Costa Rica
Costa Rica 2018. A trip I remember for the rest of my life. I am so grateful I was able to experience the culture of Costa Rica while also learning mountains of information about the process of making coffee. The weather, sites, and people we met in our time there helped me to see the way that other people live and how it in some ways completely differs from the United States and in some ways is similar.
One theme that I noticed while we were there was that people eat far less sugar then Americans do daily. This was something that I was not expecting to notice in everyday life. They do not have sugar with every meal and it is considered a luxury when they do. Here in America we have sugar with almost every meal. In Costa Rica they supplement the sugar foods with things like fruit or fresh vegetables. I love eating the fruits and vegetables every day and my skin thanked me for it as well.
I was challenged in Costa Rica in the fact that I thought that I was a somewhat fluent Spanish speaker coming into the trip. I was wrong. Most of the conversations had in Costa Rica were in Spanish and very little was actually said in English. After the first day I realized how important it is to learn a second langue because without it commination becomes extremely difficult. You cannot have normal conversations with locals there because the other person simple cannot understand you. Other members of the group and I used our “Spanglish” along with hand motions to communicate when we could not think of certain words are when trying to get directions. It was a learning experience for us all.
Those is Costa Rica enjoy spending time lots of time outside as do I. So, my time there was very much enjoyed. They don’t spend a lot of time inside watching TV or on their phones. Well, not most phones can get service as high in the mountains as we were, so they find alternative things to do outside. There are always things that need to be done on the coffee farm and you could spend a whole afternoon just sorting coffee beans. A difference that I noticed is that the people on the coffee farm cared very little about appearance and just the task at hand. In America you tend to see people care too much about appearances and in Costa Rica this was not a concern to them.
As a Nursing major I can take so much information back from this trip. During my 5th year of school I have considered working in a hospital in another country. After going to Costa Rica, I have realized how important it is to have a second langue and working directly with native Spanish speakers for over a year would make a huge impact on my life and future careers. Bilingual nurses are in high demand and if I could work on my Spanish skills this would set me apart from the rest of the nurses in my area. Also, completely immersing myself in the culture would help me to learn so much more about the people that live there.
After our trip I know see myself as an Active Citizen. Choices that we make everyday effect the world and community around. We need to make sure we are making positive choices for our community and the people in it. I think it is very important to educate people in the community about what is going on around them and what they can do to help. Community building is very important everywhere. In Costa Rica they are very familiar with the people they live around talk to them frequently. You don’t see that as much in the US and that is something we could work on.
While we were on the coffee farm we were able to experience so many different jobs and we truly got to see what it is like to be Costa Rica coffee farmer. One morning our task was to sort the freshly roasted coffee beans. There were piles and piles of beans. We had to go through every bean and see if it was good enough to go to the next stage of roasting or if it was going to the bad bean pile. If one person were to do this it would take them hours to sort the beans, but when we sorted all the beans working together it went so much faster. This also applies to the picking the actual coffee beans, it would take days for the 2 farm hands they had to pick all the beans themselves. With our help we were able to get through rows beans in just a few hours. Our host family was so thankful for our work. Back home I volunteer at a local church to prepare meals for the community and doing the community service work we did in Costa Rica reassured me in the need for volunteers and the large impact that they can have.
While in Costa Rica I learned that traveling to new places and working with others is something that I would love to do for the rest of my life. The memories you make on trips like these are irreplaceable. You not only get to see the world in new ways, but you are making an impact in the process. While I was there I was also able to use my Spanish skills first hand. Talking in the class room to classmates is completely different then when you are taking to native speakers in the country. Trips like these should be done more often. I would recommend a trip like this to anyone looking to help others and make a positive impact on society.
I would like to look into possible nursing jobs where I could spend time working in other countries or ones that look into helping patients globally. That is something I am very passionate about. Also thinking about here at MSU, working to make it easier for nursing student to study abroad. Right now, there is not a program for nursing students to study a semester or longer abroad. I think making a program for the nursing students would enhance the education for them while abroad.