2011 in eight pictures

  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!

One last awesome weekend: Pacific Beach

     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!

Class notes and a story

     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.