Whelp, I'm Posting. And I'm in Costa Rica.

I'm sitting in my room, listening to K-Love on the speaker set that I had forgotten about, given to me two Christmases ago after a pair of wireless headphones failed to deliver.  My feet are cold, but that's only because I'm wearing flip-flops, something I never used to wear before and only wear now as a matter of convenience, quicker than sneakers and cooler than slippers. Below them is the floor, of course, but unlike the tile in the rest of my house, it's made of wood. It marks the upstairs master bedroom of our new house here in San José, Costa Rica, the beautiful, green country that's been home for the last seven years. Rain is pattering on the corrugated plastic roof that is so very typical of houses down here. Perhaps more typical than the citizens' particular preference in roofing is the rain they're designed to keep out. It rains seven months out of the year here, and then some. You wanna' talk rain-clouds? You haven't seen one until you've seen a Costa Rican October sky.  No, no, not that kid with the rockets, I mean RAIN.  I think if the sky literally let loose a bombardment of cats and dogs onto the unsuspecting city, it would still be quieter than a typical Costa Rican downpour. The thin roofs don't help, leaving you better off to learn some basic sign-language than to try and verbally communicate with one another during a good drizzle.

Could we afford a little less rain? Yes, I suppose we could, but then everything might not be so green. Green. That was my first thought as I entered the country. Costa Rica is to Green as Kansas is to Wheat. It dominates all. Life is everywhere. It covers the mountains make up most of our horizon. It's estimated that Costa Rica has over 9,000 individual vascular plant species. I'd be curious to know what they call the one where they just shove a lifeless stick into the ground and let it sprout and grow into a tree. (We observed this behavior once on a treeless boulevard and had to laugh out loud! They're now full-blown trees.)

We live in the Central Valley, along with about 4 million other people that populate San José. Mountains surround us on all sides, so vision is always limited to a couple miles at most. Just as lively as the 9,000 plants are the people here. The lifestyle is so laid-back it would make you think you were in the United States 50 years ago. In fact, it's been noted that in many ways Costa Rica is almost like a time capsule, with modern technology side-by-side with old-fashioned cultural characteristics. Ticos is what they affectionately call themselves. The name comes from a diminutive they like to put on words. Whereas a foreigner might call a kitten a "gatito", Costa Ricans might call it a "gatico" instead, hence their nickname. (It's a fitting name, as Costa Ricans do not tend to be people of great stature.)

As I wake up in the morning, the sunshine streams through my window. It's an early sunrise here, usually around 5:30. I'll open my blinds and look out at the beautiful mountains all around. To the extreme right of my view is one they call La Carpintera (meaning carpenter), supposedly named after an old woman who use to live up there in a cabin. Straight ahead and a little to the left is one of the tallest mountains surrounding the Central Valley, actually a volcano, named Irazú. On a cloudless day I can see all sorts of radio antennas sticking up from the peak, taking advantage of it's height, but it's more often than not covered in a thick cloud layer. As I look out over the houses, they're stuck together, sharing walls. Someone said to me once (and if you're reading this, I'm quoting you, big guy), "Whoa, those aren't like, shops?!...Looks like a mall!" No, they're not shops. Just my subdivision! 

You know, I love this country.  I love everything about living here.  The laid-back lifestyle, the people, the green, the weather (It likes to hover in the "feel-good zone" there in the low 70s), the language (No, we don't speak Mexican. That's called Spanish.), all of it!  When I'm here it's so easy to see creation and blessings all around. I live just a couple hours from world-destination beaches, rain forests, hot-springs, volcanoes, and that's just the start! When I think about what my life would be like had I never come to Costa Rica, the result is flat-out boring in comparison! I've seen more in 17 years than most people will in their entire lives! One inevitably gets homesick now and then, and that's part of re-adjusting to a foreign culture. However, when I look around at the things around me, think all the things I've seen, all the people I know because I live in Costa Rica, every melancholy feeling can be replaced with a blessing from around me! So I don't give in to those feelings, because Costa Rica is awesome, and I truly love it here. :o)

I love my life.  And I'm glad that I am a missionary kid in San José, Costa Rica.


Here I've decided to include a couple amateur pictures, for the benefit of the reader. ;)

 The view from my window, looking to the left on a very cloudy day. This mountain actually looks pretty huge in real life. (I know. I just went up to my window and checked. It's enormous.) Just to the right and slightly overlapping this little guy would be Irazú, the volcano I mentioned. (Worry not. It's dormant.)

The wood floors of my empty room. You know, for illustration's sake.