Location: Latin American Studies Program, Spring ‘08
H: First question, do you know more about your host country than you knew before you left? And if so,
what did you learn about the country’s culture?
C: Yes, I know a ton more. I didn’t really know much about Costa Rica. I kind of knew about Latin
America in general, because I’m a Spanish major and that kind of stuff interests me, but I didn’t really
know specific things. I would say that a lot of what I know about the culture now is religion. I went to a
Catholic church with my family every week, and I got to experience that a lot. Then, I know things that
they like, such as dancing. That is definitely a big part of their culture, and they have a lot of parties. Just
random things, like family parties and obviously birthday parties. They just have so many more gettogethers than we do here, just because they get together and hang out and have fun…I know a lot of
food they eat. Traditionally, they eat gallo pinto, which I had every morning. It’s like rice and beans that
they eat there. I know a lot more about that part of the culture. Also, I think the main thing that I
learned is the difference time-wise, as in it’s a lot more laid back of a culture. They’re not focused on
time. They’re not like, “oh this meeting is at 3 o’clock so you have to be there at 3 o’clock.” It’s more
like, “oh yeah the meeting is at 3 o’clock, but if you see a friend along the way”…because that’s more
important, relationships are a lot more important. I feel like here in the States, it’s like “gosh, I’m going
to be late, I feel bad, people will look down on me. But, it’s a lot more laid back culture.
H: Okay. Did you learn anything about customs? (…clarified the question)
C: They are, I guess I already said this, but they are very relational. Like with my family, we would have
cafecito, which is like coffee, in the morning, in the afternoon when I got back from class, and then at
night. That is such a big part of interacting, that’s just a big family part. And whether it took 20 minutes
if you didn’t have much to talk about that day, or 3 hours – you did that. Even if I had work or
something to do that night, that was put above everything because there is so much about
relationships and getting to know each other, hanging out, slowing down, and talking. So, that was
really good. Then, that along with all the people on the street and everybody on the buses, everyone
was really friendly and welcoming, even though clearly I was not from Costa Rica. Even when I spoke,
they could tell, I spoke Spanish but I didn’t have their accent. They were just so welcoming and
everybody would stop and ask why I was there and what I was studying. So that is the main thing – just
relationships. They had a lot of little cafes also, and I think that made a difference. It’s a lot easier to just
stop and slow your day down, rather than just go, go, go. They had little cafes to sit down at, rather than
Starbucks where you drive through really quick. I think that is basically everything.
H: Did you learn anything about social issues in the country? 3:49
C: I learned a lot about government and stuff going on there. I was really surprised by how aware
everybody in the country was with everything going on in the country. They knew more about politics
and stuff going on in the United States, more than the students. And that made me feel bad, I was like,
“dangit.” A lot of stuff going on when I was there had to do with CAFSA, which is like a free-trade
agreement, so they were all working together. What is was is having a free-trade agreement between
Latin America and North America, but then because they are a lot poorer there, it was putting all the
lower farmers out of business. So as a country, they were coming together. There were a few protests
against that, and they were signing papers against that. So that was something that was going on a lot
while I was there, and I learned a lot about that.
H: Anything about the history – the country’s history at all?
C: We talked a little about that, like I learned that they don’t have a military or anything. So that was
interesting. I think they are one of the only countries that I have heard of, the really small countries or
something. I think it was more so in classes and in just talking to people. It was more general, like Latin
America’s history. I mean, I do know more Costa Rican history than I did going in, but I still wouldn’t say
that I know exactly everything that happened. Like I said, a lot of it was focused on government. So I
know history with that and where they came from and presidents in the past.
H: Did you take a class while you were there about Latin American history?
C: Mmhmm. Obviously they were Spanish classes, and one of them was called something with Latin
American – North American relations, so that dealt a little bit with history, but that was mainly
government stuff and how we relate as countries to each other. So I learned a little of the history in that
and where they were coming from. I learned economically, how Costa Rica is definitely progressing and
getting better off.
H: Anything about the education system?
C: I actually didn’t learn much about that. I was in Panama, like I said before, and I lived on an island
outside of Panama with an Indian tribe. They are called the Kumayala people, and they still wore their
tribal gear and all the women had nose piercings and tattoos…they had beads from their wrists all the
way up to their elbows and ankles to their knees. So I just saw…I learned more about the education
there than anything in Costa Rica, but education is very important but it’s a lot harder to get. They don’t
have as many qualified teachers. Maybe I should say not as many people go through college and get a
high enough degree, or information – I don’t really know how to say it – in relation to our educational
system. So I wouldn’t say that it’s bad, but I’d say that it’s lacking a little bit.
H: Are you more aware of the differences between Costa Rica and your home culture? And if so, what
are some examples?
