FrancisCorps arrives in Costa Rica for Another Year...PURA VIDA!!!!

Alright so I guess it's time for another blog to go up... I suppose I should let people know what's going on and that I am not lost in some jungle in Costa Rica....but if I was, I definitely have learned some pretty "handy" survival skills from one of my roommates... thanks buddy!

Well anywho... I have been here for three weeks but I feel like I need to separate these blogs because, basically a lot has been going on! It wasn't too long ago that I was sitting in the Syracuse house, sweating profusely either from just the hotness of Syracuse or the incredible dance party our last night there. I think I am still hearing a little T-Swizzle and MGMT ringing in my ears. It wasn't too much longer after, that we were saying our goodbye to those 6 wonderful people that would remain in Cuse and boarding the plane to our far away destination...

After a safe and smooth ride we finally arrived in Costa Rica... the place I will call home for the next year.... not too shabby eh? Myself, the 4 other volunteers and Bro. Jim walked out of the airport being aware that the taxi drivers could smell the Gringo blood from a mile away with the attempt to get our business.... Roy, a close friend of the program, was there to rescue us and take us to our home. A home, that as soon as we all walked in, our jaws dropped to the ground. It is absolutely gorgeous... close to the nicest thing I have ever seen in my life. Check out the pictures and see for yourself... your a little jealous... I know!!

The View of our house from the front. A typical Ranch house and no Jelly there are no horses to be found here...

Another view of the front yard... that is our non-functioning fountain of a boy peeing through a vase or something?

The view of our front living room...that's right we have two. Next we have our cocina.. or kitchen. We have a great view there of one of my rooomates, Mateo!This is the second living room... after a giant slumber party all five of us had on our first night while watching Glee!This is the kitchen table... where many delicious meals have been prepared and many are soon to come!

Let's take a peak at the Brittany and Jelly's Room...

This is the laundry room... yes one of the rooms I have already flooded in my three weeks here. The floor looks pretty clean though right?!?!?!The view of our backyard. That is our open garage where our clothes lines hang. As well as our Hammock which makes for great rainy day naps!

I go from apple trees in my backyard on the farm to two banana trees in my backyard in Costa Rica

I thought a picture tour would be a little bit better just because they do more justice than what I probably would tell you. It is probably a little less boring as well :)

We arrived Friday and started getting settled into our house which soon enough started feeling like a home. One of the best feelings in the whole world was FINALLY not having to live out of our suitcases. Three weeks doing that was a complete misery... the joys of traveling though eh?

That night we hit up the Friary for the first time to have a little meet and greet, as well as dinner with the Friars. The Friary is another extraordinary looking place. The food was nothing less then excellent and the company of all the Friars: Victor, Jorge, Walter, Maury, Francisco (aka. Chico), and Nader, was great! It was a awesome first night in Costa Rica... one of many to come!

This is a mural on the Friary wall. More pictures of this beautiful place soon to come!

The start of my very first full day in CR started off with a pretty interesting experience. I was in my normal routine of getting out of bed and headed to the bathroom to do my usual and jump in the shower. The shower was amazingly warm which is hard to come by in Central America but we have all had pretty good luck with temperature. After I finished I see the toilet hadn't gone down and try to flush it again... but soon realize the water is raising a little to far than I would ever wish...the only thing that comes to my mind is oh DIOS MIO! I run to get some towels to clean it up with. I start to clean it up but notice the small puddle was turning into one of the Great Lakes. I then notice water is still spilling over the over toilet due to the fact the stopper in the tank had not closed...I quickly fix that and it finally stops while standing knee deep in toilet water and maybe more but I will leave that up to your imagination. I run to get the mop and more towels to finish cleaning the bathroom up. Great start... but wait it gets better!

So I then take the towels and go to our laundry room where we have a Pila... or cement sink. I begin to wring out the towels and rinse them off with water...soon to be feeling something cool running across my feet. I look down and see a nice stream of water coming from under the Pila starting to create another lake from under my feet... I am actually starting to feel like I am back in Minnesota.... only 9,998 more to go! I look under the sink to two holes in the pipe greeting me with spewing water...how I greeted back is probably not appropriate for the reading eyes. Once again I grab my towels and mop to clean up the mess I have waiting at my feet... what a great way to start my first full day in Costa Rica!

