Today and the day before it.
November 26, 2008
Boatswain’s Log November 11th and 12th.
Yesterday I was “blessed” with another migraine. Joy. However, in contrast to that; today I saw the best rainbow I have ever seen. Full colors. Green hillside behind it, secondary rainbow backing it up. I could have grabbed that pot of gold if it were actually real…It was really amazing. It was as if the most skillful 3rd grader ever had taken the best crayons that existed and drawn the most impressive rainbow you have ever seen.
I worked out in the field for the majority of the day yesterday (minus the time I spent watching National Treasure with Nano and host dad). It was hot, I started the day with not enough water in my system having woken up thirsty, and I sweat a lot. Perfect combination for dehydration-induced migraine.
My dad has another bainica crop, it makes me wish I had harvested that one instead. I could have stood up. Basically what we did is take out stakes, cut ropes off of them with machetes, and roll up what there was leftover. We did that all day. For a long time. I really disliked it. I think that I am burnt-out on being in a foreign country. I just stewed on the inside in the midst of raging frustration, discontent, and anger at having to be here in the field getting owned for no apparent reason other than the fact that the people at LASP decided this is where I should be. I tried to pray and it worked to an extent, but I just kept coming back to the fact that I really want to go home. That isn’t a good way to overcome anything, it just was unpleasant. Jesus was undoubtedly patient with me. If I were Him and a whiny human being were pouting in the middle of a field where I probably put him, I would tell him to suck it up. As it was, He just let me be angry.
Anyway, after that the day almost got better. Partway through (as I said before) we watched National Treasure. Which while entertaining, would probably have been better in English. After work I got some good photos of the sunset and a rainbow which wasn’t as good as the one I saw today.
After all the frustration I realized I had a migraine, didn’t eat food and went to bed early. Which is always frustrating. I woke up in the middle of the night and wasn’t tired. I peed twice, I ate cornflakes at 1AM, I prayed for some people, and I came to an important realization. Liberation theology as I have experienced it tends to overfocus on the socio-economic side of liberation. Christ’s voluntary death on the cross showed that His idea of liberation was a wider sort. Even if we manage to achieve justice all over the place, of what use will that justice be without the presence of the one true God? It wouldn’t be real justice. That is why we have to seek liberation in the fullest extent possible. Liberation from sin to have a full relationship with God that spills over into the rest of life. Shazaam.
After that I discovered that I had mosquito netting this whole time and have been assaulted the last 2 nights by the zancudo (mosquito in Spanish) menace, resulting in not much sleep. I have awoken several times in the night to curse at the mosquitos and then gone back to sleep, no longer.
Tangent: sometimes when I am blogging my host brother Yeiner will stand over my shoulder and watch me. It happens when he doesn’t have anything else to do. Last blog time I stopped early to make him stop hovering and we watched a Jet Li film. It makes me feel awkward, but he can’t read English…so, whatever.
Today dawned as usual. I awoke, but then my day changed when I was offered the chance to go to Liberia with Nano. I took it. We got on the bus right outside the house and traveled to a city I have never seen before that turned out to be hot and filled with attractive women. Yes, I know. I have no explanation for why I never went there before.
Nano and I went to a place where he looked for some drums. I played a nylon string guitar, almost dropped a clarinet, and generally wanted to leave. He didn’t find his drums. They were misplaced or something. Later we went to the importer where he deposited some cash so he could buy something.
Tangent: This morning I ate cheese again, but for some reason I didn’t hate it. It was fresh cheese and it wasn’t fried or mixed with something sweet like platanos maduros…or maybe I just like it now.
After that we went to see Dinnier at his house. 15 people that go to the University there in Liberia live in the same house as him. The house isn’t that big. He lives there and goes to school and he bought me lunch. I protested, but he wouldn’t hear of it. We went to an internet café in which I came to several realizations:
A) this is an interesting place. Real life exists outside of here. My housing situation now has financial details and a very detail oriented business major worrier organizing them. Just reading his email stressed me out. Nonetheless, I look forward to living with him. I plan on paying rent on time the whole time I do. For the moment I choose not to think about the details, because it doesn’t matter for today. It won’t help me do much other than fret pointlessly.
B) It is possible that I am learning something of enduring value by getting my ass kicked here by work here on the farm. It may be that this “trial” is building up all sorts of character which later in life I will be like “I learned that on the farm.” It may be that in the midst of hating what I am doing I am really experiencing true growth as a human being. What do you know. Kudos to Maisha Seebeck.
After internet café we went over to the U. It was small, but there were an extraordinary amount of attractive girls there. Neato. There was a class being taught in English there, I wanted to go talk to people in English…but that would be interrupting class. Finally, Nano and I took the bus home. The bus was without the necessary legroom, which is about par for Costa Rica. After tomorrow I have 13 days left here. I plan on doing my best to make them count. For now that means I get to write a paper to get it out of the way.
