Did I mention that I got sunburn?

It’s good to spend time with family you love, but it’s really sweet when they join you far from home. My immediate family came to Costa Rica for a week to see the beaches and volcanoes. Anna my sister and her husband Tobie had already made plans to be here when I was offered the chance to move down. Tobie spent six months here a few years ago working in book bindery run by a local church. He was back to see his old friends. When my parents heard that I was going to be here they put two and two together and decided we should have a family vacation. It was a blessing. It’s good to remember God’s blessings, and to note them during stressful times.

Part of what made this trip good for me was being able to bless my family. I helped with the planning, rented the cars and did all of the driving. The driving was an exhausting challenge but rewarding. The narrow roads wind tightly through the mountains and you don’t want anyone getting car sick. You also don’t want everyone to die in a fiery collision with an oncoming passenger bus.

Tuesday found us enjoying excellent toast and eggs in the town of Quepos not far from the Manuel Antonio national park. After breakfast a van picked us up to take us to the marina and a waiting catamaran for a tour and snorkeling. The boat could hold upwards of forty but on that morning our family was the only guest. The sails unfurled and for an hour we slipped away from the coast. Islands dotted our path, a distant stormed darkened the ocean horizon and the central mountains towered far inland.

My dad was anxious to snorkel, so he convinced the crew to cut the tour short. We anchored in a small harbor, and our guide pointed out the tip of a rock, no wider than the roof a car, barely staying in view above the tide. It took us a while to get the hang of the gear and it was probably ten minutes before we reached the rock. On the swim across to it we didn’t glimpse a thing. My sisters were there first and looked under at about the same time. They popped up quickly and began giggling uncontrollably. After another minute or two of flopping I reached them and looked under. I couldn’t wear my glasses with goggles and my vision is pretty poor. I was concerned that I wouldn’t see any more than an occasional dark blur. The moment my eyes dipped below the surface I found myself staring at a school of palm-sized, yellow and blue striped fish mere inches from my face, swarming around me. Over the next hour I would see a dozen different species each as colorful and different as the next. There were boxy puffer fish, light blue with dark blue pokadots. There were thin, purple fish that almost glowed with a vertical white stripe on their sides and a yellow stripe along their tops. I can’t describe them all. We were overwhelmed.

On Wednesday we hit the national park: serene beaches, dense forest, but most of all animals. First we saw big lizards that would stand like proud statues with their chins up. A tour guide for another group was pointing into the trees, and my sister Lindsey was the first to spot the sloth high up in the canopy. It looked like dirty shag carpet wedged between branches.
The third beach had the busiest tourist attraction. There were crowds gathered and pointing in all different directions. We’d found the monkeys. The monkeys are hilarious. They stand out from every other animal I’ve encountered by how much they engage with people. They’ll throw sticks, they’ll yell, and they’re always scheming to steal food. As soon as some visitors sit down at a picnic table its game on. They may try a dash from the side, or swipe from a low hanging branch. They can open zippers and tear open plastic bags. Like people they don’t care that that bag of chips isn’t any good for them.

Thursday morning we were back in San Jose. We’d dropped Anna and Tobie off the night before. Lindsey discovered that she’d left her passport back at the hotel in Quepos. There are no normal parcel carriers like we have in the States, so we needed help from my Costa Rican coworkers to arrange a shipment. The hotel had to send the passport by courier to the local airline Sansas, and then we had to pick it up at the airport. Not only do you get to invent driving rules in Costa Rica you have to make up shipping routes too.

That afternoon another slow drive slithering through the mountains put us at the volcano Arenal. It’s world famous for being an almost perfect cone. It looks like your grade school science project. It’s also been active for fifty years. You can see the lava at night. That is, if there’s clear skies. I’ve visited Arenal twice now. The last time was in ’99, and the situation was the same. It is the cloudiest place on earth. Your eyes keep tricking you into thinking the ceiling is raising, but then another wave sweeps down over the mountain. You can see the dead zone above the trees where lava has passed, but never glimpse the mouth of the cone. It’s a beautiful place, but also an exercise in disappointment.

It was hard to send the family home again on Saturday morning. Living in another country can be lonely, and family is the most comforting thing to have around. I liked knowing that they were right across town.

One the best things to come out of this vacation is that I visited a cool church. Tobie took us to the one he worked with, and I really liked it. The pastor seems solid, and the people were friendly. I didn’t understand much of the Spanish service, but I think I could grow into it. Anyway there are some other places for me to try too, so we’ll see where I can connect and serve.

Cars face 747 backwash

Ahh, the simple pleasures in life...

58,000lbs of thrust

For All My Geeks Out There

The great thing about using 24-hour time is that once a day your clock reminds you that you are 1337.

It Doesn't Have To Be This Hard

Matthew 25: 37-40

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you?"

The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

The striking things about this quote is that the righteous haven't realized what they've done, and the truth is so simple. I've wasted many years worrying about whether I was following God's will for my life. It is easier than that.

I like the way Kurt Vonnegut put it in The Sirens of Titan.

