Deck the Halls and stuff

The last week or so I've been feeling a little lonely. I think its mostly due to the fact that Christmas is coming and I'm away from most of my family and friends (although I am endlessly thankful for the opportunity I had to move to CR with part of my Whitworth family). In order to fight off the loneliness and put me in a Christmasy mood (since our weather is like endless fall up here on the mountain), I decided I needed to do a little decorating.

On a side note, I'm sure some of you have seen my older sister's blog (lavidadebeth.blogspot.com). Over the years I have teased her endlessly for having a blog, but it has actually been a great way for me to keep up with her life. I only mention this because she loves to put cute little crafty, decorating, and cooking things on her blog, whereas my blog is more about my adventures here. However, this blog entry makes me think of Bethany, because it seems more like one of her entries than mine, so I thought I'd give her a little shout out.

Back to my decorating story.

So, last night Kristina and I headed to good ol' Auto Mercado to get a few supplies. Candles are one thing that always lift my spirits, so I stocked up on those (in yummy scents like pumpkin and cinnamon!).

Now, if you know me well you know I am a mug person. I take great pleasure in picking out what mug I will use each day, finding something that motivates me and matches my day. Well, here I've been trying not to amass a zillion mugs because 1)I shouldn't spend money on them, 2)I get attached to my mugs and will want to keep them all, but I won't be able to ship 20 mugs back home when I'm done here and 3) There just isn't any real need/much room for them at the moment. Therefore, I bought one mug a few months back and have been using it daily. Its a really cute mug with pink flowers on it, but it just wasn't helping me get into a festive mood. So, last night I bought this adorable mug that reminds me of all the cute Starbucks mugs my Mom and sisters have at home. (P.S. Bethany, I almost bought you a mug that said Feliz Navidad, but decided I didn't want to have to lug it home to you).

And finally, Kristina got some Christmas lights! This is not the best picture of them, but it would be hard to get a great picture, considering the strings were a little shorter than we expected, so our wall is only half decorated in lights at the moment.

1 mug, a few candles, and a few strings of Christmas lights later, and Kristina and I were feeling pretty cheery! It is so much fun to turn off the lights and work/read/watch TV by the light of candles and Christmas lights. Oooh, and one more reason to be cheery: did I mention I'm coming home in 2 weeks?! My Christmas gift from my parents - I can't wait!!!

Today I cut down a Christmas tree - with a machete.

Okay, so that title is not completely accurate. I was not actually the person who climbed the tree and hacked off the topmost, fullest part to be our campus Christmas tree, but I was there, supporting Julio, our gardener, as he did just that. But I did get to help cut off some extra branches, yes, with the machete. My soul felt so much better after walking out on our property to cut down our very own Christmas tree. And wielding that machete with all my strength helped too. We all find ways to fight off the end of semester stress.

Nicaragua, Nicaragüita, la flor mas linda de mi querer.

It is a beautiful morning. I slept in until 10am, after a week of bucket baths took a nice, hot shower, just had a breakfast of fruit salad, and now with tea in hand I'm ready to get down to business, I mean, blogging.

Here comes the classic apology for not blogging in over a month. I know I always say things have been busy, but this month that is definitely no lie. I've spent more than half of the month away from campus. A few weeks ago we spent five days on the road for the Conservation and Human Rights ecology course, and we just now returned from a week long trip to Nicaragua (hence the blog title). I was talking with my dearly missed Linnea a few weeks ago about my lack of blogging inspiration, and she made the very astute observation that, now that I've been here for over 4 months, there just aren't as many new and crazy things to blog about - life is just normal now, I live here. However, lucky you after this month of travels, I now have lots of new and exciting things to say! Since I just got back about 12 hours ago from Nica, I'll focus in on that trip for this blog post.

So, last Saturday all the students, Lindy, Dinorah, Bean and I loaded up in a microbus and headed north to the border. Now, I'm not sure if the States' media has even covered it, but there is a bit of a border dispute going on between Nica and CR at the moment, regarding the San Juan River. Therefore it was with some trepidation that we approached the border, amongst rumors that it was closed. Thankfully however, the rumors were unfounded and we got across without any problems. Most stressful part of the trip done:check! (I get very stressed out about border crossings for some reason).

Bean and I have spent the last few months organizing this trip with the help of our dear friend (and Nicaraguan host father) Freddy. He was doing the prep work in Nica while we helped him with details and scheduling from here. We organized this trip to look very CASPy, meaning lectures morning noon and night, with some museum visits and concerts thrown in to shake things up a little. It was an exhausting week, but a wonderful week.

A few highlights: visiting historic Managua and the Sandino museum (always a highlight for me! Someday I'll blog about Sandino's story, because it is very impacting); visiting the Matagalpa region during the peak of the coffee harvest (felt like being home in Honduras again!); visiting the US Embassy in Nicaragua (the best embassy experience I've ever had - super stimulating conversation! no wonder I was a poli sci major...); and staying once again at the home of our friends Freddy and Leo, and getting to be there for the 2 year birthday celebration of their adorable son whom I love. Good times. Also, for Thanksgiving our group and a few close Nica friends had a lovely dinner out in which we did the classic going around the table and saying something you're thankful for, in spanish of course. A wonderful Thanksgiving evening was rounded off with attending a Carlos Mejia-Godoy concert. He is an extremely famous Nica musician known for his protest songs during the wars of the 80s. He has composed over 400 pieces, including the Campesino Mass used by Ecclesiastical Base Communities for the last 20-30 years. This blog title comes from one of his most popular songs, more or less a love song to Nicaragua.

