Immersion B: Leaving La Legua and Monteverde

For this post we had several participants volunteer to write about each of the days. Here it is!

Thursday, July 24th
Once upon a Thursday at 6:40 a.m., four pretty, amazing, amusing, interesting, intelligent and super good chicos departed the extremely high summit of “The Hill” for the treacherous hike down to civilization. They were Erin, Nora, Akash, and Miriam (Kaley was running late like always) Claro que si, (that means “of course”), they arrived on time at the worksite. Then, immediately following the highly anticipated arrival of Alissa, the group stretched. Some classic stretches included “the creepy old man” and “dancing it out”. After stretching…TRABAJO MUCHO! (that’s super incorrect grammar for “we worked a lot”.) While leveling ground for the sidewalk, we listened to music and threw rocks at chickens. Corey and Evan attempted to put worms in other peoples boots. Then Nora and I worked hard shoveling and filling buckets of rocks and sand for cement mixing. Sarah, Madeline, and Julia were also hard at work…smoothing or something. Once we grew bored with shoveling, we decided to enter the dangerous deathly conquest of lifting full (approximately 60 to 70 pound) buckets of sand and rocks into the cement mixer. It took a few three or four failed attempts first but we eventually succeeded and it was a good feeling of accomplishment. After a few more hours of mixing and pouring cement, we had lunch. Muy bien! The plates were cleared in a record time of thirty-five seconds (Ok so it wasn’t really that fast but it was definitely close). Then everyone split into small groups and played rummy which had officially been dubbed “the new mafia”. This entire day thusfar had been our first day self managing as a group while Paul and Alissa took care of errands (we all knew that really meant they were hitting up the spa) and we worked surprisingly well and got a sufficient amount of work done. Paul and Alissa were extremely proud and impressed. We worked more in the afternoon until the lack of sand began to slow our progress. For a while we spent time messing around with the village kids making up nicknames and goofing around until it was time for the English lesson. A few people stayed and taught, some went home, and the rest of us headed to Yorleny’s house for foosball and hot chocolate which “nos dicen que es el major en La Legua.” (In an attempt to be as subtle as possible, Alissa convinced me to ask for hot chocolate by telling Yorleny that we’d heard her hot chocolate was the best in La Legua.) Score! She made three whole batches and they were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! After that the two of us got a ride up “The Hill”. I (Erin) took a nap for a few hours, played Super Mario Bros. on Gameboy, and had dinner. A while later Nora came back over and the two of us and our siblings watched a scary movie (Pirated of course, in English with Spanish subtitles). Once it ended Nora went home and we all went to bed. Goodnight little village!
Written by Erin and Nora

