The following
entry is by Lindsey, a volunteer who recently helped us out at our Hojancha
Daycare Center Project:
Heading
to Costa Rica
After graduating college
and before starting full-time work I wanted to do something where I felt I was
making a difference. So, I packed my bags and headed down to Costa Rica
where I was welcomed by some of the most incredible people I have ever
met. I was able to spend a week in the town of Hojancha staying with a
host family and teaching English at the local Daycare Center.
Meeting
My Host Family
When I arrived in Hojancha
I was welcomed with open arms by my host family. Carmen and
Carlos along
with their daughters Karla and Gabby, and grandsons Carlos Eduardo and Jose
Maria immediately made me feel at home. Throughout my week there they
introduced me to many aspects of their life which made it very special for
me. I had the pleasure of meeting some of their extended family, visiting
their farm, attending a birthday party, watching them package their own brand
of coffee and so much more. They included me in everything they did and
made this a very wonderful experience.
Off to
School
On my first day of classes
I headed off to the Daycare Center with Carlos Eduardo where I met up with
Ricardo from Tropical Adventures. Ricardo introduced me to Cecilia, the
maestra, and all of the children I would get to play with all week. I was
warmly greeted by everyone there and was quickly taken it as part of the
group. Within five minutes of being there they had me dancing in circles
and singing songs in Spanish. I knew very little of what I was singing,
but the kids got a kick out of me pretending to have the nose
of an elephant
and acting out the other words of the song right along with them. The
entire week they included me in everything they did. When we were playing
chef they put an apron and hair net on me. When we were walking to lunch
they would take my hand and walk with me. And when there was a birthday
party they shared their party favors with me. The entire staff did a great
job of making me feel comfortable. They did everything from walking me
home to make sure I got there safely to making sure I had enough to eat at
lunch.
Teaching
English at the Daycare Center…
Words cannot explain how
rewarding it was to see the kids’ excitement to learn English. They would
all bring me books and toys and games and ask me over and over how to say the
words. Their enthusiasm would keep smiling all day! One of my
favorite stories is about a four-year-old named Fabian. We were learning
actions and he asked probably twenty to thirty times how to tell his parents he
wanted to take a ‘shower’. His desire to perfect even just one word was
really touching.
… And
What it Was like Not Knowing Much Spanish
Truthfully, having only one
semester of Spanish was a little difficult at first. The kids knew that I
spoke English but had a little harder time understanding that I didn’t know
much Spanish. A lot of our communicating seemed like a game of charades
which turned out to be a lot of fun. By the end of the week they had
helped to teach me Spanish and talking with them got easier. Yes, I went
with the intention of teaching English but looking back I realize that those
kids taught me more than I could ever have hoped to teach them.
Saying
Goodbye to All the Incredible People
The hardest part about the
entire week was saying goodbye to everyone. On my last day at the school
each of the students made me a paper flower. On the back they had written
‘con amor’ (with love) and their name. Each and every one of them gave me
a flower along with a hug and a kiss and said thank you. It was extremely
touching and made it all the more difficult to leave them. Having to say
goodbye to my host family was just as hard. I was only there for such a
short time but they really made me feel like part of the family and I will
never forget the wonderful time I had with them.
What a week it has been! Last week the whole Tropical Adventures team (Scott, Isaac, Ricardo, Mauro, Roberto, Susan and Sarah) went on a wonderful trip to visit some of our projects in the North West of Costa Rica. We first took a visit to the Arenal volcano area to meet with some of our trusted tour providers and were lucky enough to get to sample 'canyoneering'. This is a Costa Rican past-time which involves abseiling up to 200 meters down waterfalls and jumping through rock pools in the rainforest – well done to Susan for getting over her fear of heights!! What excitement it was to lie in bed at night looking up at a smoking volcano!
We spent the last three days in Guanacaste
region where Ricardo, our project co-coordinator for that area, took us to the
sea-turtle conservation project at Camaronal where we got to do as the
volunteers do and did a beach patrol in the night where we made sure that
turtle eggs were buried above the high-tide mark to maximize their chance of
survival and watched out for the many turtle egg poachers 'hueveros' there are
(eggs are illegally sold in Costa Rica as a specialty food and to bars as an
appetizer drink). We came across an egg poacher and some of his family
waiting in the sand dunes for turtles coming in to lay their eggs.
The
eggs are sold at a high price and for people in the community who barely earn
enough to survive it felt unnerving to have to turn them away. They have
probably been taking and selling turtle eggs for many years and may have little
understanding of their effect on the population of turtles in this area.
