Monday May 23, 2011
After a short night of sleeping Sunday, night we awoke early Monday raft down the famous Pucuare river east of the central highlands of San Jose. The drive to the river was a sight to see itself. For those who were able to stay awake, we bused along thin curving roads up and over the green hills and down into the valleys heading east to the Caribbean. We passed through national parks where everything was green. It was beautiful! Some of our rafting guides were able to accompany us on the drive while preparing us for the trip down the river while making sure to tell plenty of jokes. The guides humor foreshadowed what would be a day full of laughter and excitement. We were told the river would have rapids up to class 4, and we hoped the majority of us would be spared from being thrown from our boates into the raging whilpool. We spent 4 hours paddling down the river while stopping for lunch along the way. We spotted vultures, indigenous communitys, ¨jesus¨lizards, a UNESCO hertiage sight and eco lodges. The water was warm and the sky was blue, and the general sentiment was, ¨Costa Rica is Awesome!¨¨ We returned that night to our hotel and finished up the night with dance lessons in salsa, merengue and the cha cha cha with our spunky and engergetic Cosa Rican dance teacher Randall. Though we were all still recovering from our long trip here, his energy an music perked us up for the last hour of the day!
Tuesday Mary 26, 2011
On Tuesday we woke up and started preparing for our trip to La Altura, the community where we stay for the next 4 nights with families while participating in community service. Excited and anxious, we were ready to take on this experience. The anticipation of living with strangers with in an unknown rural community ignited our energy and chatter. Will they have kids? What will we talk about? Will I like the food? What if they don´t understand me? We talked about local customs and cultural differences to help us be good house guests in the community. Some things were going to be very different! Once on the bus, our leaders gave each of us a letter from our homestay family. It was great to know what our families were like, and to know they were excited for our arrival. On our way, we stopped in the city of San Ramon to change money and eat lunch. Our drive continued through the rolling hills of rural Costa Rica for another hour through endless Fincas on either side of our bus. Costa Rica seemed to produce it all from milk, coffee, yucca, bananas and much more. When we arrived to La Altura, our bienvenido (welcome) was so incredible, the people of La Altura went far beyond what we had imagined. At the school, some 100 people waited for us to welcome us into their community. Girls as young as 5 wore traditional dresses of bright pink, orange, blue and green. The children surrounded us and grabbed our hands to lead us into the school. Once we were all seated the community proceeded to welcome us with dances, speeches food and drinks. Kids attached themselves to us musing over our curious faces and asking endless questions. Finally we were introduced one by one to our homestay families. After a warm embrace and many smiles we all dispersed to our houses for the remainder of the evening. We spent the evening eating, playing games, sharing photos and getting to know one another. This was a special experience for both the families and us as it is the first time hosting students, and most of our first time in a homestay. We knew it would be an experience both sides will remember always.
Wednesday May 25, 2011
Rise and shine chicos! The sun rises early here, so do the people of La Altura. Some of us woke up around 6 am. But it wasn´t a big deal because we all went to sleep around 9! Compared to the life of a high school student who generally doesn´t sleep much, it wasn´t too bad! We ate a generous breakfast of beans, rice, tortillas, tamales and fried bananas, cheese, chicken and juice .–typical Costa Rican fare. We have learned by now that rice and beans will likely accompany each meal we eat. But we actually love the food. We love the flavor, the freshness and the care and love it is made with by our homestay moms. Today was our first of 2 days of service in La Altura. We were impressed by the community and their organization. The project they wanted to focus on was working on their school. The projects included: painting the entire school yellow and green, planting plants outside, painting the rusty fence around the outside, planting a garden for food to cook for the students lunches and building a wall inside the school to separate the two classrooms that were previously open. We had our work cut out for us and spent 6 hours working in the Costa Rcan sun. We felt our impact today, it was huge. At the end of the day the community planned an afternoon of games with us. Most of the children and families of the community came. They wanted to share their games with us. In reality they were all games we play at home, which was neat to see. Their games consisted of: potato sack races, relays with spooons and limes, musical chairs, group jump roping, and wheelbarrow races. At the end some of us competed in a game called ¨make your homestay mom a mummy¨ where we had 3 minutes to wrap our homestay moms in toilet paper like a mummy! The crowd judged the winner by applause. We ended the evening with dancing! The community brought a stereo and the teenage girls of the community taught us a few dances they choeographed. We LOVED it! Luckily all 20 of us, guys and girls are in love with dancing, we danced, sweat, sang with our new friends and families until sunset. As we left the school the sun was beginning to set. The sky to the north was fiery the colors ranging from pink to orange red and yellow. One girl showed us in the distance, was Volcan Arenal, the most active volcano in the world. It´s dark silouette was stark in the rosey sky. Though it wasn´t smoking in the moment, but the forescent sky lit it up on the horizon.
Our trip is halfway over. Hard to believe! We will finish our service in La Altura, followed by an adventerous day of canyoneering. Saturday we head to the beach for some surftime, and we will return to San Jose on Monday to end the trip.