Finding our feet--looking back at our first year in Costa Rica

 

Keila and Annika flying a kite from the 3rd story balcony of our Costa Rican house. This year has not been easy for us, even with all of our privileges of a safe home, secure food and loving family members. But there have been moments of pure joy.

This year  has been such a hard year for so many people, it boggles my mind, weighs down my spirit and bruises my soul. Even now with the hope that the vaccines seem to bring, there is the news of the new virus variant that is even more contagious.

Each person and family's story is unique. I have been privileged to hear some of those stories, from family and friends in Costa Rica, in Nicaragua, in the United States, in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic, as well as from mission colleagues scattered across the globe. I have also listened to public radio from the US via internet--story after story from the pandemic and from the protests, resistance and reactions to the terrible murders of black people by police officers. You can review some of those stories here: Know their names. More times than I care to admit I have wept, sometimes in sadness, but also as a deep reaction to the testimonies I have heard of persistent faith and love, active and alive in the midst of difficult times. Even as I type those words, I am crying. The times are indeed very difficult.

Now, though, I would like to share some of my story and my family's from this year. If 2020 were a movie with its own film score, I imagine one key component would be the sound of heavy drums beating out a menacing rhythm, felt at gut level rather than heard, letting everyone know that disaster was imminent. For myself and my family, that drumming has gotten loud sometimes. The heaviness of the drum dirge has also receded at times, making way for lighter, even joyful melodies that have provided moments filled with light, when our kite was flying high in clear blue skies and our breathing became easy.

Perhaps what has taken the most energy, and perhaps even courage, were the many days when we simply had to keep on trudging through, accepting on faith that doing what we were doing would have meaning at some point down the line, even as the menace of disaster seemed overwhelming.

In the last year or so we (Mark, Jenny, Keila and Annika) have lived in three different countries. Just a little over a year ago, we were living in Louisville, Kentucky, finishing up a time visiting churches, family, friends and doctors and dentists. Then, right after Christmas day, we finished packed our clothes and our Christmas gifts and  returned to the Dominican Republic.

Suitcases and boxes in the Dominican Republic. Packing and unpacking has been a constant part of our lives for many many years.

Back in the Dominican Republic, we sorted and packed again, cleaning out the house where we had live as we served with the Dominican Evangelical Church (IED, Iglesia Evangélica Dominicana). We succeed in getting all of our material lives down to eight suitcases and four boxes--the limits the airline established. Then, on January 17th, we flew to our new home in San José, Costa Rica.

At the animal rescue center called ZooAve, which we visited after church one Sunday. From left to right, Jenny, Annika, Karla and Keila.

 

Landing in Costa Rica began a month and a half of life when the music was lighthearted. Our colleagues Karla Koll and her husband Javier Torrez hosted us in their home while we looked for a house to rent and as we finished going through all the procedures that would allow Keila and Annika to start school. In less than a week we found a home and by January 28th, we were moved in and Keila and Annika were ready for their first day of classes on February 3rd.

At the same time, our colleagues at the Latin American Biblical University (or UBL for its initials in Spanish) welcomed us with open arms. They even provided us with our very own office, my first in 23 years of mission service, and they introduced us the people key for the work we hoped to soon be doing.

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Pachito Mejía, the founder of the UBL's community garden and our mentor, showed me early on the integrated gardening work that he does as part of his practical contribution to another religious institution. These crates with garbage represent an effective production system for California redworms.

Our work at the UBL consists of supporting and enhancing the university community's efforts to become a model green institution, helping link theological principles of God sovereign over creation with solid ecological and community practices that lead us to sustainable living.

Jenny (left) with Rev. Myrtle Cuthbert, founding pastor of many Moravian churches in Costa Rica. Rev. Cuthbert knew Jenny's mother, Modestina before she was married to her father, Rev. Norman Bent

During our first month and a half we also began exploring churches. Karla introduced us to two Presbyterian congregations and Jenny found a Moravian church that we were able to attend twice. Jenny is Moravian and her family is from the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, a region which has many ties to the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica.The Moravians welcomed us like long lost family, in part because several of the members have known Jenny's family since forever, including a woman pastor who knew Jenny's mother before she was married. Deep roots in deed.

Annika doing virtual school

COVID 19 was on the march though and Friday, March 13th, Costa Rica shut all the schools down. Less than two weeks later, the Ministry of Health shut down all non-essential businesses. With Keila and Annika in virtual school, we had to come up with computers for them and we had to help them adjust to the new way of doing school, without really understanding how it was supposed to work ourselves.

