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Costa Rica Alumni COSTA RICA 7/04 This is Amanda #2. Today was a very long, (yet productive!) day. We finished making the bridge and it looks great. I was incredibly hungry right around lunch time and was pleasantly surprised when I was served fried chicken at Carmen’s house! It made me miss the fried chicken back at home. Everyone here in El Sur is just so friendly, always welcoming us with a warm smiling face. Every meal is a new adventure. I feel very comfortable with each family I encounter, and feel very at home. Before I left for Costa Rica, a few friends of mine said that the “ticos” are very friendly. They were right! It’s just great. Tonight we all made smores by the fire and sat around and talked. I was in absolute heaven! The chocolate was awesome with hazelnuts in it! Afterward, Ronald played the guitar and sang! It was a really mellow and relaxing night that brought everyone together. Everyday that passes is another chance to experience how different life can be. It’s an experience how different life can be. It is an experience that I am sure that I will remember! Beginning at 6 am, 6 of us set out with Roy in a “bird watching” hike. The plan was to begin working on completing the bridge at 7 am that we had begun the day before. Our bird outing ended 3 hours later. Roy took us on some side trails and we saw a green parrot, a hummingbird, and 2 big beautiful light blue butterflies that flew along the stream. I was so hot that I emptied my pockets and dove in for an unscheduled, chilly, rejuvenating dip. We ended up at a secluded stream following a 30-minute decent along the side of a steep incline. On the way back up, the heat, humidity, and the muddy terrain left me panting and diaphonic. I pulled it together enough to complete the journey. What began as a leisure bird watching outing evolved into a battle against exhaustion. Bird watching was supplemented by obtaining sufficient oxygen on my personal priority list. There was the contrast of untouched natural beauty with stifling heat, traitorous footing, and heavy humidity. Once back from our morning stroll, it was back to work on the bridge. By noon, the final touches on the bridge were done and the highly needed “free time” was the reward. This is Andrea. It’s been a long few days! So far, I’ve got a few great memories from this trip. The drunk guy dancing in the bar and doing somersaults into the wall, hearing “Do you believe” by Cher blasting from one of the houses, the 3 puppies(so cute), pluse everyone I’ve met and befriended since I’ve been here. We’ve had some good times when we’re not working. Playing card games in the cabinas and talking about everything (literally). That’s the problem with all the girls/kids cabina – we talk until wee hours of the morning and don’t really sleep. Oh well! We’ve been sleeping more since we started our projects. So far I’ve been working on rebuilding the bridge! Es mucho trabajo! The group has also been painting the school and teaching some English classes. The kids here are so adorable! They love hanging out with us in our Cabina. It’s fun. Although there are some bad things about this trip. All the bites I have on my legs from those stupid flying ants, the freezing showers, and the bird that has it’s nest in the rafters of our cabina. That bird flaps around the ceiling and wakes me up! There are defiantly more good things than bad though. Everyone here is so friendly, especially at meals! I thought it would be awkward eating at someone’s house, but it’s not. We always find things to talk about. I’m surprised how easily I can understand the Spanish here – probably because no one talks too fast. I love being able to practice my Spanish. Everyone says it’s very good, but I am not sure. At least it’s getting better. OK, here is a night-by-night schedule of what we’ve done. Saturday: dinner with the village in the salon. Sunday: ate with Carmen and got a tour of his sugar processing “plant” in the backyard, Ronald sang to us, we went to mass to see 2 baptism, played some pool at the bar. Monday: started to work on the bridge, coffee tasting (Costa Rican coffee is really good), and dinner with Alberto, the Governor of the town, went to the bar for karaoke night! Dad and Dean sang a few songs, Andrea and me sand “Killing me Softly” horribly and played lots of pool. That was also the night when the really drunk guy was trying to break dance. It was very entertaining. Today we worked on the bridge again. I cleaned the planks and made the bridge suspensions with dad. Mucho trabajo! Lunch with Alejandra and Mario, went to someone’s house to watch them make a coconut bar thing with lots of coconut and lots of sugar. It was pretty good! Now, time for a recap on the futbal (soccer) game. I was the only girl of the 3 we started with that finished the game. I played defense fairly well. I was told and only got hit 4 times! Oh well! It was fun! Now, estoy cansada y quiero tomar una siesta! Hi it’s Hannah! We only have one full day left in the rainforest of Costa Rica. Lets ee, we’ve built bridges, milked cows, painted, taught English, learned Spanish, rode horses (and motorcycles), gone swimming, planted seedlings, danced, sang, ate, fed the dogs and bonded with the village people. It’s been a great experience meeting everyone and helping everyone. I also had a lot of fun walking and hanging out with my cabina friends! We spend most of our nighttime at the “bar”. We bought like half the store for only 500 colones. Last night me and Sarah ate ant Nena’s house, and a few times, bugs would get zapped and fall dead from the light onto the table. I’ve tried multiple fruit juices and some interesting food! This is the third week of mission work I’ve done so far this summer, and honestly, before I came to this trip I was not too excited about working in the hot sun for people I don’t know-with people that I don’t know-for the third time in 2 months. But not knowing people here is not at all the case. All the volunteers have gotten along fairly well and the Costa Ricans treat us all like family that hasn’t visited in a while. This trip has turned out to be better than what I had expected already, and we have several days to go. I cant say I