"Only an Earthling year ago," said Constant. "It took us that long to realize that a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved."

The day-to-day spirtual life lies more in wisdom and responsibility than in "spirituality" as it is often presented. Barry Ritholtz made the following statement about financial investing, but I think the application is wider.

As the magnitude of the awesome responsibility of taking control--and responsibility--sets in, it tends to sharpen the mind. It is empowering.

I think Spider-man may have gotten in backwards: With responsibility comes great power.

This rings true. Consider Proverbs 14:23, "All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." If God intended to tell me exactly what to do with myself, then why did Solomon need to write Proverbs 15:22, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."?

The opportunity to be spiritual is always right in front of me, and easily accessible. I only have to take responsibilty, and serve others. It's been humbling to integrate this into my life.

The primary venue for my service is at work, because that is where I spend most of my time, but also because that is where people are most dependent on me. This is challenging because work is the place where people master the art of avoiding responsibility and reassigning blame. There are many opportunities to practice the art of forgiving, and even more to practice the art of self-examination. Sometimes I spend more of the day worried about or furious with how things are going than acutally getting things done. I've had some late nights with God, in tears, telling him that this is not the person I want to be. Anxiety always comes down to trusting Him.

Holiday Party

Christmas at the Office

We had an intra-office Christmas decoration competition. The developers chose a Muppets theme.

The Story as Told by Matthew

Before I left Scott encouraged me to read through the gospels as stories, and that's proven to be a very rich approach. You pick up context, mood, and flow that you wouldn't when breaking the text down paragraph by paragraph. Matthew is a strange book. It's certainly the gospel I've read the least. He doesn't dwell long on any story. Jesus is full of fire, healing , teaching, rebuking, and laying down the parables. His teaching is hard. For instance, chapter 13, The Parable of the Sower. Linger on verse 22:

The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns

is the man who hears the word,

but the worries of this life

and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it.

At the end of chapter 18 we find The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. The servant in question begs for and receives forgiveness for a fortune in debt that he owes him master, but when he finds a fellow servant who owes him a few bucks he has him thrown in prison. When the master finds out he is furious and locks up the unmerciful servant for good. Jesus finshes the story with these words in verse 35:

This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you

unless you forgive your brother from your heart.

Jesus is a leader you can follow. He is someone who inspires fear. He loves you.

Where I Live

I started out in the condo in Escazu, but when my roomate Joe D's wife came down to visit for the Holiday Party I had to move to the Trax "compound". It's two townhomes side-by-side (soon to be three) where all the Scottsdale employees can live in community. Unfortunately, I was the only person in the newly acquired second townhome, and besides lots of sawdust it only contained my bed and one working shower (no sinks). There were no mirrors either, so I got to comb my hair at the office. It was a long day.

On Sunday we had the party. In Scottsdale it takes envelopes with cash to get people on the dance floor, but down here that's no problem. They dance the night away. I had a great time. Wednesday put me back in the Escazu condo for the next few months, until we acquire a fourth townhome in the compound.

This morning I went for my second, long, Sunday morning Escazu walk. It's beautiful here. I can go right up the hillside among big homes, lush greenery, and look out over the city. After a long shower I walked down to Tre Fratelli, an Italian restaurant, for a breakfast of steak, bacon, eggs, cheese, and (of course) rice and beans. With a long nap I think I've finally recovered from the week that began with late-night dancing, included lots of hours at the office, and my first outdoor soccer game.

I should say more about the soccer game since it ended 15-1. We were very proud of that one goal. It was Trax vs. some other team. I never got the name. I can't see a thing without my glasses, and certainly not the other side of full-size soccer field. Occasionally I got to touch the ball. When that lucky occurance happened I'd boot it toward the other side. I obviously couldn't make out my teamates. Our team is a bunch of casual guys who just enjoy a game after work. They were practiced athletes who worked as a team. In the end the experience was a lot like being blindfolded then shoved and kicked again and again over an hour. Maybe we should practice before next time. Maybe we should be in shape.

Below are pictures from the Escazu condo, and the Trax office.

The X Continents

Hernan trapped me with a question at lunch today. He asked me how many continents there are. I assumed he was joking around and wanted to argue that "Central America" is a continent, so I gave him the strait answer of seven. This got a round of exclamations from the table as he explained to me that outside of the US they are taught only six. The continent we live on is America--it's not divided into North and South America. Additionally, I learned that Australia is not a continent but is a part of Oceania which includes New Zeland and South Pacific islands. It turns out that the number and division of continents is a contentious subject throughout the world (not too surprising) and among geographers and geologists, but nevertheless hearing that there is a different answer to something I took for granted from childhood through my late 20's is a very unnerving experience. I haven't experienced that feeling talking about politics or religion or other serious topics, because I expect profound differences. But the number of continents? Who would've thought?

JaJaJa

One of my favorite things about Spanish speakers (and I've found this to be true beyond just Costa Rica) is that they spell "Hahaha" "Jajaja". Charming.