When I first boarded a plane last year I was headed across the Atlantic to busy London. When I arrived at my destination in May I was in the far reaches of beautiful Alaska. When I turned for home in December I was leaving my home of three months in the incredible country of Costa Rica. Needless to say 2011 was an incredible year. I have seen so much, learned about so many different things and struggled with many different thoughts. I have greatly enjoyed the experiences of the past year and the ways that they have stretched me. From the three full weeks I spent in the British Isles studying the history of Christianity in London, York and Edinburgh to my wonderful host parent's home in Costa Rica; professors, peers and random people I have met along the way have engaged in wonderful conversation and have presented challenging perspectives other than my own. I spent five weeks of my summer working at a Bible camp in rural Alaska and enjoyed every minute of it. Here are a few photo highlights of the year and some captions to go with-
The town of Whitby on the East coast of England, notice the Whitby Abby on top of the hill to the left
The incredible Yorkminster Cathedral in York
Valley stretching away from Covenant Bible Camp near Unalakleet, Alaska
The road to camp with a lone truck carrying students back to town
The Grand Prismatic Geyser in Yellowstone National Park where Chris worked and we visited in August
Small Island on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica
Whitworth University Costa Rica Campus
Cathedral of León, Nicaragua- one of the oldest cathedrals in Central America
If that was 2011 the what should I be looking forward to in 2012? Well as it stands I will be spending quite a bit of time here in Spokane continuing studies at Whitworth with two more trips northward to Alaska. I will be skiing and visiting Unalakleet for the Covenant Youth of Alaska (CYAK) meeting during spring break, then I plan to return for Bible camp for the month of June. I may extend my time there with other volunteer opportunities, but for now I'm just focused on the task at hand. God is so good and I am inspired to really understand forgiveness and his plan for redemption in a new way this year. Thanks to everyone who has joined me on my adventures and have been reading this little attempt to keep you all updated. I hope it has been enjoyable and worth-while! Blessings on a Christ-centered new year!
This weekend we spent three days exploring some of the awesome Pacific beaches that Costa Rica has to offer. We've been crazy busy this week so this post will be short on words and heavy on pictures but here's a quick overview-
-UNA (Universidad National de Costa Rica) research station at Punta Morales to do some observations of mangroves and eat s'mores (and make light drawings) -Drive to Tárcoles via the crocodile bridge -Artisanal fishing with members of the Coope Tárcoles (fishing co-op), followed by ceviche lunch on a secluded beach with a waterfall... ya not bad! -Afternoon chat and tour of the co-op (the oldest of its kind in Costa Rica) -Dinner with host families (Lindy and I shared the same host family for the night) -Woke up in the morning to go on a crocodile tour on the Tárcoles river, incredible selection of birds and other animals on display as well! -Drove down to Jacó for a delicious fish taco lunch and a bite of ice cream before heading home.
Great weekend, lots to do and see, but much more relaxing than the Caribbean trip. Lots to share about the co-op, which was super interesting. They are struggling to protect their way of life and the fish they rely on. Recently a protective law was passed that limits fishing to single hook and line to the area within one mile (thus keeping all nets including large trawlers beyond the 1 mile limit). I'll be happy to share more about these places when I have a bit more time, for now enjoy a few photos!
Today we had an excellent guest speaker named Vivienne Solis who focused on philanthropy related to a community called Tárcoles on the Pacific coast here in Costa Rica. The subject was interesting and the community (which we will be visiting this weekend) will be incredible to see first hand. Vivienne's intentional focus on combining knowledge following a horizontal pattern as opposed to a vertical one was emphasized many times. She related that there were two important ideals that formed the basis for the work that the coop that she works for called Coope Solidar (visit here) does. These are collective work/solidarity and values. The values were broken down into equity and excellence. Vivienne described excellence as offering 'the best of what I have' and recognizing that 'we have to always be good' (we must offer our best all the time). She closed these remarks by stating that in order to conserve and maintain these values, 'looking at breaking the status quo on conservation is working together, recongizing each other through horizontal relationships as opposed to vertical ones' (as previously mentioned). This being the basis of the lecture one story relating cooperative communication stuck out to me, paraphrased below.
