La Pura Vida

sights of the city/early internship thoughts

Time to update! Ok, where to begin. Ha I luckily snagged a spot in the computer lab – and though I have a delicious veggie pita tempting me on the table, I´m excited to write.

We just returned from our first trip into San Josè! I was a little confused upon arrival to Costa Rica and thought that I was living in the city itself, but I´m actually living in the smaller town of San Pedro. When I got to ICADS this morning (ready for the day´s adventures, full from mango, a sandwich with egg and cheese, and as always fresh jugo/juice), I knew there was a tour lined up but thought it would be after some class time – to my surprise and excitement we headed straight for the bus! Took a bus to the city, about a 20 minute bus ride… ha it made me smile to hear the music playing. Definitely all American, picked out `Heal the World` by Michael Jackson (same song though done by native Spanish speaker in English…) So much eye candy within the city! My head was constantly spinning. We all (14 of us and our professors) traveled in a group which led to some interesting experiences – ha such as when a friend Erica (will be a sophomore at Wellesley, very sweet girl, we laugh at our bloopers and obsessions together) and I accidentally followed 2 random women instead of the group. Luckily one of the staffers roped us back in. Guess I still have some city-navigation skills to acquire! We went into bustling and narrow markets, loaded with colorful fruit and handiwork all the way to the ceiling. We went to a stamp museum and walked the main streets, stopped in a book store where I bought a better Spanish dictionary… loved taking it all in. Just rode the bus back and had a great conversation with Erica. We feel lucky that we don´t have to fill any requirements when choosing our internship like others (for senior theses etc)…basically talked about the joy of life – and occasionally marveled at the sights out the window such as Quizno´s (Queeeznohs), Office Depot… many familiar stores speckling the otherwise (linguistically at least) unrecognizable terrain.

Excited about much right now! We were supposed to go to a banana plantation tomorrow at 6:45 to spend the day there before going to the beach for the weekend – but though I am very much looking forward to going to the plantation, I was sad that I would miss the huge game. Luckily though they just found out that no one will even be working at the plantation tomorrow b/c of the rivalry – and so instead, after a couple hours of classes tomorrow, we´ll get to break for the game! Woohoo! We´ll leave for the beach tomorrow at 5 and go to the plantation next Tuesday instead. Best of everything as now we get to see the game and also have the field trips spread out. Awesome. Go Costa Rica.

Last night: could hardly sleep since I felt (maybe for the first time since last summer) the same excitement coursing through my veins that I felt at the end of my internships last summer when considering public service law… I couldn´t stop thinking about the incredible organizations that I am choosing among for the internship… don´t have the info with me now but I´ll post it later. ICADS is a wonderful organization for many reasons, but I especially like their social justice slant. Yesterday we had 2 eye-opening lectures, the first on local music history and then the second on banana plantations. I wasn´t expecting to really enjoy the banana plantation talk, though I would be moderately interested – but I was fascinated. I naively had NO IDEA what current working conditions are in the plantations. Cursory overview… 12 hr days are the average and they made $18 a day if lucky. Most workers are young men who work all day and then, as the lady explained with a half –smile, well, they´re in the middle of a banana plantation, so there isn´t much to do. Most drop out of school because they don´t see a point and then turn to alcoholism, drugs, or prostitution – with the San Jose women brought in BY THE COMPANY!! Ahh. Women don´t have it any better – they mostly work in the packing plants and are there exposed to dangerous chemicals. (this leads to miscarriages and children born with birth defects…) Men who are out in the fields have to gather 40-60 pound `manos` of bananas and place these one at a time on a pole structure called a train. Once they have 20 gathered (used to be 35, then 25, now this), they attach all of them to their WAIST with some sort of cord and then pull them all to the packing house. Ugh. So many human rights violations occurring…very very interested in learning more about the reality out there.

My thoughts on the internship changed a lot from Tuesday to Wednesday – on Tuesday had starred many placements such as children´s homes but now I don´t want to work somewhere that I could easily work at the English version in the U.S. I want to work with a human rights activist organization with these specifically Costa Rican issues… possibly exploring gender at the banana plantations? Still many unknowns, and haven´t met with the internship coordinators (tomorrow). I´ll have to post these organization descriptions at some point – amazing things going on.

This is long but here´s the info for Caritas – very interested in working with Pastoral Social, a Costa Rican branch. So cool!

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service organizations working to build a better world, especially for the poor and oppressed, in over 200 countries and territories.

Caritas works without regard to creed, race, gender, or ethnicity, and is one of the world’s largest humanitarian networks.
Caritas provides a beacon of hope for tens of millions of women, men and children in times of hardship and contributes to the development of social justice in times of peace. Caritas’ mandate includes integral development, emergency relief, advocacy, peace building, respect for human rights and support for proper stewardship of the planet’s environment and resources.

The Caritas approach is based on the social teaching of the Church, which focuses on the dignity of the human person. Caritas’ work on behalf of the poor manifests God’s love for all of creation.
Caritas believes that the weak and oppressed are not objects of pity, but agents of change leading the struggle to eradicate dehumanizing poverty, unacceptable living and working conditions, and unjust social, political, economic and cultural structures.

What makes Caritas unique is its ongoing presence in communities, before, during and after crisis situations. Important, too, is that being part of civil society and incorporating the perspective of the poor, Caritas can continuously adapt its strategies to an ever changing environment.

Caritas fights poverty, exclusion, intolerance and discrimination. More importantly, it empowers people to participate fully in all matters affecting their lives, and it advocates on their behalf at national and international forums.

Caritas promotes partnership: local autonomy is paramount in ensuring effective teamwork for the good of all. By pooling expertise and resources, Caritas is able to identify issues at the grassroots, analyse them at national and international levels, and then take action locally, regionally and globally.

I´m so excited. Right now I feel ready to sign a contract with them, work there forever. Caught myself a couple nights ago – when I was more in the overwhelmed stage of thinking about the internship – focusing completely on the future/planning. A degree of this is good and necessary but I´m glad I realized the obsession and instead turned my thoughts to the present. There is much to appreciate right now (at that moment this consisted of watching Spanish CSI with Mary and Daniela). Only thinking of what´s to come is no way to live. That night it ended up just being Mary and I at the house and we had a long and very present (not sure if that adjective makes sense here but I mean the kind of talking where two people are completely focused, love it) conversation about religion. I asked her how her religion differs from Catholicism… found out she was Catholic until 14/15 years ago but didn´t feel a sense of community in her church. Now she goes to a church that feels like a family – unlike her real brothers and sisters, if she doesn´t show up they call to ask if she´s sick… the main difference is that there are no images/saints. Her church is characterized as evangelical Christian. She looked at me with her warm eyes and told me that all that matters is one´s personal relationship with God, for as she said la religion estaba hecho de humanos, ¿verdad?

Ok that´ll do for now… started reading an Evita biography last night. Fascinating woman, more on her later.

It makes me happy to think that anyone is reading my ramblings, so thanks, especially if you´re at the end of this long entry. Much to process here.

My veggie pita awaits. Hasta pronto. Hope all is well for you on the receiving end of this. :)

posted by Colleen @ 2:33 PM