Dia Uno - A Whole New World

Mayo 17, 2009

Bienvenido!

Información de blog:

Hoy soy starting a blog por me trip to Costa Rica. Soy en la country por diez semanas to learn Español at Centro Panamerico de Idiomas. Yo wanted to learn Español solo no to get credit and finish a requirement, pero learn the language por verdad. Soy escribiendo this blog to recount my travels for myself to remember in años to come as well as to let mi madre se what I am up to ;-) Soy attempting to write in “Spanglish”; incorporating what little español yo se and mixing it in con el ingles por que yo no se. Yo se that soy completely getting conjugations and even word usage wrong–este is a learning blog–the idea is that my usage gets better con my learning y practice. Yo no tengo internet aquí at la casa que soy staying, so each of these posts are going to have to be posted the day after I escribir, cuando yo tengo access. Uno mas notas: These blog posts are basically whatever I can think of at the time. They don't go through an extensive editing process and I don't try to stop my sappy, cheesy, semi-poetic side of my writing style. If things seem ill-thought out or over the top...it is because they are ;-)

I stepped through customs without the knowledge or even remote expectation of what awaited me. A throng de personas, todos trying to find someone or sell a taxi or hotel room to someone, stood outside la puerta with signs, huddled against the clear glass window and peering in. For a moment I stopped and waited before exiting. There was no way I was going into that mass de personas without some kind of clue or idea what I was going to do next. Once I got out there, I know I would not have time to think of contingencies. I looked at the sea of people through the wall of glass and finally spotted someone who was looking at me and had a sign with my name on it. We made eye contact and I nodded, heading toward the door to meet the jóvenes muchacho en la camiseta rojo. He led me out a little bit away from the crowd and told me to wait while he went and got the car. I was waiting by another young man from the United States, Andrew, who had also been picked up by the CPI representative. Andrew, as I found out later, was an excellent Spanish speaker and was very willing to help me make the transition to my new surroundings. But at the moment, he was talking to a young lady and we didn’t introduce outselves to each other until later. 

While I waited for the car, a friendly looking muchacho with a clipboard for a major hotel chain (I forget which) walked by and greeted the American students as he passed. Most ignored him, pero I returned his greeting. He smiled and walked toward me. “Oh no,” I thought as my mano de izquierda  grasped my luggage tighter and my mano de derecha did a quick, subtle, pat down of my vest remembering what was supposed to be there, “it looks like he is stopping to talk. I better keep my eyes out for an accomplice pickpocket.” It was a paranoia me madre would be truly proud of :-P

David was a tour guide, as it turned out, looking for an opportunity to practice his English. We chatted in English about the weather, mountains, birds, and Costa Rica in general. He asked me how to say planting fields/sowing/gardening in English, I asked him como se dice en español. Despite my paranoia, (or rather, the paranoia I was putting on for the sake of...well, you know who by now) I was struck with how friendly David was to a complete stranger. It was impressive and humbling. Because of his friendliness we, who had almost nothing in common, had a more fulfilling and meaningful conversation in those fifteen minutes than the two other college students sitting beside me and I had on a three hour long flight. It struck me that everyone feels alone in the world, pero it solo takes uno to create an friendly atmosphere and make others feel welcome. Anyway, when my ride got there I said my good-bye and headed off.

I don’t know how to describe it, but it takes a certain amount of trust to hop into a car of someone you don’t know who speaks a language you don’t speak to go some place you don’t know where. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that I was trusting Christ more to get me to my destination than the driver. (Although, technically that should be true all the time...it’s just that usually we don’t think about it because the driver is someone we know.) Anyway, the man driving and his family spoke no English. They were nice people, but I had no idea what they were saying other than the occational mention of “calor” and pointing to the air conditioner with a knowing smile. Andrew, my fellow student, definitely saved me from many an awkward moment. He helped translate what they were asking me and my questions for them. He explained why he was using certain words and what his translation meant so I was actually learning how to say what I wanted in Spanish. The car drive was short (at least compared to the two three hour flights I had just been on) and after dropping Andrew off to his host family, the driver brought me to mine.

I do not think it is possible to truly do justice to the friendliness and warmth that my host family greeted me with and welcomed me into their home. All I can say is that this evening, the one thing that kept coming to mind was Pastor Gary’s story about entertaining angels unawares and his description of the man he met when he got lost driving. I was thinking that the idea that we might entertain angels unawares certainly does not preclude the possibility of angels entertaining us unawares. My host family was patient, gracious, and eager to help me learn. If they were annoyed at my frequent need to ask them to repeat themselves or look up something in my Spanish-English dictionary, they never showed it. They offered me a tour of the town and were happy to spend time just making small talk with me.

San Joaquín de Flores is a small town, you can walk the main parts of it in about thirty minutes. I was amazed at how many people greeted each other as we walked by and everyone seemed to know everyone. It was a true small town feel. I was blessed also to learn that my friend, Noah, was in the house right next to my host family’s house and that the neighbors were good friends. Noah is literally a stone’s throw away and we were able to spend a lot of time together, speaking Spanish as much as possible and helping each other remember Spanish words we’d forgotten (Noah helping me much more as he has a much better knowledge of Spanish than I) At 11pm tonight (if I understand correctly) Ben is also supposed to be arriving and moving into the next door house with Noah. I am so pleased to be so near them.

My host family is amazing and I cannot begin to tell what a positive impression they have left on me and how much I want to emulate them. It’s getting tarde and I need to get some sleep soon, so just one more comment before I finish this post. Today was Sunday afternoon and my host family and Noah’s host family spent much of the afternoon just sitting on the porch talking together and with Noah and I. There was no rush, there was no place to drive to, no demanding errands, they just sat and chilled on the porch. How often do you see that in the United States? Sure, many people may not have huge plans or to do lists on Sunday, but how many just sit together and chat for hours at a time? There is a certain peace and tranquility here that is rare to find in the United States. Maybe it is hard to find here in Costa Rica too. Maybe I just got lucky. But in more ways than one, my eyes are opened to a new world I’d never imagined.

This is Gregorio reporting from Costa Rica. Thanks for reading.