C: Yes, I am definitely more aware of it. At first, it was really hard, because the program is very biased. If
you don’t go in knowing that, I think you would have a really hard time with it. But I kind of looked at it
taking classes in the United States, I’m getting the bias of our country, and then taking classes there in
Costa Rica I was getting the bias of their country. The beginning was really, really hard for me, because
it was almost like they were bashing the United States, when I know they weren’t trying to. It was just
their perspective. It was kind of hard at first, but then I went into the realization that…this is their reality
of life and that’s my reality and figure out where I stand with it. And I think that some of the differences
were the way that we look at the world in general, is – because the United States is a superpower and
we do have a lot more, you could say that about anything: possessions, poverty – we are more so in
charge of people, and they look at it like “who can we work alongside and help out?” And I’m not trying
to say that the United States doesn’t do that. I feel like a lot of people come back from this program not
liking the United States, and I didn’t at all. I definitely have some different opinions, but I think also the
church in the United States and the church in Latin America, I saw differences there. In the sense that,
and this is only my personal experiences, but they say that a lot of people in the US have a “United
States God” because they see it as more so here that the church is a building. The church is where
people come together in this nice neighborhood where you live, and it’s not going out. There is not a
church in an impoverished community, whereas in Costa Rica the church is all about being where
people need help. So that was a difference in the church, but altogether our views and our purposes
and what we believe as a church and as Christians is the same. This is just speaking generally, but they
just go about it as more of a hands-on, and more not looking like “oh you go to church on
Sundays”…more like I’m a Christian, you’re a Christian, I want to live alongside and in solidarity with
people that aren’t Christians.
H: Has there been a change in your awareness of social issues? Like global, academic, social,
environmental?
C: I’d say yes and no. I’m more aware of it because I know more about it, so it’s more interesting to me.
Before I went, it was like I would randomly know what was going on in different countries, but not
much. Now I check the Costa Rican newspaper and want to know what is going on there. I’m not really a
government type person, that’s not really my thing and neither is economics or anything, but…I’m
definitely more aware of it. I know a lot more and I can explain a lot more and can tell people about
the relations between countries, more than I knew before I left.
H: Has your attitude changed towards American or world politics as a result of your experience?
C: Yes, I would say that it has. Because I’m not very much into politics, my family is all Republicans and
that’s how I grew up, that’s all I knew. Going to Costa Rica, so many people were talking about politics in
the US and would ask me, “so what do you think about Bush?” because the election was coming up,
they knew that Hilary and Obama and McCain were all running. They would ask my opinion, and I
wouldn’t really know what to say because I didn’t really know much about them. The majority of people
that I talked to who were Costa Rican really wanted Hilary Clinton to win, and then I would hear their
opinions. I realized about politics that our country, even though it is “our” country, as US citizens it is
our right to vote and our responsibility…but at the same time I realized how much it affects other
countries. Not only is just that McCain or Obama is going to be the president of the United States and
do things for us, but the decisions they make are really, really going to affect Costa Rica or Nicaragua or
Latin America in general. I never realized that. I never realized that I should put my thoughts of what it is
going to do to affect other countries in just the presidential elections.
H: Did your attitude change towards people of different cultures in general because of your experience
abroad?
C: I have always loved people from different cultures, so I guess it probably didn’t change too much,
because I still really want to get to know people of different cultures. That’s always kind of been my
thing. I really like traveling and I really like getting to know other people and other cultures, so it was
really, really great for me. When I talk about it, it always sounds so great and that everything was
perfect, but there were definitely my days when it was really tough and I didn’t want to speak Spanish
anymore. But for the most part, I wouldn’t say that it changed, but it stayed I guess.
H: Did your attitude towards people of your own culture change at all?
C: Yes, a little bit, because there were days that we would see – and this is kind of me making
generalizations – but I was in the culture and I love being there and I love my host family, and I just
wanted to learn as much Spanish as I could – we would be walking around the city and see a group of
tourists from the United States or Canada, some English-speaking country. We would be like “oh my
gosh they are so annoying,” not even annoyed, but we were kind of embarrassed by them, because they
were such tourists. We tried really hard not to judge anyone, because I know that’s probably me in the
past. Some days in Costa Rica I wouldn’t really know where I was going, so I’d have a map out, and I was
totally a tourist like that. It changed in that I get frustrated when people don’t have a passion for other
cultures, but I also have to understand that it won’t be everyone’s passion just because I really enjoy it.
So I struggled with that, but I think it changed in the sense that I get more sad that people aren’t as
interested or don’t know what’s going on in the world. That is really important, and it just seemed like a
lot of…because we don’t really need to as much know what is going on outside of the United States
because I feel like we’re very secure where we’re at in our country that it stops people from finding out.
