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Monday July 16, 2018

Hello friends and family!

Our first day here in San José has come to an end with everyone settling in for a much needed rest. Flights arrived quite smoothly throughout the morning and afternoon and some even got the chance to try a local lunch called “casado” which translates as “married” – here the marriage is rice and beans with a meat, plantain and salad on the side. We did our swim tests in the hotel pool as well as some free swim / jacuzzi time once the whole group arrived. Before dinner we got together to do some quick get-to-know-you activities and headed to a buffet right across the street.

Tomorrow we will have a short city tour here in San José before heading along the windy roads to our host community of Providencia. Stay tuned for another post in the next few days – our GLA students will be writing them from now on!

By: Nico Couto
International Director

Wednesday July 18, 2018

Hello, Parents and Others!

Today is the 18th of July! We had breakfast at 7 and started work at 8. We took turns getting rocks from the river and shoveling to make a bio-garden, which is basically a natural filter that will be used to clean the soapy and greasy water from the house we are working. The river near our homebase is one of the cleanest in the world so Green Communities wants to keep it that way. We worked on it until 12:30, when we had lunch. There was rice, beans, salad, and plantains. We then had a small break and then started our Spanish lessons. We took placement tests to determine which level we were in and then listened to a song and filled out a worksheet. We then had a break and had dinner, and after journaling and then free time and then bedtime.

Thank you for reading his post and I hope you come back to read more!

By Hannah Li

Saturday July 21, 2018

Yesterday, we completed our third day of service, taking huge steps in completing the first two biogardens in the history of Providencia, the town in which we are staying. Then, we had our first Spanish class in our different levels. The authors of this, Jacob and Preston, are both learning typical Costa Rican terms that the Ticos use, such as “Mae“ and “Pura Vida!!! “ After a delicious dinner made by chef Juan, our gracious host at Tami Lodge, fajitas de carne, we had a group discussion about sustainable tourism and the benefits of locally run lodges over huge beachside hotels run by people who aren´t from Costa Rica. Luis Diego, our fearless Costa Rican leader told us the 6 rules to smart tourism. Make sure to ask your kid about it when they get back!!

Today, Saturday, we finished two biogardens after four days of work. Javier, the owner of the house where we built the second biogarden from scratch gave us an emotional thank you, and his family gave us all bracelets and ice cream that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. Later, we went to the plaza and played soccer with a bunch of kids from Providencia, including Juan´s son, Gustavo. We unfortunately lost, 5-7, but it was very fun, highlighted by goals from Preston, Myles and Jacob, and outstanding goalkeeping by Diego and Max. Then, the advanced Spanish class helped Juan cook casado, a traditional Costa Rican dish that newly-wed spouses often cook for each other, while the other two Spanish classes played some Costa Rican games.

Thanks for reading our blog post and be sure to check soon for updates about our waterfall hike and ziplining adventures. We also do laundry tomorrow!

Hope the U.S. is ok,

-Preston Helfand and Jacob Cowan

Wednesday July 25, 2018

Today is day 10, and it´s Wednesday my dudes! Day 7 was adventure day 1, which was a 4 hour hike! Although the hike was difficult, and had many spiky trees along the way, the destination was a beautiful waterfall! Check it out on our instagrams @emilygr4 and @s.oficav #selfpromo. In my opinion, the best part of the hike was the delicious butter and jelly sandwich we each received half way through! It was the perfect kick to get us through the rest of the hike #welovebutter. Later that day we did “adopt a gringo”, where we spent two hours in the home of a Costa Rican family with two other members of our group. It was a super fun an immersive experience which really helped us gain a better understanding of how locals live. We finished that night with a movie called “Tambien la Lluvia”, which sadly half of us slept through #hotpockets.

Day 8 was our second adventure day, and we visited the Extreme Forest Park. We did a short zipline which was probably 100 feet, and by far the easiest thing we had to do. That led to a Tarzan swing, which forced us to jump off a ledge and swing high into the air. Next we had to the jungle fly, which was the most terrifying experience of my life. We were pulled high into the air, and then released by our dear friends when we were least expecting it. We then swung 100 feet into the air, back and forth, screaming all the way. We then moved on to climb the inside of a 90 foot 500 year old tree, which was very difficult and then we jumped out the top and were lowered to the ground. It was quite the experience, and took #bigenergy. We ended the day with Spanish class and cafecito, which is the highlight of the day every day.

Day 9 was service day 5! We started mixing and laying cement for an amphitheater for the community of Providencia, where they will be able to hold town meetings, play basketball, and have concerts. When we got back we did a dance class, dinner, and discussion with the Young Dreamers. We got to dance with them, which was a blast, and we got to see our own directors bust a move #sofiandjonathon4life.

Today we did more service, where we continued to mix cement with the Young Dreamers #cementfight. Then we came back and had Spanish class, and level 1 had a cooking class with Juan. We are about to have the dinner they prepared, and then watch a movie, so we´re droppin to dinner boys.