Friday, July 25th
This morning when we awoke we were shocked to see our little siblings in traditional clothing, which consisted of cowboy outfits and mustaches for guys and frilly dresses for girls. After a long morning of helping our siblings into their clothing which resulted in little or no breakfast, the people of the hill met at the famous intersection to start their walk to the service project site at a little past the normal meeting time of 6:40AM. Fortunately for us, we did not have to walk the mile and a half because we were going to get a ride today. We arrived at the school nine minutes early at 6:51AM, so we decided to investigate our current projects of the day. Once everyone arrived, we did our normal stretching routine and quickly got to work. We started by finishing the last stretch of sidewalk. EVER! With good work from every member of the team. Once that was finished we began to use cement for another project for the school, until around 11:30AM, when the playground we had all been waiting for had arrived for us to build!
For the last few weeks, we have been leveling out and clearing a large patch of land in hopes of placing a grand playground there. When the playground arrived, there were also three men from the company to help us assemble it. After the first few minutes it became awkward because the three men did not expect us to help. After a few questions in Spanish, the whole team was on the same page and began to unload the truck. After this the awkwardness resumed. For twenty minutes we sat in silence as the three men began loosening dirt with a large metal rod “tool”. After 20 minutes of silence, a brave Madeline and Akash ventured out and asked the men “Podemos Ayudar?” (Can we help?) After a few minutes of questioning, the whole group started digging 2ft deep holes to place the play structure in. We started to assemble the play structure, it not being the ideal ikea like pop together furniture piece. After a while we all got our lunches and sat down. Most of us getting special lunches because of the holiday. We later found out that the holiday was a celebration of the holiday when Costa Rica regained a vital piece of land from Nicaragua. When lunch concluded, we got straight back to work pouring cement to stabilize the structure. It took us a few hours to complete the play structure with some people working harder than others. Evan, Jourdan and Corey were our star players. Today, while some of us worked in the rain, many of us played mind trick games, rummy, or just chatted. A few hours later everyone went home and did the usual after work activities. For most people, this consisted of hanging out or playing pool at the Cantina. For Akash and Miriam, this meant it was time to make tortillas. After realizing we had no flour, we rode our bikes down the giant hill to the store. Its worth pointing out that while Miriam had a normal sized bike with brakes, Akash had a bike that was meant for a four year old with the brake lines cut. It turned out to be a very fun zoom down the hill but we both made it there alive. We got what we wanted and not he way back up the hill we traded bikes. Seeing as Miriams legs were too long to fit, she had to run the petite bike up the hill. On the way, Paul and Alissa, in a car, stopped by to notice the ridiculous size of Miriams bike. We finally made it back and it was tortilla time. This time we decided to take a risk and make our tortillas with cinnamon and sugar, which greatly confused Miriams host mom for lack of such a recipe in Costa Rica. For our first batch, we made at least 20 tortillas, everyone was surprised to find them as delicious as they were. Since the 20 went so quickly, we decided to make another batch of 40. We saved 6 of these and went to Erin’s house where Kaley soon joined us, where we chatted over tortillas and juice. We went to bed aroud 8:30PM in our respective houses, making this a very late night for us. We both normally go to bed around 7:30PM!
Written by Akash and Miriam

Saturday, July 26th
Hello, or should I say Hola seeing as it is day 21 in the Spanish speaking country of Costa Rica. Alright, its time to write about the groups day today. Well, first of all it was just filled to the brim with hard work and production. Syke. We played games for 5 hours. By “we”, I don’t mean the whole group , I mean the ten people who didn’t have anything better to do. Like go to a wedding (Diana and Natalie,) or go to La Feria (Akash and Nora), or stay home sick (Erin). The games were fun though. We had our classic ten rounds of Mafia, and we even learned a new game called psychiatrist in which we discovered personal things about each other including hair color and whether you are in fact wearing a watch. Of course those two games didn’t cover five hours, so we also played pass the bottle, human knot, rummy, and a strange fantasy game suggested by Paul and Alissa. After our five hours of exhausting work, lunch was brought to the salon where we ate and after played more rummy as the majority of people went to their respective homes or the Cantina to play pool. Might I add, play pool for seven hours. And that was our extremely interesting day. Hmmm. I feel like I should write more. OH WAIT! I totally forgot that while we were at the Cantina, everyone sang karaoke. Even Yorleny, our adopted group mom, burst into a song along with Alissa. It was fun. Loud, but fun. Phew. Okay, I know I am so lame for writing so little, but it is late (9:42PM) and I am only one person….thanks to Corey (I am not bitter). I’m rambling….ok…….Until next time, this is Madeline Ellia Davies saying goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
Written by Madeline

