(This blog entry was contributed by Kelly Wall, a 5th and 6th grade teacher who was able to obtain funding to pay for her volunteer experience with Tropical Adventures. She was kind enough to share with us how she went about it and to give us some ideas of resources for students and educators to do the same. Thanks Kelly!)

A classroom has always been a sacred place to encourage a love of traveling. As a humanities teacher, it’s been my prerogative to instill a sense of wonder about the world and I make it a goal to encourage my students to develop a desire to explore and discover it; seizing any opportunity take a risk, provide a service, and above all work hard to make that opportunity become their reality. In my classroom we often ponder how big and diverse the earth truly is. We often discuss and contemplate what our roles are as global citizens, even if it ends in a heated debate about what it means to be a responsible global citizen.

These are important questions for students, teachers and all to consider. This is after all a huge part of what the 21st century is all about. With the rise of technology, global connections are easier to cultivate any ever before. Within moments, we can skype, chat, email, listen, share and record our thoughts and ideas around the world. This is the kind world that children will grow up in, and for this reason, it’s important that we encourage them to take risks, to become responsible global citizens and above all to take an active role. It’s also important that we model this for them too, and this is where my adventure begins…

I was very fortunate to come across such an accommodating team of staff members at Tropical Adventures. I was taken back with how quickly my needs and many questions were answered. As any traveler knows, the early stages of committing to a trip are the most trying. Tropical Adventures provided all the services necessary to create my dream volunteer trip. They encouraged me to step outside of the box, and plan something that would meet my needs and fulfill me personally and professionally, even if that meant drawing up budget spreadsheets, itineraries and multiple email exchanges; this service was invaluable for me. So, here I am, ready to embark on a new adventure and travel to one of the most lush and biologically diverse areas on the planet.

Costa Rica was appealing for obvious reasons, but I was also drawn to the volunteer service opportunities. For one month, I’ll be dividing my time between two volunteer projects including the Ostional Sea Turtle Project and Hojancha Art and Music Project. I was fortunate to also to secure grant funding through my employer and it was quite a relief to know that these opportunities do exist for those in need. While it can be challenging to secure funding for volunteer service work and travel, it is possible and many individuals and organizations are willing to support motivated advocates. It’s my hope that you can become one too!

Kelly Wall (5th and 6th grade teacher)

I. Resources for Travel Grants and Scholarships:

For Students

• http://journals.worldnomads.com/scholarships/story/72164/Worldwide/Travel-Writing-Scholarship-2011-Our-Winner!
• http://www.statravel.com/cps/rde/xchg/us_division_web_live/hs.xsl/scholarships.htm
• http://www.sytayouthfoundation.org/

For Educators

• http://www.edutopia.org/teacher-travel-grants#fund_for_teachers http://www.fundforteachers.org/ http://www2.ed.gov/programs/iegpssap/index.html

With this letter, the parents of children in Alto Katsi, Talamanca, Costa Rica are appealing for your valuable support explained below.

For the past three years our children have been receiving school lessons in our own community.  Before this time, our children had to walk almost two kilometers down the mountain to the closest school in the nearby community of Katsi.  The small building we were using for the school was in very poor repair and no longer safe for children.  It was taken down early in 2009.  As parents, we have been given the task of working to construct our community school since our children no longer have a formal structure to receive classes.  They are currently receiving classes in the home of one of the community members

1.    Lack of cut wood

2.    Acabado de la misma como enderezado y machinerbrodo

3.    Funds to cover the foreman´s salary

This structure has the following measurements à 18 X 7.50 square meters (m2) and consists of 2 classrooms measuring 6 X 9 m2 and a front corridor measuring 1.50 X 18 m2.

Also missing is the cafeteria which measures 14 X 8.40 m2 consists of kitchen, eating area and bathrooms.  For this structure we already have 300 cement blocks, 30 barrilos and 20 bags of cement.  This material was donated to us to make the set of bathrooms.

We wish to finish the school and through this card we are asking for your support and collaboration in our important objective, which is to complete the construction of the school, eating area, kitchen and bathrooms.  In order to finish, we need:

1.    Funds to pay the construction foreman, which will be 2 months at a value of C15,000 per day, for a total of C900,00.