Goodnight and Pura Vida mae,

Xoxo

Sofi Cavenaile & Emily Greeley

Sunday July 29, 2018

Hello everyone! The Spanish Service Adventure group visited the beach the last three days and I`m going to tell you about it!

The journey to the beach was quite exhausting, yet when we arrived, El Parque de Manuel Antonio welcomed us with is beautiful nature and many types of animals. We came in contact with white faced monkeys that followed some members of the group for a while. Our guide, Leo, was generous enough to show us the sloths that were hanging high in the trees and questionably poisonous spiders along with frogs unable to mate because they are deaf. We followed the long hiking trail to the beach where we all sprinted into the waves and were greeted by the extreme saltiness of the Pacific Ocean. We bonded with group activities like human knot in the water, which did not last very long. However, it started to rain so we left for our hotel. The place where we were staying was very nice and each room was a separate building. The hotel also had a very nice swimming pool, which was the main hangout spot for our group. The buffet food was excellent and we finally received a dessert, which we were craving for a long time.

The next morning, we journeyed to the surf beach! We were all super excited and it was way more fun than we expected. Two hours of surfing was not enough time to fully experience the joy of surfing. Afterward, we ate pineapple and mango and we went shopping on a street market and bargained with local vendors. A few hours later, we went to dinner at a Thai place called Phat Noodle, which is still an ongoing joke within our group. The food was absolutely delicious and some of us also bought brownies and ice cream, which we all inhaled.

The next morning, we drove back to Providencia, which now feels like just home. We went the Plaza to meet the young dreamers, or the local teens and played soccer. However, it was pouring rain and new game emerged which was who could go the farthest in homemade slip n slide, which Max was crowned the winner.

Thanks for reading this blog and keeping up with our trip.

More to come later!

Zoë Peters :))

By Olivia Shaw

Monday July 30 through Wednesday August 1, 2018

Hey everyone! I’m going to tell you about days 15-17 of our Spanish Service Adventure.

Starting on day 15, we began our last service cycle, which was working on an organic coffee farm. The farm belongs to Juan, one of the owners of Tami Lodge and the man who prepares our amazing food every day. We began by working at the biofabrica (bio factory), making fertilizer and shoveling it into bags. While it was fun and educational, this was also the first day we all began smelling like poop (pardon my French)! We learned about all of the different things that go into making organic fertilizer (it’s a lot!) and worked tirelessly to fill what seemed like hundreds of bags.

Day 2 was on Juan’s farm, where we began with a discussion about agricultural production with Arturo. We then got to walk through a conventional coffee farm and an ecological coffee farm to see the differences. The most prevalent thing we all noticed was that the ecological farm had flowers and trees, not just coffee plants. We then began filling small buckets with the fertilizer and passing it down a long chain of people to put a bucket on each coffee plant. It was quite exhausting, but still managed to be fun. Day 3 began with a discussion about water, followed by walking to Savegre River to talk more and see water pouring from the earth. The discussion was quite touching and I think everyone took something away from it. After this, we went back to Juan’s farm and continued filling and passing buckets. Despite major back pain, we finished fertilizing every plant! Overall, the last service day was a major success.

Day 15 consisted also of our final Spanish presentations, which involved expositions about different themes from the advanced level, presentations and dances about different regions in Costa Rica from the intermediate level, and short but hilarious skits from the beginner level. We followed that with game night, which was moving Pictionary. Both teams fought hard, but ultimately, Rachael’s mentor group (my group!) won.

Day 16 was the day we had a coffee tour, where we saw the process that coffee beans go through to become the coffee we drink every day, as well as tasting 3 types of coffee and guessing which was organic, conventional, and “horrible” coffee. We then watched “Cowspiracy”, which lead to quite a few people changing their meal plans to vegetarian for the rest of the trip. To end the night, we watched a TED talk about the dangers of a single story, and then talked about how our lives have been affected by single stories. It was a very touching and emotional way to end the night.

Thanks for reading!

Liv 🙂

Friday August 3, 2018

Day 19 Is the day that we returned from white water rafting on the Pacuare river. The white water was really intense due to the recent flood a couple weeks ago, but the trip was so much fun. Being able to see the mountains and canyons from the water was an amazing experience, because everything was so beautiful. My favorite moment was seeing a huge bird fly really close to where we were eating lunch, watching the huge wings move so elegantly absolutely took my breath away. While in the area, we also got a tour of Cartago. We learned about some of the history of the city and had the privilege to see part of a cultural tradition that occurs every year at this time. Cartago is a very Catholic area, and we saw the hundreds of people that had walked from their home to be at the basilica (which is kind of a large cathedral like religious building) for a special mass. It was a very moving experience to be so immersed in another culture during such an important time.

Sadly, tomorrow is our final day in Providencia. We will return for one last jump in the waterfall nearby, eat with the Young Dreamers for our last dinner here, and have our talent show. Saying our goodbyes will be bittersweet, but hopefully more sweet than bitter as I am so glad to have met everyone here and shared this experience together.

