Volcan Poas

Yay I have time to post

So I can´t believe that its October already.  Wow time has flown by.  I really regret not keeping up with my xanga, but school has gotten pretty busy lately.  That and I have been taking some trips here and there on the weekends so I haven´t been able to go to an internet cafe.  But now I am here.  So I am going to try and summarize all that I have done in the last 3 weeks in a couple of paragraphs. Wow!  So I went to Limon three weekends ago and it was incredible.  I got to go to the beach and see the Caribbean side of Costa Rica.  The coolest thing I got to do was go to a banana and coffee plantation.  It was fascinating to see bananas and coffee that were going to be shipped to the united states.  The manager at the Del Monte plant explained to us the banana process and got to see the people working in the plant while he was talking.  I have pictures which I am excited to share!  I hope to post them on facebook sometime soon. 

Weekend September 21-23

The next weekend I went on a business retreat.  We went to a cloud forest which was beautiful. We talked all about the project we will be working on in november.  I am really excited about it.  We met with the guy who will be helping us during the process.  His name is Don Alfredo. Basically what we are going to be doing is writing a business plan for some Nicaraguan producers that make souvenirs and crafts.  They want to introduce their products into the Costa Rican market.  My concentration is going to be in charge of making this happen!  We will be working on analyzing the markets in Costa Rica, the products, and what the best way to introduce these products into Costa Rica.  Once we research and write the business plan we will be giving it to the Nicaraguan producers who then have a big meeting with some bigwigs in Costa Rica.  How they do in this meeting depends on how well we put together our business plan. Pretty crazy huh.  I am excited about have this once in a lifetime business experience.  The even cooler thing is that this upcoming week I will be staying with a producer that we will be helping in Nicaragua.  Pretty neat.  I am really excited.  The following morning after our business debrief we hiked down to two waterfalls in the cloud forest.  It was absolutely beautiful and the weather was great.  The hills were pretty steep so I got my work out for the day.

 I had a Nicaragua weekend this weekendbecause after I went back to San Jose I went to a play with my Tican mom here.  It was called El Nica and it was a monologue of a Nicaraguan living in San Jose.  It was really powerful and explained a lot of the hardships that Nicaraguans have to endure in Costa Rica.  I really enjoyed it, although I thought that four hours was a little long haha.  Everything is longer here.  On Sunday in the morning I went to a kind of dance exhibition between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.  Some of our students hosted a Nicaraguan student who danced at this event.  The dances were beautiful and confirmed in my mind that I have no dancing skill at all .  So my weekend was filled with information about Nicaragua.  This will help me a lot when I go to Nicaragua next thursday.

Weekend 28-30

On this last friday we had a sort of spiritual sharing time.  All of the students got together and each shared what God has done in their lives of where they are at spiritually.  It was really powerful to hear all of the personal stories and to learn more about each other.  It showed my how amazing God´s grace is that he could take so many broken people that are different and make them whole again.  Wow!  I also shared what God has been teaching me and I would like to share it with you too.  In my heart I have always had a little trouble with the poor.  I have always had a harden heart toward them.  I would think, ¨they could get a job if they tried hard enough¨or¨How amd I supposed to know if they really need the money¨.  Needless to say I haven´t been very giving to those who are need.  Being in Costa Rica God has been teaching me a lot about hte poor.  The people here in Costa Rica are so generous with their money, their homes and their things. They are always willing to give to people who are in need.  We also did a Biblical Reflection in my class about helping the poor and justice.  Through all of these things God has been teaching me that it is not my job to decide who is in need and who isn´t.  We are supposed to freely give to all those in need.  I am excited about where God is going to take me this semester.  Already I have been opening my heart to the things he is teaching me starting with helping the poor.  I am looking forward to putting this into practice.

The following day at 4am I left for the pacific coast.  I went to Manuel Antonio beach which is absolutely gorgeous.  It is something you see in the travel books and magazines about the perfect vacation spot.  I went into the national park there and saw all kinds of cool animals.  I saw monkeys, two sloths, many iguanas, some racoons and plenty of birds.  I t was so great to finally see some wildlife that I keep hearing about.  The most of saturday I spent on the beach and hiking the trails that are in the national park.  It was beautiful!  We stayed in a hostel at night (my first hostel experience).  It we pretty much like a expected.  There were a lot of people there who were there to have a good time.  They were pretty nice though and recommended us some good places to eat in the area.  The trip was really short.  We came back the next day at 4pm.  It is about a 3 hour bus ride to Manuel Antonio, but it was worthit.

