Just have to share....

I thought that was going to be my last blog for a while...but I realized I havn't shared this yet...and I think it is worth sharing.

Every Sunday after church we go out for Chinese.
The place is run by a mom, a dad, and their teenage son.
We get chicken wings and french fries at the Chinese place.
And if you get rice...you load it with ketchup.
They serve us on Sesame Street counting plates.
The restaurant is decorated for Christmas.
To get the worker's attention people yell "Ay..Chino!". This is the equivalent of us yelling "Hey Chinese man!"
I started laughing and my mom said it is perfectly normal to call them that. Then she asked me...."Well...what do you call them?"
I didn't have an answer for her.

Every Sunday.

FYI

This is my last week in San Jose until March 13th or 14th. It is also probably my last week of internet access till that time. I will be in Nicaragua and for two weeks living with a family and studying the culture. Those two weeks are going to be a journey in itself. Nicaragua is not only the poorest country in Central America, but it follows closely behind Haiti in being one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. I am excited and nervous and again ask for prayers for health and safety. When I get back (my birthday week and the week my parents come!!) I have a week off before I go off for my concentration.

Anyway...Aside from a paper and a group project I don't have much to do this week so shoot me an e-mail or try to catch me on Skype or something! Like I said- it might be a couple weeks before I can get back online!

Pura Vida!

Pura Vida

**The most common phrase used around here (and one that is native to Costa Rica) is "Pura Vida". Literally it means "pure life" but they use it here to mean "life is good!" or "everything is great!" or "take it easy-life is good". Everywhere you go you when you ask people how they are doing "pura vida" is the normal response. It is the perfect phrase to describe life here. For the most part everyone is "tranquilo", relaxed, and living life.
**I went to the US Embassy on a field trip, and a professor (from CR) and I were talking in the lobby. He was telling me about thebad process for Costa Ricans to get a visa (it takes like six months and they usually don't even give them out). Right as he said that a man from the embassy walked out from behind a door (from a different part of the building) to tell us that it actually takes one month. The entire room was being watched and every convo was being listened to.....creeeepy.**I went to Manuel Antonio last weekend to go to the beach. I was pretty sick the whole time and couldn't really enjoy it. Also we flooded the entire hostel at three in the morning. But the beach was pretty...it was my first time in the Pacific!
**Three times in the past two weeks I have been up all night sick. I went to the doctor and got a shot and some meds. and I am feeling better (my profs think it was like a parasite or something like that...gross I know). The problem is - I didn't understand the doctor when he told me what was wrong with me.
**I was recently challenged by a couple quotes in some reading I had for a class. Hope they make you think:

"If you are neutral in a situation of injustice,
you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
If and elephand has his foot on the tail of a mouse,
and you said you are neutral,
the mouse will not appreciate you neutrality."
-Desmond Tutu, bishop of the Church
of the Province of South Africa

"The guarentee of one's prayer
is not in saying a lot of words.
The guarentee of one's petition is very easy to know:
how do I treat the poor?
Because that is where God is.
The degree to which you approach them,
and the love with which you approach them,
or the scorn with which you approach them,
that is how you approach your God.
What you do to them, you do to God.
The way you look at them is the way you look at God."
-Archbishop Oscar Romero (a leader with the
human rights campaign during military oppression
in El Salvador in the 1970's)

A Few Randoms

1. Within 2 days I have seen 3 University of Tennessee Volunteer sweatshirts. The orange is following me even to Costa Rica.

2. This week I find out my placement for my 4 week internship. We go off outside of San Jose by ourselves to do an intership-service project thing. I know that I will be teaching in a school somewhere but I am honestly not looking foreward to it. This is something that you can definately be praying about. I need to trust that God is going to do something mighty these 4 weeks no matter where I am and what I do.

