COSTA RICA – Protecting the Pacific – August 7 – August 20, 2014

Headed Home

All students are headed home after an amazing program!

Photos

Service and Activities

Day 6, First we want to all apologize for the lack of posting recently, which is mostly do to the fact that two days ago we actually lost power for an hour – now parents, don’t be worried the dark can be fun. A quick flash back to the un- posted days entails for one, the entire group walked around the town of Bahia Ballena with Travis discussing the rich history of where we get to stay. After walking down to the National Park entrance about 15 minutes away from home base we all headed to the supermarket for a quick ice cream break and then back to home base for some lunch. After lunch on this day we all headed down to the Mangroves nearby and kayaked for a couple hours. Despite the torrential downpour at the end of the trek, there were breath- taking views along with singing galore making the entire afternoon superb.

Moving on to Day 5, or for that matter Monday. After waking up to a beautiful sunshine, and some very loud birds, we traveled as a group around the community collecting litter using GPS technology and mapping the trash as we went along. Once we trailed back to home base we had an insightful conversation about what we saw and experienced at the Mangroves. Following lunch we headed down to the beach and began our community service, which entailed painting marine murals on the surfaces of changing rooms, bathrooms, and sinks, as well as digging a hole for the new and improved pipe system to be installed. Despite being caught in a downpour of rain we managed to accomplish a fair amount of work and had a great time while doing so.

Finally for today, or rather Day 6, after an early rise for breakfast, we journeyed back to the beach for yet other surfing lesson, continuing our progress from 3 days ago. After lunch, and a quick dip in the pool for some, we returned to the beach to continue our project. Luckily today we managed to do quite a bit of work and return to home base without being caught in the rain. Once we had dinner we all participated in a leadership activity, Cool as a Cucumber. This was a very brain-awakening activity where we focused on different situations that we agreed with, or didn’t based on our personalities and group dynamics. At the end of the game we had all split up into different categories, which in fact all had names and explanations that best explained our qualities within a group. After this we split up into our mentor groups and discussed the pros and cons of this activity. To finish the night up, we all partook in a riveting game called Excuses, but let your kid explain this one. Posting again tomorrow. This is a rap.

Starting Off!

The day started off as we took the bus down to the beach to go surfing. By the time we arrived the sun was already out and it was really hot. We were split into two different groups; one went surfing while the other walked round the beach picking up all the rubbish. We then swapped over.

I found that picking up the rubbish round the beach had many positive impacts such as; helping the community, improving the habitat and cleaning the beach. This motivated me and those in my group to work rigorously throughout the day in order to achieve as much out of the experience as we possibly could. As the day went on my group had swapped over after spending the morning cleaning the beach. We were introduced to the surfing instructors who all appeared friendly and talkative which allowed us to feel comfortable around them. They talked us through the basic concepts of surfing, ran us through how to turn and we were then allowed in the water to try it all out. It was amazing. It was hard at first but as we gained experience we all achieved something out of it, which made it even better.

The second part of the day was just as exciting. We were taken to a local school for young kids who didn’t have the same equipment as we would and were not given the same opportunities in life. We were there to change that. We spent the next two hours making carpets to give to the children instead of chairs, which were not available. Some of the time was spent playing with the kids, which allowed us to teach them some English as well as learn a little Spanish too. Everyone really enjoyed the day and we are all looking forward to tomorrow even more.

We’ve Arrived!

All students have arrived and are ready for their program! Stay tuned for blog updates and photos!