Tico Tuesday, January 25th

Happy Tuesday to you all once more! So, what's with this graph? Sorry the font is so small, but basically I just want you to see the shape of the graph. This is the general idea of how one feels as one enters and adjusts to living in a new culture. I know, I know, I've been living in Costa Rica for 2 years now. Why am I showing this to you now? Because I'm realizing, I don't have it all figured out. They might call me the most Latina white girl, and I appreciate the compliment, but there are a lot more differences to life in Costa Rica than just greeting people with a kiss on the cheek, eating rice and beans for breakfast and saying "pura vida" anytime you want. I don't think my feelings have exactly gone according to the graph since I did have a good grasp on many things before living here, but I think the graph can be a bit misleading. It's not like you just end up being a perfect bi-cultural person. What you become is a lifelong learner. Being a learner is key to adjusting to a new culture. My eyes have been opened to many things lately. More about that on the blog!!
May we all have the attitude of a learner this week!

Carrie

Costa Rica is a very unique country. Because of it's geographical placement, it contains about 6% of the worlds biodiversity. Because of the coffee industry (and bananas have helped), it has become the most stable country economically and politically in Costa Rica. We are currently having our 5th McDonald's constructed in my province, Heredia (I don't know how many there are in San José). Costa Rica has a very small indigenous population and not a lot of easily workable land. Costa Rica is known as the Switzerland of Latin America.

So anyway, 2 things are tuning me in more to some of the things about Costa Rican life that I was not so aware of before... A loving, direct boyfriend and a tiny book that is actually about US culture. yesterday my supervisor let me a book whose target audience is new immigrants to the US. The author spent a number of years in Venezuela and then got to experience the, ahem, joys of reverse culture shock. but that helped him grasp what life is like for foreigners in the US. In this tiny little book that I read in the time it took the bus to get from San José to home (50 min), I saw my own native culture unfold and be explained in language a 5th grader could understand. Much better than the dry, more scientific book on the LAM recommended reading list. These things seem obvious, but they help make the distinctions between life there and here. Things like in the US, one's identity is one's job title, time is money, scheduling everything, being on time for everything, being more individualized and compartmentalizing our lives, being independent, etc. In Latin America, life isn't so efficient and we need to depend on other people to do things for us. That's why many people here have maids help them clean their houses. Not because they are rich, but because they might have to wait an hour in line at the bank and don't have time to clean the house. Some of the things I learned at IV's Ministering Across Cultures training do come in handy-like the how time vs event oriented and task vs people oriented viewpoints. It's all fascinating stuff. And yes, Fabián is helping me see some of the ways I can be more sensitive to him, others and the culture in general. :-) I have a long ways to go!