However, it so important to protect this endangered species by ensuring
the eggs are buried in the right place and left to hatch – we were told by the
rangers there that only 1 in 1000 eggs laid actually turn into a turtle that
survives into adulthood. This is why the night patrols are key in
preventing eggs being washed away or stolen. It was such a wonderful sight
to see several turtles laying their eggs. They didn't seem to mind our
presence at all and we all watched in awe.
We
also visited the elementary school and day-care centre in Hojancha where our
volunteers spend time teaching and mentoring students and leading sports, arts
and crafts and other recreational activities. The children love having
the volunteers there to play with and learn from
and this allows the head-teacher to get on with tasks she doesn't often get
time to do. It was great to see so many happy and playful children at the
day-care centre. It's a place where young children from less privileged
areas go to play and learn important life skills such as how to eat healthily
and how to brush their teeth. The centre ensures that every child gets a
good meal – something very important for their development and health. You can see some more photos of the day-care centre on our website here.
We
spent a night at both the Monte Alto and Barra Honda National Parks where our
volunteers are involved in erosion control, path maintenance, tourist assistance
and environmental education. At Barra Honda, our lovely friendly Costa
Rican guide, Norman, took us to the underground caves – which was an adventure
in itself – an underground world millions of years old where we squeezed,
climbed and crawled our way through. The views from the top of the
mountain there over the Nicoya valley area were spectacular. We stayed
one night with a wonderful couple who were so proud and welcoming to
have us at their home and cooked us a huge feast for breakfast – the
hospitality and warmth of the Costa Rican people is so humbling. The howler
monkeys were also out in force and provided a good wake-up call in the morning.
We
were also lucky enough during the week to get a free surfing lesson at the surf
school we recommend to volunteers in Tamarindo and try out a canopy tour (by zip-line) – one
of Costa Rica's must-dos. Well, I can think of worst jobs.
It
was great for the whole team to get a really good understanding of our projects
and tours in this region and it was wonderful to spend the week with the rest
of the team, getting to know each other better. We are 7 people
from different corners of the globe and it is fantastic to all be working
together for the same cause. We hope that when our volunteers come, the
projects and people they meet will impact them as much as they did with us over
the past week.
Pura
Vida,
Sarah
Morris
Marketing
Intern.
Check out some videos of the trip on our Facebook group here:
We're very excited to announce that our new intern, Sarah Morris, will
be arriving from England tomorrow. Sarah will be working with us for 4
months as our marketing intern.
Sarah grew up on a farm in rural England and studied Human Sciences at
University College London where her thesis focused on the idea of
integrating indigenous medicine in Africa into formal health care
systems and whether or not this could or should be achieved.
She has since worked as a marketing executive for a media market
research
agency in London, however, her love of travel, adventure and
discovering
other cultures continues to divert her to other areas of the globe.
She
loves meeting and learning from people of different nationalities and
she is looking forward to experience living in Costa Rica and learning
about its culture, environment and politics.
Sarah says, "I am looking forward to
being part of the Tropical Adventures team and being able to further
the involvement in its community and environmental projects."
Well, Sarah, know that we're excited and honored to have you as part of our team. Welcome to Costa Rica!
As crazy as it sounds, we’re already preparing
for our Tropical Adventures’ Christmas Projects. This is happening for two
reasons: For starters, we have a big demand on people interested in
participating in the big Christmas parties that we provide for our communities,
and second, because it’s time-consuming organizing these events. We really need
to start now to have everything in order by December.
Although it is a lot of work for a small
foundation such as Tropical
Adventures, last year we created four big beautiful
events. The first one was our La Flor
Christmas Party. For those of you who
have been in La Flor, you know what a beautiful town this is. The fresh air,
the spectacular view of the charming Orosi Valley, the endless vegetables
gardens, the humbleness and sweetness of the people, the innocent vibe of this
place is just indescribable. All of our volunteers have left this project with
tears in their eyes.
What we did last year here was amazing. The
place where we hosted the party was beautiful and big enough for all the
guests. The day couldn’t have been more
perfect; they sun was brighter than ever and the endless mountains were
witnesses to this fun party. We hired a big inflatable bouncy slide to
entertain 185 people (kids, host families, teachers, volunteers and friends.) We also had ice cream, hot dogs, drinks, pop
corn, lots of games, gifts, music, nutritional evaluations for the kids and
their parents, and at the end, a big piñata (Frosty, the snowman) full of candies.
It really was a glorious day.
Two days later we were in the Puerto Viejo Area. This is where Tropical Adventures started.
