Limon: the full scoop (at least to start)
8 de junio
So now I am in Limon. I arrived here two days ago (Tuesday the 6th) via bus from San José. Thankfully it was a much more pleasant experience than Jess and my trip back from the beach – it didn’t smell, was only about 3 hours, and, get ready for this… it was a double-decker! Just like in London, except it wasn’t red, it had a roof, and I don’t recall passing Big Ben. I definitely had mixed feelings during my last few days in Heredia and with Luisa and her family. I was sad to leave because Luisa, Ibo, Gaby, and Faby have truly been my family since I arrived here. Plus I had the privilege of spending a lot of time with my teacher Pili, and her wonderful family as well. I really felt like I had friends and people who cared for me and had gotten to know my pretty well, and now I had to leave them and start all over again. Not to mention the fact that I had truly been living it up in the 5-star resort at Luisa’s home – great location, beautiful setting, amazing food, and the comfort of feeling “at home.” Along with the fun of having younger “sisters” to keep me entertained and remind me of all the joys of life in junior high and high school! There was nothing that would make me want to leave, which is the best, yet hardest situation. However, there was also a true excitement about embarking upon a new adventure. I was excited about the mystery of what lay ahead for me in Limón and hopefully being able to get started in the work that God had for me there.
Okay, so back to the fact that yes, now I am indeed in Limon. The first thing to report (which was hard to miss upon stepping off the bus) is the heat and humidity. Humidity overall, really. It was raining when I left San Jose but in just 3 short hours I was experiencing the sense of perspiration rather than precipitation. As many of you probably now, I like hot. I like the sun. I like summer. The thing I am not such a big fan of, however, is humidity. I prefer a nice, dry heat… hmm, not so much here. Time to get adjusted! Hopefully by the time I leave here (actually well before then, I hope) my body will have regulated itself so that I am not feeling like I could use a shower every few hours or that I need to carry a super-absorption cloth in my pocket to wipe my face. : ) Actually, it is not that bad and I think that I am already getting used to it a little because I am sitting here in my room, writing this, and I don’t have the fan going!
I guess I could start with a few general statements about Limón to give you a better picture of where I am at. It’s also known as Puerto Limón, which means port, so yup, it is right on the coast of the Caribbean. I love that I am so close to the ocean. There is a little island just off the shore that was Christopher Columbus’ landing point on one of his exploratory journeys (maybe the 3rd? I can’t remember exactly…). So there is a fun historical tid-bit for you. The language, people, and culture of Limón are quite different from what you find in the San José and central valley area. There is definitely a strong Caribbean influence, with a lot of people of Jamaican descent, I believe. It was a bit of a surprise to me, but there is a lot of English spoken here, as well as Spanish, of course. In fact, many people use a mix of “Spanglish” – going back and forth between the two languages in a single conversation, and even in a single sentence. If you can’t think of the word or phrase in English, then you can say it in Spanish, or vice versa. Of course there are many who only speak Spanish, and/or only learned to speak English in school. Mirna, however, who is the woman whose home I am staying in, learned English at home, it is her first and “native” language while she learned Spanish when she started going to school. She said she prefers English but is so kindly trying to remember to speak in Spanish to me so that I can practice! The services on Sunday morning at the First Baptist Church are predominantly in English, as is the Prayer and Bible Study meeting on Wednesday nights. They have another service on Sunday night that is in Spanish, so hopefully I will be able to experience both.
As I said, Mirna is the woman whom I am living with now. She is a long-time attender of the church and grew up here in Limón. She has 4 grown children, the oldest of which, Karin, who is a special education teacher and lives here at the house with her as well. The other three are all married and one lives here in Limon, another in Alajuela (near San José), and the other in New York City. Mirna is a very sweet woman and has repeatedly expressed that she wants me to feel as if I were in my own home. She has a beautiful house that is just about a 10 minute walk from the church, so that is great.
