One thing I have noticed in Costa Rica that is very curious to me, is the sentiments between Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans. I don't know what it is. It reminds me somewhat of the stories of Whites and Blacks in the U.S. Even in some areas of the U.S., some people still believe that what color you are makes you different and even better than another person. I hate this about human nature. We are constantly comparing ourselves to others. I have noticed that here in Costa Rica there are people who really dislike Nicaraguans. There are many jokes that are told in Costa Rica about Nicaraguans similar to those jokes that Virginians tell about West Virginians. Only, these jokes have a more racist slant to them. Coming from the U.S., where we so often just throw everyone from Central or South America into the same pile, it's almost hilarious to hear that someone in this part of the world would distinguish themselves so differently that they think themselves better than another. I used to think of everyone as the same whether they came from Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, or Argentina. Living here, I've discovered that there are huge differences even between places like Nicaragua and Costa Rica. And Costa Ricans do consider themselves to be very different from Nicaraguans or Ecuadorians.
But for some Costa Ricans, they not only think they are different than Nicaraguans, but they are better than Nicaraguans. In the U.S. this would probably be better compared to the difference between people from the U.S. and Mexicans trying to cross the border. Or anyone from a poor Central American country. They are NOT ALL Mexicans! So don't call them that. But just as people try to cross into the U.S. to make money for their families, many Nicaraguans cross into Costa Rica because the standards of living are higher and income is better here than there. And, in general, Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica still live at a lower standard than Costa Ricans, but they are still better off here than there. So they work for lower wages, but what makes them different or beneath another person? I am completely confused by this sentiment among Costa Ricans. What saddens me, is that I have heard it even from some of my Christian friends here. Sometimes it is just in the way people lower their voices when talking about someone who is from Nicaragua. One time I even heard that it would be offensive to a Costa Rican girl if a guy she liked dated a girl from Nicaragua. I can't stand things like that. And while I can say that this is just a problem here in Costa Rica, I can't just write it off, because I know that it still exists in many places. As followers of Christ, this should make us sick. We have no right to think of ourselves better than anyone else. Even if you're not a believer in Christ, you still have no right to say that. Yes, you may have been more fortunate than someone else or were born into better circumstances, but you have no control over that. A Costa Rican may say, well, I've known some Nicaraguans, and they weren't exactly the best people I've met. (And I have heard this). So you know that those Nicaraguans aren't great people, but there are several million people in Nicaragua. How can you possibly know all of them? You're stereotyping. Hey I do it all the time unfortunately. But it gives me no right to say that I'm better than someone else. This is why much of the world hates Christians. They've known a few people who called themselves "Christian" and then went on living their lives as if Christ never existed. Why does the world, and even Christians ourselves, go by stereotypes to gain an understanding of who Jesus Christ was. Why can't we just look at Jesus Christ? A Christian is an image of Christ not other Christians, although it SHOULD be the same thing. If you want to know what a real Christian looks like, study the life of Jesus. If you aren't a Christian, please don't stereotype us by the people who call themselves Christian and then ignore the founder, Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, please realize, that everyone in the world does stereotype others. It's a natural reaction, but it's a way that the enemy tries to defeat us. As Christians, let's make sure our stereotype matches Jesus Christ. I'll need help as much as you.
On a lighter note. I was walking through Heredia, the city where I attend language classes. Back home in the U.S. I love to shop at thrift stores, cause you can find some really cheap t-shirts, and they are usually the funniest t-shirts you've ever seen. So I found a thrift store in Heredia this past week and I was really excited. In Costa Rica, they are sometimes called Ropa Americana. Which means American clothes. Of all the types of clothes sent to Costa Rica from the U.S., how did our second hand/used clothes get labeled as American clothes? Maybe Costa Ricans feel that Americans are cheap and like used clothes. Maybe it doesn't mean anything, except that it came from America. I don't know, it doesn't bother me, I just thought it was something interesting to think about on this topic of stereotypes.
