Greetings again from San José!
What a fun-filled adventure week we´ve had! We finished all three of our projects last week in Las Mesas. Our bodega at the school is wonderful! For the final touch, we poured cement into a sidewalk and signed all of our names so we'll always remember the work we did in our beloved Las Mesas school. The rock wall we built at the church looks fabulous, and the students are incredibly proud of both the wall and the freshly-painted Sunday school rooms. Blue has never looked so good. Last but certainly not least, we completed our community service projects in Las Mesas by painting a fence and a shed at the local cemetery. Although the cemetery was the farthest walk away from our homes, it had the most beautiful view. Rolling mountains, incredibly clouds, and miles of coffee farms could be seen from our worksite.
After a week of living with families, we all said tearful goodbyes to Las Mesas last Thursday. I think that many students would say that their homestay week was the most positive, interesting, and captivating part of our stay in Las Mesas. We all worked on our Spanish, ate delicious meals, and became close very quickly with our ¨mothers, fathers, and siblings.¨Our fiesta de despedida was a huge hit with the tiniest of children successfully opening a pinata, many community members in attendance, and our final farewell to the community as a whole. Thursday morning was hard. Las Mesas had become our home for three weeks, and we were all sad to say goodbye to it. But say goodbye we did.
And we were off for the beginning of our adventure travel week. Our first stop was Pura Suerte, a beautiful organic farm up in the mountains of the Perez Zeledon region. From our cabins on the farm, we hiked to a magnificent waterfall, where we swam for hours in a fresh water pool. And we completed our Pura Suerte day indeed with pura suerte (pure luck). A few of us made it to the top of the mountain to see the most beautiful sunset we have ever witnessed. From our viewpoint, you could see the entire Osa Peninsula and the Pacific Coast all the way up to Manuel Antonio National Park. It was so magnificent!
Adventure week continued at Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp, just outside of Corcovado National Park, where we lived in platform tents, ate ceviche for an appetizer every evening, saw a locust larger than we could have imagined in our dreams, lounged on the beach, went snorkeling off the coast of an island, and completed our day with a close-up view of at least two dozen dolphins, swimming right along side our boat! We had a truly wonderful week of viewing animals (including monkeys!), sunsets, beautiful vistas, and, of course, so much of the Southwestern region of Costa Rica.
Now, we are returned to the Hemingway Inn in San José, where we will sleep a good night and wake up early for our rafting trip down the Rio Pacuare tomorrow. We´re all looking forward to it, although we know that the end of the rafting trip means sad goodbyes to each other!
Hope all are well at home!
Take care,
Hannah and Jesús
Monday, July 20, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Our last week in Las Mesas
Amigos y familia,
Hello again from Las Mesas! Life here is tranquila and bonita. Everyone is doing so well, and we are sad to think that we only have a few short days left in this wonderful town.
We continue working on our community service projects every day during the week. This past week, we finished both projects at the local Catholic church. We painted the Sunday school rooms a beautiful blue (after sanding, sanding, sanding!), and we built a stone wall along the outside of what will one day be a field on which local kids can play soccer and other games. José, our maestro de obras of the stone wall project, was a wonderful, patient, and joyful teacher. And once, when we found an ant hill in a wall we were smoothing out, he stuck his hand in and destroyed the whole thing. With his bare hands! The students certainly got a kick out of that one!
Hello again from Las Mesas! Life here is tranquila and bonita. Everyone is doing so well, and we are sad to think that we only have a few short days left in this wonderful town.
We continue working on our community service projects every day during the week. This past week, we finished both projects at the local Catholic church. We painted the Sunday school rooms a beautiful blue (after sanding, sanding, sanding!), and we built a stone wall along the outside of what will one day be a field on which local kids can play soccer and other games. José, our maestro de obras of the stone wall project, was a wonderful, patient, and joyful teacher. And once, when we found an ant hill in a wall we were smoothing out, he stuck his hand in and destroyed the whole thing. With his bare hands! The students certainly got a kick out of that one!
Now that we are finished at the church, we have begun our third project at the local cemetery. We just finished washing off the fence that surrounds the cemetery, and on Monday, we`ll paint it. We`ll also paint the cemetery`s shed. We continue working on our storage room at the school, mixing cement and laying brick. Yesterday, we completed the roof and laid the cement on the floor. We´re hoping to finish the project on Tuesday or Wednesday, just in time to celebrate our accomplishment before we leave the town.