So now you might be saying to yourself, so what is Katie Spencer doing during the week?  Well, I go to class of course! I have history/current events/culture class in the mornings on monday and wednesday usually and Spanish classes in the afternoon.  Today is my last spanish class and then I graduate.  Pretty crazy huh!  I have already been here for 5 weeks!  It has gone by really fast!  In my regular classes I have been learning a lot about current events in Latin America.  The referendum vote on CAFTA is the Sunday so that has been a pretty big topic of discussion.  Usually we have speakers come in and talk on different topics. Yesterday a lady from the Nicaraguan embassy in Costa Rica came in to talk about here experiences during the Sandinista-Contra war in Nicaragua.  We also go through the history of Latin America.  In Spanish class I have learned preterite, commands, articles, subjunctive and more.  I am definitely planning on studying Spanish more on my own after my classes are over. I have really enjoyed these classes and both of my teachers.  I am sad that they are over today, but I am excited for graduation and cake!  Haha I really like the cake here it´s delicious. 

This upcoming weekend I am just going to hang out in San Jose.  Tonight the girls in my program are all having a get together to just relax and watch movies so that should be a lot of fun.  We will be ordering pizza and doing fun girl stuff.  Tomorrow my mom is going to teach me  how to make Costa Rican food.  We are going to make gallopinto and arroz con pollo.  Yumyum.  I want to make cookies tomorrow too.  I hope I get the chance to go to the store and get some ingredients.  Other than that I am just going to hang out.  I have been gone so much on the weekends that I haven´t been able to spend that much time with my family here.  Next week I leave for Nicaragua for two weeks so I won´t see them for a while.  Gotta make the best of the time I have here. 

I am already learning so much and I wish I could write so much more about all of the experiences I am having.  I won´t be able to post frequently in these next couple of weeks either, bummer.  I will try to update you more and life in Costa Rica.  I am really enjoying it right now.  I just want all of you to know that I miss you lots.  I am sorry I haven´t been able to send any e-mails or cards or anything.  Thanks so much for reading my journal.  I miss all of my friends, family and school a lot.  I think about you often and keep you in my prayers.  Thanks for all of your prayers.  I hope God blesses you this day in a special way.  Love you all!

My computer is broken

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

            So I haven’t written a post in 3 days!  I need to get back on track.  A lot has happened in these last three days.  First I will start off with Saturday.  In the morning I went shopping with some friends in San Jose.  That was really fun!  I didn’t really buy much, but it was fun to kind of be tourists in Costa Rica.  We ate a humongous pizza that was soo good.  There are pictures on facebook if you would like to see it.  Yum!  It was a lot of fun.

            Okay, so here is what I know you all are wondering about:  the kitchen party.  I think I am still wondering about it myself.  So I feel lied to, haha.  So either I misunderstood what they were saying or they left out some important details because the party was totally different than what I thought.  First off, it wasn’t in the kitchen at all!!  Okay, this made me pretty upset, but I am slowly recuperating.  Second, it wasn’t for only women because my Tican dad and brothers were there.  Third, it was actually an engagement party for my brother Minor!!  Who would have guessed?  No me, that’s for sure as you can obviously tell.  I felt bad because I didn’t bring a gift.  I look back now and laugh because I really had the wrong idea about this party.

            So my Tican mom has 10 sisters and all but 2 were at this party on Saturday.  All I can say is wowzah!  It was definitely a Latin American party because everyone talked at the same time the whole time making it almost impossible for me to follow and one conversation.  It was still fun.  People brought gifts for Minor and Carla’s kitchen (thus the name ‘kitchen party’) and we played some fun games.  One of them was unscrambling words of things in the kitchen in Spanish.  I didn’t do so well on that one, haha.  I got at least two.  I was proud of myself.  The party was pretty fun.  After everyone left I was ready for a nap.  It was a lot to stimulate the brain.  Today I officially met the last of the 11 sisters.  Wow, I have 5 and I thought that was a lot.