The cool part about the Ropa Americana store is that I found a George Mason t-shirt, a Virginia Tech t-shirt, and a kid's soccer jersey all from places within about a 1-2 hour drive from where I live in Virginia. How crazy is it that I could find clothes in Costa Rica, from my home in Virginia? Wild.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Recap of 3rd Week of Summer
So I had just gotten back from leading the second group, but I was especially looking forward to this third group because it just happened to be my Bible Study from back home. It was great to see some faces from home after having been gone for about 3 and a half months. It was also a little weird to see them in this setting. I find that it is always strange to invite friends in to a new situation that I'm familiar with, where I have a different set of friends, and then try and mix the two groups. Is it just me or is that weird for everyone?
Anyway, it was good seeing them. I didn't get to teach any of them my drama, but I got to watch them practice a different one. I was fairly busy though during their training trying to get all of the final details together, so I don't really remember a whole lot from that time. Unfortunately, being the third week, my lack of sleep and the constant activity was finally catching up to me about that time. And I was feeling a little more pressure to make sure this trip went well since it was my friends from home. I feel like I wasn't myself that week, but after talking to them and hearing about their experience at the end of the trip, I was glad to know that all of my stress and preoccupations didn't get in the way of them having a great time and really learning a lot about God and about the culture here in Costa Rica.
On Saturday morning, after having 2 and a half days of training, two groups packed ourselves and all of our luggage into three vans and headed out to Cuatro Cruces and Canalette about 5 hours from the base. We dropped the other group off in Canalette first and then made our way over to Cuatro Cruces with my Bible Study. Now, I had been there once, but I wasn't positive of how to get there. So we drove for a little while and I recognized some things, but still wasn't quite sure. We ended up passing a truck that was half-way on the road with its back tires spinning in the mud. We offered to help, but they said they were okay, so we passed them and turned around because I was sure I had missed the turn. As we approached the truck again, I decided that we should just help them out, so we pulled off of the road and all the guys piled out. The Ticos were glad to see the extra help. We got that truck pushed out of there in one try. They thanked us, gave us directions to the church and we headed on our way. We got there a little late, and met Pastor Victor who was one of those guys without a single care in the world. We ended up playing soccer with a bunch of kids on the public soccer field for the afternoon. Then we settled into a nice, vacant little house that we could all fit in. Along with our friendly cockroaches, geckos, and cockroach eating spiders. For dinner that night we actually had a "barbeque" of sorts at the house. The youth group came over and we roasted shishkebabs on a grill made out of cinder block and some scrap wood. Oh, and it was also one of the worst storms I've ever been in. Thunder you could feel in your bones, and lightning that lit up the night. And rain as heavy as I've ever seen it. But the group had a great time hanging out with the youth group. They played Uno for awhile and Signs. All in all, it was a good day.
Sunday we went to the church there in Cuatro Cruces which had probably 20-30 people in it. The group performed their drama which I loved cause it was my favorite one. Normally after church we send the groups off in pairs to the homes of church members for lunch and to spend the afternoon together. That was the plan here too, but none of the members showed up that had offered to host people. So we were all a little disappointed, but we had lunch there at the church and said that God must have something else planned. So we decided that we would do house-to-house prayer in the community. Well after that decision, it quickly started to rain. So we all though, great, okay God, what do you really want us to do? We can't do house-to-house prayer in the rain. So we finished lunch and waited, and the rain soon stopped. So we went and prayed with different people in the community. One of the youth from the church went with my group. His name was Anivel. He didn't know English, but that was okay. He spoke to the residents for us for the most part, and I translated to the guys in my group. I have probably mentioned this before, but God has never ceased to amaze me in allowing me to understand enough Spanish to make these prayer times actually work. After praying, we went back to the church and had our first Bible School for the kids. This was always one of my highlights. I loved finding the "tough guys" who didn't want to dance and sing with us, and then bug them till the did join us. That evening we spent some time talking about our experiences.