I mentioned that we visited the Matagalpa region. We went to visit an agricultural coop that is supported by a Nica organization called PAC (Associación de Pueblos en Acción Comunitaria or-losely translated-People for Community Action), which is an organization supported by the US organization World Relief. This coop supports local farmers growing coffee, cacao, tarrot root, and other veggies. While the cacao products and some of the coffee of this coop is not yet Fair Trade Certified (check out these links if you don't know what I'm talking about: http://www.fairtrade.net/ ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairtrade_certification) the workers are definitely benefiting from working together in this coop style (and they are in the process of becoming Fair Trade certified). I've always been one to try to purchase fair trade coffee and even chocolate if I can, but if that isn't possible, buy Ritter Sport chocolate. It may be a bit more expensive, but it is amazing and happens to buy some of their cacao from this little Matagalpa cooperative. By buying Ritter Sport chocolate, you are supporting my friends in Nicaragua.



Also, most of you have probably noticed that in the last few years Starbucks has come up with its own equivalent to Fair Trade Certification, rather than using the internationally recognized Fair Trade certification. Now, I often have mixed feelings regarding Starbucks: torn between liking them for being really good to their employees and giving great health benefits, yet not liking that they are a big corporation that seems to be taking over the world, liking that they seem to try to be doing something better for the environment, yet not liking them for making up their own fair trade cert instead of using that which is already known and recognized.
I have recently trusted Starbucks much less for making up their own certification - I've wondered if that means that they aren't living up to the standars of real Fair Trade. However, this week I found my answer. According to the farmers we met with in Matagalpa, there is really no difference betweeen the Starbucks fair trade, and the recognized Fair Trade Certification. They told me that the Starbucks standards are essentially the same, mandating how much coffee pickers will make a day (no less than $5), that no one can work outside the 8am-5pm range, and that children/youth cannot work during school hours. So all of this is to say that I suppose I now have a little bit more respect for Starbucks, and just thought I'd let you all know that their own certification seems to be legitimate. In case you were interested.

It is always hard for me to leave Nicaragua. I often feel that I am too comfortable in Costa Rica, that I am spoiled by being able to drink the water and often flush the toilet paper. Its just so "easy" in comparison to what it would be like to live in Nicaragua. Not that I'm saying I don't work really hard here in CR, or that I don't appreciate the comforts I have access to, it is just always a struggle for me. When I was in Laos in January, I talked with a friend who had lived there for many years about how she always asked God to make her uncomfortable - how that it was in those situations that she really had to lean on him and let him lead her. Sometimes I feel that I am not uncomfortable enough here in CR, but that I definitely would be in Nica. There is just something really special to me about the Nicaraguan people, their history and hope for the future. Maybe I am just linked to them because of the history of our nations and their interactions, but I think it is something deeper, something betweeen me and the people I meet there. Don't get me wrong, I love Costa Rica and am really enjoying my work here and the people I meet, I just hope that someday I might be able to call Nicaragua home, even for a little while, because that is always what it feels like in my heart.

A tribute to Monseñor

A few days ago we watched the movie Romero for Core 350. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, check out this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero. (Wikipedia does a good job of telling the basic story, but I'll give you a little info here as well).

Monseñor Oscar Romero was the archbishop of San Salvador during the violence of the 1980's. He was appointed as a fairly conservative bishop who was not concerned with politics. However, after seeing the death of a fellow priest and viewing all the human rights abuses taking place in his country, he chose to embrace liberation theology and speak out against the poverty and violence that were rampant in his country. (He even wrote a personal letter to President Carter asking him to stop sending arms to El Salvador, as they were only being used to kill the Salvadoran people). For speaking out against violence, he was assassinated while giving the eucharist on March 24, 1980.

This was the first time I'd seen the movie since I actually traveled in El Salvador, since I actually visited the church in which he was martyred. Needless to say, watching this movie is always a difficult experience for me. However, this time I was impressed more than ever with the strength and wisdom Monseñor possessed. During a time of violence where it seemed that the only possible way to stand up against oppressive dictators and a dirty military was to take up arms against them, Romero spoke out for peace and tried to find a middle way that would end the violence and bring justice. I don't know if I would have his strength to resist violence and work for peace in such a volatile situation.

In my eyes Romero stands as one of those great, untouchable figures of history who spoke for peace and lived it out. Yet, history tells us that he was just a man, a man who had to struggle with his sins and failings in order to stand for the work of God in his suffering country. Would that we could all have his strength. I leave you with an excerpt from his final sermon given about a week before his assassination. He is speaking to those members of his crooked government and military who have chosen violence over life, to those people who would soon kill him for speaking out as he did:

"Nadie tiene que obedecer una ley inmoral. Ya es hora de que recuperó su conciencia y obedecer a su conciencia en lugar de una orden pecaminosa. La iglesia, el defensor de los derechos de Dios, de la ley de Dios, de la dignidad humana, de la persona, no puede permanecer callado ante tal abominación. Queremos que el gobierno para enfrentar el hecho de que las reformas no tienen valor si se quiere que se llevará a cabo a costa de tanta sangre así. En nombre de Dios, en el nombre de este sufrido pueblo cuyos lamentos suben hasta el cielo cada día más fuerte, te lo suplico, les ruego, les ordeno en nombre de Dios: ¡Cese la represión!"


