Have you ever returned to a place that, years before, was familiar to you.  If so, you’ve experienced that weird feeling that things have changed.  I remember returning to the town where I grew up after a long absence.  The street into town that had been flanked by beautiful and stately maple trees was dominated by lamp posts and waist-high trees.

Forty years ago, we were living in Michigan.  We had just returned from three years in Costa Rica and Ecuador.  It was great to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with family for the first time in three years.

Earlier this year, Sylvia and I received a call from a pastor in the area.  He is with the church that organized the last mission trip that Sylvia went on to Honduras.  Would we be willing to translate for a young Costa Rican who would be visiting.  We would.  (The fellow was denied a visa and so we’re still waiting.)

After the call, I found myself thinking about San José, Costa Rica.  How much had the old neighborhood changed?  I went online to check maps and satellite images of that area.  That resulted in further study, during which I learned that the train line that ran just a few feet from our bedroom window no longer existed.  We got used to it.

Today, I discovered this image posted by El Comercio, Quito, Ecuador’s major newspaper:

Once more, it sent me to check on satellite images of the city that we had called “home.”  I don’t remember exchanges like those shown in the “then and now” image above.  Maybe this was constructed after 1975?

We had to cross a major highway to get between home and work.  Today that area sports a multiple level complex of roads.  I could see many, many other changes indicating growth and development in that oil-producing nation.

Perhaps it would be interesting to visit those places again.  They have changed.  So have I.