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