Cumpleaños y cristianos

Hilariously (?) enough, right after promising myself to post more the Internet pooped out. Yes, I could have written it in Word (and prayed to the little tech fairies inside my computer to not have it crash TOO much) but I think I just got hung up on not having Internet. Also, the owner of the house was Skyping her daughters all night, so I don’t know what was wrong with my computer…


Anyways, right now I am squeezing in every last minute plan that I possibly can because I realize I am out of San Pedro in a month! I leave Costa Rica the 20th, but I move out and finish with school in a month. I’m not sure how I feel about it, and I guess that answer always depends on my mood. Right now, I am sick, even though I did all I could to prevent it, and I would absolutely love to be at home sleeping and away from people who just randomly cancel plans or don’t show up. That will be in a future post…whenever I catch up x_x;

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Saturday, May 15th, was a mess. I was supposed to meet Karen and go to her house for a celebration of her two sisters’ birthdays (which turned out also to be for hers, which was two weeks later! Sneaky through modesty I suppose), but she said that she wasn’t feeling so well and was wondering if I could take the bus to her house by myself. I figured I could, as I had done it with her in the past, but I soon found out that I screw things up, badly, when I get nervous. I already knew that, but I really thought I had a handle on things this time…

The problems started with the lack of buses. Maybe four or five passed the opposite way before we FINALLY got one going to San Jose. There were a ton of people waiting by that time, and I wasn’t the only person a little confused as to why there would be no buses on a Saturday afternoon. Once the bus got there, it wasn’t a typical ‘San Jose’ bus, but he told us he was going downtown so we hopped on. I don’t remember exactly why it took so long, but the trip took forever. It should have been maybe 40 minutes at the most, but I think it took at least an hour. I have blocked out these memories slightly x_x; It stopped at every possible stop and waited to cram more people on, and only reluctantly moved on to the next one after several minutes. Then there was traffic. And maybe the driver was just bad. I have no idea.

Anyways, then I went to get on the bus to Coronado. After waiting, it finally came, and then promptly filled up with people and left. Thankfully the next one didn’t take so long to come. That journey was just as slow, and packed with traffic (I later found out a highway route was shut down, which is why everyone was filtering through the same small streets), and after hours of being en route to Karen’s house I figured I must have gotten there. I KNEW where to get off, and I KNEW what it looked like, but I got off at a shopping complex with identical stores instead out of pure panic I was missing my stop. I saw the signs and jumped up, had to ask the bus driver not to drive away just yet (everyone was so packed on that I couldn’t get through), jumped out the re-opened doors and realized my grave mistake.

So…I called Karen. Except that took forever because there was only one pay phone, many people, and it decided to just not work every now and again. I finally got in touch with her and asked if I should get back on the same bus when the next one came through, but she told me to wait for her sister to come pick me up. I should have just gotten on the bus, but I didn’t think about how her sister was just learning to drive, how most of the cars are stick-shift and how the streets in Costa Rica are awful. Maybe an hour later, getting mildly panicked that I had been forgotten and feeling frustrated watching the buses I could have taken pass, she showed up. I had gotten off close to their house, but her sister had taken the long route to get me because the shorter one was hard to drive. And the streets were shut down. Her son sat in the back seat with me, making comments of his sheer terror of being driven by his mom, and eventually her boyfriend took over the driving and we made it home.

After more than four hours of being in transit, I was exhausted and dazed. Karen was a little sick, her friend had been out all night the night before at her friend’s birthday celebration, and the rest of the people our age just sorta wandered in and out of the party. Therefore, we sat on our butts and watched the Pink concert on MTV, which was awesome. It’s just that…after it was over, we still didn’t move, we just watched music video after music video and chatted when we got up the strength. It even got to ’17 and Pregnant’ and we only pried ourselves away after it had been going on for more than half an hour, and I think that’s because Karen’s boyfriend finally showed up (I wanted to meet him before leaving, but it took way longer than I had hoped).

The party was pretty neat. It was really relaxed, and the people there were mostly family, but also some friends and neighbors. Of course it was focused around some sort of fried pork dish, but I had amazing banana bread and a peanut-brittle-like candy. There was a piñata, and all the kids (that included us) were given noise makers and mardi-gras(esque) masks. I didn’t feel the need to run down all the little kids to get the candy from the piñata, but Karen’s sister brought some over to me and Karen’s other friend so we could join in the fun ;) (she and I were not as enthused as everyone else, but it was really fun to watch the madness that was Karen’s cousins)

We got fantastic cake, with a dulce de leche filling, and a slice for the road. Then, fiiiinally, I went home.