"No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you recovered your consciences and obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The church, the defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination. We want the government to face the fact that reforms are valueless if they are to be carried out at the cost of so much blood. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression."

- Arzobispo/Archbishop Oscar Romero

Capital! Capital!

For those of you that didn't catch it, my title is a Pride & Prejudice reference. We'll get to that in a minute.

Well, things continue as crazy busy as ever here at Whitworth South. This last week we took our students on a canopy/zipline tour about 30-40 minutes away from our campus. They loved it, and Bean and I were happy to give it a second go-round.

This week our fearless leader has been up at Whitworth North for work and spring recruitment purposes, so Bean, Dinorah and I have been holding down the fort. Good times.

My Jane Austen reference at the beginning is in honor of an amazing party we (Bean and I) and all the students had last night: a Pride & Prejudice party! One of our student has actually spent the last 12 years (with the exception of the last two while he's been attending Whitworth) living with his family in Costa Rica. So yesterday all but one of us (missed you Raquel!) headed to his folks' home: 3 buses and 2 hours later we were ready to start the party! Costumes came out, beards were shaved into chops and mustaches, British accents appeared out of nowhere, scones were baked, biscuits and marmelade consumed, and of course, plenty of tea for all! We spent from about 3pm-midnight watching the 6 hour BBC version of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, with snack, dinner, and dance party breaks in between of course. Sooooo much fun! Some of the favorite quotes of the evening were "capital, capital!", "shocking, abominable reply! How shall we punish him?", "Lord I'm so fat!", "Have a little compassion on my nerves!", "We seem to have been designed for each other", "What are you talking of", etc. For those of you who know the movies by heart like I do, you understand that the vocal inflections are of 'great doctrinal import' to all these quotes.

So, last night's party was basically the highlight of the week. It was a great time to get away from the normal scene, be off the freezing cold, windy mountain, and be in a semi-normal "home" atmosphere. It was a wonderful time of just being together, not worrying about school stuff, and being transported for a few short hours to the world of Jane Austen, a place that is like home to my heart. Thanks Nelson family!

We are so famous!

So, this is a few weeks old, but I just stumbled upon it - an informal article by Whitworth about our center here in CR. Give it a look if you'd like to see another perspective on our work here at the Southern Campus. Cheers!

http://whitworthweekly.blogspot.com/2010/09/students-blog-directors-message-recount.html

Punta Mona!

This weekend we took a little road trip to the Caribbean coast. The reason for this trip? Aside from needing a little relief from the clouds and rain that oppress us up on the mountain, the highlight of the trip was a visit to my favorite Organic Farm, Punta Mona!

For those of you who haven't heard me talk about Punta Mona, it is a "Community and Center for Sustainable Living and Education". http://www.puntamona.org/ We visited Punta Mona during our CR portion of the CASP trip three years ago, and it has been a dream of mine to return ever since.

For this trip we were only able to make it in for a quick day trip that included an amazing 4 hour hike to the farm and then a tour. Going back to Punta Mona was so meaningful for me: I learned so many new and important lessons there about caring for Creation, about permaculture and sustainability, God definitely used my time there to expand my understanding of him and they way he works in this world.

For me, this whole beach trip was one amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience after another. To give you an idea and to share some of my reflections on it all, I'm going to share an entry I wrote in my prayer journal our last morning at the beach:

Thank you for the amazing experiences we've had here at the beach the last few days. The fact that we were able to rent this amazing balcony right on the beach, looking out on the beautiful Punta Uva beach not 30 feet away is amazing. Two mornings ago when Lindy rescued that bird, and I was able to just hold sweet little Chuck in one hand while eating breakfast and enjoying conversation was wonderful. Chuck's feathers were so awe-inspiring - that you would put that much detail and design into the feathers of a small, green bird - you are so amazing Creator. And then that Chuck flew away safely healed or rested after we finished our group yoga and meditation, that was precious. Who are we to limit your power oh God? Could you not take our combined energies and focus as a prayer to heal Chuck? Didn't you? I am so thankful Lord.
Yesterday morning hiking in to Punta Mona I was in complete awe at how you demonstrated your glories for us over and over. Seeing that sloth so shockingly up close was a true gift - it completely made my day. The way you put so much detail in to all your Creation is overwhelming, and so good. Watching his 3-clawed "hands" grip the tree as he pulled himself up it in slow-motion, I gained an extreme love and appreciation for these osos perezosos. And when I thought that my day was made by that, you kept showing us new and more amazing things. Baby howler monkeys, yellow eyelash vipers, red poison dart frogs. I loooooved those frogs - they were so cute and miniature, and yet the power they wield!
Thank you so much for the chance to return to Punta Mona again yesterday - it was a dream come true. Yes, things have changed, but it was still such a wonderful reminder of all the things you taught me there three years ago. I am constantly awed by the detail you put in to your Creation, and how evident that is at Punta Mona. They way you wrapped up all the things we need - like diverse foods, moisturizers, healing and soothing plants, all things in to your Creation is glorious. Teach us how to find and use all these plants and gifts you've given us so that we may be closer to you and your Creation.
And then there was the amazing boat ride back from Punta Mona last night. The beauty of the teal water, the amusement-park-like fun of the stormy waves, the glory of the palm-lined beaches we passed, the child-like joy of finding images in the clowds, then your glory shining through white, yellow and blue sky beyond the clouds. You are so evident in your Creation Lord God. Lars said it clearly on that boat ride "how can anyone see all this and the way it all works together and not believe in a Creator?"
And I am constantly awed by the way you have equipped each individual part of your Creation. You have given each part of nature the instincts and defenses that they need. Termites that humans can live off of it necessary, that anteaters do live off of, and yet those same anteaters know not to eat the queen or the hive will not regenerate. You have woven your wisdom and knowledge into Creation. The frogs that are poisonous stick out in color because they have ways to defend themselves, while those without toxic protection match the colors of your Creation around them in order to hide and protect themselves - amazing. Your goodness is so present in our world Lord Jesus. I am endlessly thankful for these last few days and all the things you've reminded me of here.