That made me realize it a lot more, just being over there and seeing the tourists who would talk and say,
“Oh where are you from? We’re here for vacation.” Just the people with a lot of money…I mean I go to
Taylor University, I live in the suburbs of Chicago so it’s not like I can sit here and judge people for having
money or living in a rich town and everything. But I think it has made me more aware of myself and
everything going on around me and the importance of being more aware.
H: Did you become more aware of any personal stereotypes that you had?
C: I don’t know if this time around because I lived in Ecuador, not this past summer but the summer
before, so I feel like there is where I dealt with a lot of that kind of stuff. I mean I know that it’s a
stereotype, people say Mexicans but they mean Hispanics in general, are lazy and don’t work. So that is
kind of hard, in the United States Hispanics are the ones in the lower end jobs, because that’s what they
can get. But, I guess that did change a little for me in Costa Rica, because in Costa Rica, the Nicaraguans
would come in and they have a lot of the same problems that we have with the United States and
Mexico. They have the same problem with Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Nicaragua is a poorer country, so
Nicaraguans would come in and you can tell that Nicaraguans are really, really dark and Costa Ricans are
more fair skinned, so you can tell the difference. You would always see, the Nicaraguans are always the
ones working construction or the lower end jobs that people don’t necessarily want. So I think that
made me realize, I guess it lifted that up a little bit that it just is different in every country. It just
depends on…you know our country is wealthy. We have all these resources and stuff like that, but I can’t
really think of any more off the top of my head.
H: What are the most important lessons you learned about yourself from the trip?
C: I really learned how to be independent in the sense that, like independent from people, friends,
family, and my comfort zone. I felt like I was closer to God in Costa Rica than I had ever been in my life,
because I learned…maybe not so much learned, but was forced to be independent from everything else
that I was comfortable with. I was the only girl from Taylor that went, and I didn’t even have anybody
that was an acquaintance, so I really learned how to make decisions on my own and figure things out
on my own, but also I learned how to depend on God. It’s always hard to depend on God when you’re
having a good time…it’s always like “God, I don’t need you right now,” but I really learned how to do
that. That was really good for me. I think one of the biggest things I learned was that I was able to see
God in other people a lot more, just because I had experiences that I had never even come close to
before in my life. I met prostitutes, I met homeless people, I met homosexuals – not only met them, but
would see them every day and had interactions with them. I became their friend, more or less. God
really taught me to see Him in other people that are far different from myself. I guess [I learned] not to
judge people so soon. There were these 2 prostitutes, because prostitution is legal in Costa Rica, 2
former prostitutes came in to talk to us in one of our classes. One of these ladies was saying that she
had no other choice, “I had two kids and they were sitting on the street corner, and hadn’t eaten for 10
days.” She could have either stolen food or money or…things like that – not that I’m for prostitution, but
things like that opened my eyes more to think that I shouldn’t be so quick to judge. Maybe this could be
a stereotype…but the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of a prostitute is “oh they’re dirty,
low-lifes” but I learned that that’s just reality for some people. Yeah, that’s not the right way to do it,
but what would I have done in that situation, I don’t know. I guess I really learned how to love people
for who they are, and I also learned how to accept love. I stayed in Nicaragua with a host family, and
they just loved me out of control and gave me everything they had. I just didn’t understand it at first, I
was kind of angry. I was thinking, “You don’t even know me, why do you love me so much?” So I guess I
just realized from that how to accept love and then how to love people unconditionally just for the fact
that they are a person. Not for anything more, not for what they’ve done, but just because they are a
person and a child of God too and they deserve to be loved.
H: Well, we kind of already talked about how your spiritual journey has been affected…
C: Yeah, I think it was definitely positive. I think at Taylor it gets especially hard to grow that much
because it’s such a comfortable environment and such an environment where everyone is like, “oh I’m a
Christian.” It’s really hard to sit down and do your devotions every day, and you’re like “oh I go to chapel
three times a week and I have Christian friends.” So that was good for me to get away and be on my
own and have to depend on God. I learned a lot about who I was and who God was.
H: Prior to the trip, what was your church involvement like and has it changed at all since coming back?