The next day, there was a plan to visit La Marta, a nature reserve in Turrialba, with my guy friends from last week. I was all packed and ready when I got a call that plans had changed. The friend who was going to drive couldn’t come, so we were going to the beach. I should have asked more questions, but it sounded fun so I didn’t.

Turns out, I was crashing a Christian beach retreat. It was their before school vacation. The person who drove us (new friend Daniel and me) was the spiritual advisor (or something?) of many of the people whom we met, who were all staying in a rented house together.

Um, yes. That was uncomfortable on many many levels. I figured out how religious the driver was when he told me he was going to put on a CD and he thought I’d know the artist because she sings in English. Then he said it was Christian rock. ‘Oh, like Switchfoot?’ But no. It was about our Lord Jesus, who sits on his throne (with glory and honor and praise…) <-- and I still get it stuck in my head now and then (impressive, as I only heard it once). He was shocked I hadn’t heard it before.

We went looking for the friends to meet up, and by the time they had coordinated found each other and I had gotten on sunscreen, we left the beach to go eat. The beach we visited is the tico Jaco and is called Estrirrillos. I’m glad I got a chance to run out on the tide pools and see the mermaid statue, even if I didn’t get to go in the water, before leaving. I figured we would go to a Soda to eat, but we went to their rented house…And then we just sat around and did nothing for a very long time. I offered to help prepare the food, and went with them to buy it, but the girls weren’t so into that idea and I went back outside to chill with the guys. I dipped my legs in their concrete box pool thingy, and got roped into a discussion about religion. Finally, standing in the rain and still talking about religion, we got called in to eat before the food ran out.

(Sidenote: I am truly honestly sick of the stupid discussions on religion here in general, because I have both the language and closed-minded disadvantages (if the whole state is uber religious, I just don’t stand a chance with logic or experience with multiple religions, and I am a bad person if I don’t claim titles of certain religions as they do). I also hate being lectured, and that is the women’s favorite thing to do here. Inane lectures are their specialty, and I think it’s because they just want to complain and sound smart doing it.)

Anyways, that was a mildly awkward experience, especially because the person with whom I was talking (the person who drove us) found Jesus at a later age and had previous been an alcoholic. He also has a child out of wedlock. I could have made SO MANY awful comments or remarks and had no idea, I hate how out of the loop I am here. What I liked a lot about the conversation was that he wasn’t Catholic, just some form of Christian, so he knows how it is to be a minority and didn’t beat me over the head with Catholicism. He immediately got past the idea that I wasn’t a Christian and wanted to know if I led a Christian lifestyle. Well, I could have been boring and just said yes (I don’t drink, do drugs, harm others or live a promiscuous life and I’m focused on community service, preserving the environment and having good relationships, which leads me to believe that I live a moral life at the very least) but instead I asked him what he meant by that. I have a lot (and I mean a LOT) of disagreements with the Bible, so I wonder how many of those things are incorporated into a ‘Christian lifestyle’.

His opinions were really interesting. He believes that God wants all of His children to not sin, live a Christian lifestyle and basically stay in the good graces of God. When people make other choices, God is sad and hopes that they will one day see their mistakes and come back to Him. (And yes, homosexuality is a choice to sin… *grits teeth* It’s not even worth trying to explain, I should just carry around scientific papers on brain studies/the biological basis of sexuality and whack people with them). His explanation for some of the contradictions in the Bible was that it had stories for its place and time, and was trying to teach a moral lesson with certain restrictions at one time that do not necessarily apply now (for instance, having long hair was a symbol of being lazy, so even though it was banished back then it’s okay now). I think that is awesome that he can understand that maybe, just MAYBE, the Bible doesn’t need to be interpreted literally every step of the way. Loads of women would be stoned to death for their natural monthly cycle, and that’s pretty ridiculous. And that MAYBE not everything is symbolism for sin and redemption, maybe it’s just a story with a moral to encourage others to do the ‘right thing’. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_samaritan for an example of what I mean…I take sides with the ethical reading over the allegorical one, and I certainly hope that’s what most people take away from this story.)