~Aria

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Friday June 22, 2018

Hello family and friends! Our first day is coming to an end and has felt both long and short at the same time. Students were arriving most of the morning and afternoon and settled well into our hotel in San José. Some had the chance to swim in the pool / jacuzzi before a thunder storm passed over and we headed to a buffet dinner of typical Costa Rican fare. After dinner we played a quick name game before going to our rooms to get some much needed rest. Tomorrow we will be doing a city tour in the morning and getting to know our local home base before lunch! We’ll post again in the new few days to keep you updated on the experience.

We are still waiting for two friends to join us – Nickolas and Parker Johnson. We all look forward to meeting you on Sunday!

-by Nico Couto, International Director

Sunday June 24, 2018

Hola amigos! Today was the first full day in Providencia, and we immersed ourselves in the local culture through dance, Spanish, and soccer. After a delicious breakfast of eggs, French toast and fruit, we commenced our journey through the process of learning the local language, Spanish. In the midst of practicing basic conversational skills and being introduced to the local slang, students from Providencia taught us typical Costa Rican dance while helping us improve our Spanish.

Following the eventful morning, we enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared by the local women. We then spent our afternoon playing soccer with locals at the communal soccer field, the Plaza. Our night concluded with a lively debate regarding small whaling communities. It was a fabulous day!

P.S. Happy birthday to Sophie Whitney! We had some yummy cake after dinner and hope it was a memorable sweet 16.

-By Jamie Malasek and Jordan Davidson

Thursday June 28, 2018

Hello! We just finished day 7 of our trip; hard to believe it´s been a week! Since last update, we´ve accomplished a lot.

The first thing we did before we even started service was have a talk about sustainable development. The leader of the organization Green Communities, Jonathan, talked to us about the modern world of consumerism and exploitation of the resources on Earth, and the impacts that our current culture will have on the world. He explained to us how to counteract this trend with ecologically friendly bio-farms. These bio-farms reduce environmental impacts without depriving the humans who depend on them for survival. We will be working on one of these bio-farms as our community service project in the coming weeks.

We had 3 days of community service this week. We worked in the Plaza, which is an area for the locals to gather in Providencia. Currently, there´s only a soccer field. We were working on building a basketball court/amphitheater right next to the field. The main jobs during the 3 days were making and mixing concrete, and digging the outline of the field. By the end of the 3 days, we had crossed the halfway point in creating the new area, and learned the arts of using a pickaxe and making cement. It was hard work, but it was rewarding to see real progress being made to help the town.

At 4:00 this morning, we all woke up for our first excursion of the program: our whitewater rafting trip in Turrialba. After a 3 hour drive, we got into groups of 5 and learned the intricacies of paddling. We started down the river on our 28 kilometer (or 17.3 miles) journey down the Pacuare River, starting with easy, Class 1 and 2 rapids. After a few warm up rapids, we got to the real action, the bunch of class 3 and 4 rapids. They threw us around, and some people out of the raft (sometimes even twice). We stopped on the side of the river and had some iguana tail burritos (tastes like chicken) and some fruit juice. We resumed the 2 hours after lunch encountering more class 3 and 4 rapids. We got to get out and swim while we were in between 2 mountains, one of the most beautiful sights we´ve ever seen; there were waterfalls, trees, and the mountains and cliffs towering above us. When we finally finished, we got back to our hotel in Turrialba. We waited in the lobby as our rooms were figured out, and they actually got changed up from our home base tents: good chance to make new friends!

We also celebrated another sweet 16 today; happy birthday to Malia Old!

That´s all for now, tomorrow we head to Cartago for a city tour by Luis Diego, our Cartago-native mentor. Adios!

-By Jared Kupersmith and Parker Johnson

Sunday July 1, 2018

Hello parents!

I hope you guys are enjoying the blog because we GLA students are putting a lot of effort and time into keeping you posted on what we are doing!

First of all we would like to introduce ourselves, today talking here is Courtney and Henrique and we are glad to write for you!

Today we started our day at 6 in the morning, I don´t know if you are aware but some of us have been exercising before breakfast. The run took about 30 minutes for us to have time to change and pack the needed items for the day before eating. Breakfast started at 7 am where we ate Gallo Pinto (typical Costa Rican food), eggs and fruit. Right after that we went to a coffee farm to work as we did the past day. There we helped the farmer Gerardo to spread fertilizer in to the ORGANIC coffee plants, don’t be fooled, we did had a lot of music and water breaks!

Service finished at 11:30 where we had half an hour to chill (most of us showered) before lunch that started at noon. At lunch we were served chicken, vegetables, guacamole, and plantain chips by local women! Delicious! Believe me we had another break after that, GLA believes in a balance between work and time for people to reflect and relax (play cards).