            Sunday was good.  I went to the huge Pentecostal church on Sunday and understood a lot more about the sermon although he brought the cows and the road back up again.  This weeks message was on the passage where Uzzah touched the ark of the covenant and God killed him.  This made King David afraid of the ark so he didn’t bring it into the city.  Instead it stayed with a man and his family and the Lord blessed them.  David saw the Lord’s blessings and felt secure enough to bring it in to the city at last.  Now this is the part where David dances in his underpants for God.  We had quite the laugh at church about this.  The pastor’s main points were about how we should have respect for God.  He talked the most about how the spirit of God no longer lives in the Ark of the Covenant but lives inside of us.  From what I got, it was a pretty good message.  Later after church we ate and watched futbol Costa Rican style.  Saprissa lost which was kind of a bummer.  Oh, and the U.S., Costa Rica, and Honduras all had friendly games with each other to select players for the main country’s teams.  Before the game, the stadium played each team’s national anthem.  My dad turned up the tv really loud and said, “Mira Karina, Los Estados Unidos.”  He proceeded to hum along also very loudly.  It was pretty cute.  Sunday was also El dia de los ninos in Costa Rica.  This is where parents show appreciation to their kids by buying them small gifts.  It is kind of a cute holiday that I have never heard of before.  It was interesting to experience this cultural difference. 

            Monday at LASP (which is where I study history and current issues of Latin America) we had a surprise guest speaker.  He was Ex-president Ricardo Carazo.  How cool is that?  He was president between 1978-1982.  Here in Costa Rica a president’s term is two years long.  They can have two consecutive terms which equals 4 years total.  Then, after some odd 7 or 9 years they could run again if they wanted.  The current president Oscar Arias was also president for a time in the 80s.  Anyway, President Carazo was a really neat guy.  The topic of discussion was the relationship between the United States and Latin America:  the Latin American perspective.  He had some interesting thoughts about the US.  I have been learning a lot about US politics here and what the Costa Ricans think about the US.  Most of you probably don’t know that right now in Costa Rica there is a very big and important debate about the US.  The Central American Free Trade Agreement or CAFTA has been accepted in all of the specific Central American, but Costa Rica.  There is fierce debate in this country over whether free trade with the United States is the right thing for Costa Rica.  The voting date is October 7^th.  It is really neat that I get to be here during this somewhat historical event.  I have learned a whole new perspective on the issue as well.

            Is free trade really the best for Costa Rica?  An interesting fact about CAFTA is unlike NAFTA, which was drafted over a several year period, CAFTA was written in 6 months because the US is really pushing the free trade issue.  In all of my classes I have learned that free trade really is the best option for global economic stability, but now I am not so sure.  Another argument against free trade is that it will make the rich richer and the poor poorer.  Agriculture is a huge business in Costa Rica, but realistically small farmers will not be able to compete with larger corporate farms.  These already poor farmers will no have no income when their farms close down due to cheaper prices from corporate farms.  Agriculture is just one of the examples of the poor getting poorer.  One big issue in Costa Rica is the communication industry.  Right now the government has control over telecommunications through a company called ICE.  I am a full supporter for privatization, but the ICE is different than I expected.  ICE actually subsidized telephone costs for the poor so all people can have equal access to phone service.  When telecommunications are privatized, costs for telephone services will likely increase.  Upon reading the issues, there are so many comments against free trade with the US.  Another one of the main disagreements is the terms of agreements.  The Central American countries are required to remove all tariffs and subsidizes within a certain amount of years while at the same time the United States has not promised to do so in return.  This one agreement covers all of Latin America, but each country is so different many argue that many amendments need to be made to meet the needs of the Costarrissences. 

            Lately I have been reading a lot of articles about this subject of Free Trade.  In a lot of the articles the US is portrayed as a bully.  The articles are sometimes biased, but other times they have valid points.  Free trade is a great thing for the US because we will have the opportunity to exploit the cheaper labor markets in order to lower the cost of our products.  The problem is that working conditions are unfair and corporations can easily move their manufacturing operations to where there is even cheaper labor such as China or Indonesia.  The people who most benefit from this are the rich in our country.  I read a statistic the other day that said that the world’s 3 richest men have wealth equal to the combined GDP of the poorest 48 countries.  Can you believe that?  That’s crazy!