But…who decides what should be followed literally and what should be interpreted only for morals and messages of kindness? I didn’t even ask, there is no answer for that. There are people who put themselves in charge, but that doesn’t mean they SHOULD be doing it. I feel that there is a definite black/white answer on some issues (though the interpreters don’t always have the same black/white conclusions that I have), but on other issues it’s a bit more situation-to-situation. I don’t think that any one person can truly say what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ when it comes to that, so I guess that’s a bone I have to pick with a lot of religious practices.

Near the end of our chat he brought to light what bothers me most about religion, and I was shocked I had never before realized it: Anthropocentricism. Plain and simple. The Bible teaches us that humans are above all other creatures on this earth, as sons of God, and does not mention ‘love thy planet’ along with ‘love thy neighbor’. This is where they lose me, and no argument can change my mind.

I study ecology, which is a holistic science that examines the relationships among organisms as well as their relationship to their physical environment. There is no way that I can separate human-human interactions and human-environment interactions in my mind, as well all share the same resources and live on the same planet. I don’t just look at how adorable it is that bees have great teamwork, I also see how they interact with flowers to get nectar and pollen, how those flowers are influenced by herbivores, and those herbivores are affected by predators… So, for humans, I can’t just see how great it is that we’re nice to one another, because I am always left thinking about how our actions influence so much more around us than our own species.

For me, love thy neighbor is more than just being a nice, giving person, it’s protecting our shared resources and preventing horrible health tragedies. Choosing to recycle and buy recycled products means perhaps loving our ‘neighbors’ in South America, because indigenous peoples are being kicked out of their homes in order to cut down trees and produce paper. Choosing to buy a vegetarian meal instead of a McDonald’s hamburger could have a similar effect, as rainforests are cut down to farm cattle for cheap beef. Buying organic is loving our farmers and our children, as the people who work with agrochemicals suffer a myriad of health problems due to absorption through skin or lungs and children are the most susceptible to the harmful effects of chemicals in our air and water due to their still-developing brains and bodies. Not wasting resources, such as water, oil and food, is loving our grandchildren, as they can only inherit what we leave behind.

The list goes on and on and on, but to get to the point, I can never believe in something that doesn’t recognize and respect that all life is connected. If anyone truly wanted to love other humans, they would also love and care for the earth, which provides us with the essentials to survive. I love and care for the earth because I feel it is the right thing to do, and I would feel wrong living my life in any other manner, but even for those who don’t love and respect nature for its intrinsic value should do the same if they truly believe in loving other humans and preventing unnecessary harm.

So, there you have it, another little piece of myself I uncovered here due to exploring my differences with those around me.

After the chat, we were called inside (everyone was almost done eating by then) and finally got out of the rain. It was a pretty intense, but not at all malicious, conversation. We had some good food and then the poor doggie begging outside got some as well :) I started playing cards with my friend, and stayed behind even when a big group of people went out to the beach (it was dark…) and then the game was cut short just as I was destroying him (hehee) by a power outage. That spurred a long conversation on love and relationships between us remaining stragglers, which was also very thought-provoking. The conversation was a bit more enjoyable than it could have been, as I am perfectly content with my love life ( <3 ), though I love hearing other people’s thoughts on abstract nouns any time, any day.

When the other people came back, the lights eventually came back on. Perfect timing, because it was exactly when we were supposed to leave! Wrong. We hung around for a few hours more to…to sing songs. Being hymns in Spanish, I was more than lost, so I just sat on the sidelines and watched. It was really neat, the first hour or so, and then it wasn’t so warm-and-fuzzy anymore. It was time to leave. I talked to my friend later, and he also didn’t think it’d go for the ENTIRE day, but it certainly managed to. By this time other members of the group were trying to drag people outside, and into the car, so I offered to take some pictures (hopefully speeding the exit up a bit) and then jumped in the car the first chance I got. Then we just sat there…because apparently we were going out as a group, and we had to get in line? Whatever, I fell asleep and we made it home eventually.

Unfortunately, my iPod case that wasn’t in my bag when I originally got in the car wasn’t at home, either. I searched for it outside, but it was long gone. I wouldn’t have cared, but I made it myself and it was fuzzy Dalmatian print from a jacket I had when I was little. I’m still a bit bummed, but I’m hoping someone found it and has made good use of it (as all the trash was still on the street when I went looking, so it wasn’t just a general clean-up that moved it).

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HURRAH! End entry on emotion-packed weekend!