Our very
first project was here (teaching English in the Hone Creek and the
Puerto Viejo elementary schools.) This is where we have been for three years already;
our heart is in this area. Beautiful
host families have supported us with loving care for our volunteers. Puerto
Viejo has been our dream as a foundation and it has been the place where we’ve
seen the biggest change as an organization.
For this party, we asked one of our dear
friends if we could use his hotel to host the party, Kaya’s Place. The place
was perfect. We decorated the entire place with balloons, lots of games for the
kids, great snacks, drinks, excellent support from the hotel staff. It was a
party on the Caribbean Coast. The ocean was in front of us and the tropical
breeze was refreshing. We didn’t have a
piñata for this party, but we had live music and an excellent fire show.
All of
our Puerto Viejo friends were present that day. Good times.
Our third Christmas party was on the Bribri Indigenous
Reservation in the town of Bambu. It was a sunny
December morning in Costa
Rica. We arrived there around 10 in the morning full of gifts, food, great
enthusiasm and party decorations. When
we arrived, Sister Blanca was finishing the daily morning exercises with the
residents in the activity room. We were trying not to disturb the residents
with our presence when we got there (we wanted to be respectful of their
space), but Sister Blanca encouraged us to play music
and start the party
immediately, so we did. The residents were extremely playful that day. We all started to join in and play with them.
We danced, played with bubbles, balloons and typical Costarican games. We
provided a lot of food (fruit cocktails, drinks, lunch, ice cream, pastries,
coffee, tea and shakes). We gave away gifts at the end, thanks to all the donations
we received through the year from all of our supporters. It was a fun,
satisfying and beautiful day. This party was different; it was more about sharing with the residents
and just “being there,” if you know what we mean.
Our last party was hosted in the big Cultural
Center of Bambu, also on the Bribri Indigenous Reservation.
It was a rainy day and
we seriously didn’t know if we were going to make it all the way to Bambu. The small
rivers on the way there were transformed into big rivers. Two of our cars were
damaged that day trying to cross the rivers, but we made it in one piece! When
we got there, everyone in the community was waiting for us. So, they all helped
us out with the decorations.
In total, we had seventeen folks volunteer with
us for this party. It was quite the scene! If you can imagine, we had the
majestic cultural center surrounded by the rain forest and lots of kids
everywhere waiting for the action. For this party, we invited all 75 of the students
from the Bratsi School, host families, teachers, retirement home staff,
neighbors and friends in general. All of
our guests had a great time; it really was one of those unique experiences in
life. Just getting there was a lot of work, but
it was so worthwhile. The most
fun games ever, great surprises for the winners, ice cream, candies, hot dogs,
drinks, cakes, great gifts for all the kids donated by the Schneider family,
toothbrushes for everyone, great food packages for the host families donated by
the company Magui, and the big finale, the Piñata, which was devoured by the
kids. It was the best time ever.
Just a few days after this party, the Segehuis
family visited Costa Rica from Canada to volunteer with us. They brought more
than a hundred backpacks, with all the necessary supplies for the school year
for each one of the kids on the Indigenous Reservation.
This year we’re going to be adding a Christmas
party in Guanacaste (Camaronal, Hojancha, Monte Alto, Barra Honda and the
Monkey Park Animal Refuge.) This has been our first year working in the
Guanacaste Province, and it has been a tremendous start for us in this area.
Last year when we did these types of events for
the first time, we were kind rolling with the punches and
going with the flow. We were receiving endless calls from
individuals and families who kept asking for our plans for the holidays as an
organization, so we came up with the Christmas Parties and the Summer Camp in
Puerto Viejo. We received a lot of support from friends and volunteers with
lots of donations and gifts. Past volunteers such as Phyllis and her husband
came for the second time to volunteer with us. Almost all of our past
volunteers sent Christmas presents for their host families, and we already have
people in Puerto Viejo asking us for the Summer Camp in December.
This year, it is our decision to continue with
this legacy of beautiful work. We’re planning on hosting
five big Christmas
parties. This is how we want to spend our holidays, bringing joy where is
needed and doing something great for these communities. They deserve it. If you
are a past volunteer, and you’re reading this, you know what we’re talking
about.
There are no words to describe how wonderful it
is to celebrate with these fantastic and loving people. If
you feel you are
called to share your time with us and others this holiday season, know we’d
love to have you join us!
Traveling to Costa Rica to volunteer with Tropical Adventures at La
Escuela del Rio Negro was unmistakably the most memorable experience of my life
as of yet.
I first arrived at the San Jose airport and
after being dropped off at the bus
stop I quickly realized that for the next
two weeks interactions in English may be very scarce (besides those with
Tropical Adventures Staff). Having
studied a lot of Spanish in high school, I
quickly adjusted and began talking with the locals and ended up having very
interesting discussions. Being comfortable with Spanish was a must once I met
my host family, who spoke only Spanish.
