Time is a funny thing – at points in the last nine months it has flown by and at times it has stretched on. It’s still hard to believe that nine whole months have gone by. I’ve still limited the amount that I’ve shared from my job and about being in Costa Rica, although my last few posts (here and here) are changing that a little. I want to take a moment to share some of the highlights of the last nine months for me. I want to make clear that there have been lots of low moments since I’ve been here and maybe one day I’ll write more about those. But for now, this is very intentionally a highlight reel!

Having great colleagues

I feel so incredibly lucky to be working with some incredible people that have made these nine months much easier and more enjoyable than they would have been otherwise. On base in Cartago, I work most closely with Andrés, the programme manager. From the very beginning, Andrés and I have gotten on like a house on fire. Sometimes we joke that we share a brain cell because we’re so on the same wavelength. He’s supported me through my training, getting a hang of the job, pushed me to go further, introduced me to sides of Costa Rica that I haven’t seen before (including his family) and just been much more friend than just a colleague. I had an especially hard time in April because my grandad broke his hip and then passed away a few weeks later and I wouldn’t have been able to get through it without having Andrés to lean on. I can’t say thank you enough.

We also have Alicia, our cook. She feeds us throughout the week and does it so well. She is from Limón, the region covering the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica so her food has a lot of Caribbean influence and flavour which means it’s absolutely delicious! I’ve also worked with Indie, the coordinator of the groups programme that I helped out on a couple of times. I had met Indie before I worked with her as she stays on the Cartago base before or in between picking up and dropping off groups in San José. We got on from the beginning but became even closer after working together (in one group it was just the two of us and on the other we also had Isa, a Costa Rican who I got on with really well too). Indie, who is from England, is in a similar position as me, being far from home, working in a country and a language that is not her own and having been living abroad for the last couple of years. I’ve also really appreciated that support from her in having someone who knows what it feels like and relates to how I’m feeling to talk things through with.

Our students

I don’t think I’m a natural born teacher. Not that I think I’m a bad one, I just don’t think it’s my vocation or my calling. I’ve kind of fallen into it as a profession and am currently trying to find my way out of it a bit. Saying that, there are aspects that I love, and that’s mostly down to the kids. The students in the school we work in are lovely, happy, fun, sometimes challenging, energetic, intelligent, interesting, curious, welcoming children. We teach from three to twelve years old and there are definitely age groups or classes or even individual kids that I like more (yes, teachers always have favourites!) but overall, even on my worst day this year, and there have been some really tough ones, going in and hearing cries of ‘Profe! Profe!’ and having a kid run up for a hug or to show me something can change my mood for the better for the whole day. Our other classes also have some really special students. Our senior adults class always puts a smile on my face. Our single mothers’ class is great for a laugh. The conversation club is filled with students that have become friends. And although they’re not students, a shout out to the gardeners at Parque La Libertad, especially Yhan who has also become a dear friend.

TAICA ❤

One of the best things to happen since I’ve been in Costa Rica is absolutely being adopted by an adorable little tabby cat who we named Taica. One day in October, only a couple of weeks after I arrived in Cartago, two little kittens turned up in our garden and refused to leave. After a few days of feeding them but keeping them outside, we relented and let them into the house. As well as Taica (who’s name was based on the scientific name for a Siberian tiger), there was also a black cat we called Onca (after the scientific name of a jaguar). Sadly, after a couple of weeks Onca decided to un-adopt us so it’s just Taica now. I’m honestly obsessed with her. She’s a cat so she’s not obsessed with anyone but herself and it’s also very much a case of affection on her terms. At the same time, she loves besitos en la panza (aka belly kisses) and while she usually sleeps in Andrés’ room, she often comes and has a cuddle with me as I’m settling down to sleep. On another note, we really tried to raise her as a bilingual cat but despite living in a house with mostly English speaking volunteers, Taica speaks Spanish much better. She loves a chat too, she’s very talkative! She’s so silly, she loves chasing flies and will play with your feet even if she’s only just met you.

Finding a Tico family

As well as having found really great friends in Andrés and Indie, I feel like I’ve found a Costa Rican or tico family. Every Thursday night we run a conversation club and through that we met Naty and her three kids, Dariana, Abigail and Mathias. We get on really well with them all, especially Naty who is a loud, bubbly and gregarious person. Our relationship with all of them, including Naty’s husband Diego, moved beyond just conversation club when they invited us to their house in December after some of our volunteers at the time expressed an interest in learning how to make tamales, a typical dish eaten at Christmas. We actually ended up going to Naty’s dad’s house and making tamales with her Colombian stepmother (they are known amongst their family and now us as Papi Roy and La Parce). It was such a fun day but we were there for 9 hours! First we had to clean the plantain leaves then cut them into the right size, prep the fillings (rice, peppers, chickpeas, carrot and pork), make the massa, (the main tamal mix) and then put it all together, wrap it up and eat it!