Our work with the UBL, initially focused on organizing a participatory workshop with faculty, staff and students, suddenly had almost no focus because we simply couldn't be in the same room together, an essential part of all the participatory techniques that Jenny and I had learned. Suddenly we were slogging through molasses. Everything, even buying a bag of sand for our home garden, seemed very complicated.

Rev. Norman Bent baptizing Keila in the Moravian Church of Managua, August 2009. From left to right, Modestina Bent (Grandma), Catherine Hare (Grandma), Hypatia Bent (aunt), Jenny and Keila, Mark, Norman Bent (Grandpa) and Rev. Ken Brown.

 

The drum sounded loud in late May, when Jenny's family in Nicaragua came down with COVID-like symptoms. Her father, already suffering from several health complications, became seriously ill and was taken to the hospital where he passed away less than twelve hours later. With all the borders in Costa Rica shut down, Jenny couldn't do anything except keep up communication with her younger sister and brother in Nicaragua and her older brothers in the United States. When their mother also began to show signs of COVID-related complications, those not in Nicaragua were able provide the support and advice that their siblings on site needed. Jenny's mom survived and recovered. The ominous beat receded some.

Mark planting one of the UBL's community garden beds two weeks ago (December 18th). Photo by Joseline Luque Gonzalez, UBL resident student, Peruvian and member of the Green Team.

 

Keila helping me fill up containers for our home garden in April 2020. Creating a home garden helped keep me connected to the practice of sustainble living, but I am also using the experience to created videos that the Green Team will help edit and publish as part of the UBL's sustainable living program.

Work began to move forward, bit by bit by bit. I started a home garden with Keila and Annika's help. Then I began working regularly in the community garden of the UBL. I also started  mapping the university grounds, initially using images from Google Earth. Jenny and I also put together and taught a workshop on participatory mapping with the UBL's "Green Team." The Green Team is a small group of faculty and students that coordinates and spearheads the institution's move towards sustainability. Together we created a survey that identified other individuals in the larger University community who will be willing to support the types of actions we have planned. The Green Team created three of the virtual worship services that the UBL published each week and, most importantly, we put together the expectations we have for work in 2021. We'll be working on creating a management plan for the UBL campus, work with water and material conservation (capturing rainfall and improving the recycling, for example), expand the garden work and coordinate with those in charge of the academic program to include courses that focus on environmental justice.

One of the worship services that the Green Team created focused on sacred spaces on the UBL campus. Jenny focused on an area occupied by a sacuanjoche, or franjipani bush. Sacuanjoche (Sa kwon ho che) is the national flower of Nicaragua. It also has multiple spiritual associations in many different countries. The liturgy in Spanish is here

Annika with her re-creation of the Sahara desert as part one of her end of term projects for science.

 

In the meantime school continued to be tedious. There were times that I was not sure we would make it. Particularly difficult were the end of period projects, when Keila and Annika had to complete around ten different assignments in less than two weeks. There were a tears shed and angry moments when everyone's patience reached an end. Fortunately, Jenny and I learned to tag team, with one of us stepping in when the other was at their wit's end. With all of the drama, it is also true that many of the projects helped Keila and Annika to develop their creativity and learn information and concepts in unique ways. They also made Jenny and me feel like we were back in school.

Keila with her school certificate, "San Lorenzo school presents this certificate of 'Heroes 20202' to Keila and her family for having overcoming a very complicated school year and concluding it with success."  I cried when Keila finished her final project the last week of November. The girls did receive good grades.

Slogging through molasses, moving one step at a time. Tensing as the drum beat louder, breathing out as it beat more quietly. Sometimes I felt like we were finding our feet, even swaying with a bit of confidence, finding a certain rhythm in our lives. Then came Eta and Iota, two Category 4 hurricanes that slammed into Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. Without pity, exactly two weeks apart and less than 30 miles separating their landfall, these catastrophic storms wiped out thousands of families' homes and livelihoods.

 

Photo from Puerto Cabezas, the capital of Nicaragua's northern autonomous Caribbean Coast region. I found this photo at CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/18/weather/tropical-storm-iota-wednesday/index.html. With many limitations, the Nicaraguan government, together with local non-governmental organiztions did succeed in evacuating most of the susceptible people and initial deaths were very low. That does not mean people are safe.

