Saturday, January 29, 2011

Week 1: "No hablo mucho español."

A large Catholic church in San Jose.

Me, Daniel, Gabriel, and Arial.

"I'm Diving in!"...literally.

Week one is nearly over here in Costa Rica and my body and mind are in a complete tailspin. It has been long week of adjusting to a new culture, people, food, weather, job expectations, etc., etc., etc... I've finally found a few moments of escape in a small internet cafe here in Atenas. Hopefully I can give y'all a quick synopsis of the week's events in a short amount of time.

Speaking of time; It does not exist in Atenas. People are happy living their lives with little thought given to tomorrow. Life is done in the present, and they are in no rush to get to the next stage. As an good American, I plan events around schedules and do my best to stick to that schedule...time is money, and time is valuable. Here, relationships are valuable, and they always take first place in priority. Consequently, meetings and events have a loose start time and almost never have a set end time. It's a laid back life, but I think I'm going to fit in just fine (I'm from the South!).

Much of this week we have spent in the office going through a second orientation process. Again, it was a lot of information to take in, and I feel somewhat overwhelmed by the mass of input. On Monday afternoon, I was dropped off at my host family's house. I knew I didn't know much Spanish, but I didn't realize how bad it was until I was alone with them. Communication is a vital key to any relationship, and language is big part of communication. Pray for my Spanish. Much of the week has consisted of me using a few nouns and prepositions to create a sentence....without using verbs. Pictures and hand motions have been useful at times. Needless to say, it's pretty funny and I can only imagine what I sound like to them. The good news is, I start language school on Monday and I'll go for two weeks. Hopefully it will give me a better foundation and I can build upon that for the next few months.

Atenas is a small town of about 5,000 people that is about an hour bus ride from San Jose, the captial of Costa Rica. I found out that Atenas actually means "Athens." Awesome. This can only be a confirmation that I was born to live here! It takes me about 25-30 minutes to walk from my house to the office, which is in the center of town. The terrain is hilly and covered with all kinds of vegetation--most of which I cannot identify.

My host family is great! The familia Gamboa Chinchilla: Geovanni, Kathya and their three sons Arial (18), Daniel (12) and Gabriel (5). They have been so gracious in not only taking me in as their son, but for putting up with my lousy Spanish. Kathya has been especially wonderful. She cooks every breakfast and dinner for me, washes my clothes, and even straightens my room everyday! She has really made me feel at home, and it has surely eased the transition from one country to the next.

The food has been great, too. Costa Rican food is usually pretty mild, and not nearly as spicy as mexican food. (For those of you who have seen me sweat while eating, you can appreciate my enthusiasm over that fact.) I haven't had a single meal that wasn't good---on the contrary, it's fantastic.

This morning I went swiming with Arial, Daniel, and Gabriel. We went to a nearby creek that had some small waterfalls and deep swimming holes. I should probably mention that wastewater(everything but the toilets) is treated much differently here in Costa Rica. And by treated differently, I mean that it gets piped out from houses and flows down to the rivers. Sooo...I'm praying that I don't get sick in the next few days. I figure if they swim in it, I can swim in it too. Regardless, we had a good time and I think it was valuable bonding time for me and my host family brothers.

I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of things I want to tell everyone, but I need to keep these blog entries short. I love you all, and I'm looking forward to telling you more about my host family, work, and Atenas!

Hasta luego!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

EMI Orientation




Here are the Costa Rica interns ( the fab 5 boy band picture)

I’m now to my final day in the United States as we closeout our week of EMI orientation. The last week here in Colorado Springs has been a really unique experience for myself (and probably for all the interns). There are about 26 other EMI interns that will be serving in various offices around the world, including: Colorado Springs, India, Uganda, Costa Rica, Canada, UK, and the Middle East. Most are in their last year of college or have recently graduated with degrees in architecture, engineering, and yes, even landscape architecture--I am one of two landscape architect interns.

The dynamics of our group are wide. We have interns from Canada, UK, and every corner of the United States. Imagine this: You’re at a large dinner table. At the table there is an Irish man, an Canadian-Asian born in South Africa, a girl from England, two girls from Louisiana and Alabama, a guy from northern California, a guy from Minnesota, and a guy from nowhere, Kansas. You can imagine how funny our conversations were during each meal. As a boy from Savannah, Georgia, I immediately set to work to correct all of their accents and cultural shortcomings. No success, yet. It has been a blast getting to know each of these people, though. Each of them has something amazing to offer, and I wish I could spend the whole next year in their company.

The orientation process has been a challenge to me. As someone described it earlier, it’s a bit like “drinking from a fire hydrant.” Every day has been packed with talks and activities that are to prepare us for the next six months. Topics included God’s workmanship, culture, personalities, strengths, poverty, spiritual gifts and EMI history. I often came into many of the lectures and group activities with strong ,cynical attitude, thinking that it was something I didn’t need to hear. Fortunately, God broke me down each time and opened my eyes to things he would have me see. It has been one of the most spiritually challenging weeks of my life, and I feel like I will need several months to process the input I received.

One of the topics for the week centered around God’s workmanship---the idea and truth the we have identity and purpose in Christ. Ephesians 2:10 says : For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. We spent a great deal of time unpacking this truth and all the evidence that points to it. After taking some strength, personality, and spiritual gifts test (which I was extremely skeptical of) we were able to recognize and confirm our uniqueness in the body of Christ. As we discussed our individual differences, we were able to see how God is clearly a master of design. He is constantly at work to use us as instruments to glorify himself and redeem all creation.

Last night was one of the highlights of the week. We sat around and heard each person’s testimony--a story of good times, bad times, heritage, and heroes. For several hours we listened to how broken lives have been redeemed by God’s grace. It is incredible to see that our Father is constantly interceeding for his children and that he is not some distant clockmaker who has left us to fend for ourselves.

Overall, it has been an amazingly encouraging week and I feel even more exicted about our team and mission. I am ready to get to Central America! Please pray for our safe travel as we leave later today for Costa Rica!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Seeing my grandparent's farm from thousands of feet in the air is a new view. The once endless wilderness that I knew as a child is now just a small spec in my airplane window--quite a funny feeling!

After months of preparation, the day has finally arrived and I am now off to Colorado Springs for a week of orientation and training with EMI. I’m really looking forward to meeting some new folks, including the other interns that will be working with me in Costa Rica. Also, I think it will be a good time of actually getting a grasp on what we will be doing the next 6 months. Up to this week, my answers to questions about my trip have been rather vague and without detail (although the big picture and ultimate goal is clear). Hopefully this week will shed some light on many of the unanswered questions.

Thank you, again, to everyone who has prayed for me and encouraged me in this time of preparation. I am confident that I am not alone, and that your prayers are being continually answered by our gracious God!

Andrew