The story states that a family in a village was going to make a pot of the traditional meat soup however on recognizing that they didn't have the meat or money for the meat they were stuck. Thinking that there was nothing better they began to boil water in the middle of the town. The family added a rock to the pot. Seeing the family, a member of the community looked into the pot and seeing nothing but a rock asked what the family was doing. The family responded that they were making the traditional meat soup. The community member said that clearly they could not make the soup without meat and thus contributed meat to the pot. Later another community member on seeing the family asked the same of them. He responded to the family's soup making by saying that they couldn't make the soup without potatoes, which the individual proceeded to add. This pattern continued until what was a boiling pot of water and a rock turned into the delicious traditional soup that the community was known for. All the member sof the community gathered around the pot to enjoy eating the soup together.
Why do I recount this story to you? I mentioned it twice earlier. Philanthropists as well as all other members of any community need to recognize that there is cultural values that we can learn from that are on the level of the people who already are in a community. We are not to come at any community with the mentality of a vertical relationship, that is to place the community above or below ours as we discuss together, rather we are to see the community on the same level as ours. Respecting traditional knowledge, understanding generosity and understanding that by working together we can benefit the whole. The family did not ask from the community, but of what the community gave, the family quickly gave back in sharing the meal. Our class is titled Conservation and Human Rights. Those often clash. We must work together with conservation and communities to the best benefit of both. Even if a community looks impoverished they may have better ecological knowledge to add to the soup of our global knowledge. We must offer the ingredients of our knowledge to any community who is in need so that we all can benefit from the soup that is offered back to us as equal members of a global community which must work together on a horizontal basis.
Lets get this straight. I didn't have a very good picture of the place we were going despite the fact that I had been there three weeks before. So just where did we go? Back to the Caribbean that's where! First things first we stopped by a banana plantation to learn a bit about what it looks like to work and live in those conditions. We learned that North Americans will not eat bananas that are under 8 inches long, or that have brown spots on them (which is only on the skin due to natural sap- the cure? put plastic between each layer of bananas as they grow... not a waste at all). We learned that the smaller or misshapen bananas are sold locally and any that are legitimately damaged are now sold to a German company which makes them into baby food (instead of throwing them out). Basically, oh the things us first world people will require in the way of perfect bananas. Overall it was a fascinating tour of a very productive and ethical production facility.
Pineapple fields on our way to the banana plantation
Banana flower
Just in from the field- washing
Processing
As we made our way through the port city of Límon and on through Puerto Viejo to the small town of Manzanillo, I realized we were in for a treat of a weekend. We had a nice walk on the beach in the dark on the way to dinner, where I took a few night shots to see how the stars would turn out. We had a great dinner at a place called Maxi's (Ceviche. Otra ves). Afterwords we headed back to our little cabins for the night and crashed.
Stars were out!
Awesome hostel/cabin place
We woke for breakfast at 7, hung out on the beach for an hour then began our hike (which is where we go from the expected to "whoa. this is cool"). We hiked starting at 9:30 in the morning and spent hte next 4 hours covering about 3 miles south of Manzanillo, to our destination for the night, Punta Mona (http://puntamona.org/). On the hike we had an excellent guide who pointed out many different species of flora and fauna along the way. Here's a picture or two of what we saw-
Tito our guide! (whose favorite saying was, "HELLLOOOOOO people, follow the black guy!)
Cacoa
That leaves us at Punta Mona. What is this place? A permaculture farm. What the heck is a permaculture farm? As the owner, Steven, described, its a place where you live from the land by taking care of it and allowing it to provide for you. "Maximizing hammock time." Steven loved this phrase, and said that it is the basis of permaculture. The farm is completely off the grid (no electricity or services), and provides for most of the needs of the people there (they still buy some supplies such as rice and some building materials). So what do you find there? Here's a brief list- 1,000s of varieties of plants, ducks, chickens, beach, hammocks, two main buildings with residences for owners and guests, a greenhouse, a water collection system, solar panels, Afro-Caribbean influences, delicious food, composting toilets, kayaks, and yup this is where the hippies come in (among many other things). Steven and his wife live on the property and enjoy connecting with nature. Sarah is very into natural medicines and is very knowledgeable about the area and the plants that are on their property. Steven is into the food production of the place as well as promoting permaculture ideals. (He made sure to inform me about a permaculture farm on Orcas Island- field trip anyone????).
