El Amor

So I have news.

I've met someone!

I know, I know. MANY of you jokingly mused that I was only joining Peace Corps to travel abroad and meet the love of my life, and, well... it's happened. The truth is, I actually met her a long time ago, but we've only recently been reunited. I saw her for the first time in nine years this past February, and let me tell you. She was elusive for the longest time, but now we have been reunited. It's been an incredible pleasure to get to know her all over again. I want to tell you a little bit about her, though.

~ Oh my, how she brings me great joy. Every day I get to see her, she appears more and more beautiful than the previous.

~ I love to be with her, to explore with her, to just spend time with her, and to get to know her more. When I look at her, I see nothing but pure beauty. I am utterly taken by the way she moves, the way she looks in the light, and the way she appears in the moonlight.

~ Her very spirit illuminates mine. As I spend more and more time in her presence, I garner a new appreciation for her love of people and her fellow man. It is purely infectious; I am different after encountering her and her affection for mankind.

~ As I ponder what has transpired to precipitate these circumstances, I opine that I have done nothing to merit this serendipity. She is everything I could have ever hoped for - the definition of a dream.

~ This chance reunion has not been without its own struggles. I have endeavored to acclimate to her temperance, and there have been more than a few challenges during this process. I have grown within myself, however, and I count it a blessing to have walked the path with her to this point.

~ As time marches on, and I reap the daily benefit of knowing her, I set my gaze on the horizon and think about the future with her. Will this last? Will I find the joy that I seek in her? Or will I spend only a short time in her presence, only to move along and find another love?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~        

I'm quite certain that some of you have, by now, correctly guessed that I'm not talking about a woman. The truth is, I'm falling in love with a place. I'm falling in love with a culture. I'm falling in love with a way of life. 

I'm falling in love with a country, and her name is Costa Rica. 

Changing the World, kind of.

A while back, one of my good friends said something that has been firmly cemented in my mind for years since. Kevin O'Keefe, a fun-loving, free-spirited dude, in all his wisdom once told me, "You don't have to change the world to change someone's world."

I know it probably sounds like a fairly elementary concept, but think about it for a bit. The world is a massive place with nearly seven and a half billion people, and it's understandable for one to scoff at the notion that anything can truly be done to change it. NOTE: Being an INFJ, I still believe it's possible, just a little improbable. 

But this isn't about changing the world; it's about changing someone's world, and that, my friends, is something entirely different. I've heard it said that one of the most valuable abilities is availability, and I couldn't agree more. That's why my heart swells when I think about this journey I'm on at the moment. Peace Corps looked at me and decided I was good enough to be shipped off and live between two volcanoes in Costa Rica among these wonderful people. To integrate among these awesome folks. To be available.

As I've put down roots here in San Isidro, I've identified a number of unique individuals I believe will be involved in the process of improving this community. One of those is my host dad, Oscar. The bond that he and I have forged over no more than 45 days is extraordinary. Although we both struggle at times to understand each other's native tongue, we more than make up for that with our body language, often laughing to the point of tears at the simplest of gesticulations. He has become one of my favorite people here in my new host community, and this post is really about him.

You know how we do.

One of the first things Oscar told me during my site visit back in early May was that he desperately wanted to learn English. I gave him the typical nod, having grown accustomed to the notion that pretty much everybody here wants to learn it. What I didn't know at the time was the level to which he was willing to go to learn. His attitude toward studying is remarkable. On top of working 40-50 hours a week in manual labor/construction/home repair, he eats up every single bit of English he can. This past Wednesday night, we had our big placement testing for all the people who'd signed up for community English classes. In order to thin the herd a bit, I offered those tests to my host family members early, and Oscar took his written and oral tests the night before. Trying to make it a light-hearted moment, I mentioned his "Con queso o carne" comment from a few weeks ago, but ohhhhhhh man he was having none of that. You should've seen his face. He was dead serious about that test. He was also super eager to get his score back; the moment he did, he sat down at the desk in our living room to revise his errors. Over the next few hours, he popped his head into my room to ask me question after question about his mistakes, citing that he wanted to "learn very well from them." This has continued for a few days since.

Candid shot! Oscar studying his test results. 

His desire to learn humbles me more than I can adequately describe. Question after question, word after word, he has consistently come back to check on how he can improve his English skills. For a man who is super proud of his work - he built the house in which we live - he sure does exhibit an amazing amount of humility in his efforts to learn this new tongue. I don't know what his plans are for his soon-to-be-mastered second language, but I'm honored to be a part of that process.

For me, San Isidro represents a place overflowing with potential. I could, by the end of my time here, help build a gymnasium, remodel the local soccer field, organize a long list of committees to help increase community action, start a recycling program, plant a community garden, teach every person English, lead a neighborhood conservation charge, work with every business owner in the entire community, and so many other worthwhile projects. In the end, though, no matter how these two years of service go, I know I'm not going to change the world.

But I sure can try to change someone's world.