Monday we started several work projects at the church. I helped sand down the walls inside the church. Another group was tearing down a wall in the adjacent building which was used mostly for the youth. And a third group helped start laying block on an extension to the youth building. We worked on that until the middle of the afternoon (with lunch in between of course) and then we hosted the second Bible School. By then all of the sanders were completely covered in white dust closely resembling abominable snowmen. So we tried to clean up and then got all hot and sweaty again leading the kids. Oh the joys of ministry. It is soooo worth it. That night we got to have our debrief time early and I was looking forward to just enjoying the evening with my friends. Well, you just know something came up. Cause that's life. The gray van we had been driving had had a slow gas leak for awhile. Well, it was getting worse, and pastor Victor wanted to help us so he brought out some bonding compound. I was excited cause I thought this would finally stop the leak. Up until that point we had been storing a bucket under the gas tank while the van was parked, and refilling the gas tank each time we got in the van. So we got out and tried the compound, but with the leaking gas, the compound was unable to bond to the tank. So we had to get the gas out. So Luis, one of the Tico guys siphoned out the gas for us, with a few good swallows of gasoline trying to get it done. Bless his heart. Well we couldn't siphon it all out cause our hose didn't reach all the way in. So Victor, Luis, and Mark one of the guys in my group crawled under the van and found a pipe to unscrew and get the rest of the gasoline. So about 3 hours later, everything was finally done, I was exhausted (just from the stress, cause fortunately, I didn't have to do much). Victor and Luis went home, and Mark and I went into our house to get ready for bed. Everyone else had gone to bed. I got in the shower and Mark washed up at the sink. When I got out of the shower, Mark whispered to me to come check something. One of the tubes going to the sink had broken clean off. (Granted, the pipes were plastic). Now we had a pipe outside of the house, gushing water and it was already 11:30 and Mark and I were the only ones still awake. We couldn't figure out how to turn off the water to the house, so we had to go wake Victor up. He turned off the water to the house and we glued on a new piece of pipe. Finally we could go to bed. However, throughout the whole ordeal, Victor was constantly in good spirits and I learned some great Spanish jokes.
Tuesday was an uneventful day, thanks be to God. We were able to do most of the painting to the inside of the church and the other group was able to put on a better wall on the youth building where they took it off the day before. We had a final Bible School for the kids and handed out all kinds of candy and balloon animals. That evening we had a great time just talking over dinner and sharing jokes with Pastor Victor. What was especially comical were the jokes that one person would tell in one language, but when we tried to translate, the joke wasn't funny, because the translation wasn't accurate. But we would always tell the group to laugh so that Victor thought his joke was a good one:). We also shared embarassing moments which were funny in both languages.
Wednesday was our final day in Cuatro Cruces. We were finishing up the painting and other projects. While the group did that, I went to fill up the vans with gas and get them ready to go for the trip back that afternoon. At the gas station, the gray van no longer leaked gas, but it wouldn't start up after we filled it with gas. So we bought some jumper cables and after awhile it finally started. Whew, close call, we thought. We took the van to Canalette where the other group was to try and load their luggage in so it would all be ready by the afternoon. Well we got the camp where the group was staying and we turned the van off. Bad idea, cause it wouldn't start. Well we had another van so I went and found Weston, one of the leaders from the other group in Canalette. We went back and tried to jump the van again and finally after letting the battery charge, it worked. So we got the van back to the house. By then it was time to start packing. So everyone cleaned up and we starting loading the vans. Well it started to rain. Joy. I didn't mind it so much, but then I figured we better start the van just to make sure. Guess what? Yeah, it didn't start. So we hooked it up to one of the other vans with the jumper cables and tried to charge the battery, in the middle of the pouring rain. I was starting to get a little flustered. After all the luggage was in, we tried several times and couldn't get the van started. So finally after much stress we took our second van to the hardware store and I bought a new battery. All of this wouldn't have been a big deal except the drive between each of these places was usually at least 15 minutes one way. We were already late because of the van problems. So I took the battery back and when I got there, the van was gone. Apparently it had started. Which was good news. They had gone to catch up with me so I wouldn't have to buy the battery, but it was too late. Well finally, we all got caught up with each other, everything loaded in and we headed back. We had a lady from the church in Canalette who was traveling back with us so we felt good about finding our way back because