La semana pasada...

Wow the week has really flown by! 

We visited La Paz Waterfall Gardens, the Poas Volcano, a coffee plantation, Ecovillas and spent a week with our first Tico families. We also visited a local primary school and a community founded by Nicaraguan immigrants called La Carpio. 

Just one of the many edible plants at Ecovillas

Visiting the Ecovillas was very interesting. It was great to see a community of people growing their own food and taking an interest in the well-being of our environment. Steven Brooks, the founder of Ecovillas, showed us many plants and trees that produce food from various fruits and herbs to leaves for salad. While this group takes sustainability to a bit of an extreme, this is a concept I have a lot in common with. I was raised to always think about how my actions effect others as well as the environment, therefore I take pride in protecting and conserving our world. I love the idea of growing your own food and not having to depend on a store for survival, but am not sure I would be willing to move to Costa Rica for it. :)
Ecovillas - Tico Times  Ecovillas


La Carpio was a great experience. It was really sad to see the children, and all of the people, living in these conditions. There was garbage in the street, dirt floors and more.  At the same time though it was inspiring to hear how much progress they have made. How people were working hard and trying to better their quality of life. It was also great to hear Gale's story (the founder of the Humanitarian Foundation) and what she has done to help these people; trying to educate them about things like health, hygiene, and cleanliness, things that we often take for granted in the United States. Being able to have a warm shower with clean water, having medicine and a warm bed when we are sick, even having food to eat. It was great to have the opportunity to spend time with some of the children of this town and see that despite everything they do not have, they are still able to find happiness and joy in their lives. It made me realize how much stuff we have in the US and how we really don't need any of it to be happy. I would love to do something to help these people, raise money or supplies to donate... 
CRHF La Carpio


I loved the primary school visit and wish we could have spent more time there. All of the kids were really nice and seemed to enjoy having us there. We read books to the students both in English and Spanish, had them draw pictures of their favorite animal and write four sentences about why it is their favorite.


On the weekend we visited the beach at Manuel Antonio and explored the surrounding rainforest. We saw many animals from frogs and lizards to monkeys, sloths, and even a white tailed deer. 
On Friday we attended a dance held by the community church. This was really neat to experience because it was truly a community event. Many families were there with their parents, children, grandparents, brothers and sisters. It was great to see everyone come together like this and partake in a cultural experience. It really made me realize that we don't really have anything like this in the US, something that brings people of all ages together. What do we have that defines our culture?  I am sad I had to leave my first family. I really enjoyed spending time with them and finding out more about their culture. It was interesting how much of the family lived close together. Por ejemplo, in my house in Heredia there was the mom and her two daughters living in one house, along with their husbands and children. Also in an apartment above this house lived my mama tica's son and his family. She has one more daughter that lives just a short way down the road. It was neat to see the family so close and such an integral part of each others lives. 


Last night I met my new family for the next 2 weeks. They seem really nice and have a 2 and a half year old boy. I am really looking forward to getting to know them and experiencing a different part of Costa Rican culture. 


Language and Literacy Development in Costa Rica:
While in Costa Rica I will be completing a project on language and literacy development in this country. I have started by gathering information about the culture in general and forming my questions for my study.

• I want to know what role the parents here play in their children's education, especially before and during preschool. 
• Does my child (Tico brother) enjoy reading/ listening to stories? 
• Does my family have a lot of books in their house? 
• Are there a lot of books in the school libraries? 
• Is there a lot of verbal communication between the child and parents? 

I will be forming more questions as I find out more about my family and the culture. 
An obvious limitation that I will have with my project is the language barrier.