The rest of the day goes pretty well and pretty entertaining. Had fun sharing the morning story with Bro. Jim...in which he had to have his hand at trying to conquer the throne... let's just say.. Throne 2: FrancisCorps 0! See pic below!

Bro. Jim wanted a go at it too!

We then headed out to have our first CR grocery experience. I would say it was a success mainly because the people were of great service and there were samples in every aisle. I think, hands down our favorite aisle was the one shown below...

Free Samples of Captain Morgan... that's right.. in the Grocery Store.

We soon checked out and headed home because we couldn't be late for the Notre Dame football game. Tom is trying to convert me to the dark side and become a fan...it might be working but I can't give him too much credit! Soon after the game we cooked our first meal together which was chicken sauteed in red wine and mushrooms... it was pretty delicious. We ended the night with a gathering on Brittany's bed laughing histerically at pictures from the previous night's dance party as well as confessing that no matter how much we say "si" and nod our heads... we have no clue what people are saying in Spanish. Oh the joy of a second language!

Sunday we headed to mass for the first time. Beautiful church, great homily... for what we could understand..., not so great of music. First of all, it is played off of a CD, second of all it has the beat of Disney music, but is 1000 times worse! We had lunch with the Friars like we will most Sundays. Fri. Victor made some delicious beef, sausages and Potatoes. Do delicious it turned our vegetarian into a carnivore! We bummed around for the rest of the day and probably had another Glee marathon. (I am having a brain fart on the rest of the day actually so I am assuming that is what we did... the problem with not keeping up... sorry!) The picture below is of the group in the garden of the Friary after Sunday mass. Good Looking group!

Myself, Friar Victor, Jelly, Brittany, Bro. J, Mateo and Tom standing in the garden our first Sunday here. Pretty good looking group if I do say so myself!

Overall the first weekend was pretty great as well as pretty chill. It was great to be able to slowly get settled in without it being super overwhelming. Even the plumbing issues weren't the worst thing in the world. Hey... let's look at it in a positive light... if the whole Med School things doesn't work out... I might have a pretty good start with a plumbing career. More stories about that to come as well... so be ready.

I am a little behind so I will try and get the next one up a little quicker... be patient with me... porfa!

A Basin of Dirty Water, Fist Pumping and Brother Sun: Welcome to FrancisCorps 12

August 21st was the day that I started my new journey of life. I arrived on the step of Court Street 1015-1017 with a few butterflies in my stomach not really knowing what to expect or who to expect. I was instantly greeted by a fellow volunteer named Mike and a family with a think accent, right away knowing they were from Long Island... or should I say "Strong Island" Jeannie? Soon enough everyone was trickling in from their specific corners of the country. I soon met Mike from Albany, Jeannie from Long Island, Amy from Buffalo, NY, Tim from Binghamton, Jelly from Laredo, TX, Brittany from Indianapolis, Matt from Durham, NC, Molly from Fairhaven, MA, Monsy from Miami, and Tom from Chambersburg, PA. A group that throughout this past week, we have formed a pretty strong bond. It has been quite an interesting ride bringing 11 recently college graduates together for one common purpose. One can say it is like college all over again with your closet friends but minus the homework... which makes it a pretty ideal way of life!

Orientation started off pretty good besides the fact it rained on us for almost two days. To keep things positive though we were here when Syracuse experienced the most rainfall in history with mas o menos (more or less) four inches of rain. This allowed for a some great group bonding time and a two/three hour game of Apples to Apples. Even though I didn't come out victorious... it LITERALLY was a blast. Hoping to get out of the rain, we headed up to Alverna Heights for a few nights for some more orientating and team bonding.....