we were dropping the groups off in a different place for their vacation day. There were three vans in our caravan and I was driving the last one with the group. We were cruising along, the van didn't leak, and it was running, we were not going to turn that thing off until we were all the way home. We were on a straight stretch of road when suddenly I heard what sounded like a gun shot and the van lurched to the left. Great! The last straw. We had a flat tire. Well there was a driveway up just a little farther so we rode on the rim just a little ways so we could get off the road. We all hopped out and sure enough, the back tire on the driver side was in shreds. (There's a picture on my photo website). So we looked for the jack and the spare tire and got those out, but we didn't have a wrench. So I looked around and by God's provision we had stopped right in front of a mechanic's shop. This was a miracle because we were in the middle of the country and there were really only two houses within sight. The mechanic came out with his wrench and even changed the tire for us. It was a miracle. So we got back on the road and caught up with the other two vans who hadn't even stopped for us until way down the road. So it soon got dark and none of the leaders really knew where we were going. We knew where we were supposed to end up, but we didn't know how to get there exactly. We were counting on the lady that came with us. Soon I realized that I recognized some landmarks that we had driven by about an hour before. Yep, we were lost. After asking directions at least three times, we finally arrived several hours late at the hotel where the groups were staying to go to their vacation day the following day. The staff ate dinner and I said my goodbyes to my Bible Study and we headed back to Pura Vida because there was already another group waiting for us. There were six staff that took one van back to the camp. Weston was driving and doing a great job. We had the music playing and we were just glad to have even a short break of one morning before we had to help with the next group. All of a sudden Weston slams on the brakes and we come to a screeching halt. A cow was standing probably 6 feet in front of us with no intentions of moving. Slowly it moved after we stopped. Close call.
After all that, I can say that I enjoy telling the story, but I never want to go through all of that again. But if I do, at least I'll be accustomed to handling it. What a week. And through it all our God is incredibly faithful. It seemed like nothing was going right, and yet, somethings ended up working out too well that it really couldn't have just been coincidence. It's awesome serving the Lord here in Costa Rica or anywhere.
Sorry, this was a novel, but I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing.
Anyway, it was good seeing them. I didn't get to teach any of them my drama, but I got to watch them practice a different one. I was fairly busy though during their training trying to get all of the final details together, so I don't really remember a whole lot from that time. Unfortunately, being the third week, my lack of sleep and the constant activity was finally catching up to me about that time. And I was feeling a little more pressure to make sure this trip went well since it was my friends from home. I feel like I wasn't myself that week, but after talking to them and hearing about their experience at the end of the trip, I was glad to know that all of my stress and preoccupations didn't get in the way of them having a great time and really learning a lot about God and about the culture here in Costa Rica.
On Saturday morning, after having 2 and a half days of training, two groups packed ourselves and all of our luggage into three vans and headed out to Cuatro Cruces and Canalette about 5 hours from the base. We dropped the other group off in Canalette first and then made our way over to Cuatro Cruces with my Bible Study. Now, I had been there once, but I wasn't positive of how to get there. So we drove for a little while and I recognized some things, but still wasn't quite sure. We ended up passing a truck that was half-way on the road with its back tires spinning in the mud. We offered to help, but they said they were okay, so we passed them and turned around because I was sure I had missed the turn. As we approached the truck again, I decided that we should just help them out, so we pulled off of the road and all the guys piled out. The Ticos were glad to see the extra help. We got that truck pushed out of there in one try. They thanked us, gave us directions to the church and we headed on our way. We got there a little late, and met Pastor Victor who was one of those guys without a single care in the world. We ended up playing soccer with a bunch of kids on the public soccer field for the afternoon. Then we settled into a nice, vacant little house that we could all fit in. Along with our friendly cockroaches, geckos, and cockroach eating spiders. For dinner that night we actually had a "barbeque" of sorts at the house. The youth group came over and we roasted shishkebabs on a grill made out of cinder block and some scrap wood. Oh, and it was also one of the worst storms I've ever been in. Thunder you could feel in your bones, and lightning that lit up the night. And rain as heavy as I've ever seen it. But the group had a great time hanging out with the youth group. They played Uno for awhile and Signs. All in all, it was a good day.
