Saturday, February 5

            One thing that I can say has been constant throughout this crazy week is the joy that Christ has placed in my heart. I have been overcome by His grace and mercy on multiple occasions this week and I cannot believe how faithful He is to me. But then again, I can. He is so good. So amazing. I want to live to serve Him. My heart is consumed with love for Him. I pray that He will guide and protect me every day, and I live, move, and breathe knowing that He will. He's just that awesome.

            Today was a huge blessing, a perfectly balanced dosage of exactly what I needed. I slept in a few hours this morning and then had breakfast with mamá and Tony (Monica was at Italian class). After breakfast I had quite a bit of downtime to myself, so I spent a few hours calling people at home. Talking to them was wonderful, and before I knew it Monica was home and I was being called back into the kitchen for lunch. After lunch I went over to Haleigh's house to bake cookies for her host dad's birthday. It was a blast!

            As soon as I walked in the door I felt welcomed. The first thing her host mom said to me was “Our house is your house. Now you are home.” It would have been a whole lot more comfortable if I had been able to understand her the first two times she said it, but once she translated it into English for me I knew it was going to be a good afternoon. Of course, Haleigh's host family insisted that I eat lunch with them even though I ate just before I left, so I got to enjoy an extra dose of Costa Rican food today.

            We had some really yummy cake after lunch (it was Haleigh's host dad's birthday), and then we played a few games of Sequence, which was really fun. I was surprised as I started realizing how much I have missed playing games....its the simple things that I miss the most, I guess. When we tired of Sequence, Haleigh and I started baking. First we made some Oreo/chocolate dessert and then we made chocolate chip cookies. Both recipes turned out fabulously, and we ate so much of both snacks that we couldn't possibly have eaten dinner, which we just happened to get out of because her host parents went out for dinner.

            After making the desserts, we decided to plan our Spring Break trip. As soon as we signed online Haleigh's family Skyped us, so we talked to them for a while, and then we started researching zip line locations near Volcano Arenal. We found a really cool place to go with some pretty cheap hotels nearby, so that's our tentative plan. On Tuesday we're going to see what other students from LASP would like to come with us, and then we'll look into making reservations.

            Once our trip was pretty much figured out, we settled in to work on our thesis papers. You can imagine how productive the next hour or so was. I didn't want my host family to worry, so I took a taxi home around 9:00. I definitely count today as a success. I am so excited about our Spring Break trip, and after looking over my thesis material for a little bit this evening, I'm confident that I will get a good portion of work done on it tomorrow. Praise God for His unending blessings!

Friday, Februrary 4

Staying positive is something that was a challenge for me today. It was a day of culmination of emotions and stresses from a long week. We didn't have class at LASP this morning, but I went in early to work on my thesis paper, meet with my group to prepare for our ICADS presentation, and talk with Trevor about how things have been going with my host family. To be completely honest, anticipating my meeting with Trevor occupied my thoughts all morning, and while everything is relatively worked out now, it was a fairly challenging day as far as my host family goes.

            I felt like our ICADS presentation was kind of just thrown together and I didn't feel very prepared (which was entirely my fault), so that didn't help with the positivity level either. It seemed like a lot of us were worn out this morning, so to cheer ourselves up, some of us left LASP early in order to be able to walk slowly and leisurely to ICADS and make a few stops on the way. We ended up going to the post office again to send some post cards I found in my backpack...I must have missed them when I sent the rest of the notes. A few people bought some fresh fruit from street vendors, and we also stopped at a little store to buy Trits, our new favorite ice cream snack, which brightened all of our days.

            ICADS was a little different today because everyone was giving presentations, so we spent the first 2 hours or so listening to groups present about indigenous people groups from Costa Rica. The presentations were really laid back, and it didn't seem like the teachers were grading very harshly, so that was a plus. After hearing all of the presentations, we split off into our classes to make models of the first man and woman based on an indigenous legend that we read earlier this semester. It was kind of a fun change of pace, and we were all thrilled to get out of class early.

            I chose to ignore my homework for the evening, and it was good to have a night off. I'm excited to visit Haleigh's host family tomorrow afternoon. We're planning on baking cookies, planning our Spring Break trip, and working a little bit on our homework. We'll see how much of that last one gets done ;)

Thursday, Februrary 3

Today was a really weird day. I'm not sure where my motivation and ability to focus went, but they did a very good job of evading me all day. This morning we went to the US Embassy to hear from some officials there about the “US perspective on Latin America-US relations.” The discussion was pretty interesting, and it was good to hear the US side of things. It made me think that maybe there really is something positive that comes out of our foreign policies.

