The Poor and the Rich and Coincidences

¨Our deepest joy comes from right relationships—with God, neighbor, and the earth¨ I´m realizing that´s one reason it´s been rough here—I did just move to San José de Upala less than three weeks ago, and since my relationships, at least with neighbors and family and friends, are somewhat lacking, the joy has been lacking too. I´m reading ¨Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger¨ by Ronald Sider and he said the above quote in his book. I may have talked it into the ground but I´m realzing here how important my relationships back home were and are. Having a safe place to share your thoughts and know you will still be listened to and loved is a great feeling, and for the time being, I´m still just getting to know these people here in Costa Rica. It´s a slow process, but little by little I am finding some friends to talk to. I am already learning my lesson about small towns—people blab everything about anyone and a gringo is no exception.

I´ve been thinking a lot about the poor and rich and everything in between. For my birthday, one night my host family had their friends (the guy from Switzerland, his wife, and kid) over for a little get together. That same weekend, Paula and her friend Ennio made the 8 hour trek up to see me, and another Peace Corps volunteer that lives about 20 minutes away from me came up to the party too. So the setting is all of us, sitting outside on the porch, telling jokes and cooking food and some people singing karaoke.

They started giving me some advice. ¨If I was 24, knowing what I know now…¨ type advice for the birthday boy. One of the suggestions, from the dude from Switzerland, was to invest now. Don´t wait for my two years to be up before I buy Costa Rican property! This reminded me of accounting classes (and finance classes) where they told us how compound interest is one of the most powerful things on earth, and so we should invest now so our money can compound radically. It´s no coincidence that a few days later, in ¨Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger,¨ Sider quotes C.S. Lewis—

¨Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I made every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.¨

Some good (but crazy and full of mystery) stuff has been happening. I don´t believe in coincidences and I´ve had a couple of moments with my host dad. Okay so they may not be that big of a deal to you, but they were a big deal to me.

First, the same time I was waiting for my book ¨The End of Poverty¨ to come in the mail, my host dad happened to buy it here in Costa Rica (his copy in Spanish). It gave us some common ground and I´m starting to realize there is a reason I was placed with this family. My host dad and I can really relate and we have a ton in common.

Before this happened, my uncle Pat had recommended a few good books that I should check out. One was by Herman Hesse called ¨Siddartha¨ and I had it written down on my desk to think about getting that book. This week I was looking at my host dad´s (Fabian) books and saw that he had an old copy of Siddartha (in Spanish) on the shelf. He received that book when he was about my age. We had been talking about me starting to try and read in Spanish instead of all these books in English and so now I have started to read Siddartha in Spanish!

Despite many great experiences here, a few things I have had to get used to include Costa Ricans (Ticos) perception of the U.S. and people from the U.S. On the funnier side of things is that people often think I´m working for the CIA. They bring it up in a joking way that we are spying on Costa Ricans and people in other countries through the Peace Corps. So that is something that has put a smile on my face here. We only wish we were that important!

Something, however, that actually makes me get a little mad is that many people here think I am here because I´m avoiding the military. They think that in the U.S., we have to join the military or join the Peace Corps. I´ve had a few different people say, you´re here because you didn’t want to go to Iraq, right?

Another thing I just thought of yesterday, and it´s been somewhat on my mind today. The new slogan of Peace Corps is ¨Life is Calling. How far will you go?¨ But their old slogan was ¨The toughest job you´ll ever love¨. Anyways, the reason I´ve been thinking about that is because things have been pretty tough, at times, here. But somewhere deep inside, I know there is a reason for being here and this is where I´m supposed to be. It´s a crazy feeling, amidst sadness and some pain, to realize that you have some purpose here.

I was going to write some stuff I am learning about community and sharing and giving (some good stuff from Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger) but I´m tired. Maybe I´ll write about it later, or maybe I´ll spare people the boredom.

New pictures are up!

http://community.webshots.com/album/560948381WciwOk?start=0