more time...but very little still!

Okay, so here's another piece of what I'm up to! I went to Limon last weekend which is essentially the black part of Costa Rica (that and Guanacaste). It was very interesting, as we had to interview 6 different Ticans (3 in Limon and 3 in San Jose) about how they felt about poverty. Extremely fascinating. I'll have to post my essay later on about what I learned. It's just easier than repeating myself. The people were pretty nice, but it was OVERWHELMING living amongst so much poverty. We were sitting at dinner and this man came in and asked if he could eat our leftovers. Of course we gave them to him, but in light of everything we'd been learning (especially about how Jesus preached constantly about the first will be last and loving the poor and outcasts), we decided to sit down and talk with him. It turns out this "man" was a mere 18-year-old boy who sells oranges all day to make money for his family. His mom is diabetic and so he tries to make money to sell medicine and everything. One of the girls asked him if she could buy him some groceries to help him out and he willingly agreed. At first, I was a tad suspicious, but I figured I'd tag along just to see what happened. She ended up buying him $40 worth of beans, rice, deoderant, toothpaste, sugar, oil, etc. to help him out. I've never seen someone so excited. Whether or not his story strikes you as a little odd, I just can't imagine asking for things as simple as daily necessities and being a lie. A lot of what's happened in Costa Rica is that multinational businesses have come in and done an incredible job at producing things. Then, they put the small farmers out of businesses with big families (cheap labor). Then, the small farmers come to the city to find work - but there isn't any! So they are either homeless, extremely poor, work in prostitution or somehow find a good job. It was fascinating and horrible at the same time. I just didn't know how to feel - I felt to so helpless... I wanted to help them but knew as just one person I couldn't do it all in one night. But, I am one person who can have a vision...

Something we talked about today in our process groups was that it's great that there's so many people in the U.S. that want to help other nations that need help. But what we should be doing is figuring out where the problems are coming from and then stop them at the root (as we should do with all things in life). A lot of my profs believe the root of the problem is exploitation of smaller countries by bigger ones (or if you're familiar with the term, neo-colonialism).

We took our first test today and it's amazing how much I've learned in the past 3 weeks. It was on colonialism, neo-colonialism, neoliberal globalization, liberation theology, the Catholic worldview, socialism, capitalism and mixed economies. Talk about a crash course... but it's amazing. And I TRULY understand every concept from their perspective. They've done an incredible job.

I also decided to sign "La Promesa" where we promise to speak only spanish unless certain circumstances occur. Mine says that I'll first choose spanish unless I can't express myself and it's really important or if someone can't understand me. I'd rather do this so that my spanish improves, because at the moment, I speak english for the majority of the day, and there's just no reason to.

It felt good to regurgitate all the information that's been packed up in my brain. Tonight I'm going to dinner & a movie with some other people and then tommorrow I have homework, and then meeting more friends of the family. Gotta love it. :)

I better go before my time runs out! Love you!!