Nicaragua: Rum & Prayer

So, per usual (now that we have students), things have been pretty busy lately.

About a week ago Bean and I took a good ol' Ticabus and headed up to Nicaragua. Hence my post title. The prayers refer the ones we made regarding staying healthy whilst drinking questionable beveridges offered to us by some friendly neighbors and campesinos. Of course the rum refers to all the Flor de Caña that is produced here (and may or may not refer to the rum shots we took in an effort to kill any bacteria we might have come into contact with).

Our time in Nicaragua was amazing. We were going to scout out a trip that we will be taking our students on in November. While Costa Rica is an amazing place, it is very different from the rest of Central America - it is more economically and socially developed, and much more "Americanized". We want our students to get a taste of what is more typical for Central America.

We stayed with a friend we made at the Intervarsity Conference a few months ago, as he is helping us plan this trip for our students. It was such a treat, like getting a special homestay with an amazing family (two adorable children and a mother from El Salvador - we had pupusas twice!). Doing dishes and brushing our teeth in the pila, taking way too crowded buses, and sweating constantly were all welcome reminders of what the rest of Central America is - oh I've missed you Nicaragua!

I am always shocked by how comfortable I can get in certain places. I have become far too comfortable with my life in Costa Rica, where I can flush my toilet paper and actually have a washing machine. The first day or so in Nicaragua were definitely uncomfortable reminders of what economic poverty looks like, but by the second or third day it was like coming home. Nicaragua was the country that impressed me the most during our time on CASP, and this trip served as a reminder why. The Nicaraguan people have dealt with so much crap and have been beat down by so many nations and economic systems in their history, yet they just keep pushing on. They have so much hope, and sooo much love in their lives.

Coming back to Costa Rica was a shocking change. While I am thankful for how well off we are in our situation here, I was having a hard time connecting my Nica experience with my work here with our students. However, after a small adjustment period I am now looking forward with great anticipation to bringing out students to Nica in the near future!

Freddy and fam, thank you for your amazing love and hospitality!

The one where the students arrive.

I know, I know, I've been a slacker lately. I haven't updated my blog in weeks. Oops.

But I have a REALLY good excuse! Or rather, many really good excuses. You see, first we moved onto the campus, and I didn't want to update my blog until we were fully moved and living in our own spaces.
Then two tech guys came from Whitworth to help us set up our computers, server, network, phones, etc, and I didn't want to update until that was all set up.
And then our students came and I was insanely busy forever and ever, amen.

But now our students are all moved in with their host families, so things have calmed down a little bit. And all of our computers are now set up, and my father the computer programmer would be proud of my cable patching skills. And Bean and I are fully moved in to our room, which is great.

So now I have a little time to update you all.

But lets focus on whats really important these days: our students. As a Student Life Coordinator (yes, besides "volunteer" that is my technical title) work gets a lot more exciting when you actually have students around to coordinate. Bean and I led them on plunges in San Rafael, Heredia, and San Jose, which were all very exciting. Every time we have a spare minute we are busy planning the next exciting event for our amazing students. And let me tell you, they are amazing. Because this is the first semester, we only have 8 students. (Don't worry, we won't ever have this few students again!). Did I mention the gender ration? 7 females and 1 male. Poor male. Or rather, lucky male?

All of these students are spanish majors and minors, which makes our job a lot easier. Even though they haven't all experienced spanish immersion experiences before, just having 300 or 400 level spanish skills is soooo helpful! They have all done an amazing job of jumping right in and getting excited about becoming a part of the local Tico culture and community.

Last Wednesday we officially held the first ever Whitworth Costa Rica Center class session: Latin American Culture and History, a 400 level spanish course. Since then we have also started Spanish Linguistics, Latin American Theology, and Core 350 (or, as Lindy has nicknamed it, Corazon 350:-). These are going to be some great courses! And the best part is that I don't have to do any of the homework since I'm not technically a student, but I get to sit in on them and get a great review on all these super interesting topics.

Now that the students have moved off campus and in with their host families, Bean and I are looking to the rest of the semester. In about a week we are traveling to Nicaragua to scout a trip the students will be taking in October. We are so excited to be going back to Nica finally, after three years of missing her! We're also continuing to find more host fams for Jan Term and spring, planning ecology trips around the country, and figuring out lunch every day since our kitchen still isn't quite ready, which means our Sodexo cook can't start cooking yet.

Ooh, which brings up another exciting part of our lives here. We now have our full Sodexo team, complete with maintenance man, gardener, cook, cleaning woman, and program assistant. They are all so great! They work 5 to 6 days a week (depending on the position) and they are all so much fun. Its great to have them here working on campus, becoming a part of our Whitworth family. Good times.