A very special experience was when we got invited to Abigail’s quinceñera. A quinceñera celebrates a girl’s 15th birthday and is a very important event in countries across Latin America. Family is such an important aspect of a quince so to be invited was a huge compliment. On the day, there were some lovely speeches from family members, a samba band and Andrés even broke out some flaming torches and juggled! As well as the tamales and the quince, we’ve been to Papi Roy’s house for karaoke as well as for Easter lunch, learnt how to make empanadas with Naty and had a few barbecues all together, including for my birthday. It’s been so nice getting to know them all and having that familial connection when I’m so far away from home. It’s really helped me through some tough moments and some of my favourite memories that I’ve created here have been with them.

Actually finding a water polo team!

One of the first things that I Googled when I got this job was if Cartago has a water polo team. I found out that they do, Cartago Piratas, but on closer inspection after I got here, it looked like they only had junior teams. I thought that was it. I contacted them anyway once I was here just to be sure and it turns out that they do have adults that train, just not a team that plays matches, and I was welcome to come along! I was so happy to have found this and I loved the training, even if it took a bit to shake off the cobwebs at the beginning. Playing water polo makes me feel like myself and it was nice to have a way to meet new people and an excuse to get out of the house and have some time to myself.

The coach and the team have been so lovely and welcoming to me. I’ve been invited to take part in multiple beach water polo tournaments, although I unfortunately haven’t been able to go to any because they always clashed with weekends when I had to work. I also got invited to play with one of the San José based women’s teams in the Costa Rican championships but had the same issue with work as well as being away for one of the weekends. Something I was able to take part in was a friendly, mixed tournament that was fundraising for the Costa Rican women’s team. The pool was outside which is always a novelty for me and had a beautiful view of the mountains around San José. I was put in a team with one of the boys from the Cartago team and three others. It was four aside so thankfully we did have a sub! We may have lost all of our games but I scored a goal and had a lot of fun so that’s all that matters.

Another really lovely moment that I’ve had with this water polo team was around my birthday. The weekend before my birthday had been filled with lots of celebrations (more on those below) but my actual birthday was a Monday and was quite relaxed. I went to training in the evening and was surprised when the coach’s wife, who is really lovely and I get on with really well, walked in with a cake!

Finding my favourite spots

A great way of exploring and getting to know a new city is trying to find my favourite spots. A few have climbed their way above the rest here in Cartago. First and foremost, there’s a cafe two blocks down the road from the GVI house called Mist City and it’s a definite favourite. I like going there for a coffee or their amazing chocolate cake. A common activity for everyone in the GVI house of an evening is to go out for ice cream and there’s only one place we go (unless it’s shut, in which case we go around the corner to the chain ice cream place). Dolce Gelato has incredible ice cream, my favourites being the maracuyá (passion fruit), Nutella and pistachio.

The GVI house is halfway between the centre of the city and TEC, one of Costa Rica’s public universities. I think this is the reason why there are quite a lot of good, cheap restaurant options within a ten minute walk from the house. One block away is Pollo Bros, our go to spot for fried chicken, especially when we’re feeling lazy and don’t want to cook or really go out anywhere. Just next door is El Calchetón, a soda which is the traditional kind of restaurant in Costa Rica so has all of the classics. My favourite dish here is the chichaldosa which is actually a bit of a hybrid. It is based on a caldosa which is ceviche served in a packet of crisps with ketchup and mayonnaise. Chichaldosa is a version with chicharrones instead of ceviche. A couple of other places nearby that I like are Cantarana, a gastro market with a range of options (the best are the smash burgers), Pardo’s, another food park with lots of options, and Cantarito’s, our go to bar that has, you guessed it, a great burger!

Thursday routine, swim and coffee

Over the years, as I’ve lived in different countries, I’ve come to realise what is important to me when it comes to settling into a new place. Part of this is finding a bit of a routine, enjoying the small things in life. We don’t work on Thursday mornings so my routine has become going for an early swim and then a coffee in my favourite cafe near the house with my book. I don’t always do the coffee part and sometimes not the swim, depending on how I’m feeling but more often than not, that’s where you’ll find me on a Thursday morning. If you follow the Sara Somewhere Instagram account (@sara_somewhere_), this is also often when I post the weekly catch ups!