The students are also working on their individual projects, which are all interesting and so different. A few kids have painted lines and a key on the local basketball court, where they play ball with local kids. Others are working on making thank you cards (for all of those who have helped us out here in Las Mesas) out of recycled paper. Others learned how to milk a cow just this morning! They`ll use the milk to make a local Costa Rican sweet cheese. Other students are teaching dance classes, teaching classes on how to make bracelets out of yarn, holding a small basketball workshop (on the freshly painted court), tutoring a friend in English, making a collage of photos of children to donate to the school, and painting a mural in a local gathering place. We keep busy, that`s for sure!
On Thursday, we cleaned our house and said to it a tearful goodbye before leaving for our homestay families. The students are all staying with different families in various parts of Las Mesas. After meeting with the families last week, Jesús and I were very excited for the kids to meet them, stay with them, and learn from them. They are all wonderful, hospitable people, and we are certain that the homestay will be an incredibly valuable (and enjoyable!) experience.
Last weekend, we attended the local school´s end of the year fiesta, where we played with our friends, learned to dance merengue and cumbia, and watched the town crown their king and queen. We also took a long awaited trip to a beach (about 2 hours away from Las Mesas), and we brought along some local friends. Although we prepared heartily for intense sun, we were greeted by a downpour of rain. Already wet from the rain, we thought the warm Pacific Ocean was a treat! We spent the better part of the day enjoying the waves, throwing frisbees, and taking walks on the beach.
The students are also working on their individual projects, which are all interesting and so different. A few kids have painted lines and a key on the local basketball court, where they play ball with local kids. Others are working on making thank you cards (for all of those who have helped us out here in Las Mesas) out of recycled paper. Others learned how to milk a cow just this morning! They`ll use the milk to make a local Costa Rican sweet cheese. Other students are teaching dance classes, teaching classes on how to make bracelets out of yarn, holding a small basketball workshop (on the freshly painted court), tutoring a friend in English, making a collage of photos of children to donate to the school, and painting a mural in a local gathering place. We keep busy, that`s for sure!
On Thursday, we cleaned our house and said to it a tearful goodbye before leaving for our homestay families. The students are all staying with different families in various parts of Las Mesas. After meeting with the families last week, Jesús and I were very excited for the kids to meet them, stay with them, and learn from them. They are all wonderful, hospitable people, and we are certain that the homestay will be an incredibly valuable (and enjoyable!) experience.
Last weekend, we attended the local school´s end of the year fiesta, where we played with our friends, learned to dance merengue and cumbia, and watched the town crown their king and queen. We also took a long awaited trip to a beach (about 2 hours away from Las Mesas), and we brought along some local friends. Although we prepared heartily for intense sun, we were greeted by a downpour of rain. Already wet from the rain, we thought the warm Pacific Ocean was a treat! We spent the better part of the day enjoying the waves, throwing frisbees, and taking walks on the beach.
This weekend, the kids will stay with their homestay families to spend time together, practice their Spanish, and learn more about the town.
Highlight of the week: we saw a real live sloth! Right up close. It was at eye level, and we could get close enough to touch it! (Although, most of us didn`t.) It was certainly a rare sight, and we all walked away in awe.
We leave for our adventure travel week on Thursday, after finishing up our projects, enjoying our fiesta de despedida on Wednesday, and saying some difficult goodbyes Thursday morning. It`s sad to think that we will so soon be leaving our home here in Las Mesas.
We hope everyone is well at home!
Highlight of the week: we saw a real live sloth! Right up close. It was at eye level, and we could get close enough to touch it! (Although, most of us didn`t.) It was certainly a rare sight, and we all walked away in awe.
We leave for our adventure travel week on Thursday, after finishing up our projects, enjoying our fiesta de despedida on Wednesday, and saying some difficult goodbyes Thursday morning. It`s sad to think that we will so soon be leaving our home here in Las Mesas.
We hope everyone is well at home!
Abrazos,
Hannah and Jesús
Hannah and Jesús
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Feliz dia de independencia!
Happy 4th of July and hello family and friends of our Costa Rica Language Learning 2009 crew! We are writing to give you an update on our time thus far in Las Mesas de Pejibaye. Right now though, we´re actually in San Isidro el General doing laundry, using the internet, and doing some shopping. San Isidro is super lively right now since its Saturday, but especially because the local fire department is holding a fundraising festival to raise money for children with cancer and Downs Syndrome-- it is good to see the community in action to support such an important cause.