If you are asking yourself yes us (Henrique and Courtney) are the best card players ever, no one cheats like us. At 2pm our Spanish class started. Henrique is in advanced where they studied about neutrino carbon emission in the world and about Franklin Chang Díaz, the first non American to go to space with NASA. Courtney is in the intermediate class where they watched part of a documentary about environmental issues and talked about it in Spanish. The lower group cooked, we think. One more free time later, we had food at 6:30. At dinner we had some amazing MEAT! Yeah we some other stuff like Pico de Gallo but is not as important. After dinner we had some group activities to get closer and have fun. And now we have a last free time before bed that we are spending here writing for you!

Friday July 6, 2018

Hi! Our names are Sophie and Henrique, and we´re writing the blog for you today to keep you guys posted on what the GLA students are up to.

So, since we haven´t been updated in days, we´ll summarize the past
few days:

Tuesday morning, we left Providencia to head towards Dominical for a
beach excursion. Once we reached Dominical, everyone
had lunch at a restaurant with a spectacular ocean view, followed by
everyone chilling around the beach, buying souvenirs from pop-up
booths. However, the highlight of the trip was the surf lesson we
took. Everyone seemed to get the hang of surfing, and several people
were able to stand up and ride the waves to the shore. The second
highlight of the excursion was visiting Manuel Antonio National Park,
where we saw lots of cool animals and bugs, including monkeys and
sloths. Also, at the park, there was a nice beach with some crazy
waves and, unfortunately, some sharp rocks (we all survived!)
Finally, we ended our excursion with watching the sunset on the
Dominical beach.

We started yesterday morning by waking up bright and early (7 am) for
a 3 hour drive back to Providencia, but an unexpected landslide closed
a crucial highway we needed to return. So, to pass the time, we
embarked on a scavenger hunt in a nearby town named Perez Zeledon.
When the landslide was cleared 2 hours later, we continued our trip
back to Providencia. With about an hour left of our ride, we stopped
for a quick meal. After getting back to Providencia, most of us went meet
different families and keep practicing our Spanish.

Today, we started 2 new service projects (our main project was delayed
due to rain): eco-bricks and biogardens. Eco-bricks are plastic
bottles filled with other “trash” that would normally accumulate in
the ocean. These “bricks” are used in Providencia to build bleachers
and walls, so we spent around an hour stuffing bottles to make
eco-bricks. After the rain cleared up, we started our biogarden
project, where we dug a meter-deep hole and collected a large amount
of rocks. Biogardens are used to filter the “gray water” to make the
river in Providencia cleaner. Recently, higher levels of soap and
sludge were detected in the river, and Green Communities plans to
reduce these levels.

We hope you enjoy reading what´s been happening here in Costa Rica, and we´ll keep you guys posted!

Monday July 9, 2018

Hello everyone! We´ve reached the end of Day 18 already and it´s crazy to think that only two more full days lay ahead of us. Today was our last service day, with great effort and teamwork we managed to fill our giant hole with all of the rocks that we collected, put in the first pipes and collect the type of plant we need to finish the bio-garden.

We also had our last Spanish class today, with everyone participating in many different final presentations that took place in the presence of the creator of the Green Communities Spanish course. Before breakfast and after lunch we had the chance to see the beginning and end of the process of creating sweets and sugar from raw sugarcane – grinding the sugarcane, boiling it with a special tree bark, taking the solid product and putting it into mold with different herbs and spices. We also went to an adventure park where we did zip-linning, tarzan swing and even climbed inside the middle of a tree!

On a more academic note, we have had a couple more discussions: one on consumption and another on water usage. We walked down to a natural spring for the water talk which was very interesting, and we were pushed in both of them to think about alarming angles of over-consumption and water use, how this affects us at home and what we can do about it.

Tomorrow we will be hiking to a waterfall as our last outing; after that just another leadership activity and then packing, evaluations and a talent show on July 11.

-by Nico Couto (International Staff)

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Tuesday July 24, 2018

Hola!!!!

After a long day of flying we have all made it to Costa Rica! When we got here most of us took a nap right away in the hotel after meeting our mentors. Then we all did a walking tour through the capital city, saw the most import Monuments and even saw some street performers!

We came back to the hotel for dinner and then got some sleep for our three hour drive to home base!! We won’t have WiFi there so please don’t worry if we don’t get back to you. We’ll be having too much fun to look at our phones.

Adios!

Friday July 27, 2018

Hola amigos! Today was an awesome day. We woke up at around 6:35 to eat breakfast at 6:45.
It was delicious! Then we got on the bus and headed over to San Pedro where we meet up with
the group. Then we broke a sweat working hard on the long-term project of a sidewalk for the
kids and public to walk on. We then hopped on over to lunch, where we had an authentic Costa
Rican meal cooked by wonderful and generous ladies. We then played a quick match of soccer
and headed back to home base. After our daily Spanish classes, we had a scrumdiddlyumptious
meal and then bounced back to our cabins for a peaceful night sleep. We had an incredible day
today and we can’t wait for tomorrow!

P u r a vi d a m a e !

