Costa Rica Revisted

Its now been ten years. Ten years since I last stepped foot on Costa Rican soil. Fresh out of high school and still trying to find my way in life I somehow drifted down to our continental isthmus. Into a world strange but not unkind.

In one week I'll be heading back down to that lush country, and I could not help but reminisce a little. I admit that I was young and naive when I first found myself in Costa Rica, but that only made my experiences more important. In Costa Rica I learned many life lessons: That I had been a sheltered child, a privileged child, and a child that other people would want to rob, and did. I learned that a human cannot out run a bull. That friends need not speak the same language, and are not permanent. And that Central America has an amazing array of cultural and biological diversity.

I learned these things by leaving behind what I had known and embracing difference, by speaking another language, and absorbing some cultural history found in what we eat.

Being young I traveled the rougher paths, and stayed in the cheaper hostels, and sometimes flirted with danger by drinking... tap water. And rather than other Americans joining me in these enterprises my companions were from Denmark or the British Isles, Korea or Japan. Less often did I meet fellow Americans, and less often did I want to.

Most Americans relish comfort, and it is my fear that when Americans travel in too much comfort, in too much familiarity, that they fail at traveling. Because being in another country should be to push your comfort zone, to rub abrasively against a new language and culture, and in doing so learn something about yourself and the world. Cancun is not traveling. Tijuana is not traveling. Acapulco is not traveling. Resorts, comfort, and familiarity are vacations. Americans need more travel.

Americans are poor global citizens, but I think if we can get out there and meet what's across the border that will change. The next time you travel abroad, push those boundaries, knot your tongue around another language, and I promise I'll do the same. So bring on Costa Rica Round 2. After a ten year hiatus there's nothing I could look forward to more.

Giant Hissing Cockroach - friend or foe?

My presentations with the Madagascan Giant Hissing Cockroaches at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry typically resulted in numerous shrieks from visitors.

But, many guests were also surprised to learn that these non-biting insects are highly social and oftentimes hiss to attract mates or defend their territory.

So, what is it about these creatures that makes them initially appear threatening? Is it their spiky legs or bushy antennae? Or, is the problem more deeply rooted in our cultural or evolutionary past?

According to Dr. Phillip Weinstein, a psychologist and professor at the University of Otago, entomophobia (the fear of insects, spiders, and mites) is:

1. a reasonable fear based on knowledge or experience (i.e. wasp or bee sting)
2. an unreasonable but culturally understandable repulsion, or
3. a misplaced fear resulting from inadequate information

To reduce the misplaced fears of visitors at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, my fellow educators and I emphasized the fact that the Madagascan Giant Hissing Cockroaches do not bite or attack. Instead, they make "hissing" noises that help them to attract potential mates, communicate with their young, or defend their territory from predators or other cockroaches.

As these visitors learned to empathize with a variety of organisms, they also began to learn the values of biodiversity and environmental conservation. Several previously apprehensive visitors even thanked us for helping them “overcome their fear” of Madagascan Giant Hissing Cockroaches and other insects.

So, the next time you see a "scary-looking" creature, what will you think: friend or foe?