Living with a host family is a unique experience
to say the least. I believe it is the best way to see the biggest cultural
differences in Costa Rica in the shortest amount of time. I was exposed to
different foods, lifestyles, and even some foreign TV programming. I always
felt safe and accepted with my host family.
The school at which I volunteered
was also right across the street. Not only was
this convenient, but it allowed
me to get to know students from the school before and after classes; some
students were even friends with Berta's (my host mom's) grandchildren, and thus
were constantly running throughout the house! The students were cute, funny,
but most importantly seemed heavily enthused about learning English. I almost
forgot, they were amazing at Frisbee!
In addition to volunteering, I also had some
time set aside to indulge in some tours of Costa Rica's natural attractions.
White water rafting and zip lining through the rainforest turned out to be an
awesome way to see some beautiful sights and experience true adventure in the
wild. I was lucky enough to meet some awesome people on both tours and have an
overall great time!
My name is Markus and I’m from Zurich in Switzerland. After more than two months now with Tropical Adventures, I really don’t know where to start. Let’s try at the beginning ….
When I was back home looking for something different to do with my upcoming holidays, I knew it would probably involving volunteering at some point. Then I surfed the Internet a lot. Somehow, I can’t remember how I found out about Tropical Adventures, but when I found them – I knew right away that was the program I had been looking for.
It looked like a good mix of travel to places with some tours and adventure and, it had the volunteering component I was looking for. Because all my arrangements had to be kind of last minute, I was a little worried it wouldn’t work out. But after a couple emails and telephone calls, everything seemed to fall into place. Roberto from the office in Costa Rica answered all my questions promptly and clearly.
When I arrived in Costa Rica, I was met by their driver, Manuel, and was immediately taken very good care of. After spending a night in a hostel near the airport in Alajuela, I was escorted once again the next day by Manuel to the bus station to go to the town of Puerto Viejo. Everything was already taken care of, and Manuel helped me find an ATM and take care of any needs I had.
My Spanish is very limited, so I was a little worried what would happen but again, all for nothing. Just
when I exited the bus, my coordinator, Mauro, was there to take me to my wonderful host family. The first week I kind of stayed in my own little paradise, teaching English to kids in the Cocles Elementary School, which I went to with the bicycle I rented for the week. First I thought, "Bicycles here? That’s crazy in this heat!" Yes, I sweat like never before, and the road conditions are everything else but bicycle-friendly, but soon I learned to love my bike and the freedom it afforded me.
The kids in the school where fantastic. Since I'm not good with Spanish, and English is not my first language, and I never been a teacher, again I was worried. But not only did the kids learn English from me, I learned lots and lots of Spanish from them. They even recognized me when I passed by the school 8 weeks later – that was a wonderful feeling – and for me it showed that my work meant something to them as well. That’s the experience I was looking for when I planned to volunteer.
I spent the next 2 weeks in Bambu, a little community on the Bribri Indigenous Reservation. There I
worked with the kids from the Bratsi School and in the retirement home. It was completely heartwarming just to see how much both the young and the old people enjoyed our company. They got really attached to us in those 2 weeks while we were there.
This time we didn't stay with a host family, but instead we stayed at the Community Center with Danilo (our local host). The place is amazing. It’s really just like a tree house. The whole community there was wonderful, the traditional food, the way of living. Everyone got so attached to the place, I just couldn't believe it. But after the 2 weeks were over, all of us had tears in our eyes when we were leaving.
The tours we did together here are something I will never forget. The 2-day trip over to Panama, just mind-blowing… I thought I’m kind of fit to walk for a couple of hours. We have some pretty strenuous mountains back at home. Here the first part was easy. Hiking for 2 hours on a good path, sometimes in the shade from the trees, sometimes in the hot sun. And let me tell you, it
gets hot. I had plenty of water, at least I thought so, for the first four hours. Then the path began more and more to disappear into the jungle, and walking got harder and harder, especially because most of the locals coming through here come on horses. So the path was super muddy from the horses’ tracks and the rain (it was the rainy season, but so far I had not seen too much of it, luckily).