just love all the new juices I’ve tried here, but the food itself is awesome. The work here isn’t unbearable because it’s only for a few hours in the (early) morning. The biggest surprise for me was that everyone here goes to bed around 9:00. That for me back home is just about the time to go out until curfew brings me back home! So it’s a little weird . I love the mountains because Florida has none what so ever! I don’t mind all the up hill treks, because I know after we leave it will be a really, really long time before I go up anything but stairs. And the first time I got bit by any sort of insect was this morning on our walk (more like journey) to the bat tree. And I don’t even wear bug repellent. I guess I have bad blood. Even though I speak minimal Spanish (Hola…como estas…that’s all) it doesn’t seem to be a major problem. Enough people speak a bit of English that there isn’t total silence in a conversation. Either that or Sarah help us out – she’s awesome by the way! I learned the necessary phrases: No habla espaniol, no encantado, ans no se once. Good stuff to know. I also learned that bug spray takes off nail polish – yet another great thing to know (just kidding like when am I going to need to know that?) Everything else I learned has been very useful, and the people I’ve met and befriended, I will never forget. This is Steve. Today is Monday. It’s been raining since 4 O’clock this morning. It’s now 6:30 local time. The skies were lit up before the rain storm with light shows of lightning flashes. It’s peaceful with the steady rain, the birds are chirping away. We lost electricity last night, apparently that happens often. That is one of the challenges the Villagers face in El Sur. Sarah is getting the girls up. We are off to work on the first bridge that crosses the creek heading out of the pueblo to some of the houses. The center of town has a few houses, the church, the community center, and a store/bar. On the other side of the creek, up the hill are several other homes. Each night we split up in two ‘s or three’s and have dinner at someone else home. Last night Andrea and I ate at the Sanchez’s house. They have lived in El Sur for 50 years; many of the younger generation in town are their family. According to Carmen, there used to many more families in the village, but most have moved to San Jose because there is no way to make a living in El Sur, except for farming. It’s the objective of Globe Aware to help these people attract tourism to help provide a living for the families. Last night after dinner, we went over to the store. They had karaoke night. I think Dean did the best, when he sang the Beatles. Carry defiantly took the prize with her Salsa steps. We came back to the cabanas and the girls discovered was a bird resting on the ledge of the A frame roof. They ascended, being the naturalist that they are to leave the rest of the cabana for the duration. The setting in the mountains is picturesque. The flora and the fawn are abundant. Scott is intrigued with the different types of birds and somewhat knowledgeable about which one to watch for. Yesterday when Andrea and I were getting a tour of Carmen’s sugar processing shop, his wife screamed something in the background. Carmen ran to the woodpile, grabbed a plank and bolted into the chicken coop. He proceeded to stun a snake that was clearly in the hen house trying to snatch some eggs. It was about 4 feet long, beautiful, iridescent green pattern. He’ll know better than to mess with Carmen again. Last interesting note for now. There are mosquitoes around, but surprisingly few. I can’t figure out why, but will continue to explore. Kinds of bizarre giving our cabinas are right by a river and the fact it rains everyday. Today now marks the second day of playing in poo, horse or cow, who knows. I’ve got to admit this is definitely a trip of new experiences. Never before have I mucked out stables, poured poo mixed with soil into Baggies, or milked a cow. You haven’t lived life until you’ve stood out in the hot Costa Rican sun with piles of steaming poo all around. Besides the work, I’ve had the opportunity to try more types of fruits than I knew existed, some of which I’m not even sure classify as fruit. It’s very neat how every single one of them can be turned into juice. The people here are wonderful, completely open and friendly, always eager to assist; their patience is pretty astounding when it comes to our horrible attempts at speaking their native language. If it were me I would probably end up muttering “dumb tourist” (in Spanish of course) under my breath. After the first two days of listening to people botch my native language. Luckily, these people aren’t nothing like me. In the 2 or so hours since I began writing screams have filled the air at least 2 times. First on the return journey from Carmen’s house when bushes began to move and shadows appeared on the road. Because of that, Annie and I had the chance to meet new people as they rushed from their homes to aid us! The second round of screams stemmed from the appearance of a very large spider (a wolf spider), creeping closer to Annie’s head. The scream originated with me, but was closely followed by Annie and Amanda who immediately rushed out to retrieve Scott. Seconds later Scott rushed in to save the day, ready to combat the evil, vicious, spider. After attempting the humane approach first, Scott quickly realized that just would not do at all. Grabbing the nearest shoe, the spider was soon smashed into an early grave. Needles to say, the usage of bug spray has now doubled, if not tripled, since the incident. Beds were remade at least twice more and mosquito nets are a favorite (full body coverage). So far this has been a great trip, one I wouldn’t hesitate to do again. Without the mutant spiders ans killer ants this would be a great place to stay! My Stay in Costa Rica: When we first arrived our fearless leader asked us what we had expected our trip to be like and to have some goals. Before I arrived in Costa Rica, I had no clue what to expect. My daughter, Amanda, had researched it on the Internet and decided it was time mom got out more and Amanda is very persuasive. I liked the idea of a new place, new people, helping people, and seeing the