When you really get down to the bottom of it the issue has to do a lot with neoliberalism or market-based economies.  This deals with supply and demand and comparative advantage.  This capitalistic system of economics is based on consumerism.  The more we consume the better the economy.  I know for a fact that this system works because it is evident in the United States, but realistically all of the countries cannot consume as much as we do at the same time.  They aren’t enough resources to supply the demand.  The US citizens, including myself, have so much stuff they don’t need while many of the world doesn’t have hardly anything.  Something that struck me as sadly ironic is that one of the hot issues in America is obesity.  It is interesting that there are thousands of people who don’t have food every day and we are dealing with having too much.  Maybe the scales need to be evened out a bit. 

I know I just shared a lot of information with you, but I want you to understand some of the things I am learning right now.  I am not turning into a communist or anything.  I always take everything with a grain of salt and I am not exactly sure what I think quite yet.  I just think that what I am learning is really interesting.  I encourage you to look up information on CAFTA and its pros and cons.  Try to get the perspectives of other countries too.  I think you will be as interested as I am after doing some research.  I would also love to hear what you think.  Feel free to comment on this post or e-mail me at KatieSpencer@letu.edu. 

Now that I have gotten off that track I have realized that I have forgotten to tell you about today.  Here it is:  I had a good day.  I am constantly blessed by God.  Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support.  God really gave me a lot of strength to make it through the day.  I am constantly reminded of this verse of which I read almost every week.  I hope it will encourage you today as much as it constantly encourages me.

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;

My hope comes from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation;

He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

My salvation and my honor depend on God;

He is my mighty rock, my refuge.

Trust in him at all times, O people;

Pour out your hearts to him,

For God is our refuge.”

Psalm 62:5-8

I hope that you will take time to find rest in God alone today.  Seek God for your strength and he will give it to you.  Believe me, it works.  I tried it today J. Thank you all so much for taking time to read my posts and sharing in my experiences with me.  I hope that God blesses you today with some rest.  I love you all!

Thursday, September 06, 2007

So I have a funny story to tell.  I know Josh is going to be really excited about this.  So tonight at dinner (which was really good by the way) we made our usual chit chat conversation at the table.  We had all finished eating and were still sitting at the table.  We were talking about something and then all of the sudden some sort of light when on in my Tican dad’s mind.  All of the sudden he got really excited about my computer.  He was very interested in how I connected my computer to the internet at the house and about my skype program.  For those of you who don’t know, skype is a program that uses the internet to make phone calls.  Anyway, he got really excited and started asking me all of these questions about it.  Here I am trying to explain it in to him in Spanish.  Yeah, it was pretty funny.  Eventually, I said, “Quiere verlo?”  Do you want to see it?  And he said yes!  So we went into my sister Nancy’s room and I showed him how I connected all of the cords and explained the whole system to him.  So Josh would be proud of me because I think I helped make a new skype supported.  It was so funny!  He was talking really fast and he was really excited hahaha.  It was funny.  Who would have thought that my Costa Rican dad would be so into technology.  I come home from school and he is usually on the internet reading the news online.  I just think it’s funny.  Who would have thought, right?

Let’s see, other exciting news.  Yes! I killed my first cockroach in Costa Rica.  Take that cockroaches!!  I have started a mentally tally.  Two Spiders, one beetle, and one cockroach.  I think I have a long way to go.  Although honestly, there really aren’t that many bugs in the city.  I see more in Texas than I do here.  Interesting…

Okay so I have another story to tell that I wasn’t planning on sharing because let’s just say…it’s personal. But then I told Josh and we both about died laughing and he insisted that I tell people about this.  Oh Gosh I can’t believe I am doing this.  Luckily, I have a long list of reasons why this situation is okay.  First, I am in a foreign country going through some abnormal stresses.  Secondly, my stomach has been really upset lately with the food.  So…for the first time in my life, a couple of days ago, I crapped my pants.  Hahahahahahahaahhahahahaha.  Okay, so I think it is the funniest thing alive and I almost couldn’t tell anyone because I couldn’t get it out between laughs.  Yeah, so I don’t know how it happened.  It just happened.  I was sitting in my room and then there it was.  Who would have thought!!  I am glad I was the only one home so it wasn’t extremely awkward.  Hahaha.  It’s still really funny. It’s a good Costa Rican experience.  Now I can die happy.