2.    8,000 inches of wood which comes from trees donated by parents.  Por lo ceiol there is a cutting fee, which is C150 per inch, for a total of C1,200,000.  lo ceiol cubrirla el faltante de madera que tiene la escuela y el resto es para la construcción del comedor.

3.    Arreglo de madera como enderezada y madrenbrodo de 8,000 pulgadas, con un costo de la pulgada para un total de C480,000.

4.    Hardware materials and supplies totaling C892,464.

TOTAL BUDGET à C3,472,464.00

 We worked hard at the ASIS animal rescue center. The work we did was really needed, not some tourist made up projects. I became the segunda madre a tres mapachitos - 2nd mother to three little raccoons. I miss them and am going to have to go back to be sure they continue to do okay.     

This was my second Tropical Adventure trip and I defintely be back for another next year!”

Just yesterday we came across an amazing article about high school students and volunteering.

Actually it’s an article and a debate about the question: ‘’ Should high school students be required to volunteer in community service projects?’’ 

 Well do they? There are all kinds of projects available, whether you’ll teach children English, or teach kids how to swim or surf, you could also just play with them. This doesn’t only benefit the children but a student that wants to become a teacher will have a great opportunity to apply their course line into practice. This way they will gain experiences and by the end of their education they will have already done something to enrich themselves. Of course the work students do in the communities is connected with what they are learning in school.

We have had several interns in the past that gained experience in their field of study.

There are many things they help with at the center located in Bambu, including teaching English to the families who work there, children and adults from town, translating for the tours, helping to build marketing material, planting flowers and trees, general maintenance, and the planning & fulfilment of cultural activities. Also the Spanish language skills of the students will highly increase during their stay in Costa Rica.  Students who want a teaching degree will have an opportunity to apply their course line.

At our Wildlife Rescue Center we provide quality Spanish language classes (optional) at our on-site language school

Well so far the poll is 58 % Yes and 42 % says No. How will this turn out?

(Read the article)

For almost five years now, Tropical Adventures has been providing help and support to all the communities with which the Foundation has been working. In this sense, we can consider our actions successful but, as you already know, we are too dependent on the context of external decisions (politics e.g.) to keep a budget steady. This is the drawback of being a non-profit, we can’t anticipate market fluctuations. Still, we keep thinking that our projects deserve to be and have a strong meaning. This sharing of knowledge and culture benefits you and us and that’s why we are asking you to help us out.

This time of the year is very difficult, in the months coming, not many volunteers will travel to our projects so our income decreases. Nevertheless, people from the communities who are working with us continue their life…That’s why we need you: kids still need to go to school, our friends from Bambu still need our support and animals from the Wildlife RescueCenter still need to be rescued and fed.

We have until August 31th to collect about $40,000 and thus to be able to provide you the same service quality and to continue to be efficient in our support of communities and environment.

Your donation will be an investment in their future and their success in life…

Hundreds of kids, families, foundations and animals count on your help, it’s up to you now.

Thank you for your support and all your love,

Always yours,

Tropical Adventures

In Costa Rica the Indigenous territory of Talamanca covers 43,643 hectares. Tropical  Adventures has been working in the Bribri area of Talamanca, specifically in the community of Bambu for over three years already.  Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Here we have been lucky enough to  find people who are natural leaders, like Danilo Layan Gabb. Thanks to his desire to see Bambu grow, improve and become self-sufficient, Tropical Adventures has been able to gain access to the areas where real needs are waiting for an urgent solution.

    

Last week, we visited for the first time, the community of Alto Katsi. We crossed the Telire River by boat, and then we traveled in the back of an old truck for about 45 minutes going up towards the mountains. Then, at the end of the road, we had to walk, carrying boxes with donations, for about an hour through rivers and trails. Even after two days of sunshine, we were hiking all the way through deep in mud.

 

Danilo’s idea was to show us the elementary school and the kids’ health conditions.  Both of them were very shocking. Living in a country like Costa Rica, little by little we start getting used to seeing poverty, pretty much everywhere. People dealing with low or no salaries, kids going to school where they don’t receive a good education, teenagers quitting high school because they need to make money to help their parents, and the stories keep on going. 