Our stay in Las Mesas has been amazing. We have been focusing on two projects so far and are gearing up to move into the homestay part of the program next week. The projects are going really well. We painted some classrooms at the local Catholic Church and will be building a stone structure starting Monday (this project should take just 2 days).
At the school, we´re still in the process of constructing a storage room-- although this project has been the hardest, it has also been the most rewarding. Our students have gotten their hands dirty mixing cement, carrying barrels of rocks and sand, sanding, and -- hold your breath!-- using machetes to clear brush (under much supervision, of course). Our maestro de obras (local foreman) has been extremely friendly and jokes around with our students all day.
The local elementary school has definitely become a 'second home' for the group. The women on the school board have been really helpful and have opened their doors to us, they were great with the welcome party and have invited us to their 'end of the year celebration' this weekend (where they will be crowing a school king and queen). The group is excited to check out the festivities tonight and possibly tomorrow as well.
This week we will begin to develop our independent projects as well-- there is much excitement about these projects. Some ideas include: running a small basketball camp, teaching local kids how to make bracelets, learning how to make things out of recycled paper, learning how to make local food dishes, etc.. .
The weather as of late has been a bit rainy (hot and humid), but we´ve been lucky to have a few beautiful, cooler afternoons and evenings. Everyone has gotten to know one another pretty well and it seems like students starting to form strong friendships.
In our free time, we´ve gotten a chance to play with children from the local elementary school and a few games of basketball. In the last few days, we (Jesus and Hannah) have gotten a chance to speak with the host families who will be taking the kids in for the last week in Las Mesas. From our meetings with them we can already tell that they are incredibly humble and generous people with a will to do good for their community. They are also very committed to the safety and well being of our students and the Putney group. The students begin their homestays next Thursday!
We are hoping to make a day trip to nearby beach, Marina Ballena, on Sunday. All is well here. We wish everyone a wonderful 4th of July!
Saludos!
Jesus y Hannah
Our stay in Las Mesas has been amazing. We have been focusing on two projects so far and are gearing up to move into the homestay part of the program next week. The projects are going really well. We painted some classrooms at the local Catholic Church and will be building a stone structure starting Monday (this project should take just 2 days).
At the school, we´re still in the process of constructing a storage room-- although this project has been the hardest, it has also been the most rewarding. Our students have gotten their hands dirty mixing cement, carrying barrels of rocks and sand, sanding, and -- hold your breath!-- using machetes to clear brush (under much supervision, of course). Our maestro de obras (local foreman) has been extremely friendly and jokes around with our students all day.
The local elementary school has definitely become a 'second home' for the group. The women on the school board have been really helpful and have opened their doors to us, they were great with the welcome party and have invited us to their 'end of the year celebration' this weekend (where they will be crowing a school king and queen). The group is excited to check out the festivities tonight and possibly tomorrow as well.
This week we will begin to develop our independent projects as well-- there is much excitement about these projects. Some ideas include: running a small basketball camp, teaching local kids how to make bracelets, learning how to make things out of recycled paper, learning how to make local food dishes, etc.. .
The weather as of late has been a bit rainy (hot and humid), but we´ve been lucky to have a few beautiful, cooler afternoons and evenings. Everyone has gotten to know one another pretty well and it seems like students starting to form strong friendships.
In our free time, we´ve gotten a chance to play with children from the local elementary school and a few games of basketball. In the last few days, we (Jesus and Hannah) have gotten a chance to speak with the host families who will be taking the kids in for the last week in Las Mesas. From our meetings with them we can already tell that they are incredibly humble and generous people with a will to do good for their community. They are also very committed to the safety and well being of our students and the Putney group. The students begin their homestays next Thursday!
We are hoping to make a day trip to nearby beach, Marina Ballena, on Sunday. All is well here. We wish everyone a wonderful 4th of July!
Saludos!
Jesus y Hannah
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Life in Las Mesas
Saludos a todos!
We have arrived in Las Mesas! After a morning´s drive from San José on Wednesday, we reached Las Mesas and were greeted by Reína and Lydia, our wonderful cooks, who had prepared arroz con pollo for our lunch. Our house was full of warmth and welcome, and we set up our things for most of the afternoon. The town welcomed us with a fiesta de bienvenida that evening in the local school (where we are also doing one of our community service projects), and we danced, played with the children, and got to know some of our new friends in the town.