Also, a few anecdotes about life on a construction site.
1. My favorite thing to do is watch the guy who drives the giant Cat tractor thing around. He is always either super concentrated, sticking his tongue out as he manuevers this giant machine, or he is super laid back, like he isn't even working at all. I think he was a little weirded out by us just watching him do his work in the beginning, but now he's used to us and just waves whenever someone accidentally makes eye contact. (Come on, who wouldn't watch the giant machines moving mud beneath their windows?).
2. Bean and I have to work hard to make sure we're up at a decent hour these days. If we accidentally sleep in at all (like we did this morning) we get woken up by construction guys working outside our window. "Oh, hey guys". Thankfully, all the guys have been super respectful, and pretend like they can't see us until we're showered, dressed and ready to go every morning.

Well, thats all for now. I'll try to start updating this more often again, but things have just been so busy lately! But, as we like to say around here "life is good!" I love my work and am so thankful that I'm living in such a gorgeous, amazing place!

Los Animalitos

I have had a few requests for an update on our ratoncitos. I say ratoncitos plural because we ended up catching two mice in the villa kitchen. I won't dwell for long on the fate of the poor ratoncitos, but lets just say that mouse traps here are not as "kind" as mouse traps in the States. I'm kind of scarred for life now I think.

A day or two after we said goodbye to our dear ratoncitos, Bean and I had a very different animalito experience. We were watching a tv show on a laptop in our room, and suddenly I looked up and saw a huge spider on the wall across from us. Now, for those of you who have lived in Latin America, there are bigger spiders here (as Lindy so kindly informed us afterwards). But coming from Washington State, there aren't too many spiders that are bigger than the one we saw. It was like some hybrid version of a creepy wolf spider. Anyway, if you know us well, you know that Kristina and I are not the biggest spider fans. Although in my childhood I was known as someone who would easily kill a spider (after repeating the phrase "Spider alert! Spider alert! Dead meat!"), I have since grown out of such courageous feelings, at least when it comes to anything bigger than two inches wide. After a few moments of paralysis, Bean got up the courage to approach the spider with a shoe. Thinking she had killed it, she removed the shoe, but to our horror, we realized that due to the shape of the shoe the spider was still alive and well! Of course we began screaming as the spider tried to run away. Dinorah came running out of her room (yeah, our screams woke her up) asking if there was another ratoncito. We clearly have no problems with mice, but spiders are a serious issue! So, for the next five minutes we screamed as we tried numerous times to kill the ever-elusive spider. (Apparently yelling at spiders is something that has stayed with me since childhood. Such things as "I'm bigger than you!" may have come out of my mouth when trying to kill it). It came down to us intermittantly suffering paralysis, then one would get up the courage to try to squish it, but wouldn't succeed because of where the spider was hiding. At one point it made it in to Bean's huge backpack, so I was holding the headlamp while she moved the bag, trying to get the spider to come out. Finally, we killed it. (And I think it may have been demon possesed - it was moving in ways that I have never seen any spider move - creepy).

I will only comment shortly on the fact that Lindy did not come to help us throughout any of this. Instead he yelled to us from the living room about how there are bigger spiders, and how we could do it. I think he was paying us back for the fact that we refused to dispose of the ratoncitos due to our grief and the gruesome way the traps work here(you really don't want to know).

And two nights ago we had another interesting animalito experience. As Bean and I were driving home in the evening and it was pitch black out (remember, it gets dark here around 5:30pm), suddenly a creature runs out right in front of us on the road! An overly courageous racoon apparently decided to have a contest with us and El Loquito, but let me tell you, the racoon did not win. I will not try to describe my feelings upon hearing the car run over it more than once. Once again, scarred for life. Because it was dark and we were on a main road, there was no way we could stop or really anything we could do. Normally this might be only slightly scarring, but when it was added to the end of a day where we almost got killed by a Tico driver with serious road rage due to the fact that I had slammed to a stop in front of him so as not to kill a woman and her child trying to cross the street, and then had to slow down in order to miss the cows in the middle of the road, this was like icing on a horrible-day-of-driving cake. Thankfully, we were no worse for wear physically. Sadly, I cannot say the same for the poor mapache.

¡Un Ratoncito!

The last few days our villa has had an extra houseguest.

His name is Ratoncito.

Now, for those of you who don't speak spanish, ratoncito means mouse. Thats right, the last few days we've been glimpsing a little gray mouse scurrying in and out of our kitchen. Considering that we have doors and windows open all the time to let in fresh air, I'm not too shocked that we finally have a visitor. The differing responses to our visitor are quite amusing though.

One of the four of us (who will remain nameless) immediately called the hotel upon hearing that we'd seen a mouse in the kitchen. Other than setting a trap, we didn't really know what the hotel workers could do about it. A few of us set out some food trying to lure the mouse outside, telling him that "you'd get out of here now while you can, if you know what's good for you". He didn't heed our warnings though.

One of the housekeeping ladies showed up a bit later with a plastic gloves and a bag. However, she was shocked to hear that the mouse was actually alive, she thought she was coming to clean up a dead ratoncito. She spent some time searching for it, and then gave up deciding that it had probably already left without our seeing.

Now, when Bean and I first discovered the mouse, we were quietly working in the living room, and barely noticed the mouse, just as he probably barely noticed us. However, our friend seems to have gained a little more courage these in past few days. Today, only a few days after the original discovery, all four of us were together in the living room, debriefing the morning, when suddenly Bean noticed the mouse on the kitchen counter. We quitely tried to catch it, but it escaped through the burner in to the oven. (Spokane housemates - does this remind you of our own mouse difficulties a few months ago??)