At some point in our lives here in Costa Rica, I don’t know when it happens, but we start thinking that these situations are normal.  We lose our sense of community and we just choose to believe that it’s “just the way it is” and there’s nothing we can do about it. Sometimes, we don’t even like to hear these stories so that we can pretend everything is fine.

When I arrived to Alto Katsi, my first thought was to stay in a loving space and to remind myself that there’s no “right” or “wrong” in Alto Katsi. It’s just the way it is there and we’re all humans having different life experiences, but we’re still the same. Like Danilo reminds me all the time, “we’re all humans.” 

The school is nothing more than a shack – if you can call it that. It is falling apart completely. One of the main bases that holds the structure is sinking due to the heavy rains the entire country received in November of 2008. The roof built out of the traditional indigenous leaves has holes everywhere and, finally, the floor is totally rotted out.

The building is very simple. What looks like a wall is what separates the area where the kids receive the lessons and what is meant to be a storage area. There are no seats or desks for the kids, just a tiny blackboard containing this message: “The decision made by all the parents is to pay the man who cut and finished the wood the amount of 1,100 colones (an equivalent of $1.98 USD).” The restroom was destroyed by the heavy rains and winds. There’s no running water at the school, not to mention a dining area for the kids who desperately need some nutritional attention. After two days of beautiful sunshine, the entrance of the school was still full of mud as if it just rained an hour ago.

All of the kids were wearing old rubber boots, some of those were already broken because that’s the only pair of shoes they have. You could see that some of the clothes they were wearing were not their size anymore, but maybe they keep using them because they don’t have other option. They were all very shy at the beginning. Danilo directed the activity speaking to them in the beautiful Bribri Language. The entire time I was there they only spoke in Bribri. It’s a weird sensation to be in your own country and not to understand a word of what people are saying right next to you.  All I could do was to be quite and then I took some pictures while they were talking.  While I was doing this, something called my attention. The kids’ faces were all turned towards the boxes that we brought with us. They didn’t say a word to me; they just keep staring at me. But as soon as I would glance at them, they’d quickly look towards the ground.

After Danilo finished talking to them, he finally told me they all speak Spanish (this is unusual for a remote location like this). So I introduced myself and explained to them the purpose of my trip to their community. You could see they were very grateful. They all started to talk to me, welcoming me with big hugs and smiles. First, they just wanted to express their gratitude for my going there and taking the time to meet them in person.  To be honest, I felt like I was the lucky one!

As I explained earlier, we carried some boxes with us all that way. The boxes were full of clothes and toys for the kids (donated by the Chamber of Tourism of Puerto Viejo). It was hard enough just walking to get there and trying to keep myself from falling in the mud, but carrying the boxes certainly didn’t help at all.  To keep myself going, I had to keep thinking of the kids’ faces when they’d see the clothes and toys.

 When Danilo told me to start giving away the toys, the kids faces lit up. They were very respectful, always thinking first of their siblings or the younger kids before themselves. It was really nice to see how ready and willing to share they were.

There were more than enough clothes for all the kids, especially the small ones. The smallest one received tons of clothes, so many that the mom felt embarrassed at some point. 

At least half of the kids in the school had scars on their faces. When I asked Danilo about those, he told me it was a flesh-eating worm called “papalomoyo.” Being from Costa Rica I hear about this kind of stuff, but I’ve never seen the incredible scars they can provoke if you don’t treat them on time or at all. Those marks are going to stay with those kids for the rest of their lives.  The only way to treat the worm is with an injection called Glucantine. A daily dose is necessary to administer for a full month until it dissolves and kills the worm completely. Then some kind of antibacterial cream can be applied on the scar.

Of course these kinds of medicines can’t be found there. The closest EBAI (small, free medical clinics located throughout the country) is in Amubre, which is like an hour away by horse, crossing several rivers and mountains. The next closest EBAI is in Suretka, several hours by foot or a combination of hiking, a truck ride that costs the equivalent of about $6 USD (who has that kind of money there?) and a boat ride across the Telire river (another $1.10 USD). 

