Tico Tuesday, August 4th

Happy Tuesday! (yesterday...)

It was a busy day at the Miami Services Office (MSO) of the Latin America Mission! Yesterday I got to meet with several people at the office and catch up. It was really wonderful to share with others what’s been going on in my life and let them get to know me a little better. It has been such a blessing to have them supporting me and caring for me. This is me with Kevin, the current director of ministries, and Heather who is his assistant. She is a missionary appointee and is helping out in the MSO while she finished raising her support (if you’d like to support her go to https://www.lam.org/donate/missionary.php?misid=760416). She was also my roomie at LAM orientation 2 years ago. It was great to see her again!

Thanks for your continued prayers!! Culture shock and travel reflections on the blog!

Carrie

I had a realization while I was waiting to fly out of the airport in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is like the US in many ways. The bathrooms in the airport have automatic flush toilets and sinks. There are Denny’s, Marriotts, a lot of people who speak English, McDonalds, BK and a slew of other fast food restaurants, some really nice cars, etc. But, Costa Rica is also a dirty 3^rd world country with a completely different culture and littered, narrow roads. So, gringos come to Costa Rica and are greeted by a whole bunch of things from the US, but then they get quite a rude awakening when they realize that Costa Rica is NOT the US. They are often ethnocentric and just wish it would be, but that is just baloney. Ticos will be tico as long as they exist. Yes the culture will continue to change, but that’s inevitable. I wish gringos could be given culture prep so they will have a better experience in Costa Rica. Just thinking….