Sunday, July 27th
Today was an awesome day. It started out at church for a lot of us, which was very difficult to understand but still a cool thing to go to for other reasons than religious ones. It was great to see all of the families dressed up and together with all of the kids from our group. After church was over and the crowds left the church area, there were actually a lot of things going on in the town. There was the soccer game (I’m pretty sure we won!) tons of people at the cantina, and later volley ball at the gym. I did a little of all of those things, actually a lot of volleyball along with playing on the unfinished playground with a bunch of the kids, which I guess was dangerous because of the nails, large holes, and other unfinished items. After going back to the cantina in the late afternoon and playing more pool, me Evan and Madeline went to Yorleny’s for dinner (me and Evan later realized we were invited because Yorleny’s 15 year old niece was also there), but the food was awesome and it was really fun. The day was concluded at the salon with everybody playing games and discussing the program. It was great to hear how profound an impact this experience is having on everyone. It is amazing to see so many people open up about really personal stuff with the whole group. If there was ever any doubt, I am 100% sure now that this program is as great and better than everyone expected it to be.
Some of us went with our families me in particular went with my family to Paos Volcano but it was too foggy to see the top cone of the volcano but it was still fun to be with my family and experience the new culture. That night, our group had a meeting that turned into a realization of life and I feel like my personality will never to be the same. I am excited to see what this next year has in store for everyone. We have all become very attached to our families here and will never forget them. In particular, I feel that having siblings was a fun and new experience.
Written by Adam and Natalie

Tuesday, July 29th
Today there wasn’t a lot of work to be done but we started work at 7:00. We finished working on the playground and making the miniature basketball court. Sarah, Akash, Corey, Natalie, Kelsey, Nora, and Miriam stomped the basketball court to prepare the ground for cementing. Adam, Grace, and Evan started outlining the basketball court with cement blocks. Everybody else was off doing other hard work that would have made anybody proud. Then Sarah, Natalie, Erin, and Nora cleaned up the Salon. We had to spray the whole floor down with water and then brush the water out with brooms. Then there wasn’t much work left so everyone took a lunch break which made everyone sad because it was our very last lunch in La Legua. After lunch, Paul and Alissa suggested that everybody go to the street with the new sidewalk by la Casa de Yorleni to pick up the trash that was all over the road. Erin, Erin’s brother, and Natalie went to the Lecheria to milk cows, but they didn’t even get to do that because it was done by a machine. Instead they got to feed the cows which was not bad…just different. (And Natalie got pooped on.) Because we had no more work to do, Paul and Alissa, being their awesome, amazing, nice, fantastic, loving selves, decided to let us go home for the day. Everyone went home to hang out with our families or get ready for the fiesta or to go play pool. The fiesta started at 6:00 that night and the town had set up a special little table for our group. While we were waiting for the whole town to show up we mingled and took pictures. Then we sat at our table and the little kids brought everyone little gifts that they had made themselves. Then we had dinner and listened to “American music.” The mayor, Evan, and Adam, all gave speeches thanking the volunteers and villagers that were very nice. After dinner Adam and Evan sang a lovely song in Spanish on karaoke. Then everybody started dancing, some better than others. Everyone was having a great time being crazy and dancing really silly. Then the townspeople surprised Jourdan and Madeline with two cakes for their birthdays. There was a piñata that Akash broke and all the little kids went running for the candy. Madeline then gave certificates of appreciation to everyone in our group. Then everybody hung out and had fun on our last night in La Legua!
Written by Kaley

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
This morning was a really sad day because it was our last day in the wonderful village of La Legua. Everyone was really sad, the villagers and volunteers alike. All of the children of La Legua went around to everyone in our group and asked for contact information on various pieces of paper. Everyone was feeling very blue because we had become quite attached to our host families. We then proceeded to take a group picture in front of the newly finished playground. The picture took forever however because there were about a hundred cameras that needed to take pictures. After our group photo we started saying goodbyes to all the people of the town which resulted in many tears and sad hugs. We eventually made it through the throngs of crying people and onto the bus where we set off for Monteverde. The bus ride took four hours and everybody spent their time discussing their families and how much we all missed them. We arrived at Monteverde at around 12:30 where we stopped for lunch at a hamburger place. Then we headed to our appointment for the zip line tours of the canopy. Our guide was named Ernie and we first got a demonstration of the rules of the zip lines. Then we started the zip line tour. There were 11 zip lines total and one Tarzan swing. One of the zip lines was the longest zip line in Costa Rica and it was awesome! The Tarzan swing was most likely everyone’s favorite part of the whole tour. We had to jump off a platform and then swing out over some trees. Everyone was really nervous about the whole thing but then once they had completed the task they were very enthusiastic and encouraging to the other people who had not gone. When the tour was over everyone went back to their rooms or hung out by the TV until dinner. The dinner was at an “all you can eat pizza buffet.” That is in quotation marks because it was not really an all you can eat pizza buffet but rather an all you can eat until we think you’ve had enough pizza buffet. We were trying to eat 20 whole pizzas but they told us we had to stop at 17 until Paul convinced them to let us have 21. Akash ate 16 pieces of pizza! After dinner we went back to the hotel and some of us played taboo until bedtime.
Written by Sarah