... and did we for sure get both of those covered! We not only learned the life and times of the other volunteers, we learned who has the best knack for taking people out in the game of Mafia as well as who has the best acting skills. We also learned that a dirty basin of water can be lesson many of us can learn from. All 11 volunteers were so humbled to have their feet washed by Bro. Jim and Sr. Ann as way to remind us that we need to wash the feet of those around us. Not only in our FC (FrancisCorps) community but everyone around us. We have seen Jesus set the way for us, and now we must go out and continue this "washing" to those around us. Through this washing we can form a community, which can be represented by the gunk at the bottom of the basin. We all have our own way of doing it but in the end the gunk settles and it comes together at the bottom forming the community feeling. (Disclaimer... This is kinda an odd way of looking at community but I am trying to remember what Bro. Jim said during this time but I might have butchered it somewhat...bare with me :)

So after a couple hours of Spanish Taboo and a few more games of volleyball and a riveting game of Sardines, we packed up our bags and headed back to Syracuse. In about twenty minutes, we had our bags repacked and jumped back into the vans for a five hour drive to Seaside Heights...a.k.a..... Jersey Shore (insert fist pump here).

After a little traffic here and there, Lead-Foot Jim and Captain Tom parked us safely at our great beach house just a couple blocks from the infamous Jersey Shore Boardwalk and Beach. We spent the night enjoying the biggest pizza I have ever seen and playing a few games out on the porch while Sister moon laughed the night away!

The next morning, as well as for the rest of the week, Brother Sun was there to wake us up for another exciting day ahead of us. We did our orientating in the morning which consisting of working well within community, being good listeners (yea you heard me!) and figuring out our personality types. One morning, which was probably a favorite of all, we met the Poor Clares. A group of Contemplative sisters who live in community with each other. They are a group of amazing ladies who are working towards fulfilling the mission of St. Clare and St. Francis. Someday I will dive a little deeper on both of them. The afternoon was mainly for more group bonding which primarily took place at the beach...not a bad place for that to happen eh? Played a little volleyball, did a little swimming and body surfing, a few napskies, chasing after Snooky, and J-Wow... nothing too big. A good chance to really get to know the other members of the group.

For a couple of nights we stayed in to cook for ourselves, grillin up some delicious Shish Ka-bobs and enjoying the company of Crazy Uncle Bud and Aunt Coors. We also headed out to the Boardwalk for a meal. We had to wait a while to get our seats, but only because they were clearing the tables that Pauley D and The Situation were eating from... again no big deal :) After dinner we attempted to win ourselves the 13 member of FC 12 but some little kid was a sharp shooter on the water gun game...we believe it was rigged. The night ended in some quality dancing and fist pumping... even a little wrestling. We even caught the sunrise the next morning.

Saturday was a Free day with us so we really got a chance to get to know Brother Sun and Sister Water. We are all pretty much best friends but soon had to say goodbye once Sunday came about. We celebrated a wonderful mass with the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and talked with a few parishioner after mass. Soon after we jumped back into the car with Lead-Foot Jim and his Co-Captain, this time Monsy, and headed back to wonderful Syracuse... hoping to bring the sunshine back with us!

After hours of Disney music, Madonna, Alaina Morsette and Jewel... we successfully made it back to Cuse. Unpacked the car but soon enough jumped back in to hit up a stellar chinese restaurant for dinner. Just don't get the Beef Chow Mein... not the greatest. After dinner we popped in Dead Poet's Society and chillaxed for a while. It was the first day of work for the Cuse Volunteers the next and some more orientating for us going to Costa Rica.

The rest of the week consist of some more "housekeeping" items for the CR (Costa Rica) volunteers while the Cuse Volunteers work diligently at their new post. It is sad to see that the time together with both CR and Cuse volunteers is dwindling down but the relationships have formed and it looks pretty hard to break these bonds.

We head to Airport at 6:15 on Friday to book it out of the country so please keep us in your prayers during our journey. Please keep the other 6 volunteers here in Syracuse in your prayers as well as they continue their ministries.

I will keep you posted as life goes one but until then remember....

Continue to wash the feet of those around you, have fun and fist pump when ever you can, and thank Brother Sun and Sister Moon every chance you get!

It's all getting Closer...

