Susan was a volunteer with Tropical Adventures back in October of 2007 on the Talamanca Indigenous Reservation. She worked with the community, the elementary school and the retirement home. She's one of our many "dream" volunteers who came with a great attitude, worked hard, fell in love with the people here and who continues to stay in touch and help us out in many ways. She's part of our very large and extended Tropical Adventures Family. "We love you Susan!" Here is her story...

In the Talamanca mountains of south eastern Costa Rica, the village of Bambu consists of about 20 houses, two small stores, a retirement home, an elementary school, a beautiful cultural center, and some of the nicest people you will ever meet! My recent time there was a wonderful, fulfilling experience and I promised myself I will go back soon.

Why did I choose Tropical Adventures? After hearing about them on another trip to Costa Rica last winter, I contacted the staff and was warmly welcomed as a potential volunteer. My emails were always answered quickly and full of information. No question was too silly or insignificant not to warrant a prompt, helpful response. I felt comfortable with the price that included everything from airport pick up, medical coverage, local coordinators in the area, and well-screened host families. Care was taken to consider my talents and interests and also the needs of the community I would be visiting.

Bambu and I turned out to be a great match. My host family was delightful. Their house was rustic, with an outdoor shower and toilet, but clean and I had a private room. My host “mother” provided three meals a day centered around rice, beans and plantains. Flory also made the most delicious tortillas for breakfast and, of course, rich Costa Rican coffee. My host “father” Gilbert left early in the morning for work and returned after dark but still had time to study a little English with me. Their son, Flander, who is 8 was a charming little fellow; well behaved and full of questions for me.

My second day in Bambu there was a baby shower. About 25 women from the community gathered. It was great to meet so many people so soon. We decorated the hall with balloons and crepe paper, made chop suey (chicken, vegetables and noodles) for a snack and rice pudding and lemon tea for dessert. The shower was a surprise for the mother to be and she was delighted. Sister Elizabeth from the retirement home led the party games and there were lots of giggles.

Gilbert loved the French toast I made at breakfast one day, first time for both French toast and Canadian maple syrup. The whole family loved to hear the story of where maple syrup comes from and how it is produced.

I love cooking and another day I made deviled eggs for the family and neighbors. I was surprised at the store. It is not unusual here to buy only 3 or 4 eggs at a time. The shopkeeper really looked surprised when I asked for eighteen. You can also purchase many things here in small amounts, only one aspirin from a bottle, 20gm packages of peanuts, little bags of mayonnaise with a spout.

The Bambu Retirement Home is an amazing place, with 20 well cared for and loved seniors. The building is simple and kept spotlessly clean. Run by three nuns who have a great sense of humour, fun and lots of love for the residents.

Breakfast was over by 9am when I arrived and from then until 12 noon it was time for crafts and exercise. Everyone who could possibly participate did. We made popsicle houses, fish from recycled pop bottles, flowers from coffee filters, cut up old calendars, colored, decorated plant holders made from old pop bottles, painted balsa wood cut outs and decorated them with dollar store decorations I had brought.

The faces of the residents beamed with pleasure as Hermana (Sister) Blanca praised and admired their work. Exercise is taken serious here, again, everyone who is able to participates. Five residents a day use the exercise bike, but it really needs replacing, held together with rope, screws falling out, it was a sad site!

After my morning at the retirement home I went to the elementary school and taught English to nine grade 6 students for an hour. The students favourite activity was word bingo, maybe it was the stickers I handed out as prizes!

After a few hours off in the afternoon, when I rested and did some prep work for teaching the next day, I went to the Cultural Center to teach English again in the evening for a few hours.

Before leaving Canada, co workers at the nursing home in Canada were I work donated money to buy supplies for the Home, I shopped in Cosco In San Jose and a friend from Costa Rica delivered them to Bambu on my last day there.

My last day in Bambu was also special because the director and other volunteers from Tropical Adventures came to give the ladies bedrooms and bathrooms and freshen up with a much needed coat of paint. My friends from San Jose (Jose is the Director Fuerza Publica for Costa Rica) arrived and brought with them some local police men that helped us paint.

The residents loved all the excitement, there was lots of laughter as the work got down in record time by people from Costa Rica, Canada, The United States, Columbia and Venezuela all working together.

I really want to thank Tropical Adventures and the people of Bambu for a warm welcome and the wonderful opportunity to live and work along side so many great people!

Susan Schuetze

On December 18th we had an amazing celebration with the residents of the Bambu Retirement Home. Four Tropical Adventures Foundation staff members (Scott, Isaac, Mauro and Elizabeth) attended, as well as the following hard-working volunteers:

Anita Stevens, Allison Schlett, Danielle Swears, Kimberly Abels, Danilo Gabb

We began by setting up lots of decorations, playing Christmas music and then moved into playing games with the residents and staff members. Afterwards we gave away gifts and served lots of food and deserts.