On Wednesday night I went with Mirna to the Bible Study and Prayer meeting at the church. It started out with just a couple of women but grew to be a group of about 15 people from the church. We started by singing songs and hymns, intermixed with some individuals praying, then they shared prayer requests and we broke up into pairs and prayed with each other. It was really encouraging for me to be in church again, and singing familiar, yet forgotten, songs and hymns. After all the traveling, sight-seeing and things we had done during my time with Luisa, I realized that other than my first Mass experience I hadn’t been to church since I was in California before I came here. I am not really sure that I can pinpoint what it was – mostly likely a mix of everything that was in my head: a little insecurity and uncertainty about my new surroundings, sadness at leaving the familiar and loved home in Heredia, singing hymns in English in a church in Costa Rica – but I had a bit of a breakdown. Okay, I guess “breakdown” is not really the correct word here, but as you probably know, I am not usually an emotional person, and (unlike my mother – love you, Mom!) I rarely cry. To the point that sometimes I feel like maybe something is wrong with me because I am a girl and we are supposed to be emotional and sappy and cry at movies and good-byes, etc, right? But not me; at least not usually. (I can’t believe I am going to be telling everyone this, but I feel like maybe it was something God is doing in me, so I should share it.) Anyway, when it was time to pray in pairs I was praying with Mirna and I could barely get out 3 words before I started getting the lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but I guess God knew that I needed to “let a little bit out” or something. Anyway, nothing like a few tears and a moment of emotion to start off the relationship with my new “host” huh?! I don’t feel like I have had to be brave or strong in these past weeks in Costa Rica, but maybe this was God letting me have a chance to start “fresh” here in Limón and remind me from the beginning that He is in control. I did pull myself together though and the next part of the evening was spent in Bible Study. Mirna is actually leading the study this month and they are looking at the book of Philippians. It was a great time of people sharing ideas, thoughts, and insights – not to mention the beauty of being involved in a somewhat bilingual study of God’s Word.
Today, Thursday, I went to the church in the morning to use the Internet and write to all of you. It happened to be the morning of fumigation however, so we were pleasantly evicted from the building for about an hour or so. I took the opportunity to walk around the town a bit and “explore.” The town of Limón is pretty small, especially compared to the Heredia-San José greater metropolitan area that I had just come from. At this point I might guess that the bulk of the “downtown” of the city is encompassed by about 6 blocks by 6 blocks, more or less. It was fun to be able to be a bit independent and just stroll around and check out what is here. My first mission was to walk to the water – not far at all – and I just got to sit there and enjoy the view of the Caribbean. Limón is definitely more of a small-town and has very few big stores or chain-stores, as we would call them. Much to my delight however, pretty much the only American establishment I found was not Pizza Hut or McDonalds, as might have been expected, but….yup, TCBY! What a thrill! My favorite place! Strangely enough I think I have more luck finding them here in Costa Rica than I do in the states! I am sure to be a frequent customer of that fine establishment. So after my self-guided tour of Limon I headed back to the church and was able to email and post blogs. It’s amazing how just the access to email can make me feel so much more connected to my family and friends back home. I surely am grateful that I am having my “world-traveler” stage in the email and Internet era! Because, as great as it is to get mail from a foreign country, it is surely a much slower method of communication. (Let this be a hint to you… I like emails! And real mail too. So keep it coming! )
So now I am in Limon. I arrived here two days ago (Tuesday the 6th) via bus from San José. Thankfully it was a much more pleasant experience than Jess and my trip back from the beach – it didn’t smell, was only about 3 hours, and, get ready for this… it was a double-decker! Just like in London, except it wasn’t red, it had a roof, and I don’t recall passing Big Ben. I definitely had mixed feelings during my last few days in Heredia and with Luisa and her family. I was sad to leave because Luisa, Ibo, Gaby, and Faby have truly been my family since I arrived here. Plus I had the privilege of spending a lot of time with my teacher Pili, and her wonderful family as well. I really felt like I had friends and people who cared for me and had gotten to know my pretty well, and now I had to leave them and start all over again. Not to mention the fact that I had truly been living it up in the 5-star resort at Luisa’s home – great location, beautiful setting, amazing food, and the comfort of feeling “at home.” Along with the fun of having younger “sisters” to keep me entertained and remind me of all the joys of life in junior high and high school! There was nothing that would make me want to leave, which is the best, yet hardest situation. However, there was also a true excitement about embarking upon a new adventure. I was excited about the mystery of what lay ahead for me in Limón and hopefully being able to get started in the work that God had for me there.
Okay, so back to the fact that yes, now I am indeed in Limon. The first thing to report (which was hard to miss upon stepping off the bus) is the heat and humidity. Humidity overall, really. It was raining when I left San Jose but in just 3 short hours I was experiencing the sense of perspiration rather than precipitation. As many of you probably now, I like hot. I like the sun. I like summer. The thing I am not such a big fan of, however, is humidity. I prefer a nice, dry heat… hmm, not so much here. Time to get adjusted! Hopefully by the time I leave here (actually well before then, I hope) my body will have regulated itself so that I am not feeling like I could use a shower every few hours or that I need to carry a super-absorption cloth in my pocket to wipe my face. : ) Actually, it is not that bad and I think that I am already getting used to it a little because I am sitting here in my room, writing this, and I don’t have the fan going!