It is absolutely crazy how fast the summer has gone by. I see that I wrote my last post at the end of June and now it is the middle of August... HOLY MAN! It all started off a little slow but soon enough it zipped past our eyes like no other. I only have three days before I start my orientation in Syracuse for my year of volunteering in Costa Rica. I thought I better fill y'all in on a few things that I have accomplished... or well at least attempted to accomplish before I get too far behind.

Here we go:

I actually didn't do too much this summer besides train for my half marathon and study for the not soo fun of a test MCAT. I worked a few odd jobs to get a little cash flow. Got a few dirty looks from the kids I called out on a pitch that might have been a little over their head...oh well it was only Summer Rec. Tasted a few good samples for Schwans that landed me $15 bucks each time. Stayed cool in the midst of the power washers while cleaning up those trucks and lastly worked on my tan by picking rock and bailing straw for the Regniers... haha thanks Chad! Anyway... they all helped out over the summer and who doesn't like a little physical labor here and there!

I mentioned that I studied and took the MCAT... not the greatest experience in my life...all I can say is better luck next time? I find out the score here at the end of the month so who knows, maybe it wasn't too rough. It was a difficult test but now I know and if need be, will be even more prepared for the next time I need to sit in front of computer for five hours and pull my hair out.

One of the highlights of the summer was running a successful half marathon. I think it was easier than the MCAT. I would have never thought... as would many others... that I would run 13.1 without stopping.. WHEW! I did it though and in a time of 2 hours and 15 seconds. Not too shabby! I ran it with a few friends from school and we all did great! I am thinking of keepin the training up while in Costa Rica. Go run a few mountains or volcanoes and come back and do a full marathon... don't hold your breath though :)

After taking the test and running marathon... it allowed me to focus on my packing for Costa Rica. I took my test the 5th of august, ran the 7th and was leaving for the east coast on the 11th. I didn't pack at all until after I was done with my test and the run so... I was cutting it close. I didn't have too hard of a time this time around unlike when I went to Guate. Packed my backpacking bag, a carry on and my book bag. Hopefully it will be enough... we will see!

So the 9th I spent my last night at home for the year which was a weird feeling. On the 10th I left home to head up to the cities to have one last family outing before I got on my plane to leave for the east coast. I had a great time hitting up the Mall of America and sitting in long lines for some rides. Was a blast! Also we hit up the links on the mini golf course and then ended up losing Mom in the mirror maze and having to call in the rescue team! We then headed out to Joe Sensors for dinner where Kirby, Becky and Megan all joined us for supper. Thanks again guys for being their to spend my last night in Minnesota! After a goodbye to my brother, a quick trip to Walmart of some essentials, a struggle with a sleeping bag (in which it won) I closed my eyes and to my last night in Minnesota.

It was an early wake up to catch the shuttle to the airport to stand in more long lines. Soon enough it was the time I had been dreading... saying my goodbyes to the people I care about the most. One of the most difficult things I have had to do! It was my luck that the lines started to go faster too so I was even rushed. It was quick goodbye but it maybe was for the best.. I probably would have been a huge mess otherwise.

Soon enough I was through security and kinda jogging to my gate because I was a wee bit late. Jumped on and was on my way to Allentown PA where Mary Todd was there to pick me up. We headed out to Trail's End Camp where I spent four days hanging out with some more friends before I leave. Had a blast seeing my campers from previous years and hittin up the Big A with those friends that I see once in a blue moon.

After camp Sara Fetterfoof and I got in the car and road tripped up to see Corey Bailey. I am currently in Good Ole Elmira NY, livin the dream. Did a little site seeing of Mark Twain and Ernie Davis' grave, did a little putt putt, walked a Gorge and hit up the Sand Dollar. Corey has been a great tour guide that is for sure!

Tomorrow we are headed up to Buffalo to relax on a lake and then off to Syracuse to begin the long awaited adventure! I have been truly blessed with such a great summer and family and friends that mean so much! No one could ask for anything more! I will keep you posted when things get a little closer...

Till then!

Starting it all off....