Still, I think the favorite parts for the residents were when we danced and when we played with bubbles. We really had a blast! And at the end, I’m convinced that they had us more tired and worn out than they were!

We were all very proud and happy to have had the opportunity to go spend some time with our beautiful friends at the retirement home. Though we make it a point to visit them all year round, there is still something special about the holiday season.

We brought with us several supplies, materials and food that they really needed. If you ever have the desire to join us or, to donate to the cause, or especially if you’d like to spend a couple of weeks volunteering at the retirement home, please just contact us for more information. More pictures of the party can be seen by clicking here.

This past Saturday, October 27, 2007, we had our second joint all-day volunteer effort between Tropical Adventures and Helping Hands Costa Rica at the Bambu Retirement Home on the Talamanca Indigenous Reservation. For those of you who didn't read the original post, you can find it by clicking here. This event was made possible by a very generous donation made by the "Iain Programa, S.A." and through the hard work of Meranda Glesby and Evangeline Mathura.

The event was a smashing success! We were able to finish up the project we started last month in record time this weekend, mostly thanks to the surprise arrival of many extra people we weren't expecting.

One of our volunteers, Susan Schuetze, from Ontario, Canada, had just finished up two weeks of volunteering in the Bambu area where she had been living with one of our host families, working with the retirement home, and teaching English in the nearby Bambu elementary school. It just so happens that she is good friends with the Director of the Police Force of Costa Rica, Jose Fabio Pizarro, and had invited him and his family to join us. Not only did they join us themselves, but they also invited some of the local police force to help us out as well.

When we arrived and saw them all there, we initially thought something terrible had happened! But when we realized they were there to help us out, we got pretty excited, as you might imagine!

Thankfully we had some extra food with us and we were able to feed all the hard working folks with sandwiches, sodas and chips. Many thanks to Evangeline Mathura and Helping Hands Costa Rica for donating the food for our lunch. It was well deserved and delicious!

The following amazing people were on hand to help out:

From the Tropical Adventures Foundation:

• Scott Pralinsky, Executive Director
• Isaac Garcia, Director
• Allen Vinicio Meza Sandino, Tropical Adventures Volunteer Center Co-Manager
• Alison Smith, Tropical Adventures Volunteer Center Co-Manager
• Susan Schuetze, Volunteer (Ontario, Canada)
• Ryan Rigoli Volunteer (San Francisco, California)
• Kim and Jonathan Stout with son, Miles, Volunteer (Portland, Oregon)

From Helping Hands Costa Rica:

• Adriana Woods, Escazu

Through the Banana Azul Guest House:

• Silvio Antonio Duran Salinas

Guest Volunteers (thanks to volunteer, Susan Schuetze):

• Jose Fabio Pizarro, Director of the Public Police Force of Costa Rica
• Jose's wife, Yalile and daughter's, Natasha and Sharon
• Eight to ten police officers from the area

Also present were some TV cameras to interview everyone about their experience, which made things pretty fun and interesting and created quite a buzz in the community.

We hope to not only return to the retirement home in the near future to help them with many other much-needed projects, but to also put together fun volunteer weekends in other parts of the country to make these opportunities available to more people. If you have any interest in possibly joining us in the future for one of these kinds of events, please contact us and we'll be sure to put you on the list of people to keep updated.

Thanks again to everyone who helped!

My fingers are still covered in paint as I type this post five days later. But a good time was had by all! Helping Hands Costa Rica and the Tropical Adventures Foundation joined hands this past Saturday and really got down and dirty!

We all ventured out into the Talamanca Indigenous Reservation for a day of painting at the Bambu Retirement Home. We were able to get a lot done. Truthfully, I was really amazed at how much thirteen people could accomplish in a short, 7-hour period.

This retirement home is actually a pretty huge place. And we were able to paint three out of four wings, as well as 8 out of 16 bathrooms. In addition, two of the volunteers worked out in the back of the property scraping and painting the chain link fencing and metal bars that enclose the entire laundry section. Both of them went to visit their chiropractors this week!

Yes, I admit. My muscles did ache a bit the next day. But it really was a lot of fun. We had such a great group of people with us. Everyone had a wonderful attitude. We danced, laughed, listened to music, made a big mess and got to know one another pretty well.

Many thanks again to the Iain Programa for their generous donation of $1,000. It was exactly enough to buy us the paint and supplies we needed. And, of course, we can't thank all our volunteers enough for taking the time out to come all the way out to help out these great folks -- who, by the way are extremely grateful for everything we did. A big Tropical Adventures / Helping Hands hug goes out to:

• Meranda Glesby
• Matteo Brancacci Soto
• Evangeline Mathura
• Tamara Day
• Margaret Gibson
• Philippa Wildash
• Allen Vinicio Meza Sandino
• Alison Smith
• Willy Rojas
• Silvio Antonio Duran Salinas
• Isaac Garcia Gutierrez
• Scott Pralinsky
• Maria Jose Cascante