The hotel front desk was again phoned immediately, and the same worker came, this time with another woman as backup. Now, the woman who came the first time to catch the mouse is probably around my age, yet she is known as being an expert at catching mice (however one becomes such an expert, I don't know). She and her backup preceeded to try to get the mouse out of its hiding place. Once the oven began to heat up, the mouse decided it was time to make a run for it. All of the sudden there is a rush of movement as we hear a mouse squealing, one woman catching it in her hands, trying to pass it on the mouse pro, but losing it in the process! So now there are two Tican women rushing around our kitchen chasing a little gray mouse as the four of us are watching and cheering them on! "Debajo de la refri!" "No no, ahora se fue en otro lado, por la estufa!" "Beneath the fridge!" "No, now it ran back to the oven". I'm sure the four of us were extremely helpful at this point.

Well, at this moment there are mouse traps set and we have not yet caught our little friend. Although personally I think that el ratoncito now deserves to live with us, since he/she so cleverly escaped two determined Ticas and four gaping gringos. Not to mention for providing us such clever entertainment. I wish I'd had my camera out to record the attempted catching!

¡Bienvenido mi ratoncito!

P.S.
Thank you to all of you who have been praying for my Lao host father. He is doing much, much better these days. He is sleeping well and even able to eat normal food. He seems to have been healed miraculously after praying with a pastor the night the doctor said he would die. My Lao sister moved to the United States about a week ago to work with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), but she is still getting updating regularly by her friends and family on her father's health, and passing those updates on to me. Please continue to pray for his healing, and for the entire family as they try to deal with getting him healthy. Also, pray for them as this separation from their only child has been quite difficult for all three of them: my host mother, father, and sister. Thank you so much for your prayers for them all; they are having a definite impact!

Road trip (Otra Vez)

The last week has been a blast.

Two professors from Whitworth came down to plan for the Jan Term course they'll be teaching here. The four of us (Kristina, Lindy, Dinorah and I) had a great time getting to know them both. And we laughed. A LOT.

But the most exciting thing that has happened is that we took the profs on a little road trip to Playa Esterillos and Manuel Antonio National Park. Did I mention that Kristina and I took them ourselves? That's right - Lindy and Dinorah didn't even come. And you know what that means - Bean(aka Kristina) and I drove the entire way! That means that we probably drove a total of 5 hours a piece. So, since we got here we've been slowly working up to driving...here and there to close places as we try to get comfortable with the crazy traffic. (This is when I am super thankful that I am a true Seattle driver after having lived there for a few summers). We hadn't even worked up to driving to San Jose yet, and we decided to just go crazy and drive down the coast. I think it was probably for the best that we just jumped in and took charge of the trip. It was exciting to feel like we are actually doing what our job description says we're supposed to do - help plan courses and schedules, and lead trips around the country. There is also something so empowering about being able to drive here. Until I spent Jan Term in Laos, I never realized how much my independence is based upon my ability to control my own transportation. Bean and I are both feeling pretty good these days, now that we have jumped over that big hurdle.

So we spent a day on the beach and then checked out the national park. It was a great way to get to know the area and decide what we'll be doing with our students. The park was gorgeous and we saw all sorts of animals: sloths, monkeys, toucans, snakes, rainbow crickets, and who knows what else. The sloths were my personal favorites. In general it was quite a bit more touristy than we would prefer, but touristy areas have their own problems that students should be learning from, wealth disparities in particular.

After the road trip we headed back to the villa and spent a day or two introducing the profs to some of our friends here that are helping us plan trips and courses. Also, we took them up the the Barva volcanoe to check out some volunteer opportunities for students. Its times like that, when I'm climbing to a lake that is 10,000 ft up, surrounded by nature so green that it reminds me of being either in Narnia or Middle Earth, that I step back and think "Yeah, I live here". Its pretty awe-inspiring up here. I feel so blessed!

Oh yeah, and yesterday was the one month point for us. I've been living and working here for a month now, which is a little crazy. Its already gone by so fast. My time here is one-twelfth over, and I can't believe it. The scary thing is thinking about how soon our students come...better go get to work to prepare for their arrival in less than a month!

Road trip!

Well hello again everyone!

Hm....since I've last updated you all things have been a little hectic.
I've been: meeting with more prospective host families, hanging out with new friends and finding out ways they'll be able to help us create meaningful programs for our students, traveling to San Ramon, to Puntarenas, to Santa Teresa, etc, taken 2 ferries, taken some buses, met some more host families, gone on an insane hike that about killed me, exercised, and probably eaten a gazillion Cremas and Chiky galletas.

Life is good.

So, as far as the road trip goes, about a week ago the four of us loaded up in El Loquito (our tiny car - see http://thebeankielbon.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/el-loquito/ to learn about it) and drove to San Ramon. Lindy was translating at an Intervarsity Central America, Mexico and Panama youth leader conference, so we decided to go check it out as well. The conference was amazing! We made so many friends and contacts that will be helpful for planning trips with our students, and we now have homes to stay at in any of the aforementioned countries! (We're especially excited about the prospect of Panama...). It was very moving to attend a conference much like ones I attended with my youth group in high school, but to have it all in spanish. Even though we only made it for the last day and a half, everyone welcomed us as if we'd been there the entire 10 days. There is nothing better than worshipping and praying together in numerous languages with some people you know, and a bunch of people you don't know. I felt honored to be there.