Saturday July 28, 2018

Hola amigos! Today we had another amazing day in Costa Rica. We got to sleep in until 6:50 to
have another delicious breakfast at 7. Then we went down to the bus and made our way to San
Pedro to begin our third day of service. Today we primarily worked with cement with some of
us transporting compost to participating eco farms. Due to an event in the main hall we ate our
lunch in a different place today, but the food was just as good! After that we headed back to
home base to begin another Spanish lesson that lasted 2 and a half hours. Then we ate a
delectable dinner and had free time for the rest of the night. Tune in tomorrow for another
picante post from your blog baristas. Goodnight folks!

P u r a vi d a m a e !

Tuesday July 31, 2018

Hola!!!

For the first half of the trip, we’ve been working on a sidewalk in the small town of San Pedro.
After fully cementing the drainage ditch on a large portion of concrete, we started the second
half of our community service, which involves working on local coffee farms and using compost
to fertilize coffee plants. We formed assembly lines with buckets, and through group effort, we
fertilized hundreds of coffee plants.

After four days of hard work, we decided to take a break and head to the beach! For our first
day in Playa Dominical, we all took a surf lesson for two hours. The conditions were great, and
everyone was able to surf multiple waves. After a delicious lunch, we drove to our hotel for
some much needed wifi and rest. It was a chill afternoon by the pool leading up to another
group meal in the hotel dining room.

For our second day in Dominical, we got up early and shuttled to the Manuel Antonio National
Park. We made our way through the park and were lucky enough to spot a three-toed friendly
sloth, and several other amazing animals including a rainbow grasshopper, and squirrel
monkeys. We arrived at a beautiful beach with crystal clear waters and white sands where we
spent two hours swimming and meeting other American teenagers. We left the beach right
before a rainstorm hit, and headed to town where we ate lunch and shopped to our heart’s
content. We then went back to the beach to watch the sunset.

Today after driving an hour to the beginning of a dirt road, we boarded four by fours trucks and
ascended 10,000 feet of mountain road to make it back to the cloud forest and Cedrela. The
ride was bumpy and fun and everyone had a great time. This afternoon we continued our
Spanish class, as the rain once again kept us inside. We’ll continue community service at the
coffee farms for the rest of this week. Pura Vida!

-Blake and Olivia

Saturday August 4, 2018

Hola!!!

We had an amazing time fertilizing organic coffee farms the last few days! The compost
smells…absolutely amazing 😉

Unfortunately, today was our very last day of service. It was a little hard to say goodbye to
Arturo and Alvaro, our service leaders. They are amazing people and are super passionate
about what they do. The mothers that cook lunch for us every day celebrated all our hard work
by performing some traditional Costa Rican dances for us in their traditional dresses. It was so
fun to dance with them!

When we got back to Cedrela we also had our last Spanish class today! Each level of Spanish
had to present their final projects. Level 1 taught us about Costa Rican legends, level 2 hosted a
game show to teach us about different regions of Costa Rica and level 3 presented a summary
of everything we have done here the past two weeks. Nothing can beat the new GLA Costa Rica
theme song: “La playa” written and produced by Rex and Eli!

We had a delicious chicken dinner and then spent the night doing our last Leadership Activity.
We got the chance to think about our future selves and what/who we want to be twenty years
down the road. After that, we had some free time before bed and Tona and Esteban took us
animal hunting in the woods. Didn’t see much though, and the animals we thought we saw
turned out to be Esteban playing jokes on us!

Tomorrow is our last full day in CR and we are heading to the Extreme Forest Park. We cannot
wait!!!!

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Sunday July 8, 2018

Pura vida, mae!

We made it to Costa Rica on this beautiful sunny day! Even though we are super tired from our long flights, we managed to make the most of our day in San Jose. We got to do a walking tour through the capital of this amazing country and learned all about the buildings.

While we briefly visited the nation’s most important historical buildings, what really caught our eye was the sunset and parakeets!!! Tomorrow we are heading to our homebase and stopping for a coffee mill tour on the way! We won’t have internet at our homebase, but don’t worry, we will be busy having fun making new friends, practicing our Spanish and serving the San Pedro community!

Hasta luego,
GLA

Tuesday July 10, 2018

Hola!

Yesterday we woke up pretty early so that we could head to home base. It was about a 2.5 hour
drive, but we stopped on the way to do a coffee tour at La Pira de Dota. We learned about how
coffee is produced and the many steps that are involved in that process. We also got to taste
their homemade coffee and fresh lemonade. After we got to home base we ate a delicious
lunch of fish and fruit salad. We did some team building activities in the afternoon along with
some intense card games. Our leadership roles were chosen and then we ended the night with
mentor groups.

Today was an early morning as well. After eating breakfast, we drove to the town of San Pedro
to start our service projects. We shoveled compost into bags so that it can be transported to
the coffee fields that need it. After we worked for a couple of hours, the women from the
community made us lunch which consisted of rice, beans, and chicken. We came back from our
service site and started Spanish. While some of the group was doing interviews in Spanish, the
rest of us played interesting games. We ate dinner and then got our Spanish placement results.
We ended the night with a bonfire which lead us to becoming a closer group.