rain forest because I love nature and being outside but had no idea of what was to come. First of all when you arrive the countryside is incredibly beautiful. Everything so rugged and green, really amazing. Our cabinas were cozy and less rustic than I expected. Cold water is always a bit of a shack each day though. After being here almost a week, what is best of all is the wonderful people you meet. The ones from the group from all over and all different stages (me being the eldest of the bunch!) to the Pueblo. They are the warmest group of people I had ever came across. They were very helpful with my Spanish. One of my goals had been to get more comfortable speaking and I did because they never made you to feel silly but helped. All of our mixed were mixed up with English and Spanish lessons going on or simultaneously. I thoroughly enjoyed meal times and getting to know the families. Each one welcomed you into their homes with great hospitality and sincerity. What a week! From an incredibly long journey up to El Sur with quite a few detours to take in the scenery ( no, of course, the driver was lost!) seeing crocodiles, and tasting exotic fruit juices, to building bridge, football matches with the locals (from which physically and emotionally second) to smores, it’s beer and an action packed adventure for all. I don’t think that I am alone in feeling that I have learned more from the villagers than they have from me. Eating at different houses everyday has been wonderful, as has the impromptu guitar sessions outside. Gerry’s dancing lessons, everyone’s seemingly endless enthusiasm for getting up at 5 am, and the atmosphere and involvement between villagers and locals. If we weren’t so obviously Gringo’s, it would be difficult to tell who just arrived and who was visiting for 1 week, and who had been friends or family for decades. Everything about El Sur makes the work and mosquitoes (even scorpions) worthwhile – the people, the astonishing natural beauty, the surprise encounters with the various beasties, the list is endless. It’s been a truly inspiring week to see so many people ready to help and ready to learn and really embrace a new experience – I hope all groups get as much out of a week volunteering in El Sur as this one has. Cant wait to see the 3000 photos we must have accumulated between us! Thank you one and all for an excellent week! Costa Rica is a rough, steep, green country and is very cool “Pur Vida” as the ticos say. I thought not speaking Spanish was going to be a problem, but it wasn’t. I learned a few say words and was able to use motion. Probably not far off from cave people, bit it worked. So it is the last night at “fat camp” and I have finally been pressured into writing into this journal. For the last day we didn’t have any work and took a leisurly break from hard labor. We headed to the cascades at 8am (we got to sleep in) wich took about 1 ½ hours. We were able to play in the swimming hole and get natural massages from the falls. And yes it felt like we hiked up hills both ways. Luckily we finally got to see a snake (aka serpinte) which was across the entire road – must’ve been at least 8 feet. After the hike it was free time that was mostly packing, waiting lunch and showering. Everyone a;so tasted the tamales that were made the other day before getting ready for the fiesta. The fiesta went well and everyone seemed to enjoy the American treats of buffalo jerky, clam chowder, and bagel chips. After eating we danced a bit to American music and Costa Rican music… cumbia was the dance we were taught and we past on the electric slide. Now it’s back to packing, passing around email addresses and last minute bonding. Farwell El Sur! Our experience in El Sur Turrubares was exceptionally wonderful because we really felt involved with the community, El Sur is a fine and fascinating place, the food and drink were excellent (very healthy -- much better than the food I eat at home), the cabinas were very pleasant and convenient, and the country is outrageously beautiful. Either we were especially lucky with respect to bugs, or the bug situation was overstated, because I only ended up putting on repellent twice, and I didn't bother with a mosquito net. I developed especial respect and affection for Mario. He was always available to help us and never complained. He was a fine trail crew chief (our main work project was the trail). His competence in all things was truly amazing -- he seemed to be expert at every type of work done in El Sur, and his knowledge and interest in the plants and wildlife were profound. He is very quiet but can have fun too -- he joined us for a little karaoke at the cantina on July 4th. It was very nice that he took our English classes as well! I had a particular project that I wanted to do -- making a map of the trail -- which was not on his wish-list, but he took quite a bit of time to help me with it. I hope they will find it valuable! Thanks again for a truly excellent experience! --Rachel Wing I loved how involved we were with the planning of the w or k projects, that gave us m or e ownership of them. Ceaser was a great leader, and he listened to our ideas. -- Megan Tepper-Rasmussen Thank you f or providing opportunities like this. I hope m or e people have a great experience like mine. It was one of my best experiences in life. I was expecting to find a town who needed help, but not people who were so open and ready to learn about us and teach us about them. Describe any surprise you learned about the culture you visited. I was impressed by the close knit families and the lack of conflict/tension between parents and children. I think that this program is excellent. I would love to do another one sometime. --Stephanie Geewax I had a great experience. I had a fun group of volunteers and the people of the village were great. -- Matt Wallace I had a great time this week and felt the program was very well ran and planned out. I learned a lot about the culture here, practiced a lot of Spanish and had a lot of fun. Top 10 list of things you miss (or don't miss) about Costa Rica 10. You were thinking about throwing your used toilet paper away when you got home (but you're glad you didn't)
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