Swing Criollo

Of all the Latin dance rhythms there are, cumbia is far and away my favorite. What I've recently realized is how unique the Costa Rican style of cumbia (call the swing criollo) is. I have not found a soul stateside who has danced cumbia the way I learned it in Costa Rica. The Costa Rican style is so much fun. This guy thinks the swing criollo is emblematic of Tico culture and the national mantra of pura vida, and I would agree. Doesn't it look fun?

If you speak and/or understand Spanish (or can read Portuguese subtitles), this is a documentary made about the history of the swing criollo.

Beholden

Life is moving so quickly forward. The year 2011 (or the first six months of it) has been marked by so many good things. So many blessings. Since January I have been picking up momentum, preparing to move on, ready for new, grand adventures. Dwelling in the present has been a challenge. As plans for the next two years of my life have materialized out of (what seems to be) thin air, it is difficult to not get caught up in that excitement. But really, I wish I could dwell in these experiences for longer than the time allotted.

I am in Holden Village for five weeks this summer, but I feel like I could easily spend a year here. This place fosters good living. Based around three solid, but modest meals a day, I'm expected to work, but also to rest. I dwell in community and meet new people everyday, but also have time and space to seek solitude. I know this is pretty cushy compared to living in the real world, but it feels good to be earning my keep. I earn my meals and my bed, and I make the most of my leisure time.

I couldn't tell you what my expectations were for my partial summer here. I abstractly anticipated meeting new and interesting people, taking in the physical landscape and being able to spend plenty of time reading and reflecting both on what's behind me and before me. I cannot say that any of those expectations haven't been satisfied, but the experience as a whole is different than I imagined it.

Arriving in the Village as a stranger, my first week here was less comfortable than my first week abroad. When traveling abroad, my peers were all strangers but we all came in on a level playing field. All of us had little idea of what to expect from the experience and were diving headlong into a grand adventure together as peers. That experience is the closest likeness to what my arrival in the Village was like, but the discomfort was more extreme. Here, I entered a working system that the folks that greeted me off the bus all had a role in, socially and logistically. I was at a disadvantage having been new to the entire scenario, and getting settled here felt like a more daunting process than adjusting to the culture of a different country. Maybe that's a testament to the strength of Holden culture: how it changes people. Regardless, I become more comfortable with each passing day and after nine days, feel like I am beginning to thrive in my new environment.

Positivity

This video has been the mantra of our apartment the last couple days.


It's all about being optimistic.

Time in Morris is finite. I'll be out of here for the last time in just over a week.

Beginning of the End

I begin my final semester at UMM with a double dose of affirmation. I received notification that I've been accepted into Master of Public Health programs in Epidemiology at two schools: the University of Minnesota and Yale's Schools of Public Health. I still await notification from several other programs and schools, but its feels go to break the ice with positive feedback.

My last semester at UMM embodies liberal arts with courses in biology, history, art history and geography/computer application. Sadly it lacks a subject that has been a mainstay and favorite in my undergraduate education: Spanish. I hope to keep up with Spanish through extra-curricular means: reading independently in Spanish, conversation tables at TMC, teaching ESL to members of Morris' Mexican community, translating outreach and publicity materials for Morris Healthy Eating. The opportunities are many, thankfully. Regardless, I will miss learning and being taught in Spanish on a daily basis. In that respect, last semester was the tops.

So here it begins. Graduation or bust!

Hello December

A year ago today, I took off in a plane departing from a place I was not ready to leave. As the planes engines fired and the slow stroll down the runway turned into the lumbering pace that lifted us off the ground, I glimpsed the Costa Rican landscape for the last time, not knowing if I'd every see it again, and could not hold back my tears. This place represented an escape I desperately needed from my normal surroundings in which a pattern of self-sacrifice and personal isolation had taken a toll on my spirit. Everything in my life was so serious that I didn't remember what it meant to laugh or feel joy. Joy found me again there, thanks to some remarkable classmates and professors and the national mantra: pura vida. However, leaving as abruptly as circumstances required me to made it difficult for me to believe that that joy would come home with me. A year later, I marvel at how much I have been through and how my three months abroad remain so close to my heart. I have fought for that joy in the face of the trials that have riddled the last twelve months, and it has been worth the fight. I feel more resilient, as if I have recognized the importance of joy and laughter because I lost them at one time. All that I have been through in the last year, although not always fun, has burnished my character in a positive way. PTL.

Mother Teresa, Full of Wisdom

Currently, my leisure reading is composed, in part, by this book I'd Rather Teach Peace. A good friend lent it to me. By his writing style, I can tell that the author is one of those teachers that students don't ever forget. Someone who engages his students, encourages them to speak their minds and think critically about issues. He wants the material he teaches to become part of his student's identities; rote memorization and mindless regurgitation, despite its prevalence in our education system, does not constitute true learning. I couldn't agree more. I have experienced this myself in my own education. Learning is most fun and most meaningful when I can dive head first into the material, think about it, chew on it and figure out how it ought to be integrated into my reality. The world needs more teachers like Colman McCarthy who puts his faith in the humanity of even the most closed off and misunderstood kids.

This book has called to my attention how much violence is emphasized as the preferred means of conflict resolution in our country, world, etc. High school history classes highlight the heroic acts of war heroes while often overlooking the peacemaking efforts of many. Truly, why don't we learn about people like Gandhi in school?

Included in the text is a poem written by Mother Teresa that I think is really cool. It's entitled Anyway

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and openness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and open anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway.

The meaning of autumn

September has come and passed. According to the celestial bodies, we entered into autumn several days ago. September was filled with weather that made me uneasy about the impending change in season that I haven't experienced in two years. Unusually large amounts of rain couple with unusually cold temperatures and the winds typical of West Central Minnesota made me think that I've lost my ability to adapt to cold weather (in ecology, this ability is termed phenotypic plasticity; we're being tested on this on Wednesday). I was beginning to think the only solution was to seek refuge in the tropics again.

However, today was a beautiful fall day. Our ecology class spent the day at Lake Carlos State Park near Alexandria, MN. We hiked through the forest, learned how to identify much of the vegetation and did an exercise in forest sampling. Many of our lab activities this semester have been dampened (literally) by inclement weather. Standing out on the prairie in blowing rain, trying keep your notebook dry while simultaneously taking notes inside a plastic bag, although laughable, is not all that enjoyable. We do it in the name of being hardcore, and feel justified in calling ourselves ecologists as a result.

But today, today fall colors were at their peak. The forest was illuminated from the outside in with that lustrous yellow that comes but once a year. The air was crisp and fresh, and an army of fifty ecologists traipsing through piles of fallen leaves created quite the symphony. Today's weather brought me back to the beauty of fall in Minnesota. There is joy in having a cold nose and a body warm from hiking in layers. There is opportunity for silence such that you can hear the leaves falling singly to the ground. A sack lunch eaten outside is always more satisfying than eating anything indoors. It is beautiful to feel the warmth of sun on your face even though the air around you is crisp.