Pura vida,
Kendall

Wednesday July 11, 2018

¡Hola!

We had another early morning today to begin working on building a sidewalk for the community of San Pedro, so the children can walk safely to school. We divided up into three groups, with two groups mixing cement and the other group leveling the ground and laying down the cement. Unfortunetly we had to stop construction about half an hour early due to rain. After service we had lunch made by the local mothers of pasta with vegetables and meat. Following lunch we returned back to home base.

Back at home base, we had some free time that we could use to shower, as we were very dirty from building the sidewalk. Then we began our first day of Spanish classes in our groups. We worked on lessons in our different level groups, as well as activities all together. After Spanish lessons, we had some more free time. Then we had dinner at home base of pasta, cream sauce, and bread.

After dinner, we had an evening activity where we watched a video about all the processes the things we buy go through from when they are made to after we throw them away. It made us all more aware about the impact the products we consume have on ourselves and the environment. After the video we finished the day with a movie night.

Hasta luego,
Autumn

Saturday July 14, 2018

Yesterday we worked on the sidewalk that runs from the school to the town. We were covered in cement when we left, but it was all worth it. For lunch we had rice and salad that was made by the local women. After lunch, we took Spanish class and then had a discussion about smart tourism before going to the beach.

Today we woke up around five to leave for the beach. We rode on the bus for about an hour and then we got on an outdoor Jeep. It was an amazing experience to see the mountains and the unique variety of fauna. After driving, we arrived at Manuel Antonio National Park. We took a tour there and saw toucans, sloths, monkeys, raccoon, and a lot other animals. We went swimming at the beach, and then went to relax at the hotel.

-Kendall

Tuesday July 17, 2018

Papa Tom (Tommy) and Emma here. Today we had our first experience tending to a coffee
farm. Prior to service, we discussed the differences between conventional and organic
agriculture. We also visited both types of farms. After learning the importance of our service for
the organic coffee plantation, we went to work. We spilt up into groups with some people
shoveling and others participating in an assembly line to spread compost throughout the fields.
We only lasted about 20 minutes before a group of warrior ants interrupted our work. The
shoveling was postponed for a while, but we were able to see the impressive ecological wonder
of thousands of ants migrating in a flowing line. After the ants finished their crusade, we went
back to our jobs. Later, we enjoyed a homemade meal cooked by the wonderful mothers in the
community. Once we returned to home base, it was time for Spanish class! We had a surprise
addition to our class: a Spanish cooking lesson lead by our chef Memo. We learned to make
arepas con queso. We ended the night with a delicious dinner and a fun dance class lead by the
mentors. We learned bachata, salsa and even had a demonstration of the worm. Tomorrow we
have another day of service and fun, so for now hasta luego and buenas noches!

Friday July 20, 2018

Hola Mae!

Today was a bittersweet day for everyone. We celebrated our last ‘real’ day in CR with a visit to the Extreme Forest Adventure Park. We swang from trees, ziplines and even climbed a hollow tree! After our outdoor adventure, we ate lunch at the other GLA base located in CR. We completed our day of adventure with a short walk to a natural pond and waterfall where we braved the cold waters for a quick swim. We then headed to the local fair in Santa Maria.

There we had the exciting opportunity to be in the presence of CR’s president! After we came home, the afternoon was spent packing and enjoying time with our friends. After a delicious dinner, we completed the night with a talent show (congrats to Vincent and Bella for receiving 1st place!). Our last activity was an appreciation game full of love and laughter. While many of us are ready to head back home, everyone can agree that the memories we made here will stay with us forever.

Nos vemos y Pura Vida!
Emma

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Friday June 22, 2018

Holaaaa!

We made it to beautiful Costa Rica! After some long flights, some delays and some arriving early, our students are safe and sound with GLA staff in San Jose!

We had a great time getting the opportunity to talk to everyone and we even got a chance to swim in the awesome hotel pool to show our staff our swimming skills! We can’t wait to use them while we try surfing in a week or so!

We had dinner in the hotel, the traditional meal of rice, beans, chicken or fish, fried plantains and veggies! Yummm! After dinner, we got a chance to hang out with our new friends. Well, we are off to bed because at 6:20am we need to be ready for breakfast. We have a very busy day ahead of us and we cannot wait to see our homebase, Cedrela EcoLodge, tomorrow afternoon! We won’t have WiFi access there so don’t worry if you don’t hear from us, we’ll be too busy moving in to our new home!

Not pictured: Jake Writer

Saturday June 23, 2018

Hola Amigos,
Erin here!

Today we left the hotel in San Jose, and started the morning with breakfast at Dennys. We then took a tour around the city of San Jose, and learned a little about the history of Costa Rica. We learned that the majority of the buildings around are post-colonial due to the civil war in the 19th century that destroyed the older buildings. An interesting historical fact we learned about was the story behind the elimination of the army. In 1948, the president of Costa Rica, Pepe Figueres, destroyed a part of the military fort as a symbol to end the spilling of blood between brothers in Costa Rica.