Thursday, July 31, 2008
We woke up at 7:00 this morning and left at 7:30 to go to the suspension bridge tour. Our group was split into two subdivisions of 9 people each. Each group went at different times and saw the same things, which was cool. We saw kawattis (raccoon like creatures), sloths, owls, tarantulas, centipedes, stick bugs, jungle turkeys. The bridges were TONS of fun because everytime we went over one we jumped up and down. Then on one of the bridges, the only way to get up was to climb up a hollow tree that had been surrounded by strangler vines. We used the vines as footholds to climb to the top. It was SOOOOOO FUNNNN! Adam, Grace, and Sarah put a huge centipede on their faces which was TOTALLY brave of them. After the tour we had to rush to our next appointment with the horse whisperer. We started the experience by putting on bright yellow helmets and splitting up nto two different groups: the people who had never ridden before and the people who had more experience. Sarah got a wild horse (not really). Some of the horses were fast and cantered and others were not so fast. It was really FUNTASTIC. Then we got back to the main place and had casados for lunch and yummy donuts for dessert. When we got back to the hotel some of us got on the bus and went into town to buy snacks from the grocery store. Instead, we got mint chocolate chip ice cream, which was really delicious. Then we went back to the hotel to play psychiatrist and other fun games before going to sleep.
Written by Sarah

Friday, August 1st, 2008
This morning everyone in the group had the option of waking up early to go on the bus to the Frog Pond or into town, or sleeping in and hanging out at the hotel. A good majority of us decided to head to the Frog Pond (please keep in mind the word “Pond” in the name.) We arrived there ten minutes before opening time (thanks to our fabulous bus driver Hugo) and spent this time walking around the gift shop. Once it came time for our tour to begin, there was a general feeling of disappointment when we found out that all of the frogs were in glass cages and that there was no pond in sight. Although we were a little let down at first, the frogs were really cute and there was an unspoken agreement in the end that it was better to have gone then to have stayed at the hotel. We got back to the hotel with an hour and a half to spare before departure. People packed and used the internet while ten of us took part in a grueling competitive game of Taboo in the hotel common area. My team won…claro que si (remember, that means “of course”). After the game we all packed and loaded up the bus. We stopped in town for burritos and ate on the porch of a youth hostel in hammocks where we were surrounded by hippies and adorable stray dogs. Once we were done eating we got on the bus and began the long bumpy journey towards San Jose and our much loved first home, Hotel America. The bus ride was average with an adequate sufficiency of sleeping, bracelet making, getting bus sick, listening to ipods, and playing D’jibouti d’ji d’ji D’jibouti role call! With a world record of only one bathroom stop, we got to Hotel America around 5:30 just in time for dinner. We picked rooms, put away our luggage, and went back to a restaurant called La Rinconcita where we had a delicious lunch in one of our first days in San Jose. Dinner was highly anticipated and equally delicious. After dinner we stopped for ice cream (Alissa’a treat because she’s such a sweetie) and then went back to the hotel. Some people, “the porkies” as some would call them, even went back for second helpings of ice cream because it was so incredible. After this excitement we all just hung out at the hotel, talked, watched television, and used the internet. Most people decided to go to bed early knowing that tomorrow is going to be full of unforgettable adventure. Goodnight little hotel.
Written by Erin