ) It was a little calmer hike and was only about 2 hours and there was an actual path but the view was incredible. Green everywhere and some impressive spouts of red flowers and some creepy crawling thingys. : ) I was struck by the care God puts into His creation and couldn’t help but think if he takes this good care of something that doesn’t have a soul to worship God with how much more does he take care of us whose only job is to praise Him and follow Him. The rest of the trip we spent hanging out around town and eating lots of good food. It was a wonderful spring break but at the same time I was not able to turn off my brain. I was there on a spring break simply enjoying God’s creation and spending too much money on tourist food and I had a family in Nicaragua that was waking up at 5am to milk their cows so they had something to drink. And there are costa Ricans who will never get to enjoy the beauty their own country offers because it is too expensive. These pesky thoughts in the back of my mind hit full force when we got back into san jose Tuesday night. Waiting for the bus no less than 3 homeless people asked me for money and when I got on the bus a mentally handicapped/drunk man was making people angry. I got to my house feeling thoroughly confused about the world, people and their attitudes, justice, and personal responsibility. I have a ton of questions and not many answers but I know that God’s Love is unfailing. The only thing I know to do is to follow God 100%. The God who cares deeply about Nicaraguans in the puro campo, busy costa Ricans in San Jose, homeless men on the street, and the incredible beauty of the rainforest. The God who is bigger than my thoughts can understand and the God who has control. Everything else is one big question mark. But that’s okay. I’m discovering that I rather enjoy living life without concrete answers…it allows for learning from other people and learning from people is far more fun than learning from a text book. So to close this rather random rambling I would like to say take time to listen to the people around you. Take time to see the beauty around you. And take time to slow down and just Be, don’t Do anything for a while. I promise you will like it.
Love you all! See you soon.
PS. Sunday I leave my family in San Jose to live in a town called Grecia about an hour and a half outside of San Jose for 3.5 weeks. I’ll be taking Spanish classes two days a week and working in a school the other three days (working in a school could mean teaching but it could also mean painting walls or raking leaves. : ) There will be an internet café but we are discouraged from spending much time there because the idea is to completely immerse ourselves in the culture. So if you don’t hear from me as often no worries I’m alive I’m just living like a costa Rican. I’ll for sure update before I head to panama towards the middle/end of april. And after panama I’ll be home! See u all soon. Pura Vida KT.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Nicaragua=Love.
Hola everybody!
I'm back in my home in San Jose, Costa Rica. Got back yesterday from Nicaragua. It was without a doubt the most amazing trip of my life. I cannot possibly do it justice on this blog so I will give some high lights and recommend looking at my pics on facebook. The first two days we were in managua the capital city which is an extremely strange city. It is filled with monuments and government buildings and expensive hotels and at the same time there is a shanty town of farmers who are protesting the government. We went into a big park filled with monuments and it was practically dead. We had some charlas while in Managua. One with a guy who grew up a missionary kid in nicaragua, one with two people who work with MCC a missions org there, and a third with Maria Dora Tellez...a nicaragua political revolutionary who faught in the civil war, has held a 12 day hunger strike, and is currently not allowed in the USA because the Bush administration put her on the terrorist black list. So basically I chatted with a "terrorist" : ) After managua the real adventure started. We left at 4am and road on a bus for about 7 hours. Then we hopped off and waited for about 2 hours for a truck to take us to our host homes. The truck ride was about an hour and then we had a 30 minute horse ride to our host church : ) At the church i met my dad for the week and headed home. I spent the next 6 days living in a house with a dirt floor, wooden walls, an outhouse, and a stream to bathe in. I had 5 brothers and sisters plus my parents. I ate enormous portions of rice and beans and quejada (a really salty cheese that i didnt care for much but ate anyway) and tortillas. I really didn't do much of anything. Played with my 11 month old sister a bunch. Went to church 3 times. Sang in church 3 times. Taught a silly song to the childrens sunday school class and then performed it infront of the church. Taught my family english words. Talked with my host mom about anything and everything. Enjoyed the incredible scenery. Milked a cow. Fell in mud 3 times and had my feet washed for me by my host sister and mom 3 times. Road a horse. Played chibolas (marbles) and kick ball with my siblings and nieces and nephews. Went to bed at 7:30pm when it got dark, woke up at 5:30am when it was light. : ) This blog cant possibly do the experience justice but basically all u need to know is i absolutely loved it and plan to keep my promise to my host mom that i will come back and visit some time. After the host stay we went to granada an old kind of victorian city which was really beautiful and stayed in a really nice hostel which was very strange after coming from the campo. I was sick thursday but just about everybody was, its just our bodies way of saying what the heck did u feed me for the last week. But I'm good now : ) So thursday we just hung out and friday we headed home. left at 7am got home about 6:30 pm. This trip was mind boggeling, amazing, awe-inspiring, difficult and a million other emotions that i'm still processing. I am extremely greatful for this trip and encourage u to check out my pics on facebook to see my experience. If your reading this and dont have facebook, email me your email address (or just email me and then i'll have ur email address wont i : ) and i can send you the pics.