Well here it goes... the first post of my life actually and the first to start off what will about to become, cross your fingers as I am doing too, one of the best experiences of my life. I just had a recent article published in the local paper, the Minneota Mascot. I am very happy and please with how nice it was for them to contact me and how beautifully it was written! I may live in small town but it definitely has a large heart for the amount of care and support that have shown me! I hope be a great representative of our community to the new community that I will be soon entering! Thank you again all you of the Minneota Community!

Other than that, life has been continuing on. I am still currently studying for the MCAT and will be taking that July 30th in which I am asking for a prayers and few miracles here and there as well! It's a tough one but it will all be work out... I just have to keep a positive attitude!

Along with that I am also still training to Run the Minnesota Half Marathon as a fundraiser for my trip. I have to raise $1,800 for travel, medical purposes and other retreat cost. Any thing that I would raise over that will go directly to mission that I will be working for through the FrancisCorps. I will attatch the fundraising letter if you would like to take a peak at it and if you would like to make a contribution you can find all the necessary information! If you are not able to assist, I totally understand and just ask for your prayers throughout my experience!

I will write again soon to keep updates on how things are going...

Que le vaya bien! (Hope all goes well!)

Jordan

Fundraising Letter

Help Send This Chico to Help the Ticos!

Hola a Todas… or Hello All!

I am writing to share with you a vision in which God has called me to act on and has graciously given me the opportunity take part in over the next year. I believe that I have been called to live and work as a FrancisCorps Volunteer in San José, Costa Rica for one year, beginning September 3, 2010. FrancisCorps is a Franciscan sponsored faith-based volunteer program for recentely graduated Catholic-Christian college students. The work I plan to do as a volunteer will include tutoring, mentoring and assisting the students at Fernando Centeno Guell School- a school for blind, deaf and mentally challenged students in San José. I will be working with a staff of professionals including teachers, social workers, and counselors and other volunteers.

Latin proverbs states, By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn. It is my hope that my being in Costa Rica and working with the FrancisCorps will help me experience the true meaning behind this insightful quote. It will be by learning from those around me that will teach me the most that I will need to know to provide the most beneficial service I can. I have been blessed throughout my life with so many things that I hope I can in return give back to those that are less fortunate than many of us are. It is my goal to work, live and grow with the Costa Ricans so that we can learn and teach each other throughout our time together.

I ask for your prayers. My work cannot be sustained without God’s guidance and presence in my life. It will be through his wonderful and glorious works that will guide me to do what will be most beneficial for the people I will be serving and give me a chance to grow mentally, physically and spiritually. But with all things there comes a cost, in which I am writing to you today for assistance. I must raise $1,800 to assist with my travel and medical insurance expenses so that I can fulfill the wonderful experience that has called me to serve. Instead of just asking for donations, I thought I need to work a little bit for it so I have signed myself up for my first ever half marathon. I will be running the Minnesota Half Marathon on August 7th in the Twin Cities and am asking for your support through both prayers… because I will need them, and by sponsoring the 13.1 miles I will run. I was thinking you could make donations for each mile I run or if you just want to make a general donation. Please, do not feel obligated to do this; support through prayers is just as great too.

Even better for you… all donations are tax-deductible. Checks should be made out to FrancisCorps Volunteers-Costa Rica Fund. Please return your donations by July 31st. I will forward them on to Brother Jim Moore, OFM Conv, the Director of FrancisCorps or you can send them in my name to FrancisCorps Volunteers, P.O. Box 11166, Syracuse, NY, 13218.

I have enclosed a stamped, self addressed return envelope for your convenience. I promise I will keep in touch with you during my travels. If you wouldn’t mind passing on your email or mailing address, I can make sure you receive the stories and pictures of my time with the FrancisCorps. You can also keep up with me through my blog at www.jordandifferding.blogspot.com I will try and keep it updated as much as possible but I don’t want to miss out on action down there so bear with me  I also welcome any questions that you may have as well. Please feel free to contact me at 507.828.0271 or by email at jmdifferdin@gmail.com

I pray that you will share in this wonderful opportunity that God has graced me with.

Thank you so much and God Bless