In order to get to the embassy I had to take the bus to central San Jose, and I prayed all the way to the bus stop that I would run into another LASP student in order to avoid getting lost in the city. When I got to the end of the block I saw 4 other LASPers standing there waiting for the bus, so we stuck together and made it to the meeting place as a group. Once everyone got there, all 40 or so of us trekked across San Jose extremely inconspicuously until we got on another bus to go to the embassy. Then we all piled off the bus and were told to take everything metal out of our backpacks. Imagine 40 ignorant US citizens pulling forks, spoons, knives, and keys out of their backpacks in the middle of the sidewalk next to a huge line of Costa Ricans waiting in line to get their visas. Feel awkward? Welcome to my reality. I felt like a second grader going on my first ever field trip, and I had to laugh.

It was weird walking into the embassy and feeling like I was in this highly classified US government building. We had to wear badges that said “escort required” and there were people standing at every corner watching us walk through the halls. They ushered us all into an auditorium where we talked about the role of the US embassy and a few economic policies between the US and Costa Rica. When the topic of free trade and CAFTA/TLC (the policy that Ruben talked about earlier this week) came up, our group had a lot of questions and I felt like the poor guy who was talking to us had no idea what he was getting himself into when he signed up to speak today. But it was a really good conversation.

We ended up spending too much time at the embassy and had to take taxis in order to arrive at ICADS on time. For some reason everyone I rode with in the taxi was really tired and I spent the ride cramming for my Spanish quiz. Apparently I should have just stuck with what I already knew because the quiz wasn't exactly my shining moment. Oh well...there was really just one part I messed up...I was thinking about it too much. We corrected the part I did poorly on right before our break, and as a form of coping with the less-than-desirable quiz score and being worn out from our eventful morning I downed two cups of coffee before returning to class. It was the most delicious coffee I have ever tasted, and the caffeine did wonders for the rest of my day.

After Spanish class Haleigh and I went on a quest to find some ingredients to make a few desserts for her host dad's birthday this weekend. We stopped at two stores and apparently lost track of time, because when we left it was starting to get dark out. I didn't want my family to to worry about me arriving home so late, so we took another taxi home. I'm pretty sure we overpaid both of our taxi drivers today, but I guess it was worth it to get where we needed to be. All of my worries were unnecessary because when I got home I was the only one here besides Tony who didn't seem too concerned with what time I was arriving.

I got to spend some time talking to Emily which was really great, and when my mamá got home she and Tony and I ate dinner together. Later in the evening Monica got home and so she and I shared about our days and I decided to call it a night. It's going to take a while to fall asleep after all of that caffeine intake this afternoon, but hopefully I'll be able to manage and be well-rested for a productive day tomorrow.

Wednesday, Februray 2

This morning I had an incredible encounter with God. At the LASP praise and worship session we were writing about our walks with God so far this semester and I was overwhelmed by His faithfulness. He has given me peace despite my insecurities and shown me His love in so many ways. I am so grateful to serve such a merciful God!

While at LASP I also worked on a project that is due Friday with the other students in my Spanish class. I just happened to be in the office when the mail came and was delighted to find both a package and a post card from home! It was very exciting. After we finished our Spanish paper, I walked to ICADS with some of the other students in my group, and it was fun getting to know them a little more. On the way home from Spanish, Haleigh and I stopped at a super market to buy some poster board for her group's presentation. Unfortunately, neither of us knew the word for poster board, which led to an awkward conversation with a guy working there and eventually ended up with us looking up the word for poster in a dictionary and being sent away empty handed. Apparently poster board is hard to come by in this town...we checked two huge super markets and ended up deciding to ask at LASP tomorrow.

The sun was setting during our walk home and the view was absolutely marvelous. When I got home I worked on some homework for a little bit (I'm going through a phase of little motivation, so it was slow going) and then ate dinner with Tony and mamá. The entire conversation was consumed by Tony's teasing about homesickness and we all had a good time.

Shortly after I returned to my homework, some friends of mamá came to visit. It was fun to meet them and they stayed all evening talking and laughing. Again, the language barrier made me dream of fluency. Some day I will get there. Today I'm content with growing every minute.

Tuesday, February 1

I think thought-provoking is a suitable description of today. Our lecture this morning was given by Ruben Pagura, an actor and musician who is very actively involved with many popular movements throughout Latin America. He shared with us a little bit about his background and about the movements he has supported. It was interesting to hear him speak about historical events that he considered very influential in his culture that I have seldom even heard of. He talked about the impact of revolutions in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Uruguay and about the Nueva Cancion (“New Song”) movement that came out of such revolutionary times in Latin America. Essentially, this movement used art to fight against dictatorships and worked to stand up for social justice.

A more recent movement that Ruben has been a part of was an anti-TLC movement. TLC is essentially a free trade agreement between the United States and Costa Rica that encourages privatization and other capitalistic policies in the Costa Rican economy. The movement against TLC was born out of the thought that such changes would lead to various forms of exploitation by the United States and other powerful entities within Costa Rica. While the majority of people in Costa Rica seem to have resounded with Ruben's stance, threats of job loss caused the policy to pass in a popular vote.