The people from Alto Katsi used to work in the plantain fields in the area. Now they are all out of work because of the flooding. And, according to Danilo, they used to make an average of 1,500 colones per day ($3 USD).

So, what this means is if they want to buy the medicine to treat the papolomoyo, they have to be ready to spend more than $50 USD. Again, who has that kind of money there?

Before even posting this story on our website, Nidia Bonilla, a woman from San Jose, got together 450,000 colones ( $818 USD) to use toward  rebuilding the school.

She is taking a trip this next Wednesday, February 11^th, to Alto Katsi with some volunteer engineers to see what it is that they can do with that amount to rebuild the school. 

Our goal is to prepare enough schools supply packages for the 20 kids and hopefully help Nidia with more money to build something decent for the kids where they can receive classes and have a working bathroom.

Thanks to the Saint Patrick School in Chesterton Indiana and their successful Holiday Campaign, we have some of the school supplies we need for these kids in Alto Katsi. But what we have is not enough.  If you’re reading this and there’s a way in which you can help us out to bring some joy to these kids please, contact us toll-free at 1-800-832-9419 from the US or Canada, or internationally at  +(506) 25-74-4412, or send us an email to info@tropicaladventures.com

    DONATE HERE

Thank you so much for your endless support. It’s because of people like you that we can continue doing our work.

Visit our Photo Gallery for more pics of this story: Alto Katsi Pics

Our Christmas Projects need your help.

Don't waste a beautiful opportunity to share joy this holiday season! Greetings!

There are only 29 days left until our first Christmas project event where we'll be sharing with community members at La Flor. It's a day where we get to really show our appreciation to all the great people we and our volunteers get to work with - children, host families, coordinators and community members at our different projects across Costa Rica.

These are people who work incredibly hard to keep above the bread-line, usually doing hard jobs that involve long hours and low pay. But don't feel sorry for them at all. If you've been a volunteer here, you know how happy these folks are. Our goal with this event is to show our gratitude for letting us work alongside them.

We thank from the bottom of our hearts all the volunteers we have come to make the jobs of these people a little easier, and who have assisted hundreds of children by teaching and mentoring them so that they can be successful in school and enjoy better prospects than the generation before them. We are desperately in need of help (in volunteer support, donations and supplies) to ensure these Christmas projects are a success. Please read on to see how you can help us - we truly appreciate any small gesture that we receive.

Giving people something to smile about this Christmas

We have 51 volunteers attending our Christmas projects so far - including 3 families. We're really looking forward to meeting and working together with each one of them to make every one of these events a special, fun and inspiring day for all who attend. We have been humbled by their generosity, many of whom have asked us what they can do to help us in addition to their volunteer help even after having paid their fees. One of our volunteers, Silvana, will be bringing 120 pairs of flip-flops with her to hand out to children from the Cocles school in Puerto Viejo, as well as bringing a parachute to play with, while others are helping donate supplies for party decorations. Donna Crawford is bringing 200 boxes of crayons.

We have also received several kind emails from past volunteers asking us how they can help. We feel so grateful to everyone who has offered to help even in spite of the economic downturn (something which is greatly affecting people here in Costa Rica too).

Despite all these wonderful and amazing offers of help, we still really need more help. There are hundreds of children and adults who will be attending all the events and to make each day as special as it should be. We are still in great need of more supplies and money to buy all the food.

Our Puerto Viejo Christmas party will take place at the nearby Cocles school and we have invited all 150 school children. This school is a wonderful place set back frJaguar at Monkey Parkom the beach and Caribbean Sea. It sounds idyllic but the reality is that the school is so understaffed that the children can only attend school for around 3 hours each day. Without our volunteers, the children would receive no English tuition at all and when there are no volunteers, lessons simply do not take place. Many of them do not go on to further study after 6th Grade. In Costa Rica, lack of schooling has a very negative impact on the career opportunities and consequent money-earning potential of these children.

What we need to make Christmas special for our communities and children

We want to make each of the events a really special day for hundreds of children and adults. For this reason, each party is very expensive and we still don't have the resources to make each day as special as it could be.