After we toured around the city, we drove through winding streets up to the Los Santos region to La Pira, and had a tour around a coffee farm. Gabriel, the owner of the coffee farm business explained to us the process from picking the coffee fruit to extracting the bean and shipping the beans to coffee companies across Asia and the Americas. After the tour, we got to do “cupping,” which is the tasting of several coffees.

Getting back on the bus, we continued up the mountains to our home base. At the home base, we had a delicious lunch of chicken, potatoes, and a kale salad. Brutus is the dog here at home base, and there is also a cat, who are both adorable! We then hung out and did some orientation activities. We got to know each other better through name games, and more! As it got darker, we had a dinner of pasta, bread, and some blackberry juice. Afterwards, we got to know our mentors and played a little game of trivia which turned competitive very fast.

Again, it was pouring rain by 9pm, as well as lighting and thunder, which hopefully we’ll be able to get used to! But besides that, the view from our home base is absolutely gorgeous, and we’re looking forward to our first service project tomorrow, and having more fun!

That’s all folks!
Hasta luego!

Erin out

Sunday June 24, 2018

¡Hola Todos!
Kyle and Erin M. here!

Today we had another early morning, and had a yummy breakfast of pineapples, mangos, bread, and eggs. All the fruits and vegetables are grown here, and we got to each them fresh! Even the bread is homemade by our dearest chef, Memo. After breakfast, we left at 7:15 to our first service project in San Pedro. We met some of the local members of the community, and talked about developed communities, and sustainable communities. In the group, we also talked about why we are here in Costa Rica, and what we are doing here to support sustainable development in the community of San Pedro. Some of the things we can do here to benefit the environment is not only through the service projects, but also the little things like taking short showers, and recycling during our stay at the lodge.

Our first service project here that we started today is to make sidewalks for the kids here in Costa Rica to be able to safely walk to school. Split into groups, we accomplished our part for the day through teamwork. Some groups created cement, others dug out and flattened the dirt for the concrete, using shovels and pickaxes! Working together was very crucial, and also communicating with the community leaders as well. This service project for us was a very good experience to be able to use our hands and bodies to create something out a few materials to create an impact on the community. We are very excited to continue tomorrow, and get to see more of our progress. Although it was hard work, and at times tiring, we pushed through and getting to eat a delicious homemade lunch was very rewarding.

After a few hours of working on our project, we walked back down to the community school to meet the mothers of San Pedro who cooked lunch for us! We had an incredible lunch of beans, mixed vegetables, rice, guacamole, meat, and fresh fruit juice. Another way we were able to create a positive impact on the community was through being able to provide an income for the mothers who cooked for us. By involving and interacting with the community members, we can also encourage them to support Green Communities! After lunch, we went out and played a quick and fun spirited game of soccer. It got a little competitive, but I’m proud to say that the ‘chicas’ won! (plus Kyle was on the team too!)

Returning to the lodge, we got to take a little break and rest a little to recover. Then, we had our first Spanish lesson, which was more of just games and activities. We also had a few competitions with Pictionary and more. Then we played sardines, and some of us also played card games. For dinner, we had beef, kale salad, and fried yucca sticks which were all tasty once again. The kale here is actually grown right on the lodge! Tomorrow we will continue with the sidewalks, and have our first official Spanish class in our designated levels. Being able to practice our Spanish with some of the community members was fun, and after getting some good rest, hopefully we are up and energized for the next day of cement mixing and more digging!

¡Pura Vida!
¡Hasta Proto!

 

Monday June 25, 2018

¡Hola Amigos!

It’s Anna and Grace here to fill you in on all the exciting adventures of today!

After a nutritious breakfast of eggs, bananas and cereal, we began our day and headed to San Pedro for our second day of building sidewalks for the kids here in Costa Rica. Luckily for us, we got an extra 15 minutes of sleep because of the later breakfast time and were well-rested for the busy day of service and Spanish ahead!

At San Pedro, the service leaders were designated groups and led their teams in mixing cement, smoothing sidewalks and shoveling dirt. All the activities were similar to the ones we did the day before, but we all felt much more confident and comfortable doing each of the tasks because of our previous experience from yesterday. Today was special because we were able to listen to music during the service, making the hard work a little more fun and upbeat. Through the dancing and singing, there was not one sad face at the service site.

After our work at San Pedro, we drove to Santa Maria and practiced our Spanish speaking through interviews with local Costa Ricans! After breaking into groups, we asked shopkeepers and people around the park about what leadership means to them. By conversing with them in Spanish, we were able to apply our language skills and learn more about the role of leadership in the culture of Costa Rica. It was so enjoyable to step outside of the classroom and our comfort zones!

Our Spanish classes, split into 3 sections: beginning, intermediate and advanced, took place once we returned to the Cedrela Homebase from Santa Maria. By doing a variety of activities in the classes, including singing and discussions, we were able to get to know each other and expand our knowledge of the Spanish language.