After the end of the conference, we headed to Puntarenas. From there we caught a ferry to the Nicoya Peninsula. We had planned on finding a place to stay that night in Montezuma, but after making friends with a nice Mexican guy named Javier on the ferry, we decided to stay the night in Santa Teresa. We had dinner with him that night and hung out with him on the beach the next day, where I Iproceeded to get beat up by the waves and the rocky beach. The scrape covering my right leg only added to the beauty of the bug bites I got at the camp.

The next day we headed back to the Villa in Monte de la Cruz, after a fun, short excursion to the beach. However, this was a work trip my friends, as we were discovering where to take our students for their biology class and other excursions.

Since then we've been able to hang out with a family that is quickly becoming our closest friends and helpers here in CR. They are the first family we met with, and they are amazing! It is great to feel like we're old friends already!

Oh, and we went on this super intense hike a few days ago. It takes about an hour or so to hike in to the place, it was pouring rain, and then we got there and decided to go on the "easy/medium" hike. Good thing we didn't go on the intense one or I would have died of heart failure. You may or may not know that I have a little fear of heights, however, I can control it when I feel like I have a railing or something between me and the ground far below. Well, this hike was through a muddy, basically trail-less jungle, without much between me and the cliff edge. Okay, so it wasn't as terrifying as El Imposible in El Salvador, but I will definitely never do this hike again. Sorry Kristina, but you're in charge of taking the students on this one!

Other than that we just continue on here trying to get details worked out with the campus, internships, home stays, and anything else that needs to be done before our students show up in a month!

Love and miss you all!

Prayer Requests

I don't have a lot of time to update you all at the moment, but I did want to take a second and ask for your prayers for a few things:

1. This last January, when I did my internship in Laos, I stayed with a Lao host family for two weeks. I just heard from my host sister that they found out her father (my host dad) has stomach cancer, and there is nothing the doctors can do. She is supposed to be moving to the U.S. in two weeks and doesn't know what to do now. PLEASE pray that my host sister will have wisdom, and that she and my host mother will know what to do to help my host dad. Also, please pray for a miracle, that the cancer would just disappear and that he would be healthy again. I would sooo appreciate your prayers for this most sweetest of families.

2. As always, please pray for the health of all of us at the CR campus. Thankfully, Costa Rica is a haven in Central America where you don't have to worry about eating street food or drinking the water - its all okay. (And you can usually even flush your toilet paper). However, I would still really appreciate your prayers asking for health for us and the students who will be coming this next year. Nothing can dampen an overseas experience like illness.

3. Please pray that the remodeling of the campus would be done well and quickly. All of the construction is behind schedule of course (this is Latin America:-), but so far behind schedule that we're worried that certain things won't be done in time for when the students come in the fall. The most important areas will be finished, but other areas we hoped would be done aren't looking promising at the moment. Pray that things will be done quickly and that we will know how to support and encourage the workers. (It is so hard to have to play the "we're paying for this so please hurry up because we're in charge" card. It is already so difficult to try to have normal relationships when there are such unequal power relationships, what with the gringos coming in with their money to build a big college campus and paying the latinos to construct/remodel it - its hard enough to try to have an equal playing field here.)

4. And finally, please pray that God would continue to help us make the relationships and connections we need to create a great experience for our students. It seems that almost every meeting we have is divinely ordained - everyone has a unique way they can help us, or has someone they can connect us with that will be positive for the campus experience. We're so thankful for the relationships we've been making so far!

Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers - I so appreciate them! Hope you're all enjoying your nice, hot, summer weather. When you are so hot you want to melt, think of us in the rainforest of Costa Rica trying to avoid the rain that pours buckets on us and that chills us every evening!

Mailing Address (and then some)

Hey again everyone!

So, the main reason for this post is to let you all know that I now have a mailing address, which means you can all send me lovely letters:-). I promise I will write back. Yay for snail mail! Here it is:

Emily Dufault
a/c Lindy Scott
Apartado Postal 108-3015
San Rafael de Heredia, Costa Rica 40501 CENTRAL AMERICA

As far as life around here goes, things are going to start picking up now that Lindy, the Director, has returned from a week in Spain speaking at a conference. We met with another prospective host family today, and it was once again very encouraging. The families we've met with have been wonderful so far - our students are going to be so blessed to know them and live with them! We're meeting with 4 more families in the next few days. This part of the process is so exciting, getting to meet so many new people and figure out where our students will be living!

We stopped by the campus again today, and it is super exciting to see how the remodeling is all coming along. Kristina and I spent a good amount of time in what will be our apartment, measuring and trying to figure out where all the furniture that we'll be ordering in the next week or so will go. Can't wait to actually live there! Our room has the most amazing view - it looks right out on a gorgeous lake, and we've already planned to plant a small garden between the lake and our window! But don't worry, we'll make sure the compost bins aren't too close to the window, just in case they ever smell a little:-)

After the difficulty of our first intense hike, Kristina and I have decided we need to get into some serious shape to handle all this hill-altitude-hiking. So, we've started jogging in the mornings with Lindy & Dinorah. Granted, we only started a few days ago, but this is a habit we are going to make sure sticks. Yes, you heard me correctly, I'm becoming a runner. I know, right? I mentioned this recently to my dearest past roommate, and she was like "who are you?". I've never been one who loves running (in fact I have oft made fun of runners, thinking they were crazy for putting themselves through such difficulty). Give me something to dribble or kick and I'm fine, but you can't convince me to just run for the sake of running. Well, now that has all changed. Its actually a little exciting.