At one point I had to sit down, and Isaac started feeding me with crackers, our guide told me our destination wasn't more than a 15-minutes walk from here. Then for me...luck! A man and his daughter on a horse came by. The girl,
maybe 12 years young, must have noticed my condition and offered me her horse for the rest of the way. Usually I would have declined, but not this time. I was happy not to walk the rest of the way (which was 25 minutes on a horse.) The little girl walked the whole way, like it was nothing, practically
flying from rock to rock. Later we found out what we just did in more than 4
hours, she does every day to get to school...in less than half an hour!!!How crazy is that? Now I know I have to do more sports, or working out. But all the hard work was absolutely worth what was waiting for us. The pristine, tropical and nearly undiscovered waterfall close to the very small cabin we stayed for the night -- that’s what you never find on your normal “all inclusive holiday.”
The next week I spent at the Camaronal Sea Turtle Project. It was completely far away from civilization,
as you might imagine. When we arrived there my first thought was: "Oh my god....noooo!" Now in retrospect, I think I would absolutely want to stay at that place for 1 or even 2 months. Domenica, Julian and German -- the project staff from MINAE (Ministry of the Environment) are the most welcoming
people one person could possibly imagine. My Spanish improved a lot in the first couple of weeks, but here I really had to practice it, and it was easy to speak to them after opening myself up to the idea. And it was not only the little small-talk that tourists usually have with the locals; we could speak about anything. But especially everything about the project interested me – and the knowledge they have about all of the projects and the animals and the surrounding area is just astonishing.
My next week of volunteering took me to the Monte Alto Natural Reserve, another great project
managed by MINAE, and in serious need of volunteer help. Here we helped build paths, plant trees and flowers, as well as helped in the kitchen. One thing I did here one day that I did not expect to do was helping to fix toilets. No, no. Not the nasty kind. The kind where I could show off all my plumbing skills. (No...I don’t really have any. Back in my real life I’m a chef in a hotel!) And yes, by the way, the toilets work again.
My sixth week in Costa Rica was spent in another national park, Barra Honda. That would be the week
where I definitely got my wish for physical labor fulfilled. Besides taking wonderful tours and walks in the
area, the number one project for the park was to make it nice and to prepare everything for the big celebration in August (National Parks Day). That meant we had to dig a lot. Since they were expecting lots of rain -- and rainwater in masses destroys the street and especially the sides of the street -- we had to place 70 centimeter cement pipes on the side of the road near the main building to keep the water from eroding the street.
In that week, I must have sweat out my own weight a couple of times. This all sounds probably like too
much work. But it wasn't at all. The work hours were usually only in the morning from 9 to 12, and the rest of the day we were free to do whatever we wanted. For example, the town of Nicoya is only a 400 colones bus ride away (less than 50 cents), and it provides all that I wanted and needed. And then there was enough time to spend at the pool from the nearby Barra Honda Hotel and to enjoy a good book.
Monkey Park was originally going to be my last project. It is an animal rescue center. It's a nice place to
see animals that live here in Costa Rica which would usually be hard to see in the wild. The stay in the park was nice. They provided a very good home, and the food there is delicious. I got "gordo" (fat)!
Like at all the projects, nearly at all times a project coordinator or Isaac (one of the directors) himself was present, or came on a regular basis, if for nothing else than just to see that we we’re all okay and to bring us some snacks. The women (the number of them seemed to change on a daily basis) who were responsible for the project at Monkey Park really work hard to make the place what it is. And having been part of that is a nice memory.
One of my jobs was to transfer the caterpillars out of the Butterfly Garden every morning so that they could not feed on all the plants faster than the plants could grow in there. So for that purpose there is an assigned place called, “the feeding house.” And then I had to check if there were some larvae hatched and then bring them back as "butterflies" to the "Mariposarium." This is one place where someone like me goes literally photo crazy!
The next 2 weeks I went to travel on my own to Panama. I needed to be in Panama City at a certain time. And that’s where the team of Tropical Adventures really helped more than I could have expected. They helped me with my hotel, and even delivered my bus tickets to me. The many small things they did for me made my trip easy and enjoyable and were just examples of how dedicated these people are to the work they do. It also made me feel really appreciated. I felt like I was in the best hands possible here, so I decided to come back for six days after my Panama-trip to do some more volunteering.
So now as I write this, these last six days here in the La Flor Project are nearly over. I’m super happy about my decision to teach English in a tiny agricultural community. I feel completely welcome and like I'm doing something worthwhile. After a few days here, I get recognized on the street from everyone; I’m not at all a stranger.
I can’t possibly fit all my experiences and feelings in these few words, but to everyone who enjoys traveling, some adventure and meeting endless amounts of friendly people, I say, "come and experience it for yourself!"
In the end, it was all the small things that made my trip with Tropical Adventures so priceless. (Geesh, I hope not to sound too much like the MasterCard commercial!)
--->
Lindsey's Daycare Experience