After a relaxing break which included a gorgeous sunset, we had a delicious dinner made by our chef, Memo. Once we filled our stomachs with fish and mashed potatoes, we once more had a break before winding down for bedtime and planning for tomorrow. Overall, it was a successful day of sunsets, Spanish, service and leadership (otherwise known as “liderazgo” in español)!

¡Adios!
¡Pura Vida!

Friday June 29, 2018

Hola amigos!

We’re back from our “beachend” excursion from the land of Dominical and Quepos!

For the first day, we went to Manual Antonio National Park, which is in Quepos. There, the group was guided by a Tico expert on the historical preservation and knowledge of the biological ecosystems in the park. He helped us spot sloths, exotic crabs, lizards, birds, and monkeys hanging from the trees and scurrying across telephone lines!! We witnessed a National Geographic moment of a monkey indulging two eggs for its lunch. If we had a professional photographer, that moment would be worth a lot of money!

After our tiring but fascinating hike, we ended up at the beach, which is located in the Central Pacific of Costa Rica. Since the water was such the perfect temperature, Nicole and Tona had to drag us out for lunch. After a fun day of activities, we headed up to the hotel to rest up for the next adventure.

The next day in Dominical many of us experienced surfing for the first time. Through the local surf shop, we received lessons and the materials to surf. The waves were wild but we could not wait to stand on the board for the first time. After interviewing one of the surfers, Anna, she describe her experiences as so fun and exhilarating.

While some of us were surfing the rest of the group was on the avenue shopping from dynamic venders and buying locally made ice cream. Regrouping for lunch we traveled to a beautiful beachside restaurant where we enjoyed an array of dishes such as: fish tacos, hamburgers, shrimp and rice, and meat nachos. Mind you – every dish served to us in Costa Rica is accompanied with freshly squeezed fruit juice.

That night we all did our own thing by chillin’ in the pool and dancing the night away. We wrapped up the night with a family style dinner and the authors of this blog were the Head Queens of the table.

In the morning, we packed up our things and headed back up to the Eco Lodge. We are excited to get back and start service tomorrow, but we wish we had more time to relax by the water.

Pura Vida!!!!!

Lily and Nia

Saturday June 30, 2018

Hey y’all!

Today we started our second part of service. To start the day, we went to a conventional coffee farm and observed what the plants looked like when the farmers use pesticides and harmful chemicals. This farm was so dry and lifeless that one of the students referred to it as the graveyard¨.

After viewing the ¨graveyard¨, we went to Alvaro’s (the local leader of Los Santos) organic coffee farm. There was a noticeable difference in the plant soil, sun exposure, and amount of bug holes in the plants´ leaves.

Now comes the time that we have all been waiting for… to use Mother Nature’s resources to their fullest extent! By providing local revenue, jobs for Ticos, and positively contributing to the future of San Pedro and beyond, GLA students used manure, food scraps, and beneficial bacteria as our fertilizer. At the organic coffee farm in San Pedro, we helped fertilize one area of the farm by using an assembly line method. Some of us shoveled organic compost into buckets, passing them down the line to be dumped around the base of the coffee plant. By working together, we were able to complete a job, that would normally take one farmer 2-3 days, in 4 hours!

To end our day in San Pedro, we played an intense game of fútbol. In a close match the boys ended up winning 6-5. As a closing remark, we all had a blast getting back into service and spent the remaining afternoon learning Spanish and hiking around the EcoLodge.

¡Hasta Luego!

Nia, Lily
Hazy for pictures

Sunday July 1, 2018

Hola!

The sun beamed its usual rays this morning as the group took a minor detour to the organic coffee farm, where we began working on the day prior. We walked to a spring creek near the entrance of the lodge, where we discussed the importance of trees to our water supply. Planting the trees help retain water in our ecosystem so we began planting more trees around the area of the creek. These were small trees (no bigger than 3ft) but they would grow into mature trees with an important job. We also brainstormed the importance of saving water and steps we can take to preserve our water supply for when we return home.

Once we arrived at the organic coffee farm, we began spreading the compost to the small coffee bushes. This compost was locally made by the community and is used to add nutrients to their organic farm. We formed an assembly line of sorts and began passing compost buckets to the needed areas and tossing the empty buckets back to be refilled. After 45 minutes or so, rain clouds began rolling in, so we packed up our gear and headed to the community center for lunch.

At the Community center we had rice, chicken with steamed veggies and a Sugar Cane Lemon Iced Tea, followed by a lollipop for dessert. After lunch, many of us played a childhood favorite: Musical Chairs along to some popular Latin music. The room filled with cheers, laughter, music and the roars of our competitive spirits. Then, we returned to the lodge where we began working on our final Spanish projects with our Spanish classes.

Lastly, Dinner Time! After a nutritious common Costa Rican meal, we began to learn some Latin dances, taught by one of our peers, Mhelaney, which included Salsa and Bachata. We all had a blast learning and dancing with our partners!!! Truly a night one will never forget…

Until next time,
Hazy