"Pura Vida"

Hello all. Hope you’re all well. Well this is my official first ever blog. I hope they’re ok and make interesting reading.

Well, have been here for about 4 weeks now and so far so good. I got here and I’m still here. Thought I would start this to keep you all informed of what I’m up to. Read ahead if you’re interested.

The flight out here wasn’t as dull as I thought it would be. I actually managed to sleep through the take-off so to wake up over the Atlantic was a surprise! Sitting next to me was a girl also going to Costa Rica. The ice was broken when she spilt her lunch all over her, so we buddied up and kept each other company at the stop-over in Newark. I arrived in the capital, San Jose, that evening. Was great to have Carmen and Karen, two of the lovely ladies working at Viva, greeting me at the other end!

I’m staying with a cute, little, non English-speaking couple called Jorge and Maria. They are amazing. Really welcoming and so nice. I like my food. Going by the kind of food I had in Guatemala (McDonalds most days, beans in some sick sauce with pita bread for breakfast, rice rice rice, etc) I was a tad worried. The prospect of not having a bowl of cereal for 12 months wasn’t a great one. But they do have cereal (and peanut butter; a popular Costa Rican import) and Maria is an amazing cook. She really is. So I’m happy. The neighbourhood is great. Not a lot different to Smithdown Road, Liverpool. You could replace the ever-screaming kids for partying students, the van with a big megaphone that drives past selling fruit each morning at 6am for the late night ‘ice-cream van’ (which we’re pretty sure sells drugs), cockroaches for rats (I’d rather take a cockroach any day) and the 86 bus for my two cheap, not legally-licensed, very friendly taxi drivers; Rodrigo and his son, Rodrigo. However nothing can explain the pick-up truck with a full brass band sat in the back – trumpets, trombones, French horn, cymbals, the lot... – driving up and down our street playing what seemed to be orchestral reggae music the other morning at 5am. That was just weird.

“Pura vida” = good life. The Tico’s love this.

As you probably know I’m volunteering with an organisation called Viva. Check them out... http://www.viva.org/AboutViva.aspx?linkidentifier=id&itemid=242 They’re great! Viva works in partnership with local networks to give vulnerable children a happier, healthier and brighter future, free from deprivation, exploitation and abuse. Some of the partners they work with include Tearfund, Toybox and World Vision. So far I’ve had a few inductions to the current and prospective structuring of the organisation, met all the members of staff at the office and had a good chat with each of them about their roles, and have been studying what’s called ‘QIS’ (Quality Improvement Systems) as this is what I’ll be doing when I get sent out to projects in Bolivia, Peru and Argentina from January. QIS basically involves getting alongside and training street child project managers to improve the running of their project in 6 areas: People care, Financial Accountability, Child Wellbeing, Project Planning and Design, Child Protection and Governance. It’s all about working with the organisations and helping them to improve and strive to achieve the standards set in each category. The big challenge is that most of these project managers are from somewhat under-educated backgrounds. Therefore concepts such as planning, strategy, monitoring and evaluation are all quite alien to them meaning the process of helping and training them can be quite challenging. Between now and December I am writing up a manual for a Project Planning and Design workshop which so far I am enjoying doing and is going well. Everyone at the office is great fun and it’s been quality getting to know them all. Working for Viva I have come to realise more and more how amazing their work is! It is not just impressive, with positive results, but they provide a strategy that works, and one that I believe has the potential to impact globally. Please have a look at their website and see what they’re all about. I really do believe they have a wonderful structure put together that can have long-term effects on actually solving the worldwide crisis of children living on the streets and living lives no way near as abundant as they should be.

I am spending Tuesday and Thursday mornings with a project called ‘Casa Viva’ who partner with Viva. Check them out http://www.casaviva.org/Casa_Viva_Model.asp They’re great too! They seek to provide an alternative to orphanages and children’s homes by encouraging fostering. They believe that these current, popular solutions will not solve orphan crisis and that it is much better for a child to grow up in a family atmosphere, as every child should have the chance to be. So far this has been working to great effect. Casa Viva have been connecting children with Christian families in their home countries. While the child is being raised in a loving environment the biological parents are being taught, counselled and educated by Casa Viva staff with the focus on them learning how relationships should work within a family. The goal is to have the child reintegrated into its biological family when ready. Casa Viva believes that the local Church is God’s first plan for children in need. They therefore invite Churches to develop care ministries that support families who open their doors to children. The Churches commit to recruiting and supporting the families, and they make a financial commitment to help care for the children. In Costa Rica there are an estimated 3,000 street children and an estimated 3,000 Churches. The goal for one country all of a sudden sounds somewhat realistic...

