Another day in retrospect

Boatswain’s Log September 5^th. I am wicked tired.

 

It is now 10:30 PM. I was up at 6:30AM. I did things other than be awake…and now I am tired. And hungry, except that I don’t want to bother my host family to make me food and I’ve already brushed my teeth for the evening…so I suppose I will go to bed this way. I think I might have to buy some pollo a la lena #11 on my way into San Jose for small group tomorrow. This is today in fastish form.

 

Spanish class. I presented for a few minutes on economic factors that eventually lead to kids living in the streets. I think I did okay.

 

After Spanish I went to an indoor soccer stadium by the university of Costa Rica. Andres who is the guy who works with our program set up a practice for those of us who wanted to play against Costa Ricans. That way he could figure out which of us aren’t good. On the way there it was as though he was leading a tour group. I felt silly and envied the college age folk sitting in bars with a beer or two. Oh well.

 

We ended up playing soccer for about 2 hours. I was the keeper on my team the entire time. I had no idea how tiring that can be. I got really sweaty, but I had fun and found out that in football cinco (5 players per team) I am a good goalie. I am big and take up the net and seem to have some reflexes. I did a couple pull ups on the goal while we were changing sides and a girl in my program who is cute and good at soccer said, “That’s my keeper.” In a proud tone. I blushed a tad.

 

After we got done with soccer we headed through the University of Costa Rica to the bus that goes to Sabanilla. The University is pretty great. Loads of college types lounging about. It’s supposed to be one of the best colleges in Latin America. Seems pretty cool. Andres told me that there are lots of nice girls there if I am interested. I said “Si Dios quiere.” In very Costa Rican fashion. That means “if God wants.” My host family says it all the time for things like “See you tomorrow.” And “Sleep well”. It’s a good thing to say, but I think things happen sometimes that aren’t what God wants. So I think I will say it in select circumstances.

 

I got home and read a bit after I showered and then my host brothers and I headed off to their TV program. There were 2 members from a band that they interviewed called “Sin Paredes” or “Without Walls”. Their names are Carlos and Erick. They’re great guys. Carlos works with Latin American Mission and speaks English well. We talked at great length about things of a Latin American nature. He told me that he thought I could be a missionary. I dunno about that yet, but in general it was really cool. He had some great perspectives on life and had just played a show next to the dump in Managua, Nicaragua. He said that the people there live in the dump and get their food from the dump. They have to forage for food amongst used needles and things of a dangerous nature. I am sure that I won’t be ready at all for what I see there. Especially seeing as how we learned in class that 79% of the population of Nicaragua lives below the poverty line.

 

After the show the guests came back to the house where they proceeded to drink coffee and hang out with us. My host mom made everyone empanadas. This guy Randall (he helps my brother host the show) asked if I would live here after I was done with studying. I said that I would have to go back and graduate, Carlos said that it would depend on the women here. Ha.

 

After that we went to my brothers’ friend Katarin’s house so they could get their hair cut. We were there too long, by the time we left I was almost asleep. I watched some of Troy which was still in English, but had subtitles. That and being tired made me miss home. I go through strange stages where I am completely comfortable here, but then within about 3 hours I just want to be in my bed at home in the US sleeping.

 

Like today, I went from being really pumped on life (playing soccer broke the funk I was in after yesterday’s homework onslaught and successive disturbing lecture) and being excited about speaking Spanish because I could understand all the words that were being said to me, to being tired and grumpy and hungry and wanting to just speak English and sleep not in Costa Rica. I think that there’s a correlation I’m finding. When I am tired and hungry it is hard to be here. However, it’s hard to be anywhere when I am tired and hungry.

 

When we walked back from Katarin’s house my brothers were sporting fancy new haircuts (I narrowly dodged an invitation to get one, sorry Pops) and moreover Alonso had Katarina’s name cut into his back hair. Gross perhaps, but it was funny. We walked back at a fast pace. It’s weird that everyone is so carefree and walks across the street with reckless abandon, but the constant memo is that going out at night is dangerous. This sucks for people like me who like the night time, and moreover people like me who have to go out at night on Monday to play soccer. Correction, get to go out. Plus, I’ll be in a group. I should be fine.

 

I am going to end this day with highlights from my time here thus far that I think that I haven’t brought up yet. Here they are:

 

1) I get to watch hummingbirds outside my classroom at ICADS. They’re called Colibris in Spanish. They’re fun to watch.

2) I am definitely losing weight. Not sure if that’s good or bad yet.

3) I am making friends with people in my program. Some of them are girls. I am surprised to find that they’re actually pretty cool.

4) Finally seeing something that reminded me of a certain friend whose request for a gift was “Find something that reminds you of me.”

5) Relearning every day what it means to be in a PROCESS of learning Spanish. Some days I am king of the world, other days I suck.

6) Reading Oscar Romero and listening to Rich Mullins at the same time. Sweet awesome.

7) Having my perspective noticeably change with regards to lots of things. Being here makes learning about here more real. That means it actually affects you in the sense of makes you think about what to do about it.

Finding the equivalent of the Ave in the cheap food row outside the University of Costa Rica.

9) Praying for and remembering lots of you.

10) Hanging out with Costa Ricans.