Sunday we went to the church there in Cuatro Cruces which had probably 20-30 people in it. The group performed their drama which I loved cause it was my favorite one. Normally after church we send the groups off in pairs to the homes of church members for lunch and to spend the afternoon together. That was the plan here too, but none of the members showed up that had offered to host people. So we were all a little disappointed, but we had lunch there at the church and said that God must have something else planned. So we decided that we would do house-to-house prayer in the community. Well after that decision, it quickly started to rain. So we all though, great, okay God, what do you really want us to do? We can't do house-to-house prayer in the rain. So we finished lunch and waited, and the rain soon stopped. So we went and prayed with different people in the community. One of the youth from the church went with my group. His name was Anivel. He didn't know English, but that was okay. He spoke to the residents for us for the most part, and I translated to the guys in my group. I have probably mentioned this before, but God has never ceased to amaze me in allowing me to understand enough Spanish to make these prayer times actually work. After praying, we went back to the church and had our first Bible School for the kids. This was always one of my highlights. I loved finding the "tough guys" who didn't want to dance and sing with us, and then bug them till the did join us. That evening we spent some time talking about our experiences.
Monday we started several work projects at the church. I helped sand down the walls inside the church. Another group was tearing down a wall in the adjacent building which was used mostly for the youth. And a third group helped start laying block on an extension to the youth building. We worked on that until the middle of the afternoon (with lunch in between of course) and then we hosted the second Bible School. By then all of the sanders were completely covered in white dust closely resembling abominable snowmen. So we tried to clean up and then got all hot and sweaty again leading the kids. Oh the joys of ministry. It is soooo worth it. That night we got to have our debrief time early and I was looking forward to just enjoying the evening with my friends. Well, you just know something came up. Cause that's life. The gray van we had been driving had had a slow gas leak for awhile. Well, it was getting worse, and pastor Victor wanted to help us so he brought out some bonding compound. I was excited cause I thought this would finally stop the leak. Up until that point we had been storing a bucket under the gas tank while the van was parked, and refilling the gas tank each time we got in the van. So we got out and tried the compound, but with the leaking gas, the compound was unable to bond to the tank. So we had to get the gas out. So Luis, one of the Tico guys siphoned out the gas for us, with a few good swallows of gasoline trying to get it done. Bless his heart. Well we couldn't siphon it all out cause our hose didn't reach all the way in. So Victor, Luis, and Mark one of the guys in my group crawled under the van and found a pipe to unscrew and get the rest of the gasoline. So about 3 hours later, everything was finally done, I was exhausted (just from the stress, cause fortunately, I didn't have to do much). Victor and Luis went home, and Mark and I went into our house to get ready for bed. Everyone else had gone to bed. I got in the shower and Mark washed up at the sink. When I got out of the shower, Mark whispered to me to come check something. One of the tubes going to the sink had broken clean off. (Granted, the pipes were plastic). Now we had a pipe outside of the house, gushing water and it was already 11:30 and Mark and I were the only ones still awake. We couldn't figure out how to turn off the water to the house, so we had to go wake Victor up. He turned off the water to the house and we glued on a new piece of pipe. Finally we could go to bed. However, throughout the whole ordeal, Victor was constantly in good spirits and I learned some great Spanish jokes.
Tuesday was an uneventful day, thanks be to God. We were able to do most of the painting to the inside of the church and the other group was able to put on a better wall on the youth building where they took it off the day before. We had a final Bible School for the kids and handed out all kinds of candy and balloon animals. That evening we had a great time just talking over dinner and sharing jokes with Pastor Victor. What was especially comical were the jokes that one person would tell in one language, but when we tried to translate, the joke wasn't funny, because the translation wasn't accurate. But we would always tell the group to laugh so that Victor thought his joke was a good one:). We also shared embarassing moments which were funny in both languages.