Punta Mona!
We spend the night there kayaking, making fresh chocolate out of Cocoa beans and eating a delicious all organic dinner. In the morning we toured the parts of the farm that we didn't see and spent some time 'connecting with a certain plant' as Steven liked to say. (We picked one and described it and then he told us about the uses of the plant). It was an early morning and we were on the trail home by about 8:30. We hiked out a more direct route, which only took us about an hour and a half (in the rain!) We made piled back into the van quite wet in Manzanillo, and headed out to our last stop before returning to San Rafael. Just a few kilometers outside of Puerto Viejo is an indigenous people group on a reserve. The group is named the Bri-Bri and have lived in that area for hundreds of years. Like most indigenous people they are struggling with the globalizing world around them- they are loosing their dialect, they are loosing native traditions, and they are loosing their 'protected' land. It was fascinating to see that they had taken up conservation efforts to combat these issues in certain ways. Over the past 18 or so years they have bred 35,000 iguanas on the property in order to try to reestablish the population in the region. We also got a traditional story of the beginnings of cacao which was fascinating as most traditional tales are from indigenous people.
Well over the past two days I've seen some interesting things and learned a bit about the culture of transportation here in Costa Rica. On Sunday one of the other students, Nanda, and I went down to the artisans market in the capital San Jose. Nothing to eventful on the way down and an enjoyable time people watching and checking out the shops for about an hour. On our way back though we hopped on the bus and began to wind our way back through San Jose on our way back to Heredia. We made a few turns and drove a block or two before stopping seemingly randomly on the left side of the one way street we were on. It took a bit of time to figure out what was going on, but just as I realized what was going on Nanda said, 'I think our bus driver is buying a shirt!' Sure enough, he had gotten the attention of the shop keeper and asked him to pick out a certain size of one of the shirts in the window of the shop and proceeded to pay for it through the window of the bus. Tonight, on the way back from campus Bean and I were stopped in an awkward Y in the road just outside of San Rafael. We waited. No one moved. Finally we recognized that two cars had likely gotten into a fender bender and were still in the middle of the intersection. We got around the mess in 4 or 5 minutes but there certainly was a lot of honking and flashing of lights by all parties. Bean proceeded to explain that here in Costa Rica, when you get into an accident you stay right where you are until the insurance person comes out to photograph the damage and take down information. Literally just wait. Wherever you are. She relayed a story of last January when she was driving a van of freshman down to a service project and was stopped dead in the road on the Monte de la Cruz while two cars waited for their insurance people to get there. its a two lane road with huge ditches on either side and the two car accident managed to take up both lanes so they were literally stuck. On another note, off to the beach again this weekend and very excited for it!
So as we approached the second to last free weekend here in Costa Rica, I was excited. Why you ask? well this video may have something to do with it!
Yup! We spent Saturday morning ziplining through cloud rainforest up at about 7000 feet elevation (I'm voting that Whitworth install one that ends in one of the ponds). Here's a few more pictures of the mornings activities-
(remember to click on pictures to enlarge)
So off we went. Following an fun zipline tour we came back to a delicious lunch at my tica family's new 'soda' (small restaurant). We then spent the afternoon filming some video to respond to our fellow Whitworthians up north! Senior post Michael Taylor put together a little dance for our annual kickoff to basketball season (called Midnight Madness). So first his video, then our response!
Saturday evening we went down to the church that a friend and recent graduate of Whitworth goes to in a town called Escazo- La Viña (website). What next? Well that's when I came home to eat a quick bite and then edit the dance video.
Sunday morning came and as a way to wake up a little quicker I bumped my head on the windchime on our back porch, which dislodged a few small wasps from the nest I didn't know existed on the chain above. One of the wasps fell into my collar and while trying to shake it out fell down my back inside the shirt. Moral of the story, getting three wasp stings is an excellent way to wake up!
I made my way to the soda for an excellent omelette with gallo pinto and a tall glass of pineapple juice. I met up with Nanda and we headed down to San Jose to an artisans market to do a bit of exploring and finding a cribbage board for me (gotta love the artisan markets).
Now as an exciting end to my weekend, its time to write a paper and work on other homework... Oh well, what a great way to spend a weekend!