As an example, we will have around 130 people attending the Puerto Viejo Christmas Party. For this we will need to buy:

• * 150 hot dogs and buns
• * Mustard and tomato sauce
• * 15 bottles of soft drinks
• * 2 large containers of ice-cream and 150 large cones
• * 20 small bags of pop-corn
• * A filled pinata, which will cost around $100 ($50 for the pinata and $50 for the candies)
• * Decorations in the form of balloons, crepe paper, party poppers etc
• * Party bags for each child with a few small candies and gifts inside (this is a very Costa-Rican tradition)
• * Prizes for game winners - such as hats (for sun protection), sunglasses, soccer balls, barbies, backpacks, books, stationery sets (in packs)
• * In addition we would like to give each of the 9 children who are graduating from the school a small gift. Something to encourage them in their move to a larger school would be nice such as backpacks, books, stationery etc.
• * We would like to also rent an inflatable slide for the afternoon - this will be $150. This is just what we will be buying for 1 out of the 5 Christmas parties.

In addition to these parties, we also have the Childrens' Summer Camp in Puerto Viejo. For the Childrens' Summer Camp, we will be providing lunch for around 100 children for three days. We will be making hot dogs on the first day, cheese and ham sandwiches on the second day and rice  and chicken (a traditional Costa Rican dish) on the third day.

In addition to feeding the children, we will be doing a number of fun and educational activities with them over the three days including arts and crafts workshops, sports, English and environmental education lessons. For the art workshop on the first day we will need to buy paints, white paper and colored pencils and for the environmental workshop on the second day, we'll need plenty of green, red and black paint as the children will be making masks out of recycled materials.

To provide all these things for the wonderful people who will be attending our events, we need all the support you can possibly give us. We really really really need your help and would appreciate more than you can imagine any small amount of help you give us.

What you can do to help

• ** Volunteer - Come and help us set up at one or more of the events and participate in the fun. We'll need loads of help decorating the venues, serving food, and organizing games and activities for everyone. Combined with helping at the events, you'll get to do some amazing tours so you can make the most out of your time in Costa Rica. Find out more how you can volunteer here. This is really a unique opportunity - there are no other volunteer organizations doing anything like this in Costa Rica. If you are a Costa Rican resident, please contact us to find out how you can volunteer.
• ** Donations of money - This is so that we can buy all the food, decorations and materials for the activities. If you would like to donate money for something specific (such as the hot dogs or decorations) - please let us know. If you would like to donate money for school supplies or uniform for any children (such as the school graduates at Cocles), please refer to the list and costs of items needed at the very bottom of this newsletter. We will provide you with receipts of the purchases (we go personally to buy all the items ourselves) as well as photos from the events. Since we're a non profit foundation, your donation of money is tax deductible. You can donate online or please contact us to discuss other options for donating - we would love to hear from you.
• ** Donations of supplies - If you live outside of Costa Rica, many items such as party decorations and crafts materials are actually a lot cheaper than they are in Costa Rica. If you are coming to Costa Rica or you know anyone else who is coming to Costa Rica between now and December, we would be so grateful to anyone who is able to bring some of these materials and supplies over with them. We will meet you at the airport to collect them and can supply you with official documentation from Tropical Adventures to ensure a smooth journey for whatever you bring over. Please refer to the list at the very bottom of this newsletter if you are interested in donating any school supplies or uniforms for children. Please also look at our Donation Supply Wish List for detailed information of other items you could donate. If you are a Costa Rican resident, please let us know if there is anything that you are able to donate to us or bring with you to the events.
• ** Hold a small event - such as a garage sale, coffee morning or cake sale to fundraise for our Christmas community events. We'll be more than happy to send you some information materials or handouts for the event.
• ** Past volunteers - If you are a past volunteer, something really special you could do without having to spend money is to write a Christmas letter or card to any community members, kids or project workers who really inspired or helped you whilst you were out here. Maybe you could write to your host family, or Danilo at Bambu or Dominica & Julian at the Camaronal Turtle Project. All these people are incredibly hard working and dedicated to what they do. They would love to hear from you - you have no idea how many times they ask for all of you. You can write to our address - Apartado 8-7100, Paraiso, Cartago, Costa Rica (or you could email your letter - marketing@tropicaladventures.com) and we will be sure to ensure your letter gets to the right person safely.

