Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Costa Rica by McKenzie
Thursday: May 5th
Thursday morning, everyone in the house arose thanks to Nathan and Kylie, who were are leaders for today. Everyone scurried around to make it on time to breakfast at 6:45. Today for breakfast we were surprised with pancakes...YES..PANCAKES....
After this amazing breakfast we all piled onto the bus to take our 3rd trip to the school. Just three days and we were so ready to see all of the happy faces at the school that we could not stand it, but we had to wait an hour seeing as it takes about an hour to get anywhere here. But, the hour seemed like nothing today, and soon saw about 15 smiling and jumping faces.
Painting the school and keeping the kids entertained with many arts and crafts projects and sports were on today's agenda. I started out with playing futbol with many of the Ohana students and La Libertad students..just saying that this makes my day. Seeing their faces kick that ball around and laugh at each other and throw around jokes in spanish to their friends, just makes us feel even closer and feel as if we can really relate. After about two hours of futbol, I felt as if I needed to help paint the school. I was put on inside walls touch up duty. So, I took my small paintbrush and light mint green paint and got to it. Kids all around were painting, even teh La Libertad school kids wanted to help. Some kids were inside touching up the inside walls, some were outside painting the murals that were requested by the kids of the school and some were inside painting the windows.
The painting was finished and we were all back on the bus and headed back to the home base to eat lunch and get ready to head to the beach for the afternoon.
Lunch was over ad bathing suits were on so, onto the beach we go. After an hour and a half, we were touching sand. The sand here is black, hot and to be honest...not really sand, just a bunch of smashed up shells. Not two minutes go by and most of us were in the ocean. The rest were setting up the volleyball net on the beach.
The whistles blew, game faces were on and the ball was moving.
Volleyball doesn't seem that dangerous, but when involving Ohana Institute and a ball, somebody always gets hurt. People were hit in the head multiple times, people were falling down everywhere and one very interesting fall involved myself and Nathan colliding, (both trying to get the ball) and tumbling to the ground at a very fast rate. To everyone, this was hysterical, but I can say that it kind of hurt (:
A total of about 4 games were played and it was time to head back. Everyone was sad to leave the beach but excited to get home and get ready for the local festival.
Dinner was over and most of us had showered. As a giant group of "gringos" (the local name for white people) we walked down the street following the sounds of loud music, yelling and also the smells of local cuisine.
Upon arriving, we bought tickets to see the bull riding contest. The amount of people came as a shock to most of us seeing as how in America crowds are contained, but security. But not here, here people are standing and sitting anywhere they could get a seat, even on the wood that separates the crowd from the angry and very giant bull. In about 30 minutes we saw, three people bravely sit upon a bull and get bucked off, ate churros, and watched a half time show that included a local marching band. The bull riding was over and we headed to the rides. About 8 of us (including me) got up the guts to ride the flying swings. Screams for the fear of death, shortly led to laughter as we rode the ride.
The festival was over and we all headed back for bed.
Friday: May 6th
With a 7a.m. breakfast time, all of us got to sleep a little more, which was well needed after yesterdays adventures and what was ahead for us in our day.
By 7:58 everyone was on the bus and ready to go, which came as a small surprise to us, seeing as how that was 2 minutes earlier than our planned departure time and everyday previous we had been running late.
An hour and a half later we arrived at the Adventurefgh camp site where we would be enjoying horse riding to a waterfall, zip-lining through canyons and tubing down water rapids.
First off we were going to ride horses. We all signed a waiver, put our helmets on and saddled up. The views from the trail that we were riding on were absolutely beautiful. But that was just a set up for how amazing the waterfall looked and felt. The waterfall and spring were so cold but was really relieving seeing as how we had gotten so hot from riding horses.
We only got about 15 minutes in the water before having to leave and get ready for our next adventure....dun dun dun...zip-lining!
Everyone walked back to the bus to change out of our wet clothes before having to get suited up in our harnesses. Our guide, Santos then proceeded to give us a demonstration about how to stay safe in the caverns. After 8 zip-lines, an up-side down repel, rock wall and hanging bridge we were finished with our zip-lining extravaganza and headed to lunch.
Lunch was very different today. We got the chance to eat at a local buffet, which satisfied all of our very hungry bellies.
Tubing was last and what everyone was looking forward to the most. So, each one of us piled into a gigantor, camouflage tube and rapidly moved down the river. There were a few incidents involving pileups and strained body parts from trying to hold on to each other for about an hour. But in the end was what most of us named as our favorite part of the day (:
Soaking wet and extremely tired we lugged ourselves back into the bus and headed back to home base, as we call it, for a shower dinner and another couple of rounds of Mafia. -22 Mc Kenzie
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Costa Rica Blog by Mira
5/5/2011
Today was a very interesting day! The day started with breakfast made by our lovely housekeepers. At 7:15 we loaded up the bus to go to the school.
Recently the teachers of many Costa Rican schools have been on strike because they are not being paid. Today was one of those days and the teacher was not at school. Even so all of the students got there at 7:30 to wait for our arrival. Seeing the joy on all of the students faces when we pulled up to the school was a moment I will never forget!
