Pura Vida

My visa ran out at the end of October, and Honduras gave me two options. I could pay an insane amount of money at the border or I could take a trip to Costa Rica! Not much of a debate. I first met up with my friend, Etelvina, who is from Honduras and lived with me 5 years ago at the mission. She is now living in Nicaragua with her husband. After I took the 8 hr. bus ride to meet her in Niaragua, we took a four hr. bus ride to Costa Rica then another 2 hr. local bus to Tamarindo beach!!! The most challenging part about the ride was trying to use the bathroom while the bus was moving...slightly more difficult than in an airplane...and I can confidently say the space was even smaller than an airplane! Granted at times during the ride it is difficult to stay seated with bumps and stops (for bulls and goats to pass and such) let alone trying to hold on for dear life to the complimentary grip bar as you are trying to squat for fear--no terror of sitting my behind on what is better described as a hole than a toilet of which I could see the road underneath me with who knows what trailing from the bus. As I was holding on for dear life and focusing intently on my aim, I failed to notice that there was a window in the bathroom until I felt a slight breeze and realized it was wide open! All I could do at this point was to just finish what I started and try not to make eye contact with the bikers on the side of the road.

We found a cute little hostel called the Chocolate Hostel. There were 4 sets of bunkbeds with a small kitchen and a porch with a hammock for $15 dollars a night. We had two very nice girls as roommates, one from the States and the other from Germany.
This magical little place was secluded from every disappointment or suffering. It was an oasis of europeans, gringos, and bathrooms with toilet paper! All the seductions of the world at your disposal to forget any pain or heartache; anything goes and everyone lives in peace and harmony. A sort of bizarre “perfect world” centered around my needs, my wants, my life. The ME centered life; what will bring me the most satisfaction today with the least effort. Pura Vida they call it…pure life. It’s a phrase that Costa Rica is well known for. It seemed as if something was missing…even with all the apparent glamour and excitement I first experienced. It seems that you could make the argument that this is a place where different cultures from all around the world can live together in unity; a ‘utopian society’ if you will. And though it’s true that everyone is living in the same however many square footage of space; everyone is only pleasing to themselves; even though they are pleasant towards their neighbors. This means I can’t go out of my way to help someone if it means that I don’t experience immediate happiness. Which, unlike the gift of freedom, really makes us retreat more within ourselves, putting up imagary boundaries and walls. The problem with this train of thought is that your world becomes smaller and you become less aware or respondent to real life and settle for a false satisfaction until you realize as did the Rolling Stones that ‘I can’t get no satisfaction!’ Nor will you ever with the ME centered attitude.

Then there’s the other side of the spectrum; the WE centered life; expressed through the Holy Trinity. Since we are made to live in the infinite, the present moment can never satisfy our deepest longings, for it is only temporal. By giving into our passions and carnal desires, we are hindered from experiencing true joy because we settle for the lesser good. We participate in the Holy Trinity to the extent that we recognize ourselves in the reflection of Jesus by first consulting the Father in all we do. This is achieved by being constantly perceptive to listening to the voice of God as it comes to us in the ‘gentle breeze’ as stated in the Old Testament or the promptings that bring peace to our lives. By doing this, every action becomes a fruit of the Holy Spirit. In other words, it gives life; meaning to all we do. Mother Teresa states that, “Peace is obtained through service.”

On the way back from Costa Rica, at the Nicaraguan border, there was a couple with their newborn baby boy, he was only 15 days old. They showed such tender loving care for him. What was remarkable is that the baby’s head was partly sunken in on one side and his ear looked as if it was inside out. They saw that baby as no different and content with the greatest blessing they had ever received from God. It was only through the pure love of that couple for one another that overflowed and was apparent in the love they showed their child, and all those around them. There was a street kid, asking for money. The family didn’t have anything to give him, but the generous love they showed their baby boy inspired this street kid to make a perfect act of love. The little boy instead of running off upset that he didn’t get money from the couple, approached the baby and kissed the bottom of his feet. It reminded me of how the little drummer boy may have responded to Jesus on that cold night in Bethlehem. And in the hottest part of the day, that little bus station at the border of Nicaragua became a second Bethlehem.
Happy Pre-Advent season--It´s never too late for Christmas music or Christmas lights as we know too well in the South!

Latino Haircut

As of now in my lifetime I can say that I’ve jumped off a waterfall, and survived the ferris wheel in a third world country but nothing comes close to the exhilarating experience of my first Latin American haircut. Now every hairdresser I’ve ever gone to has always discouraged me from getting bangs. “No darlin. Not with your tiny forehead!’’ they say. Well I ventured to ask again and the hair dresser to my utmost surprise said, “Of course, if that’s what you want!” The anticipation lingered as she parted my hair, using a clip for every 15 strands of my hair. The climax was reached when she began to use this razor disguised as a comb. There it goes…the cut..the bang!! The name suits well.

It reminds me of the old fable about an old man, his boy, and his horse. They go into town; the man on the horse and the boy pulling the donkey behind. The townspeople cried “How could that little boy be expected to pull so much weight.” The old man gets off the horse and tells his son to get on and when they saw this they exclaimed, “That poor old man shouldn’t have to pull such a load with the healthy young boy to help.” So the old man and the son both got on the donkey but they said, “That poor donkey, it can’t be expected to pull such a heavy load.” Naturally they both get off and carry the donkey but never reached their destination. I say naturally because it is our natural tendency as human beings to want to appear pleasing to others.

As I was leaving the hair salon, a child looks up at me and cries, a shrilling cry. Just a coincidence, I muse to myself. Until someone calls out "Look, its Sally Pippin, the Hobbit child from Lord of the Rings." So I put it halfway up and someone tells me "You know who you look like; that girl from flashdance!" as they proceed to sing "She´s a maniac." So then I let my hair down and put a little latino strut in my step and a dab of Pantene and now they just call me "Chichita pero picante" which means short but spicy...just like Sally Pippin! So if you want to live a fullfilled life know yourself and be pleasing to your God or else you will never reach your destination!