We truly appreciate any gestures, no matter how small, that will help us to make these events a big success by giving all these lovely hard-working and kind people who do so much to help their own under-resourced communities a day to remember.

Here are some examples of how people continue to help us:

** Silvana Clark and her husband are generously bringing with them 120 pairs of flip-flops to donate to children at the Cocles school when they arrive in December.

• ** Mark Arnowitz wrote to 15 different organizations to ask for them to donate money so that he could afford to come out to Costa Rica. Through his efforts and the kindness of the organizations he wrote to, he was able to come out here. Mark continues to offer us great support and is now raising money to help build proper bathrooms and an outdoor eating area for the children at Cocles School as well as raising money to for our Puerto Viejo Christmas party. Mark is of great help to us not only in his fundraising efforts but spends much of his time helping us out from his home in the USA.
• ** Last year the Stegehuis family donated all the supplies for the children's Summer Camp in Puerto Viejo. This great act of generosity allowed us to give the children there a wonderful three days of fun and educational activities such as arts and crafts, English and environmental education lessons, sports and games.
• ** Briana Schuck talked to fellow students at the University of Santa Monica and had them all busy bringing in donations. About four people arrived at different times, with several extra suitcases full of all kinds of donations for the children. These donations included books, pens, clothes and toiletries. Thanks to their generosity many children received useful gifts that their parents find hard or impossible to afford.
• ** The Snyder family brought a large amount of gifts for children and community members of Bambu and very generously donated us money. Their daughter, Hannah, so kindly raised this as part of her Bat Mitzvah celebrations.
• ** Phyllis and Richard Bergman volunteered with us last Christmas for a second time. Not only did they donate money but they also brought gifts for people at La Flor community.
• ** Lilly Pichardo, a personal friend and local events planner from Costa Rica helped us greatly by using her contacts to gain us discounts on decorations and stationery supplies at local outlets for our Christmas Projects. Lilly volunteered with us and brought lots of food packages for last year's Bambu Christmas party. She was also a great entertainer!!
• ** Costa Rican residents have donated supplies and provided us with equipment and materials for us to borrow for our Christmas events.
• ** Many of our past volunteers have used their connections to help us connect to important institutions (such as university volunteering departments) who offer their support. We have found on many occasions that we wouldn't have been able to meet with certain organizations without previously being recommended by people who are already associated with them - these introductions have been a great help.
• ** On many occasions, people have sent supplies over to Costa Rica with friends who are visiting. We have then been able to go and pick up these donations from the airport.
• ** Countless people have very kindly donated money to us via our online web form.

We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. ___________________________________________________________

Thank you so much for your continued support of our work throughout Costa Rica. Please contact us if you have any questions at all about our Christmas Projects or any of our other projects or how you can help us.

We realise that not everbody has the means to actively help us and we thank you for your interest in Tropical Adventures and what we do. We hope that one day we will see you out here in Costa Rica and don't forget to tell your friends about us.

Please take a look at our video of all our wonderful projects, friends and volunteers.

Sincerly,

Isaac, Scott and the Tropical Adventures Team.

For anyone interested in supporting a child by buying or paying for some school supplies, here is an example of what a child needs to go to school for one year in Costa Rica:

Mandatory School Supplies USD

• 5 100 page notebooks $10.00
• 9 80 page notebooks $13.50
• 1 Notebook lined for Handwriting $1.00
• 2 100 Sheet Packs-printer paper $3.40
• 2 100 Sheet Packs-lined paper $3.20
• 1 Pack of Construction Paper $2.40
• 12 Letter sized folders $1.44
• 5 Black pens $2.50
• 5 Blue Pens $2.50
• 5 Red Pens $2.50
• 1 Box Color penciles (12) $2.60
• 1 Box penciles--black lead pencil $2.20
• 1 Plastic pencil sharpener $0.60
• 1 An Eraser $0.20
• 1 White glue (size 120 grams) $1.30
• 1 Geometry set $1.00
• 1 Compass $1.00
• 1 Scissors $1.00
• 1 Map of Costa Rica $0.30
• 1 Spanish Dictionary $5.00
• 1 Backpack $14.00

Total for Supplies $71.64

Uniforms:

• 2 Blouses/Shirts $4.00
• 2 Socks $2.00
• 1 Pants $10.00
• 1 Shoes $14.00

Total for uniforms: $30.00 SUPPLIES & UNIFORM: $101.64

Please also look at our Donation Supply Wish List for detailed information of other items you can donate.

