Author: rfitzpa2

Nice and late, but here goes my last blog post. Looking back I have a lot to be grateful for with the opportunity to take classes and live in San José, Costa Rica. This SLA experience not only prepared me for my field research, it gave me riches in both my academic life and my personal life. Academically, I took two great classes. One refined my Spanish speaking and grammar, while the other fed my interest in Afro-Caribbean histories. In terms of my personal life, I found my older brother (which I’ve never had) and a second mother in my host family, Angelita and Leo. They embraced me into every aspect of their lives, taking me to mass, on errands, to the gym, to meet their larger family, and to neighborhood parties. All the while they have been interested in building me up as a person/student and hearing where my research leads me. This opportunity prepared me for research in other ways too. I had to befriend the humble, quiet little spiders in their home before I could deal with the MONSTERS I encountered in the rainforest during my research. But in all seriousness I am grateful for the ways in which the SLA opportunity has thoroughly enriched my life and career.

I would say that I met and exceeded my goals for intercultural development. I never expected the multicultural reality that is Costa Rica. I met people from Jamaica, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Argentina, South Africa, Tanzania, and the US, all under this common name of “Costa Rican.” We talked about shared forms of resilience and what humanity needs to reach for next. After taking the two IDI tests and analyzing our responses, I realize that it is often more complicated than putting labels on cultures. It’s difficult to say that this cultural group is more xyz than that cultural group because individuals are so diverse even within a specified culture. I exceeded my goals but not in a complacent sort of way, more in a way that shows me that I’m obsessed with this lifestyle and frame of mind. I’d like to be ever-growing, ever-changing with the diverse perspectives around me. I don’t think I’ll ever be done exposing myself to new perspectives around the world, and we’ll see where that interest takes me after I graduate from here.

I met a young couple who ask people for money along my daily route to school. In the descriptive sense, that was all that I saw them as initially. What sticks in my head the most from the D.I.V.E. process is my initial assumption, or the interpretation that I jumped to. I’m more accustomed to giving people food instead of money, and that’s how a lot of people tend to think back home. The hesitance comes from my assumptions about homeless people where I’m from, that whatever they do with my money might not be conducive to their health. Those were my initial hesitancies and interpretations without really knowing much about them.

The second time I saw them was when I decided I would talk to them and give them some of the change I had from train fares. I found out that they’re names are José and Decida and that they are together. This verified a bit further for me who they are and their necessity for money and food. Now I greet them every morning and ask how things are going. I’ve formed a positive evaluation of José and Decida because I am familiar with them and they are kind to me even though I don’t usually have cash for them. This makes up the evaluation portion, because I was comparing my experiences in the past to my present encounter and also reconsidering how these two people are unique individuals. Evaluating further I realized I wanted to build a connection with them because in the past I have realized that often times people simply want the dignity of respectful conversations.

Before this blog post I interviewed the man who was leading our a wildlife tour. When I first asked him about stereotypes he holds about Americans, he struggled to answer. He told me it’s important to distinguish between North Americans/US Americans/inhabitants of all the Americas. We are all Americans. But the real reason he struggled is because he thought we are all just people. He doesn’t like to have a preconception of someone based on where they’re from. When I dug more, and asked him for three words that come to mind, regarding US Americans, he told me missiles, colonizing, and business.

The stereotypes that he quickly identified were disheartening but not surprising. These words represent parts of America’s identity that I dissociate with. However, I can’t help but feel some trace of culpability just because I am part of this group called “US Americans.”

Looking forward (and also a bit backward), a lot of my motivation from my career comes sentiments like Fernando’s; other encounters in conversation or international perspectives on US history from college classes. This is how the world see us. If I choose to pursue the path of foreign service, that will be a primary goal: to right some of the wrongs the US has committed towards other countries and to spark new narratives of power, new narratives of peace.