Wednesday was our final day in Cuatro Cruces. We were finishing up the painting and other projects. While the group did that, I went to fill up the vans with gas and get them ready to go for the trip back that afternoon. At the gas station, the gray van no longer leaked gas, but it wouldn't start up after we filled it with gas. So we bought some jumper cables and after awhile it finally started. Whew, close call, we thought. We took the van to Canalette where the other group was to try and load their luggage in so it would all be ready by the afternoon. Well we got the camp where the group was staying and we turned the van off. Bad idea, cause it wouldn't start. Well we had another van so I went and found Weston, one of the leaders from the other group in Canalette. We went back and tried to jump the van again and finally after letting the battery charge, it worked. So we got the van back to the house. By then it was time to start packing. So everyone cleaned up and we starting loading the vans. Well it started to rain. Joy. I didn't mind it so much, but then I figured we better start the van just to make sure. Guess what? Yeah, it didn't start. So we hooked it up to one of the other vans with the jumper cables and tried to charge the battery, in the middle of the pouring rain. I was starting to get a little flustered. After all the luggage was in, we tried several times and couldn't get the van started. So finally after much stress we took our second van to the hardware store and I bought a new battery. All of this wouldn't have been a big deal except the drive between each of these places was usually at least 15 minutes one way. We were already late because of the van problems. So I took the battery back and when I got there, the van was gone. Apparently it had started. Which was good news. They had gone to catch up with me so I wouldn't have to buy the battery, but it was too late. Well finally, we all got caught up with each other, everything loaded in and we headed back. We had a lady from the church in Canalette who was traveling back with us so we felt good about finding our way back because we were dropping the groups off in a different place for their vacation day. There were three vans in our caravan and I was driving the last one with the group. We were cruising along, the van didn't leak, and it was running, we were not going to turn that thing off until we were all the way home. We were on a straight stretch of road when suddenly I heard what sounded like a gun shot and the van lurched to the left. Great! The last straw. We had a flat tire. Well there was a driveway up just a little farther so we rode on the rim just a little ways so we could get off the road. We all hopped out and sure enough, the back tire on the driver side was in shreds. (There's a picture on my photo website). So we looked for the jack and the spare tire and got those out, but we didn't have a wrench. So I looked around and by God's provision we had stopped right in front of a mechanic's shop. This was a miracle because we were in the middle of the country and there were really only two houses within sight. The mechanic came out with his wrench and even changed the tire for us. It was a miracle. So we got back on the road and caught up with the other two vans who hadn't even stopped for us until way down the road. So it soon got dark and none of the leaders really knew where we were going. We knew where we were supposed to end up, but we didn't know how to get there exactly. We were counting on the lady that came with us. Soon I realized that I recognized some landmarks that we had driven by about an hour before. Yep, we were lost. After asking directions at least three times, we finally arrived several hours late at the hotel where the groups were staying to go to their vacation day the following day. The staff ate dinner and I said my goodbyes to my Bible Study and we headed back to Pura Vida because there was already another group waiting for us. There were six staff that took one van back to the camp. Weston was driving and doing a great job. We had the music playing and we were just glad to have even a short break of one morning before we had to help with the next group. All of a sudden Weston slams on the brakes and we come to a screeching halt. A cow was standing probably 6 feet in front of us with no intentions of moving. Slowly it moved after we stopped. Close call.
After all that, I can say that I enjoy telling the story, but I never want to go through all of that again. But if I do, at least I'll be accustomed to handling it. What a week. And through it all our God is incredibly faithful. It seemed like nothing was going right, and yet, somethings ended up working out too well that it really couldn't have just been coincidence. It's awesome serving the Lord here in Costa Rica or anywhere.
Sorry, this was a novel, but I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing.
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