After hearing Ruben speak, we broke up into our small discussion groups and the conversation that my group had left my head spinning for the rest of the afternoon. We talked about the last two people who have spoken to us, Ruben and Gloria, from the Bribri tribe. As our discussion facilitator, Don Mike challenged us to think about the faith of these people, who were both fighting for “good causes,” and consider how we as Christians should interact with them and react to their efforts. This led to a discussion that could not be contained in the allotted hour with our groups and I've had several conversations about related topics all day.

ICADS was much the same as normal and the rest of my evening was pretty low-key. Monica had fun trying to teach me words that she knew I would have trouble pronouncing at dinner, and I spent much of the night trying to sort out thoughts about what I've learned so far this semester. Trusting God has been one area that I've been striving to improve in and in which I will always have room to grow. Seeking Him in every moment rather than worrying about the bigger picture all the times is something I am learning how to do more and more each day. A passage I ran across recently really spoke to what I've been seeking to know more fully. “Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:5-7

Monday, January 31

My feelings of unproductivity from this weekend didn't stand a chance today. This morning I got up early to work on some of my homework for this week and to finish writing the postcards that I bought last week to send home. When that was mostly finished, I headed over to LASP to meet with Don Antonio once again about my thesis paper. After an hour long discussion about what my paper should be about, I think we are mostly on the same page now and I am ready to move ahead with my outline.

At ICADS we switched teachers today, which was fairly interesting. Some of the classrooms at ICADS are in the garden, and when we got where we were sold to have class this week there was already a class sitting there. It took a while to get locations figured out, and once we actually started class it was slow moving. Apparently our teachers didn't communicate very effectively because our new teacher started class with the same lesson our previous teacher taught on her first day with us. Class was also frequently disrupted by a very brave squirrel who smelled the fruit some of us had brought to class and wanted a piece for himself. In all, it was a fairly random class period, but once we got going I felt like I was learning a lot. Our new teacher speaks much faster than our previous one, so it was a challenge to understand what she was saying. I was happy to be able to pick up most of what she told us.

Another miscommunication around ICADS seems to involve the presentation and paper assignments that are supposed to be due in the upcoming weeks. The due dates for these projects have been fairly ambiguous, and in talking to the other LASP students, it sounds like everyone has gotten a different explanation of the assignment. My class is supposed to research the Huetar people group for the project, and we're having a hard time finding information. I guess we are going to meet at the LASP library tomorrow or Wednesday to figure it all out.

After Spanish class, Haleigh and I stopped at a little store on the way home to buy Trits, an ice cream snack that everyone at LASP has been raving about for the last two weeks. Its like an ice cream sandwich made up of cookies and vanilla ice cream with chocolate swirls. I don't think I'll be buying one every day on the way home like some of the other students, but they were pretty delicious. We met up with another LASP student on our walk, and in order to get some more Spanish practice in we spoke in Spanish for most of the walk. It was pretty cloudy and the sun was setting, which created some of the most beautiful mountain views we have seen yet.

When I got home I found that both Monica and my mamá have been hit with seasonal allergies, so it was a pretty quiet evening. I did a whole bunch more homework and we ate a giant dinner similar to a pot roast in the States. I can't believe how quickly the day passed and how tired I am again already!

Sunday, January 30

This morning began with a trip to an English-speaking Methodist church in Limon. I REALLY enjoyed the service, and it was very refreshing for me to hear a good message (about committing your life 100% to Christ in every moment) and connect with God at church. I was feeling a little worn out and apprehensive about the rest of the semester, but in church I was reminded that God will get me through everything He brings me to and that everything I encounter this semester and everyday is from Him. Every challenge is a gift, an opportunity to grow. Trust is imperative.

After church, we packed up and got on the buses to head back to San Jose. We stopped for lunch at the same buffet we had stopped at on Friday and made it back a few hours earlier than scheduled. It was nice to have the afternoon free to relax a little bit, call home, and get some homework done. I was really excited to discover that my blog has reappeared, so I spent a while updating it...sorry for its disappearance. I'm not sure what happened, but apparently it was a wide-spread issue that was resolved over the weekend.

I spent much of the evening working on a paper about poverty in Costa Rica. We've been interviewing people all over San Jose and Limon for the last week about their opinions in regards to poverty, and this essay was basically an analysis of what people said and how we should react to the global issue of poverty. It was pretty interesting to think about and to hear what other people had to say about the topic.

We ordered pizza for dinner, which was kind of fun and really delicious! My busy weekend was a little overwhelming, but I feel a lot better now that I have that paper out of the way. Tomorrow morning I don't have class, so I'm looking forward to getting some more school work done and hopefully getting some extra sleep. Look out week...here I come!