Hmmm…what else.  I think I am all out of funny stories.  I think I am tapped for the week.  Unless I do something else that’s silly which more than likely is going to happen.  Today I went to class and such which was good.  I have had a little cold for a while that has made it hard to concentrate at school.  I get home from school and I am just so exhausted that I can’t study.  Luckily I don’t have classes in the morning where I have time to study.  Except for this morning when I talked to Josh.  I am a bad studentJ.  It was worth it.  After classes we had a praise and worship session.  It was so good to get to sing and pray with other believers.  It was really refreshing for the soul.  Being in a foreign country has made spending time with God really special.  I get to converse with him in my own language.  Now that I am in another culture, it is amazing that God relates and is universal for all cultures.  Today we sang ‘You are the Lord, the famous one”.  The chorus continues with ‘great is your name in all the earth’.  Today I realized the truth in this statement.  God’s name is great in all the earth:  in Costa Rica, in the United States, in Japan, and in all the earth.  How crazy is that when you really think about it?  There are so many different people on this earth and God loves them all.  We are really lucky to have such a wonderful God.  I have so much more I would love to write about, but alas bedtime approaches.  Instead, I will leave with this:  isn’t God amazing?  Great is his name in all the earth!

Friday, September 07, 2007

            So tonight I am sleeping in a wet bed.  Contrary to what most of you are thinking, my bed is wet because it rained a lot today (I know you were thinking I wet my bed!) and there is a leak in my ceiling.  It’s kind of exciting.  Me, Costa Rica, the cockroach I killed yesterday which is no longer dead and my wet bed are going to have a great night tonight!  Believe me, it could be worse.  There is a huge wasp the size of Texas in the kitchen right now.  I fought my way through the dining room and was victorious; which means it didn’t make it into my room.  It could have been:  me, Costa Rica, my cockroach friend, my wet bed, and a huge wasp!  I consider myself blessed!

            Other than that, today was a really good day.  Spanish classes have been hard lately.  We are learning in grammar class about indirect and direct objects and those have always given me trouble.  Always!  I get so confused on which is what and what goes where. Ai, it gives me a headache.  I soothed my mind (or my stomach) with a nice Snickers bar during break.  It was really good.  Nothing like a little bit of chocolate to soothe the soul.  After classes there was a fiesta!  My friend Kate’s birthday was yesterday and she had a party at her house.  It was a lot of fun.  There was karoke, food, and fun.  The karaoke was even better because it was in Spanish.  I sang Eres Tu.  In my heart I dedicated it to my friend Kirstin who I had many Spanish classes with in highschool.  Eres tu, Kirstin .

            Yeah, today was a lot of fun.  I got to sleep in till 9:30 which is really late here and had a pretty relaxing morning.  I was pretty proud of myself today.  I totally conquered Costa Rica.  So I had to bring food to my friend’s party that was tonight.  Well, there is a supermarket that is really close to my house.  So I left my house early, found the supermarket, bought some cookies, AND found my bus stop!  That’s right! I totally conquered!!  I did it all by myself too.  I was so proud of myself.  And I only got lost once, but it was just because I missed a turn and it was really easy to correct.  In Costa Rica, there aren’t any street signs at all.  Everyone goes by land marks which makes it really hard for people like me to figure out where things are.  The buses don’t have names and either do the bus stops.  Thus, I have an extremely hard time finding my way around.  But today was a success!  I can’t wait to see what other adventures are in my future. 

            A couple of people are going to a climb a volcano this weekend.  I decided that I wasn’t that adventurous yet.  I don’t know very many people here, and I don’t know the language that well yet, so I think I am happy with making it to the grocery storeJ.  Tomorrow we are having a kitchen party at my house.  A bunch of women are coming over, my mom’s sisters and such, to have a kitchen party.  I don’t exactly know what happens at a kitchen party, but I at least know where it’s at! Hey hey! Party up in here!

            This weekend I have quite a bit of homework.  I am hoping my family here will help me some with my Spanish homework.  It needs some work.  I have a test on Tuesday!  I need a little help.  I will ask them tomorrow.  Other than that, my weekend is free.  I am just going to relax and hang out with my family.  It should be fun.  Now I am off to have some wet dreams.  Get it?  My bed is wet!  Okay, bad joke.  Time for bed.  Hasta manana (until tomorrow).  Buenas noches (goodnight).