It is only 32 days and counting until our first Christmas Project.  The lights and decorations are starting to go up all around Costa Rica and we are working really hard to ensure all the events are a day to remember for all the community members who will be taking part.  We want to make sure we put a smile on the face of everyone who attends - children and adults alike.  This year is set to be much bigger than last year and we are in much need of donations in the form of supplies (decorations, arts and crafts and gifts for the children) and money to buy these supplies and yummy food and drinks for everyone.  Please contact us if you would like to get involved in any way - we greatly appreciate every tiny amount of help that we receive.

This year we would like to be able to invite all the children from Cocles School in Puerto Viejo to come to the Puerto Viejo Christmas Party.  Cocles is a beautiful location - set back away from the beach and the lapping waves of the Caribbean Sea.  It sounds idyllic but the reality is that the school is so understaffed that pupils are only able to attend school for around 3 hours per day.  In Costa Rica, lack of schooling has a very negative effect on the long-term career prospects and money-earning potential of many of the children. Many children do not continue in school after 6th Grade as they go to work to gain extra income for their family household or they lack the ambition to continue with school studies.

Our goal and the goal of our volunteers at Cocles, as well as teaching English, is to mentor and act as role models to the children to encourage them to be interested in their studies and enable them to want to continue learning after they finish primary education.  Being able to speak English is a skill that greatly enhances career prospects in Costa Rica and without our volunteers, the students at the school would receive no English tuition at all.  English classes simply do not take place when there are no volunteers at the school.

 Today our Director, Isaac Garcia, is in Puerto Viejo to meet with the school head teacher to find out if we can invite all the school children.   It would be wonderful to see all the children there and we hope they will enjoy the fun and be inspired by the efforts of ourselves and our volunteers.  Following that meeting, Isaac has a big meeting with the Puerto Viejo Development Association Board.  This consists of 15 community leaders from the Puerto Viejo area.  Amongst other things, he will be presenting the plans for the Puerto Viejo school Summer Camp and discussing with the board the possibility of having the event in the town cultural center which is larger than last year's venue and will allow us to invite more children from the community.  Isaac will also be visiting some local business in the area, including some of the main hotels and restaurants, many of which are run by foreign ex-pats.  We are hoping many of them would like to donate to our two events in Puerto Viejo and help us out with materials for the events.

Also over the Christmas period, we are very much looking forward to welcoming a group of students from the  Central Michigan University.  As well as participating in our Christmas Projects, they will also be staying at the beautiful Camaronal Reserve and taking part in our Turtle Conservation Project there.  This project is particularly understaffed and in much need of volunteers to help protect the endangered sea-turtles from becoming extinct by ensuring their eggs are laid in a safe place and do not get poached.  This area is quite rustic and very remote but all the volunteers we have had there have had a wonderful time and usually wish they'd stayed longer.  You can read what some of our past volunteers have written about their experiences at Camaronal here.

Our friends from Michigan will get to fall asleep to the sound of the lapping waves, experience the rugged beauty of the area, see live turtles laying there eggs and above all - work with some amazingly friendly, dedicated and knowledgeable people.  In particular with this project, we are very grateful to Danilo Gabb, our friend and indigenous leader who runs the Indigenous Cultural Center in Bambu over on the opposite side of Costa Rica who will be lending us enough tents to host everyone from Michigan.  We are so lucky to have such great friends who are willing to help us and our friends on other projects out!

As always, please contact us if you would like any further information on our projects, what we do or to see how you can help.

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Pura Vida,

Sarah