Love you all!
Pura Vida
KT
I'm back in my home in San Jose, Costa Rica. Got back yesterday from Nicaragua. It was without a doubt the most amazing trip of my life. I cannot possibly do it justice on this blog so I will give some high lights and recommend looking at my pics on facebook. The first two days we were in managua the capital city which is an extremely strange city. It is filled with monuments and government buildings and expensive hotels and at the same time there is a shanty town of farmers who are protesting the government. We went into a big park filled with monuments and it was practically dead. We had some charlas while in Managua. One with a guy who grew up a missionary kid in nicaragua, one with two people who work with MCC a missions org there, and a third with Maria Dora Tellez...a nicaragua political revolutionary who faught in the civil war, has held a 12 day hunger strike, and is currently not allowed in the USA because the Bush administration put her on the terrorist black list. So basically I chatted with a "terrorist" : ) After managua the real adventure started. We left at 4am and road on a bus for about 7 hours. Then we hopped off and waited for about 2 hours for a truck to take us to our host homes. The truck ride was about an hour and then we had a 30 minute horse ride to our host church : ) At the church i met my dad for the week and headed home. I spent the next 6 days living in a house with a dirt floor, wooden walls, an outhouse, and a stream to bathe in. I had 5 brothers and sisters plus my parents. I ate enormous portions of rice and beans and quejada (a really salty cheese that i didnt care for much but ate anyway) and tortillas. I really didn't do much of anything. Played with my 11 month old sister a bunch. Went to church 3 times. Sang in church 3 times. Taught a silly song to the childrens sunday school class and then performed it infront of the church. Taught my family english words. Talked with my host mom about anything and everything. Enjoyed the incredible scenery. Milked a cow. Fell in mud 3 times and had my feet washed for me by my host sister and mom 3 times. Road a horse. Played chibolas (marbles) and kick ball with my siblings and nieces and nephews. Went to bed at 7:30pm when it got dark, woke up at 5:30am when it was light. : ) This blog cant possibly do the experience justice but basically all u need to know is i absolutely loved it and plan to keep my promise to my host mom that i will come back and visit some time. After the host stay we went to granada an old kind of victorian city which was really beautiful and stayed in a really nice hostel which was very strange after coming from the campo. I was sick thursday but just about everybody was, its just our bodies way of saying what the heck did u feed me for the last week. But I'm good now : ) So thursday we just hung out and friday we headed home. left at 7am got home about 6:30 pm. This trip was mind boggeling, amazing, awe-inspiring, difficult and a million other emotions that i'm still processing. I am extremely greatful for this trip and encourage u to check out my pics on facebook to see my experience. If your reading this and dont have facebook, email me your email address (or just email me and then i'll have ur email address wont i : ) and i can send you the pics.
Love you all!
Pura Vida
KT
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