I guess I could start with a few general statements about Limón to give you a better picture of where I am at. It’s also known as Puerto Limón, which means port, so yup, it is right on the coast of the Caribbean. I love that I am so close to the ocean. There is a little island just off the shore that was Christopher Columbus’ landing point on one of his exploratory journeys (maybe the 3rd? I can’t remember exactly…). So there is a fun historical tid-bit for you. The language, people, and culture of Limón are quite different from what you find in the San José and central valley area. There is definitely a strong Caribbean influence, with a lot of people of Jamaican descent, I believe. It was a bit of a surprise to me, but there is a lot of English spoken here, as well as Spanish, of course. In fact, many people use a mix of “Spanglish” – going back and forth between the two languages in a single conversation, and even in a single sentence. If you can’t think of the word or phrase in English, then you can say it in Spanish, or vice versa. Of course there are many who only speak Spanish, and/or only learned to speak English in school. Mirna, however, who is the woman whose home I am staying in, learned English at home, it is her first and “native” language while she learned Spanish when she started going to school. She said she prefers English but is so kindly trying to remember to speak in Spanish to me so that I can practice! The services on Sunday morning at the First Baptist Church are predominantly in English, as is the Prayer and Bible Study meeting on Wednesday nights. They have another service on Sunday night that is in Spanish, so hopefully I will be able to experience both.
As I said, Mirna is the woman whom I am living with now. She is a long-time attender of the church and grew up here in Limón. She has 4 grown children, the oldest of which, Karin, who is a special education teacher and lives here at the house with her as well. The other three are all married and one lives here in Limon, another in Alajuela (near San José), and the other in New York City. Mirna is a very sweet woman and has repeatedly expressed that she wants me to feel as if I were in my own home. She has a beautiful house that is just about a 10 minute walk from the church, so that is great.
On Wednesday night I went with Mirna to the Bible Study and Prayer meeting at the church. It started out with just a couple of women but grew to be a group of about 15 people from the church. We started by singing songs and hymns, intermixed with some individuals praying, then they shared prayer requests and we broke up into pairs and prayed with each other. It was really encouraging for me to be in church again, and singing familiar, yet forgotten, songs and hymns. After all the traveling, sight-seeing and things we had done during my time with Luisa, I realized that other than my first Mass experience I hadn’t been to church since I was in California before I came here. I am not really sure that I can pinpoint what it was – mostly likely a mix of everything that was in my head: a little insecurity and uncertainty about my new surroundings, sadness at leaving the familiar and loved home in Heredia, singing hymns in English in a church in Costa Rica – but I had a bit of a breakdown. Okay, I guess “breakdown” is not really the correct word here, but as you probably know, I am not usually an emotional person, and (unlike my mother – love you, Mom!) I rarely cry. To the point that sometimes I feel like maybe something is wrong with me because I am a girl and we are supposed to be emotional and sappy and cry at movies and good-byes, etc, right? But not me; at least not usually. (I can’t believe I am going to be telling everyone this, but I feel like maybe it was something God is doing in me, so I should share it.) Anyway, when it was time to pray in pairs I was praying with Mirna and I could barely get out 3 words before I started getting the lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but I guess God knew that I needed to “let a little bit out” or something. Anyway, nothing like a few tears and a moment of emotion to start off the relationship with my new “host” huh?! I don’t feel like I have had to be brave or strong in these past weeks in Costa Rica, but maybe this was God letting me have a chance to start “fresh” here in Limón and remind me from the beginning that He is in control. I did pull myself together though and the next part of the evening was spent in Bible Study. Mirna is actually leading the study this month and they are looking at the book of Philippians. It was a great time of people sharing ideas, thoughts, and insights – not to mention the beauty of being involved in a somewhat bilingual study of God’s Word.
Today, Thursday, I went to the church in the morning to use the Internet and write to all of you. It happened to be the morning of fumigation however, so we were pleasantly evicted from the building for about an hour or so. I took the opportunity to walk around the town a bit and “explore.” The town of Limón is pretty small, especially compared to the Heredia-San José greater metropolitan area that I had just come from. At this point I might guess that the bulk of the “downtown” of the city is encompassed by about 6 blocks by 6 blocks, more or less. It was fun to be able to be a bit independent and just stroll around and check out what is here. My first mission was to walk to the water – not far at all – and I just got to sit there and enjoy the view of the Caribbean. Limón is definitely more of a small-town and has very few big stores or chain-stores, as we would call them. Much to my delight however, pretty much the only American establishment I found was not Pizza Hut or McDonalds, as might have been expected, but….yup, TCBY! What a thrill! My favorite place! Strangely enough I think I have more luck finding them here in Costa Rica than I do in the states! I am sure to be a frequent customer of that fine establishment. So after my self-guided tour of Limon I headed back to the church and was able to email and post blogs. It’s amazing how just the access to email can make me feel so much more connected to my family and friends back home. I surely am grateful that I am having my “world-traveler” stage in the email and Internet era! Because, as great as it is to get mail from a foreign country, it is surely a much slower method of communication. (Let this be a hint to you… I like emails! And real mail too. So keep it coming! )
posted by Dynasty goes to CR at
3:24 PM
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