catching up (part 2)

March 20

Today I went with the MEI group to the semi-Mennonite church that we attended earlier in the week. We were doing maintenance stuff like painting and pulling weeds. At lunch, I had a conversation with Chad, one of the interns at PVM, and Javier, a member of the church who has been assisting us this week at La Quinca and today at the church. Javier has had a difficult life. He is from Nicaragua and was involved with the Sandinista guerrilla forces. I don't know all the details but I do know that he had been brainwashed to believe all North Americans (aka Americans and Canadians, here they don't consider Central Americans a part of North America) were bad. Now, he is really involved in the church and even leads worship. It was really interesting to meet him. Before this trip I had never met someone like him. I have found it really interesting to to hear about Nicaraguans in Costa Rica and the relationship between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Because of the conflicts in Nicaragua, many Nicaraguans have immigrated to Costa Rica. They have better jobs there and they have more stability there except many of them are so poor that they end up living in neighborhoods like La Tabla and La Quinca. I didn't even realize it at first but many of the people who I have been working with are Nicaraguans. I have even learned Nicaraguan Spanish vocabulary. Another thing that I have found to be interesting is how similar the relationship between Costa Rica and Nicaragua is with the US' relationship with Mexico. There are so many Nicaraguans in Costa Rica that Ticos don't want any more of them coming to Costa Rica. They feel like they are taking jobs and raising the crime rate. I haven't talked to Bella Flor about her views on it but I am definitely going to look into it more when I get to Granada.

March 21

Today I went with the MEI group and we went to see a reenactment of the Crucifixion of Jesus. It was really strange. It's supposed to a religious experience but if felt more like a play. It wasn't a part of a worship service which I think would make it a lot better and I kept getting distracted by the fake punching and the dramatic music. I still don't totally know how I feel about it but it didn't feel worshipful to me. This is the only big Semana Santa (Holy Week) event that we have done. Because it such a huge catholic holiday, most other churches seem to shy away from it so the things I have observed are the fact that there is hardly anyone on the road, the sound of roman soldiers marching, and the big stage in front of the Catholic church in town (it was set up for burning Judas at the stake- I think).

March 22

Today I went with the MEI group and we did and activity with the youth group at the church. We rented a soccer Field for a while and played soccer for an hour and then played octopus (it's like fish and minnows or british bulldog, kind of) It was so much fun even though we played Canadians versus Costa Ricans and the Costa Ricans won most of the time. I can just say that I am terrible at soccer. You would think that I could channel all my dutchness and pull some skill out but apperently it doesn't work like that. I promise that I try, but I just have trouble with the whole execution. I think it out, I try to study what people are doing but when I actually get to a point where I can do something, my foot eye coordination becomes zero and I have no balence and I feel really stupid. Maybe it's because when everyone else was learning sports, I was learning ballet (although I wasn't a very good ballet dancer either). The thing I am the worst at is the head butt thing. No matter how hard I try, I don't know that I will ever be able to willingly stick my head towards a speedy ball. It just doesn't work. Oh well, I guess I'll stick to Camp Luz rec games and really competitive games of spoons.