Since our arrival, we have begun work on our two major community service projects: helping to build a bodega (a small storage room) at the school and sanding and painting the local Catholic church. We can tell you one thing: these kids are learning how to sand. Walls, pillars, fence posts, you name it! It´s good work, and we take breaks often to play with the local school children, eat lunch, and play soccer or basketball outside.
Yesterday, we took a hike to beautiful local waterfalls, where we lay in the sun, swam, and played in the water. The hike was hilly and hot, but the cool water was so wonderful at the end of it! It was a great opportunity to see the coffee fields, learn about the area, and get some good exercise. Today is our first day exploring San Isidro, the biggest town in our vicinity (about 35 minutes' drive from Las Mesas), where we can purchase supplies, access the internet, and eat at restaurants! Tonight, we´ll have meetings about the students' individual projects, so they can get started on those this week. And tomorrow, back to work!
We´re so happy to be here and settled and working on our projects with the local people, and we only had to take about a moment or two of silence to mourn the death of Michael Jackson.
We hope all is well at home in the States or wherever you may be. Enjoy the rest of June!
Abrazos,
Hannah and Jesús
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Hola from San Jose!
Amigos y familia,
We have arrived safely in San Jose without any bumps on the road getting here (except for an hour-long delay of our flight, but everyone was so patient!). Jesus greeted us after a long day of traveling with a welcome sign in the rain, a cozy ride to our hotel, and pizza upon arrival.
After a good night´s sleep, we got to know each other this morning during an orientation session and ate a delicious lunch. This afternoon, we´ll go to a place called Merecumbe for dance lessons, exchange some money in the city, and rest before heading to Las Mesas tomorrow morning at 9 am. All are well, happy, and excited to finally see our new rural home for the next three and a half weeks!
We hope that all is well at home with you.
Cuidense,
Hannah and Jesus
We have arrived safely in San Jose without any bumps on the road getting here (except for an hour-long delay of our flight, but everyone was so patient!). Jesus greeted us after a long day of traveling with a welcome sign in the rain, a cozy ride to our hotel, and pizza upon arrival.
After a good night´s sleep, we got to know each other this morning during an orientation session and ate a delicious lunch. This afternoon, we´ll go to a place called Merecumbe for dance lessons, exchange some money in the city, and rest before heading to Las Mesas tomorrow morning at 9 am. All are well, happy, and excited to finally see our new rural home for the next three and a half weeks!
We hope that all is well at home with you.
Cuidense,
Hannah and Jesus
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Saludos desde Las Mesas
Hello all,
This is Jesus writing from the beautiful area of Perez Zeledon and Las Mesas (our project village). The drive here from San Jose is through about 4 hours of lush green forest and jungle and mountains. Our host community of Las Mesas is absolutely wonderful-- the people here are are very organized, caring and a lot of fun to be around. Las Mesas is about a 14 km drive from San Isidro, which is the nearest city. We will do most of our shopping in San Isidro, but will be able to buy some basic materials and goods in Las Mesas as well.
The weather here has been a bit inconsistent--one minute it is sunny and beautiful and the next it is raining hard! The preparations for the group's arrival are almost ready. We have planned a fiesta de bienvenida (welcome party) for Wednesday and are gearing up to clean the group's house tomorrow. So far, we have three main projects to focus on-- one at the local Catholic church, another at the school, and the third at the cemetary. We have bought materials and should be ready to begin work next Thursday.
I will be waiting when Hannah and the rest of the group arrive in San Jose on Monday. Can't wait to meet everyone!
Saludos,
Jesus
This is Jesus writing from the beautiful area of Perez Zeledon and Las Mesas (our project village). The drive here from San Jose is through about 4 hours of lush green forest and jungle and mountains. Our host community of Las Mesas is absolutely wonderful-- the people here are are very organized, caring and a lot of fun to be around. Las Mesas is about a 14 km drive from San Isidro, which is the nearest city. We will do most of our shopping in San Isidro, but will be able to buy some basic materials and goods in Las Mesas as well.
The weather here has been a bit inconsistent--one minute it is sunny and beautiful and the next it is raining hard! The preparations for the group's arrival are almost ready. We have planned a fiesta de bienvenida (welcome party) for Wednesday and are gearing up to clean the group's house tomorrow. So far, we have three main projects to focus on-- one at the local Catholic church, another at the school, and the third at the cemetary. We have bought materials and should be ready to begin work next Thursday.
I will be waiting when Hannah and the rest of the group arrive in San Jose on Monday. Can't wait to meet everyone!
Saludos,
Jesus
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