C: Before I went to Costa Rica, I just went to Indiana Wesleyan, very contemporary, and regularly go to
chapel and stuff. I don’t come from a Christian family, but I would say that I was…regular, very constant,
very comfortable. Then I went to Costa Rica and I went to church with my family a lot. They actually
went to a really interesting church, because it was called a “community” and they had Protestants,
Evangelicals, Catholics, and they would all meet together at 3 o’clock on Saturday afternoon. Then each
denomination would each have their own meeting time. That was really interesting, because I had never
even heard of that before. The time that we met together, it was just worship usually and then everyone
would take communion. I think I got…more radical, because I just dealt with a lot of experiences that
would be considered more “radical.” Since I’ve been back, I’ve gone to IWU a little bit. I’ve also gone to a
church, I don’t even remember the name because my boyfriend was going to it, in Huntington that is a
lot more like the emerging church. It’s more so hands-on, and yeah every church does have small groups
and activities and that’s great, but it’s more of a helping the community every day. I think personally
church…I want to become more involved in not just the church and the people that are next to me
worshipping, but the community that the church is in, the “sinners” that shouldn’t be in the church. I
learned a lot about that…because I feel like a lot of times that if a homosexual wants to go to church,
then you have to be “fixed” before you come. I thought about that as like why do we not accept them,
but I’m not perfect, I sin. Maybe they’re just more open to noticing that. Now I’m more about being
around people like that.
H: Has there been a change in your awareness of the way that God works in different cultures?
C: Yes, I think this is one of those questions where I might just say the same thing…
H: We kind of addressed this too, have you learned more about non-Christian worldviews?
C: Yes I have, and they interest me a lot more than they did before, because I was never like “oh you
don’t agree with this, I don’t want to be friends with you,” but I think I appreciate non-Christians a lot
more than I did before. I guess I’ve realized – it kind of goes back to the whole love thing – because
whether they believe in God or follow exactly what the Bible says or what I believe, God still made
them for a purpose and God still has a plan for them. I just appreciate them so much more, rather than
just being interested in converting them into a Christian, I’m much more interested in learning from
them and interacting with them. I have to say that it’s a lot more important, I learned that it’s a lot
more important to just live alongside somebody than to go in and try to change them. I feel like I can
learn so much from a non-Christian as they can learn from me.
H: Has your approach to relationships changed at all?
C: Hm, I’ve never really thought about this. I’m not really sure.
H: Do you treat your friends and family differently or relate to them differently at all?
C: I might. I don’t know if this is related, but because I’m a lot more interested in different cultures and
in Costa Rica now, and I have changed a lot in where I stand as a Christian and my belief in the church…I
think I might challenge them a little bit more based on my personal experiences that I had. It’s always
really interesting for me to talk about my experiences and stuff that I saw and heard and then ask them
what they think. I think that it’s challenging, because that was really challenging for me when it came
up. I don’t know, I guess maybe to challenge them more.
H: Do you seek out relationships from people that are different from yourself?
C: I always get really excited when I hear that someone is from South America/Central America. I just
have such a passion for Spanish. I think I was like that before I left too, but I think that I’m a lot more
comfortable with it now – with my Spanish skills and just the culture in general. I definitely get excited.
And I sound really biased, I’m not just about only if you speak Spanish do I like you, I get really interested
if I hear that someone is from a different country or grew up somewhere else.
H: Have you noticed any differences in your daily behaviors since returning from Costa Rica?
C: I try to have a lot more time for myself, because like I said, I learned to be more independent. I’m
definitely a person that is like go, go, go, and I always want to have people around me. I’m a social
person, I guess. I’ve changed in the fact that I definitely like time alone and time with God – it’s really
important to me now. I put aside time in Costa Rica for that. Also, there are definitely times when I get
in a funk, because I know that I miss Costa Rica and that lifestyle, but it’s kind of a mood that I can’t
really explain. I don’t know, I feel like I’m sad right now. It has to do with the fact that I do miss it, and
it’s hard for me that nobody here at all really truly understands what I went through or what I
experienced. Even me explaining something, they can’t picture it, and that gets frustrating sometimes.
So sometimes I get frustrated.
H: Yeah. Have you changed at all in your studies or the way you approach your classes or anything?
C: I think my priorities changed when I was in Costa Rica, because like I said – if we had coffee for 3
hours and I had homework, that 3 hours of interaction was way more important. I knew it was for them,
so that became really important for me too. Not that I put off my work and not do any schoolwork
anymore, but I think I look at it differently in the sense that academically that is important to me, but
I’ve learned to focus more on people and not stress out on it so much. I didn’t have as much time to do
homework assignments or I didn’t have as much time to take a test. Instead of being upset, frustrated,
or stressed about it, I’m realizing that’s life. And really in five years is it going to matter if I got an A or a
B on a science test? So I think I’m a lot more laid back with that.
H: Have you changed at all in your campus involvements?
C: I tutor Spanish now, I don’t know if it has to do with it. I might have done that anyway, but I haven’t
done that before. Not so much on campus. I’m only here for this semester, and I’m student teaching
next semester. But I’m looking into a lot more places I can go when I graduate, that stuff is more
interesting to me – overseas. I have my certificate to teach English, so I’m looking into doing something
like that or some kind of organization like that.