Each day I am taking Spanish classes in the afternoons. It is a 7 week intensive course (and I mean, intense) which will run until the end of November. So far they’ve thrown a lot at us. Classes have varied from studying the three “to be” verbs (why not just one?!) to practicing conversational speaking within the class, such as, “What is this?”... “That is a spoon.” It looks as if the idea is to get taught as many methods as possible, basically to the extent that we get them and then to put them into practice. We won’t all be fluent by the end of the 7 weeks, they tell us that. They say that once you start speaking and practicing it you will slowly start understanding and fitting it together, hopefully so much so that responses such as “that is a spoon” will come more naturally and quicker. So it looks that while I’m out in Bolivia, Peru and Argentina next year with no option but to speak Spanish because of my work, that is when it should really start kicking in, hopefully. As Jorge, my non-English speaking ‘Tico Papa’ says, “When there is a will, there is a way.” Amen. (He also knows all the words, verses and chorus, in English to Ray Evans’ classic, ‘Que Sera, Sera’ – he sees this as a big achievement).

I’ve been learning quite a bit since being here. I’ve been thinking and reading a bit about God’s love, the suffering in our world and where we fit in response to all this. I am reading a book at the moment called ‘The Shack’ (sorry Granny, I’ll return it when I next see you!). It is probably one of the most extraordinary books I have ever read and one which I have learned so much from and will probably read again when I have finished. I definitely recommend it. Without giving too much away... it is a fictional story about a family that go camping for a weekend, during which one of their daughters gets kidnapped and murdered. Mack, the father, many years later gets invited back to the place where the murder occurred for an *insert adjective; it’s hard to describe...* weekend to confront the pain-bearing issues he has about his 6-year-old daughters’ sudden disappearance and murder.

Here is a quote from the book:

God talking to Mack –
“All evil flows from independence, and independence is your choice. If I were to simply revoke all the choices of independence, the world as you know it would cease to exist and love would have no meaning. This world is not a playground where I keep all my children free from evil. Evil is the chaos of this age that you brought to me, but it will not have the final say. Now it touches everyone that I love, those who follow me and those who don’t. If I take away the consequences of people’s choices, I destroy the possibility of love. Love that is forced is no love at all.”

“You demand your independence, but then complain that I actually love you enough to give it to you.”

The book explores deeply complex issues including freedom, reality, relationships, grace, heaven, evil, pain and suffering. I read the quote above last night and it really struck a chord. So often we want God to intervene; to stop this murder, that broken relationship, that car accident, but then on the other side of the coin we want it our own way. We want to be in control and don’t want God to influence our decisions. As a Christian I have seen and experienced God intervening and have witnessed it in other people’s lives by the means of prayer. However God does not follow our every command, he has silences, and we have our independence too which he gave us. Suffering definitely brings about perseverance and makes us stronger. Life is not always just going to be a walk in the park, God didn’t intend it that way.

Knowing and learning these truths has helped have a huge impact on me in the face of the work I am doing. Day by day it is overwhelming to hear stories of children living on the streets in hugely tough conditions, fighting for survival and not having anyone to care for them. In the face of this it is so easy to point the finger at God and blame him, when actually when you look at it we should be thankful to him for giving us independence and not making us robots, allowing us to have the choice to love. We should instead be examining ourselves and the human race for making a complete mess of our world. The great news though is that pain and suffering on this earth is not the end. Despite us messing things up and taking advantage of the independence God has given us he has still stepped in and forgiven us through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus, for all of mankind’s sin. Through this he has made the way for us to be forgiven and to have an eternal relationship with him. All we have to do is believe this message! Good stuff that.

Well that’s it for now. It’s been a fun few weeks. The whole novelty of being here is great and I’m settling in well. It’s hard being away from family, friends, a drumkit, Match of the Day, Basil, Granny’s roasts etc, but I am absolutely loving it and everyone has been so great over here. Would love to hear how all you are doing so feel free to ping me an email. Would be great to stay in touch. Thanks for reading my first blog. Will be blogging again in a few weeks with hopefully a bit more news and stories to tell!

Till then, ciao ciao

X

PS. For photos check out my facebook. Definitely more to come. If you haven't quite made the world of facebook yet, find a friend who has. Or I might upload some on here if I can, will have a look after posting this!