Well, I didn't mean for this post to be so random or to focus so much on my inner struggle with becoming a runner, but I guess thats what happens when I blog without any real idea of what I want to say. Oh, and Beth, thanks for updating your blog:-)

A Moment

Last night seemed somewhat surreal.

Kristina and I were doing yoga out on the back porch of our villa, looking over the beautiful, green, fog covered mountainside, when it started pouring rain. We finished our exercise and enjoyed a few minutes of silent reflection looking out on the rain. One of us mentioned that it looked and felt more like we were in the mountains of Tibet than in Costa Rica. Doing yoga on the hard wood deck, breathing in the rain, I did feel as if I could be in a monastery in the mountains of Asia.

It is difficult to truly describe it, but we experienced a moment of deep calm, peace, and connection with the world around us; a truly special moment.

Awhile later we joked about how the only thing missing from our Tibetan moment was a yogi to better instruct us in our yoga. And later that night we rounded off our peaceful evening with a bit of time in the hotel sauna:-).

Namaste.

Another Blog

I just wanted to mention that my co-volunteer is also keeping a blog, at http://thebeankielbon.wordpress.com/, if anyone is interested in getting another perspective on our trip. Also, her most recent blog post saves me the time of typing up a funny situation we have been having with our little car, "El Loquito". Happy reading!

Aqui estamos!

Well, we made it!

Around 5am Tuesday morning, my co-volunteer Kristina and I arrived in San Jose, CR. Lindy, the campus director, picked us up and somehow fit us and our 7 suitcases and backpacks into the tiny little Chevy Spark that the university just purchased for the site.
Things are going well, but super busy. I feel constantly tired, but some of that is probably because we haven't gotten enough sleep since we've been here because we've been up early hiking and taking people places, etc. We went for a beautiful hike yesterday in the Braulio Carillo, a national reserve that is next to our campus, which is about 10,000ft up, and I am now a little sore. I didn't know if I was going to make it part of the time because the hike was so steep uphill combined with the elevation. I can walk forever, but not uphill. I'm from Moses Lake, we don't have hills! However, Kristina and I are both highly motivated and excited that we will be getting into better shape because we will be doing a lot of uphill walking around here.
Right now we are living in a little hotel cottage, because the campus isn't finished enough for us to move in yet. So Lindy, Dinorah, Kristina and I are living in a little cottage at the moment, which is just a few kilometers downhill from the actual campus. The campus itself is amazing! I am dying to be able to live there, so hopefully they'll finish remodeling our apartments soon. The building in going to be so beautiful, and the architecture is so unique. Also, the 27 acres of land surrounding it is amazing, and we are bordered by the Braulio Carillo, like I said. This campus is basically every CASPers dream, because there are so many possibilities and so much that can be done in this environment.
It is a lot colder than I thought it would be. We are in the rainy season/winter, but I am now wishing I had brought more pants and fewer skirts. Shocking, I know.
My spanish is okay at the moment. I can understand most things I hear and read, but my speaking is super lame right now compared to where it was a year ago when I was actually taking classes. I'm sure it'll come back soon enough.
The food has been good. I haven't had a lot of typical Costa Rican food because we're eating out or making food in our cabin, but it is still really good. Yesterday we finally got to eat a typical meal, and it was like coming home (reminiscent of my month in Honduras). And today we met with our first prospective host family and they served pupusas, which are my favorite!(a Salvadoran food which is basically a tortilla with beans and cheese inside them). Dinorah, one of the professors here, is Brazilian, and she immediately took us to an amazing Brazilian restaurant here called Bossa Nova. I am a fan.
Our good friends Michael & Andrea L. were here when we arrived, which was awesome. It was so great to get to be here with Michael and walk around the campus property with him and hear his goals and vision for the site. Also, Ryan Niemeyer came the first night we showed up, and hung out until this morning, so it was a blast for him, Kristina and I to hang out in Central America together again and reminisce about our trip here three years ago.
I mentioned earlier that today we met with our first prospective host family. All of the Whitworth students coming to study at this campus will be living with Costa Rican families in the area, in order to create a more holistic learning experience. The family we met with today was so wonderful: a mother and her 3oish year old daughter. They both work at the UNA (national university nearby) and are going to be very helpful in connecting us with possible internships for the students. And whoever gets to live with them will be so blessed by their new Costa Rican family! There was definitely a moment when we first began talking with them that we all felt that it was no accident we were connecting like this. God clearly orchestrated that meeting. It was so encouraging to talk with them and get all their ideas and see their excitement about working with us and out students. Also, it gave Kristina and I hope that we can make friends our ages (mas o menos) here as well. (We have been a little worried about how we would make friends outside of our students and the students at the universities nearby). Emelina (our first friend our ageish) is wonderful and gives us hope!
I am sure there is a lot that I'm forgetting, but I hope this gives you all a little taste of what life is like here. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers, I really appreciate them!
Tenga un buen dia!

New Adventures

Hey all!

I am getting ready to embark on another Central American adventure....in July I am moving to Costa Rica! For one year I'll be living there and working at a new Whitworth satellite campus. I can't wait!

Since I'm heading back down to Central America, I thought it seemed a fitting time to restart the 'ol blog. So, while there probably won't be much to tell for another month or two, once I move down there I'll be posting regular updates about life in Costa Rica. I would love it if you would follow along with me and keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I start this new adventure in a region and country I love!

Emily