Seeing Charne and Maddie in SJO

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the world is a small place! An example of this while I’ve been in Costa Rica was when I got a message from a girl I played water polo with in university that she and another teammate were coming to Costa Rica in November on a group tour. They had an extra day in San José at the end and I was able to go through and spend it with them! We didn’t really do that much other than wander around Sabana Park, near where they were staying, and then hang out at their hotel, drinking chocolate milkshakes and playing cards. Another small world moment, one of the girls’ younger sisters is at uni in Glasgow with my younger sister and my sister was her sister’s mentor this year!

Starting the year strong

I have been lucky in my nine months here that I haven’t really had any terrible volunteers. Of course, there are some that have been better than others, with better motivation or better energy, who have more teaching experience or are great with the kids, volunteers who personally I’ve gotten on better with. However, at the start of 2024, I feel I got particularly lucky. Our first group of the year was three volunteers who were joined by a group of four more after two weeks. The average stay on our base is four weeks but this group had a couple that stayed for six weeks and even one who stayed for three months! This group felt really special and that has been seconded by Andrés who has worked for GVI for three years so has seen many more volunteers than I have. Even he agreed that the vibes of this group and these volunteers individually were something a bit special. For two months, the house was full of energy and laughter, more nights than not we were hanging out in the living room, watching movies, playing cards or just chatting. It’s not that we, as staff, don’t do this with every group. To an extent, it’s part of the job description, socialising with volunteers when we’re not on project and creating a warm and welcoming environment for them. However, with this group it was a bit different. I don’t necessarily get a lot of time to myself in this job but I actually wanted to spend this time with these volunteers. It was a great way to kick off 2024!

Birthday week

I was made to feel so special around my birthday this year and it really was a whole week of celebrations. It started the Thursday before my birthday when there was a plan weeks in the making. Andrés faked having a job interview so he could come into school late just so that he could ‘forget’ to bring our dinner bag. After conversation club, he pretended to have messed up again and that we had no transport back to Cartago. Naty and the course organiser Glori said they could give us a lift. Low and behold, we didn’t head back to Cartago but to a pizza restaurant where we ate dinner. There was a cake with candles, birthday signs, table football and a few tears on my behalf! I was so surprised, I really had no idea at all. It was just so nice that everyone had done that for me.

There were some more planned activities over the weekend. We went out for drinks on the Saturday with our volunteers at the time, Naty and Glori, some German volunteers that work with us at the school and the PE teacher. Unfortunately, the day in between the surprise pizza party and these drinks, I got really ill so was on medication and could only have one beer! On the Sunday we had a barbecue at the house which was lovely but there was one more surprise. A few weeks before, we had put together a birthday video for Yhan, the gardener that we usually work with, with messages from lots of past volunteers. It turns out that Andrés had put something together for me too! That in itself was a lovely surprise but it didn’t end there. I was stunned when it changed to a video of my best friend of 20 years and continued with messages from my nearest and dearest. I was already crying and then it ended on a video of my grandad which I wasn’t expecting and brought fresh floods. It turns out he had enlisted the help of my sister and Amy loves this kind of thing so went all in. As mentioned earlier, my actual birthday was very chill and ended with cake at water polo training. Sounds perfect to me!

As previously mentioned…

Last but not least, there’s a few things that have been highlights of this year but that I’ve already written about (in depth) so I’m not going to elaborate too much here. I had a couple of great weekends away to the beach, one in Dominical and one in Puerto Viejo. I particularly enjoyed visiting the Nauyaca waterfall near Dominical and my hostel in Playa Cocles, just outside Puerto Viejo, is one of my favourite places I’ve stayed. I also really enjoyed the times when I got to work on some of GVI’s group trips a few months ago. Working with school and university groups is a very different dynamic to the volunteers we have on the Cartago base. The day to day is very different too – here in Cartago we are primarily teaching English but on the group trips, time is split between cultural activities and more environmental volunteer work.

Still to come

These have been the highlights of my time so far but there’s still some things to look forward to in the next few months! We are heading into a busy period with our volunteer numbers getting up to 7 or 8 which is a lot considering that our average number is 3 or 4. I’m looking forward to the change in pace, so far I’ve only had one other group as big as this at the start of this year. In about a month’s time, I’m heading to the region of Guanacaste for the first time to have a weekend in Playas del Coco. Since I got here, I’ve really wanted to find somewhere to dive and this is supposed to be THE place to dive in Costa Rica, particularly to see manta rays and bull sharks. Last but not least, some of my family are coming to visit in September! I’ve already planned their itinerary and I can’t wait to show them Costa Rica.