3. I live in one of the biggest coffee producing countries in the world, and have been to two different plantions to learn how the coffee is made (most recently I went to an organic farm and let me tell you that organic is the way to go). So I thought I might share a little bit of infomation about coffee:
**The reason coffee here is so good is because of the volcanoes. The soil and terrain around the volcanoes is perfect for coffee.
**The coffee grown in the highlands (on mountains) is better than that in the lowlands. The lowland coffee is darker.
**Darker (bolder) coffee is worse for you and has less caffine. Lighter coffee is better and has more caffene. Therefore the best kind of coffee you can drink is a mix of light and dark.
**Back in the day coffee used to be banned because of the effect it had on people (much like alcohol).
**Coffee is a natural pick-me-up for most people (because of the caffine). It is also a natural laxative for most people. However there is a percentage of people where coffee has the alternative effect and actually makes them sleepy.
**I could go into all the health information, agricultural information, social implications as to why you should drink organic coffee. But it is kind of boring so just trust me. When you have the choice- drink organic, FAIR TRADE coffee.

Haha thanks for listening.
Chao.
Molly

Today I left at 6 in the morning to play soccer with some Costa Ricans.
Afterward I hiked halfway up a mountain in flip-flops to play volleyball with locals for three hours.
After that I hiked up more of the mountain to see this history museum and go to an indigenous tribal area where many years ago they used to offer human sacrifices to their gods.
After that it started pouring down rain and in flip-flops I hiked up the rest of the muddy mountain to look across the mountain and see a volcano.
But I couldn't see the volcano because there was a rainbow in the way.
This is my life.
Hahaha.
I put new pictures on facebook.

Just wanted to show you where I have Spanish class for 3.5 hours every day!
More pictures are on Facebook.

Calenders

One of the most interesting things about being here has been understanding the inauguration of President Obama from an outsider's point of view. Before coming here I didn't have many opinions on politics. I thought Obama's emphasis on change was overrated. However after only three weeks of being here, I have such a different (primarily a more educated) view of politics.

For example a couple days ago an Afro-Caribbean man came to talk to us and began his “charla” by writing these words on the board: invisible, excluded, underestimated, objectified, characterized, stereotyped. We talked about times we have felt some of these words or times we have seen others victimized by these words. We talked about the black community of Costa Rica (who are still VERY much oppressed by the rest of the population) and the racial stereotypes in the U.S. The speaker told us that when the Black population sees Barak in power, they see someone like that [the words on the board] in power. They see someone like them, not only because of skin color, but because of the struggle. Obama just blew away any excuses made by those who previously thought they couldn't do anything in life because of their social status.

The other day we visited a church (in a mostly Afro-Caribbean community) and a vendor outside was selling calenders. The calenders said “Great American Heroes”. Sidenote: Everyone else in the world considers America as North, Central, and South America. Together. Those from the U.S. are the only ones who separate themselves from the other Americas. Okay so these calenders said “Great American Heroes”. They had a picture of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Barak Obama. Those are their heroes. People not even from their country- but people that give them hope.

People here hope so much that Barak will bring the change he said he would. I had no idea what CAFTA or TLC was until I came here and saw the damage its doing to this society. It is a weird feeling seeing graffiti all over the city from citizens angry at TLC (a trade agreement with the United States). Yesterday the probable next president of Costa Rica came to talk to us. He had just returned from Obama's inauguration and had many good things to say about him and about the United States. He pointed out many things the U.S. is doing well and things he hopes his country can copy. However he also talked about the influence we have on countries like Costa Rica. Influence that we don't see on the news every night between the latest war deaths and a 20 minute sports report. Influence that doesn't seem to make it into our textbooks or newspapers. Needless to say it was very interesting and I am still digesting a lot of it.

So while I have learned a lot about the U.S. that makes me mad, I have been proud of my country at the same time. I have been proud that we are ahead of most of the world in bringing racial equality. I am proud that we can bring dignity to a race that in the past had very little.

Okay, sorry if this was boring, but it's what is going on all around me. I probably won't write about politics much more...until I get to Cuba....which this just in: today we got permission from the U.S. treasury to go!!

I love you all and miss you all a lot! Chao!

Molly