Lost in Translation

This morning we went to Cartago to see the basilica. Cartago has been the center of Catholicism in Costa Rica for years. Supposedly, a black image of the "Virgin Mary" appeared to a a lady here in 1635. Three times she took the image home and each time it reappeared in the exact same spot she had found it. The basilica shows some of the interesting contradictions in Catholicism. Below you can see a depiction of the coronation of Mary as "Queen of Heaven" by God the Father and Jesus. We asked a man outside if he could ask God to answer his peticions. "Oh sure," he said, "but we also ask the Virgin. She's healed me of various infirmities. You just have to have faith in her." Below are several pictures from my experience. You can see people walking on their knees to the front of the building . . . whether out of gratitude or in hopes of receiving a favor from the Virgin I don't know. There's also a photo of the holy water, which the Virgin supposedly supplies. We saw several people come down and wash different parts of their body with the water.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to watch 90% of all movies with either subtitles or dubbed voices? If you don't speak English, that's what you have to deal with. Now I'm no defender of Hollywood, but I think this example illustrates a larger point about culture from a Latin American perspective.

How would you feel if you had to buy toys or computer software whose packaging is in a language you didn't understand (German, French, English, etc.)?

This is life in Costa Rica. Now, I can think of at least two advantages to this situation. First, it encourages people to learn another language, usually English. In Iowa and Minnesota, I didn't have much daily motivation to learn another language (except my Greek and Hebrew professors). Another positive is that the translation from English to Spanish usually makes for better dialogues in the movies. In other words, the translators usually don't translate all of the utterly useless and predictable swear words of Hollywood. I'm not sure if there are less swear words in Spanish, or just that they are looked down upon more here, but most movies soften the crude language from American movies.

Costa Ricans probably live a more "globalized" life than many Americans (note: they are actually Americans too . . . in Spanish, there is only one continent here--America, whereas in English we differentiate North and South America). You can take a 10 minute bus ride from my house to San Jose center and see Germans, French, Chinese, and gringos any day of the week. And when we've gone on trips around the country the tourist locations are even more international. They don't just know about people from other countries from books or movies. They rub shoulders with them on the way to work each day. Now that's no different from Ames, IA, but it's a lot different than Hibbing, MN, where I grew up.

I tend to think that La Nacion (the most respected paper here) has more articles about international events than most papers in the States.

What does this have to do with missions? Understanding the motivations of the people helps immensely. In order to more effectively minister, I have to begin to understand the differences in thinking. I even have to open up enough to allow my own thinking to be changed on some things that I'd never personally seen or experienced.

One quick example: I'd never thought about what it would be like to need a pair of glasses to see but not be able to buy them. Or to need 50 cents for the bus to get home but not have it. These are eye-opening experiences.

Why should a missionary have a blog anyway? I've been thinking about that a bit and have changed the name of the blog to match a slight shift in purpose. From "The Boyds to Colombia Weblog" (very boring sounding) to something that expresses my experience in Latin America, "Lost in Translation."

Here are a couple of possible uses for a missionary weblog I can think of:

1) Inform people about their ministry
2) Journal about experiences in order to have written record of what has happened
3) Put ads on the site in the hopes of getting rich through Google's Adsense program
4) Write stories about life in order to entertain people
5) Explain things from the host country in the hopes of spurring on the readers to greater faithfulness to Jesus Christ where they're at

Obviously #3 is out! I want my blog to be a mixture of some of the other elements, but I'm most interested in how a person living in another culture gains a new perspective on his own culture and his own life.

We talked about this in my class on culture at the language school. A person who doesn't have any influence from people in the process of growing up (there was one case of a boy who grew up without any influence from people in France years ago) becomes severely limited in his ability to interact culturally. I postulate that a person who knows two cultures would have more understanding of his native culture than the person who has never experienced more than one.

What's this mean? I hope to share things from my experiences in Latina America from a missionary's perspective. How often we take the blessings we have for granted! How often we don't see the need around us! May God give us eyes to see the need of our neighbors, our coworkers, our country, and that of other countries and cultures in this world!