Jenny and her family are originally from the northeastern Caribbean region of Nicaragua, the area directly affected by Eta and Idiota. Jenny's sister, Hypatia lives with their mother in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua located in the western half of the country, but Hypatia is in close touch with family members on the eastern coast and she shared many stories and images of the destruction. Jenny was also able to connect directly with one relative, a middle-aged woman, who shared her experiences. She told us that her home in the community of Wawa, about twenty kilometers south of Puerto Cabeza, had been leveled, along with most of the other homes in the fishing village. She wept as she shared about her other home up river from Wawa. Her farm, she said, that normally provides much of the sustenance and income for her family, was destroyed. Her house was leveled and almost all of her crops were obliterated, either from the wind which shook all the fruits from her trees, or the heavy rains which washed out the annual crops of corn, beans and cassava.

The situation in most areas affected by these hurricanes is still very very serious. Recovery so far has had very little support, in part because this year has devastated everyone everywhere, but also simply because most news services have published very little information about the destruction.

If you feel moved to provide financial assistance for this situation one option is PDA:

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA): Hurricane & Typhoon Disaster Relief

PDA has already sent at least two grants of $5,000 each to partner organizations in Nicaragua and in Honduras. One in Nicaragua is Christian Medical Action (AMC--Acción Medica Cristiana), a holistic ministry that is serving in some of the remote communities in the Caribbean Coastal Region. Our friend and colleague, Belinda Fobres keeps up an active Facebook page here: Belinda Forbes. You can donate to the work of AMC HERE

Our Presbyterian World Mission colleague, Dori Hjalmarson is serving with the Presbyterian Church of Honduras, which has initiated a number of relief efforts in Honduras. Keep up with Dori's reports on her mission connections website, HERE.

Ruth (bottom), Jenny, Annika and Keila, climbing up a steep trail in a local municipal park. Ruth is a retired American Baptist missionary who has become part of our local support team. and part of our family bubble. Before Christmas, she invited Keila and Annika to make cookies and lent Jenny and me her car so that we could do some Santa shopping.

Drums pounding fiercely, tapping lightly and sometimes, most of the time, in the background but loud enough to remind us that life is very very uncertain. Where is God in all of this? I wish I knew for sure, but I am not always clear on the answer to that question.

I know that I always feel God most present when I am involved in the work of making our Creator's presence felt. So, working in the garden, with my hands dirty and my heart light, I felt God present this year. Putting the worship services together with the rest of the Green Team, I felt God present. Carrying a load of food to the UBL for the neighborhood relief center, I felt God present. Working with Keila on her gravity project, or Annika with her Sahara project, I felt moments of peace, when God seemed close to us. Playing games with Keila, Annika and our Dominican dog, Fiona, I felt like a space opened up around us where racism, virus and the ongoing climate disasters were all absent for a moment.

Keila and our family dog, Fiona. We were able to bring Fiona over from the Dominican Republic less than three weeks before everything shut down. She has more than paid the costs of bringing her, providing distraction and joy for all of us.

 

And almost miraculously, I realize as I write that I do feel God present with us as well as through us. We are here now working with this partner organization, the Latin American Biblical University, because God has called us to be present here, growing healthy, thoughtful, dynamic daughters and being part of the UBL Green Team. These colleagues, and others all around us, are siblings in Christ who share my belief that we, all of us everywhere, are called to live sustainable, joyful, God-filled lives. Together, in this time and in this place, we hear and respond to this call, to live not as caretakers of nature, but as good neighbors, community members among many others in a complex, intricate, beautiful system. This is work that means something. It is what the world needs.

One of the many beautiful spiders at the UBL

 

A type of rhino beetle that we found crawling down the sidewalk at the UBL

One of the snakes we saw at the Municipal park, part of a collection that was behind glass.

Christmas. Christ present with us. What a powerful moment to remember that. Christ present with us. All of us are reminders of that for each other, even the spiders, the beetles and the snakes.

 

Our home garden. We share a medium-sized yard with our landlady, but this is the space that is truly ours. When I took this picture some time this past summer, we had lettuce, cilantro, spinach, rugula, green onions, basil, sage, time, two kinds of mint and oregano.

Maybe, maybe, finally, we have found our feet. Maybe I am finally ready to try a new jig here in our new home in Costa Rica. We have already begun our new year. Christ's coming began it. I think I am finally ready to begin my part.

 

Keila, Jenny, Annika, Fiona and Mark during a disaster simulation that we did as part of the girls' school work.

May God find you healthy and safe. May God's song weave itself into all your dreams, finding the space between the beats, weaving in and out, creating a new and precious sound, not in spite of, but in the midst of these difficult times.

View overlooking one of the bays on the western coast of Costa Rica. Our friend and landlady, Lidia Chacon invited us to spend a weekend with her at a relative's home to celebrate, she told us, Keila and Annika finishing school. December 2020.