The night before Mrs. Lettye asked me to help her teach an art class to some of the students. I felt very privileged, and nervous, to be asked to conduct the class. I taught the kids how to draw a flower, a palm tree, an apple, a car, and a bird. Some of the kids very good at drawing in spite of having no formal art classes!
Today Mrs. Lettye, Mason and I started to draw the layout of the mural on the school wall. It consists of the Costa Rican flag, the Guanacaste flag, and a drawing of a Toledo and a black panther. I think it is going to turn out really well!
After we left the school we stopped at a Pulperia, a little store, to get a snack and a soda. When we got back to the GLA home base we had lunch had some free time before we went on a photo scavenger hunt around La Cruz. After the scavenger hunt we went had to get showered and dressed up to go to our Salsa class in Liberia, but before the dancing we had another lesson on Costa Rican Social Issues.
The Salsa class was very fun and we a really good workout! Since there we not enough boys to dance with the girls some of us had to dance with the local dancers! It was quite an experience! After dancing we had dinner at Pizza Hut which was surprisingly very good!
On the way home Rika came up with a game called "He High Her Low." Someone comes up with a phrase that each girl must say in a very low voice and each guy must say in a very high voice. It was extremely funny! When we got home all the kids played Mafia until about 12:30 at night!
Today was a very good day and I feel that everybody is starting to form closer bonds with all of the kids at the school and even with each other!
-Mira Syed
Costa Rica Blog Day #1 by Hunter
This is the school that we are doing our service learningGreetings From Costa Rica! We have all arrived here safely and are having a blast! Yesterday was a long day that started with an early wake-up call. We met at the airport at 4:30 AM and boarded our flights to Costa Rica! Our travels went smoothly and we had no problems. During the second flight we all got to sit together and probably caused some sort of a ruckus, but we're good kids (; Ha Ha Once we landed in Costa Rica we were immediately greeted by a wave of extreme heat, with temperatures reaching a high of 100 degrees. The Global Leadership Adventures crew greeted us after we went through customs and retrieved our baggage. They were very welcoming and excited to meet us!
After an hour and a half drive, we arrived at the house that we will be staying in for the next week. We all dropped off our stuff in our assigned rooms and went out to the backyard to check out the view.
The view is absolutely amazing. From our pool area and backyard, we can look out towards the bay and ocean and see other neighboring towns. It's beautiful! We went on a walk that turned into a hike down a mountain to go see the town. It was very interesting and we were total tourists. After that, we had a quick meeting and then ate dinner. The food here is so fresh and sooo yummy! Everyone has been devouring their fruit because of how fresh and tasty it is. We love it! The rest of the night consisted of a Spanish crash course and our journal entry. Then we said goodnight and headed to bed (well, most of us did anyway). We were exhausted!
6:45 came way too early for most of us. Mira and Jordin were assigned as the leaders for today and were in charge of making sure that all of us kids were up. Sleep is a delicacy here for anyone that is sleeping next to a window (that would include me) because there is a rooster that loves to wake us up at 4:00 AM (yes Mr. Randy, we have already started referring to him as Lucky). The rooster definitely provides us with some comedy!
When everyone was ready and downstairs, we ate breakfast and prepared ourselves for the day. Jordin and Mira got all of the donations that we were taking to the schools today ready and we boarded the bus. After an hour and a half long drive, we got to La Libertad in San Dimas. The kids ran outside to greet us, and although shy seemed really excited to meet us. We were divided into three different groups and separated into jobs for the day. Every 40 minutes each group would rotate. My group (which consisted of Mira, McKenzie, Mason, and I) had the job to sand the desks down first. The other groups were either doing art with the some of the students or playing soccer with the kids. By the end of the day, we had sanded down the desks and painted half of the school. I would say it was very successful! We have already bonded with a few of the kids and Mira even got to ride on a student's horse. Miguel rides his horse three kilometers to school everyday.
When we were finished at the school, we boarded the bus and rode back to our house. We were all starving! When we got back, we ate lunch and had our afternoon coffee (for some of us coffee is not the best idea. Ha Ha) then most of us jumped in the pool for some volleyball! We had a great afternoon. But once 3:30 hit we had to get out to get ready for our guest speakers. When they arrived we walked next door to the church for our history lesson. Everyone learned all about Costa Rica's culture economically, geographically, and politically. We all took notes and really learned a lot. After our lesson we came back to the house and chilled before dinner. Some of us played a game called Mafia while the others went to the grocery store. We quickly became obsessed with Mafia and ended up playing it three more times this evening. It's a blast!
We had a wonderful dinner and a great meeting to end the day. During our meeting we have had some crazy large bugs "attack" us and it has been extremely comical watching whoever the bug's victim is (many times that has been me). After our journal entry, we all dispersed. Some people headed to bed but most of us played Mafia again. And now I am here, sitting in the living room in the dark, writing this blog. Tomorrow we are headed back to the school again and Cale and I have been assigned as the leaders.
We are all so thrilled to see what this next week holds for us. We have already learned so much about this country and it's culture and I think that by the end of this trip, all of our lives will be touched in some way. Spending time with these children at the schools and getting to know them is really a gift for us, and we are all so blessed and thankful to be here.
Adios for now,
-Hunter and the rest of the Ohana Institute crew
This is the view from our backyard. Isn't it incredible?